Spain not that different from America

My interest in Andrew Gerst’s column on the following of the American election in Spain, quickly became an annoying sensation of disagreement with most of it.

I am Spanish, and I do not believe that you may define my country as a place where “everyone goes to sleep in the middle of the day,” where “everybody shows up late for class” or where “people constantly complain about life but never act to change anything.” This is simply not true.

Regarding the flow of beer during the weekends, which is true, I must say that the situation is not much different here. I do not think that any of us can define a nation by the behavior of some of his citizens.

If everybody in Spain act as the column describes, how, for instance, is possible that its economy is growing above the average of the European Union, that it has one of the highest percentages of university students of all Europe or that its scientists are flourishing in a wide range of fields (despite the amount of resources available for them are considerably lower than those existing in places like the United States)?

There is only one thing that I agree completely with the column: We have more important things to be worried about than the American election, and terrorism is clearly one of them.

As somebody out of his home country for a while, I have the unique opportunity to be embedded into another culture. However, I never would talk about America and the Americans in the terms that Gerst did in his column, despite there are many things in this society that are not to be proud about.

Manifestations such as those made by Gerst give an erroneous view of reality and, as may be believed to many people, should not be done “with alegría” (as we say in Spain).