I, Camelbot
Dear Westerner:
If at some future time you imagine yourself relating to an issue or experiencing a comfortable understanding of the mind or culture of the Middle East, please read this article or this one and reconsider your position.
posted by Randy @ 4/22/2005 02:37:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
That is well and truly bizarre. And wonderful. I expect they might feel as increduously about NASCAR, however, as we feel about a) camel racing and b) using robots to replace 4-year-old camel jockeys.
Well, no, not as increduously. I don't think they could be more perplexed than I am about their "sport".
Wow, what a great illustration of how little we understand about the culture of the Middle East. For me, this also highlights how off base we are to think that we can bring our brand of freedom and democracy to a people so different from ourselves, or to think that our help is wanted or needed there.
Harris, I understand where you're headed with that comment (which I generally agree with) but I think it's a stretch, honestly, to take one strange (to Westerners) Middle Eastern sport and extrapolate that into a reason why the two cultures will never understand (or can't understand) one another. I think the Middle East resents American paternalism, American interventionism, American imperialism. And our roots in and support of Christianity, honestly.
I think it's also an inevitable clash of, and collision between, world ecomomic powers. One that is dirt-poor save their monopoly on oil, the other fabulously rich save for its uncomfortable dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
The plot thickens.
I suppose you're right. I hadn't intended to use the camel racing item as a reason why we will never or can never understand the culture of the Middle East. I more meant to point out how little we know about this culture, and, therefore, how wrong we are to think the people of the Middle East want the same things we do.
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