Story from IHT, "Japanese are cold to freed hostages"


Some of the points on this site seem strange to many people, and many times this is because of differences in cultures. This article can help you understand just how hard it is to understand a culture which is based on values and customs different from your own.

The young Japanese taken hostage in Iraq returned home this week not to the warmth of a yellow ribbon embrace but to a disapproving nation's cold stare..."You are Japan's shame," another wrote on the Web site of one of the hostages. They had "caused trouble" for everybody...The ex-hostages' transgression was to ignore a government advisory against traveling to Iraq. But their sin, in a vertical society that likes to think of itself as classless, was to defy okami: literally, "what is higher." To the angry Japanese, the three had acted selfishly...Pursuing individual goals by defying the government and causing trouble is unforgivable in this view. So the single government official to praise them was, not surprisingly, an American one.

While this has nothing to do with Linux per se, we do need to understand that different cultures are going to accept Linux and FLOSS for different reasons; and Linux will eventually change due to its being accepted and modified by these different cultures. And, if you're thinking of becoming a hitchhiker, be prepared for some rude shocks when you get to know a different culture. It's one thing to be a tourist, it's another to go somewhere and live for a while.