Hungarian values

These days, states like to define their “values” — either, as in Europe or Australia, to limit immigration, or, as in Asia, to evade criticism of human rights violations. The “values” expressed in European or Australian citizenship tests are largely very similar: freedom of expression, respect for democratic institutions, equality of the sexes and of sexual minorities, non-coercive childrearing, reasoning instead of violence, and so on. Not bad, though who would have thought that the Christian Democratic Party in the conservative German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg would initiate citizenship tests that include questions like “In this country, it is accepted that people who are openly homosexual hold public office. Do you agree with this?”  The correct answer is “yes.” Considering Baden-Wuerttemberg’s sociodemographics, it is likely that a large proportion of current citizens would, however, answer “no,” and the question is simply an imagined way of ferreting out supposedly homophobic Muslims. That is perhaps part of the reason why conservative parties embraced these values, rather than, say, faith in God or the importance of family — an alternative set of “European values” espoused by the Vatican and its Eastern European allies, who are not worried about deeply religious immigrants. (Not just because there are few of those, but also because Eastern European politicians are less concerned about the niceties of keeping them out.)

In our recent book Maxikulti, Joana Breidenbach and talk about two Brussels politicians adamant about defending European values. Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister and author of a number of liberal “citizens’ manifestos” that defend openness, tolerance and individualism in the face of the xenophobic moral panic that has followed the rise of home-grown Islamist terrorism. For Maciej Giertych, a member of the European Parliament representing the League of Polish Families (whose presidential candidate he also was), European values are morality, faith in God and respect for parental authority.

Another Eastern European politician who publicly shares these values is Zoltan Balog, chairman of the Human Rights Committee (!) of the Hungarian Parliament and “spiritual adviser” to the opposition leader, Viktor Orban, who is expected to win the 2010 election. In a recent interview, he explained that “it is not right to accept uncritically everything that people want to sell us under the pretext of human rights.” For example, it is not right that “the mayor of Berlin can only win with a large majority by getting out in front of people and declaring that he is homosexual,” or that soccer players are not allowed to pray on the field because that is an imposition of their religion on others. Balog went on to explain that although the state must be distinguished from religion, it “cannot be separated… from it” because “although they are not the same, they belong together.”

It is obvious that Giertych’s or Balog’s “European values” are close to the “American values” of the U.S. religious right or to the “Asian values” of Mahathir Mohamad, Lee Kuan Yew or the Chinese Communist Party than to the “European values” of the citizenship tests.  I wonder why this does not receive more public scrutiny — especially considering that Balog’s job is supposedly to ensure that those consensual European values of tolerance and respect for individual rights prevail in Hungary. In this capacity, he is presumably in constant touch with his Brussels counterparts. Yet these fundamental disagreements on the nature and limits of rights and tolerance within the EU’s mainstream institutions remain quite hidden.

Child sexual abuse, the law, and ‘culture’

News Limited sources recently ran a story about a new case involving Judge Sarah Bradley, a Queensland judge who became the centre of a furore after not imposing gaol terms on nine indigenous youths who gang raped a 10-year-old girl in their community in Cape York. In this new case, she has allowed a teacher accused of sexually abusing a child time to gather evidence that he was enacting local cultural norms. The story is interesting in a number of ways, not the least in terms of how ‘culture’ can be deployed in legal settings, and where judges may appear to be more ‘culturally sensitive’ and culturally relativist than members of the communities in question.

In this case, an anthropologist from James Cook University has apparently been called in to write a report on the authenticity of the claim about the cultural legitimacy of the act. It would be interesting to know what s/he has to say. I would particularly like to know what the response to the question of whether the practice of oral sex between men and boys is a ‘part of’ the culture in question. From my reading of the article, there are a number of problematic issues arising from the way the issue is being constructed, particularly about the sorts of assumptions being made about the nature of culture.

