Should bad cultural practices be allowed to continue?

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Should bad cultural practices be allowed to continue?
OP - April 24, 2013, 04:38 PM

The dominant global ideology has long come to the realization that slavery, rape and murder is wrong, and this cosmopolitan understanding is implied by many countries in the world and highly encouraged by the international bill of human rights... A lot of us come from a society that instils these ethics within us, but that is not the case for other societies around the world, where, denial of education, FGM, arranged and forced marriage still occur. Should dominant countries (US, EU) be allowed to judge and enforce conformist ideas of morality on these cultures or will it be considered imperialist or racist? Is cultural relativism always bad? (it seems like a stupid question but I'm judging this with what happened last year with the Kony madness and attributing that interference to white privilege made people walk on their toes, and this years insanity with FEMEN parading naked around mosques)
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Reply #1 - April 24, 2013, 04:43 PM

Talking about cultural imperialism vs. relativism implies that native peoples would not want to liberate themselves—which, well... is bullshit.

Liberty is not a Western concept; it's a human concept.
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Reply #2 - April 24, 2013, 06:44 PM

Comparing the right-wing homophobic christian funded kony campaign with femen is a sign of ignorance.

Cultures are always changing. The rhetoric of "that's THEIR culture" is tired and completely misguided. Suffering, pain, violence, and violations of rights are bad everywhere. It is actually just as racist to think that "those other people" don't want or can't handle the same kinds of privileges we enjoy. There are always interchanges between cultures as individuals from cultures are still unique and exchange information, values, ideas etc. To bind individuals to "their culture" is wrong and is rooted itself in a colonialist ideology that sees borders between "cultures" as being rigid and impenetrable.

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Should bad cultural practices be allowed to continue?
Reply #3 - April 24, 2013, 06:49 PM

+1
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Reply #4 - April 24, 2013, 07:05 PM

^That reminds me of a discussion I once had with someone who was complaining about how west have corrupted our cultural values which I refuted by pointing out to him that it has already been corrupted by the Arabs.We have adopted 80% of their customs and discarded ours,so its kind of hypocritical for one to accuse West for corrupting our culture when it has gone through many changes for centuries

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Reply #5 - April 24, 2013, 09:39 PM

Good point. What did he say to that?

Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West.
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Reply #6 - April 24, 2013, 09:51 PM

He was being circular and digressive which made me become satisfied because I knew I got him there.

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Reply #7 - April 24, 2013, 09:55 PM

I hate when people speak of “culture” as though it’s some static, abstract thing that exists in its own little bubble unto itself. Regardless of where you are from, your culture has changed as the times have moved on. Dumb ideas have given way to better ones; bad techniques have been replaced by more efficient ones. And those new elements have now become part of your culture—like it or not. Usually, people use the whole “culture” excuse only when they stand to benefit from maintaining the status quo.
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Reply #8 - April 25, 2013, 07:03 AM

Quote from: allat on April 24, 2013, 06:44 PM
Comparing the right-wing homophobic christian funded kony campaign with femen is a sign of ignorance.

I was not comparing their ideology, but the resistance against these campaigns, ie: muslim women against FEMEN, Ugandan's irritated by the Kony movement
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Reply #9 - April 25, 2013, 06:07 PM

Quote
World Relief writes:

“Vurhonga is only a child in your village — it is less than four years old. But we have been teaching things that are different from the ways that you have lived for many years. How long will it be before you forget what Vurhonga taught and return to the old ways?”

The grannies talked together for a while and then one of them replied. “We have a question for you. A person has been a slave for many years, but somebody buys them and gives them their freedom. How long will it be before they go back to be a slave again?”

Before the work of care groups, the grannies in this village in Mozambique had been captive to an understanding of disease that to them felt like slavery.

They attributed many diseases and deaths of women and children to the work of spirits and curses. Four years later, far fewer of their grandchildren were dying. The young children were thriving not because the spirits had become more kindly but because their parents and caregivers were taking positive, effective action to prevent or to rapidly treat their diseases.[5]”

http://www.coregroup.org/storage/documents/Resources/Tools/Care_Group_Manual_F

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