Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Who Defines Culture?

READ THIS ARTICLE FIRST

Now I ask you this. Who defines culture?
Can a government define culture? Is culture something static like the freezing point of water?
Can culture even be defined?

TWO MEN kissing in a park and a topless woman bather are featured in a film that will be shown to would-be immigrants to the Netherlands.

The reactions of applicants — including Muslims — will be examined to see whether they are able to accept the country'’s liberal attitudes.



From this Wednesday, the DVD which also shows the often crime-ridden ghettos where poorer immigrants might end up living will form part of an entrance test, in Dutch, covering the language and culture of Holland.


What right does a government have to expect its citizens (or future citizen) to accept liberal values? Isn't it a bit conservative to expect other people to accept generalizedlised values that you define as culture?
I have been in UK for the past 3 and half years. To date I haven't seen two men kissing or a topless gal walking down the road (so sad!). Maybe this is the norm in Netherlands where gals roam around topless (sigh!) but to be honest if I don't want to see topless gals I won't go to a place where they are to be found! So why put such a thing in the test? And why should anyone accept the countries liberal attitudes? Do all Dutch people accept this? Are those people thrown out of the country or stripped of their citizenship? Then why not allow dissenting attitudes? Isn't that what being liberal is about?

I ask why don't they also show people who don't smoke? Show people who don't drink? After all smoking kills so many people and drinking leads to violence. So why not discourage such activities among the immigrants while making sure that they are 'liberal'?

About the language bit I agree since it is important to be able to communicate with people there.
While everyone might not share the same culture they do share the same language.

It is indeed a shame to see one the most liberal countries of the world make a mockery of the concept of liberalism.

Another quote:
However, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, a socialist from the parliament'’s immigration committee, said the film had been created to help prepare people for “open-minded” attitudes on issues such as homosexuality. “We have lots of homo-discrimination, especially by Muslim youngsters who harass gay men and women on the streets. It is an issue here.

Gay and Lesbians are hassled all over the world by all kinds of people. Hell even popular mainstream TV programs (like Little Britain) make fun of them by calling lesbians 'ming-munchers'.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

But see the people immigrating to country X shud adapt to the culture there. Not the people already there.

Well but some people have failed to adapt to cultures they immigrate to. Hence, the country in question had to take these unecessary actions.

Azahar Machwe said...

I disagree. A government has no right to define what culture is. You might belong to the same country but culture might mean something totally different to you w.r.t. your peers.

And who says the immigrants who are conservative wont adapt to the conservative side of culture? Maybe conservative immigrants will make best friends with the conservative citizens?
Remember it takes all sorts...