For example, in a fascinating detail, although the accused was not raised in a ‘traditional’ manner, his lawyer argues that he was ‘imbued’ with the culture, presumably simply by living and working in the area. Culture as contagion, I suppose. It also seems to ignore the holistic premises of an anthropological understanding of culture, which require that we consider an act not in isolation, but within the context of wider institutions, beliefs and practices. To simply ask whether the performance of oral sex between men and boys in a particular community is a ‘part of the culture’ decontextualises the act. It assumes that if an act can be found ‘in a culture’ then the act is therefore ‘cultural’, regardless of the context in which it occurs. This would appear to be a particularly erroneous position to take with regard to ‘mens’ business’ rite of passage type acts. If they are occurring in secret, isolated from the political institution they participate in — the production of initiated men — then it would be very problematic to my mind to ascribe them with cultural authenticity. Making use of the fundamental anthropological notion that culture is both shared and practised, I would also be putting more emphasis on the opinions of members of the community about the legitimacy of the act, than on an anthropologist’s opinion about an abstracted and therefore reified culture. Sorry, anthropologists!

Ironic, really, that an anthropological insight serves to delegitimise anthropological knowledge. However, this legal prediliction to treat anthropologists as experts on a particular ‘culture’, understood to be a sort of archive — a relatively stable, bounded and possessing a traditional and authentic form that can be catalogued — actually puts anthropologists at odds with their own understandings about culture and how it works. If anthropologists are to be experts on cases such as these, I think it should be as much to consider and critique the manner in which culture is being deployed in the courts as to act as curators of a cultural archive.

The full text of the article follows.

Gang-rape judge in child sex furore

By Padraic Murphy, Natasha Robinson and Tony Koch

February 15, 2008

Article from: The Australian

THE north Queensland judge who last year allowed nine child rapists to go free has given a teacher, who has admitted forcing an indigenous 11-year-old boy to perform oral sex on him, time to gather evidence that he was educating his victim in “men’s business”.

James Last, a Sydney-educated teacher who recently worked in Northern Territory communities, last week pleaded guilty in Cairns before District Court judge Sarah Bradley to seven counts of indecently dealing with an 11-year-old boy over a four-month period in 1983.

But Judge Bradley has granted a three-month adjournment to allow Last, who claims he received no sexual gratification from the assaults, to allow his lawyers to find an anthropologist to support his claim that he had been trying to introduce the Torres Strait boy to “traditional” islander sexual practices.

Judge Bradley granted the adjournment despite the prosecution pointing out that it had two witnesses - “respected elders” from the boy’s home island - ready to debunk the claim that such practices were part of “men’s business”.

The adjournment has outraged indigenous leaders, who have already called for Judge Bradley’s sacking after she failed last year to jail nine males for the gang rape of a 10-year-old girl in the Cape York community of Aurukun.

Last, now 61 and living in Darwin, took the 11-year-old boy from his family on Saibai Island in the Torres Strait in 1983, promising to educate him in Cairns.

But Last, who was 37 at the time of the offences, repeatedly sexually abused the boy, at one point saying: “I’ve sucked you, now it’s your turn.”

Last said yesterday he had taken the “self-sacrificial” step of pleading guilty to the charges to spare the boy, who he loved, a trial. He said Aboriginal elders in the Torres Strait had “entrusted” the boy to him, and he was tutored by the elders in “men’s business”.

“I’m saying that certain things are not abuse and they never were in the traditional culture,” he said. “A lot of it is men’s business and that’s why, I think very wisely, Aboriginal islander people have said men’s business is men’s business. They say, ‘You don’t tell the white fella what he can’t understand’.”

Prosecutor Skye Growden told the court Last had told the victim the abuse was a part of traditional culture. “The defendant told the victim that this was traditional and that older men did this to young men when they loved them and he believed him,” she said. “The complainant says in his statement that the arresting officer in this matter was the first person that he told because he was ashamed about the offences and worried what people would say if they found out.”

Ms Growden told the court that although Last had a part-Aboriginal father, he was not raised in a traditional manner and that he should receive a custodial sentence to send a clear message to the community.

“It is stated in the defence material that he was born in Sydney where he was educated to grade 12. He then went on to receive a scholarship and teach in Wollongong and undertake postgraduate studies,” she said.

“He has gone on to have an illustrious and distinguished career. He is an educated man, using what he claims to be part of Papua New Guinea and Torres Strait Islander culture, that is, men’s business, to explain away his offending behaviour. I have been instructed that this is not part of the culture.”

But Judge Bradley rejected calls for an immediate custodial sentence, allowing Last’s lawyers to gather evidence that he had been abusing the boy as some kind of rite of passage.

