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Today I was on the UN website and noticed that they have declared 2010 the "International Year for the Reapproachment of Cultures." The main objective seems to be to affirm and celebrate cultural diversity throughout the world.
www.un.org/en/events/iyrc2010/background.shtml
This sounds like something which happens all the time as far as official events. In fact, even here at CNM (Central New Mexico Community College) there's an annual cultural diversity thing they do. While I don't want to stray into the field of criticism here (not the intention of the post) I'll say that I don't think they do much.
My point is that when I read about this UN thing it made me think about cultural diversity, I suppose their event is working as far as sparking thought. I like cultural diversity. I think the world would be dull with only one homogenous culture. I enjoy learning about different cultures and wondering how culture will develop in the future. I believe that humans can't reach their potential with just one culture. Cultures are so different from one another, they find different paths to similar goals, but strewn along these different paths are gems. An example might be the history of invention based on culture. There are things which originated in different parts of the world with different cultures. Besides that religion and philosophy vary so much based on culture. Even without 100% faith in all of the world's religions, I think that there is something everyone can take from all of these belief systems as far as personal development is concerned.
Another thing it made me think about was something possibly negative, racism. The reason it made me think about it is because it seems like a lot of people and groups who actively pursue the elimination of racism also seem to eliminate cultural diversity (either on purpose or on accident). It's one thing to treat other people differently as far as the workplace and such goes, but it's another to ignore their culture. Maybe to those people it seems like eliminating cultural differences is the only way to eliminate racism, etc. Out of sight out of mind kind of thing. I can see their logic, but I don't agree with it.
I am an optimist, believe it or not, but in this lifetime I don't see racism, sexism, etc. being abolished. In this lifetime, if you are different in some way, people will notice, and react. In this lifetime, not all of those reactions will be positive, for whatever personal reasons people have. But, in the future I think it is more than a possibility that people could retain their cultural identities and still not be discriminated against because of it.
This sounds like something which happens all the time as far as official events. In fact, even here at CNM (Central New Mexico Community College) there's an annual cultural diversity thing they do. While I don't want to stray into the field of criticism here (not the intention of the post) I'll say that I don't think they do much.
My point is that when I read about this UN thing it made me think about cultural diversity, I suppose their event is working as far as sparking thought. I like cultural diversity. I think the world would be dull with only one homogenous culture. I enjoy learning about different cultures and wondering how culture will develop in the future. I believe that humans can't reach their potential with just one culture. Cultures are so different from one another, they find different paths to similar goals, but strewn along these different paths are gems. An example might be the history of invention based on culture. There are things which originated in different parts of the world with different cultures. Besides that religion and philosophy vary so much based on culture. Even without 100% faith in all of the world's religions, I think that there is something everyone can take from all of these belief systems as far as personal development is concerned.
Another thing it made me think about was something possibly negative, racism. The reason it made me think about it is because it seems like a lot of people and groups who actively pursue the elimination of racism also seem to eliminate cultural diversity (either on purpose or on accident). It's one thing to treat other people differently as far as the workplace and such goes, but it's another to ignore their culture. Maybe to those people it seems like eliminating cultural differences is the only way to eliminate racism, etc. Out of sight out of mind kind of thing. I can see their logic, but I don't agree with it.
I am an optimist, believe it or not, but in this lifetime I don't see racism, sexism, etc. being abolished. In this lifetime, if you are different in some way, people will notice, and react. In this lifetime, not all of those reactions will be positive, for whatever personal reasons people have. But, in the future I think it is more than a possibility that people could retain their cultural identities and still not be discriminated against because of it.
