Conflicting Cultures in Morocco

The world is a colossal place with a great variety of cultures, traditions, and people. Of course every country does things differently, and you hear that all the time through books or movies, but actually experiencing the chance first hand is a whole different story.
This past summer I was presented with the opportunity to travel to Morocco. I had not researched the country at all (asides from knowing that the Disney movie Aladdin takes place there) so i really had no idea what to expect.  Right of the bus, the tour guide had a very aggressive tone of voice with strong gestures, which got the group a little tense. As time went by we discovered that the tour guide wasn't angry, it was just a miscommunication between cultures. While in our American culture speaking loud with sharp annunciation may be seen as an act of aggression, that is just simply how the Moroccans do.
Another conflict other members of my tour group had to deal with were more social. Some females of our group didn't realize Morocco is a Muslim nation were females dress modestly. Being American, they showed up in running shorts and spaghetti straps because it was very hot,  but that lead to some Moroccan males harassing them about being immodest, and they had no choice but to buy something to wear because they weren't in their country and had to assimilate.

Conflict in the Indian Culture

Conflict in the Indian Culture in Reference to Gender Equality

Conflict occurs in every culture regardless of which culture it is, where the people come from, or who the conflict is between. These specifications of the actual conflict, however, do alter how each conflict is approached and handled. Focusing on the Indian culture, it is notorious that the female gender is evidently oppressed and subjugated. Going back centuries into the Indian culture, females have always had the title of being the caretakers, homemakers, and "say yes-ers". Males on the other hand are known to be the guardians of the family name, the source of income, and the sole reason a family ceases to exist. 

As much as I like to think that we live in a modern world with changing thoughts and evolving perceptions about gender equality--not all has changed. I do agree that change is upon us, even in the Indian culture, but a slow, very gradual change. What has come to be seen is the exhaustion of the females in the Indian country. Women are mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted fighting with and having to live up to the female standard, whilst being condemned for being anything but those standards. What this is doing is causing the women of India to take on roles of leadership, education, and independence, not only to spite the backwards old fashioned people in the country, but to also diminish this inequality gap. As an Indian female myself, I hear it all the time. "Why are you in school? Stay home and take care of the house. Get married, find yourself a doctor so you don't have to worry about anything." Nonsense, utter nonsense. 

Not only does this create conflict between generations of family and family beliefs, but also creates a conflict between the females of this culture. Females begin to put another down rather than uplift one another if their beliefs don't align. They point fingers at the woman that is going on to become a successful, educated woman. This conflict has been lingering throughout the Indian culture for decades. Women were meant to stay at home, watch the kids. Men were meant to go to school (maybe), work. In India, "proportion of girls who are able to attend school in India continues to remain low in comparison to that of boys their age" (6). The conflict that lies: where the Indian men have been strengthened to believe in their endeavors, Indian women have become weakened and discouraged from theirs. 

Not to be discouraged, though. The Indian women have been empowered by the shortcomings of their people around them. Indian women have created numerous amounts of campaigns to realign the values of the country and adapt them to the changing values of the world--to finally let women live their lives to their fullest potential. Conflict has not ceased, nor will it ever, but it is becoming less and less prominent. 

Works Cited:

 "Indian Girls Demand Equal Access to Education." UNICEF. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. 

Conflict in the Spanish Culture

Last summer, Octaviano Ramirez traveled to Granada, Spain for a period of 10 weeks. During his trip, he was immersed in and experienced most aspects of the Spanish culture. The following is a summary of the answers from our interview together. 

When asked if he experienced any conflict between his cultural values and that of the Spanish, he said that he felt like he did not have any troubles assimilating to their way of life. His Mexican heritage and practices were very similar to the ones he experienced in Spain. Him speaking fluent Spanish also didn't hurt. I then asked him if he noticed any conflicts within the Spanish culture itself. He responded "There are many internal issues, one being the lack integration between the Gypsy population and the rest of the Spanish population. Creating a tension in their communities and schools." This stems from the beliefs that Gypsies belong to a lower social class than the rest of the population and are uneducated drifters. He also said that "Most Spaniards he met complained about their government, yet didn't do anything about it. They complained about their economic state, but refused to give up  the extravagant privileges that have been afforded to them by their government such as long periods of maternity leave, unemployment checks, and other social programs." 

