Some Abstracts on "Intercultural Marriage"

Through this post, you can find good abstracts on intercultural marriage, I’ve used them for the Review of Literature of my own article for the intercultural communiaction class. At the end of this post, I have put the abstract of my own article. would be happy, if you could comment me on that… Thanks!

Intercultural marriage and intimacy: Beyond the continental divide

Authors: Mcfadden J.¹; Moore III J.L.¹

Source: International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, Volume 23, Number 4, December 2001 , pp. 261-268(8)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

The presence of intercultural marriages and intimacy is clear and expanding in societies throughout the globe. Cultural groups tend generally to have a more accepting attitude toward couples that have chosen mates outside their immediate ethnic or cultural identity. The focus of this paper addresses some of the issues, challenges, and opportunities that exist as individuals choose persons for intimacy or marriage beyond the continental divide. A pyramidal model is introduced to assist the reader in understanding the framework upon which this manuscript is based.

The Challenges of Intercultural Marriage: Strategies for Pastoral Care

Author: Frame M.W.¹

Source: Pastoral Psychology, Volume 52, Number 3, January 2004 , pp. 219-232(14)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

In this article, the author describes the unique issues associated with intercultural marriage. A case illustration provides the springboard for presenting specific pastoral care and counseling strategies that may be helpful to intercultural couples. These strategies include assessing worldview and acculturation, creating spiritual and cultural genograms, reframing cultural challenges, collaborating with indigenous healers, inventing new rituals, and developing the advocacy role.

Examining Interracial Marriage Attitudes As Value Expressive Attitudes

Author: Victoria Orrego Dunleavy

Published in: Howard Journal of Communications, Volume 15, Issue 1 January 2004 , pages 21 - 38

Subjects: Communication Studies; Multiculturalism;

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which attitudes towards Black/White interracial marriage were predicted by certain egalitarian-based (equality, mature love, benevolence) and conservative/ tradition-based values (obedience, conformity, social order, tradition). It was also predicted the strength of value-attitude link would directly affect the extent to which values (egalitarian or traditional) manifest themselves in proattitudinal messages, thereby indicating the degree to which individuals are functional when creating proattitudinal messages. The data suggest that the value factors of equality, benevolent success, and power/tradition predict positive attitudes toward Black/White interracial marriage. Additionally, the functional extension hypothesis was significant for the benevolent success model.

Mixing and Matching: Assessing the Concomitants of Mixed-Ethnic Relationships

Author: Regan A.R. Gurung; Tenor Duong

Published in: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 16, No. 5, 639-657 (1999)

Abstract

Does the self-esteem or relationship quality of those dating outside their ethnic group differ from those in a same-ethnic relationship? This study addresses this question, assessing personal (e.g., self-esteem and clarity) and relationship characteristics (commitment, satisfaction, realistic expectations, the level to which expectations were met, and partner preferences) with an emphasis on ethnic identity. We studied 131 undergraduates, 58 in same-ethnic heterosexual relationships (SERs) and 73 from mixed-ethnic heterosexual relationships (MERs). Counter to the assumptions of many lay people and scientists, we found no differences between the two groups. Ethnic identity was more predictive of relationship quality and commitment than was relationship composition (same versus mixed-ethnic). Furthermore, commitment was significantly associated with the extent to which expectations were met for members of MERs, but not for those in SERs. Results are discussed in the context of social psychological theories of group biases, impression formation, and prejudice, and consequences for the welfare of mixed-ethnic couples.

STRESS AND COPING TECHNIQUES IN SUCCESSFUL INTERCULTURAL MARRIAGES

Author: Donovan, Sarah Penelope

Master's Thesis

Adopted from edt@vt’s digital library and archive, formerly the scholarly communications project

Abstract

The number of intercultural marriages has grown significantly in the past few decades, as have the numbers of intercultural couples presenting for marital and family therapy. Current literature on intercultural relationships states that they are at a high risk for failure, with higher divorce rates and lower marital satisfaction reported than for same culture marriages.

Few actual research studies have been conducted to prove or disprove these theories, and no studies have looked at how successful couples have dealt with the stressors stated in the literature such that they remain married and report high marital satisfaction. This study was an exploratory study on the stress and coping techniques successful couples have utilized in their relationships, based on the ABCX model of stress and coping. Six couples were interviewed on what stressors they have faced, what resources they have accessed and built to combat those stressors, and what their perceptions of their challenges have been.

