Cultural shock

If a got impressed by Chancellor Keneth from Syracuse University sentence, which I quoted in one of my first blogs, I am deeply impressed with Shatha Al-Musawi sentence quoted yesterday, April 14 2005, on the New York Times: "To tell you the truth, I am not a feminist. I don't want to commit the same mistakes Western women have committed. I like that family should be the major principle for women here."

We, as Westerners judge other cultures based on what we think is right and make it absolute. Easterners do their counterpart. But these two quotations put together tell us we may be wrong. We hear often politicians and high ranking officials in government talking about diversity and tolerance, and how important they both are; but talking is not enough; and maybe just tolerance is not enough; appreciation and respect for other cultures sure would save us from unnecessary conflicts. We need discernment of good from evil but we need to be cautious in our judgement and look not only through our eyes. We need to defend justice and values, but not only our justice system or our value system. Cultures have evolved through different paths, even though we may have common ancestral roots, for example, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. I am convinced that all cultures have evolved in search for good. Thus, we all, Westerners and Easterners alike, have to learn to recognize and appreciate good, not just what we think is good; but even more challenging, we need not to judge as evil anything that does not match our notion of good.