For years, I chalked up the idiocy of the Samoan government as... well... cultural. I blamed the poor customer service on fa'asamoa. Power outages, five hour waits in the "emergency" room, racist laws, inferior road designs, theft, corruption, obesity, drunkenness, constant lies... the gamut... all the result of a faulty culture.

But I was wrong. Culture was simply a scapegoat. After much thought, and some deliberation (at least 5 minutes), I've determined culture had little or nothing to do with our hassles in AmSam.

In AmSam, there were and are plenty of problems... but it was not a culture issue... it was a stupidity issue. Yep. Stupid. Dumb. Idiots. People are inherently stupid. We have an innate ability to make poor decisions, more often than not.

It's not just AmSam, though... it's everywhere. There are idiots everywhere, including S.Carolina. Before moving to AmSam, I didn't realize my own culture's idiocy. Somehow, I had been calloused to the idiocy in my own backyard. A different environment just make stupid more recognizable.

S.Carolinians are incredibly stupid... just in their own way. An Orangeburg mom just murdered two of her kids, strapped them in the back seat of her car, and pushed the car in a river. Amazingly dumb. It would not likely happen in AmSam. Samoans love their kids. Government administered foster care is virtually nonexistent because it's not needed. Families step up. Neighbors step up. Everyone pitches in to help.

AmSam and S.Carolina are incredibly different: different people, different values. But, we're all the cut from the same stupid mold.

'nuff said.