Several themes emerged. Couples revealed common stressors from family and society disapproval, language barriers, logistics, cultural barriers and traditions, and children. Coping resources included humor, learning about the other’s culture, support, communication, personal preparation, working towards common goals, and religion. These couples were found to have attitudes of commitment to their marriage and each other, and a belief that they were not that different from their partner.

Clinical implications include support for the idea of strength-based intervention for intercultural couples. This study will provide a beginning framework for others interested in doing more research on intercultural relationships, and designing models for work with this population.

Perceptions of Interracial Couples: Prejudice at the Dyadic Level

Author Donna A. Lewandowski; Linda A. Jackson

Published in: Journal of Black Psychology, Vol. 27, No. 3, 288-303 (2001)

Abstract

Three hypotheses about perceptions of interracial couples were tested. European American respondents read descriptions of interracial or intraracial couples and rated the couple and the partners on a variety of dimensions. As predicted, interracial couples were perceived as less compatible than were intraracial couples, but only when the other-race partner was African American, not when he or she was Asian American. Being in an interracial marriage had stronger effects on perceptions of men than women, and different effects on perceptions of minority group men than majority group men on dimensions of perceived racial identity and comfort with same-race others. However, contrary to predictions, there were no differences in perceptions of intraracial couples. Implications for future research on the consequences of perceptions on actual characteristics of interracial couples are discussed.

Marital therapy for intercultural couples

Author: Jing Hsu,MD

A chapter of the book Culture and Psychotherapy: A Guide to Clinical Practice

Abstract

The term intercultural marriage refers to marriages formed by partners with relatively diverse cultural backgrounds.

They may be addressed simply as “intermarried couples” or “intercultural couples.” An intercultural marriage is not the same thing as an interracial marriage, which may involve greater or lesser differences in terms of cultural background. Culture is defined as a lifestyle with unique beliefs, values, and behaviors, and it is often associated with race, ethnicity, religion, and other factors. It generally is recognized that the numbers of interracial and inter-cultural marriages are increasing in the United States.

Intermarried couples have a greater likelihood of encountering problems because of different views, beliefs, value systems, attitudes, and habits than couples who are of similar cultures or intraculturally married couples(the latter referred to as “intramarried couples”)(Kitano et al. 1984). Cultural factors often play a crucial role in therapy involving such couples (Sols-berry 1994) and, therefore, warrant the therapist’s special attention and consideration. Clearly, the fact that each partner is from a different culture does not in and of itself mean that a couple’s relationship is unsatisfactory.

However, when an intercultural couple is having difficulty, paying special attention to aspects ot the relationships will often bear fruit.

The Ties That Bind: The Relationship between Cultural Sharing, Ethnic Identity, and Relationship Satisfaction for Same and Mixed-Ethnicity Dating Couples

Author: Jenny M. Ortega

Abstract

The United States has experienced an overwhelming change in its ethnic population resulting in an increase of interracial coupling. Limited research has reported conflicting findings of differences in ethnic identification for people in same-ethnicity relationships and mixed-ethnicity relationships (Shibazaki & Brennan, 1998 and Gurung & Duong, 2002). Previous research is expanded by comparing the two groups in terms of relationship satisfaction, ethnic identification, and cultural sharing. These data include 31 minorities in same-ethnicity relationships and 33minorities in mixed-ethnicity relationships taken from a larger data set of 185 undergraduate students surveyed at two diverse campuses, Cal Poly Pomona and UCLA. In contrast to previous findings, members of same-ethnicity relationships reported lower levels ofrelationshipsatisfaction than did members of mixed-ethnicity relationships. Though the two groups did not differ on cultural sharing, members of same-ethnicity relationships did report higher levels of ethnic identification than reported by members of mixed-ethnicity relationships.

