Ground&Pound

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070715/...OQ.pi5yWIPLBIF

When I read this article I couldn't help but think of discussions on this board about Western influence on fundamental Islam.

At what point do you let a culture be.

When is it right to say "your way of life isn't as good as our way"?

Letting the pygmies sleep outside in the cold when warm beds were available seemed inhuman and caused public outcry.

However, when there is an outcry to stop the oppression of women for example, it is argued that it is a cultural thing and should be left alone.

I guess what I asking is ...when should one culture intervene and perceivably "help" another culture in the name of humanity.

Or in other terms ... should the pygmies have been left outside?

Spider

Why didn't they just ask the pygmies where they would be most comfortable?

"However, when there is an outcry to stop the oppression of women for example, it is argued that it is a cultural thing and should be left alone.

I guess what I asking is ...when should one culture intervene and perceivably "help" another culture in the name of humanity."

That's a different question and an interesting one. Perhaps Islamic terrorists believe that they are helping us westerners by trying to force us to accept the one true religion that will save our souls (kinda like the Pope is, but more violently).

__________________
"Love never dies." The Beatles

_SL_

I don't think appealing to cultural relativism is always very moving. In a case where something (treating people like animals) appears to be such a universal wrongdoing I would find a move like that to be pretty absurd.

Big

Women are not oppressed in the Middle East. They are just serving different functions. You can look at it from the point that women should enjoy a life free from public labor and dedicated to building a family. Women are oppressed in America by having to work jobs and raise a family at the same time. Human history is full of women being only family builders. In that beacon of Democracy, Greece, for example, women were not allowed to participate in Olympics.

Spider

Is part of their function being legally murdered by their family if they engage in sex out of wedlock?

__________________
"Love never dies." The Beatles

Big

Here you go. Most women do not even want careers but prefer to stay home and work some part-time jobs:


A sharply increasing portion of America's working mothers say their ideal situation would include a part-time job, rather than working full time or staying at home, a new national survey finds.

The Pew Research Center survey, being released Thursday, found that only 21 percent of working mothers with children under 18 viewed full-time work as the best arrangement, down from 32 percent in 1997.

Sixty percent of the working mothers said a part-time job would be best, up from 48 percent 10 years ago. And 19 percent said not working at all would be ideal - roughly the same as in 1997.

http://timesdaily.com/article/20070712/APF/707120513

Flop The Nuts

"Women are oppressed in America by having to work jobs and raise a family at the same time."

That's crap - you're on a quite a roll today, Big.

Women don't have to raise a family, nor do they have to get married. Choices are made, of their own free will.

Flop The Nuts

Did you find a study on working fathers? They exist too. Maybe they'd like to sit at home as well.

Big

How is that oppression Spider? Its religious law, not oppression. Cheating on your spouse is a legitimate evil.

Big

No Flop! Fathers, like Islamic law suggests, prefer to work and provide for the family:

Fathers with children under 18 had a different outlook - 72 percent said the ideal situation for them is a full-time job, 12 percent said they would prefer part-time work and 16 percent said not working at all outside the home would be best.