Cultural differences. We're still reading the Sunday New York Times we picked up in Naples. The Sunday Times may cost a whopping $5, but there's a book's work of matierial to read.
From Russia with Lies should be read by anyone doing business with—or dating—someone from another culture. Author Elena Corokhova, a child of Communist Russia, explains vranyo, a culture of lies that everyone knows, but no one admits, are lies. Everyone except the naive foreigner, that is—and Russians born after perestroika.
Putin was lying to us, we knew he was lying, he knew we knew he was lying, but he kept lying anyway, and we pretended to believe him. ... While I envy this uncommunist generation, I do see one deficiency: They have lost the ability to detect a lie.
My husband works with people from many different cultures: north, south, east, west, and midwest in the U.S., and countries as different as China, India, Italy, Nigeria, and Australia. One of his Chinese colleagues told him candidly something everyone needs to know when dealing with China: culturally, it is not only acceptable, but admirable, to best a competitor by cheating and deception. If the victim is not Chinese, so much the better.
My in-laws lived and worked in Brazil some 30 years ago. Perhaps the culture has changed, but back then what we would call "taking bribes" was simply the way business was done. If you did not participate, not only did you not get your business accomplished, but you were considered ignorant and rude.
My point is not to be disrespectful of other cultures, and certainly not to imply that every Russian is a liar, every Chinese a cheat, and every Brazilian corrupt, but to ask two questions.
- How can we be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves" when interacting with foreign cultures? Acknowledge the risks in dealing with people whose mores differ from ours without being (or becoming) racist? Maintain our own integrity while adapting to life and work in a foreign land?
- What are the aspects of American culture that trip up foreigners? What makes it difficult to deal with Americans? What do we take for granted as "normal" that others consider bizarre, rude, or even immoral?
A Rally I Can Believe In. I can't ever see myself participating in a Tea Party rally, much less the more chaotic and uncivil "Occupy" events. But if I'd been in the area, I'd have gladly taken part in the Raw Milk Freedom Riders' Caravan and Farm Food Freedom Rally on November 1st. I'd have made my first public act of civil disobedience, too, joining the mothers who bought raw milk (legally) in Pennsylvania and transported it (illegally) to Maryland, where they drank it in front of the Food and Drug Administration headquarters in Silver Spring. Speakers at the rally included Joel Salatin, David Gumpert, and other heroes of the battle for liberty as it touches what we eat, where it comes from, and how it is produced.
The mission of the Farm Food Freedom Coalition is, "to inspire, empower and facilitate consumers into action until everyone can procure the foods of their choice from the producer of their choice." Here are some links for further information on the FFFC and the rally.
A good summary of the event from The Compleat Patient.
A pre-event post from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, with videos of some of the speakers (not from the rally).
Pictures from the rally (again at NECSC).
The Farm Food Freedom Coalition.
Is this a good place to point out that I am apparently incapable of understanding the Quick part of 7 Quick Takes Friday?
Okay, here's a quick one. Not many e-mail forwards are worth passing on, but I couldn't resist this. To understand its appeal, first you have to know something about my family tree. My grandfather, my father, and two of my siblings are engineers. So is one of our daughters, and both of our sons-in-law (who themselves come from engineering families). Most of the rest of us are mathematicians.
Election Day fun. I don't talk about politics all that often, and when I do, it may or may not tell you something about how I cast my ballots. For one thing, I try to elect the best person for the particular job, which may mean voting for someone who is not my first choice, or someone with whom I seriously disagree on matters that only tangentially impact his capacity for filling the office in question. For another, I really believe in the importance of the secret ballot. But today I'm making an exception.
I am a conservative Democrat (which is not quite an oxymoron). As such, I find myself more often than not these days voting against my own party. So it was with a peculiar kind of glee that this week I cast my ballot in our mayoral election for a LIBERAL DEMOCRAT. At least, that's what her opponent called her, in a blitzkrieg campaign that annoyed me enough I'd have voted against him in any case. But in actuality, I voted for the incumbent rather than against her opponent—and believe me, it's quite a pleasure to be able to cast a positive vote for a change. Ours is one of the nicest, most beautiful cities in the area, our taxes are low, and the city is debt-free. If it ain't broke, don't fix it seems like a pretty good conservative attitude to me.
Ten is the new two. That's how Free-Range Kids advocate Lenore Skenazy describes Amtrak's decision to raise the age at which a person can ride the train without an adult babysitter from eight to twelve. And 13- to 15-year-olds have severe restrictions as well. I can't help remembering our trip to Liechtenstein a few years ago, when we saw schoolchildren who were probably in the five to eight range travelling on public transportation—knowing where to get off, and more importantly, where not to get off—completely unaccompanied. Granted, that's not the same as a long train trip, but Amtrak's restrictions seem ridiculous to me.
