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 How can I deal with cultural differences in my relationship? 

A great deal of relationship conflict (regardless of cultural differences) arises from a position of one person “being right” and fighting until the other accepts that they are “wrong”. The unfortunate thing is that when “being right” becomes more important than the things that actually hold the relationship together, like love and respect and understanding, it’s major breakdown time! 

Wasn’t it Shakespeare that said “nothing is right or wrong, but thinking makes it so…..”? 

What would YOUR answer be to the question “which is the most serious crime: theft, kidnapping, murder, smuggling or corruption”? 

Over the past week, I have had international responses to this question which ranged from ‘murder’, ‘smuggling’ and ‘corruption’……if you chose “murder” as the most serious crime, I guess you might find it difficult to see why someone else could argue that corruption is worse than murder. They obviously have the “wrong” answer, don’t they? No, not based on their model of the world! Many people told me that corruption was worse than murder because it hurts more people….they said “murder” hurts a few people but “corruption” hurts a whole country….so corruption was of course a much more serious crime…anybody can see that, can’t they? J Some of us have been brought up in individualistic political/cultural systems and some of us have been conditioned to see the collective before the individual….most of the people who told me corruption was more serious than murder are in China (socialist/communist system?) Who is right and who is wrong? It depends on which angle you are looking at it from, doesn’t it?

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