Cultural Awareness Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cultural Awareness - Personal Statement Example As a preliminary matter, the author was presented with a number of warnings. The United States Department of State had issued travel warnings and advisories for Thailand generally, and for southern Thailand more particularly. Potential travelers were advised to be wary of political strife in Thailand; this was as a result of increasing political protests and rumors that a military coup was possible. Moreover, travelers were advised to avoid the southern provinces, bordering Malaysia, because of a series of bombings, the burning of schools, and civil unrest between the Muslim majority in these southern provinces and the Buddhist majority in the rest of the Kingdom of Thailand. For the most part, the author heeded this advice and scheduled most of the holiday for Bangkok and northern Thailand. However, the author also spent the final four days in the southern province of Songkla, and the experience clearly demonstrated that the people being demonized and chastised in the travel advisor ies were hardly dangerous or threatening. In fact, the southern Thais proved to have been extraordinarily hospitable, more diverse than a Muslim designation might have suggested, and quite eager to mingle and talk with foreign tourists. First, the Muslim people in southern Thailand did not conform to stereotypes too often used to describe Muslim peoples and culture. The travel advisories had stirred the author's imagination. It was easy to imagine a southern Thailand replete with veiled women, mosques dotting the landscape, and suspicious gazes for tourists or other outsiders. The author's friends reinforced these stereotypes and cautioned, only half-jesting, that a kidnapping or a beheading might very well be around the corner. The reality couldn't have been more different. As an initial matter, the author was almost unable to distinguish Thai Muslims from Thai Buddhists. The shops and the streets were crowded with people wearing shorts, brand name shirts, baseball hats, and sunglasses. Veils could be detected only through the most diligent observation and a Muslim restaurant owner confided to the author that Thai Muslims enjoyed their pork and their alcohol. This lack of a strict devotion to the commonly understo od protocols of Islam could be seen and experienced everywhere. Young Thai Muslim girls decorated their faces with make-up, heavily Thai Muslim districts had karaoke bars and advertised in English, and people went about their daily business just as they seem to do here in the United States. The author, in short, experienced a southern Thailand that was fundamentally at odds with the views of friends and the statements made prior to the trip in a variety of travel advisories. By immersing oneself in a foreign culture, it is easier to strip away stereotypes, whether romantic or fearful, and to better understand the people and their way of life. Second, and quite surprising, the Thai Muslims did not view themselves as a separate nationality. One of the main reasons for the concerns of both friends and family was a firm belief that

To what extent can agricultural biotechnology can hold the key to Essay

To what extent can agricultural biotechnology can hold the key to sustainable food security in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) - Essay Example This essay as well shows the prospective of public†private joint ventures and gives recommendations of policy courses along with ventures that can centre more research in biotechnology on the issues of the poor and lessen some of the alarms concerning the biotechnology influences. The Biological Diversity conference describes biotechnology as: "use of living systems and organisms to develop or make products, or "any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use". With this explanation, the definition of biotechnology covers various methods and tools that are common in production of food and agriculture. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety2 describes â€Å"modern biotechnology† more narrowly as the appliance of: b. Cells fusion further than the taxonomic family, which surmount recombination barricades or natural physiological reproductive and which are not methods used in assortment and conventional breeding. A narrow interpretation which simply considers the innovative DNA methods, molecular biology along with application of reproductive technology, the description entails several diverse technologies like manipulation along with transfer of genes, cloning and typing and cloning the DNA of animals and plants. Even though the media has covered technology extensively in the last few years, this technology that has an extensive history that dates as far back as 6000 B.C. Progress in technology and science have altered conventional biotechnology methods, like hybridization, mutagenesis and selective breeding, into current ones, like tissue culture and recombinant DNA methods. This makeover has presented an opportunity extra applications in many areas like health care, forestry, industrial processes, the environment, and many others. The existing