— A life changing puzzle
Let’s do a small math puzzle. There is a worry equation 101-102=1. Could you correct it by moving only one numeral? If you already know the puzzle or get the answer within 1 mins, don’t worry, I won’t spend the rest of the article on math. In the other hand, if you couldn’t find the answer, that is fine, because a couple of my friend had tried so hard but still came up with nothing when we first see the puzzle.
In most of our lives, we do thing by following certain logic or methods we learned. While these methods can help us solve a lot of problems, they restrict us sometimes, especially, when there are some stereotypical mindsets exist in our mind. Get back to the puzzle, when we think about moving a numeral, we may try to move it right or left not up or down. This is a typical way that stereotypical mindset limited our imagination. But, at this point, the answer of the puzzle is clear. Move the 2 in 102 up as the power of 10 and we get the answer.
— A change of mindset about Dubai
Dubai, where our class has spent a week on, is famous in worldwide for its wealth and luxurious life style. Since this was the first time I visited Dubai, I had truly believed the perfect images of the city created by its outstanding tourism advertisement team. When I said Dubai’s advertisement has been done outstandingly and I truly meant it because half of my peers believe that most of the police officers in Dubai drive Lamborghini and Bugatti. After we first arrived in the Crown Plaza Hotel in Festival City, one of the developing district of Dubai, I saw a bunch of Yellow Cabs behind the entrance of our hotel. What! Toyota Camry? Where are the gorgeous Mercedes and BMW cabs? Don’t tell me the Limo drivers are watching TV with their wives and kid at home around 10 since Dubai’s shopping malls usually operate till 11 or 12 pm. This is first surprise Dubai gave me but not the last one. After the trip, I still claim Dubai is a wonderful place that gather so much wealth and fortune from the world, however, there are a lot of unexposed facts that tourists and outsiders normally won’t see. From the most updated data, Dubai has close to 2.8 million resident and plus nearly 1 million temporary Residents, which total is around 3.8 million active daytime population in 2017. In 2014, the Gross domestic product (GDP) of Dubai is 82.87 billion USD and $ 24,866 per capita. In 2016, the GDP per capita of UAE is $ 67,700 which is higher than United States ($57,300). From this overall data, we can see the average income of Dubai resident is high with a reasonable local inflation rate (3–5%). However, if we investigate the demographics of Dubai’s population, a different image will be shown. In UAE, Emiratis only consist roughly 10% of the total population, and the other 90 % are mainly migrant workers and immigrants without a citizenship. Thus, the expatriates constitute the foundation of the country’s economy. Without having too much available data, the level of income equality is not clear about UAE. However, based on my observation and conversation with some expatriates, a large percent of them are working in service, manufacture and wholesale industry which are paid fairly low and they couldn’t afford to live in the city because of the high price level. Obviously, my previous mindset for Dubai was misled.
Use mine as an example, after engaging with my peers for a few days, I certainly found my identity in our group. While my last name is Wu, I was friendly called Jackie Chan. And don’t get me wrong my friends. I really love to be called like that and I am being really grateful to the real Kung Fu Star — Jackie giving me a better chance to know you. But there is also some small stereotypes’ problem we can find. Different from the positive images created by Kung Fu star Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan in recent decades, in early 1900, East Asian male characters in western TV or novel have been described as dangerous, gloomy, lesser-men and always wearing traditional long silk jacket. Examples include Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon and Dr. Fu Manchu in British author Sax Rohmer’s serial novels. I, personally, found these characters were funny but I have to claim that Dr. Fu Manchu has little similarity to Dr. Fu Manchu, honestly, I barely know Kung Fu and ,definitely, Indian food is much more than curry.
As Annie Murphy Paul said, we all use stereotypes, all the time, without knowing it. In the situation, we become our own enemy to see a larger world. Moreover, in a culture, we can ignore the progression and the fundamental change come from different world. In a country, we can listen too much about the voice of mainstream. And in a person, we are limited by the role and we have been given. To me stereotype is fine since we all learn the world by using old knowledge and experience as far as we can keep an open mind and try to view the world in a different angle and position.
The world is like a square without boundary. If we only turn our heads around, we hardly find a direction. And only when we stand up and climb to a higher place, we see a larger picture and know where to go.
