Westerners like to think that, but it's not true in my experience. Even in the multicultural U.S., think of the reception of every immigrant group: All were hated. Germans, Italians, Africans (EDIT: not that I'm suggesting they were ordinary, willing immigrants), Catholics, now Latinos ... Think of the attitude toward hajibs and Muslims in the U.S. and Europe - hardly accepting!

Anyway, we're making very broad, baseless statements about the opinions of hundreds of millions of people. People in my own family don't even agree on these issues.

And yet Europe has the Schengen area, where people are allowed to travel without requiring documentation, from Portugal to the far north of Sweden, despite some pretty different cultures. Where else in the world is there anything like Schengen?

There's this massive myth that Europe is all one culture, and it's not (you may even have heard about a sizable war in the past century that was predicated on cultural differences).

All countries have a variety of cultures. The U.S. has Alabama, New York City, Utah, Hawaii, the Bay Area, etc. You can always find a way to split people and set them against each other. There's the West; Europe and other Western nations; the UK and other countries; England, Scotland and Wales; London and the rest of England; different parts of London; different religions and ethnicities, the punks and the mods, etc, ad infinitum.

But I don't see any purpose to that. You also can unite people and get great things done together, as 13 very different colonies did in 1789. Why choose fighting with that alternative?

> you may even have heard about a sizable war in the past century that was predicated on cultural differences

I disagree. The cause of the war was one country trying to conquer the other ones. And each side was composed of countries of different cultures and languages. Germany, Japan and Italy; and the U.S., Russia, France, China, etc. on the other side.

And in fact, the EU was created to prevent another war; togetherness has succeeded: The idea of war inside the EU is now absurd.

Let me give you an example of how much some countries revere the West, to the point of obsession.

Saudi Aramco is the largest oil company in the world. It's base of operations is in Dhahran, a city in the eastern region of KSA. Aramco employs a ton of foreigners and of course want their employees to be as comfortable as possible. But this is difficult to do given KSA's strict culture. So what do they do? They build their employees an American-style suburban town outside of Dhahran proper, with its own schools, supermarkets, theatres, and so on. Women are allowed to drive within the town, and can wear whatever they want. The town is basically outside the jurisdiction of the Saudi religious police.

This is just one example. Go to Dubai and you'll see similar things. Foreigners are sometimes respected at the expense of other Arabs or Asians, and it can become discriminatory in some instances.

So next time you throw around such accusations, please think about it first.

That sounds like an investment in recruitment, like an SV startup having free sodas. It doesn't necessarily imply respect, only business sense and a fairly "flexible" approach to laws and customs.

Like an SV company offering free sodas? Really dude?

I'm not saying the changes aren't profound, just that they might as well be made out of respect or out of a need for hiring people they can't find locally.

There is an abundance of talent in the Middle East, not to mention Middle Easterners working abroad because of lack of opportunity back home. Look, I've lived in the UAE for 14 years, and I can tell you that this is what's happening. It may sound counter intuitive, but that's how it is.

The media loves to portray Gulf countries as haters of the West, when in fact they're the biggest ass kissers out there.

If they had local talent available, why go through the expense of building a whole new town? I mean, respect alone doesn't justify burning money like that.

The media loves to portray Gulf countries as haters of the West, when in fact they're the biggest ass kissers out there.

I don't know what media you're referring to, but I'd say that around here, Gulf countries are more likely to be represented as lackeys of US imperialism, and also as a place where our soccer players and managers go to make money (for example, the new manager of Al-Fujairah is my compatriot).

Because of their obssession with the West - not respect, obssession - which is the point I've been trying to make.

Well, I sometimes browse through the headlines and comments on /r/worldnews, which I think gives a good idea of what Americans think of current world issues.

Hah, Fujairah is a nice little town. Long time since I passed by as it's kind of out of the way of everything else.

Or looking at it another way, they created a ghetto outside of town in which foreign practices can be ignored as they won't pollute wider society. The minimal necessary evil to get what they want from the foreigners.

You can look at it however way you please. The reality is that they built an entire town to satisfy their Western employees. In case you didn't know already, there is already way more than enough talent in the Middle East. It's just Arab executives usually think that Westerners = more skilled.

In the UAE for example, there is an "unspoken" pay ladder that depends on your nationality. Keep in mind that each of these gets a different salary for the exact same position.

1. UAE citizen

2. Western national

3. Western passport holder, but Arab

4. Same, but SE Asian

5. Arab

6. Southeast Asian

Source: lived in the UAE for 14 years.

it was not an accusation, but you seems as sensitive as blind to the issue.

> Women are allowed to drive within the town

picking out an exception to show tolerance is quite disingenuous, isn't it?

> Foreigners are sometimes respected at the expense of other Arabs or Asians, and it can become discriminatory in some instances.

yes and that's because of a culture promoting conformism to one standard instead of tolerance of all. you're not bringing forward an example of tolerance, but extreme conformism, which kinda gets back to the original point: they manage to be intolerant even in their mimicry of western style of life.

again, it's not about how one dresses, that's just extremely superficial to think. it's how you demand conformism, and it doesn't matter it's the hijab or the bikini, the crucial point is in the demand itself.

No need to read between the lines, mate.

Your argument is that non-Western countries don't respect Western tradition and culture, while the West does. I provided two counterexamples that demonstrate non-Western countries who are willing to accept Western values, and I can provide more if you like.

Back to the hijab. No one is demanding that Westerners wear the hijab or whatever. All Muslim women are demanding is freedom to wear the hijab without being discriminated against. No one needs to build a Sharia city in America LOL

As a westerner you generally can do lots of things locals are not allowed to do by social rules. This is true in many places around the world.

As a westerner you are probably very well off and can do lots of things poor locals can't do.

The rich may drink and carouse in ways that would shame a frat boy.

Poor locals can't drink and carouse? Where do you live?

> western culture is the only one that tend to respect foreign customs

Not true at all.