Two Different Aged Sides of the Same Coin
This week I went to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors and the Mausoleum of Qinshihuang, the first emperor of united China. I happened to be there at the same time one of the Chinese interns was visiting with her family so I got to learn much through spending time with her in Xi'an. The main thing being that despite our cultures being very different, we are also very similar. These similarities stem from what I would call almost universal truths for humans. An example is that we all want to know our food is fresh and clean. In America, this is shown through labels on food packaging and restaurants with their grades of freshness and cleanliness. We also have food refrigerated and kept at certain temperatures to make sure that they do not go bad. Meanwhile, in China, the freshness of the food is shown through you being able to see the food being prepared. For example, when I was walking down the street in the Muslim quarter in Xi'an, there were (mostly) whole, skinned, sheep hanging from trees. There were men with knives who were methodically cutting strips of meat off the animal and handing it directly to the person over the grill who was cooking the sheep for waiting customers. When I expressed my concern about the temperature outside (it was around 100 degrees Fahrenheit) for the meat to my friend, she said that the Chinese do not care because they are showing the freshness by carving it in the street. Her observation seemed to be correct since by the time we left there were multiple skeletons hanging where the previous sheep were and more sheep had been put up beside them.
Our relationships are also very similar, although through different ways. She was not very fond of her young male cousin who was 10 years old. Partially, this was because he was coddled by her family which would do anything for him. This is because in Chinese culture, boys are considered more important. This makes sense when looking at the history where females would leave the household after marriage and the men were the ones to stay and take care of the family. This has only been increased by the one child policy which has led to families having to depend on maybe one male per generation. Meanwhile in America, we often have the same differing treatment between males and females. Females are often given more rules and supposed to grow up faster than boys and help with domestic life. This can cause some similar frictions between siblings and cousins for the differing of treatment. This treatment in the United States can often be traced back to Christianity where in the culture women were and are expected to obey and serve men. Although this treatment came from different backgrounds it is very similar between the two countries.
This week at work, I started to research laws on child pornography throughout the world. Something I found very interesting is that there are more than 20 countries which have yet to create any law forbidding child pornography. These countries tend to be developing which could explain why there is a lack of legislation. The other countries' laws addressed child pornography on multiple points such as criminality, definition, whether possession is a crime, if distribution is a crime, and if Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") are required to report suspected child pornography. At first, I did not understand why ISPs were important enough in the taking down of child pornography to be legislated about. But, once I researched more it made sense. ISPs would be able to track and see more of what was on their service than those who only accessed the service, such as a police person. If ISPs were mandated to report child pornography it could help police track down more distributors and those who made the pornography. Although I do not know how helpful this mandated reporting system is, I believe that any assistance to the stopping of child pornography is good assistance as long as it does not go against someone's rights or places too heavy of a burden.
This week I learned how similar humans are even if we are from different cultural backgrounds and about the differing laws on child pornography. I also learned that people are just like two sides of the same coin, although the picture might be different we are still made of the same material and ideals. Although, the two sides cab differ in age, which affects how the picture looks. This is like China and the United States with China's culture being much older, which creates a different looking side.