INTERCULTURAL COUPLES:EXAMINING THE ROLE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT

Author Christina L. Shute&Brian H. Spitzberg

Paper presented atHawaii International Conference on Social Sciences,Honolulu, HI, June 12-15, 2003

ABSTRACT

This study compared the relationship between social support and relational satisfaction in intercultural marriages and other intercultural marriage-like relationships as compared to their intracultural counterparts’ relationships. Specifically, this investigation sought to determine the amount of social support received by intercultural couples in comparison to intracultural couples, and the relationship between this social support and relational satisfaction. Seventy-eight intercultural and 87 intracultural couples participated in the study by completing a questionnaire on relational satisfaction and social support. The research suggested that relational satisfaction would be lower for intercultural couples due to the perceived instability and the added stressors that can occur in such a union. The results of this study indicated that intercultural couples did not differ from intracultural couples in the amount of social support they received from friends. The social support received from family by intercultural couples was lower, however not significantly. The results also showed that there was a positive relationship between social support and relational satisfaction. No significant difference was indicated between the levels of relational satisfaction among intercultural and intracultural couples.

Social Support in Intercultural Marriage and Its Effects on Social Identity: A study on intercultural marriage between the Iranian and the Turkmen

Author: M.A. student of Communications

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study Iranian women who have married Turkmen men, living in Golestan province , in North of Iran, so as to find out that when these women are received into a social structure, different from the one they used to live in, How much support they would receive from the husband’s family members and the new friends that they might have found in this society, and in case they received a good amount of social support, then, “has this had any effects on their identity as an Iranian, Shiite person or not?” Five in-depth interviews were made with five Iranian women marrying Turkmen men; the questions of the interview were made out of Porocidano and Heller’s social support scale. The result was that these women did not enjoy enough social support from their husband’s family members. Either, they had merely any sense of turkmenization, yet, I did not find out if it was due to the small amount of social support that they received in this society, since the personal factors were not being controlled in this study.

REVISITING CONFLICTS; INTERCULTURAL REHAB COURSES

The evening had almost diluted the remaining beams of daylight, I was walking my way down to the bus station, and there was the smell of dust in the air mixed with the ugly smoke of buses and cars on the street. On the bus the faces smeared with the dust and dirt of the street looked tired. As usual, I found no vacant seat; I leaned at the back of a seat, and I heard a woman talking about hijab, or no, let’s say condemning hijab in front of almost three or four Chadori women! She wore a nice turquoise scarf fastened by a gold ring down her throat, and she was in her late fifties. The women she was addressing to were about thirty to forty. Unfortunately, I had arrived in the middle of the talk and didn’t know it was raised by whom. She said that Iranian women are more valuable to cover themselves with a piece of ugly, stinking cloth, which is a reminiscent of the Arab’s attack on Iran in the era of Shah Yazdgerd the third. She said that chador, by itself, is a French dress used on special occasions for dancing. And added that before the attack on Iran, Iranian women played choagan (an ancient Iranian sport played on a horse with a stick to hit a ball in the hands of each player), that they were queens and ruled the Persian empire, that they were respected and … the chadori woman sitting at the other side of the bus said: “Iranian women are proud of their hijab, don’t mess with them.” The old woman said: “all of chadori women stink. They stink because they are filthy Arabs, you are filthy Arabs, corrupted from within. I don’t mind what you say…” then she continued that:” you are no human, human is the child who is living in downtown areas, earning his living playing accordion, and dips musty bread into tomato sauce to rub his belly. And I’m his god, because I am able to help him, out of the filth he is living in, to live a decent life, and not your god who helps no one. I’m able to help and there fore I am the god, and so is whoever does the same…” she was angry by the nasty words they told her. The chadori women said: “you’re mad, be careful of what you say”, and then they paid her no hid or if they did they made fun of her and laughed at her …

Being a witness to all these, I remembered the “dialogical approach” based on Pannikar’s research on religious and intercultural dialogue. Truly, I couldn’t see any means, by which these parties could come to an understanding of each other, theirs were two different worlds. The old woman, who claimed to be a member of a feminist group, approached from a deeply seathed ethnocentric point of view, her beliefs were indeed ideological, and in case you pushed the ideologies wayward, there remained shattered, illogical statements; there was no relevance between her words, she wanted to convince them that they were wrong, but didn’t know how to. The chadori women were worse than her, they didn’t know how to rise and defend hijab, they were short of words and looked bleak and sometimes blue with anger, but they couldn’t stop the old woman.

What are the means to stop such conflicts? How are these means gained? The old woman, who claimed she was a savant, had no real art of convincing others… she clang to historical memory of the Iranians to prove the high culture of ancient Iranians and identify the Iranian women by the sweet icons leaving a nice image in their mind… but she forgot that by far, Islam and its teachings are a part of Iranian culture leaving a deep influence on the historical memory of every Iranian… she didn’t have a belief in diversity of cultures in a country like Iran.

