Is Culture Fate?

In preparation for my stay in Syria, I’ve been preparing myself in a variety of ways. One book I’ve been reading about intercultural problems and a guide for Westerners mentions the following:

“A good personal relationship is the most important single factor in doing business successfully with Arabs.”

“You will find it useful to become widely acquainted in business circles and, if you learn to mix business with pleasure, you will soon see how the latter helps the former proceed. In the end, personal contacts lead to more efficiency than following rules or regulations. This is proven over and over again, when a quick telephone call to the right person cuts through lengthy procedures and seemingly insurmountable obstacles.”[1]

The author notes the same for relationships between Westerners and Arabs on a personal, non-business related level. Friendships between Arabs are much “higher maintainence” than between Westerners. Arabs also never say no to a request for a favor or help, but rather “God wiling,” “I’ll try,” etc. A direct no is insulting and makes the other person lose face. Thus, a “yes” from an Arab does not actually mean he’ll do what he’s said. Words and custom are more important whereas in the West, actions speak louder than words as they say.

Upon reading the above cited paragraph, I immediately had to wonder whether this was a cultural difference which can lead to misunderstandings, or a cultural problem of Arabs which has led to their problems? After all, there are indeed very concrete characteristics of failing cultures as I’ve discussed in the past. Could the aforementioned paragraph be hitting upon another? And, at this time, the discusion should be extended to not just the Arab world but the Muslim world as the same things hold true in Iran, Turkey, Central Asia, etc.

First, I’d like to split this into two parts, structural and personal. By structural, I mean business and political structures. Most of the developing and especially undeveloped world is rife with corruption and as a result, who you know is always more important than what you know. Therefore, to some extent the types of personal relationships described above are also characteristic of the third world. Life goes on, if not within the rules, then another way is found. It’s also no secret all of the Muslim world is either developing or undeveloped. There are a select few out there who indeed seem to have a bright future, such as Tunesia and Jordan, but the others have a long way to go.

Thus far, we find only corellation between this cultural trait and unsuccessful countries. In order to look for causation, let us examine the personal level. Here, honor is is seen as being of the utmost importance. A funny anecodote from the book is that a Westerner invented a fake address in Riyadh and went around asking people where it was. Everyone gave him an answer, and the pinnacle was when two police officers simultaneously pointed in different directions upon asked where the place was. Add to the importance of honor and never saying “I don’t know” or “No” the extended family, and you have a society, which when faced with Western values and systems, is very dysfunctional. Naturally, were the Arabs the most powerful it would be us who had failing systems, however, this is not the case and the West has forged ahead leaving the others behind.

As modern development and the rise of the West is only a recent thing, and culture, though it changes over time, goes back to the early days of man, it would indeed seem most likely that culture is responsible to a large degree for the failure of societies. The question is the degree, or directness of causation, and the effects of the combination of various cultural traits. According to Ralph Peters,

Culture is fate. Countries, clans, military services, and individual soldiers are products of their respective cultures, and they are either empowered or imprisoned. The majority of the world’s inhabitants are prisoners of their cultures, and they will rage against inadequacies they cannot admit, cannot bear, and cannot escape…[2]

Other traits of failing cultures include:

• Restrictions on the free flow of information.
• The subjugation of women.
• Inability to accept responsibility for individual or collective failure.
• The extended family or clan as the basic unit of social organization.
• Domination by a restrictive religion.
• A low value of education.
• Low prestige assigned to work.

To sum up the challenge facing Arabs, Muslims and the Gap in general Peters says:

Globalization demands conformity to the practices of the global leaders, especially those of the United States. If you do not confrm – or innovate – you lose. If you try to quit the game, you lose even more profoundly.