June 11 from my desk at the Lemon Tree Hotel

Anyone who knows me knows that my proficiency with technology is, well lets say I am significantly behind the curve.  At any rate, I had a self-inflicted technological challenge which prohibited me from posting on my computer so I am in catch up mode now.

As  I mentioned in the previous blog post, I took a stroll the first day in Bangalore from the very western and comfortable hotel down St. Johns Road.  I took another stroll later that evening and observed a cow (among the many I have seen subsequently).  The cow was standing on the side of a busy street grazing n what was clearly garbage.  Below is the picture I took.  To be honest, I was initially bewildered, perhaps repulsed and saddened.  The standards of neatness just do not approach our standards in the U.S.

Ethnocentrism is the practice of judging other people by the standards of your own culture.  In theory, it is a pretty easy to expound on, especially in the classroom.  I get the idea and so do the students. Like most things, theory and practice are sometimes a mile apart.  This seems to be one of those times.  All week, I have been working hard to apply the theory of resisting ethnocentric thinking to this situation.  Why don't they just pick up all the garbage?  I don't have a good answer, but I am starting to get the idea that while it may bother me, it just doesn't seem to be important here.