In the country where I come from, the elderly are much respected people; they are treated kindly and with dignity. They are seen as people who have been in the world for a long period of time and therefore they possess certain level of knowledge and skills which is very useful to the society. The elderly are considered very important organs in the society especially during decision making.
The decisions they make are always considered superior to the other decisions because the society see them as people with much experience in life. On the other hand, the situation is not much different in America. For instance, in both black and Native Americans, elders are respected and are considered a source of wisdom and knowledge this is exemplified in the manner in which they are addressed. For example, they are addressed using respected words such as “sir”. It is also important to state that despite elders being respected in America, there is more emphasis on the youths.
In the country where I come from, people see themselves as a group as opposed to individual. This is demonstrated especially during election where the citizens of the country vote along tribal lines rather than being driven by the policy a person holds. This is quite different in America because they see themselves as individual rather than a group of people. This is why their choices during the election are always driven by the policies an aspirant has as opposed to the tribe in which such an aspirant is coming from. Informed decision is made as an individual rather than a group of people. For instance, people seeing themselves as individual was evidenced by the fact that despite Obama being a black American, that did not deter him from being elected as the president of America. Being saw Obama as individual. His election was solely based on his policies and the dream he had for the Americans. This is a strong evidence on how people as seen as individual in America.
In my country people strongly show emotional feelings in their face especially when one is bereaved. This is the same in America. The difference only comes in whereby in my country, people show strong emotional feelings on their face compared to America more so when one is bereaved.
References
Nelson T.D. (2004). Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejeduce Against Older Persons.U.S.A: MIT Press.
