But likewise, they'd be telling stories to their friends back home  
after a trip to the US about how we had no concept of even the most  
well-known Malawian cultural references, and ribbing each other about  
Malawian cultural imperialism.

Jim

On Apr 7, 2006, at 4:14 PM, don spence wrote:

> Joy,  that's what some people call "cultural Imperialism". I just  
> call it good old American Naivet� .
>
>  The expectation that "everyone should be just like us, think just  
> like us" is a quality that is both humorous and annoying to the  
> rest of the people of the world.
>
>
>
>
> On 7-Apr-06, at 2:21 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>
>> Joy Hecht wrote:
>>
>>> The weird thing is, I took a photo around two weeks ago, here in  
>>> Malawi, of
>>> a rainbow ending in front of trees - the other end was in the  
>>> middle of a
>>> road, and I have a picture with a car driving through it. (Mine  
>>> are nothing
>>> as good as the ones on that website, though.)
>>>
>>> I'd never seen a rainbow end in front of anything before!
>>>
>>> And of course no pot of gold.  The funny thing is that Malawians  
>>> don't have
>>> the idea that there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.   
>>> When I've
>>> shown my photo to expats here they all ask about the pot of gold,  
>>> and the
>>> Malawians all look kind of blank because they don't know what we  
>>> mean.
>>>
>>> It's funny, the kinds of cultural differences you'd never think  
>>> of if you
>>> didn't come across them by chance.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Joy
>>>
>>> ****************************************************************
>>> Joy Hecht
>>> and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon
>>>
>>> For musings about life and the vanadventures:
>>> http://www.joyhecht.net
>