On my mind"the (lands) of discrimination"

by Hend Sallam (Egypt)

I didn't expect to find Germany

Why do you call storms with female names? Ciara and Sabine in Germany. Are racism news overestimated in Germany because of its past or because it receives more foreigners? A Turkish flatmate told me once that her brother was telling her' lucky you, you don't live in London where it is expensive and you earn even less'. She responded abruptly. Well, you don't know also about how much racism I have been through. I thought maybe even in our communities we will find much hidden racism that hasn't come to the surface because we've less foreigners. Or the reason behind it could be that we have less expats and are less exposed! But who said that even Germans don't feel discriminated against? A German bus driver complained to me once that most of passengers getting in directly without even looking at him or greeting him. They have taken it for granted, sometimes I feel bad as if I am having pickles in my face that they don't want to look at me.This has enlightened me. Even though I used to greet the bus drivers before, now I remember what he said each time I get into the bus and while greeting the driver. I don't want to miss doing it even once. Frankly, before that, I thought about how exhausting and stressful it is for the driver sometimes having to respond to each single passenger greeting him, such a hectic process, without someone caring enough to see how his//her day really was instead of just wishing them a good day. That's even if the greeting extended to include that part. I recalled when I was on bus, just me and the driver early morning, when he responded to one of my questions explaining how he knows very well who gets into the bus, at which station and at what time. He knew very well the boys taking the bus dropping them at their school station. When you listen to him, you would understand what this job took him to learn and what you probably would have missed if you decided not to greet, or just to greet him. Seeing the boys greeting him as soon as they get in, you will be see how their greetings are much warmer than other passengers and why he has had this big smile on his face. Can we say that that even that German bus driver does not care about the way all passengers react to him? I don't think so. I was registered in a workshop and called to make sure that I was admitted since the deadline of one was already over and organized by a reputable organization in Berlin. The lady answering the call was not comfortable speaking in English apparently. She sounded like an old German lady. I explained that I registered but got no confirmation so far. She interrupted saying , but maybe you would like the workshop to be in English, unfortunately we don't organize any soon. I said" well, it should be no problem, as I speak German". She seemed to be not convinced and continued saying maybe you follow up when the English one will be held if it would be the case. I tried again explaining that I have been waiting for such workshop long time ago and I am okay with it to be in German. I was telling myself while she continued assuming that I might not be able to understand, well now I realized my fault that I began the call speaking to a contact person in English, though it is one of the most famous scientific places in Germany.she asked in German 'then why don't speak in German?'I laughed because I didn't know that I was having a test or by speaking in English that would be implying something else.I responded quickly in German' Dann machen wir das!' and continued the conversation in German. Then she finally added me finally to the list of attendees. Well, it seems that I had to prove my German language on phone for me to get accepted to that workshop, to be able finally to improve other skills. How our lives are sometimes made difficult ?