His responses reaffirm the belief that when differing values, beliefs, and customs, even within a culture can be the source of conflict. The best way to learn how to navigate different cultures is experiencing them first hand. This teaches you how to deal with different cultures you may run into. 

Conflict in Japanese Culture

Travis Howell

The world we live in today is a diverse collection of different countries and cultures, all of which have different values, beliefs, and customs. One thing all of these countries and cultures have in common is that they all experience conflict in some form or another. However, where they tend to differ is the way in which they handle that conflict. Some of these cultures handle conflict in constructive ways that benefit the greater good. Some resort to extreme means of conflict management to further personal agendas. Others simply avoid the issues they encounter in order to save face.

One country that is usually inclined to avoid conflict is Japan. In Personal Identity in Japan Kazumi Sugimura and Shinichi Mizokami explain that the Japanese culture is a collectivist society, where “individual and group goals are often interdependent with one another” (124). This means that when conflict arises, the Japanese must consider the needs and well being of others in addition to their own and avoid compromising the societal balance. In Working Through Conflict: Strategies for Relationships, Groups, and Organizations Folger, Poole and Stutman explain that the Japanese people usually prefer “[conflict management] styles high in cooperativeness and concern for others over competition” (132). Because of this, the Japanese culture tends to rely on avoiding and accommodating styles of conflict management in order to avoid situations that could potentially be detrimental to the community as a whole, even at the expense of personal interests. According to Satomi Nakatsugawa and Jiro Takai in their article Keeping Conflicts Latent, the Japanese people usually accomplish this style of conflict management by keeping potential conflicts to themselves at the salient stage, rather than bring them to the attention of others (44). 

There has often been much debate on the positives and negative impacts of such a conflict management strategy. On one hand of the debate, some argue that an avoidance conflict management strategy may serve to “maintain a harmonious relationship, especially when the relationship is deemed important enough to justify making self-sacrifices” (44). On the other hand, many argue that an avoidance conflict management strategy is a “lose-lose strategy” and is seen as the most ineffective strategy one can use because issues never truly get resolved (43). Regardless of the disagreement between the two sides of this debate, it seems that Japanese culture has found a way to make an avoidance style of conflict management work for them and their culture.

Works Cited

Folger, Joseph P., Marshall Scott Poole, and Randall K. Stutman. Working through Conflict: Strategies For Relationships, Groups, and Organizations. New York: Longman, 1997. Print.

Satomi, Nakatsugawa, and Takai Jiro. "Keeping Conflicts Latent: "Salient" Versus "Non-Salient" Interpersonal Conflict Management Strategies Of Japanese." Intercultural Communication Studies 22.3 (2013): 43-60. Communication Source. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

Sugimura, Kazumi1, and Shinichi2 Mizokami. "Personal Identity In Japan." New Directions For Child & Adolescent Development 2012.138 (2012): 123-143. Education Source. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

Allegra Abbey     

                       Culture and Conflict in the Middle East in Regards to Women and Sports

     Gender plays a large role in culture. In Middle Eastern culture, women are stereotyped as being veiled, segregated, and secluded. Slowly, the Middle Eastern countries are becoming more liberated by female action. Through educational reform and westernization, Middle Eastern women are becoming involved in sports. Conflict has been prevalent between males and females because of the traditional views and attitudes of males (283). Although, Islam originally favored physical development of both males and females, but somewhere throughout time, laws made to restrict females through cultural influences overshadowed that view.  Due to males dominating the Middle Eastern culture, females participation in sports is still exponentially smaller than male participation (287). The conflict involved between men and women fighting for more women’s right, in this case the right to play sports, is always rebutted by ancient Islamic teachings by women. Women are continuously constrained by traditional customs that glorify their purity, body, and virtue.  Because of this, Middle Eastern men believe that that is why women should not play sports. They believe sports are for men only because sports taint the decency of females (295).  The seclusion of women not only deals with sports, but also education. The Middle Eastern male culture believes that women do not need to be education. I believe that without education, nothing in this world will ever get better, just stay the same. Therefore, Middle Eastern women that lack education, because their culture denies them this right, will never have the full opportunity to take control of their own lives to overpower the Middle Eastern men that not only control them but the culture and society that they live in.

Sfeir, Leila. "The Status of Muslim Women in Sport: Conflict between Cultural Tradition and      Modernization." Sage Journals. The University of Texas at Arlington, n.d. Web.