Culture Snack

"Tafadhali, repeat only in whispers."

One speaks of his/her "culture," points to what it has achieved in education.  Are its people on the list of the most highly educated or -- in the 21st century -- trailing the most highly educated?  Are its people noted for winning Nobel Prizes in medicine, in science, in technology or any field that requires the use of the brain or does the culture emphasize running and jumping?

And if a person heard a basketball being bounced on a sidewalk at midnight or on a city bus or in a restaurant or in a public bathroom would that person automatically assume that someone from a particular "culture" was bouncing that basketball?

Has any literature or music created by the writers and musicians of that "culture" equaled the great literature and great music of men and women of other cultures?  Are the people of that "culture" depending on food, clothing, shelter, and jobs from people of other cultures because their "culture" has not produced any grocery stores and restaurants, building materials or businesses?

Are the people of that "culture" so intellectually meek that they can't tolerate self-criticism, and -- because of this -- are destined to not improve but to disappear?

Cultures do not come from some voice in the clouds; they're created by men and women.  If the "culture" of a particular group isn't producing the needs of its people, then those people's "leaders" are at fault.