Before I Immigrated to the US, I always blamed my native country government about their wrong policy and their resistance to change that hamstrung the country to develop. After I have lived in the US for more than a decade, my blame began to shift.
America transformed my life completely. It made me from a person that couldn’t take care for myself and relied on others for living to become an individual can stand on my feet. Unlike many people think the US is a heaven country. Even though, the US provides with opportunities, but you have to work hard for it. No one works for you. I borrow the words from Golda Meir to describe the life in the US over one hundred years ago:” Even in America, life is not easy”. Yes, only people live in the US for long can understand Golda Meir’s words.
In the first few years in the US, I tried to learn and improve my English. When I was in Vietnam, I always fascinated about people with different cultures around the world. In the US, you have freedom to access all information that your countries may not have. I often watch travel documentaries on YouTube that produced by medias or Youtubers. I noticed some differences between undeveloped countries and developed countries. Put aside from political system, I can see the cultural differences between the two. For example, the rich country often has less children per family( one or two), people don’t have a habit to litter the trashes in the public. I have rarely seen people litter trashes in public such as road, public squares, hospitals, schools, rivers, ocean beaches,etc. In another hand, you can see people in the poor countries litter trashes everywhere. I can say that you often see the educated people of the poor countries litter trashes everywhere, but you rarely see kids of rich countries litter the trashes in public.
In the US or the developed countries, people get line in restaurants, supper markets, government offices,etc. I haven’t seen people cut line in the US. In the US, no matter how famous or fame you are or what the positions or ranking that you hold, you have to get line like normal citizens. In the developed countries, people follow traffic laws strictly not because of the severe punishments, but people see following traffic law is the good thing to do. In the US, people have to take care for themselves, they only rely on others when they are unable to work because of their health problems. In the US, millionaire parents let their children work in fast food restaurants with minimal wage are normal.
In many countries, political debate is a dangerous topic. That why in this article, I don’t talk about politic, I just want to share with you many good things that I have learned in the US. Many people in poor countries always blame their governments for reluctance to change, but they don’t look back themselves if are they willing to change in order to live like the developed country? You can see many poor countries in Asia, Africa and south America. They have the same political system like South Korea, Singapore or Japan, but they are still poor and undeveloped.
In my perspective, you have to change yourself first as citizens before you expect government to change. I have seen many countries where citizens overthrew governments. If people don’t change, the new government will become the same as old government. The country can be changed when the majority of citizens are willing to change. Otherwise, a few birds can’t make the weather look Spring season. I hope you guys enjoy this article, a purpose of my blog is to improve my English writing. Please leave comments below to help me to write better.