Culture Post #8: Other Cultural Presentations

[Kaitlin Markoja]

I really enjoyed watching this week’s cultural presentations and was glad that I could finally come to the MLC class.  I did not know anything about Turkey before seeing the two presentations that were made.  It looks like a beautiful country, especially Antalya.  The culture there seems very rich, though definitely on the conservative side.  I found it interesting that although the culture is conservative, alcohol is still very popular.  I also liked the presentation about the Israel Defense Force.  I found it extremely interesting that all people in Israel must enroll in the army for some period of their life.  I also thought the exception for Arabs was intriguing.  While I don’t think this policy would go over well in the US, it seems like people in Israel genuinely enjoy and value their time in the army.  I was curious if there were instances of people fleeing the country to avoid enrolling, but an Israeli sense of pride in serving their country was made evident in the presentation.  The final presentation was on Birthright.  This is something that I was familiar with prior to the presentation, as I have several friends who have taken advantage of the opportunity to go to Israel.  I was not aware, however, that the Israeli government provides significant funding for Birthright.  This is something that I can definitely see as being controversial, which was brought up in the presentation.  I too think that domestic provisions should be taken care of before funding is provided for what many people see as “a paid vacation for American college students.”