Different strokes

Here is a joke told by an African colleague of mine at lunch the other day:

“There’s this French woman, right, and she is saving to buy her mother’s flat!”

Roars of laughter from the African contingent; indulgent half-smiles and bemused looks from the westerners amongst us who are still patiently waiting for the punch line. Another Ethiopian colleague managed to stop laughing just long enough to point out that only the Africans found this amusing, and this caused even more hilarity.

I suppose the concept of buying back your own mother’s flat is as grotesque to Africans as having to pay the hospital to take your newborn baby home with you is to us (a regular occurrence in Armenia, as elsewhere I’m sure).

“Enrichissons-nous de nos différences”, wrote (or said) Paul Valéry. Also, incidentally, my high school’s motto.













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