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

Mon Sep 24 08:01:29 EDT 2012

Norbert,

three points: the Swiss discussion over minarets is a reply of the same
discussion that enflamed protestant towns at the beginning of the XXth
century, when rural catholics moved into the cities, built their
clocktowers (rather phallic things if you allow) and thus  changed the
clean protestant landscape.

The reciprocity argument has been much used and misused: they don't allow
churches, why should we allow minarets? It is difficult to explain to
people that we should live by their own principles - freedom of religion -
and that other religions are entitlesd to a different regime - e.g. dar el
islam. Same thing with outward sings of belief: we have abolished them
recently, and expect others to interiorize their beliefs as well. This will
shedding of outward signs come, but will take time. And we should stop
harping on it: it's counterproductive. It becomes "pars pro toto"
behaviour. Just because one wears a beard or a chaddor one is a "good"
Muslim.

Experts? For heavens sake - experimentation, trial and error is the answer.
Experts are worth less than a farthing when it comes to behaviour of
communities. It's about time we abandoned the belief that we KNOW - the
truth, the behaviour of people, and humbly make our experiences like
everyone else. As they evolve toward tolerance, we might use the time to
rid ourselves of our arrogance of truth.

Aldo

On 24 September 2012 12:07, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:

> 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
>
>
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-- 
Aldo Matteucci
65, Pourtalèsstr.
CH 3074 MURI b. Bern
Switzerland
aldo.matteucci at gmail.com
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