Wry remark, or are you serious?
A lot of the remarks on the differences in cultures are how us Westerners view Easterners, and vice versa, I suppose. What we think of as friendliness, they think of intrusions on their public privacy space. What we think of as a hideous, cramped coffin, they call a loft. Behaviors they feel are acceptable prompt us to say, "You must be from New York."
A friend's brother-in-law, who is Arab, on coming to our rural town, said that part of it reminded him of Jordan.
Maybe Westerners in the diplomatic corps, maybe President Bush himself, would have much more "luck" dealing with this world than Easterners.
"Wry remark, or are you serious?
"A lot of the remarks on the differences in cultures are how us Westerners view Easterners, and vice versa, I suppose. What we think of as friendliness, they think of intrusions on their public privacy space. What we think of as a hideous, cramped coffin, they call a loft."
And what we think of as rape, they think of as...
Well, maybe some day they'll get around to coming up with a word for that "cultural" triviality, eh?