Ah yes, cbfk! Music! One of my favourite things and an excellent way to reach across cultural divides. Here's a group that was all the rave here a few years back. Not only do they mix nationality and genre, but religion too. Especially the video shows that we all have the same human needs for love etc. They really helped people understand and not fear "foreigners" here. I think the lead singer is pretty cute, too!. Haha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu077-j95k8

From wiki:

Outlandish are a multi-award winning hip-hop group based in Denmark. Formed in 1997, they consist of Isam Bachiri (born in Denmark and of Moroccan background), Waqas Ali Qadri (born in Denmark and of Pakist...

Ah yes, cbfk! Music! One of my favourite things and an excellent way to reach across cultural divides. Here's a group that was all the rave here a few years back. Not only do they mix nationality and genre, but religion too. Especially the video shows that we all have the same human needs for love etc. They really helped people understand and not fear "foreigners" here. I think the lead singer is pretty cute, too!. Haha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu077-j95k8

From wiki:

Outlandish are a multi-award winning hip-hop group based in Denmark. Formed in 1997, they consist of Isam Bachiri (born in Denmark and of Moroccan background), Waqas Ali Qadri (born in Denmark and of Pakistani background), and Lenny Martinez (born in Honduras, and is of Cuban and Honduran descent.). All three members are devoutly religious, Isam and Waqas being Muslims, and Lenny being Catholic.

(My cat is also named after this song, which I have probably mentioned a hundred times before.) .

Just to make sure there's no "culture gap" here among us clippers, I should probably also explain:

The Danish sense of humour. `We laugh about things that other people would feel offended about. We can joke about religion, about politics, about people, about religion, about anything. Other countries and cultures are too easily offended. Our prime minister features in newspaper cartoons on an almost daily basis, and definitely not in the most flattering way. But instead of reprimanding the newspapers, he admits that he finds it all quite amusing. I think that one of the Danish virtues is the ability to step back and laugh at things. There`s no need to take life more serious than it is...

Just to make sure there's no "culture gap" here among us clippers, I should probably also explain:

The Danish sense of humour. `We laugh about things that other people would feel offended about. We can joke about religion, about politics, about people, about religion, about anything. Other countries and cultures are too easily offended. Our prime minister features in newspaper cartoons on an almost daily basis, and definitely not in the most flattering way. But instead of reprimanding the newspapers, he admits that he finds it all quite amusing. I think that one of the Danish virtues is the ability to step back and laugh at things. There`s no need to take life more serious than it is.` Nikolaj think that young Danes are good at `picking the day`: living life as it comes and taking one step at a time.

He means "seizing the day" and not getting your knickers in a knot over our differences and eing able to laugh at ourselves..That's btw, why we got in trouble with the Muhammad Cartoons. "Our" Muslims were really good at explaining to other perhaps more extreme Muslims overseas though, that we meant no malice. It's just our way fully appreciating and utilising free speech. .

@thisnamecantbetaken

Buffalaxed!

I had to look that up. Pretty darn wild and crazy.

The only U.S. samples I found weren't as exciting as YouTubes music videos from India or Japan I readily found, but seemed to focus more on distorting or changing the words of someone to say something else, something crazy, something the opposite of their position or offensive (by normal standards)

Nice word! I like it. Sounds like it would be fun to do.

Re: Native American Indians.
Well...it was all you say and worse. One thing I'll add was that it wasn't just rooted in fear or ignorance but rooted in the desire for their land, their territory.

Folks wanted their land. They also wanted gold.

The fir...

@thisnamecantbetaken

Buffalaxed!

I had to look that up. Pretty darn wild and crazy.

The only U.S. samples I found weren't as exciting as YouTubes music videos from India or Japan I readily found, but seemed to focus more on distorting or changing the words of someone to say something else, something crazy, something the opposite of their position or offensive (by normal standards)

Nice word! I like it. Sounds like it would be fun to do.

Re: Native American Indians.
Well...it was all you say and worse. One thing I'll add was that it wasn't just rooted in fear or ignorance but rooted in the desire for their land, their territory.

Folks wanted their land. They also wanted gold.

The first Spanish settlers and invaders to the Americas found so much silver and gold it's impossible to calculate.

Gold was so common in some areas that the early American natives used it to make cups and plates.

It meant little to them. But when the Spanish took it back to Spain it made them SuperRich.

(But the early settlers here, as you say, the English & Spanish, were also freaked out by Indian culture and lifestyles -- truly thinking them pagans who needed to be converted, or worse, sons of the devil who needed to be destroyed)

Anyhow...Food.

Food, I thought, was another way cultures quickly mix.
Music & food. When I had my first fallafel while passing through Amsterday, I thought to myself, "Gosh, this is a pretty good thing."

Seeing obvious achievements:buildings

When I saw the Alhambra in Spain I thought a similar thing. "Wow, these folks sure could make a fine building.

I guess the general idea is seeing the Achievements and experiencing nice things of other cultures -- experiencing festivals, etc. helps see they have value.

But, I don't know...maybe more is needed??? But I think such participation and experiences are good starts.

Learning some of the language is good too.

Humm...I just thought of another thing: Dance...dancing with folks of other cultures.

(cont.)

Dancing...I thought of that because I now live next to Apaches and previously to Pueblo Indians (two totally different types of people)

The biggest bond with the Pueblos (Taos Pueblos) was when getting invited to an incredible festival that had all day dancing, music, and an endless supply of free food for all, in their homes.

The Apaches (with a warlike tradition) are harder to get to know, but even here it was dancing together with them that helped me 'break the ice."

At Pow-Wow dances white folks don't just go out and enter their dance contests but always at the end of the day is one big common dance where everyone is invited to join in; and that was great and a lot of fun, tr...

(cont.)

Dancing...I thought of that because I now live next to Apaches and previously to Pueblo Indians (two totally different types of people)

The biggest bond with the Pueblos (Taos Pueblos) was when getting invited to an incredible festival that had all day dancing, music, and an endless supply of free food for all, in their homes.

The Apaches (with a warlike tradition) are harder to get to know, but even here it was dancing together with them that helped me 'break the ice."

At Pow-Wow dances white folks don't just go out and enter their dance contests but always at the end of the day is one big common dance where everyone is invited to join in; and that was great and a lot of fun, trotting around with a mob of Indians all dressed up in their most colorful traditional garb.

(Note: Indian dancing and parties was definately one of the things the early Christian settlers over here though was 'savage,' pagan and devil worship.)

In fact, though, free style Indian dancing is just like rock 'n' roll -- and that was though 'the devil's work,' too, when it first came on the scene.

I'm now thinking the festivals are more a bridge than just food. Out here we eat lots of Mexican food but that made no real bond...but going to a Mexican fiesta and a Mexican baptism was a real cool thing.

(P.S - If you ever just want to hang out with some Apache teenagers, bring along some Heavy Metal music and you'll be the life of the party).