Culture

re-post

Some people in Britain and the USA have an interesting perspective on this subject. They feel happy taking off their shoes at the home of an Asian person whose culture demands removal of shoes, but consider it deeply rude for a British or American person to insist on visitors to her home removing their shoes.

There are two problems with this attitude. Firstly, there is a touch of cultural arrogance about it. It implies that the Asian custom of removing shoes is purely of spiritual or cultural significance with no practical value. Maybe Asian people are primarily concerned about keeping their homes clean! Behind the pretended respect for a foreign culture, there is the unspoken assumption that Western practice is superior.

Secondly, this attitude seems to take a rather static view of culture, seeing it as a set of chains that bind people to particular rules of behaviour. In fact, culture is dynamic and fluid, it changes over time.

It seems to me to be quite obvious that if a person of Asian descent can be considered British while keeping her home shoe-free, it is perfectly acceptable for a White British person to keep her home shoe-free.

It may be the norm in Britain and most of the USA for shoes to stay on in homes now, but this may change. In fact, I believe it probably will. Many White Americans and even British people are adopting the custom of shoes-off in homes.

We are living in a global village with increased immigration, travel and communication between different cultures. There is tremendous potential for different cultural practices to migrate across geographical boundaries.

Dedicated Research

I have just been doing some research on contestants on Come Dine with Me. Turns out one competing hostess who required shoes-off was Tanya Williams in Edinburgh, a born-again Christian (go Christians!) from Texas serving southern state cuisine.

This contestant was black. I may be totally wrong, but I do get the impression that black people seem a lot less shy than whites in asking for shoes-off. I must admit I have never visited the home of a black person, having mostly lived in predominantly white areas.

Another contestant approved by this blog is Nikki Bennett in Birmingham, who requested that her guests remove their shoes and bring slippers with them.

You miss a lot without a television

I mentioned in a post about the t.v. program "Come Dine with Me" which is a competition where the competitors try to host the best dinner party. I expressed doubt that asking the guests to remove their shoes would go down well.

According to somebody on Twitter, a hostess asked the other competitors to remove their shoes in her home.

If anybody has seen this episode, please let me know what happened.

HIPRFs

HIPRF stands for Herbicides, Insecticides, Pesticides, Rodenticides and Fungicides. These are chemicals that are used to deal with weeds, insects, spiders, slugs, mice and fungus. They are used in all sorts of places, particularly outside, on lawns, pathways and driveways.

You do not know how often you are picking up these chemicals on your shoes. If you wear shoes in your house, you are introducing them onto your floor and into the dust that you breath. HIPRFs are toxins that are designed to kill lifeforms. Hence they can present health risks, particularly to children.

I had a visit from the "T.V. Detector Man"

Americans are often amazed to learn that in Britain you have to buy a licence to own a television set (which according to Richyrich costs £142.50). Other than satisfying our traditional British puritanism (of which I am justly proud) it pays for the BBC, the greatest public broadcasting corporation in the world (which blessed us with Doctor Who). In the USA nobody watches public broadcasting, here in the UK you have public broadcasting which is good enough to compete with, and often betters commerical broadcasting.



If you don't pay for a t.v. licence you can get a huge fine or even be put in prison.

If like me, you do not own a television, you will get lots of scary letters warning you of the consequences of watching t.v. without a licence. Until now.

I had a visit from the 'T.V. Detector Man" who came to inspect my property to see if I own a television. I had no hesitation in inviting him in to carry out his inspection.

I was glad to see he noticed the 'Please take off your shoes' sign on my doormat and he politely removed them. Very encouraging.

Daily Express: Why it pays to take off your shoes

Daily Express: Why it pays to take off your shoes

Its good to see this subject raised in a national British newspaper.

The Nis