Preservation of culture - Page 3

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

I agree with the age old adage too 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'

To me the most imperative thing in visiting a country is understanding the local culture and assimilating yourself within it. If you feel that you are unable to understand and assimilate then you should reconsider going there. Not necessarily.. Most asians are not even part of the Western main stream.. so living in that wierd delusion is better left alone..

I do not think assimilation is a compromise of personal morals or culture, but doing a balanced bit. I honestly do not think Canada is as extreme as making laws for people to dress skimpily.

Many westerners are fascinated with traditional outfits like sarees, salwar kameez and other unique and colorful clothing. They will willingly accept people wearing traditional clothing. However, westerners ultra conservative clothing like veils, feels restrictive and anti-social and feel unnerved when people insist on doing so. Ok they need to be trained to understand that a sikh in turban is no obama in disguise so if they use brains for a change instead of machines they would better understand that.. Peoples customs are not subject to local ignorance....

What irks many westerners is the fact that they will wear veils and headdresses when in a conservative country but these very people refuse to change a bit when they come in their country. Another annoying factor is the double standards. Pseudo conservative people coming rambling about the greatness of their culture yet ogling at western women and behaving in a lewd manner. Sure all these veiled people come with a brown color does that irk them too since you have taken up the role of western spokeswoman....😆 thank god they dont bleach them in their ire...

What also angers many westerners is that even if people want to preserve their culture why do they have to criticize western culture. I think this is more for seudo westerners. Americans dont really pwide that culture as much... but seudo's including abcd's sing a lot of praises fir a nonexistent culture So many people adapt a holier than thou attitude and look upon western people in a demeaning manner. Nobody looks down upon anyone but just pity the impoverished state of the same....Won't we be pissed if someone came to our country and looked down on our ways.Sure we do when people talk about indians eating monkey brains and land of snakes and elephants... sure we get irked too... 

Personally, I do not expect any radical changes. I believe Canada and United States are free countries and people should wear what they want. If a Middle Eastern woman wears the burkha that is her choice. I do not care. What needs to stop is cultural segregation. There is a whole wave of separate but equal sweeping through North America. Every immigrant community Indians, Asians, Middle Eastern, African, Latins, Slavs are all forming sub communities. They study and work together, but refuse to mingle with each other. Each is afraid of losing culture and refuses to socialize or assimilate with the rest of them. Children are encouraged to find friends within the same community, outsider friends are discouraged.

This needs to stop. We need to be social and share culture. There is good and bad in all cultural and cultural interaction is beneficial for society. People need to realize that culture will not get destroyed but will evolve for the next generation.

Originally posted by: sareg

The bottom line(and not for lipservice only)

When in Rome, Do as Romans do 😆

 Can't really say that for USA and Canada. 😊 Our constitution guarantees freedom of religion and freedom of expression which Rome never did. 😉  Btw that lady was Russian wasn't she. 😆

Originally posted by: qwertyesque

@ qwerty - 👏wanted to post the  underlined phrase too. 😊 😆

@hades - I am afraid you are not quite acquainted with the arab or middleeast culture, Its not just wearing veils and running away from men.  Mingling of men and women , mixed gatherings is not their culture, so its fine if they want to work in a burkha , make some money and walk home, i dont see, what is a big culture segregation deal there!

most goriyaan walking on times square to work,  dont they quite mind their own businesses as well!!! so is it just for a mere 'hi' 'hello' which burkha ladies don't sport, they get labeled as culture stickers. ? ?

and hey , where are you, @bold. nobody is refusing to socialise. 😲

and different people doing things deifferently makes their culture different , i dont see, how it will be called culture, if we share it 😉 

and sharing would mean.......

is ki topi us ke sar, us ka skirt .........😆 (we again got to the start of debate)

Originally posted by: rockstallion

@ qwerty - 👏wanted to post the  underlined phrase too. 😊 😆

@hades - I am afraid you are not quite acquainted with the arab or middleeast culture, Its not just wearing veils and running away from men.  Mingling of men and women , mixed gatherings is not their culture, so its fine if they want to work in a burkha , make some money and walk home, i dont see, what is a big culture segregation deal there!

most goriyaan walking on times square to work,  dont they quite mind their own businesses as well!!! so is it just for a mere 'hi' 'hello' which burkha ladies don't sport, they get labeled as culture stickers. ? ?

and hey , where are you, @bold. nobody is refusing to socialise. 😲

and different people doing things deifferently makes their culture different , i dont see, how it will be called culture, if we share it 😉 

and sharing would mean.......

is ki topi us ke sar, us ka skirt .........😆 (we again got to the start of debate)

 

