I'm from a liberal country

Sokol is from Albania. He hosts a political show in an Albanian television station. He's over 30. In one class, Verica told us how famous Sokol is in Albania. "I was talking with Sokol in the Cafeteria. Then a girl came to us, and she cried out, 'Aren't you the host of the ** show? I can't believe I meet you here!' The girl then told me that everybody in Albania knows him."

Sokol has been talking about going back to work for the BBC. I asked him after a whole day's class, "Are you going to quite your job in Albania if you find a job here, say in the BBC?"

"I don't know. Why do you ask?" Sokol is sitting in front of the computer with his back towards me typing something.

"Oh..." I pauzed and tried to look for a reason. Most of the times when I ask people questions, I simply have no reasons at all. But some people would ask me "why do you ask". I don't have an agenda hidden beneath my question although I come from a country that has a lot of agendas. Why did I ask Sokol that question? Curiosity? Yes, it must have been curiosity. "because I'm curious..." I answered. Then I realized it was not convincing enough to attribute my question to curiosity, so I added, "also I'm wondering if it's possible for you to work for both television sta..."

"No, no, it's impossible. It won't work that way." Sokol half turned to me. I could see him half-smiling. "It's like in a marriage, you must be dedicated to your wife."

Two jobs, marriage, dedication, wife, these words instantly triggered my brain neural system, "but in some muslim countries, a husband can have more than one wife." I said it without any idea of how it could lead the conversation to another direction. But that's when I felt something was wrong, because... well, because I sensed something was wrong.

"Don't get me started on that!" Sokol rasied his voice and his hands stopped hopping on the keyboards, "Don't even get me started on that! I'm from a liberal country. Your communism country... how many children are you allowed to have in your communism country?"

"OK, one..."

"Do you have brothers or sisters?"

"No, I'm the only child."

"Ask your parents why."

"Well, maybe because of the policy, or because of... I really don't know. I never asked them...."

"Then ask them. Don't try to have a debate with me!"

"I'm not trying to have a debate with you..."

"Yes, you are!"

Alright. I thought to myself. You are from a liberal country, but the way you ordered me not to try to debate you is quite authoratative, isn't it? But how could the conversation go off the original track? I wondered. Muslim-- it got to do with religion.

I asked Mia when I got back to my dorm. "Muslim is the dominant religion in Albania." Mia said assertively. Her bachelor degree is in European politics.
OK. It could be that I was behaving insensitively or Sokol was being over-sensitive. But I don't know whether Sokol is a muslim or not. Or could it be that what I said brought some uncomfortable memory to Sokol because of the religion-purging history in the Balkan?

The other person who said the same thing to me is a girl from India. She is a fashionable girl, dark-skined, beatiful in some way, and she likes to hang out with the white Europeans.  One time during our conversation, she kept saying "I'm from a democratic country, you know." OK, I know, but what has that got to do with the food we are talking about?

*  A couple of weeks ago, Sokol showed something to me. He smiled, waving a little red book under my nose. It was Quotations from Chairman Mao.
"Are you interested in him?" I asked him. I was impressed.
"Yeah." he said as if it was a self-evident fact.
"Where did you get it?"
"In Beijing. I was in Beijing 2 years ago. I saw it and bought it."
So he always takes the book with him then. "I'm not a big fan, but good for you!"