At work these days the atmosphere is pretty bad. In a way it is subtle but it shows up anywhere where there are more than two people on location. In other words I am only free of it when I am alone.
I am not sure if it is a war of race or a war of religion because the division between the two concepts is very blurred in the mind of Algerians, to them “Algerian” means “Muslim” and "expats" means "Christians". They read everything as being a religious matter (the national geologist when I surprised him sitting at my personal laptop offer "I am a Muslim" as the only reason why I should trust him, not realizing how offensive it is to say that to a non-muslim).
The expats feel it is a war of races. The Algerians feel that it is a war of religion.
Of course to most of the Algerians “expat” also means “dirty dog who is trying to treat us poorly in my own country and who should be kicked out of my country”.
And to most expats “Algerian” means “lazy stupid jerks who hates me but should kiss my ass because I am so much better than they are”.
I find myself sitting in between the two chairs. I can’t stand the racist comments that the expats do not censure around me…I don’t get to understand those made by the Algerians but I can assure you that they make just as many.
I don’t want to eat my meals with expats who make out loud comments against the Algerians but I don’t want to eat my meals with the Algerians who hate expats.
Soon it will be Ramadan and the locals have voiced that they feel sure that I will do Ramadan with them, and the expats resent it.
What to do?
I want to do Ramadan, honestly so that the people who work for me cannot throw in my face that they can’t work because THEY are doing Ramadan.
But I don’t want the expats to think that I am siding against them.
I remember being in primary school study religious wars and all of us kids going on about how it made no sense. I remember that I could not really understand it at all, how I felt that we were told the truth that there had to have been other reasons for the wars. Well I guess this is my chance to understand it now!
