America and The Middle-East: Response to "Odd Culture"

In the post “Odd Culture”, the blogger brings up some interesting points. They refer to how in Yemen the men carry around daggers and how in America, this would not be looked upon in a good way. I agree completely with this statement because I think that it shows how contrasted these two regions of the world are. Because culture is so different in America compared to the Middle-East, carrying a weapon or dressing a certain way might be looked down upon here, whereas in the Middle-East, it is a typical way of life. I think Americans are scared of the Arab nations because we fear change in our society, though we do not realize that they too fear change. They are being brought up with a certain religion and a certain culture that is indeed very different from ours, however, Americans are also brought up a certain way and we do not realize that maybe the Arab nations believe that our way of life is wrong. This is probably why it is so difficult for our two nations to get along. We look at the Arab nations and are afraid that they are breeding more terrorists getting ready to attack our nation, and they probably look at our nation and believe that we are trying to take away their culture and westernize their society by instituting a democracy and sending our armies into their countries to keep control. It is important to realize that our two cultures are different, but maybe if we learned more about the Arab culture, we would be able to understand why they live the way they do.

EJ