http://www.mayorno.com/WhoIsMecha.html

This is a random (and angry) website I found while browsing.
What else do people about real world stuff that might be of interest to shadowrun fans not of their country (I refer here specificaly to americans, but maybe others as well) ?

I can give a few examples, about Israel (mostly about Kabalah and krav maga, of course).
A lot of Israelis are not religious at all. They think of themselves as an ethnic group, made up of smaller ethnic groups of jews from around the world. The Kabalah is just one of many jewish traditions.
It just gets much more hype than everything else.
In Arsenal, references to jewish kabalists teaching krav-maga to Israeli agents caused a slight brain anurism. NO. Hassidic jews will NEVER have anything to do with the armed government forces. NEVER.
They do nothing but study Torah all day long. Krav maga has nothing to do with religion or magical tradition. A jewish adept who happens to come from an overly religious background will need guidance
from krav maga masters, not the other way around. This is relevant because krav maga lets you aim as a free action, so it's kinda popular. It has NOTHING to do with the jewish religion, or magical traditions.
Also, the purpose of krav maga is to $%^& your attacker's !@#$ up, as quick as possible. I don't really understand why the Shadowrun team made it all about firearms, when it's name literaly means "contact combat", but I have no problems with game rules being "not realistic".
As an archaeology student, I think an Israely (levantine, really) tradition should have more to do with the ancient canaanite gods and practices, than with Judaism, but hey, whatever. I actually saw a cloud once, in the shape of the godess Ishtar's holy symbol (I found out about this years later). Makes me wonder what a moderm Israeli person would feel like being the shaman of an ancient canaanite god.

Please post examples from your own real world experience. This thread (I hope it will be a thread) is about real world issues other than technology, as they relate to shadowun.

I first read about the Aztlan and Brown Power movements reading a lot of HST. Playing a lot of SR at the time, it was weird to read "Aztlan" in the context of 1960's political movements.

I found myself a little disappointed in the good/bad dichotomy of voudoun and petro when it was introduced into SR. especially after reading a much more nuanced take in "The Serpent and the Rainbow". (The movie is a lot different from the book.)

I don't think Qabbalah is supposed to be Israeli; I think it's supposed to be Jewish. As demonstrated by it and Krav Magah, I think it's just a case of the Devs not knowing how Israel works.

It's more like a case of having seventy years to play with: what you think you know now may not be relevant in SR.

But to expand a little: When magic started actually working again the Israelis were not slow to pick up on the significant advantages inherent in its use; at the same time Qabalah emerged as a genuine magical tradition based out of historical Jewish practices and beliefs but grounded in the ability to cast spells, summon spirits, enchant objects, etc. Like with all other magical traditions based on mystical or spiritual beliefs, there is a bit of shoehorning involved to adapt the real-world practices to the SR tradition paradigm - which is why it's perfectly fine to have Special Forces mystic adept that follows Legba - and the actual pursuit of spiritual development inherent in many of these practices is subsumed in the pursuit of magical development (initiation, etc.). Anyway, it's not a long stretch to believe that the Israelis would tap into any inherently "Jewish" magical traditions, and at the same time some of your better Krav Maga practitioners are probably going to turn out to be adepts. Give that forty or fifty years to simmer and I don't think it unreasonable to have Israeli mystic adepts following the magical tradition of Qabalah who know and teach Krav Maga.

But hey. I could be wrong.

Re: Krav Maga and firearms.
We were limited in how many bonuses we could have for each martial art. Most of the adaptability and training emphasis of Krav Maga is basically covered by maneuvers (Disarm, Disorient, Evasion, etc.), so it was decided to focus on its training with dealing with armed assailants. That said, none of the bonuses are restricted to firearms exclusively.

Actually that sounds pretty logical.