10-13-2014, 08:40 PM
"Beat me to hell on anything you feel like but explain culture to me"
Culture is typically defined in what you find in the food, music, art and literature of a country. Jamaica is a great one for the music for example. France for the wine, etc. These are the prettier aspects of culture.
Influences in culture is made up of a region's people - in Jamaica that's a great mix but it is mostly African traditions. You hear it in the music and you taste it in the food. In places like Jamaica where everyone's families and ancestry was "imported" all those places where they were imported from will take a role in the overall culture of Jamaica and her people.
We have this in the US as well, since most of us are imports, and our ancestry found themselves in different parts of the country giving each part - west, south, north, east - different cultural variations. Here in California we enjoy the wine and the herb and this bleeds into what we are culturally. In New York City there's a serious cosmopolitan thing going on, very international - and unifying all these cultures has brought the great food, the AWESOME theater and the rapid pace of the streets that you can just about breathe in after a few minutes in Times Square.
Culture is also defined, I think, based on a region's people's struggles and how they deal with them. Part of that is through the music, art and literature for sure. But based on those struggles comes the underbelly of a country or region's culture.
For us here in the states our shame is Racism. Its "muted" somewhat but rears its ugly head every now and again (Ferguson). We just can't rid ourselves of it, it has permeated our culture for 400 years. Americans are looked upon as "gun nuts" by foreigners - we, as a culture produce an inordinate amount of mass murderers in the form of school and mall shootings. No matter what legislation is passed, no matter how much we as a country try to control these ugly aspects of our culture, they just keep coming up. Doesn't mean we condone it - doesn't even mean a majority of our population is guilty of it. It just...frustratingly - IS.
A lot of Jamaica's traditions and culture come from Africa. That's where you get the Homophobia and the mysoginism. The country as a whole defies these cultural elements, as we in the US defy Racism. Part of Jamaica is its government, and we know its government is sometimes slow to act with legislation or prosecution of child abusers for example. Doesn't mean anyone condones anything - just means that most are powerless to do anything about it. We as Americans are powerless when a white cop shoots a black kid in the back - there's an outcry, sure. But you know it will happen again.
Poverty is a motivator of culture, as is excess. When you have a divide between the wealthy and the poor the size of Grand Canyon you are going to have trouble. I'm not just speaking of Jamaica - I'm speaking of anywhere.
Sanitation is not a cultural thing. Poor sanitation is a result of a country with poor infrastructure. I've always said, know where you go - a developing country is not going to have state of the art sewage treatment, sorry. And a country that is marked as "developing" by the powers that be at the World Bank really doesn't have much of a chance of pulling itself out of that quagmire. That's why there's a Peace Corp - my brother in law was in the Peace Corp in Thailand in 1965 and what did he do? Taught the Thais in the village how to properly take care of their own sanitation, keep their water clean and he built latrines. Peace Corp volunteers all over the world are still doing the same projects 50 years later. You won't find the Peace Corp in Pakistan anytime soon, however. They do not send their volunteers into even slightly dicey areas.
Every country has its good, bad and shameful. My Jamaican friends feel great shame for the actions of a few of their bredren that affects the reputation of them all. Hey, I feel shame every time there's a school shooting or an overt racist act (even covert) here in the US. But I know I'm here to represent the "good" of Americans and my friends in Negril the "good" of Jamaica. There is still lots of good in both places.
Culture is typically defined in what you find in the food, music, art and literature of a country. Jamaica is a great one for the music for example. France for the wine, etc. These are the prettier aspects of culture.
Influences in culture is made up of a region's people - in Jamaica that's a great mix but it is mostly African traditions. You hear it in the music and you taste it in the food. In places like Jamaica where everyone's families and ancestry was "imported" all those places where they were imported from will take a role in the overall culture of Jamaica and her people.
We have this in the US as well, since most of us are imports, and our ancestry found themselves in different parts of the country giving each part - west, south, north, east - different cultural variations. Here in California we enjoy the wine and the herb and this bleeds into what we are culturally. In New York City there's a serious cosmopolitan thing going on, very international - and unifying all these cultures has brought the great food, the AWESOME theater and the rapid pace of the streets that you can just about breathe in after a few minutes in Times Square.
Culture is also defined, I think, based on a region's people's struggles and how they deal with them. Part of that is through the music, art and literature for sure. But based on those struggles comes the underbelly of a country or region's culture.
For us here in the states our shame is Racism. Its "muted" somewhat but rears its ugly head every now and again (Ferguson). We just can't rid ourselves of it, it has permeated our culture for 400 years. Americans are looked upon as "gun nuts" by foreigners - we, as a culture produce an inordinate amount of mass murderers in the form of school and mall shootings. No matter what legislation is passed, no matter how much we as a country try to control these ugly aspects of our culture, they just keep coming up. Doesn't mean we condone it - doesn't even mean a majority of our population is guilty of it. It just...frustratingly - IS.
A lot of Jamaica's traditions and culture come from Africa. That's where you get the Homophobia and the mysoginism. The country as a whole defies these cultural elements, as we in the US defy Racism. Part of Jamaica is its government, and we know its government is sometimes slow to act with legislation or prosecution of child abusers for example. Doesn't mean anyone condones anything - just means that most are powerless to do anything about it. We as Americans are powerless when a white cop shoots a black kid in the back - there's an outcry, sure. But you know it will happen again.
Poverty is a motivator of culture, as is excess. When you have a divide between the wealthy and the poor the size of Grand Canyon you are going to have trouble. I'm not just speaking of Jamaica - I'm speaking of anywhere.
Sanitation is not a cultural thing. Poor sanitation is a result of a country with poor infrastructure. I've always said, know where you go - a developing country is not going to have state of the art sewage treatment, sorry. And a country that is marked as "developing" by the powers that be at the World Bank really doesn't have much of a chance of pulling itself out of that quagmire. That's why there's a Peace Corp - my brother in law was in the Peace Corp in Thailand in 1965 and what did he do? Taught the Thais in the village how to properly take care of their own sanitation, keep their water clean and he built latrines. Peace Corp volunteers all over the world are still doing the same projects 50 years later. You won't find the Peace Corp in Pakistan anytime soon, however. They do not send their volunteers into even slightly dicey areas.
Every country has its good, bad and shameful. My Jamaican friends feel great shame for the actions of a few of their bredren that affects the reputation of them all. Hey, I feel shame every time there's a school shooting or an overt racist act (even covert) here in the US. But I know I'm here to represent the "good" of Americans and my friends in Negril the "good" of Jamaica. There is still lots of good in both places.
"Once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right..."
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