Iranians come into resolution unless they know how to respect each other… No Laws brought to by any high court can make them to subside. Policies of diversity shouldn’t be dictated to them… they don’t like being ordered, they’d snick away. What we need in Iran is not a phenomenological understanding of every culture. It wouldn’t work, since every culture seeks dominance over other cultures. Dictations have made them hungry for the dominance during the history of this country, and if they find the opportunity, they wouldn’t let it go to the benefit of the other party. They don’t want equal stance. “How are we to win their hearts, then? “, you might ask.

The dialogical approach wouldn’t work in a top-to-down process, they accept it, but later they’d change it to their own benefit. The rules and laws wouldn’t work, either, since they are no law-abiding people. In my opinion, the best way would be offering intercultural courses, something the same as “The Anonymous Alcoholics” in America. People come together and talk about their experiences; they share the kind of empathy they wouldn’t have found in a stinky old bus. They understand what is sharing, and to my opinion, these courses should be face-to-face, since the virtual versions do not enjoy the exact face expressions and the messages it sends and receives the same as the later. There should be a communication expert leading the courses, explaining the situations, and giving off information on how to handle such situations. It both inspires those who need intercultural advisory and rehabilitation, and those communication students who are unemployed! The fact that, the cure is in their own hands may seem far away, but once applied it would accelerate the policy makers’ intentions of establishing a realistic and pluralistic approach in handling the diversity.

Themes of Alienation and Death in " Deadman"

Title:
DEAD MAN
Release year:
1996
Genre:
WESTERN
Director:
Jim Jarmousch
Screen writer:
Jim Jarmousch
Music & Soundtrack:
Neil Young
Actors:
William Blake- Johnny Depp
Nobody- Gary Farmer
Cole Wilson- Lance Henrikson
Conway Twill- Michael Wincott
Thell Russell- Mili Avital
Salvatore "Sally" Jenko - IGGY POP
Benmont Tench - JARRED HARRIS
Big George Drakoulious - BILLY BOB THORNTON
Train Fireman - CRISPIN GLOVER
Johnny "The Kid" Pickett - EUGENE BYRD
Nobody's Girlfriend - MICHELLE THRUSH
Charlie Dickenson - GABRIEL BYRNE
John Scofield - JOHN HURT
Trading Post Missionary - ALFRED MOLINA
John Dickenson - ROBERT MITCHUM
Marvin (Older Marshall) - JIMMIE RAY WEEKS
Lee (Younger Marshall) - MARK BRINGELSON
Man with Gun in Alley - GIBBY HAYNES
Man at End of Street - GEORGE DUCKWORTH
Man with Wrench - RICHARD BOESOld
Man with Wanted Posters - MIKE DAWSON
1st Man at Trading Post - JOHN PATTISON
2nd Man at Trading Post - TODD PFEIFFER
Makeh Village - LEONARD BOWECHOP, CECIL CHEEKA, MICHAEL McCARTY
First Young Nobody - THOMAS BETTLES
Second Young Nobody - DANIEL CHAS STAC
Drunk - PETER SCHRUM
Mr.Olafsen - JOHN NORTH

William Blake starts a journey to the western parts of America, to get a job as an accountant in Dickenson Metal works Factory in the town of Machine. But he is late for the job; he’s replaced by a smiling fat man. Penniless and wearied, he finds himself laying with Thell, Mr. Dickenson’s youngest son’s fiancée, who makes roses out of paper. Lain in bed they are caught by Dickenson’s son, who attempts to kill Blake, but shoots the gun right to Thell, yet the bullet passes from her chest and leaves Blake injured, too. Blake shoots Dickenson’s son right in his throat and flees away with one of Dickenson’s spirited and valuable horse… Now he is being pursued by three killers hired by Dickenson. He meets an odd Native American, named Noboby, who thinks he is the same dead English poet, William Blake. As his journey continues, Nobody convinces him that he should get back to the place where the dead belong, that here is no place for him, and… the film ends with Blake wrapped up in natives’ cloths, shipped on a canoe and pushed in to the water by Nobody who’s sending him back to the place where he belongs.

