One sided perspective = bias + prejudice

My impossible dream for this morning:

1. A world without borders

2. A world where you could travel anywhere you want, live anywhere you want.

3. A world where you meet so many different people, see so many different cultures, that you realize the richness that is inherent in each.

Blogged about this one here before 🙂 ran across it again this morning and once again, I love her example of how watching ‘american psycho’ didn’t make her think that ALL american teenagers were psychotic serial killers, because she had been exposed to many other stories of american-ness. Yet her African authenticity was questioned when she portrayed her childhood in Nigeria as normal.

I have a Nigerian colleague in the office now. I think she’s funny, articulate, intelligent and no different from my other colleagues, regardless of their nationality or the colour of their skin. The reason we are all same is because we have many different stories of each other & the richness of our cultures. We struggle with the same issues and relate to each other on many different levels. Our perceptions are not one-sided or colour biased.

Watch any news channel and you’ll see coverage of ISIL and it’s atrocities. What we don’t see is the richness of culture & the generous spirit of the Middle East. The simple generosity and rich cultural heritage of the Arabian tribes and nations are lost in the coverage of war and strife.

I had a friend who called me from UK when he saw a flood coverage in Bangladesh. He was worried that I was drowning in the flood. I didn’t even know that there was an ongoing flood in my country. He’s coming down here for a visit and I hope by the time he goes back, he’ll know many more stories of my country. Stories that dispel the myth of Bangladesh being a country of disasters and calamities or atrocities against women.