Month: September 2003

Who’s next on Dot’s whipping post?

Why can’t poor people in Europe be happy like the poor folks over here in the states? I see lots of people who obviously don’t have a dime to their names over here, but they are laughing, having a great time. Like the current issue of the Economist says in one of their articles, there is more ‘class-envy’ in Europe than over here in the states. In Europe, there is always a good chance that a rich person was born into his/her wealth, inheriting the wealth. That usually isn’t so in the states, people who are really rich, usually have worked their way up, like Bill Gates, Eminem, or Madonna. Then there are the stars here in the states who do inherit their fame and fortune, like Michael Douglas, Gweneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller or even Tori Spelling. Some of them are talented, some not, but we still adore people who make it big here. In Europe, successful, rich and or famous people are envied so much- it makes the different classes more obvious and almost uncomfortable. People are afraid to shine, afraid to show off their success and money. Not so here, look at 50Cent and Puff Diddy, they are glad to show their earnings. P.Diddy worked his ASS off to get where he is today. I am not a fan of his music, but I admire his ambition and drive. People in the states find it easy to be happy, even if they are poor; they find other means, other ways to get by. Take a look at the “Red Neck Car Alarm” below:

See, no need for an expensive alarm system at all! Make due with what you’ve got. When times were rough for me in Germany, before I made it big, I had an apartment that was SO horrible. It had NO heat, no hot water, no bath tub and the shower was in the tiny kitchen. (It just so happens, that is popular in Berlin). But these kind of showers had to heat up for about 10 minutes, then you had to shower really fast before the hot water ran out ( no more than 5 minutes-then you would have to start the whole thing over again). The flat had a tiny coal oven in each room. I lived on the 5th floor NO elevator. The coal was stored in the cellar (naturally you had to buy it) and I had to carry it up 5 flights of stairs (dirty coal EW!). The ovens took forever to get warm; you would have to get other things to help the coal catch fire. One long weekend, (everything in Germany is closed from Saturday to Monday) I ran out of coal, so I had to burn furniture so Jasmine and I wouldn’t freeze to death! After a few chairs were gone, I was down to burning the wooden masks I bought in Guatemala. After they fried, I had to resort to the unthinkable- I had to burn my drum sticks-( since then I have collected many more) but I watched the sticks from groups like the Ramones, Aerosmith, Ratt, Motely Crue, Ac/Dc etc.,