Istanbul

Amalfi

Cultural films

Abdulla Kalib,  Mohd Rhama, Fahad, Ahmed Adel & Khaled.

The film opens at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi. Two people are interviewed, a British woman & a South African man. The woman is dressed in Arab clothing. She lived for 3 years in Egypt and experienced considerable culture shock when she went there. She finds the UAE much easier to cope with. The young South African, an artist, says he enjoys living and working in such a cosmopolitan and culturally diverse city as Abu Dhabi.

Unfortunately the sound quality is not too good in this first part of the film.

The quality is much better henceforward. Abdulla introduces 2 artefacts, the Arabian coffee pot and the coffee glass. He demonstrates the hand signals for more coffee and I've had enough.

Fahad shows us his falcon and there is a clip of him training it in the desert.

Khaled talks about his cultural heritage, mentioning pearl-diving, hunting and fishing. He points out that falconry & fishing are now hobbies, rather than integral parts of life.

In class discussion Amani said she feared that some aspects of traditional family life might change as a result of growing cosmopolitanism but Abdulla suggested that his traditional heritage would be preserved, even if in a slightly modified way.

I pointed out how much had changed re. Fridays in Abu Dhabi 20 years ago, when I first came to Abu Dhabi, & Sundays in the UK when I was a boy in the 1950s.


Omar, Saeed, Abdulrahman

They filmed in the Heritage Village, near Marina Mall.

They highlight aspects of Emirati culture: firstly, camels, then traditional tent structures, bait alshaer & bait alwahat, made from goat & sheep skins, followed by a traditional stone dwelling and, finally, traditional clothing.

Finally, there is an interview with a German couple, first-time visitors  to the UAE.


Ahmed, Saif, Abdulla Ali, Mohd Khalid

They also filmed in the Heritage Village.

Against a background of traditional music, Mohd Khalid shows a traditional dhow,  then a small souk. Then they look at an old stone dwelling, a well and traditional dress.

There is an interview with a tourist, a young Irishman, but the sound quality dips here.

Then they film a short fishing trip to demonstrate traditional fishing tackle.

Finally they show and describe traditional Emirati food.


Mohamed Ismail, Amani, Shahd & Haleema

The film began with Mohd Ismail talking to camera in the library at the Sheikh Zayed mosque. The film had interviews with some tourists at the mosque; firstly 2 young Japanese girls, with a translator, and then with a voluble Mexican lady. The film closed with some features of the mosque, such as a chandelier and the world's largest (Iranian) carpet. There were a few spelling mistakes in the captions. The film was not as long as planned as part was with Fatima, who has dropped out of the course.

387 words

Discrimination

Blue-eyed v Brown-eyed

We watched a short video, just over an hour long, about a class reunion in Riceville, Ohio, in 1984. The class were re-united with their 3^rd grade teacher and together they watched a film of lessons they had received from this teacher 16 years earlier.

In 1968, following the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, she tried an experimental lesson, dividing her class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed children. On the first day she gave special privileges to the blue-eyed children, at the same time imposing restrictions on the brown-eyed children. On the following day she reversed the process, favouring the brown-eyed children and discriminating against the blue-eyed.

The reaction of the children was startling. Divisions, mistrust, resentment were all clearly evident in a previously harmonious, cohesive and cheery cohort.

On the third day, the teacher got the group back together, asked for their reactions and put across the point that being discriminated against, for eye/skin colour, ethnicity or whatever, was a deeply unpleasant experience.

As a teacher, I worried about the possible effects of such (admittedly temporary) alienation on very young, impressionable children. However, when the teacher got the class back re-united on the 3^rd day, they all seemed to agree with her about the negative aspects of discrimination. When the adults, viewing themselves as children, were asked whether the lesson they had learned had been worth the agony of the learning experience, they unanimously said yes.

237 words

Glossary

Culture: the shared values, history, customs etc of a people.

Diversity: differences e.g. race, gender, economic status, religion etc.

Cultural diversity: a multicultural society where it is understood that each individual is different re. race, gender, economic status, religion, physical abilities etc. When this occurs we have social harmony i.e. peaceful co-existence of people from different backgrounds. In such a society there will be cross-cultural communication, where people from differing backgrounds can communicate and avoid conflicts and can even adopt aspects of other cultures i.e. acculturation. In this type of society there will be a widely-shared belief in human rights, basic freedoms which belong to all people regardless of colour, language, religion etc.

Bias: If you are biased it means you have an idea that someone or something is superior to another for no logical reason. It is similar to prejudice, e.g. racial prejudice in apartheid South Africa.

Culture shock: This is when you find aspects of another culture so different from your own.

Demographics: The study of the population and its component parts.

Discrimination: There was racial discrimination in apartheid South Africa. N.B. blue eyes v brown eyes.

Ethnic group: It's a group which shares similar race, religion, language, whatever.

Ethnocentricity: It's looking at the world from your own ethnic point of view; it implies that your ethnicity is superior.

Expatriate: Someone from one country living and usually working in another; not a tourist, not a businessman on a short visit.