The film starts with Blake traveling on the train, restless to end his long journey from Cleveland over the town of Machine. Looking closer, one might understand that his journey from Eastern parts of America to western parts of America and continuing again beyond the west is a journey toward Eternity. The town of Machine, Being earlier foreshadowed by the ironic phrase of the man talking with Blake on the train as “the end of the line”, shortly saying, is West, with modernity being its specificity. In the town of Machine, Men are living as Savages, most of them are buffalo hunters, they streets are muddy, and over every doorway, there’s skull of buffalo and their skins are heaped over on the ground. Drunks, whores, and hunter all live there. While life is mechanized and man has turned back in to baser instincts: He kills animals, and the ruling government is even more corrupt as it says kill the million of the buffalos; he attempts assault and battery; he forgets his son and sticks to idle thing in life. And, Blake is a stranger to these ways. Blake, being starred by Johnny Depp, is an immaculate young man who is so meek that he thinks in a modern town, as town of machine is, one can insist on speaking to some one, later Nobody clearly says he has to speak through his weapon but not through soft and sweet words. From the moment he arrives to the town of Machine, death message is being associated to the mind, the coffin makers, the horse urinating on the ground, the man having sex in the middle of the street who shoots anyone coming close to him…the picture is gloomy and desperate. Looking through the film, Blake has always difficulty keeping his eyelids open wide, he looks as if he’s drowsy; as the journey continues his weakness becomes more and more vivid. In my opinion, by this Jarmousch has the aim to show that Blake’s a dead man from the first shot of the film.
The poet, William Blake, whom Nobody insist the dead man is, can help us in many ways to understand the film. He was a visionary poet, who believed we achieve redemption by liberating and intensifying the bodily senses- as he said, by “an improvement of sensual enjoyment”- and by attaining and sustaining that mode of vision that does not cancel the fallen world but transfigure it, by revealing the lineaments of its eternal imaginative form[1].
Nobody asks Blake to do the same, to stay hungry… he also trades his eyeglasses to let him contemplate on his own with his spiritual sights, and not his corporeal eyes; to take a deep journey back into his soul and to know his spirit better; to become refined in soul and to preponderate the spiritual affair to the physical life.
William Blake, the actual English poet, shared with a number of contemporary German philosophers the point of view that man's fall (or malaise of modern culture) is essentially a mode of psychic disintegration and resultant alienation from oneself, one's fellow-men, and that man's hope for recovery lies in process of reintegration[2]. May be this is the problem Jarmousch aims to portray in his film. All the citizens of Machine are disintegrated; they are aliens, since they have come from different places for a common purpose: for hunting, or for working… either the case, they seem to be careless of eachother. But there's some one who well understand his alienation, his nobodiness, this person is Nobody. He has been living overseas and living as a savage among the whites, he started to behave like them and still he was always looked down as a slave. When he got back home, he was not received warmly by his tribe, he explained them about the things he'd seen, and they didn't believe him, he said: "he who talks loud says nothing." Now, he is living alone in the forest, he is living the life of a hermit: he is disintegrated not only from his own men, but also from his own land. What he sees in Blake, wounded and pale, is the same reintegration with one's self that William Blake portrays through his poetry.
Blake believes there are three successively lower "states" of being in the fallen world, he calls Beullah (a pastoral condition of easy and relaxed innocence, without clash of contraries), Generation (the realm of common human experience, suffering, and conflicting contraries), and ulro ( Blake's hell, the lowest state, or limit, of bleak rationality, tyranny, static negation, and isolated selfhood). The fallen world moves through the cycles of its history, successively approaching and falling away from redemption, until, by the agency of redeemer ( who is equated with the human imagination and most potently operative in the prophetic poet), it will culminate in an apocalypse[3]. When young Blake arrives the first time to the town of Machine, he is still in the Beullah, he can't figure out that his wishes for getting a job will turn to ashes the moment he walks into Dickenson's office, he's just as a Lamb[4]. As he faces with assaults of the supposed modern world he has made his destination to, he walks into the realm of Generation, he suffers the contraries of this world; the roses made out of paper, the stinking drunk men…but at the end he enters the Eden, he passes through the sea, and the waves make his way toward the sea, its raining… now he's completely off the Urlo, the base and inhumane life men had chosen once entering America.
There's one more thing about his time of departure. When the boat is pushed into the water by Nobody, Cole Wilson shoots him, Nobody shoots him back, and both fall into the ground, Blake tries to shout but as Nobody had told him: " the world no longer concerns him"… Urlo is no territory for the man entering the Eden. And men are no longer reunited on the face of the world, least they'd be dead men.









