Received: from exchange1.doe.mass.edu (doe.mass.edu [134.241.180.4]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with ESMTP id h1PM3LP16363 for <nifl-esl@nifl.gov>; Tue, 25 Feb 2003 17:03:21 -0500 (EST) Received: by doe.mass.edu with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) id <FH63GYMH>; Tue, 25 Feb 2003 17:03:14 -0500 Message-ID: <DE4FCD18CD7FD4118C8C00D0B774DDA409EEC764@doe.mass.edu> From: "Lalyre, Yvonne L" <YLalyre@doe.mass.edu> To: "'nifl-esl@nifl.gov'" <nifl-esl@nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8613] RE: Re: War as a cross-cultural issue Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 17:01:59 -0500 Return-Receipt-To: "Lalyre, Yvonne L" <YLalyre@doe.mass.edu> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Status: O Content-Length: 1536 Lines: 32 America is a continent, not a country. Yvonne Mass. DOE. -----Original Message----- From: Ujwala Samant [mailto:usamant@comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 8:22 AM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8612] Re: War as a cross-cultural issue I think there is a spectrum of knowledge of politics, history and geography amongst students in America. While most know a little bit (or a lot) about where their ancestors came from, international geography and history are not things they know very much about. An example, using the first Persian Gulf war. Students in a (primarily upper classmen and graduate students) class on cross-cultural psychology at Syracuse University wanted to know "What a Kuwait was?" when war was declared. They were even more shocked to know that their country was not helping create or defend a democracy, rather handing a kingdom back to one of the most spoiled and detested Emirs of the Arab world, all to keep their petrol prices down. Having lived here (America) for long periods of time since 1984, I have observed that the one thing that each conflict that America has been involved in has done for this country as a whole is, improved a knowledge of world geography. As far as God Bless America for being the country where a government sponsored listserv serves as a forum for discussion, please be aware that this also happens in most of Europe, in Asian countries such as India, etc. Perhaps we need to brush our own knowledge of the world? Regularly? regards Ujwala Samant
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