“What we’ve got here is a plea in mitigation on the basis that the defendant genuinely believed that what he was doing was culturally appropriate and that he had that excuse for it,” Judge Bradley said on February 6. “I appreciate he’s pleaded guilty but the prosecution is not accepting that, so we’ll need some evidence. Clearly, it’s got a significant impact on penalty.”

The following day, Judge Bradley adjourned the case until May 15 to allow lawyers to ask an anthropologist from James Cook University, which is based in Townsville, to write a report on whether child sexual abuse was an accepted part of Saibai islander culture. “It’s clearly a live issue, and it’s clearly an issue that’s relevant to penalty, so I need to give the defence that opportunity,” she said.

Judge Bradley’s decision to consider the anthropology report was made after Ms Growden said it was “the Crown’s submission that an adjournment is not necessary unless you’re rejecting the submissions that I made yesterday, which were based on decisions of the High Court and the Court of Appeal. I do have two people - two elders from Saibai Island - that are on standby this morning, but can give evidence that it’s not part of men’s business at Saibai Island.”

In earlier submissions, Last’s counsel Kevin McCreanor said his client had become “imbued” with indigenous culture.

He said Last told police when interviewed about the allegations that an elder on Saibai Island had told him cultural secrets.

Mr McCreanor said the interviewing police officer told Last that in his investigations in the Torres Strait he, too, had heard that boys’ first sexual experiences were “with an older male of their tribe to teach them about his body and things like that”.

But Ms Growden, a former associate to Judge Bradley, later said that statement was “a tactic” of the interviewing police.

Mr McCreanor said Last told police: “Those things were told to me as well, but I was encouraged because of the incapacity of most people to understand, and the derision that flowed back on to so-called primitive people, not to talk about these things.”

Judge Bradley said it was up to Last to supply evidence to support his contention that his actions were “culturally appropriate”.

Late last year, Judge Bradley had refused to impose jail terms on nine youths and men who gang-raped a 10-year-old intellectually impaired girl on Aurukun community, on western Cape York.

The Court of Appeal in Brisbane on Wednesday ruled that the Crown would be given an extended time to appeal against those sentences.

Many thanks to Kirsten Bell, former lecturer at Macquarie, for alerting me to this article.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23215930-2,00.html

The Bischop and the Sharia

Over the last few days, European papers have discussed the controversial comments by Rowan Williams, Archbischop of Canterbury, who stated in a speech, the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law in the UK “seems unavoidable”. The many outraged commentators, among them Islamophobe Mark Steyn, greatly exxagerated and misinterpreted Williams, who dealt with the topic in a highly differentiated way (here is the text).

I came across one reasonable blogpost by German journalist Heinrich Bergstresser, who pointed out that legal pluralism - far from being a dangerous new trend - is the norm in most countries. “In India, Jordania or Nigeria, to name just a few states, secular state law coexists with islamic law and customary law, without threatening the legal security in any way.” 

It is worth pointing out that in addition to countries with a colonial past, legal pluralism is also already practiced in many European countries, thus in Germany there are special slaughtering laws for Jews and Muslims. In disputes concerning inheritance and divorce among Muslims, German courts often take the legal principals of their country of origin into consideration. In Britain, orthodox Jews can have cases adjudicated in front of their own courts (Beth Din) and there already are sharia councils (yet their judgements are not legally binding and their authority is greatly disputed among different sectors of  British-Muslim society).

Far from being scandelous, the archbishops speech thus seems to me a welcome realization that we have to deal with the (legal) pluralisation of European countries in an open and differentiated way.

UnAustralian Vegetarian?

I have started going to Yoga classes at my local Yoga center. In a recent class I was standing in the tree pose and staring fixedly ahead for balance. It so happened that the object of my gaze was one word on a nutrition chart; “MEAT”. The word stood out because it had been written above (and almost on top) of the word “TOFU” in black permanent marker. The nutrition chart was entirely vegetarian but for the minor addition.

The nutrition chart was not large enough for anybody but the person standing in front of it to see, so people would have to actually walk up and read the chart with some purpose if they did not happen to be standing in front of it during the class due to the room being slightly over crowded.

Somebody clearly felt that this piece of information should be communicated, “MEAT” was needed. Was this person concerned that people attending this yoga center might be confused with a nutrition chart that did not position “MEAT” under the protein section? Or perhaps that the chart was UnAustralian? The Australia day advertisements tell us that if we don’t BBQ lamb chops on Australia day we are UnAustralian… maybe this is something that should be added to the citizenship test? Who was Don Bradman? Which country “discovered” Australia? Do you eat lamb chops on Australia day?

