When we talk about civilization, it’s not about technology, or the high-rise we build, or the scientific discoveries me made. It’s about the way we live, how we talk to one another, making decisions that would avoid conflict at all costs. You don’t go to other people’s country, accusing them of having a Weapon of Mass Destruction, steal their oil and call yourself civilized! From the beginning of time, the Europians have been having this false assumptions that they are the centre of everything. This is evident with them calling countries east of the Mediterranean sea “Near East”, Asian countries west of India “Middle East”, Asian countries east of India “Far East”, and North America, the “New World”. The ancient Europenas thought that they were the brightest, most advanced, most civilized people around. The suffixes -ese and -ian were the indication of these. The more derogatory -ese were applied to Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese, Sudanese and Vietnamese, while Americans, Australian, Canadian, German, Italian, Norwegian and Russian gets the upper class treatments. In fact numerous fact already points that China was the first in the world to sail around the world, with what was touted as the biggest sea fleet of the time. General Zheng He, who made a pit stop at Malacca in 1409, discovered America, 70 long years before Christopher Columbus did. China has Japan’s history began more than 5000 years ago, when the Europeans were still in the Dark Ages.
This lop-sided thinking is not only evident among the Caucasians, most Asians do too. I have a number of lady friends of mine who wouldn’t lose a wink about marrying a Westerner, their so-called “civilized men”, who are nothing more than a reject in their own country for failing to find a life partner of their own type.
The truth is people of the third world countries, Asians in particular, have nothing to fear of the Westerners. They do not have to depend on them for everything. When the United Nations proposed that the Security Councils be opened to more Asian countries (I think China, Japan or India), America was the loudest to reject, because America knows that these countries are forces to be reckoned with.
So make a stand for yourselves. Not all European cars are good cars (although I’m not saying Malaysian cars are good! =). Not all German standards are better standards (think, the TUV certification our Savvy gains), and not all Western men are smart.