“You don’t win silver, you lose gold.” A statement mentioned in an article of the NZZ about the past Olympic summer games in Atlanta. The author suggested an American commercial and economical driven unethical relation to these games. Participating is more important than winning, it should read. That is the European way to see it. You win silver. I stopped comparing. Americans are different from Europeans. The culture, the mentality, ethics in some ways are different. One is not better than the other, it’s just different. Why is it so difficult to accept the difference instead of comparing to justify the one or the other? People here are more self-confident, optimistic, open but on the other hand less concerned and critical about things. As European you think twice before you do something, an American takes the chance because he won’t get one a second time. Competition is higher, you are harder on your own, you have to proof yourself, you have to put yourself in a position before people even notice you. It’s different than growing up in a society taking care of you. They pay for your education, for your social security, they pay for your health care, rent and taxes, if you can’t afford it anymore. You’re save. This creates a very different culture. You notice it in details. There are bumper stickers on cars here like ‘proud parents of the student of the year 1998’. Don’t do that in Europe, probably with no exception it would be an embarrassment everywhere. I don’t need to point the finger on one or the other. It has nothing to do with tolerance. It’s a way of understanding. I am not interested in one being better than the other. I am interested in the difference to understand. Me, the people, the world, live. The perfect world doesn’t exist, and it would be much less interesting if culture would express the same everywhere.