Global Understanding - an Urgent Need: mythological view

Essay by shakesphereHigh School, 12th grade February 2003

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If you look at any world news program you might realize that you have greatly enlightened yourself with facts about the United States. Most of the world knows that the U.S is the one and only super power. But what about the people in the U.S? Only 20% of Americans own a passport and only one of every four Americans says that they know enough about other countries to understand current world events. Why is this you may ask, well as you may have realized, there is very little education about the rest of the world in the U.S. Starting with the news programs, they are filled with nothing but information about the U.S. We have for the most of our history isolated ourselves in this cocoon. After September 11h there is this urgent need to reach out to the outer world and understand the others better to make this world a better place to live in.

Firstly, in order to look at the bigger picture, we need to understand the diversity and complexity of other cultures. How do we do this? Well, in order to cultivate the interest in understanding we need to appreciate and respect the entity which we are trying to understand, in this case people of other cultures. I find this theology most wonderfully practiced in India, where most people follow Hinduism. According to Hinduism, God does not reside in a single place like heaven, but in every human being. When you go to someone's house as a guest you are greeted with your greeter's hands joined together and this is accompanied by a bow. Isn't this the way you pray I.e. with your palms together. Your greeter is recognizing the God in you. This extreme form of respect and appreciation cultivates this...