{"id":151748,"date":"2010-01-07T20:51:15","date_gmt":"2010-01-08T01:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skyscrapercity.com\/showthread.php?t=1040509"},"modified":"2010-01-07T20:51:15","modified_gmt":"2010-01-08T01:51:15","slug":"the-illusion-of-wealth-and-happiness-and-the-disconnect-btw-appearance-and-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/151748","title":{"rendered":"The illusion of wealth and happiness and the disconnect btw appearance and reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>It has dawned on me after several months of trying to figure out what was missing in the west<br \/>\nthere was something missing i couldnt put my head around. .it didnt matter if i was in vegas,miami,new york,DC or philadelphia. . .something was just not quite right<br \/>\ni checked out as many cities as i could. . .u stay in a hotel somewhere downtown,check out the clubs. . .and it was always the same thing. . apart from the cities i mention above i have also clubbed in tampa florida,st loius,baltimore,upstate newyork and boston. . .<br \/>\ni been in city\/college towns in the city or sub urbs. . .<br \/>\ni have ridden trains from the airport to the city centre in a lot of towns like st louis. . checked out the bars in daytime or night<\/p>\n<p>but there is no soul amongst the people, they are all like drones or zombies who  dance to whatever music they say is cool. . .and sleep with u without even knowing why <br \/>\nno culture. . .just this humongous stretch of paved roads and strip malls. . .<\/p>\n<p>it was slightly better in AA communities i hung in,been to a couple of block parties,with streets blocked off and kids(15yr olds) doing dance offs. . .<br \/>\nall black faces except one or two white starbucks type hanging around like tourists. . .<\/p>\n<p>however once the party ends everyone goes back to the i dont trust strangers mode,ppl are more tense. . .two days later i hear there was a shooting at the chicken spot 2 blocks from where i attended the block party<\/p>\n<p>In Nigeria and perhaps much of africa. . .a lot of the ppl u see might be poor,but they are genuinely happy. . .u have open air bars,that line streets where ppl chat and laugh till daybreak. . .<br \/>\nu can get into a bus and laugh all through cause something is always happening. . .<br \/>\nwhether it is the okadaman or gateman,househelp or oga bigman. . .there is always something to smile about. . .<br \/>\nam sorry folks but i believe these ppl are richer in the end. . .apart from the fact that u cant take any of all these when u die,<br \/>\nbut they also have something money cannot buy. . .could be the culture,maybe a spiritual calm,whatever it is i cant find it in the west. . .<br \/>\ni have given up trying to make friends with folks here that are not african or carribean. .in nigeria your friend can call u anytime,and u all know where u live<br \/>\nover here its the opposite. . .<\/p>\n<p>so all am saying is,as we wish for skyscrappers and strip malls for africa. .<br \/>\nwe should be weary of loosing the only thing that can truley make us rich and fulfilled on this earth<\/p>\n<p>proudly nigerian<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It has dawned on me after several months of trying to figure out what was missing in the west there was something missing i couldnt put my head around. .it didnt matter if i was in vegas,miami,new york,DC or philadelphia. . .something was just not quite right i checked out as many cities as i [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1473,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}