Culture Differences

Culture Differences

People belonging to different cultures have different ways of expressing themselves. For example, a left hand handshake is considered as a disrespectful act in the Middle East. However, it might have another meaning in other cultures. Bowing is another way of expressing greeting instead of a handshake in some nations. Although some cultures might have a slightly different form of expression from another, there are huge cultural differences between the United States and Qatar; this is mainly because of the huge distance that separates these communities, thereby hindering any form of interaction.

First, the most popular food that is found in almost every meal in Qatar is rice. On the other hand, the Americans’ most popular meal comprises of a variety of potatoes such as French fries, mashed Potatoes and baked potatoes. However, some food and drinks are prohibited in Qatar; for example, all alcoholic beverages and bacon products. On the other hand, drinking of alcoholic beverages at twenty-one is legal and the bacon meat is allowed in the United States. Next, the formal dress for men in the United States is a suit with a tie. However, in Qatar the formal wearing for men is a traditional white dress called thob in Arabic, while it is common for men in the United States to wear jeans and a T-shirts. The thob is also worn as a casual wear in Qatar. The women in the United States have much freedom of wearing many types of clothes in public. On the other hand, women in Qatar are limited in choices and usually cover most of their body from head to foot with a traditional black over garment. This is usually because of religious reasons, which term tight covering as indecent exposure.

Finally, the ethnic diversity in Qatar is tremendous. The Qatari’s are only twenty percent or less of the total population of two million. The majority of people in Qatar are from Asia, such as India, Philippines, Pakistan, and Indonesia. The labor force in Qatar is the majority and can be divided in building constructors and house labors. In the United States, the Americans are divided into Caucasians, African American, Latin American, and Asians. People from the United States share a common nationality but have different cultures. This is evident by the cultural differences exhibited between the African Americans and the Latin Americans.

In conclusion, the cultural differences between the Americans and the Qataris are very men. They range from the type of foods taken to the formal and casual wears adorned in these nations. The differences in cultures are possibly due to the great divide that separates the two nations. Lack of interaction between the two nations makes it impossible for a people of a certain culture to borrow certain aspects of another culture.

 

Wikipedia Is Not a Reliable Source

The demand for information and knowledge in the twenty first century has risen exponentially. This has resulted in the establishment of numerous sources of information, with most of them being in form of websites. One such source of information is the Wikipedia organization that will be celebrating its tenth anniversary on January 15, 2011 (Relaxnews 1). Wikipedia.org is an illegitimate source of searching for trustworthy information over the internet. There are many reasons that make Wikipedia be considered as an illegitimate source. These are; it can be modified by anyone, the information changes over time, and the articles are not categorized onto any level of education.

Wikipedia cannot be considered as a trustworthy source because its legitimate sources are termed as sources that give trustworthy information. For example, a news website, library database, and books. The information gotten from Wikipedia cannot be relied upon thus rendering it illegitimate.

Second, Wikipedia is an open-source, which makes it easy to be rewritten repeatedly; however, some of the edited information could be false with no facts or enough evidence. For example, a hater of a certain topic on Wikipedia.org could easily change its information. Furthermore, anyone is capable of editing his/her ideas or expressing a biased opinion on a given matter. This ends up in changing the idea that was posted by the original author. This is evidenced by John Seigenthaler, who attests that, “I had heard for weeks from teachers, journalists and historians about the wonderful world of Wikipedia, where millions of people worldwide visit daily for quick reference facts, composed and posted by people with no special expertise or knowledge – and sometimes by people with malice.” (41).

Third, the information changes rapidly in Wikipedia, which makes the sourcing unreliable. The link for the sourced information might be changed or even removed completely from the Wikipedia source. The articles searched on Wikipedia.org today could be different tomorrow. According to Randall Stross, “The egalitarian nature of a system that accords equal votes to everyone in the “community”- middle-school student and Nobel laureate alike – has difficulty resolving intellectual disagreements.” (43).

Finally, the information in Wikipedia.org is not categorized by age or education level; as a result, people with low education levels might find it hard to read or understand articles from higher educational levels. Since the website does not require the viewer to verify their age, unsupervised children can gain access to inappropriate materials that are usually posted. Flagging of inappropriate material usually takes a longer time than normal.

In conclusion, the Wikipedia website as a source of information cannot be considered as legitimate because the information that is posted cannot be relied upon. This is because the information is vulnerable to distortion and change as the original posted article can be accessed by anyone and can be changed anyhow. This unreliability is what makes the source be depicted as an illegitimate source of academic reference.

Works Cited

Relaxnews. “Wikipedia celebrates 10th anniversary with events across the globe.” The Independent. 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2011.

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