LL-L "Culture" 2011.06.20 (05) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

====================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L - 20 June 2011 - Volume 05
lowlands.list at gmail.com - http://lowlands-l.net/
Posting: lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org
Archive: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html
 Encoding: Unicode (UTF-08)
Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
=====================================================

From: Hellinckx Luc luc.hellinckx at gmail.com
Subject: LL-L "Culture"
Beste Paul,

You wrote:

From: Paul Finlow-Bates wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk
Subject: LL-L "Culture" 2011.06.20 (02) [EN]
In that case Finland and Sweden had better crank up their immigrant quota.
And France for that matter - twice our area with the same population.

Singapore may be stable; I have no desire for England to have Singapore's
population density.  That argument is just another example of "you want to
control immigration, you must be a fascist and obviously hate anyone with a
dark skin". (I'm not. I don't).

The amount of space you have as a citizen does not merely depend on the
density of your population. Rather and foremost it's a matter of how you
define your "territory". Some folks just like to keep more distance than
others (both literally and figuratively)...some prefer to judge from a
distance and not interact...some people like to be eccentric and feel
alienated. For those who want to live in isolation, an insula has often been
a good choice. These days however, mobility is ever increasing, and by
consequence, many islands have not been left untouched. From what I heard
though, there's still a lot of uninhabited space in Siberia and Central Asia
for those quirky souls who like some privacy ;=)

Migration works in many ways, both North to South back in the colonisation
days, South to North nowadays, West to East during the Lebensraum era, East
to West after the fall of the Berlin wall.

What goes around, comes around.

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx, Halle, Belgium

 ----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
 Subject: Culture

Dear Lowlanders,

In my opinion, Luc's response (above) opens up the question of privacy.

The perception and boundaries of privacy vary greatly among the world's
cultures, as I came to find out through personal experience with vastly
different cultures. In many cases, this puts into question our notion of
"personal property." In some cultures there is no such thing as "personal
property." Everything is shared communally. At the tail end of the Cultural
Revolution in China, I had to realize that there was no way of barring male
Chinese entering my room without knocking, that asking them not to do so
would be tantamount to gross antisocial behavior. ("So, what is it you're
trying to hide?")

Europe, and urbanized Western Europe in particular, has a very strongly
developed sense of privacy that goes hand in hand with the notion of
personal property and liberty. I daresay that this is particularly strongly
developed in our Lowlands, arguably most strongly in Britain and in former
British colonies. It is the resulting mindset that has been in conflict
alternative cultures.

I'm merely offering this up for consideration and discussion.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

=========================================================
Send posting submissions to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.
Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
Send commands (including "signoff lowlands-l") to
listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or lowlands.list at gmail.com
http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html .
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=118916521473498
===============================================================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20110620/d3b26bdc/attachment.htm>