Uncomfortable in comfort

...The last-named led in October's elec- mon controls on immigration...

...and offices open when they feel like it ment regulation that allows quacks and That Christmas came and went and an- and people work when the mood strikes...

...Shops complain about the very lack of governchildren, "we will be in our own house...

...Doon, the town in India that rules of the road exist: The object is Here, anything goes...

...Now that I have ately between the ruling parties...

...to block the government coalition be- tongue that bring to mind the Nazi Where before I would shop as the poor tween Joerg Haider's right-wing Aus- rhetoric of the past...

...I know that nice adolescents exist in America too, but I also know it takes much more effort JO McGOWAN to navigate them through the shoals of that consumer culture...

...My complicity and tually thought about it much...

...Not tion to the Haider affair in is pleased to see as a major figure in by American standards our combined Austria has expressed fine Austrian politics, but the collaboration of income is less than $9000 a year-but rel- sentiments about democra- the two established parties invited a ative to our community here...

...There is, in fact, a European conprices and couldn't say anymore how in coalition with the Social Democrats...

...gets and toys, I am more frustrated when bate and a real choice in national direc- Fourteen of the fifteen European Union Commonweal 8 February 25, 2000...

...Both and again...

...In India, there safe in the event of trouble...

...I no longer keep mainstream conservatives, who for the litical figures elsewhere in the European up with the daily fluctuations of vegetable past thirteen years governed the country Union...

...The first is the mental handicaps in towns like Dehra more fundamental at work which has to way our children are turning out...

...UNCOMFORTABLE IN COMFORT Another reason is my work...

...There is something there are a lot of reasons...

...While sober analysis could R A L MIND persuade me that in the eyes of an angry revolutionary my life was not much dif- WILLIAM PFAFF ferent from a fat cat Republican's, on a day-to-day level I believed the difference was vast and this saved me from many RIGHT TURN IN AUSTRIA sleepless nights of anxiety...

...although no poor person here the only governing coalition on offer, culture, has justified concern about his would ever dream of buying toilet paper...

...This blase attitude to the daily neces- tion, with 33.11 percent of the total...

...My sister came to can hardly sleep for the excitement...

...Don't judge me by the clothes I wear, the car in the volatile North...

...We visit recently and one of the gifts she And yet, and yet...

...Moreover, it was the coali- Serious people in Vienna consider him States where time itself is money and tion the Austrian public had effectively an unstable and dangerous man...

...I also know that if I had a blueprint drawn, let alone dug a find there is no cash available or to the weren't doing this work, it wouldn't be foundation, although we have moved to post office and find there are no stamps...

...Not that I ac- are making choices similar to one's own, is no such luxury...

...Al- Doon gives my small contribution a sigdo with the nature of life in the place we though they complain about the sad state nificance it would not otherwise have-it stumbled into some ten years ago...

...She, accustomed to American and I was particularly disturbed by the my husband and I run well-known and children who have everything and are very first one: "Terror in Vienna" by respected institutions and there is a gen- generally bored with most of it, was George Shuster...

...I am just the Nearly two years ago, my hus- open drains...

...No one has the slightest idea wouldn't get past the receptionist's desk...

...By next Christmas," we told the point B in the least possible time...

...I think of myself differently now, ernment...

...Illiteracy is high, cor- into my present frame of mind...

...States often enough to know that things get as a result...

...That nessman Christoph Blocher, whose nastaff taking care of both my home and corrupting situation, born of electoral tionalist and xenophobic party recently my office, I am more impatient when proportional representation, has for succeeded in Switzerland's national they slip up...

...Traf- administrator-I hire experts to work band and I bought a small fic, if it weren't so dangerous, would be with the kids-but in the United States I piece of land here in Dehra ludicrous...

...in Massachusetts (it never snows...

...ever, his hostility to further European when one trip would suffice for the week Haider's party won 26.91 percent of integration and his call for new limits would be silly...

...happening, at least not right here...

...Water comes nary situations in India, at least only at specific times in the "Look...

...ruption is a way of life, and For although the situation is even the most basic of civic very different politically, the amenities are in working order same thing could happen here...

...Elec- There is an undercurrent of vitricity supply is erratic, with olence and desperation that power cuts of up to four hours permeates even the most ordia day the norm...

...This was chose also to make himself minister of ample...

...1-1 about the differences that separated us from the poor...

...The two parties have ruled easy immigration to the United States, as more worthy, somehow, more de- Austria since World War II, either in but the two represent a current of popserving of whatever it is I happen to coalition or in what may be called col- ulist nationalism similar to that tapped want at the moment...

...Roads are an obstacle I have, the things I say,, or the way I act...

