East and west

I was reading a Mills & Boons novel yesterday. The story was about an Arab Sheikh who was filthy rich and who falls for this girl who is an Arab but has an American mother from whom she gets her red hair, slender form etc. Now I know MBs are not supposed to contain any sense. I find them the best stress busters. - one place where the grey cells are redundant. But this was the worst of them all. The whole novel associated the sheikhs with goats, camels, parrots, slaves, medieval customs and not to forget the 10s of ladies who are ready to *offer their services* . Now I haven't had a first hand account of how they live, but this I found too much to digest. In many other places, I have found this tendency of these writers to belittle the east. I remember a dialogue in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding where the father (who is a greek) says My people were composing poetry when your people were hanging from the trees (or something similar to that effect) and this is so true. Its the same case with the east/middle-east. The middle-east had a renaissance long before the west had theirs. The major religions of the world originated from this section of the world. East can be proud of so many great scholars and very rich cultures. Just putting up one's nose doesn't make one superior in any way.