[1] Honarvar, H. & Sokhanvar, J., The Norton Anthology of English Litreture, Vahid Publication, pp.492-496: 1382
[2] . Ibid. p.496
[3] Ibid. p.495
[4] . lamb is one of W. Blake's famous poetries appearing in his " songs of innocence"

NEW ON THE WEB

There’s the fourth edition of the book “Intercultural Communication” published by Sage publications recently finding its place on the shelves of bookstores in America and most Europeans countries. To us remains the introduction of the new dimensions through which this books has put the effort to focus, regarding the intercultural communication issue. As the title of the book suggests, the approach the auther, James W. Neuliep, has tried to view the intercultural commuunication is contextual. He defines the contexts and their interdependence on culture as he moves through the cutural circle and goes inward the more specific traits of human communication, e.g. verbal and non-verbal messages. What is most interesting about his theory is the way he looks at the text: where as the context is regarded toward culture, and the communiative messages it purports, the text is regarded through influences of values, ethnicity, physical geography, and attitudes each culture leaves. By this means, the examination of certain means of interaction, including body language, eye contact, and the exchange of words in text becomes possible.
Other qualifications of this book are:
· A new chapter on Cross-Cultural Conflict that includes some existing material, as well as a new discussion on the concept of “face”.
· New sections on White//European-American culture. Discussing what it means to be White in America will be used as a comparison with other cultural groups discussed within and throughout the chapters.
· An expanded discussion on Arab Americans
· New material on Indian culture
· An expanded discussion on Chinese groups and communication, especially as pertains to the business world




The next news is the publication of all a new journal on communications and media studies by Sage: “Media, War and Conflict”. The first issue has appeared in April 2008, and there is a call for the articles enjoying the topic coverage in Contemporary and historical war reporting, Dynamics of the public sphere, Popular and visual cultures, Credibility, legitimacy, and the security services, Media ethics in the coverage of conflict, Terrorism and counter-terrorism, Intelligence operations and the media, The media as instruments of war, The media's role in high and low-intensity conflict, Conflict prevention and peacekeeping,Photo and video journalism in wartime, Documentation and commemoration of warfare and a wide range of other topics to appear on the future issues.
By the way, Sage has made the access to the content the first issue of this journal free. So don’t waste time…
The articles submited should be composed in 5000 to 7000 words, and the abstrscts should be approximately in 150 words.
I think, this journal is a great opportunity for every one interested in the field, since it deals with topics such as media representations and conflict.


Those interested may find more info at www.sagepub.com

ETHICS; WHAT DO THEY KNOW ABOUT IT?

It was only last week that Dr.? told me with out a moment of hesitation that: “if you don’t know this, then what do you know?” I felt wearied, and answered: “to be sure, I know things…” he answered back:” like what? Do you mean cooking? Washing? What?”
I can’t understand who gives him the right to utter his despicable ideas so openly, and even more, so rudely…I immediately remembered the teachings of the Intercultural Communication book, which we have the exam on Saturday, and arrived at the conclusion that it’s not me who should take the exam but that Dr.? is the exact person who must! Take a look at what he said… His very idea of a woman is that of a servant whose life has passed cooking, washing and keeping his, but not her, children’s noses clean! His ideas about a woman is that of the uneducated man living in the country, having the barest knowledge of a woman’s right to ask for something, to be in need of something, to say something… and he has a doctorate in Sociology(!!!), and he’s a professor at the department of Communications(!!!). Do you get what I say…? I’m not judging him, I’m exactly saying what he is… and it’s not being insincere, it’s my utter sorrow of seeing such a scene, or better to say, of being the victim to such discrimination.

Hundreds of times I pitied my being a student, my efforts to come to a stand, to say that “look! I succeeded… I’m going to be a post graduate from now on… I want to think, to write, and to serve my people…” Hundreds of times I ruined my self with the thought that: “Oh, No! Have I done a mistake? Is it what I wanted? To be thought of as an inferior? To be stereotyped in to the cliché of a nasty child (as the other Dr.? put it, one day), or a maid?"
Well, take it that I am… What if I am? Does it make them rightful to ACT so?
I have an answer to all of these… Sylvia Plath, the great American poetess, writes:

Men have used her meanly. She will eat them.
Eat them, eat them, eat them in the end.

