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Um... Doesn't what he did qualify as "escalating the situation somehow"?

The one in the middle seems to have an unfortunate brown stain on his bottom.

Poor Muhammad.

Edited, Nov 29th 2007 5:38pm by Tare

That would be your cultural bias kicking in. I don't disagree with you, but we all have an idea of what is correct and proper, and contrary to what the UN would have you think, it's not universal. Nobby's obsequiousness aside, Brits are no scion of cultural sensitivity so I'm sure she thought it was silly, had a cup of tea and forgot all about it.

I don't think the story is even taken seriously by the country as a whole. The Sudanese I've read who've been interviewed say they're harping on this to distract from their ridiculous human rights violations, blocking peacekeepers, etc. God forbid other countries judge us on that asshat who ruins soldier's funerals, for example.

Sure, but you can play that card for damn near any critique of any region that isn't next door. I suppose there's a cultural bias in that I, due to my upbringing, have an expectation that governments shouldn't be threatening people with a lashing for naming a teddy bear the wrong thing. Honestly, that's not a bias that I'm particularly ashamed of.Of course not. Nor do I have to think that it's acceptable purely based on "It's another culture".It's all part of the culture there, dontchaknow?

Nah, it usually takes her a day or two to get around to reading it anyway

Never said you should. I even intimated I shared that bias, but I would suppose it largely had to do with being raised primarily in the West. I did, however, live in Saudi Arabia for a while as a child and we were cautioned by the government over and over again as to our cultural sensitivity and appropriateness. I don't think it's wrong she got punished. She should have known better, and, according to their laws, they were lenient.

You're missing my point. You don't have to think it's acceptable because you're not culturally wired to do so. You're actually not able to, I'd say. You have had a very American-Western upbringing. Nothing to be ashamed of. It's just how you are, but experience colors perception. that's not a value judgement. I thought it was stupid, but my reaction was more "Wow, she got off pretty easy. What's she going to do in the Sudan, sue for wrongful termination?"

Now you get it! They weren't upset about Bill Clinton, either.

I hope Felipe Fernandez-Armesto got his box of peppermints back

The concept of human rights is pretty much based around the idea that some things are ****** up and wrong regardless of whatever coats of cultural paint people want to slap over them.

No, they're pretty much ethnocentric ideals that are not only completely arbitrary, but beyond questioning to people growing up in a particular culture. You have to spend years convincing people cutting their girl children's ***** off isn't for their own good.

Some people in this country still don't see it as wrong to hit their kids.

Different strokes, I guess.

You kind of missed the point there.

As I was outside for the last half hour burning the last of my leaf piles, it occured to me that I already spent the day debating this with Anna and I just don't much care any more. At least not enough to spend my evening doing the same. So I'm going to pull the Smasharoo Spanking Withdrawl and say that I'm done with it.

I'll admit though that I shouldn't have posted a throw-away as my final remark. My bad and, next time the little lady drags you off to an AsylumFest, I'll let you buy me a drink to make up for it.

If early Christianity in America is any clue, I know that Christian extremists, given free reign without dissent, wouldn't be far off from these Islamic nut-jobs. I actually saw people defending this act in various message threads replying to news articles. I find that unbelievable. This is pandering to extremism and it has to stop somewhere. If not by invasion, at least by high levels of yelling and screaming with indignation. After all, fighting fire with fire is actually used when putting out fires. That poor teacher. She probably didn't even imagine the backlash.

This is also very true. Ethnic/traditional/societal values seem right to various ethnicities/traditionalists/societies irregardless if they can be rationally and logically defended in an intellectual manner, ESPECIALLY when religion and/or tradition are what informs those values.

Still, a freedom loving person tends to hate anything that seems to deny the idea that information exchange or putting a name on an inanimate object should lead to consequences in any way, shape, or form...that's my opinion on the matter. Probably informed by my societal upbringing, but I like to assume that it's logically defended without ever having to consult some religious doctrine or without ever quoting anything else.

Just understanding that 'understanding' is the most important human trait will automatically disallow the punishment of others in the name of personal offense. Understanding that tolerance is the key to being tolerated (unless you're powerful enough to enforce your intolerance through democratic voting or militaristic means /smirk), will also allow people to be offended but not react in a way that harms others. I know, these ideas are foreign to religious thinkers, but that isn't because they are illogical, just because they go against the control theme present in many cultural identities and religious ideologies.