Thursday, March 6, 2008

Cultural differences No. 2.

One Czech cabinet member proposed a law that will make slapping a child illegal. Later, she had to apologize (or "soften her stance") by saying that occasional slapping of a child is OK.
In case you didn't know, it is a "best practice" to sometimes slap your child in Czech Republic*. And as you can see, politician should not even suggest that it should be made illegal. (Physical abuse/violence is of course illegal).
I cannot possibly imagine any politician admitting that occasional slap on the face is OK. Usually, the cultural differences are understandable / comprehensible. But in this case, we are so far away that one cannot even talk about it (in person, it's ok on blog).

* I vividly remember the discussion we had about physical punishment on high school. We ALL agreed that physical punishment were the most pleasant ones. You do something stupid, you get slapped, in 10 seconds (or earlier) it's over and everything is forgotten. However, if you did something REALLY stupid, there was no punishment, your parents were angry for days or even weeks and you felt much, much worse. The "psychical" punishments were significantly worse.
I guess our parents knew that increasing the severity of physical punishment. One cannot hope to expect members of a nation that need to be warned about putting cat into microwave oven to be able to make that distinction. And it probably saves some kids' lives if it is considered totally unacceptable to punish your children even a little. But I know that none of my friends will raise their children in the US. For what is OK back home, you can easily end up in prison here (no, I don't meet weed).

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