Cultural Diversity

With the many different cultures represented in Howard County, it makes sense to offer cultural diversity training to teachers and administrators in the school system. Cultural diversity training helps to make them aware of the many different languages that students may speak at home, different styles of dress, differences in home life, in household income, parents education level, and the importance of education. Muslims, Hindus, African Americans, and Hispanics all have different styles of dress that are common in their ancestral home, be it Pakistan, India, Africa or Latin America, and are worn in this country to show solidarity to their culture.

With the many different cultures represented in Howard County, it makes sense to offer cultural diversity training to teachers and administrators in the school system. Cultural diversity training helps to make them aware of the many different languages that students may speak at home, different styles of dress, differences in home life, in household income, parents education level, and the importance of education. Muslims, Hindus, African Americans, and Hispanics all have different styles of dress that are common in their ancestral home, be it Pakistan, India, Africa or Latin America, and are worn in this country to show solidarity to their culture.

A group of social service and mental health agencies are sponsoring an all-day conference tomorrow in Annapolis to help professionals and county residents from different cultural backgrounds understand and communicate with one another."

So who gets to decide what constitutes cultural diversity? It's a question worth asking in light of the recent discussion among members of the Harford Community College Board of Trustees. To comply with legislation that was approved two years ago, the college devised a plan for making sure it promotes cultural diversity. In other words, the school needs to find a way to make sure the student body reflects the community the college serves, presumably without compromising on academic standards.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- In 1971, anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol died when his body plunged from the 10th floor of the notorious security-police headquarters in John Vorster Square here.He had been under interrogation in detention for five days. He was the 22nd person to die in police custody after the 1963 introduction of detention without trial under the apartheid system.Magistrate J. J. L. de Villiers ruled eight months later that Timol died "from serious brain injuries and loss of blood when he jumped from a window.

Aberdeen was named one of 10 All-America City Award winners last night by the National Civic League in recognition of the Harford County community's efforts to help its disadvantaged youths."

When Texaco Inc. executives were taped talking about "black jelly beans," their racially offensive remarks had an unlikely source: a diversity training session.A consultant had urged the executives to view Texaco as a jar of different-colored jelly beans, each one unique and valuable. They ended up privately mocking the session, joking that, "All the black jelly beans seem to be glued to the bottom of the bag."The diversity movement was supposed to reshape the American workplace to reflect the changing makeup of the workforce.

Heart disease focus at mall this month The Mall in Columbia is conducting a monthlong awareness campaign in recognition of American Heart Month. Called "The Heart Truth," the campaign is designed to heighten awareness of women's heart disease. The campaign attempts to educate women and encourage them to take action against risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol, excessive weight, physical inactivity and diabetes. The mall will distribute information and give away Red Dress pins - a symbol for women's heart disease awareness.

Despite the August heat that reached into the mid-90s and threatening rainstorm clouds, thousands of people attended the 16th annual Baltimore International Festival and Mayor's Cup soccer tournament to celebrate Baltimore's cultural diversity. Held Aug. 6-7 at the Poly/Western fields, the 16th annual event showcased about 40 vendors representing Thailand, Korea, the Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobego, Africa and Mexico, among other nations. Alvin Gillard, chairman of the festival, said he was "encouraged about folks embracing the concept of the festival" this year "While the entertainment is great, the mission of the festival is to create an opportunity for folks to come together and to celebrate those things we have in common and not be polarized about what's different," he said.

So who gets to decide what constitutes cultural diversity? It's a question worth asking in light of the recent discussion among members of the Harford Community College Board of Trustees. To comply with legislation that was approved two years ago, the college devised a plan for making sure it promotes cultural diversity. In other words, the school needs to find a way to make sure the student body reflects the community the college serves, presumably without compromising on academic standards.

Despite the August heat that reached into the mid-90s and threatening rainstorm clouds, thousands of people attended the 16th annual Baltimore International Festival and Mayor's Cup soccer tournament to celebrate Baltimore's cultural diversity. Held Aug. 6-7 at the Poly/Western fields, the 16th annual event showcased about 40 vendors representing Thailand, Korea, the Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobego, Africa and Mexico, among other nations. Alvin Gillard, chairman of the festival, said he was "encouraged about folks embracing the concept of the festival" this year "While the entertainment is great, the mission of the festival is to create an opportunity for folks to come together and to celebrate those things we have in common and not be polarized about what's different," he said.