What are your experiences with train travel and children? Somehow I can't picture the Europeans requiring a 15-year-old to wear a special wristband marking him as an unaccompanied minor—but I may be wrong.
Fighting ICD (Internet Compulsive Disorder). CNNHeath asks, Does life online give you "popcorn brain"? and answers, alas, in the affirmative. It's of particular concern to me because most of the work I do requires using the computer. (Not that people did not, for example, do genealogy research before computers were invented, but it would be silly not to use this most helpful of tools now that we have it.) I imagine there's a difference between what happens to the brain when you use the computer for research and when you use it for Facebook or to play an interactive multiplayer game, but that's not clear.
[S]tudies show multitasking on the Internet can make you forget how to read human emotions. ... "Human interaction is a learned skill, and they don't get to practice it enough."
The human brain is wired to crave the instant gratification, fast pace, and unpredictability of technology. ... "I never know what the next tweet is going to be. ... But I know what's waiting for me in my garden." [Who needs the Internet for this? All you need is a few children around the house.]
"We can't just sit quietly and wait for a bus, and that's too bad, because our brains need that down time to rest, to process things." [Not me, despite all my computer use. I'm more than happy to sit quietly and process things. But with music and, increasingly, video blaring everywhere (even on buses), it's not easy to do.]
Over time, and with enough Internet usage, the structure of our brains can actually physically change. ... Researchers in China did MRIs on the brains of 18 college students who spent about 10 hours a day online. Compared with a control group who spent less than two hours a day online, these students had less gray matter, the thinking part of the brain.
Not that any of this is the reason I'm announcing a blogging slowdown. The next three months will be extremely busy for me, so my "7 Quick Takes" may not happen every Friday for a while. I may have to adopt IrishOboe's "7 Quick Thanks." :) I'm not disappearing entirely—writing is actually one of my most important vehicles for the above-mentioned processing time. But for anything involving an online presence (blogging, Facebook, e-mail) I'll be more than usually unpredictable for a while.
It's time to rebuild some of that grey matter, as well as real-life relationships.
And here's a bonus. How fitting for a special day to fall on a special date. For veterans of all wars, all current and past members of our armed forces, and all whose calling is to stand between others and harm, including those among our friends and family who serve as fire, ambulance, and police First Responders, I offer my favorite verse of our national anthem.
Oh! thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
It's hard to keep all the thoughts straight in a 7-quick-takes, and I still have notes on what I wanted to say from your last quick-takes, so this time I'll just shoot from the top of my head. #1 reminds me of a joke about a conversation between a Dutchman and an American. I don't know if I have it all right, but they both come away thinking the other is very rude. The Dutchman complains that the American just asked rude personal questions he couldn't avoid the whole time and the American comes away saying that the Dutchman just talked about himself the whole time. The other thing that comes to mind is how often Europeans think that Americans are shallow or rude because they're very friendly at first, so that indicates a deep friendship to the European, but they're not very good with following through. Once the European is back in Europe, that's usually the end of the friendship. In Europe, however, friendships take more time to form but that last a long time, if not forever. People are committed to you once they know you - and I don't mean just through Facebook!
#6 - I see 5-year-olds on trams without guidance all the time. They do wear reflective gear, though. I don't see them that young on trains alone, but certainly I see plenty of 8-10 year-olds alone or in unattended groups.
#7 - "[S]tudies show multitasking on the Internet can make you forget how to read human emotions." That explains a lot . . .
#7 - Yes, it may explain a lot, especially for introverts like me—and so many who love to use computers are introverts. For example, my strength is in written communication, not oral. E-mail, instant messaging, and blog posting enable me to communicate much more easily and effectively. However, they also enable me to avoid oral communication (phone and in person) in favor of more comfortable media, which means I get still less practice in my weak areas, which means I become less and less comfortable exercising them.
I agree with the Europeans about friendship. That's an introvert thing too, I think—preferring deep friendships developed over time. I remember great frustration over some Christian camps I attended, in which we were encouraged (one might say manipulated) to form close attachments to our fellow campers. And it really felt as if we had. But although it did sometimes help us become closer to those we already knew and with whom we would have further in-person contact (those from our own school), once the camp was over, the supposed bond with those who had been strangers at the beginning of the week (or month) quickly wore off. Perhaps vehicles like Facebook help people keep in touch these days, but back then the effort it took to write a letter was more than most college students could manage.
Great post, and don't worry about "quick." I'm stealing your flow chart, which is as close to a "theory of everything" as I have ever seen. Thank you.
I can only speak for my experience in Switzerland:
I was able to navigate the Basel trams at age six, and all my friends and I walked to Kindergarten on our own (age five to six, wearing a reflective triangle). (The latter may be changing: I seem to see more parents accompanying children.)
Middle schoolers routinely take public transport to school, if it's too far to bike.