New blog: Neuroanthropology

I’ve been a little less active on Culture Matters of late. Not only did I have a really rough end of the semester (nothing like two new units from scratch to set you back), but I’ve also been working on getting a new blog project up and running, so I thought I’d let all Culture Matters readers in on it.

Since around 2002, I’ve become extremely interested in the neurosciences and the implications of new research in the brain sciences for socio-cultural theory in anthropology. This isn’t the space to go into it all, but new findings on neural and phenotypic plasticity allows us to think much more seriously about how culture might shape development, allowing us to think seriously about a kind of deep enculturation of the brain, senses, endocrine system, and the like. Researchers in fields that specialize in these topics are increasingly aware of the degree to which developmental variables affect developmental outcomes, creating opportunities for anthropological research to influence a host of other fields.

This might allow us to think more seriously about the organic dimensions of embodiment, as Tim Ingold has recommended. The relevance for applied anthropology are many: from medical anthropology to the study of trauma, from a reinvigoration of anthropological studies of childhood to the potential to engage in the public sphere with biological scientists who advocate reductionist approaches, a robust neuroanthropology might really enrich what we do.

So we’ve started a blog, Neuroanthropology, and you’re welcome to surf on over, check it out, and even join up as a contributor if this is your sort of thing (just contact me either through the blog or at greg.downey@scmp.mq.edu.au). I may cross-post a few things, but you should especially look for Daniel Lende’s discussions of stress, addiction, and medical anthropology’s links to neurosciences. It’s our Holiday present to the blogosphere.

Islamic Rage Boy

 A few days ago, the British tabloid, the Daily Mail, brought an interesting story (it came to me via 3 quarks daily) . It contrasted the media and pop culture portrayal of Shakeel Ahmad Bhat known globally as Islamic Rage Boy (featured as a most frightening example of radical Islam in countless newspapers, on Jihad Watch websites, boxer shorts and bumper stickers – look at the picture, you have seen him before, he scores more than a million results on google) with the real man as encountered by an author/journalist in Srinagar, Kashmir. The man - not very surprising to people critical of the current Islamophobia – turns out to be quite different from what he has come to stand for. Yet I found the story powerful, as anthropologists tend to deconstruct clichés with the description of specific social scenes and are not often able to demonstrate the processes of demonisation with regards to a particular individual.

Cultural Diversity versus Cultural Difference; Examples from Australia

In one of my previous posts, I talked about the Norwegian anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s essay on cultural diversity versus cultural difference called Diversity versus difference: Neo-liberalism in the minority debate (http://folk.uio.no/geirthe/21st.html)

Eriksen describes cultural diversity as aesthetic aspects of a specific culture like arts, cuisine, folklore which are neutral and don’t require any moral judgement about that culture. Cultural diversity also means business and entertainment. Think of many ethnic food restaurants in Sydney like Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Turkish, Lebanese, Indian, Polish, Spanish etc. Think of many different dance courses offered in Sydney like Salsa, Tango, Belly dancing, Bollywood dancing. Cultural diversity has also influenced the language . For example people say ‘let’s eat Chinese (food) tonight’.

Example: Macquaire University Open Day Brochure, the section on Anthropology(according to the ad below, anthropology brings to mind culture, and culture brings to mind cultural diversity):Anthropology: Don’t miss the opportunity to dance up a storm at the Indian Dance Workshop led by renowned Indian classical dancer Kavitha Muthukrishnan. A brief introduction to Indian Classical Dance (Bharatha Natyam) will be given and an invocatory dance item will be performed in praise of the Hindu Lord Ganesha. There will be demonstrations of expression (abinaya) and rhythm (tala), so come along and join in the fun! 11am, 12pm, and 1pm in the tent outside the Library.

Example : An extract from Ghassan Hage, White Nation:Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society,1998:97; in Borderwork in Multicultural Australia by Bob Hodge & John O’Carroll, 2006:53:

Simonne: I really feel at home here…I like the multicultural feel.

Interviewer: Hmmm.

Simonne: You know, I originally came from around Manly. I mean, I love it there…I liked living there because of the ocean. But, ah, it’s too conservative…You miss out on what makes Australia such a nice place.

Interviewer: Is…?

