tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18171692.post114262704558241348..comments2023-10-03T12:20:53.726-04:00Comments on ¡Cecilieaux!: The Real Secret of September 11Cecilio Moraleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283375962527765787noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18171692.post-1142846746648071772006-03-20T04:25:00.000-05:002006-03-20T04:25:00.000-05:00I am that "professional" who you refer to in your ...I am that "professional" who you refer to in your blog "who has lived in(sic)several continents". For whatever reason, you have chosen to mischaracterized our discussion. I would never make the statement that "development assistance makes life better abroad". The question of how globalization in it's many forms changes more traditional societies is of such complexity that it cannot be addressed in any blog. It certainly merits more than the time-worn knee-jerk response given here. <BR/>I do agree that the "evolution of the oppression" of women is best left in the hands of the societies in which it occurs. I do draw the line, however, when I remember the fate of my Guarani-speaking friend who bled to death when her uterus gave out after giving birth to her 24th child. This not uncommon occurance is an example of a different sort of "genocide" that still is the fate of women in societies who have no power to refuse their husbands lest they get AIDS or die exhausted in body and/or soul from being deprived the opportunity to control their reproductivity. The death of many women, like my friend, paradoxically, was largely due to the "arrogant control of Westrern paternalism" wielded by those poor "outraged" Brazilian Catholic bishops! Since you talk of your example in the present tense, you may or may not be pleased to know that things have changed: the poor bishops' outrage has been disregarded by the women of Latin America, birth control is finally available, and there is less real "genocide" for those who were already born.<BR/>So when where does this so-called cultural colonialism begin or end? Do we decry the arrival of the pasta press in Omani(Arabic)-occupied East African coast from China in the year 1000 AD? I wonder if their Mullahs lamented disappearance of there ethic foods as they pushed the Africans into the wastelands of the interior? Or what about the corrupting influence that a certain well-know Persian/Zorastean poem might have had on our own young men as they studied the classics in the 1800's? (Thanks be to Allah that that culture was also colonized by the Islamic Arabs.) What goes around, comes around - and there is nothng new under the sun.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18171692.post-1142802885100348222006-03-19T16:14:00.000-05:002006-03-19T16:14:00.000-05:00Western countries should not ignore ( and therefor...Western countries should not ignore ( and therefore despise) the beauty of the refined Arab culture.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com