IS THERE A WAY OUT?: the deeper the love, the harsherererer the criticism

I don't know if such English idiom exists or not, but there is such logic existed in Chinese way of thinking.

An old colleague of me visited Munich last week and brought me a chance to explore and enjoy the town I live in, more, while accompanying her here and there.

Munich is often mocked by those cosmopolitan people as a village with a million inhabitants. But I love her. Although it seems an unexplainable mystery, I feel even a bit proud of it to some extent. I think that I have never been loving a place, where I live, in such a profound way, like the feeling that I have towards Munich now. This place can simply satisfy all aspects I need in my life. So, I guess, Munich is really my destined home.

Nevertheless, from the experience I have got last week, I am a little bit worried about the future of this country, which is in the leading position of European Union at this moment.

While eating in Augustinerbraeu, we saw a little mouse running cross under our table. I was not horrified. My old colleague didn't panic as well.

Nevertheless, as a Chinese, there is a memory imprinted in my mind I can hardly get rid of; that is the impression of the detested faces and the mocking tunes of some old German folks, when they were talking about the similar experience they have had in China, several decades ago.

To many people who visited Germany for the first time, this country is kind of 'unbearably' CLEAN. So, the rat plot in the restaurant could make a too sharp contrast and bring a feeling more acute than a light smile. How could such things happen in a country, which has got RIGOROUS as typical character of its people?

The problem is, if the rat scene in the restaurant was only a single and coincident case, in the same night, bedbugs were found in the hotel room where my old colleague and her friends stayed. Bedbugs are certainly not only borrowing the hotel beds as their play ground and they were not carrying out a job of creative decoration, but seriously, they can bring and they have brought health problem.

I don't think that I am overreacting and being fussy about something which is no big deal. We have to put these phenomena into the context of Germany, a well-developed country, which I have enjoyed and I still enjoy its political and social system, and its natural environment. We have to put our sight a bit deeper, to place where the cases of the scary hygiene condition laid on, and to see that what we should worry about, is the self-centered, indifferent mentality.

Facing the complaints about the bedbugs from their guests, the hotel staff showed no sense of shame at all; they didn't think that they were in the position to show a slice of sympathy to what their guests have encountered and give a consolation(, as we normally do following human nature); they were not even generous enough to give a sincere apology with a smiling face.

What's wrong with them?

Is that because the professional development in Germany is focused too much on the restricted specified points of craft skills, technologies and knowledge? Is that because people in here are used to let the philosophers to care about thinking, politicians to care about the policy structures, lawyers to care about social rules and regulations, engineers to care about mechanism of machines, surgeons to fix body parts, businessmen to care about their profit, the staffs at the front desk of a hotel need only to take notes of personal information of the hotel guest, and etc...? But, who is going to care about individual feelings and basic morality? Don't say that that is the job of psychologists or church staffs. It is too ridiculous, when the human world turned into purely the assembly plant of a big machinery factory and individuals have assigned their own business to different factories without noticing the functions of their own brain.

I think that the unsatisfactory behavior of the hotel staff, whom my old colleague has encountered, is not only derived from the fact that they are lacking of a proper sense of service, as what the French and German people are famous for, but instead, their indifferent attitude shows that they have permitted themselves to neglect certain parts of their responsibility, they have no sense of honor, or say, they do not treat duty and self-respect as the core elements of their honor. They have got broken links in their mind, which make them incapable of forming cause-effect relation between things, while to some extent, they have forgotten that they still belong to human kind instead of machine, they have forgotten how to behave like a human being, as what their ancestors had learnt in the past centuries. They don't know that people who don't know how to respect the others, can never get respect in return. Probably they are working in their current position with considerably low salary. But with such mentality, they are willingly drowning themselves in the lower, and not only the poorer, class.

This is a sad and pathetic enough fact.

The strong European countries do have some well civilized traditions as the foundation of their current prosperity, so, some rotten parts here or there, in their social or individual's character, would not lead to an immediate and complete destruction. However, who can say that the continuous development and flourishing would be promised, if the mindless crowd would become bigger and bigger? How about the example of the ancient Roman empire and the nowadays Spain? While the political and social system provide a dignified living for individuals, it still requires individuals to cherish and hold our dignity, tightly and correctly, in our own consciousness.

I love the town of Munich, and I love Germany. I feel proud for every slice of her and his elegance. I feel ashamed for every slice of her and his flaw. I only wish, the attractions in here are not merely sparkling spots but a harmonious picture instead. I wish people around the world would love this town and this country too, without regret.