Feathers of Eden
Songster
I have been lucky to live in three different continent with three completely different culture and way of life.
When I first realized that Chinese eat cats and dogs it seemed very disgusting to me.
But at the same time I was not aware that The famous Iranian Cuisine that is made of cooked overnight to perfection lamb head topped by cooked lamb brain seems disgusting to other nations.
I can tell you eating frog is out of question for middle eastern. They find it disgusting.
I can also tell you that when I moved to Canada and looked at the way people waste food it was shocking. I remember that I looked at the chicken meat that was left on bone in a Swiss Chalet restaurant after a party . It seemed to me that the chicken were half eaten while for other people the meal was over.
Just a few years before moving to Canada I was living in a dormitory in London England with other medical doctors from around the world but mostly Middle Eastern. I remember one day when I finished my chicken My friend from India asked me why I did not finish my chicken meal ? was there anything wrong with it? I answered " "but I finished the chicken ". Then I realized to him I was as wasteful as Canadians in Swiss Chalet looked wasteful to me years later. Then I looked at his plate. The only thing was left was empty bone shafts and nothing else. No skin, no bone marrow , no nothing.
I bet you were in love with Lamb head meat if you were born in Iran and I was in love with dog food if I was born in China. Culture is made of bunch of " how we can make the best of a situation" incidents and repetitions. There is nothing too much in to it to get upset about.
Even the rules and regulations and customs that we follow is bunch of " how we can make the chaos of life less" incidents and repetitions.
Rules and regulations and even the culture we follow makes sense to us because we know the background or reason behind the rules and regulations . We can't expect other people from other parts of the world to understand or respect our culture the way we respect them. They don't know the background.
If there is a way to make things better in big scheme it comes from being open to criticism.
Criticism in my humble opinion means that someone has spent his/her precious time to look at you , or your product or even your belief and has some questions about it.
If we are open to criticism then we can find our weakness by the virtue of just being open minded about the criticism and fix the problem if there is any.
I have been part of a few other forums for more than a decade now. I come back to this forum because to me this forum is open minded and progressive.
But we can be better. We can be less possessive about our beliefs.
I have been in Canada for the last 16 years . I am now as wasteful as every Canadian. I leave meat
on my chicken bones. I am not proud of it but I do. I am now part of the Capitalism culture and I am acting like one.
I tried frog and found it delicious.
But I have my limitations. I would not eat dog or cat meat but I would not ridicule or question the cultures that do eat dogs. I do not know the background and the circumstances that lead to this food culture. I will only tell them that how I feel about it.
Would they change their dog eating habit just to please my feelings? Of course not. But they start to think about it more and more and maybe in a few generations they decide to modify or abandon their culture because it is not representing them the best.
Let people criticize you. It is free advice and might be helpful if we keep our mind open.
So here is the question:
Are you open to criticism ?
Is BYC open to Criticism?
When I first realized that Chinese eat cats and dogs it seemed very disgusting to me.
But at the same time I was not aware that The famous Iranian Cuisine that is made of cooked overnight to perfection lamb head topped by cooked lamb brain seems disgusting to other nations.
I can tell you eating frog is out of question for middle eastern. They find it disgusting.
I can also tell you that when I moved to Canada and looked at the way people waste food it was shocking. I remember that I looked at the chicken meat that was left on bone in a Swiss Chalet restaurant after a party . It seemed to me that the chicken were half eaten while for other people the meal was over.
Just a few years before moving to Canada I was living in a dormitory in London England with other medical doctors from around the world but mostly Middle Eastern. I remember one day when I finished my chicken My friend from India asked me why I did not finish my chicken meal ? was there anything wrong with it? I answered " "but I finished the chicken ". Then I realized to him I was as wasteful as Canadians in Swiss Chalet looked wasteful to me years later. Then I looked at his plate. The only thing was left was empty bone shafts and nothing else. No skin, no bone marrow , no nothing.
I bet you were in love with Lamb head meat if you were born in Iran and I was in love with dog food if I was born in China. Culture is made of bunch of " how we can make the best of a situation" incidents and repetitions. There is nothing too much in to it to get upset about.
Even the rules and regulations and customs that we follow is bunch of " how we can make the chaos of life less" incidents and repetitions.
Rules and regulations and even the culture we follow makes sense to us because we know the background or reason behind the rules and regulations . We can't expect other people from other parts of the world to understand or respect our culture the way we respect them. They don't know the background.
If there is a way to make things better in big scheme it comes from being open to criticism.
Criticism in my humble opinion means that someone has spent his/her precious time to look at you , or your product or even your belief and has some questions about it.
If we are open to criticism then we can find our weakness by the virtue of just being open minded about the criticism and fix the problem if there is any.
I have been part of a few other forums for more than a decade now. I come back to this forum because to me this forum is open minded and progressive.
But we can be better. We can be less possessive about our beliefs.
I have been in Canada for the last 16 years . I am now as wasteful as every Canadian. I leave meat
on my chicken bones. I am not proud of it but I do. I am now part of the Capitalism culture and I am acting like one.
I tried frog and found it delicious.
But I have my limitations. I would not eat dog or cat meat but I would not ridicule or question the cultures that do eat dogs. I do not know the background and the circumstances that lead to this food culture. I will only tell them that how I feel about it.
Would they change their dog eating habit just to please my feelings? Of course not. But they start to think about it more and more and maybe in a few generations they decide to modify or abandon their culture because it is not representing them the best.
Let people criticize you. It is free advice and might be helpful if we keep our mind open.
So here is the question:
Are you open to criticism ?
Is BYC open to Criticism?
