[governance] Culture sensitivity education (was Re: Bangladesh Govt blocks YouTube)

[Norbert Bollow]

David Conrad <drc at virtualized.org> wrote:

> Do you seriously think the folks who created the "Innocence of
> Muslims" abomination were ignorant of how their 'movie' would be
> received?

At least one of the actors publicly insists that he was even ignorant
of what the 'movie' was truly about: "I was invited to an audition at
what looked like an old nightclub on La Cienega. There, I met the
director and another man who identified himself as Sam Bacile. The part
I read for was that of a doctor in a clinic. The director read the part
of the other character, a military officer of some kind. There was no
mention of Muhammad or Islam in the script I saw. ... A guy named
Jeffrey introduced himself as the assistant director of the film and
told me I would be playing a character named Amir. He gave me that
day's script and sent me off to makeup. Then I went to wardrobe, where
I was given a pair of sandals, a robe and a turban. It didn't seem like
doctor's clothing, but I didn't question it. ... The next morning, I
was handed a script and issued a sword, and we shot a scene in which
the character George told me to go and kill a pregnant woman." (Source:
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/18/opinion/la-oe-crawley-innocence-of-muslims-actor-20120918 )

If this actor's words are to be believed (and I have no reason not to
believe them), he truly did not realize at the time what kind of
project he was participating in, even though (with more cultural
sensitivity) he could have realized that inspiring anti-Islamic hatred
must be among the goals of a film which shows someone who is dressed
according to stereotypes of Muslims as killing a pregnant woman with a
sword.

Those who knew what the film was to be about (and who reportedly told
lies to the others) obviously knew about the extremely offensive nature
of the film and that it would be particularly hurtful and
anger-provoking among Muslims. Obviously, that part was intentional.
But I seriously think that they probably did not think far enough to
realize the likely more long term consequences (some of which I
seriously think would have looked very negative even from their warped
perspective, if they would only have thought about those consequences).

What I can tell you with certainty is that the vast majority of the
people who here in Switzerland argued in favor of the ban on the
construction of minarets had absolutely no understanding of how that
would affect the ability of Switzerland-based people to be taken
seriously in international discussions on any topic related to
freedom of culture, religion, justice, or human rights in general.

Switzerland has gotten some education in cultural sensitivity through
this now, although in a very expensive way.

> I figure pretty much every country has their strengths and weaknesses
> in this area and often people within those countries are unaware of
> how their actions are perceived.  For example, some might perceive
> that a country passing a constitutional amendment banning the
> construction of minarets would suggest a certain lack of cultural
> sensitivity and/or perhaps may not be the best to lecture others on
> cultural sensitivity. YMMV.

It is of course true that "pretty much every country has their
strengths and weaknesses in this area and often people within those
countries are unaware of how their actions are perceived". However it
is also a fact that US people often come across as being particularly
insensitive, much more so than people from elsewhere. You're of course
free to disbelieve me on this point, be it because of the minarets
issue or for some other reason. I would add though that I'm tired of
people rubbing salt into the wounds of the minarets debacle so often
when Switzerland is mentioned, even though I have never advocated in
favor of that ban on minarets. For some reason it seems to be much much
more fashionable to bash Switzerland in this regard than to discuss
e.g. the very serious persecution of Christians happening in several
countries. Those persecutions by the way are significantly contributing
to the fear of Islam and anger about Islam, and should therefore be
looked at as part of the problem.

To get back to the question of where insights and/or lecturing on
topics of cultural sensitivity could reasonably be sourced from, my
only idea for sourcing educational resources on cultural sensitivity
would be to look for help from international intercultural teams. (What
I had written about sourcing this as "developmental aid" from
Switzerland or from "so-called third world countries" was of course not
meant seriously, as I had hoped the ":-)" at the end of that paragraph
to make sufficiently clear.)

Greetings,
Norbert

-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t