It also brought home the  point that I had learned going to prep
> school with  a lot  of diplomat's kids:  that first and  foremost, you
> treat  the  other person  like  a human  being  and  you tolerate  and
> compensate for  superficial difference by being attentive  to the real
> person underneath.  I fear this is  being totally ignored  by the rote
> stereotypical   view   of   other   cultures   being   introduced   by
> multiculturalists, many of whom only  seek to display aspects of other
> cultures which validate their own ideological biases.

Well said, I agree completely. Too many people concentrate on the outward 
manifestations of respect, while inside they scorn and find it tittlillating 
and amusing.

Incidentally, I
> went to Japan, feeling I had learned many things about Japan, but when
> I left, I was humbled by how no easy rule of thumb applied (esp when I
> left the big cities and went to visit a college chum up north).
>