여기 와서 다시 생긴 습관 하나가 아침마다, 느긋~하게 종이 신문을 카페에서 읽게 되었다는 건데요. 보통 아랍국에 살 때는 이 습관으로 되돌아갔다가 (외국 여성은 당당하게 ~ 아침 일찍부터 카페를 점령한 죽돌이 콧수염 아저씨들 사이 비집고 들어가 앉아서 할 수 있는 특권이... 담배도 같이 맞받아 피워주면 통쾌하겠으나 전 non-smoker 라 요건 못해봤네요.) , 미국 돌아오면 또 그만두고, 돌아가면 또 하고 무한반복. 뭐 여러가지 이유가 있는데, 지중해적 문화의 영향도 있는 것 같아요. 하튼, 여기와서는 처음에 Jerusalem Post 읽다가 저랑 핏이 안 맞아, 지금은 Haaretz 로 넘어왔는데 (사실 Internatinal herald tribune 를 덤으로 줘서 .. 공짜면 먼들... -_-;;) 하튼 어젠가 China's struggle to forget 라는 기사 읽다가, 극심해지는 빈부차 관련해 호텔 에피소드가 나와 있어서 여기 올려봐요.
Today’s China looks nothing like the China of Mao, who died in 1976. Classes and class struggle have emerged, and every moment we can see media reports of life at the two extremes.
In one five-star hotel, a dishwasher stashed away some dining-room leftovers, planning to take them home as a treat for her college-age son. When this was discovered, she was promptly dismissed on a charge of stealing hotel property. What grieved her most was not losing her job, but witnessing such waste: “It was perfectly good food, but they wanted me to chuck it in the trash — what a crying shame!”
In a hotel in another city, a company manager and his three guests spent more than $32,000 on a single meal. Uneasy about the executive’s putting it all on his credit card, the hotel insisted he pay cash. After much argument, the boss-man called an underling and told him to get in a van and bring the money over — in 1 -yuan notes. The hotel had to deploy its entire staff to count the stacks of low-denomination bills, while the manager sat on the sofa, leafed through a magazine and said, “See, guys, I can afford to pay. Can you afford to count?”