The difference between a western and a third world education

In the west, no matter what subject you graduate in, you acquire a wider knowledge of the world; you learn not to take anything at face value; you learn to ask questions and indulge in a healthy, perhaps heated, debate about a subject; nobody to you is beyond criticism, not even your teachers or the elders in your society.   In the east you come out of an institution of higher learning perhaps well versed in the subject you went to study but more or less an ignoramus in everything else. You have not learned to think for yourself, most things in life seem to you to be as they should be. You are still tied to your society's old beliefs and customs, especially to its religion. To think rationally is still beyond you.   Where ever I have traveled in the east I have always felt bored until I met a western tourist with whom I could have a nice chat. Talking to the locals was like talking to some statues, no matter what their background. aziz anom