Devaluing of our Culture 6 comments

28 Nov 2004 @ 01:56, by Salama Shaquana We are a few weeks away from Christmas and for most us who live in so called Christian Societies it is a time of celebration. For many the religious message is not always strong but we all enjoy the giving of presents, the decorations, the sharing with family and friends and the celebration of the closing of one year and coming of the New Year. We all love shopping and going into shopping centres festooned with Christmas trees, Santa Claus and carol singing. Over the past few years however this part of our celebration has been highjacked and our spiritual and local culture diminished as a result. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, for those of us who live in multicultural societies (where however the existing culture and religious background is Christian) we have been forced to give up or water down our celebrations for fear of offending people who hold other beliefs. This is offending people who have migrated to our country to find a better life. We welcome them with open arms but their migrating to my homeland shouldn’t mean the end of my culture, my beliefs and my celebrations. When shopping centre owners are fearful of decorating their centres and playing carols for fear of losing trade because the local Muslim community may be offended this is out of balance. If I move to a strict Muslim country the locals don’t give a fig about my Christian beliefs and I wouldn’t expect them to change their ways because I moved there. Why then am I expected to concede in my country? Secondly, how sad that some children are not permitted to sit on Santa Clauses knee because of the blight of paedophiles. Yes this actually happens. There are department stores in my country that will not let their store Santa’s touch the children who come to see them for fear they may be sued. How sad is that. What have we created??? Thirdly, we have allowed greedy multi-national businesses (shopping centre owners and department stores) to use the above excuses to cut back on celebrations in the name of saving money. We should boycott their establishment. This is the environment I left behind last week when I travelled to Malaysia on business. I go to Malaysia often – monthly in fact for the last seven months but this is the first time I have been there just prior to Christmas. What a surprise was in store for me. As you know Malaysia is predominately a Muslim country albeit a moderate one. That said, the local Muslims are just as committed to their faith and practices as any other. So you can imagine my surprise to see Kuala Lumper a sea of lights – beautiful decorations everywhere. Any number of shopping centres and small shops festooned with Christmas decorations, Christmas trees and with carols booming out via in-house music systems. It was just lovely. In fact my travelling partner was singing along with the music in almost every shop she went into, to the amusement of the locals. So this begs a question – why can Malaysians recognise and celebrate multi faiths openly and we can’t? Have we allowed the political correct and moral minority too much power? Have we allowed greed to drive change? I think we know the answer – the question is – what are we going to do about taking back our power before it is too late?

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