Before I forget, remind to kill my keyboard because it’s making me very angry. You don’t want to see me angry.
Now that I’ve got that off me chest, I will record my original thought as weakly foreshadowed in the title. I was asked in a conversation tonight why Iraq hasn’t been the ’success’ everyone wanted. One part of the problem is that we’re trying to sell our ideals, morals, precepts to people group who at best don’t want them and at worst fight against them. Do Iraqis really want democracy? I believe you’d be surprised at the heartfelt responses you’d get from asking them that question. To over simplify: Just ’cause [some of them] didn’t want Hussein doesn’t mean they want Bush.
The culture I really wanted to talk about is those crazy Frenchies. There is a deal between the French culture ministry and Abu Dhabi (the capital of the United Arab Emirates) to show Louvre art collections in a U.A.E-based museum. They will pay $524 million just to use the name, let alone for the art and French architect. And here’s where the French culture differs from the American- the French are pissed that there is money involved. They feel that it is unethical to charge money for art and that moving it to Abu Dhabi for a year or two at a time is too great a risk, esp. for the “unscientific” showing it will receive. Read about it here.
Can you imagine Americans mad at our government for making money off of another government?