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Give Rosetta Stone to Egypt? | ||
Tags: Egypt | Rosetta Stone | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 17 of 34 11 December 2009 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Haha Chung, Let them try to take Stonehenge if they dare!!!
I'm not even British but it takes only a few years here to get sufficiently into British culture and heritage to appreciate the stone circles and other remnants from that era. I am sure any person of Indian or African descent who lives here feel exactly the same way.. These places are incredibly awe-inspiring. But you are right Chung, that Britain is a very mixed place when it comes to people's ethnic origin. Unlike, for example Scandinavians, a British person person can have a wide range of features without anyone finding it unusual. He can look exactlty as one imagines a Roman soldier to have looked, or like a Danish viking, Celt or a Breton fisherman.... Lately also black and Asians who are more or less as British as the next person. Who knows what percentage here are really direct decendants of the builders of Stonhenge? Not many probably. But it wasn't long ago that most of the male population had to risk their lives to defend Britain from invasion and they did it largely with pride, I think. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Envinyatar Diglot Senior Member Guatemala Joined 5536 days ago 147 posts - 240 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 18 of 34 11 December 2009 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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All this talk about "national pride" reminded me of this:
The cheapest form of pride however is national pride. For it betrays in the one thus afflicted the lack of individual qualities of which he could be proud, while he would not otherwise reach for what he shares with so many millions. He who possesses significant personal merits will rather recognise the defects of his own nation, as he has them constantly before his eyes, most clearly. But that poor beggar who has nothing in the world of which he can be proud, latches onto the last means of being proud, the nation to which he belongs to. Thus he recovers and is now in gratitude ready to defend with hands and feet all errors and follies which are its own. - Arthur Schopenhauer. On topic, I'm with Captain Haddock about Rosetta Stone being part of the British and French history, even more than Egyptian history. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| JS-1 Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5983 days ago 144 posts - 166 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), German, Japanese, Ancient Egyptian, Arabic (Written) | Message 19 of 34 11 December 2009 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
The very same thing happened in Dublin. It amazes me when I look at old photos of the city and imagine how it could have looked today. It's very sad to see how people are willing to obliterate their cultural and architectural heritage. At least in Stockholm's case what remains adds up to one of the most beautiful cities in the World. It's astonishing that it came so close to being flattened. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 21 of 34 11 December 2009 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Tombstone, I don't necessarily think it should be returned either. But why do you think more people would see it in London than in Cairo?
Cairo is probably a larger city than London and Egypt is definitely a bigger country than the UK. It's located in a more populous area and it's more convenient than London for people who live in the East Mediteranean area or the Middle East. Lots of people travel there on holiday from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. My reason for not wanting to return it is ONLY that it would set a precedent which could end up leading to the stripping of most historical/art museums of most of their interesting non-local items.... I am sure that the Egyptians would take good care of it if they DID get it back. Why wouldn't they? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 22 of 34 12 December 2009 at 12:13am | IP Logged | |||||
If it seems meaningless to you, that says more about you than anything else. If you think that your own birth is accidental, then what isn't accidental? And regardless of that, the fact that you are brought up in specific culture means that your whole world-view, your language, all your points of reference, will depend on that. Who cares if it was somehow 'accidental' to begin with, your pretty deep into it now. A very large part of what you think of as you looks the way it does precisely because of your surroundings. We are not born as blank slates, but neither do we enter this world as ready-made adults. So you can't dismiss your culture as random, that doesn't make any sense at all. And if you look around you, I think you will find that most people can actually take pride in their family, not only in their "achievements" but just there mere existence. Aren't you tiny bit proud to say "yes, that's my brother"?
You really haven't proved this at all. It seems pretty natural that you will have closer ties to a country that your family has lived in for thousands of years, than if you or your parents moved there from another continent. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fry Newbie United States Joined 5466 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 23 of 34 12 December 2009 at 12:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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Considering the time and place the Rosetta stone was made, it would make more sense to "return" it to Greece.
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| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 24 of 34 12 December 2009 at 12:38am | IP Logged | |||||
This is plain rubbish. The fact that you are proud of your country doesn't necessarily mean that you haven't accomplished anything, or that you can't be proud of other things as well. Many great minds and heroes have also been great patriots. And of course, you can definitely be a patriot without being blind for the nation's defects, even Schopenhauer understand this, just like not everyone has a perfect mother. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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