In China, mimicry is a form of mastery. China copies movies, cell phones, even architecture. In fact, it’s home to several imitation European villages, including a fake English village called Thames Town. Ruth Morris has the story.
(Source: ow.ly)
The field of engineering is so popular in India that it’s harder to get into a top engineering school there than to get into Harvard. For many people, engineering and medicine are the only acceptable fields.
And that has some worried that India faces a shortage of other professionals.
In Turkey, Kurdish culture is having something of a Renaissance. Public expressions of Kurdish culture are now legal.
Now a new cultural center has opened for traditional Kurdish story-tellers to practice their ancient art. http://ow.ly/lnvOc
Bhutan and it’s Gross National Happiness policy
Since 1971, the country has rejected GDP as the only way to measure progress. In its place, it has championed a new approach to development, which measures prosperity through formal principles of gross national happiness (GNH) and the spiritual, physical, social and environmental health of its citizens and natural environment.
“People always ask how can you possibly have a nation of happy people? But this is missing the point,” he says. “GNH is an aspiration, a set of guiding principles through which we are navigating our path towards a sustainable and equitable society. We believe the world needs to do the same before it is too late.”
Shedding a different light, another article considers often neglected issues associated with the fervent pursuit of preserving Bhutanese culture;
Parts of the population have been explicitly cut out of the GNH plan. Llotshampas – ethnic Nepalese living in Bhutan – counted for a fifth of the national population before they were asked to leave as part of a “one country, one nation” campaign in 1991. “The police came to our house and asked for our papers,” remembers Devi Charan Dhungana. “They said, ‘You aren’t speaking Bhutanese or wearing Bhutanese dress. You have to leave.’” Refugee camps in Nepal still hold some 85,500 Llotshampas. Many, including Devi Charan, have resolved to resettle abroad.
One in five women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime.
Full infographic is available via Half the Sky