Despite the August heat that reached into the mid-90s and threatening rainstorm clouds, thousands of people attended the 16th annual Baltimore International Festival and Mayor's Cup soccer tournament to celebrate Baltimore's cultural diversity. Held Aug. 6-7 at the Poly/Western fields, the 16th annual event showcased about 40 vendors representing Thailand, Korea, the Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobego, Africa and Mexico, among other nations. Alvin Gillard, chairman of the festival, said he was "encouraged about folks embracing the concept of the festival" this year "While the entertainment is great, the mission of the festival is to create an opportunity for folks to come together and to celebrate those things we have in common and not be polarized about what's different," he said.

A former African-American beach resort that drew thousands of people and national R&B acts has been named the first of 17 sites that the city will mark with a plaque as part of the Annapolis Charter 300 celebration. The effort is an attempt to diversify the city's historical accounts beyond the signers of the Declaration of Independence, said Chuck Weikel, executive director of the celebration. A waist-high marker will be placed at the former entrance to Carr's Beach, now private property owned by the upscale Chesapeake Harbour condominium community.

Heart disease focus at mall this month The Mall in Columbia is conducting a monthlong awareness campaign in recognition of American Heart Month. Called "The Heart Truth," the campaign is designed to heighten awareness of women's heart disease. The campaign attempts to educate women and encourage them to take action against risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol, excessive weight, physical inactivity and diabetes. The mall will distribute information and give away Red Dress pins - a symbol for women's heart disease awareness.

Learning how to live in Howard County can be confusing for immigrants and those raised in other cultures, according to a study due for release today that also finds that native-born Americans often are confused as well when they encounter people from foreign cultures. "The report makes an important distinction between integration and accepting cultural diversity," said Roy Appletree, director of Columbia's private, nonprofit FIRN, formerly the Foreign-born Information and Referral Network, which was the lead agency for the report.

Runners, swimmers and jumpers may be flocking to Athens this summer, but Barcelona is holding a different kind of Olympics - a five-month cultural and intellectual forum on solving the world's problems. Organizers say they expect more than five million visitors starting this month for the 2004 Forum of Cultures - part festival, part meeting-of-minds on broad themes like peace, cultural diversity and sustainable development. For Barcelona, it's a chance to recover the international limelight it basked in back in 1992 when it sponsored the Olympics - not to mention rake in tourist dollars and give itself a long-overdue facelift.

As the result of incorrect information provided by the Drui Heights Community Development Corporation, an article on Oct. reported incorrectly that the group's cross cultural festival was funded by the Goldseker Foundation. In fact, the event was financed by the Baltimore Community Foundation.The Sun regrets the errors.A Trinidadian story teller will meet Korean tae kwon do performers at the city's first "celebration of cross cultural appreciation" in West Baltimore tomorrow.The daylong celebration at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church Hall at 1210 Presstman St. is sponsored by the Druid Heights Community Development Corp.

Los Angeles -- It was not one of the bigger press conferences here on the fall TV preview tour. But it held one of those moments where hundreds of disparate facts and developments in the revolution that television is going through suddenly froze in a kind of perfect alignment and led to an inescapable conclusion: Cable TV is going to grind the networks to dust because it is really starting to reflect our cultural diversity. Cable TV is connecting with multicultural America in a way the networks seem incapable of understanding.

If you love a good story, the Enoch Pratt Free Library is the place to be - kind of. With the launch of its new online program, E-stories, folks can now enjoy a good story told by professional storytellers from the comfort of their home. "We do storytelling all the time here," said Mona M. Rock, the Pratt's director of communications. "This is one way that if you can't make it to the physical library you can use your cyber-library to still be a part of the program." Currently, there are five stories on the Pratt's Web site, http://www.

September is the unofficial month for celebrating cultural diversity in Baltimore County, with a banquet being held Thursday to raise money for minority scholarships and a festival Sept. 15 to showcase African-American, Korean, Latino, Indian and other cultures. Both events are being sponsored by the county's Office of Fair Practices and Community Affairs and the Baltimore County African American Cultural Festival Inc. The fifth annual Towson festival, formerly the African American Cultural Festival, has been renamed the Baltimore County Cultural Diversity Festival.