I have 3 outstanding memories of culture -perhaps private email on another thread is best if people want a debate on this very rich subject:

philosopher of culture: alfonso lingis asks that we value culture before any other metric; he claims nature uses the way we are smart or dumb in interfacing culture to determine what futures if any are sustainable

a friend (easily introducable to serious cross-culture reconcilers) speaks chinese, japanese, iranian, french and english to name but 5 countries his lifetime has fused. He's now at london branch of ag khan univertsity - a move he made from Japan cos he believes londoners must set world class example in mending east versus west religions; oddly I agree but wish it were not so (cos I cant find enough londoners who want to collaborate on this)

Gandhian and Montessori educators have at least 250000 cases that what you teach and do to children up to 11 determines how cross culturally free or fearsome they grow up to be; a few of our Gandhian satyagraha/truth networks http://www.valuetrue.com/home/ga llery.cfm are openly proposing that educational program needs world weaving now. Looking for one of the global conferencers to agree!