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 CULTURAL BIAS
 ha, this page isn't really here! it deserves a whole project in itself, so you'll have to make do with this.
"we had to destroy the village to save it."   
- and they did.  perhaps one of the most famous quotes of an officer from the vietnam war, that was analyzed endlessly in the media. it reflects the idea, not obvious to many and too obvious to some, that the conquerer expects to be welcomed as a savior and his culture is totally superior, hence it should be imposed on others, with no misgivings.

kids playing in the desert.   girl spinning wool.  
here are a few pictures of poor, deprived third world people. obviously these people need to learn about western culture, but they are so ignorant they don't even know they are in the "third world." left. from a newspaper. middle. from national geographic. right.  wovoka. about the time the last native americans were being herded onto reservations, he had a vision and brought the "ghost dance" ritual to his people, but later became upset that this vision had been distorted by a desperate people and renounced it. he had sincerly attempted to adopt the white way of living, but had become desperately ill, and reverted to living out of doors. he said,
"white men's houses make you ill."

major clues
in the third world "nearsightedness" is totally unknown. "civilized" people spend too much time indoors or reading.
we would call this a "major clue."
the following disorders are common in the u.s.a. and virtually unknown in the third world:

     ischemic heart disease
     diverticular disease
     gall stones
     appendicitis
     varicose veins
     hiatus hernia
     many forms of cancer

 diabetes 
is critically worsened by a poor diet, in the westerners case, sugar and processed wheat that is easily metabolized to sugar.
sugar can even bring on diabetes.
the "breakfast cereal" industry, which did not exist before the late 1950s, was investigated by congress revealing that almost all products were up to two thirds pure sugar. to an entire generation this became normal.

as said elsewhere, during the korean war autopsies performed on men ages 18-25 revealed the arteries of old men.

heart disease and prostate cancer
are one third as high in people who have a vegetable based diet as compared to those who eat meat regularly.  as said under "corporations", the heavily meat oriented diet of americans is a product of industry influence going back more than a hundred years. a vegitable based diet, with additions of various forms of meat, is the norm throughout the "undeveloped" world.

the u.s. department of health and human services says change of diet would have an effect even greater than the cessation of smoking.

YUM
the number of edible plants in the world is astounding, yet the american  diet includes less than thirty, and those are of strains that have been commercialized to exclusively one or two varieties of each. even in your grandmother's day people knew more about food than you. just as important, civilized people have forgotten what fresh food is like. when is the last time you had something straight from the garden or wild? could you tell the difference? what use are fancy expensive restaurants if the starting ingredients are half dead? do yourself a BIG favor and check out the chez  panisse cook book in the reading list. this restaurant was started with seasonally fresh ingredients and a varying menu as the basis.
                 
 from "chez panisse dessert" by lindsey remolif shere

god is high fructose corn syrup.

≠  
"the american poultry industry has made it possible to grow a fine looking frier in record time and sell it at a reasonable price, but no one mentioned that the result tasted like the stuffing inside of a teddy bear."
                                                            - julia child
she also, on returning from france could not determine why her breads did not come out the same. she engaged a food chemist who learned that flour made in america, to last longer on the market shelf, had all fat removed.
while the citrus industry, one of the largest agricultural divisions, promotes orange juice as the only way to obtain VITAMIN C.  few people know that, as only one example, a single sprig of parsley, which could be grown on your window sill, contains more than a glass of o.j. even more important is the fact that orange juice in america, with only the partial exception of the national brands, is so processed that it
tastes like rancid urine.

"we have no art - everything we do is beautiful."
                                            - thai folk saying

man in colorful clothes in front of purple house.    
left. from a flyer for a photo exhibit on world culture. right. the back of the card says, "everyone here sits in front of cafes. and i thought san francisco was civilized".

western culture is progressively simplifying all aspects of living.
all the clothes and houses look the same.

this is what a japanese kitchen looked like,
back when the english, about the time they came to america,
were still living in mud and thatch homes
without a chimney
but WITH their farm animals.

LOVE THAT PRECISE SAND.
the open land?
the southwest u.s.a. used to be where doctors sent people seriously endangered by asthma. now even here, in the middle of a desert that spans whole states, the pollution is so bad it is visible to the naked eye.

slowly ever weaker
why should true health be the province of the rich or professional sports enthusiast? in "modern" cultures, read this largely as urban, people become distanced from manual labor and spend their whole lives becoming more and more weak and deformed. primitive peoples  may not share a modern culture and are subject to disease and the vagaries of nature,
but they can whip your butt in a corn field!!

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