Why always it is Westerners who have to be “sensitive”, “aware of diferrence” and so on?

I am not saying that we should shout aloud: “Back off creepy barbarians”, but I believe we should share our, “western”/”civilized” point of view.

What you eat.. well as humans we need to evolve together. If there is suffering in death, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

The idea that the more a dog suffers the more tasty it is is crap. It’s an excuse to be a brute and does not deserve polite consideration. I am a human just like the other human who is engaging in a cruel thing.

Let’s cultivate a culture of humanity not your origins or my origins. Just compassion. My dead relatives did lots of cruel things I would never do. I don’t need to identify with them. I am who I am.

As far as dietary preferences go, I’ve actually always found the idea that you MUST eat all local specialties or risk mortally offending the locals to be kind of, well, patronizing. I’ve been told, as a vegetarian, that if I want to be an authentic and open-minded “traveler” that I have to bend my rules while traveling.

But if a foreigner with a set of dietary restrictions came to visit me in Canada, and was reluctant to abandon their habits, I would never be offended!

The same goes (to a lesser extent) to clothing restrictions. It seems to me that there’s an assumption at work, that “exotic” peoples can’t comprehend or accept that anyone might be different than themselves. If “we” can comprehend cultural differences, why can’t “they”?

I think the key, in all your possible scenarios, is politeness and open, honest communication. Explaining that you can’t or won’t partake because of your own customs is fine; if they ask for reasons, explaining is fine. Storming out, haranguing or passing visible judgment, etc, are not so fine.

The treatment of women – and where my boundaries lie in situations related to that treatment – is a whole other huge, complex issue.

It would appear that the best solution is to simply pass on anything that one finds personally objectionable, but without getting up on a soapbox to blast the “less civilized” around you with a monologue on personal morality. If locals/friends ask why you’ve politely declined, then they’ve chosen to open up the dialogue and it’s appropriate to do so.

Come dinnertime, I refused to eat when I made the connection between sentient beings and what was on our plate. My parents were mortified and I embarrassed them for life.

The birria incident made me a vegetarian when I grew up. Today, would I do the same thing and not eat it? Yes, but instead of pouting and crossing my arms at the table, I’d quietly pass the carne on to my husband’s plate.

I feel like too often travelers are scared to turn a critical eye on what lay outside the borders of their home country – this likely leads us to view those nations as “exotic” places where bizarre traditions do and should take place. The irony is we are entirely comfortable criticizing our own nation’s cultural aspects; i.e. I have little reservation in attacking Christian fundamentalists, but I bite my tongue when it comes to Islamic fundamentalists. Why?

What we should acknowledge is that there is two sides to the coin in every country: in the hypothetical Chinese monkey situation, there would likely be many Chinese animal rights activists who would would abhor such practices. Similarly – in an example from real life – after feeling a bit sheepish for declining to eat dog in Korea, I found out that many Koreans young and old refuse to eat the dish as well. Are they “less Korean” or turning their back on their culture for doing so? Certainly not.