Chowrangi

A point about cultural diversity and disharmony came up while talking with my intellectual and colorful blog friend Axinia a few days ago. She has been working on this (SIETAR - The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) and has her own distinct point of view. I was reminded of her when listening to Dr. Zahid Shariff in a select and informed gathering.

Replying to a question about cultures Dr. Shariff said, “We go out of the way to establish considerable distance between ourselves and others living in same society, same culture; in dress, looks, language, education, travel (even in migrations) and in the lifestyle we adopt. Such distancing is often the measure of our prestige or status. We invest a lot in beating out of ourselves, to put it more provocatively, as many of local culture features as we can. Our involvement with foreign economies is relatively high, in terms of various kinds of interactions, investments, partnerships, and other business relationships. Our consumer patterns strongly reflect western influences. We generally exclude from our social circles many individuals belonging to our culture (reasons may be any) and hold them in low esteem. Our behavior openly defies traditional cultural values.

What do you say to this?

Other posts by shirazi

• How much do you reveal? - August 2nd, 2007
• Soul Search - August 2nd, 2007
• Cyber warfare - July 24th, 2007
• Chaudhry Map - July 19th, 2007
• Satghara: The Heritage Village - July 14th, 2007
• Karachi: Gateway to Pakistan - July 14th, 2007
• Plato's Concept of Justice - July 12th, 2007
• Information oversupply - July 11th, 2007
• Khanewal Junction - July 7th, 2007
• Alpine lakes - July 7th, 2007