http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/eab615b67882787fbcbc6f895538e18a?width=650

This doesn't look like Melbourne CBD does it?

I don't think it's too much for Foxy's father to expect that he can relate to his daughters husband? Especially if he wants to continue to have a strong relationship with his daughter. Foxy said she was Catholic so she probably has much more in common with British Australian's than Asian people. Her husband and his parents may not feel comfortable at the Lithuanian club but at least they can all catch up on Sunday at Catholic church on occasion even though English are Anglican.

But there is a conflict if Foxy's family wants to stay in Australia between their family's culture and that of their host culture. I would prefer to see less conflicted people.

Maybe Foxy was luckier than most and was able to navigate through this conflict.

It reminds me of Socrates accusation to his friend Cephalus in The Republic that the reason he was at peace wasn't because he had led a virtuous life but because he was rich.

"For if all men are sensible and good tempered, old age is easy enough to bear: if not, youth as well as age is a burden. I was delighted by what he said, and tried to lead him on by saying 'I'm afraid that most pepople don't agree with what you say, Cephalus, but think that you carry you years lightly because of your wealth. For they say that the rich have many consolations.'"

Not everyone can be rich but as the Japanese philosopher Murata Juko said everyone can be virtuous by practicing the tea ceremony. British people have their own virtue and ritual that is worth protecting.

The Industrialists of Pandora are only skin deep and are happy to sacrifice the heart.

Some have forgotten where their heart is.

Our culture is being replaced- some say Communism is inevitable

I may have got confused with Sen no Rikyū (千利休, 1522 – April 21, 1591) on tea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sen_no_Riky%C5%AB

Just to set the record straight folks - guess what -
My husband's ancestry is also Lithuanian.
We met as students at university.
He is also a Roman Catholic. And
I can assure you our families are very much at home
in any of the Lithuanian Clubs around Australia

According to "There Once Was a World" before 1348 Lithuania was a feudal and multicultural society. The royal family was pagan, but the nobility was not. Jews, Muslims, pagans, Christians and others made up the nobility. The pope sent emissaries to convert Lithuania to Catholicism, but they were rejected. The Lithuanian royalty hoped they would be left in peace. The Teutonic Knights mounted crusades to bring Lithuania to heel, but they were repelled.

Finally, in 1348 a royal wedding between the royal houses of Lithuania and Poland, the conversion of the royal family of Lithuania to Christianity and the subsequent union of Lithuania and Poland marked the end of multicultural Lithuania. I mourn the end of multicultural Lithuania.

David F said-

I mourn the end of multicultural Lithuania.

Answer-

I see Multiculturalism as Cosmopolitanism. Some people like it- some people don't. I see it as a difference in philosophy or opinion between Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism. Just as some people liked England some liked the cosmopolitan Mediterranean lifestyle. They are not wrong or right but differences of value. I believe that a community should be able to live either way but it should be left up to the people within the communities to decide. Sadly certain ideologies seem to demonize localistic Parochialism usually for their own self serving benefit.

Cosmopolitanism is synonymous with open borders and free markets. Free Markets have their place. But you don't sell the farm to buy bread. In history those places that lived close to the sea probably travelled much further than those that lived inland. Lithuania being located next to the Baltic Sea and surrounded by a dense conglomeration of many countries and principalities due to the natural defensive formations would see the world in a very different way to other more remote and isolated people.

Certain ideologies are pathologically aquisitionistic- global industrial- and attempting to grind into the ground any dissent.

The Mediterranean has been the cosmopolitan centre of civilization for thousands of years. With the advent of advanced transport capabilities in the last one hundred years the world has been moving blindly to global cosmopolitanism. Rather than be blind we should open ours eyes and realise that we have a choice and so do others to live the way they choose. Global totalitarianist cosmopolitanism will cause suffering on a scale of the communist disasters.

It's strange that those pushing a Cosmopolitan philosophy at the large scale are pushing family values in their own sphere.

In a way cosmopolitanism is just another form of elitism. There I go demonizing cosmopolitanism... another paradox of the human condition.

Contrary to the views of Joe Loudmouth it appears Foxy has made my point. Admittedly it's just one case in point.

Kudos for Foxy's marriage (and the Lithuanian community) lasting the distance- unlike so many others.

Hopefully British Australian communities can re-emerge.