...He is My argument keeps breaking down...

...Haider is not a man any democrat and I have suddenly become wealthy...

...moved to a large house, we have a formi- ratic principle that the popular will, ex- Haider's policies bear the taint of dable collection of household helpers, and pressed in an election, deserves respect...

...I feel like a pioneer someIt is a pretty area, once you get out of the can be different), they have flourished...

...We have cy but offends the fundamental democ- populist reaction of just this kind...

...of affairs (they have been to the United is impossible to overstate the pleasure I I was the one who chose Dehra Doon...

...There is no racist taint to Ross and it has changed everything in its other People's-Social Democratic gov- Perot or Patrick Buchanan's hostility to wake...

...Now that my house lusion, with the country's institutions by Haider in Austria, by Jean-Marie Le is more comfortable, I am less tolerant and posts of power shared proportion- Pen in France, and by the Zurich busiof being disturbed in it...

...sidewalks do not exist...

...I run a Being `rich' in Dehra Doon school for children with mental handicaps, in spite of being a college dropout with no qualifications at all...

...The Haider has populist counterparts sities has distanced me from the poor clear intention of those who voted for elsewhere in Europe and in the United more than anything else I can think of, the Freedom party was to prevent an- States...

...what the spark will be...

...It is more than just our So why are we here...

...xenophobia, and his speeches have regI, anyway, have simply stopped thinking Great pressure was placed on Austria ularly included ostensible slips of the about money as an obstacle in my life...

...She was also charmed by our count of the descent into madness of that small pond...

...sensus today on the need for new commuch a kilo of sugar costs...

...the People's party and the Social De- political methods and ambitions...

...The essay is a chilling acuine pleasure in being big fish in a very charmed...

...India tells the truth and I am not didn't occur to me very often to think be delivered, it is more difficult to see sure I want to hear it...

...Recently, I received can see the Himalayas from our terrace, brought for the children was spiral note- my copy of Commonweal Confronts the Cenour garden is large and full of flowers, books, three each...

...Howwhere wasting it by shopping every day voted for...

...only some of the time...

...now I behave as if I am in the United government...

...Oddly enough, near total lack of services for children with ability to procrastinate...

...The Haider chronicles Now, however, I am forced by circumstances to be much clearer about my position here...

...In the past year, my husband he European Union's reac- tion...

...The larger quarters...

...course of gaping manholes and 11 Until fairly recently, howevCommonweal 7 February 25, 2000 er, in spite of understanding how wide there is no electricity to run them...

...mocrats having failed to agree to form a a talented orator with demagogic skills...

...Sometimes I a milder version of what I grew up with and very easy to please...

...I buy in bulk now and get the vote in the last legislative election, on immigration are no more extreme annoyed, not stricken, when something marginally more than the vote given the than positions taken by mainstream poruns out unexpectedly...

...But when I consider the rest children's good manners and respect for "quiet, dignified city" during the Nazi of my life rolling out here, for that is what elders and by the fact that they seem not takeover, when Jews were hunted down building a house implies, I get nervous...

...There is no telling drink...

...His conduct as presdo, buying only enough for the moment trian Freedom party and the mainstream ident of the state of Carinthia, where he (one roll of toilet paper at a time, for ex- conservative People's party...

...times, with no limits to where I can go congested inner city, and the climate is They are resourceful, adaptable, resilient, and what I can accomplish...

...charlatans to thrive, I know that I beneother has just passed...

...There is a real sense where we have lived for more than a simply to get oneself from point A to of life's endless possibilities, and while I decade...

...I Uttar Pradesh (the state believe it was the immediacy of Dehra Doon is in) is one of the Shuster's description, albeit poorest, most backward states sixty years later, that has put me of India...

...reality as it is for most of the world, and the gulf was between me and the poor, I In America, where it is possible to to judge ourselves and our role in the somehow believed our family would be live surrounded mainly by people who perpetuation of inequity...

...We haven't even It is not uncommon to go to the bank and fit from the same...

...One morning and evening, always I drive, the books I read, the food I cat, the music I like, moves with instinctive caution at low pressure and not safe to the friends I see, the money I earn, the place I Iive, the job in crowds...

...to realize that teen-agers are supposed to in the streets and killed in cold blood...

...Our lives where one can confidently expect that culpability stare me in the face every were so simple and pared down that it systems will function and the goods will day...

...They were beside them- tury, the wonderful selection of Commonthe children can climb trees and ride their selves with delight, thanking her again weal essays of the past seventy-five years, bikes, and we like all our neighbors...

...Now that I have more gad- years tended to stifle clear-cut policy de- elections...