Simonne: You see a mixture of people here, you see the, the, the Indian culture or, down the south end of Newtown, it’s the Fijian Indians and then you, you see the Asian people and ah, and ah, I like going to the deli and…ah visit George’s.

Example : An advertisement from 9 to 5 magazine (a free Sydney city magazine) (11.09.07): International array of the most gorgeous youthful women for your total sexual pleasure. Swedish beauty, Spanish model, Russian princess, Italian delight, Aussie sex kitten, China dolls, exotic Eurasians, French lingerie…..

Cultural diversity is something to be celebrated; and cultural diversity transforms the city turning it into a “cosmopolitan” place of endless celebrations, and this attracts many tourists. Cultural diversity is good for tourism, and probably it’s one of the factors which makes Sydney a popular tourist destination.

Example : From 9 to 5 (11.09.07) Magazine: Ritmo Brazilian Festival. Sunday, September 23, 11.30am-6.30pm, Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour :The nation that gave us Carnivale, Brazilian waxes and Giselle Bundchen will bring Darling Harbour to life with the seventh annual Brazilian festival- a day filled with music, dancing and exotic cuisine. Visit www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au

Moon Festival, Saturday, September 22 Sunday, September 23, 5.45pm-7.30pm. Chinese Gardens, Darling Harbour For more than a thousand years the Chinese have celebrated the full moon during its brightest period with a festival. Join the celebrations and enjoy moon cakes, lanterns, dragon dancing, and more.www.chinesegarden.com.au

Examples of other celebrations of cultural diversity from www.darlingharbour.com:

Armenian Cultural Festival 2007, 16 September 2007

The Cedars of Lebanon Folkloric Group, 16 September 2007

Sparkling Korea Festival, 22-23 September, 2007

Darling Harbour Fiesta, 28Sept-1Oct:Feel the rhythm, discover the passion. Experience the sights, sounds, tastes, flamboyance and flair at Australia’s hottest dance and music festival - Darling Harbour Fiesta!Salsa, tango and rumba your way to Darling Harbour Fiesta this October long weekend. With more than 70 FREE performances across three stages, free salsa classes, DJs and Latin-inspired food, the spirit of Fiesta will dominate Darling Harbour for three sizzling days and nights. Now in its 16th year, Fiesta is Australia’s largest annual Latin American festival proving that when it comes to rhythm and passion, Sydney is right up there with Rio!Fiesta brings together traditional and contemporary talent from across South and Central America and Spain including legendary Columbian singer Wilson ‘Sabco’ Manyoma and, direct from the UK, Cuban musician Osvaldo Chacon whose timba-style salsa has been causing a stir on London’s dance floors.

Example: There is a ‘Cultural Diversity’ section for different suburbs in City of Sydney booklet called Preserving and Enhancing Sydney’s City of Villages: A Snapshot of Projects, Local Action Plan Strategy 2007-2010.

Redfern, Cultural Diversity: The Local government aims

-Celebrating indigenous Redfern

-Danks street festival

-Broaden retail mix for neighbourhood shopping

-Indigenous art projects

Inner East, Cultural Diversity:

-Creating an Oxford street cultural precint

-Harmony Park art and events program

-Public art to celebrate gay and lesbian community

Example: On Sydney city culture from the same City of Sydney local government planning booklet:

It’s a culture [Sydney city culture] that is rather funky, hip and urbane with respect to various ethnic, religious, non religious and sexual orientations.

Example: In Australia there’s a special day called Harmony Day, 21 March each year, to celebrate cultural diversity.Harmony Day provides an opportunity for us [Australians] to celebrate our successes as a culturally diverse society and re-commit ourselves to harmony and mutual respect. http://www.harmony.gov.au/

Cultural difference, on the other hand, might have moral and political connotations objectionable by the mainstream society.

Example: On the one hand encouraging aboriginal arts, painting, dance, music which is good for tourism and business, on the other hand turning a blind eye to the indigenous people who demand more rights.

