So this is it. My third stay in Douglas is over. Tonight I will be taking the bus to Chihuahua where I will hopefully arrive by tomorrow morning. And I am leaving alone. I am really not sure about where I am going other than that I am going south for now at least.
Last night I spent with Robert, the son of the librarian who comes to town every once in a while and otherwise lives in Tucson. I tried to update him on recent events and rumors on what I had heard and witnessed in Douglas over the last two and a half weeks, and that was when I once again realized the enormous relative size of conspiracies here in town. I am quite sure that I have been involved or witnessed more of those during two and a half weeks of Douglas compared to 1.5 years previously in Oslo. But Robert charged me with maybe not really understanding what is going on: “well, I just can’t imagine that you know these people here very well… you have been here like six months, and then been back twice over the past two years?” Well, true enough. According to all rules of probability, it is highly unlikely that I have much of a clue what is going on here….

But then how do I know that I actually understand what is going on in Oslo, Norway? I am quite certain that I do not understand [the logics of] much of the nationalist surroundings I grew up under in Southern Schleswig… The last point is what for me makes the most extreme kinds of cultural relativism obsolete: there is absolutely no certainty that you understand people from “your own culture” better than others.
The hardest thing to grasp is, at least in my experience, the difference of material reality. Even though I might have the same amount of $ in my pocket at some time as many of the Douglasites I converse with, the flow of money is definitely different: my Scandinavian citizenship, as well as the money that was spent on social programs in Germany in the post WWII-era through which both my father and me were educated, defacto provide me with an economic security blanket that simply is not available to people here. The outcome is that decisions made are much more temporary and due to constant changes in order to stay within the economically possible, whereas I, with my ticket that can take me back to Europe any time (beam me up!) do not have to think about short-time financial gains and therefore decisions become much more longterm and stable. An accident or a stolen purse or mobile phone which runs up a debt of for example 200$ would be a nuisance for me, but I could I would not have to accommodate for the loss as immediately as people here have to.
And I know, you culturalists out there then pervert the whole situation and start telling me about “cultural differences” and how it’s just part of “Mexican culture” not to be able to think farther than a few minutes ahead. 🙂

Later on, Robert and me went across the border to Agua Prieta in Mexico. I could not stop smiling when on the way back, it was him and not me who triggered the suspicion of the US customs: When he first handed them his driver license, they started asking: “So how did you become a U.S. citizen?” Robert is as Anglo/white looking as can be, but in fact he was born in Australia and moved to the US with his US parents when he was 2.5 — none of which can be seen on a driver license. For the next 15-20 minutes they held us, made him answer questions like: “And I’m asking you again: you stated that your purpose with crossing the border was to go to a baaar [stress on bar] in Mexico. Is that right?” Or “Now do you remember if you have any documentation of being a US citizen besides having a US passport? Did you ever apply for a statement of US citizenship [or some such thing]? Cause a passport really doesn’t count as proof of being a citizen…” Besides that, they searched the trunk (while asking whether he was bringing over 10,000USD in cash into the country), asked him whether his parents live in Mexico and made us wait while they were running “checks” on him, talking some more, and then running even more “checks” on Robert. At one point of time at least I was certain that in the Kafkaisk outcome of it all would be that he would loose his US citizenship entirely.

In contrast, my Danish passport had an I94 form from Douglas, which I have noticed during my time here now in contrast to the previous times, almost turns it into a Douglas passport which does not have to undergo any security checks at all (it must be said that last night they did also run checks on it, although they did not talk about it much).

“So who is the local now,” I thought, quietly…