Stories below the fold: multiculturalism matters

StrategyPage has an article on how political correctness ignores reality, making many in the US (especially in academia) unable to recognize how cultures differ and how religion matters. So they fail to see the real enemy. Quoting SunTzu.

the dirty little secret is that people in different cultures think differently, and when we docs deal with patients, we have to be sensitive to this.

Modern multiculturalism just pretends everyone is the same logical secular mindset, ignoring religion (including secular Confucian values) or painting religion as the enemy, as I see all the time in the two minute hate on facebook.

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 Related item: Even clerics can't stop "honor killings" in Pakistan.

the "liberation" of women due to modernity (and cellphones) clashes with the old fashioned values of the family oriented society.

like FGM, these customs predate Islam, and are found in the other religions of the area, and have to do with the control of the family's wealth: Defying marriage rules could lead to the disintegration of the rest of the family.

In a culture of poverty, the threat of starvation is more important than free love.

We saw this in the arranged marriage when I lived in (a traditional) Africa. On the other hand, some girls objected and ran away... most missions had a few of these girls working for them to keep them safe until things could be worked out. (the alternative was to run away to the city to become a prostitute).

"Fiddler on the Roof" is actually a good place to start to understand the clash of modernity with the customs that keep people safe.

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The liberals decry American troops all over the place, but as StrategyPage points out, they often are requested to be there as a "trip wire" to protect these countries from their neighbors, and the US is less likely to take over the place than these enemies.

yeah. The left/nationalists here insisted the US leave, and now they have China taking over our fishing grounds. Way to go fellahs.

Like Lolo's family, who like many here opposed the Spanish and then the Americans, realized that the Yanks were not the worst case scenerio, and joined the anti Japanese guerillas.

Alas, many of the elite families (like PNoy's grandfather) made nice with the Japanese, so the real stories of what went on is often ignored.

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speaking of elite families: They don't approve of Duterte.  But he might let China "help" the Philippines get the gas out of the Spratlys area, like Arroyo had planned to do (after she was bribed).

given China's economic threats that silence the latest ASEAN complaints, the area is up for grabs right now.

Rappler has more on Duterte's background. Meme vs reality.