WHEN two cultures collide, there can either be a blood-shedding experience or something resembling nirvana; cultures coalescing and working together with little regard for their differences, always striving to celebrate their uniqueness and adjusting themselves to accommodate each other.It depends a lot on who is coming in with these differences. Psychology has taught us, people who are more diverse as a result of working with different cultures or people with high tolerance for differences will tend to be more culturaldifference-friendly.
On the other side of the spectrum, individuals with predispositions towards others, easy to judge and quick and make generalisations, and those with low tolerance for cultural dissimilarities, will become gladiators, fighting against cultural differences instead of celebrating them.
Today, the focus has been to train people to become more tolerant towards cultural differences as can be seen in expatriation preparation training where businesses invest their finances in order to acquaint their expatriates with the tools to weather the challenges of cultural differences.
Writing this article I asked myself, why do we have cultural differences? I know the question might come off sounding ridiculous to some, with many thinking of geographical differences, and other similar reasons to be the source.
Though this might seem as a primary source of differences, I believe the Higher Power has created differences for a much stronger reason. El Hombre believes we are culturally different so we can learn and inspire each other in our differences to become better citizens.
From those who are always on time to those who tardy, to those who are presumed to be individualistic over those who are largely considered collectivistic, we all need the cultural differences to learn to abandon unworthy cultural practices or fuse worthy elements for a better society.
Let’s be realistic, there are some cultural elements that needs to be extinguished since they don’t embrace the changing times and their operation seems controversial in today’s society, creating harm to individuals instead of enriching their lives.
There are some of the traditional ways of life that have been exterminated by colonialists in the colonial period since they were deemed unworthy and inhumane like headhunting in Borneo. There are even more cultural practices under much scrutiny today. In most cases, in order for the extermination to happen, we need an alien to open our eyes. Someone different from us with a different background who can vouch for the alternative. Though this might bring a clash, it’s one of the ways of documenting a change.
I am saying it’s one of the ways because we are all witnesses of instances of changes initiated by indigenous. Sometimes we don’t need a foreigner to alert us of our unworthy cultural practices. There are many heroes like Martin Luther King Jr. and Tun Mahathir Mohamad who brought changes to their own communities.
Now, apart from extermination of unworthy practices, I think it’s important to realise fusion is another important element. When two cultures intertwine, we can expect a fused product of both elements. We’ve witnessed that in food, music, language, offspring and so many other things.
I think what fusion does, is creating a platform where we can meet each other halfway and share our experiences as human beings. Our children will not be strangers to each other since they will be bound by the strings of the elements we share. Our races will dance and rejoice together with food and music that touches both sides.
But in order to benefit from these differences we need to be ready to integrate. Individuals of both cultures need to be ready to compromise their differences for the sake of learning from each other in order to create a better society. This is a great challenge.
I am talking about the readiness to welcome and accept foreign cultures. We all have witnessed clashes in the name of failure of recognizing another culture. Bloods have been spilled and enmity cultivated in the name of failure to accept and welcome foreign cultures.
I do understand there is a need to protect our own cultures sometimes. But xenophobia has taught us to be rigid and to not embrace the differences among ourselves. But if there is anything we have learned, by Malaysia embracing globalization, is cultural intrusion is promulgated.
Our brothers from Indonesia will come in with their cultural differences, Bangladeshis will do the same and so does the rest of us in the name of employment, asylum and even education. Malaysia needs them. In Swahili we say, “If you like the fruit you have to like the flower.”
I am writing this with the utmost expectation that the Sarawakian community will learn from the different cultures present in its land, in the same manner those who are alien to Sarawak are learning from its culture.
In this way, not only do we evaluate our cultural practices but also learn to fuse between what is here in Sarawak and what’s out there in the world. Someone told me, the more we learn, the more we realize we do not know. There’s so much to learn, let’s learn from our differences.