Examples are endless…

‘Diversity is good; difference is bad’

“ ‘Diversity is good; difference is bad.’ This is the common view in European minority debates. As a result, the class component disappears, and an unacceptably vague catch-all concept of culture is allowed to predominate, even in much of the research literature”  Thomas Hylland Eriksen

The Norwegian anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen (the writer of ‘Engaging Anthropology: The Case for a Public Presence’, a book every anthropologist and anthropology student must read; see my post on this book) has an interesting essay called Diversity versus Difference: Neo-liberalism in the Minority Debate on his personal website http://folk.uio.no/geirthe/. In the essay he argues that in Europe people do not take ‘class’ factor into consideration in intellectual and political debates about cultural diversity although class is an important factor in explaining cultural complexities. Eriksen also argues that the blanket term ‘cultural difference’ has many aesthetic, social and moral connotations.   

        He summarises the public view on ‘cultural diversity’ and ‘cultural difference’ as ‘diversity is good; difference is bad’. He says, on the one hand ‘cultural diversity’ refers to the aesthetic aspects of culture with no moral or political connotations like food, arts crafts etc.; and it is encouraged to be celebrated in the public sphere. On the other hand, ‘cultural difference’ involves some values and practices within various minority groups, which might be morally objectionable by the wider society; and in public view such cultural differences might:

i) create conflicts through direct contact with majorities who hold other notions, (ii) weaken social solidarity in the country and thereby the legitimacy of the political and welfare systems (Goodhart 2004), and (iii) lead to unacceptable violations of human rights within the minority groups          

 For example, politicians and public figures may generally praise migrants for enriching the national culture (I suppose generally in terms of food, cuisine; they might like kebabs) but at the same time they may worry about some Muslim values. The acceptance and rejection of different cultural aspects may actually disguise some political and class conflicts. He analyses some examples from Norway. One of his example is the racial motivated murder of a 15 year old Norwegian boy of African origin, Benjamin Hermansen-who had a white Norwegian mother-   in Oslo in 2001. Media and public in general denounced the murder, and many white Norwegians attended demonstrations, and many public figures spoke to condemn the racial violence. Eriksen says:

The virtually unanimous expression of disgust and outrage in the aftermath of Benjamin’s death may suggest that blackness is not, in contemporary Norway, a marker of undesirable difference. In a strict sense, it may not even be a marker of diversity, since many black Norwegians are culturally one hundred per cent Norwegian, meaning that they do not deviate from mainstream culture concerning language, religion, food habits and other everyday practices.

But he adds that if the dark skin colour has some cultural and religious connotations like in the case of migrants from Southeast Asia and the Middle East, it might become undesirable. For example the police might stop and question a Pakistani migrant with a flashy car whether he is completely integrated into Norwegian culture or not; whether he is a Muslim believer or not; ‘to use Gellner’s (1983) term, like black Americans under Jefferson’. He says:

The question is: Which kinds of difference, that go beyond mere diversity, are subconsciously drawn on by the police in treating non-whites differently? In all likelihood, class is the main strand of association here. Since non-white immigrants largely belong to the working class, the policemen may reason, if one of them has a flashy car it cannot have been acquired by honest means. In other words, although the police’s behaviour cannot be put down to ‘old racism’, it has an inescapable racial dimension in that it results in a systematic discrimination of non-white citizens with nice cars.

There is a website devoted to the memory of young Benjamin. Viewers are invited to post their messages, and nearly five years after his death, people (judging from the style, most are teenagers) still send their condolences and expressions of concern to the site. His death has come to signify the evil of racist violence. At the same time, it has been well documented that non-white residents in Norway with exotic names have difficulties in getting high-level jobs. Documented examples include a man with a higher degree in engineering, who had not been shortlisted for a job once in several years – he had applied for around two hundred – and who eventually changed his name to a Norwegian-sounding one. He was immediately hired by a large company.In other words, racist violence is generally frowned upon. Skin colour as such, with no further cultural or religious connotations, does not seem to function as an important marker of difference, in spite of the fact that the term neger, negro, is still in common usage in the country (Gullestad 2002 dissects the debate over the term). Yet at the same time, having the wrong skin colour, or a kind of name which suggests the wrong skin colour, does mean that one must be prepared for systematic discrimination. Although it is not related to skin colour as such, this does little to help those who become victims of a cultural semantics which connects colour to other traits deemed undesirable, that is to say difference as opposed to diversity.

He analyses other examples like hijabs, female circumcision and arranged marriages. His essay is very rich and very engaging. In conclusion; he says, after Sept 11 there has been a shift  from the sociological focus on racism and discrimination to repression and human rights violations within migrant minorities. And in public debates the emphasis on cultural rights is replaced with individual rights and choice.

