Yesterday I learned about the case of Michael P. Fay that left a strain on US-Singapore relations.

Michael Fay was an American who was sentenced to caning by the Singaporean court. The United States felt this practice archaic. One of Singapore's senior ministers responded: "If you like it this way, that is your problem. But, that is not the path we choose"

FWIW, I remember this case well when it was in the news, and saying it "left a strain on US-Singapore relations" is a bit of a stretch.

Most importantly, there were plenty of Americans, I'd bet a majority, that agreed with Singapore. Not necessarily that we want caning in the US, but more that this boy didn't deserve any special treatment just because he was American.

To me it felt like the media (and, in fairness, the boy's parents) were really trying to play this up because it had the elements of a good story.

It's kind of silly considering it was the British that introduced the practice in the first place. It's not like it's some ancient tradition.

The entire world feels that the imperial system is archaic, isn't going to change anything in the U.S.

It's hard for people in the US to completely respect this. Just look at US attitudes towards China. From our perspective some of the things China does are Atrocious, but from the Chinese perspective it's just normal enforcement of rules from a central regime for the betterment of society.

Essentially US cultural standards mark certain behaviors as horrible in the same way Muslim countries think women wearing a bikini is a crime. Very hard to change the way we think and arguably maybe we shouldn't change the way we think.