Originally Posted by
Q Shoe Guy
Valid points all , but before we take this to a macro level discussion on prejudice in society complete with "the grass is always greener on the other side" commentary.....I would like to propose that this discussion remain as neutral as possible.
The big problem I have with this is not so much the fact that the University is coming to this small berg (which is a different discussion completely) but that should I as a rational business owner continue to invest money in a place that harbours such myopic, insular ideals? Of course the flip-side to this is "Perhaps I am just looking for an excuse to get out"?
The past few years have seen declining enrollment across the board. The economy has been bad, but is it really that bad? Perhaps I have just hit a wall, and no matter how "fantastically enticing" I make the offer for my services the "local consumers" just don't want to buy from me! For many years I thought I have been penalized by the local population. Perhaps I should have listened to this inner-voice!? Perhaps they are not ready to buy from a foreign national.......
Mmmmm, an immortal situation, one that has faced many traders and entrepeneurs before you in every country, in every age.
My Japanese mother-in-law enrolled in a course in Salamanca, Spain. A course that wasn't tailored for foreigners. At first, she was accepted, but after a few months and a few meetings she was certainly not invited to, her class and tutors had taken a democratic decision that involved asking her to leave.
And I have my own, very recent, stories of how the more privileged members of the community of Denia (a coastal town of Alicante, a region of Valencia) have been using laws to protect the rights of speakers of the local dialect to surpress the rights of immigrants and their children. All acceptable under local law because the elite have successfully gotten themselves classed legally as a minority in need of special rights and funding whilst the immigrants are the already favoured 'majority' because they speak (or try to speak) in Castellano (called 'Spanish' elsewhere). All well and good unless you realise that attendance at Valencian speaking schools had declined to almost nothing until the born and bred locals realised that the few children who did attend these schools didn't have any South American, Muslim or ginger haired classmates...
What they ended up doing I believe will back fire on them, their children, the community and even their country in a very ugly way. And yet they are enrenched in their current viewpoint. (To me there is a direct parallel here with your story of the University).
When a community wants to exclude others, it is extraordinary the energy and creativity that goes on to accomplish this, just as is the number of ways and the passion with which all this creative energy is justified.
Will things get better in Kyushu? Probably, but it will take a very, very long time. Have you wasted your time there? I doubt it. I can only imagine the impact you've had on the people you interact with their, or how you may have forced them to reasses many of their prejeudices against 'outsiders', but I bet that impact has been considerable.
And I can't help but be niggled by a comment in a Diane Durston book made by the owners of Ichiwa about the vendors of aburi-mochi on the other side of the street. (my book is in storage, sorry I can't recall accurately) it was something about the people in front not being really from Kyoto or something, a comment on them being relative newcomers because their shop was only a century or two old. Yet which shop did I coose to patronise? Yep! The older one.
My own love-hate relationship with Japan seems to share a lot of the intricacies and frustrations that my love-hate relationship with Spain does.
Racism is still rampant in London, steps may have been taken to protect your rights so that you aren't descriminated because of your colour, religion or gender, but if you have a noticeable accent you will find a whole pantheon of hurdles to trip and stonewall you. I guess I'm just more integrated into England and have become blind or indifferent to the faults here, I always hear stories of people who came to live in England and spent many years here yet never found a way to integrate with anybody except those of the local 'immigrant' community.
Anyway, I'm not sure my comments are as supportive or as neutral as I'd like them to be. But I do offer my sincerest best wishes. You've obviously come to a point where you need to make a decision. I hope its a decision that your future self will appreciate and understand.