[river rat]

"An illustrative example is that South Korea was about twice as rich as Zambia in 1960. Since then Zambia has received 13 times more in foreign aid per capita compared to South Korea. Today however, South Korea is fully 38 times richer than Zambia."

All cultures are NOT equal...

Semper Fi

[WesternCulture]

"All cultures are NOT equal..."

To begin with, I don't recognize terrorism, laziness, bungy jumping or farting in bed as "cultures".

Cultures are social patterns of behavior and ideas that in a particular context enables the survival of a population featuring a large degree of internal social, economical, communicative and other kinds of mutual exchange.

All cultures are not equal in terms of responding to a GIVEN situation in a manner that promotes their long term survival.

But their performance in that respect depends on WHAT the given circumstances actually are.

In one context some will be losers and others winners, while the tables might be turned in a different one.

When it comes to the individual level, my belief is that all human beings that are born "healthy", can develop into persons that are able of understanding the intellectual achievements of great minds like Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein and Galileo Galilei.

A true CULTURE, like the Western one, today encompassing a multitude of individuals who've realized WHY thinkers like the above mentioned ones are to be seen as guides holding the keys to a paradise on Earth, is highly superior to any clan that attacks it guided by pre-renaissance religious beliefs and.

The world hegemony today in possession of the West and its allies (like South Korea and Japan), perhaps isn't eternal .

But today it is, by all means, alive and kicking - contrary to Talibanism which will not be successful in the social and moral code it is trying to impose on the people of Afghanistan.

What signifies friends of Western Civilization is that we alone (although many of us are unaware of it) are actually carrying out a program invented in the days when Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci walked the streets of Florence, Italy.

Namely:

Man being the supreme ruler and center of the universe through the divine spark that is the human intellect and freedom of choice.

Pico della Mirandola says it best:
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/pico.html