Civilisations clash a fact, ongoing
Ler Lian WeePublished: Apr 7, 2006 4:38 PM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
I refer to the article Whose clash of civilisations?
I wish to point out certain matters. Korea though has large Christian population who are highly nationalistic in a deep Confucius way. The Christianity it practices has been morphed to fit Korea's existing traditions. Nationalism does not preclude cultural/civilisation affinity. My personal experience is that, Koreans are proud of their culture but also acknowledge their cultural affinity to cultures of the Sinic civilization.
Ukraine as mentioned in Hungtington's book, is a "cleft country". Its population is divided between orthodox, Russian-speaking West and Europeanised Ukrainian-speaking East. The supporters of a pro-Western government are exclusively Eastern Ukrainian.
Most Colour Revolutions in the former Soviet republics are the results of corrupt, existing governments. The overthrow of corrupt governments is surely not equivalent to denying one's cultural affinity. On the other hand, many of these countries belonged to Islamic or Western rather than Orthodox civilisations. So, Hong's argument on this point does not disprove Huntington's hypothesis.
It's true that Europeans in general are not as religious as Americans. However their values, social structures are of Judeo-Christian origin. Europeans disapproved America's invasion of Iraq; this is a moral choice. But European countries, when facing their growing Muslim population, opted for an assimilation policy. This is a strong indication of one's cultural affinity and a clash of civilisations. Another example would be their reluctance to accept Turkey (Islamic) into the European Union.
The clash of Islamic and Western civilisations is a fact and ongoing. I live in Canada. Though the majority of Canadians oppose the invasion of Iraq, they believe that Islamic world should accept democracy, freedom of religion, rights for women, abolish polygamy etc.
Let's not judge whether these are good reforms. But when a society believes others should imitate their society, to become the same as them, this indicates a clash of civilisations. In conclusion, every country has its own nationalistic sentiment, its own political view. But the civilisational affinity proposed by Huntington is still true. We hope to avoid any major inter-civilisational conflicts. But in terms of Huntington's hypothesis, no revision is necessary at this point.
I wish to point out certain matters. Korea though has large Christian population who are highly nationalistic in a deep Confucius way. The Christianity it practices has been morphed to fit Korea's existing traditions. Nationalism does not preclude cultural/civilisation affinity. My personal experience is that, Koreans are proud of their culture but also acknowledge their cultural affinity to cultures of the Sinic civilization.
Ukraine as mentioned in Hungtington's book, is a "cleft country". Its population is divided between orthodox, Russian-speaking West and Europeanised Ukrainian-speaking East. The supporters of a pro-Western government are exclusively Eastern Ukrainian.
Most Colour Revolutions in the former Soviet republics are the results of corrupt, existing governments. The overthrow of corrupt governments is surely not equivalent to denying one's cultural affinity. On the other hand, many of these countries belonged to Islamic or Western rather than Orthodox civilisations. So, Hong's argument on this point does not disprove Huntington's hypothesis.
It's true that Europeans in general are not as religious as Americans. However their values, social structures are of Judeo-Christian origin. Europeans disapproved America's invasion of Iraq; this is a moral choice. But European countries, when facing their growing Muslim population, opted for an assimilation policy. This is a strong indication of one's cultural affinity and a clash of civilisations. Another example would be their reluctance to accept Turkey (Islamic) into the European Union.
The clash of Islamic and Western civilisations is a fact and ongoing. I live in Canada. Though the majority of Canadians oppose the invasion of Iraq, they believe that Islamic world should accept democracy, freedom of religion, rights for women, abolish polygamy etc.
Let's not judge whether these are good reforms. But when a society believes others should imitate their society, to become the same as them, this indicates a clash of civilisations. In conclusion, every country has its own nationalistic sentiment, its own political view. But the civilisational affinity proposed by Huntington is still true. We hope to avoid any major inter-civilisational conflicts. But in terms of Huntington's hypothesis, no revision is necessary at this point.
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