From” Three Women”

Here comes the question now… what are the factors taken in to account when electing some one as a professor? What is it that the normal, ordinary people should learn from them to become some one, some day?

If we accept that a university is not simply a place to go to get a degree in order to get a job, or to get married, perhaps then we could come to an agreement that a university, beyond its teaching aims, has educational aims, too. To become “educated” takes sometimes… it’s by itself a process of becoming socialized, becoming mindful of other people’s wants and needs, to care for them, to find way to cure them, or taking the lower hand to discuss their problems and hypothesize them. What do you think a professor’s role should be in through this way?
To be a professor is a ROLE, therefore, this role should meet with its ethics. Does any one institute in Iran teach our professors that they have a role to act according to? And that what are the ethics to act out this role? Or should we expect them to be mindful of other people’s lacks & differences, of their emotions & feelings and etc. from the moment they came out of their mother’s womb?

Despite many good professors who know by nature or may be by contemplation, how to behave like a professor in this country, I think, to expect all to be perfect in behavior by nature, is impossible. Ethics are ascribable; they can be achieved via observance, self-monitoring and self-adjustment. Every one needs some basic knowledge about how to behave in different situations, and professors are no exception to the rule!
I have a sincere criticism to the way of electing professors in Iran… which I believe is rooted in our enjoying a high-context culture… we value relationships, and some of our professors have not achieved their status because of their efficiency in teaching and depth of knowledge. One should admit with the fact that there are problems underlying the system of education, not the professors specifically… and if we want to make redress, we have to give the right of election, half way, to the hands of students… by letting them to rank their professors every year, among themselves, and not in organization with the university staff.

MULTICULTURALISM, Is it Bane or Boon?

Multiculturalism, a terminology of many proponents both in Islamic Countries and among Western Radicals, bears many assumptions, on which I attempt to shed light, today.


The thought of pluralism, which is largely known as the motto of this age, can be best described in the words of the philosopher and thinker, Edward Said, when he hopes for … 'the possibility of a more generous and pluralistic vision of the world, in which imperialism courses on, as it were, belatedly, in different forms (the North-South polarity of our time is one), and the relationship of domination continues, but the opportunities for liberation are open.'[I]

What pluralists mostly point out to is that ‘pluralism is self-evidently good’. It’s good, firstly because, multiculturalism is the only means of ensuring a tolerant and democratic polity in a world in which there are deep-seated conflicts between cultures embodying different values, And secondly because, human beings have a basic, almost biological need for cultural attachments (Malik,2002)[II].


What they further claim for their assertion of such assumptions is that pluralism is basically against the Eurocentric thought of universalism, which, historically speaking, has proven to lead inevitably to tyranny and racism. Imperialism of the New World to the Old World, the Holocaust and many others are taken as the proof to it. They, the pluralists, also, claim that if we accept the need of human to be attached to a culture, therefore, we have to give them the right of de facto, e.g. recognition of their cultures by publicly validating and protecting their, as pluralists put it, unique & different cultures.


On pluralism, Isaiah Berlin writes: 'Life may be seen through many windows, none of them necessarily clear or opaque, less or more distorting than any of the others'[III]. Here, Berlin’s emphasis is on the fact that every world view and value is culture-specific & that by Malik’s(2002)words satisfies a sort of incommensurability, by which he means that not only ‘cultures are incompatible, but that cultures were incomparable, because there was no common language we could use to compare the one with the other.’ This was the reaction of radicals to avoid, once for all, the out come of the Enlightenment Age, namely, tyranny and racism imposed by the westerners through the past two and a half centuries. By this, they aim to put pluralism and postmodernism against the progressive universalism and the age-old modernism.

The idea of Equality is also given credits by the pluralists; they believe that different cultures should be treated equal respect. They seek equal rights on the face of the earth for all cultures—with different and unique world views. And in doing this they blame the all-powerful pole of the World—America.

