Monday, September 15, 2003
Cultural Identity
Just completed a voluntary questionnaire for the French website ViaMichelin, which incidentally is a great site for European roadmaps and town plans, as well as route planning, hotels etc.
I was interested in the different cultural slant on hobbies and interests (from what I'm used to with a UK-based organisation), which gives an insight into our similarities and differences:Quels sont vos centres d'intérêts? [What are your interests?]
Animaux de compagnie [pets]
Associatif, caritatif [community or charity work]
Auto, moto [cars, motorbikes]
Beauté, santé [beauty, health]
Bourse, placements, assurances [the stock market, investments]
Bricolage, jardinage, décoration [DIY, gardening, decorating]
Cinéma, vidéos, télévision
Informatique [information technology]
Jeux de hasard, loteries [gambling, lotteries]
Jeux vidéo [video games]
Lecture (livres, journaux, presse magazine) [reading = books, newspapers, news weeklies]
Mode, vêtements [fashion, clothes]
Musique
Nouvelles technologies [new technologies]
Sorties (concerts, théâtre, spectacles) [going to shows]
Sport
Vins, gastronomie [wines, good food]
Voyages, vacances, tourisme [travelling, holidays, tourism] I don't remember any UK questionnaires asking whether I was interested in beauty and health, or gambling. Significant by their absence are things like pubbing/clubbing, galleries/museums and arts/crafts.
I guess it may just be that they've only listed those activities that might make me prey to internet marketing, but I'd be interested to collect similar lists from other countries - just to get an idea of the different cultural emphases.
posted by Plig |
11:25 |
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Forget the sentimental notion that foreign policy is a struggle between virtue and vice, with virtue bound to win.
Forget the utopian notion that a brave new world without power politics will follow the unconditional surrender of wicked nations.
Forget the crusading notion that any nation, however virtuous and powerful, can have the mission to make the world in its own image.
Remember that diplomacy without power is feeble, and power without diplomacy is destructive and blind.
Remember that no nation's power is without limits, and hence that its policies must respect the power and interests of others.
Hans Morgenthau
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts
Bertrand Russell
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one
Albert Einstein
When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative
Martin Luther King Jr.
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man
Bertrand Russell
I think it would be a good idea
Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun
Pablo Picasso
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others
Groucho Marx
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it
Mahatma Gandhi
Always make new mistakes
Esther Dyson
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