A number of reasons may be given to explain why people differ in opinions, ideologies, attitudes or behaviors. It seems natural that people’s attitudes at one point or the other will always be different. This may be due to varied reasons such as different backgrounds in which different people are brought up, different personalities or several other attributes. Is this diversity a good thing? Wouldn’t it have been wonderful that other than just sharing the same planet, all people spoke the same language, had the same culture or belonged to one religion? There wouldn’t have been prejudices or wars between one ethnic group and another or one religion and another, right? Well, obviously except for wars, terrorism and other extreme negative forms of these differences, my guess is that the world generally would never have been as interesting if there wasn’t this diversity.

There could be something positive in the diversity of human beings. Just think of it, if we all ate the same type of food for instance, then we may have as well stayed on one part of the planet and in no time, there would be no place for everyone to stay and indeed no food for everyone. So in this case, some have to eat nsima, some sushi and others have to eat other types of food. This reduces unnecessary conflict, right? However, if people get killed or marginalized because they belong to a different category such as religion, political party or other divides, then it becomes a bad thing and the more reason why acknowledging this diversity becomes critical. I have personally at times found it very difficult to acknowledge diverse ways of life that I may not have been accustomed to. It is possible that this experience may have been felt by a number of people that also become uncomfortable whenever you are in unfamiliar cultural environment or encounter practices that are totally different from your own or what you have always been used to. Some call this ‘culture shock’. It is through continued learning and interaction with people from different backgrounds though that these cross-cultural barriers are broken.

It may not always be necessary to break the so called cultural barriers but largely this may be one of the many answers to curbing unnecessary clashes between one category of people and the other and most importantly enhance harmony which is even more necessary now than ever. There are many challenges and issues now such as global warming and diseases that require people to have augmented efforts in combating these challenges and harnessing the limited resources, rather than focusing on the things that make one category of people different from the other. Differences and diversity in points of view, attitudes, behaviors, practices and cultures should be used to learn instead of creating disadvantages for others. With the latter, it seems everyone loses out in one way or the other. Both uniqueness and diversity of individuals are gifts that I am sure are meant to benefit humanity.

With the advancement and wide use of technology, people now easily move from one place to another, criss-crossing and mingling with people from various cultural settings. It is my hope that in the near future, people will be accepted in societies regardless of their religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or other various categories that they may or be perceived to belong.

One lesson I have learnt during my Global Health Corps (GHC) Fellowship is the importance of this gift of diversity. I feel it is a powerful tool and blessing to humanity in enhancing equity in sectors such as health, and indeed an important tool in enhancing social justice which is desperately needed in the world today. GHC as an emerging community of young leaders who are themselves from diverse educational and professional backgrounds, as well as cultural backgrounds, but have the common goal of enhancing health equity and social justice. To a larger extent, this diversity is indeed a blessing as a lot of the iniquities and injustices in the world have diverse root causes too. By positively using the world’s diverse gifts, personalities and attributes, various challenges may be tackled. Tolerance, understanding and respecting some perceptions and practices of people deemed different from us may therefore be cardinal in combating some of the common problems that face all of  humanity.

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