Florida notes 4: It is not as bad as you think

America does get a lot of bad press in the media, where do I even begin? From reports of police brutality against black people, to the rise of the extreme right wing behind Trump, to incidents of Islamophobic hate crime, to homophobic attacks on the LGBT community to environmental disasters that affects the most basic needs like water - on some days, you may just get the impression that America is in total meltdown. I was even warned by a few friends to be careful prior to this trip - but actually, it turned out to be fairly uneventful, even boring at times as I explored the length and breadth of Florida. Bad news stories tend to make the headlines, whilst a report like, "nothing interesting happened today in Florida" tends not to attract readers, so allow me to share a few fair observations about America.

Paying my tribute at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando

Are you a rich or a poor American? 

One of the best AirBNB experiences I had in Florida was staying with a divorced, older, white American lady - she has a big house in a very nice neighbourhood outside Orlando and she was open-minded, friendly and chatted to us about her AirBNB experiences in Europe. Clearly, she had a very good life - she had money to buy such a beautiful property, she has the time to travel and see the world and she was enjoying life. Her experience couldn't have been more different from this homeless woman I chatted to in South Beach, Miami. Now we're talking about one of the trendiest, most beautiful neighbourhoods in Miami - the beaches are beautiful, the neighbourhood is full of beautifully preserved art deco buildings and Ocean Drive is full of upmarket bars, restaurants and clubs. After having explored that neighbourhood and dined at a fabulous Cuban restaurant there, I got talking to a homeless woman came and sat down at the bus stop next to me as I was waiting for the bus. I had no idea she was homeless - because Miami is so crazy hot in September, everyone is very dressed down and mostly walk around in shorts and T-shirts, so I had no reason to suspect that this woman was homeless - she looked just like any other older woman in Miami.

She didn't ask me for money, she just wanted to talk. I think she was just lonely - I started talking to her just to make sure I was taking the bus in the right direction and she started telling me what a horrible time she has been having. As a homeless person, she needs to use the free toilets and showers facility at South Beach, but the rich people keep calling the cops each time she goes there even though she has done nothing illegal. She then started telling me about all her health problems and it soon became a monologue, with me giving her eye contact and nodding politely whilst she told me one horror story after another about her struggles on the streets of Miami: daily life was a huge struggle for her. Now the older lady with the big house and this homeless woman are of about the same age, but clearly their experiences in Florida were vastly different. If things start to go downhill in America, let me paint a worst case scenario: say if Trump wins the elections and it provokes a series of major terrorist attacks across the US and the ensuing chaos and uncertainty leads to a deep recession that sends the US economy into a slump, guess what? That rich lady with the big house near Orlando is probably going to be okay as she has enough money to retire on anyway, she not going out everyday trying to earn a living to pay her bills. Likewise, if things go really well in America, say they enjoy a boom in their economy - that poor homeless lady in Miami South beach is still going to find her everyday survival a struggle. So really, how good your life is in America depends more on your bank balance than the headlines.

Are you a rich or a poor American?

Life in small town America is very quiet.

Yes there are some very crowded big cities in America like New York, Boston, Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles - property prices in those cities are extremely expensive. However, those who cannot afford to live in the city center merely retreat to the suburbs (and further into the countryside) until the prices fall to a point where they become affordable. Many people end up living quite far out of town and drive quite long distances to get to work in the city centers; though increasingly, many choose to work from home part time or full time if technology allows them to do so. When people think about America, they usually evoke images of downtown Manhattan or Beverley Hills - but so many Americans live in small towns and sprawling suburbs far away from city centers. This means that life for a lot of these Americans is actually very peaceful and quiet - well, I would prefer to use the words uneventful and boring, but they remain actually quite unaffected by all the bad news you read about in the headlines affecting mostly large urban city centers with their crime ridden inner cities with street gangs, drugs dealers, high crime rates and violence.

Birds of a feather flock together.

America is hardly an integrated society - instead, I see it as a patchwork of various communities who co-exist in the same country and are barely aware of each other. Let me give you an example - on my first day in Miami, I popped into a Winn-Dixie supermarket at 10 pm and asked the nice lady behind the deli counter what time the supermarket closed. Her reply was, "no speak English." I then went on to have a lovely conversation with her in Spanish and she couldn't have been nicer - but I simply couldn't imagine her working in a supermarket elsewhere in the state, where Spanish speakers were in the minority and your typical American shopper would demand to see the manager because a member of staff couldn't communicate in basic English. But that's what you do in a country like America - you find a safe place where you fit in, where you feel at home, where you are surrounded by people similar to yourself and you make your happy life there, be it in a small town in rural Florida or in the Little Havana neighbourhood in Miami. There may be a few places like universities where people from different backgrounds are forced to mix together, but most people don't really try too hard to be popular with everyone. Heck, even Donald Trump has made virtually no effort to appeal to anyone who isn't already a typical right-wing bigot and he's in the ultimate popularity contest in America.

American people are genuinely very nice.

Now because I was there as a tourist, every single American I encountered was genuinely very nice to me. It didn't matter where I was - at the beach, in a restaurant, at a cafe, at a diner or in a shopping mall, every single person I met was so incredibly friendly. I know the police in America have a bad reputation - I did ask the police for help a few times with directions and they couldn't have been more helpful and polite. There wasn't even a slightest hint of racism or homophobia throughout the entire period I was there. Even that older divorcee who hosted my partner and I in her house (this is rural Central Florida we're talking about) didn't bat an eyelid about two guys sharing a bed in her house (and we're in the Bible belt, yikes). I did feel rather disconcerted by all the pro-Trump signs I saw in central and north Florida the moment I left Miami and yes, I do feel that people who support Trump are just plain evil. But I am not a confrontational person, I didn't see the point in going up to an American person and having an argument about politics. So when I chatted to the locals (and they were very friendly and happy to chat), we mostly talked about where to go, what to do,what to eat when in Florida. Certainly, there are some nasty Americans out there doing horrible things in their society, but I certainly didn't encounter anyone like that. Every country will have their share of dangerous criminals of course, but let's not exaggerate the problems in America.

Guns and safety 

You know, a lot of Singaporeans freak the hell out when it comes to guns in America - those who have never been to America probably imagine people carrying a few guns with them just to go to the movies or the office. Did they get that impression from action movies? I did see some guns - but these were carried by uniformed personnel like the police and security guards and I never actually see anyone remove their guns from their holsters to point it at anyone. Whilst driving around rural Florida, yeah I did pass by a lot of gun and ammo shops, but even in those communities, I didn't actually see anyone even have a gun with them. Americans may own guns, but they don't actually run around town with them and shooting at anything and anyone. Yes gun crime exists and there was a shooting during a robbery when I was in Orlando. Hearing about it on the radio did make me feel a bit uneasy, but that was really as close to any gun crime as I got. In any case, there are also murders and robberies even in places like Singapore, so how is this any different? I actually felt incredibly safe in Florida, even if there were clearly a lot of guns around. So really, the kind of impression that most Singaporeans have of gun crime in America is often wildly exaggerated and very inaccurate.

I felt incredibly safe in Florida.

So that's it from me on this issue - I felt I needed to do a piece like that because whilst I didn't think that Florida was an interesting holiday destination, I didn't want you to think that I was implying that America was a bad country at all. America is such a vast country and the problem is that too many people reduce it to a monolithic entity based on the headlines they read. I hope my piece here has helped develop a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of American society. What do you think? Leave a comment below and let's have a chat about it. Many thanks for reading.