Multiculturalism under scrutiny

Cultural diversity is the source of the epiphany of new biases leading to further disintegration instead of acculturation, according to many scholars. Kenan Malik in the winter of 2002 writes in Connection that: ‘Cultural diversity only makes sense within a framework of common values and beliefs that enable us to treat all people equally. And to create such a framework requires us to be a bit more intolerant and to show a bit less respect.’[IV] In his essay “Against Multiculturalism” from a totally Eurocentric angle, he writes that:’ Multiculturalists have turned their back on universalistic conceptions not because such conceptions are racist but because they have given up on the possibility of economic and social change.’[V]

He believes that pluralist deny the benefits brought to humankind by the progressive and the universalistic way of European thinking; That only certain countries could achieve it; that this difference is of and in itself only for certain cultures and finally that those who claim pluralism has led the humanity to the brink of inactivity and backhandedness.

Malik condemns the equality so much honored and praised by pluralists, so far as he sees it only a sham policy to impose human mind and feeling with its Thought Police. He feels the core of its equality policy, merely lead to blockage of free speech and debate, as is defined in Habermass’ theory of Public Sphere.

Personally, when I read these essays, I felt my self dumb. I always cheered with idea of giving every man his place he deserves and so… but I think Malik’s questions are of enough bases to be taken into consideration.

He’s right when he says a man’s culture is not fixed; that it changes, and the policy of every man has to bear a specific culture looks weird. I don’t want to make the conclusion that he’s right, but it does not mean that I deny his sayings. Rather, I suggest you to at least read his essays and think over it. It’s all a new look to the subject of Intercultural Communication. I have started to think no matter how much one be mindful of the differences, there always remain differences. Because if you believe that there are differences, it means that you have accepted that the differences are irresolvable, too!








[I] Quoted by Malik, K., (2002), “all cultures are not equal”, Online-Spike. Read the whole essay at
http://www.kenanmalik.com/

[II] Malik, K., (2002), “Against Multiculturalism”, New Humanist. Read the whole essay at http://www.kenanmalik.com/
[III] Ibid.
[IV] Malik, K., (2002), “The Real Value of Diversity”, Connections. Read the whole essay at
http://www.kenanmalik.com/

[V] Malik, K., (2002), “Against Multiculturalism”, New Humanist. Read the whole essay at http://www.kenanmalik.com/

SECOND REFLECTIONS ON MUSLIM REPRESENTATION IN WESTERN MEDIA

I am run out of any thoughts about Islamophobia, the subject which has been seriously debated during the last 3 sessions of the Intercultural Communication course. I simply don’t understand what could be the cure to it!
There are times I feel hopeless about the future of the World. So much is being talked about ruin and hate among nations that the sweet little happy things seems to be getting lost. I have come to a broader conclusion to all this… that no matter what you do, where you be, or how well you be doing, you are inescapably under the surveillance of the politics, that it is just like the oxygen you breathe in and breathe out.
The teachings of Islam are against terrorism. So are the teachings of Christianity, since Jesus Christ preaches: “Through love, not power, men may find their way“. So what is this representation of Evil against Good for?
Paul Berman in his march 23, 2008 article published in the New York Times writes that: “I tried to show that radical Islamism is a modern philosophy, not just a heap of medieval prejudices. In its sundry versions, it draws on local and religious roots, just as it claims to do. But it also draws on totalitarian inspirations from 20th-century Europe.” And again that:” I wanted my readers to understand that with its double roots, religious and modern, perversely intertwined, radical Islamism wields a lot more power, intellectually speaking, than naïve observers might suppose.” He further admits that:”
Today I have to acknowledge that, for all my hammering, radical Islamism, in several of its resilient branches, the ultra-radical and the beyond-ultra-radical has proved to be stronger even than I suggested.”
The opinion writer Paul Berman is emanating a piece of information, and by the time establishing fear of radical Islamists.
I also saw a cartoon that holds two Muslim leaders, one radical Islamist, and the other a Moderate Islamist who are both advising western people to “convert into Christianity”, with The radical Islamist holding a sword up in the air gibbering the words from his clutched teethes out, and the moderate Islamist with one finger holding up in the air, saying the same words. In one moment you can feel that his finger is taken for the sword. By the same account, the face expression of the radical Islamist which is associated with the rough nomad and the indifferent look in the face of the moderate Islamist is taken for one, and it gives off the message that :” All Muslims, belonging to any of branches known, are hotliners and want to take our freedom away!”

www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/opinion/23berman.html