Is there anything like Cultural Progress

I was discussing about the recent Lebanon-Israel conflict with a colleague and we started rambling about lots of issues related and unrelated to the conflict. We talked about the American influence, who won who loss, Syrian influence, Arab countries, Cuba, terrorism, previous wars Israel fought with its neighbors, globalization and progress. All this in a matter of 15-20 minutes.

Than as we were discussing about the progress of countries, he made a very important point (which I had read about in The World is Flat) he said that "these Arab countries inspite of being so oil rich are so far behind in progress and people of these countries do not know the meaning of progress, freedom, innovation, equality between sexes, democratic rights. Things should change."

This made me think about issues of culture, customs, strict rituals in under-developed African, Asian, Middle-eastern nations, where people follow customs and rituals which are different than the western way (progressed way). In some of these countries women are not allowed to speak unless asked to, strict dress codes, no voting rights. An African village require its women to remove their clitoris. I respect their way of life but in some cases I feel things should change for better and feel right in imposing changes to improve their life and life of future generations.

Questions:
- Are we (the developed, educated, lucky) right in imposing this change ?
- Can we assure them "You'll be very happy after the change, trust me" ?
- If they're happy the way they live, and if the ultimate goal is happiness, who are we to correct them ?
- What makes us right and them wrong ?