Observations

Unemployed people from southern Italy do not travel a few hundred miles to the North where there is abundance of jobs. Same language, but different ways of thinking. McDonald’s sells ice cream, beer, and wine to a demanding Italian customer. Culture and its impact on a country.

The Financial Times showed a picture a few days ago. It revealed a group of ecstatically crying mature men in white robes. Their heads were full of blood. They were holding a long pointed knife, stained with blood, in their hands. The caption read: “ Shia worshippers … hold their knives after cutting themselves [on their forehead] to celebrate the martyrdom of prophet Hussein.”

Again, culture. Are these people able to understand, or care about, our sense of democracy? Are we communicating with them? Do we understand them? What happened to the role of diplomacy? One of my first reactions to 9/11 was to ask the same question. What happened to our diplomatic efforts?

The Arabs are deeply religious people, proud, free thinking, and individualistic, with a strong nomadic background. It is no coincidence, I believe, that all the countries in the region are ruled by dictators. We should recognize and accept their long history. Not change it!

Tito’s Yugoslavia collapsed and transformed itself into many small states, each with its own religious and ethnic identity. Lenin’s USSR collapsed and the outcome was the creation of several independent states.

North Iraq is peaceful because the Kurds are left alone. Apply the same concept to the rest of the country. Divide Iraq in small areas or regions with the same ethnic and religious background. Federalism in action. Democracy implies freedom of thinking within a precise cultural perimeter. We have freedom because we believe in the same ideals --

Anglo-Saxon ideals. But the Arabs do not. They have a different set of beliefs. They have a different concept of democracy. Certainly not an Anglo-Saxon type of democracy imposed by an external power. Their culture is different from ours.

Is it time to think differently, Mr. President? (This Observations appeared in the 5-24-2004 issue of The Peter Dag Portfolio).