Cultural Disparity: The System and Human Personal Interests -By Sulaiman Ayuba

Three weeks ago, we had some serious conversations with a friend who’s currently studying in Turkey. We talked about so many things; such as social and political structures, religion, patterns of relationship between foreigners and inhabitants of such a country and man with his culture.

Upon our discussions; I understood something so special about the system everywhere in the world. So many things are found to be so annoying and disgusting amongst sapiens. In the system of almost every country, it’s either outlined in the constitutions or practices that there’s a cordial relationship between countries; be it economical, religious or even cultural. However, the system has done its part, and the believe is that everything will go so well between the foreigners and their citizens in terms of bilateral relations mentioned above (be it economical, social and religious).

Unfortunately, one thing is found missing and need to be carefully scrutinised in the human system. And that’s ‘Cultural tolerance’. Human beings hold different beliefs on someone that shares cultural heritage different from their own. It may sound disgusting to sapiens, to see a culture that is different from their own. They may easily stereotype or stigmatize such culture.

When one is a foreigner, almost so many people in the country he founds himself may think that his culture and orientations are quite different from their own even if some practices are same. For instance, it’s a negative stereotype attached to almost every blackman in countries of Asia that he/she is a sex addict. They rated all blacks as people that can easily engage in a sexual relationship with their family members; be it daughter, wife, or any kind of relatives. They, therefore, distance their relatives from black men. Notwithstanding, the narrative isn’t different in Nigeria also. Whenever we see our relatives close to Whitemen; we either try to be too suspicious, nervous, or do anything handy that will warrant a successful relationship and guarantee no sex before marriage. It’s a negative stereotype attached to the outsiders everywhere; that such people aren’t good. And therefore, our culture is more purified than their own. And others may be seen as strictly polluted because of differences in cultural practices.

However, we were taught to have originated from Adam and Eve. Almost more than half of the world population believed that. So also the republic we came from. That’s why treatise and negotiations were established between these countries. Whereas, being friend to someone may not necessarily mean that you are one. So many people show their differences when it comes to culture. When they’re to establish laws, they will say: everyone is the same and equal in the republic. Whence, the reverse is the case. The laws were just written on papers, not necessarily present in reality. For instance, if you dare attempt to collect house rent from someone, the first thing he will ask you is your religion. Within such religion, he may also ask about your creeds or affiliations. Some months back, I tried to collect a house for rent here in India. The owner asked me whether I’m a vegetarian or not. I told him the truth that I’m not. The other question he asked me was whether I belong to Brahma kumaris (B.K); as a religious organisation or not? I said to him that I’m just a Muslim, nothing more. And to cut the discussion short, I dared him not to ask me whether I belong to Sunni or Shia Muslim creeds. He denied me the rent and I felt free to move on and search for another house.

Humans created cultural differences to confuse others and or create war for their selfish interest. It’s purely sociological that behind every crisis there must be someone benefiting from it. Consequent to that, there’s going to be killings among cultural groups and will lead to the rise and fall of some clans, creeds, and countries. In a more modern way, cultural disparities as engineered by man has led to the destruction of Libya, Syria, and the likes.

Literally, terror comes from fear. As J.J Rousseau said in his idea of “Social Contract”, that man is born free but everywhere, is in chain. You were born free, and as life goes on someone out of his selfish interest will create a problem (culture) that will make you be afraid of him. And this has been demonstrated in so many activities in nowadays world. In football, there’s culture of racism, in love, in businesses, in religious activities and almost everywhere; culture has polluted everything.

What I see in man is two legs and hands; two eyes with nose and mouth. I see no differences in appearances. Yet I see differences in the heart. People treat each other differently, and all these were created out of their selfishness.

Those with the mastery of Anthropology said, “Man was created and he’s the first to live on Earth. He created a culture for himself. And when epochs pass, some of his children began to create more cultures that were quite different from his own”. Cultures such as language constructions were created to manipulate people. Dialects were meant for personal interest to achieve a tribal goal and create the graph of communication. As such, the system is stable, but man always attempts to destroy it out of his selfish interest by creating more cultures that will usher in disparities among humankind.