Understanding "Others"

           I thought that the Narayan piece was very interesting and it really triggered the question for how we understand these foreign cultures. It was interesting that she had a hard time gaining acceptance from American women when comparing dowry-murders to domestic violence. When she first said that even I thought that it seemed like a strange comparison but after she went into more explanation it seemed to be a really good example. One thing that really stood out to me was the idea that because these women are killed by a fire our culture has a hard time finding that relatable since guns seem to be the method of choice. But both these deaths comes from domestic violence. However, because Americans don't understand the Indian culture the deaths by fire tend to be looked at in a more exotic nature.

          I also find that the way women look at domestic violence and the way Indian women look at domestic violence to be very interesting. In America the domestic violence that leads to death tends not to be look at as much as it is in Indian culture. Both having their main focus for solutions in different places as well. In America we have the shelters and other programs to help women, but I found it fascinating that Indian women explained that their State doesn't help women in the same way. While women from here suggest that they just start shelters or have more welfare just shows how much ignorance there is about the other world cultures.

We can take this ignorance and expand it from the issue of women's rights to just other international issues, problems, policy, cultures and how little we know and understand these cultures can have a drastic effect on our foreign policy or support issues. For example the Kony 2012 was a movement because of a video seen around the internet but yet this was not a new issue, nor was the video exactly telling the truth. There is a very lazy and complacent attitude about understanding "others".