A baffling world
> The East and West seem to be on entirely different planets when it comes to the matter of opinions and perceptions
WHEN it comes to Twitter, Chinese authorities can be a little schizophrenic. From China: “The giant has awakened! Let the world tremble!”
Also from China: “We banned your tweet because it may cause our civilisation to collapse.”
I totally don’t get that country. Their messages are too mixed.
Mind you, the whole world is baffling these days, with news items highlighting the many differences between East and West.
One of these defining differences of the modern era is on the question: “What is your position on cow poop?”
Two news items that arrived in my inbox on the same morning highlighted the two main opinions.
An angry farmer used a farm machine to spray ‘a wave of manure’ all over a law enforcement officer’s vehicle, said an Aug 3 news item from Vermont in the United States.
The farmer’s action caused widespread disgust, commentators said.
However, according to the second news item from Rajasthan in India, high court judge Mahesh Chand Sharma was singing the praises of cow poop earlier this summer.
The judge declared that covering your house with cow dung has huge benefits and will even make it radiation proof against radioactive beams.
Clearly, that US farmer should move to Asia and bring his dung-spraying machine.
What other news items highlight East-West differences?
A colleague pointed out that the US TV reality series Married a Stranger in now playing on screens in Asia.
“But marrying a stranger is normal in much of South Asia,” she said.
To have the same shock effect, she suggested starting a reality TV series called I Married Someone I Knew.
Reader Amitava Bose noted that the US beauty contestant who said “marriage is between a man and a woman” was
Iconsidered by Westerners to have said something utterly outrageous, while people from the East were left scratching their heads.
“In the West, failure to be politically correct is a far worse crime than murder,” said Bose.
I was sceptical of this, but he pointed out that the western media is beside itself with hysteria at US President Donald Trump who says politicallyincorrect things but has not murdered anyone.
The exact same media worships the ground walked on by former US president Barack Obama, who was politically correct but committed extrajudicial murder (he got his men to sneak into Pakistan and execute Osama bin Laden and four others, including a woman). Good point. Bose said that if I were ever arrested for assassinating someone in a western country (unlikely), my best defence would be to say something like: “I supported transgender rights before it was cool.”
I, on my part, who have roughly equal numbers of friends who are Eastern and westernised, liberal and conservative, tend to avoid these controversial issues.
But I was delighted to hear about a case in Mumbai that should keep all sides happy.
A woman named Aarav Appukuttan felt her personality was male. A man named Sukanyeah Krishna felt his personality was female.
They went independently to a clinic in Mumbai for gender reassignment – but met and fell in love, the media reported.
Now the man-turned-woman plans to marry the womanturned-man. Their case stomps violently on tradition.
But even as liberals cheer loudly, ultimately, the couple’s case will end up with a male marrying a female, so conservatives can also cheer loudly.
Everybody’s happy, just like the bride in her macho suit, and the groom in his pretty dress.
Nury Vittachi is an Asia-based frequent traveller. Send ideas and comments to lifestyle.nury@ thesundaily.com.