there is an outside

There’s an interesting show on The National Geographic Channel. The show is “Worlds Apart”: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/worldsapart/
National Geographic takes your typical clueless whitebread American family and throws them into a foreign culture. Literally. According to National Geographic:
“Worlds Apart is a new adventure series only on the National Geographic Channel that transplants American families into remote cultures to experience authentic lifestyles firsthand. Beginning October 6, 2003, each week of the series a different family is airlifted to another corner of the globe. It’s not a game show.”
If nothing else, this sounds like entertaining or even somewhat educational TV and enough for me to recommend to you, but what’s more is that you can nominate a family to be on the show. Nominate a family at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/worldsapart/signup.html
Even the idea of this show is enough to start a discussion of ourselves in relation to our international neighbors because, as you watch, you’re likely to say “gee, what would my family do in that situation?” And looking outside the US is something not done often by people in the US, which tends to lead to assumptions of the world around us, which leads to stupid decisions on our part, which leads to trouble and heartache for us and many others.
Watching a TV show isn’t going to make the world a better place; Doing something to learn about the world in which you live is worthwhile.