Comments on: Beware of culture! http://www.nonformality.org/2009/10/beware-culture/ Education & Learning Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:44:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Andreas Karsten http://www.nonformality.org/2009/10/beware-culture/#comment-19775 Andreas Karsten Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:15:45 +0000 http://www.nonformality.org/?p=1039#comment-19775 In September 2009, Berlin's former Finance Minister, Thilo Sarrazin, states in an interview with <a href="http://www.lettre.de/english.html" rel="nofollow">Lettre International</a>: <blockquote>"A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose numbers have grown thanks to the wrong policies, have no productive function except selling fruit and vegetables,"</blockquote> as <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,652582,00.html" rel="nofollow">Spiegel Online International</a> translated parts of his interview. It is exactly the phenomenon Lene describes so well - culture is used as the main reference, culture is blamed, culture is used as a shield, culture is used as an excuse for not having to engage with the underlying dilemmas. How convenient! After all, who is interested in policies to keep cultural groups together, leading to de facto ghettoisations? Who is interested in outright refusal to respond to the shifting language constellations in education? Who is interested in decades-long neglect of human rights as a school topic? Who is interested in ...? In September 2009, Berlin’s former Finance Minister, Thilo Sarrazin, states in an interview with Lettre International:

“A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, whose numbers have grown thanks to the wrong policies, have no productive function except selling fruit and vegetables,”

as Spiegel Online International translated parts of his interview.

It is exactly the phenomenon Lene describes so well – culture is used as the main reference, culture is blamed, culture is used as a shield, culture is used as an excuse for not having to engage with the underlying dilemmas.

How convenient! After all, who is interested in policies to keep cultural groups together, leading to de facto ghettoisations? Who is interested in outright refusal to respond to the shifting language constellations in education? Who is interested in decades-long neglect of human rights as a school topic? Who is interested in …?

]]> By: Bastian http://www.nonformality.org/2009/10/beware-culture/#comment-19770 Bastian Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:52:52 +0000 http://www.nonformality.org/?p=1039#comment-19770 I really like this article, because it exemplifies my problem with 'tolerance'. I believe in equality in human dignity and, resulting from that, in human rights. Cultures are not static (if they were I'd need to be an order obeying Nazi, which seems to have been german 'culture' for some time in the past) but dynamic. And if I'm able to differentiate a crime from a cultural expression - as with your example of violence against women - then I'm positive that anybody else can do that to. Intercultural interaction has to allow for the phrase 'I think what you do and how you do it is bad and here're my arguments for that!', for people to actually be able to talk with each other and eventually possibly understanding each other. Thank you once again for this article, as there is a real chance that intercultural awareness and tolerance become the political correct form of not giving a shit and a drifting into relativism as a racism in disguise. I really like this article, because it exemplifies my problem with ‘tolerance’.
I believe in equality in human dignity and, resulting from that, in human rights. Cultures are not static (if they were I’d need to be an order obeying Nazi, which seems to have been german ‘culture’ for some time in the past) but dynamic. And if I’m able to differentiate a crime from a cultural expression – as with your example of violence against women – then I’m positive that anybody else can do that to. Intercultural interaction has to allow for the phrase ‘I think what you do and how you do it is bad and here’re my arguments for that!’, for people to actually be able to talk with each other and eventually possibly understanding each other.

Thank you once again for this article, as there is a real chance that intercultural awareness and tolerance become the political correct form of not giving a shit and a drifting into relativism as a racism in disguise.

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