Damn those Documentries....

It has been almost two months since I arrived in Paris and things have been great so far. I still have my doubts about coming to this school but I really have cherished the opportunity to interact with people from all over the world. That said and done, I tried to do some background check on some of the cultures, just out of curiosity, and the stupid mistake I did was to watch some historical documentaries. Well few of them were pertaining to communism (i donno y but i always have had a certain fascination for Communism, Nazi , Fascist that kind of crap), so they talked a lot about China and Russia. Maybe this was not the best of topics to pick up if you want to know more about China, as all this documentary showed was gore and suffering. So after watching it, I talked to my chinese pals about their point of view, I realized that the Communist party has caused a lot of suffering but still it has been very effective in many aspects such as the economic development. They feel that China has no future without the party and the general consensus towards the party is amicable. Well if you watch "History Channel - Declassified, Tiananmen Square" , you would be confused as this is the same Communist Party which had opened fire on democratic demonstrators.. an incident which is still internationally criticized.
See my point?

Another case... one of them showed how Indonesia invaded East Timor and did genocide , just because they didn't want the small country to create an example in the region ("http://www.boogieonline.com/revolution/multi/war/etimor" provides a summary). I have a few friends from Indonesia at the school and I don't think they will be comfortable in talking to me about this topic. But I cant help in creating a negative image in my mind so I will definitely hear their opinion about this issue sooner or later.

Now I feel it's much better to talk to people if you want to know more about their culture and history. Creating stereotypes in your mind for people by watching stuff on television is just plain stupid.

It was really funny to hear the stereotypes they have for Indians from a lot of them (specially the Brazilians).... snakecharmers and Cow- worshippers..
LOL