interesting that u say that........ I guess alot of nations could be classified as third world when compared to the US (in economic terms at least), but heres some interesting facts..... i can't remember the correct figures but the divorce rates in the US, Australia, Britain and a few other Western nations were a hell-of-alot higher then the "third world" nations, in some cases almost double..... maybe having nothing (economically) makes these people realise that money aint everything.... the people around you are...........
Now since im from a country that could be classified as third world (well my parents are anyway, but they brought their way of life with them, and passed it on to me), i can tell u that their tends to be more of a family bond in these "third world" families than in most western families (please excuse the classifications, i can't think of a better way)..... this is what i believe contributes to the lower divorce rates in non-western nations.......... There just seems to be a greater sense of "community" in these "third world" people.......
i may be wrong but this is what i've seen with my own two eyes so, thats all i can really base this on.....
interesting that u say that........ I guess alot of nations could be classified as third world when compared to the US (in economic terms at least), but heres some interesting facts..... i can't remember the correct figures but the divorce rates in the US, Australia, Britain and a few other Western nations were a hell-of-alot higher then the "third world" nations, in some cases almost double..... maybe having nothing (economically) makes these people realise that money aint everything.... the people around you are...........
Yes, I have heard that from a friend of mine who was born in New Zealand but had lived in Australia for a time. He has commented that people in the States, in his experience, tend to treat each other more like commodities, and to be less loyal to each other, than in NZ or Australia. Since I have not lived there, I can't compare directly.
Some people claim that the greater economic independence of women in the West has contributed quite a bit to the higher divorce rates. I can believe it. One of the reasons I decided, early on in life, to get job skills was that I didn't want to emulate the marriage nightmare that my parents created. I didn't want to have to put up with a lot of emotional nightmare crap just because I was financially dependent on a husband who turned out to be like my father. So were I ever to marry, it probably would not be for money. LOL.
Now since im from a country that could be classified as third world (well my parents are anyway, but they brought their way of life with them, and passed it on to me), i can tell u that their tends to be more of a family bond in these "third world" families than in most western families (please excuse the classifications, i can't think of a better way)..... this is what i believe contributes to the lower divorce rates in non-western nations.......... There just seems to be a greater sense of "community" in these "third world" people.......
Some of those nations also practice arranged marriages, which may have longevity going for them, but I don't think it would go over very well in the West. At least, most people I know whose families have been here for several generations or more are horrified by the practice.
i may be wrong but this is what i've seen with my own two eyes so, thats all i can really base this on.....
It would be interesting to see how Westernized your family would be here after several generations... to see how closely they stayed with the cultural attributes which they brought with them.
I work for an Armenian guy, and used to live in a part of L.A. County which was heavily populated by Armenians. Some of them still do the arranged marriage thing. A couple of young Armenian women have told me that they are expected to obey the man they marry.
But my boss's sister is a sort of maverick in her family... Although they are first-generation immigrants, his sister married not an Armenian but a Filipino man, divorced him, and later lived with an Armenian guy without being married to him. And although she sends her kids to an Armenian school because she doesn't want them to become "too Americanized," in truth she is doing a lot of things just like an American woman, and in another couple of generations, her descendants may be indistinguishable from other assimilated Americans.
It's true that most American women don't expect to obey a man, as women did some generations back. I sure as heck know the difference between cooperation and obedience, and I would expect a man to know it too. Maybe that's too "uppity" for some men. But I will never marry someone jsut so I can have a roof over my head... the non-financial cost is too high, IMO.