Wednesday, November 14, 2007

HW 34: Why Gold's So Important and What evening tea means to Iraqi's

All cultures and all people love gold, it's pretty, looks delicate and is a nice gift for any occasion. In Iraq gold is a way for the people to say money or earn money becaues the value of gold does not fluctuate like the value of a dollar does. "People began converting their money to gold-earrings,bracelets, necklaces-because the value of gold didn't change" (Riverbend, 100). Often times, when the houses get raided, the troops clain that they take the gold because they find it hard to believe that people "like that" can actually own gold. But often times gold is given as presents at wedding and baby showers, etc. just like they are in our society. As a way of not getting their gold taken during the raids, many families often if they know there is going to be a raid put on all their gold jewelry and try to cover it up with their clothes such as bracelets that can be covered by long sleeves. Like gold, evening tea is also a large part of their life in Iraq. Tea is drinken at breakfast,midday,evening and with dinner. "Iraqi tea isn't a simple matter of teacups and teabags. If you serve "teabag tea" to an Iraqi, you risk scorn and disdain-a teabag is an insult to tea connoisseurs" (Riverbend, 108). Although Riverbend states the evening tea is not as formal as it sounds, the fact that they make tea a special way and serving teabags is unacceptable shows that evening tea is still quite important to their daily lives. At evening tea they have casual talk like families all over the world, but they also discuss blockades, war strategies, bombings, and politics. Reading this book has increased my knowledge of cultural literacy because even tho people say that everyone is unique and each place has it's own culture and is different, that is not necessarily true. Although we may do things different most places often do the same type of traditions but in a different form.

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