The Norwegian public sphere thus tends to see only shortcomings and evil intentions when confronted with cultural differences. Diversity is fine; it is morally harmless and potentially economically profitable, but ‘the others’, bearers of difference, have again become inferior, as they were in the past. This time, however, they are not inferior as a race or a cultural group, but exclusively as individuals, who oppress each other, who tacitly allow themselves to be oppressed, and who cannot blame majority society if they are insufficiently integrated.

The new way of talking about minorities and rights in Norway is not, in other words, a result of nationalism. The latter was a kind of collectivism which could occasionally propose compromise and peaceful co-existence with other groups. It nevertheless had its obvious weaknesses, which could only be addressed properly via a strong antidote of no-nonsense individualism. However, the pendulum has now swung so far in the opposite direction that concepts such as ‘ethnic group’ or ‘cultural minority’ are immediately associated with enforced marriages and authoritarian religion. In this kind of situation, entire life-worlds are opened to general suspicion and censored.

In sum, diversity is economically profitable and morally harmless (see Hutnyk 1997 on the WOMAD festival), while difference threatens the individualism underpinning and justifying neo-liberalism. In this perspective, it is no wonder that immigrants were praised in the 1970s, when the collectivist ideology of social democracy still held sway in Scandinavia, for their strong family solidarity; while in the new century, they are criticised for it since it impedes personal freedom. Finally, through a narrow focus on moral issues, the hierarchical and structural dimensions of minority/majority relations is made invisible.

You can read the article on http://folk.uio.no/geirthe/Diversity.html

Playing with Children and other cultural oddities…

The article’s a month old now, but I find myself still thinking about it, so I thought I’d share. The Boston Globe ran a piece entitled, ‘Leave Those Kids Alone,’ about the adult practice of playing with children. You can find the original article here.

The article commits its own grievous errors of cross-cultural universalizing, but it makes some worthwhile points about the peculiarity of certain Western conventions of childrearing. For example:

“Adults think it is silly to play with children” in most cultures, says Lancy, who teaches at Utah State University. Play is a cultural universal, he concedes, “but adults aren’t part of the picture.” Yet middle-class and upper-middle-class Americans — abetted, he says, by psychologists — are increasingly proclaiming the parents-on-all-fours style the One True Way to raise a smart, well-adjusted child.

There is now a concerted effort to spread adult-child play beyond its stronghold in the upper- and middle-classes of wealthy countries. To this end, many cities and states support programs of some sort. Massachusetts will give the Parent-Child Home Program, which has 33 sites in the state, $3 million this year (up from $2 million last year). Through the program, staff members visit the homes of low-income residents and offer tips not just on good books for toddlers but also on “play activities” for parents and kids. Likewise, the eminent Yale psychologist Jerome Singer has partnered with a media company to devise imaginative parent-child games (examples: “My Magic Story Car” and “Puppets: Counting”) that librarians and social workers can teach to low-income parents.

Rich ethnographic reports about the uses of ICT in low-income communities

I lately came across a number of exciting papers I would like to share. Let me get started with one of these today, a long report initiated by the UK Department for Development, written by a number of researchers from British and Australian Universities, about the social and economic benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in low-income communities in Jamaica, India, South Africa and Ghana.  

The working papers strongly re-enforce the benefits of an ethnographic approach for the wider world – something which we have explored at some length on Culture Matters regarding the corporate world (especially in product design and marketing) - but which is also increasingly seen as contributing to sound development policies.   

One of the most convincing by Daniel Miller and Heather Horst juxtaposes conventional ICT policy making in Jamaica with ethnographic findings and uncovers that the assumptions concerning internet use held by the government as well as international NGOs diverge hugely from the realities. The background to the study was that, while the cell phone is very popular in Jamaica (with an average of 3 phones per household), the Internet is not so (only 3% of the population were online in 2004). In order to boost internet access (and implicitly solve all sorts of problems the country has – primarily in the crisis-ridden primary and secondary educational sector), the government plans to use a special tax to finance computers and virtual teaching resources and has applied for funding to several international organisations.  

