Quote from Casey D. Geek
Quote from N0x_
lol, we have pretty crappy reputation for someone to automatically assume I'd agree with a comment like "as bad as Americans".
I'm curious though, "as bad as Americans" in what way? I have Indian friends/coworkers who complain about a lot of things in large Indian cities, but the complaints mostly center around the power grid, real estate, their wages, and traffic. Especially traffic. Especially Mumbai. I haven't hit 30 yrs, and I already feel like I'm going to get a heart attack from the traffic there. The cab drivers there are daredevils, and it's a wonder they don't run over a guy every month.
I'm curious though, "as bad as Americans" in what way? I have Indian friends/coworkers who complain about a lot of things in large Indian cities, but the complaints mostly center around the power grid, real estate, their wages, and traffic. Especially traffic. Especially Mumbai. I haven't hit 30 yrs, and I already feel like I'm going to get a heart attack from the traffic there. The cab drivers there are daredevils, and it's a wonder they don't run over a guy every month.
Right, sorry, my bad. I was refering to my experience of Americans, which is bascially limited to the TV and news. I probably shouldn't have said that. And I know that all of that isn't true.
I meant that they are pretty promiscous, just take out the physical part. They'd like to say that they are 'modern'. I'm probably not making this clear(I feel awkward discussing this), so I can only hope you get my meaning.
I was trying to say that most of experience with Americans should apply to Indians too, other than the cultural differences, which most Indians now ignore.
Sorry again.
No need for apologies about that around me. I don't know about others, but I'm not sensitive to common assumptions.
I understand what you mean. Urban Indian culture is similar enough to American culture. That's what they say for Urban East Asian culture though, and from what I've found, superficially, that may be the case, but once you start going in depth and look at the environments from a nuanced perspective there are still profound differences that won't be seen if we only focus on pop culture (like Hollywood and Bollywood).
It's a mix of socioeconomics and culture that produces some of fascinating and paradoxical effects whereby Americans can both overestimate and underestimate the "progressiveness" of East Asian cities. Some things that, IMO, play a significant role in gender power dynamics in Chinese cities that we don't really consider in America:
- One-child policy
- gender gap
- 4-2-1 rule
- Aging population
- historic culture
... etc.
On a superficial level, a particularly arrogant American can just visit Shanghai for a few weeks, become a self-proclaimed guru, and claim that Chinese cities are "just as bad as Americans", but without a nuanced perspective that comes from someone who has a deeper understanding and sympathy for the people there as well as some socioeconomic insight, it's hard for me to take him seriously.
I don't have that level of knowledge of India, its history, culture, socioeconomics, etc, as I do with other countries... yet. That's why, even if you say that the cities have become "progressive" like the US (I don't think of that as a good thing ), I'd still feel like I'm overstepping my bounds in my observations/comments to you.
For instance, I still don't completely understand the caste system, and its effects/implementations. I just that "progressives" tend to overstate the obvious and overestimate the damage it does. (No offense intended, but my views tend to be more conservative when viewing other countries, and I tend to give their cultures the benefit of the doubt. From my own understanding, the caste system had historically practical applications.) I don't know how much that system as well as the prevalence of arranged marriages plays against the comments I've made.
Last edited by N0x_ at 12:26 am, May 9 2011