A salt-of-the-earth character working at the bottle depot I frequent regularly. Samir is typical of the working-class people I still run into and become acquainted quickly and easily with. He is A Real Person, writ large, supporting his come-to-Canada family, but as I learned today, even more decent than he has appeared thus far. Today he told me of his elderly parents, for whom he has been setting aside $500-600 every month for the past 20 years. This is how he has continued to respect, love, and support them quite apart from his own family support here.
BTW/Samir is not untypical of many nationalities who have come to Canada and who send back large sums of money to parents and family back home. He and they have and know a higher purpose beyond the stereotypical Western self-focused ego. They perform charity with a family inflection and do for others selflessly. I am always impressed by these honorable people who are such a contrast, for instance, to those money-grubbing Westerners who just want to make a pile, obsessively, Scroogily, penny-pinch, and never part with their money with an eye to helping others. Likewise, I am impressed by the rich Bill Gates types who appreciate their luck and wealth, but who take the less miserly, charitable route in stark contrast to the greedy Trump types who, by and large, prevail numbers- and behavior-wise among the very wealthy.