Contibutions from readers

So, these are the first three submissions from readers. No body has won the prize yet, but keep your contributions coming and you might as well win something!

Contribution No. 1

This contribution comes from a guy visiting Stockholm soon, and he sounded like he is really up for a party. This post is written by the Arab Observer, and it reflects his own ideas and not mine. He is looking for answers from the readers of this blog, so I hope some can write back to him in the comment section.

Lately, the cultural issue have been interesting me a lot. While being aware of some cultural differences not just between the different countries of the world but also in between small communities in each country, the issue of cultural conflict, the talk about cultural imperialism, and the fight people call for and engage in in order to preserve what they see important aspects of their cultures puzzle me.

The real issue here that I would like to find answers to is: When do we have the right to preserve a certain aspect of a culture, and when do we have the right to interfere and fight for change?

The notion of culture as a static entity is widely spread in the Arab world. There is a denial of cultural influence and cultural evolution among a lot of people. The Arabic-Islamic culture is perceived to be the same through its history of time of 1500 years, neglecting the dynamic nature of cultures and evolution of the very same culture through space-time dimension. It is even falsely assumed that an Arab living in a town in Jordan shares the same culture of another Arab living in a city in Morocco for instance. There is a strong over shadowing of local uniqueness to reserve an assumed projected static cultural attribute.

Cultural preservation is a good thing. It is beautiful to have this diversity of cultural attributes around the globe. It would be dull living in a world with everyone looking and behaving the same. But yet, at the same time, societies do progress. There are some cultural values that no longer hold the advancement of human values. There are cultural attributes that contradict with the universal law of human rights. So what give us the right to interfere and force the dismissing of such attributes?

Women rights organizations have been working for ages now to achieve gender equality, yet you find the same organizations working in local Arab countries in a different way that they work in a western country under the name of respecting local cultural differences. In truth, a hundred years ago, gender equality was suffering the same injustice in the west as much as it was suffering in the Arab world. So what if the west were faster to grab the notion of gender equality? Does that make us better preservant of culture?!

Media workers have always been faced with the *cultural sensitivity* flag. Opinions have always managed to trigger offence. It is impossible to please everybody. Everyone is ready to scream out for preserving his code of values and behavior. So what do you do when you think it is wrong and you have a loud voice of yours to scream from your place? How do you handle cultural sensitivities?

Reply:

I am looking forward to reading about your impressions, once you get to Stockholm! I personally believe that people should know their core values, and then again, be able to reset them whenever necessary.

Contribution no. 2

The second contribution was sent anonymously by a person who referred to him/herself as the "Norrlänning"... Blog statistics implied that this person was sending their message from the Northern part of Sweden, thus the "nickname" and the fascination with Saunas!

Hej Rami, maybe you can put up a picture showing one of those sauna parties you write about? ;-)

Reply:

Unfortunately I have none, but you will have to ask this blogger, since she has everything on record. However, I have an odd feeling that you have seen it all yourself! ;-)

Contribution no.3

The third contribution is from a dear friend who also wanted to stay anonymous.. The contribution comes in the form of a picture which I would love to share. The message reads in Swedish " USA: get out of Iraq.. This is what this war is creating!"

Reply:

That's a very "nice" contribution in deed, it is about time the mercenaries of war leave the country to its own struggle, hopefully with a UN peacekeeping mission filling the gaps. Very thoughtful...

Keep them coming!! (at the risk of sounding like someone who takes himself a tad bit too seriously)