There are aspects to this. If I have to work in an office where all the women wear those veils - all of them - that would freak me out... Of course, there are instances where I have seen couple of these arabic women who took the veil off their face and spoke in most intelligent, eloquent, confident English I havent seen many asian talk like that... and yet that veil reflected their adherence to tradition - a mix which absolutely surprised me.. .so it doesnt have to be one or the other... some of these veils hide the ultra-modern mind-sets...which are in fact superior to the average american.....and that fits veri well in that "good america" we refer to...😊

Originally posted by: #1EijazFan

Come to think of it, a lot of my friends are from south India and they too say they HAVE to wear long clothes..obviously nowhere near strict as these countries cos they dont have 2 cover their whole bodies but i think mini skirts is not allowed.
its frowned upon down south apparently😕
and this too makes their trip to india a dreaded one..but all im gonna say is go to delhi and look at the girls there-you will be happy to see some of them in mini skirts if anything! lol 😆
Rules should be fair 1's..not 1 forced by govt. according to religion or 'just for fun'...

   Don't worry, now a days the  dress code of elite/and upper middiole class  people will make the westerners humble, the noodle strap and less will make the veiwers shy to look again.  I may be backward but  some times I think how the parents could exhibit their teenagers in this skimpy cloths(I am a mother of two teenagers).  I am not against modest western dress but certainly against wearing skimpy dress in villages, But also against forced dress code.

We can wear it where all are wearing the same dress(skimpy) there are families who came to villages in modest dressess.Dress is  only a part of culture, not culture itself.

Delhi is the Crime Capital of India (recent news in  Malayalam daily Mathrubhoomi). 

There are aspects to this. If I have to work in an office where all the women wear those veils - all of them - that would freak me out... Of course, there are instances where I have seen couple of these arabic women who took the veil off their face and spoke in most intelligent, eloquent, confident English I havent seen many asian talk like that... and yet that veil reflected their adherence to tradition - a mix which absolutely surprised me.. .so it doesnt have to be one or the other... some of these veils hide the ultra-modern mind-sets...which are in fact superior to the average american.....and that fits veri well in that "good america" we refer to...😊

[/QUOTE]

 I agree with you in bold. Some of the persons here  also in bhurka and veil are  both intelligent and modern.

Originally posted by: sareg

I am talking about adaptation you are talking about imitation😉

 In America , reverse is true. Adaptation is usually by the citizens not immigrants.  Both east and west coast has its own culture , so does the South . Chinatown, little Italy, Latin neighborhoods have been around in major cities for decades,  Miami , NYC, LA , Texas all are very different from what one might think is America. Infact I am not sure one can define America as a singular culture, which is why Sopranos is as popular as Sex in the city was.   

Originally posted by: qwertyesque

you cant adapt without imitating

hmmm, are you sure you know what you are saying here? adaptation means you change your mode of behaviour, keep the basics in tact but still change enough to suite the new system, imitation is blind copying

... Dhona chod key pochna shuru karna may be adaptation or imitation.. the question is how much you are into using that paper at home...😊.. Imitation is with appearance and behavior and I am not talking about that.....unless you give me some good examples of adaptation

culture means everything behaviour, language, religion, rituals, norms of law/morality

now when I talked about adaptation,does one need to embrace the beleif and value system, NO, but one needs to adapt.

I am not going to get into viel and burkha thing b'cos there is an extra-sensitivity around that here at IF(see adapting😉)

Originally posted by: sareg

 

Originally posted by: rockstallion

@hades - I am afraid you are not quite acquainted with the arab or middleeast culture, Its not just wearing veils and running away from men.  Mingling of men and women , mixed gatherings is not their culture, so its fine if they want to work in a burkha , make some money and walk home, i dont see, what is a big culture segregation deal there![/quote]

I think most people are misunderstanding my intent here. While the opening post of this topic is specifies the instance of a western person questions why Sikhs Middle Eastern etc. do not leave their habits behind. However, the subject line of the topic says 'Preservation of Culture'. Culture is not just about what a person wears or a person dressing less or more. Culture involves a lot more including language, history, traditions, moral values, cuisine, clothing etc.

Sevral cultures have migrated to the west over all these years. It used to said that cities like New York etc. were melting pots. However, the fact is that it is not a melting pot. Every group that migrates huddles around itself, forming a colony of their homeland in a new country. They work in companies, their kids go to school and college but when it comes to socialization and lifestyle they are cut off from the rest.

I guess for a lot of people that is simply normal and perfectly fine. Perhaps there is absolutely no need to socialize or mingle with other people. However, personally I find it quite disconcerting. Instead of neighborhoods there are just houses who do not even know who their neighbors are. I have seen Indian families tell their kids not to make kids with the western kids. In larger cities the black part of town is for the black people, the Asian sector is for Asians only, Hispanic sector is for hispanics several times leading to gang formations battling with each other keeping each others out of territory. To me the formation of these unmixing clusters is not healthy. It is not about what one wears or does not it is about human interaction.  I have seen Indian families tell their kids not to make kids with the western kids.