Your turn to post

Glaring cultural differences. Couple questions/observations deserving comment. Your chance to post for me!

1. The secretary's wife in a particular private school here died suddenly and unexpectedly during childbirth; a tragedy by any stretch. School was canceled so that teachers could pay their respects. I sparked the ire of my roommate, a teacher at said school, by telling him that, while I by no means intended to be callous, it seems to me that canceling school because of the death of an administrator's family member was rather neglectful of the students. It also reinforced the notion that education is secondary to the whims of whoever's in charge. That was about an hour ago, and he does not appear to be pleased with me, but I stand by my opinion.

2. A certain white guy (not this one) was walking near my old apartment, and happened upon a man screaming at and attempting to force a woman holding a child into a taxi. The driver was at the wheel, attempting to hurry the resisting woman by occasionally rolling forward. The white guy, calling upon the noble gods of noble nobility, stepped in, grabbed the wheel through the window to indicate that the driver was to stop, and attempted to separate the others with his remaining hand. Meanwhile, he had his companion call the police. A crowd, previously disregarding the event, gathered as soon as the white man became involved. When the police arrived, the woman relented, literally tossed the infant at the driver, then climbed in the car herself. All parties went their separate direction. I stumbled upon the inevitable showdown a couple nights later, in which the local man warned the white guy that, should he ever get involved with something like that again, he and his friends would come and kill him. He then turned the situation into one of religious polarization, claiming this country to be Muslim (directly implying a connection between Islam and a lack of women's rights) and not like the white guy's Christian home. Thankfully, the argument went no further.

I later told the white man that, having only been in NDB for about two months at that point, he had better reconsider blind displays of moral superiority. There was no possible good ending to the situation, but by getting involved in what was clearly a domestic dispute (a fact that would have been obvious with a bit more experience here), the whole altercation became East vs. West, Muslim vs. Christian. Furthermore, the woman was far more likely to be beaten later because of his intervention, and the chances that the police would get involved in her favor were slim to nil. This was about six months ago, and I maintain that his response was wrong, lacked foresight, and was generally just kind of cowboyish. Anyone agree, disagree?