On 14/11/05, Walter van Kalken walter@vankalken.net wrote:
Oh common that is crazy and you know it. It is very simple. What you in
If I knew it were crazy, do you think I'd waste my time writing it? Or perhaps I have some strange ulterior motive in writing "crazy" things?
Midwest USA feel is the truth and is the right way of handling things
Arizona is not in the midwest. Arizona is in the southwest. The midwest is a very different region. Many things about the Southwest make it differnet -- demographics, linguistic diversity, climate, physical geography. My impression of the midwest (though not a correct one) is that it's just one big prarieland. I think a widespread impression of the Southwest is that it's just one big desert (not true either).
The Midwest means states east of New Mexico and west of, say, Kentucky. I think. See, if I say something I'm unsure of, I make a note of it so people will know that.
....... somebody in Mexico might frown upon. Even people in the UK might frown upon it. You should learn that not everybody on this earth thinks alike nor is raised alike nor considers the same things truths that you consider truths ..... that is a simple fact of life. Learn to life with
This is quite obvious. You continue to act as if you have complete and total insight into my mind. You seem to think you know which things I know, and which things I don't. I would say that I know quite a bit more about cultural diversity than you think.
I'm willing to bet that you think cannibalism is inherently wrong in most situations. Well, I don't. You may well think the same thing about incest. I don't. I believe that these taboos in most Western cultures are by no means universal -- they are considered OK things to do in some cultures, and I accept that.
Cultural imperialism is wanting to impose your values on other cultures, such as forbidding a culture that practices cannibalism or ritual human sacrifice from doing these things because you say they are wrong.
How emotions are expressed, what is OK for different people to do, how people should act in different situations, and the expected reaction to certain stimuli varies from culture to culture.
This is because each culture to a certain extent shares a collective experience. You, being from the Netherlands, are influenced by experiences that I never had due to my cultural background. This effects every single one of our opinions, decisions, and actions.
I am not ignorant of this fact.
it instead of keeping on telling people that you are right all the time and people should listen to you. You simply didn't get the point of my
Please quote where I told somebody that I was right and they should listen to me.
previous email it was not just about that issue it was a general tendency which I addressed. Since I am not a native USA-English speaker I blame it on my insufficient grasp of using the USA-English language in an email to convince you of my point.
Or, maybe I just disagree with you... you're being a hypocrite of sorts here. Your entire thinking here seems to be that I'm bad/wrong/should be boycotted/whatever because I don't accept that people can disagree with me... and yet, when I disagree with you, you blame it on your poor mastery of English. Well, I understand what you're saying perfectly, I think, but I still feel it's shallow and presumptive of things you can't possibly know (what I'm thinking, for example).
Mark
-- "Take away their language, destroy their souls." -- Joseph Stalin