Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Mallett
My point exactly. Unless we go to these places and learn about their culture, all we know is what the media and interested parties tell us. Trying to apply "Western" attitudes to oriental or eastern cultures is frankly useless.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Mallett
Oh for gawd's sake. Bahrain, New Delhi, worse things happen in New York or London (I was in Holborn 7 July 2005). Get a life people.
|
First, I should have said this in my earlier post. I personally have no problem with India hosting a F1 race.
I “generally” agree with Mr. Mallet’s comment above about the fallacy of trying to impose Western attitudes upon the world. But I would argue it differently. We should not be trying to make the rest of the world a clone of Western culture and traditions. The world is never going to be a smooth homogeneous pudding. It will and should have lumps.
My attempt at paraphrasing Mr. Mallet’s second comment above (which he has twice posted, so I assume he feels pretty strongly about it), comes out as “Rape happens” with a bit of "Nothing to see here move along" sprinkled in. I still find that argument absolutely appalling!
I believe in the concept that there are some universal rights and wrongs. I think there is little room for justification of violence and unequal treatment based upon things such as gender, race, social stratification, etc. Have some of these issues become embedded in specific cultures? Absolutely. But culture is not static. Culture and tradition can and does change. I also don’t think this is me trying to apply Western attitudes or morals on other. Ask anyone regardless of where they live if they are OK with being raped. I suspect the results will be universally "No".
Again, I have no problem with an Indian GP. But the way people are choosing to defending it is just mind-blowing. I would focus more on topics such as how the organizers of the race operate (are they thugs, are they using the race for political means, etc.), safety of team personnel, impact on the community (did they forcibly evict people from their homes with no recourse to build the track) and other things such as that and less on problems with the "host society" as a whole. If anything, the recent news items in India speak to “safety of team personnel” more than anything and I am sure the teams would be able to address this.
Richard