21st May is the World Day for Cultural Diversity. The United Nations established this day to enhance our understanding and acceptance of different cultures. Besides the cultural differences that exist
Young Tibetan Buddhist monks are seen at their school inside Thiksey Monastery in Ladakh, India. Their religion is in exile, a homeland reduced to a place on the map after China conquered Tibet. Many Tibetan families in India send at least one child to a monastery to learn about their own culture, language and religion.
Image by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters
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Sociologists concur on the negative effect of globalisation on the world’s cultural diversity. Information and capital are transcending geographical boundaries with the development of technology and reshaping the relationships between the marketplace, states and citizens. With information being so easily distributed throughout the world, a homogenised ‘look’ or ‘taste’ or ‘value’ is swift
Image by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
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For a real multicultural difference, head to the annual Voodoo festival at Ouidah, a small town and former slave port in the West African country of Benin. It commemorates the estimated 60 million people who lost their homelands and their freedom during the African slave trade. The central belief of voodoo is that everything is spirit, including humans. Devotees offer dances to the spirit
