This is an editorial rather than an article on a particular event, but the topic is quite timely, especially given the IB international week, but also the discourse on multi-culturalism and its supposed failure heard from the mouths of French, German and British leaders these days. Do you agree with this writer? Is multiculturalism an inevitable consequence of globalization? Are cultural values a chimera? And what is multiculturalism anyway? Do people tend to define it in ways that are convenient for them, kind of like other hot-button words like feminist, depending on whether they are for or against? The comments below the editorial are also enlightening.
The article shows many problems of multiculturalism, but I think it lacks the definition of it. It looks like it is mainly focused on the relationship between the “original” Britons and the Muslim minority. However, there were many different cultures living along in Britain for a very long time. For example, the Welsh, Scottish and Irish cultures are different. Even here in Slovakia there are large differences between people living in the western and the eastern part of the country. Therefore I think the statement that “all cultures are multicultures” is true, but only to an extent.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the true cultural values is hard, if not impossible, to define. The article shows the example with David Cameron and Gordon Brown. They could not define the British values without excluding some part of their voters. Every person is unique and embraces different values. I feel very much like a Slovak, but I hate our well known cuisine and exciting as it may be the performance of Sľuk keeps me calm. Though every one of us is different, we have many things in common. We play the same games in the kindergarten, watch the same cartoons, and later study the same topics in an elementary school. When we are adult we read the same newspapers and watch the same news. We also talk about the same economic or political problems and it doesn’t matter whether the person is immigrant or his last twenty generations of ancestors were born here. My mother comes from eastern Slovakia from a small (like really small) village near Prešov. She was born there and my grandpa lives there. I visit him many times a year and I have many friends there as I spend there a lot of time. Even though the differences between me and the boys that live there we have a lot in common and can get along easily. For example everyone knows Pokémon or Power Rangers, the main characters of our childhood. This is one of the reasons I can hardly imagine living with a foreigner in a different country. Maybe we will have the same interests and jobs, but otherwise we will have nothing in common. She won’t understand the things that shaped my life and personality and vice versa. I think this is the part the article forgets to mention. It states what the multiculturalism is not, but forgets to mention what it is like.
@ Rado
ReplyDeleteAs a son of Vietnamese emigrants it is a bit difficult for me to write something impartial. However, I was able to blend in and now I live in some kind of mixed world of Slovak culture and Vietnamese heritage. I may not know any Muslims personally, but I understand why some Britons feel a bit uneasy around Muslims. But can you blame them after 2005 London bombings? I think that some cultures are very close and are able to live in synergy, but I agree with Rado that I may not be able to live with somebody radically different.
If somebody’s beliefs are so strong that he is able to kill for them, then I would rather be his mortal enemy than his closest friend. But we must not forget that not all people are radicals and some, although having strong beliefs towards their religion or culture, might be very nice people to meet and to get to know. I think that meeting distinctive cultures, various set of beliefs and different people will broaden your horizons but they also may assure you in what you’ve already believed in. That is people are the source of a greatest agony.