Let me juxtapose some of the current policies with Miller’s and Horst’s recommendations: 

Instead of more computers in secondary schools invest in post-educational training for young adults
Merely putting computers into schools will not of itself be of any great benefit. Miller and Horst interviewed school children and found that due to security fears, computer access in schools was highly restricted and only available to high achieving children, many of whom came from higher income families and had access to the Internet anyhow. Despite school policies which stated that all children would have at least weekly access to computers, in actual fact, many had not been granted access to the computer lab in months. Secondary school children in Jamaica are often very badly motivated and drop out of school early. Yet the same people resume their interest in schooling when they have reached their late 20s and early 30s. “We witnessed a deep thirst for gaining qualifications and secure employment … long after they have left school”. Thus the authors propose that the government puts more resources into tertiary education (evening schools, day-time TV). “Jamaica has a huge demand for skills training and general education at the post-educational level, quite beyond that of other countries, and one that does not fit the global pattern of education as child-centered. Use of cable-TV and the Internet in adult education (hospitality industry, basic literacy, typing, office procedures and IT skills such as Microsoft office as well as general education) would do justice to the specific nature of Jamaican society and would transform the effective skills base of the society.”  

Instead of investing into expensive high-end computers invest in low-price computers without gaming facilities
Studies worldwide show that personal computers are more used for gaming than for any other single purpose. Many manufacturers therefore strive to optimize technology mainly to create a satisfactory gaming experience. But from an educational perspective this sophistication is unnecessary (even detrimental). Thus the Jamaican government should consider investing in low-tech, low-price computers. 

Instead of investing in new educational content, create trustworthy portals
Instead of creating their own educational and informational content at high costs, a lot of money can be saved by kitemarking, i.e. creating portals which identify useful and high-quality web resources. 

Instead of investing in community computers, offer Internet access via individual mobile phones
Currently the main influence on the direction on ICT investment are well-meaning bodies such as NGOs and aid agencies who see an important role for ICTs in supporting what they call ‘community’. Large loans to the Jamaican government by the Inter-American Bank and the UNDP are destined to set up community computers.

“Many millions of US$ have been, or will be, dedicated to community computing. However, the emphasis on community centers for computing represents what we would call global rather than local thinking. The same recommendations may be found regardless of whether we are in Croatia or India. Aid agencies want to fund communities since it justifies expenditure as a social rather than as individual benefit and because they want to encourage communities per se. But this may result in a tendency to see ‘communities’ as uncritically positive or useful sites for disseminating information and access to computing and to wish them into existence even when there is no evidence for them.”  

Yet not only did Miller and Horst find little evidence for the vibrancy of ‘community’ in highly individualistic Jamaica, they go so far as to state that there is “evidence that most Jamaicans possess a negative view of ICTs that must be shared and instead stressed the need for private ownership. ‘Community’ is associated with churches (who sometimes offer computer access), yet these were seen as exclusive rather than inclusive points of access. Similarly, there are ‘community events’, often sponsored by local elites, which are seen to serve their own interests rather than a broader community. Lastly, there are neighbourhoods which could be constructed as ‘communities’, yet there is little emphasis on sharing consumer goods. Past provisions of community computers in post offices and libraries have been singularly ineffective in Jamaica. Miller and Horst found several Internet access points that had never been used.  

Many Jamaicans cited cultural reasons for their disregard for the internet in general, such as being part of an oral, highly individualistic culture, whose members are very private and thus don’t like sharing communication devices. Whatever the “real” reasons for the rejection of the Internet, Miller and Horst advise the government to “restrict its support and approval of commercial philanthropy to those cases that have carefully dovetailed to agreed programmes shown to be of value to low-income Jamaicans.” One promising way would be to provide limited internet access through the (highly popular) cell phone.  The whole report is full of examples for ethnography’s ability to check (and often disprove) common-sense beliefs concerning the benefits of new technologies: Thus ICT doesn’t necessarily have a positive impact on employment and income generation (as is often thought). In the poor households studied the cell phone proved vital in income distribution, but not generation. More than half of the households incomes were derived through social networks and personal contacts rather than through employment or work. Phones were used to maintain and access the huge but shallow social networks, which could be called upon in times of crisis. The only people who did use ICT for entrepreneurial purposes were not the very poor, but those that already possessed regular employment. (This reminds me of Appadurai’s concept of “the capacity to aspire”, a capacity which the poor are lacking in many ways and which results in better-off members of society to benefit disproportionately from aid). 

I also found the reports from Ghana by Don Slater and Janet Kwami fascinating.