Blog post #4: Intercultural situation

Intercultural situation:

A is a teenage boy, who lives in a private housing area where having pets was common. His family has 3 dogs and as far as he could remembered, he had not encountered any conflict with anyone pertaining to his dogs.

One day, A decided to order MacDonald’s delivery in the afternoon. The man (let’s call him B), who delivered the food, happened to be a Malay and an awkward situation soon occurred. When B stopped outside the gate, A’s three dogs immediately ran to the gate and started barking ferociously at B. B maintained a distance away from the gate, not wanting to go near it. Thus, instead of pressing the doorbell, he opted to shout out for A, hoping that he would be heard.

When A came out and saw the situation, he thought it was not necessary to leash the dogs and as he walked towards the gate, he told B, ‘It’s alright! I won’t open the gate! Just pass the food over the gate!’ However,B did not step forward and continued to stare hesitantly at the dogs. By this time, A had already reached the gate and had stretched out his hand over the gate to reach for the food. Still, B did not move forward and instead, tried to stretch the food out from his position, hoping that it would be near enough. However, the distance was still too far apart.

A was started to get irritated with B and did not understand what his problem was. Not wanting to waste any more time, he angrily leashed up the dogs and then opened the gate, snatching the food from B. As he snatched the food from B, he snapped at B ‘Wait till your company hears about this! What kind of service is this?’

Explanation & Interpretation:
Muslims generally regard dogs as impure animals and even to the extent of dogs being devil in animal form. There are many reports, each with their own stand of dogs and how dogs should be treated. One such report states that dogs’ saliva is a contaminant that voids a Muslim’s ritual purity and when a dog licks a container, the container should be washed over a certain number of times, the number differing with different versions of the report. The majority of jurists held that there is no rational basis for this command, and that dogs, like pigs, must be considered impure simply as a matter of deference to the religious text.

Though there are difference viewpoints with regards to dogs, it is a common consensus that dogs is a taboo for Muslims, including Muslims in Singapore. Linking it back to the scenario mentioned above, it is due to this belief that kept B away from the gate. It is his culture not to go near dogs and thus even though a gate serves to separate the dogs and him, he still did not want to be of close proximity to the dogs. His viewpoint of dogs must have been influenced by his family since young and thus this cultural belief is already deep-rooted in him. Wanting him to go against this belief can only lead to a undesirable situation.

On the other hand, A did not know and understand this cultural belief of B. He had never encountered such situation before and thus could not figure out why B was so hesitant in going near the gate. To A, B was rude and had a bad attitude in serving customers. Furthermore, he initially did not want to leash the dogs and having to do so to get his food infuriated him further, leading him to shout at B.

This conflicting situation could have been avoided if there was better communication between A and B. On B’s part, he should have sounded out to A that he could not be near the dogs. As for A, when he saw that B was hesitant about being near the gate, he should have tried to think whether there were any particular reasons for it or asked B in a courteous manner what the problem was. Clarifying and asking can be the key to effective communication.