The Swiss Colony of Uruguay

Recently I bought a spice package to make Chicken Tikka Masala. I bought it at Walmart (a US company) in Canada. The package was manufacturered in Poland. Chicken Tikka Masala was "invented" in Britain using Indian traditional spices. Globalization and cultural appropriation are the antithesis of each other. One is celebrated (by big business), the other is decried (by liberal academia). A few years back, my wife was in Burkina Faso. She bought a beautiful hand-stitched West-African style shirt from the tailor who made it. He was grateful for the sale and they had a wonderful conversation (in French). I've only worn it a few times. Despite everything being positive in acquiring the shirt, it feels like that style belongs to someone from a different culture. I've had the opportunity to visit some Hindu Temples and some Mosques. We were welcomed and conversations were mutually respectful and very interesting. With any sharing of cultures there needs to be respect on both sides for it to work. That, unfortunately, isn't always the case. So, as a Canadian of German and British descent (200 years ago), whose culture do I belong to? Am I allowed to eat potatos and corn? -- they aren't european! tl;dr: I don't buy "cultural appropriation" as a whole. "Cultural disrespect" is rampant and can be addressed with honest communication.

Michael Steeves

Uruguay is made up of many communities. There is a town called Nueva Berlin. Another called Young. Montevideo has (or had) many cultural associations like Casa Gallega or the Lebanese Association. My mother used to attend a Maronite church. There are religious communities like the Mennonites. Our neighbour were followers of the Waldenses. One was a Seventh Day Adventist. Another was the son of a German who had emigrated following the first world war. An aquaintance of my uncle was a Pied-noir who left Algeria following independance. The big football teams are Nacional and Peñarol but there is also Wanderers and Liverpool. My father used to play rugby at the Montevideo Cricket Club. There is also a Jewish basketball team - Maccabbi. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that Uruguay is homogenous and on the surface it looks that way but there are many stories there and your shows are helping to tell them. Thanks.

xnfec

Thanks for the great video, it reminds me of something from my college days a few years back. (Long comment incoming) I want to talk about cultural appropriation. I went to a very liberal college, one of the ones in the Pacific northwest. I’m sure many of you know the type. One of the taboo subjects around there was cultural appropriation. It was this great evil to be avoided, that I should always stay away from other’s cultures for fear of offending them or those around them. I think the worry was that people’s cultures are specific to them. Culture contains their history, their struggles, and their families. I had none of those in common with them so I didn’t share their culture. But what I never got was the visceral attachment to that culture. Shouldn’t people be excited to share what makes their history interesting? Isn’t it better to take the good food and dance and fashion from everyone so that we can be a closer society? Wasn’t the whole point of the USA melting pot that of sharing and becoming a single new culture. There could be diversity within that, but we would still be in that pot together. Whenever I would bring this up in hushed tones I was kindly struck down and told much of what I described above; about history and family. This video did a better job of providing an example than I ever did in my arguments. I think it is a wonderful thing to share culture and brew a new one in that proverbial pot. But clearly there is a line. It would have been disrespectful for Andrew Jackson to wear an Indian headdress and mock sounds from an Indian festival. After all he was directly responsible for their persecution, their culture was not his to partake. He refused to come eat from the shared pot. But now as things grow closer, as history blurs the lines of cultures, is it not better for us all to try and mix? When can we be sure we have reasonably crossed to the other side of that line. I think it comes down to what those with the separate cultures are willing to share. I won’t ever do something that would make someone feel as though I have mocked their culture. I just want it to stop dividing us. And more than that I want to know why they would be offended, and I want them to look beyond those reasons and be willing to melt together. I know some of it is still about deep seeded racial inequalities, and some of it is people cling to what makes them unique. How can I ever talk them down into wanting to be a part of a more cohesive society? What needs to change to make it more inviting? Or am I wrong and this is a bad idea? Is cultural appropriation really truly something to take great offense at and I struggle to see that because I’m coming from a privileged culture? Thoughts?