Personalized Medicine (PM) is thought to be the next major advancement in the provision of healthcare. Once hospitals and healthcare practitioners acquaint themselves with evolving technologies in pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics, metabolomics, etc, they will be able to offer more effective services to the patients. For example, under this impending healthcare revolution, patients will be able to…
Category: Society
Media and Popular Culture in China
During his Southern Tour to the Special Economic Zones in South China in 1992 to accelerate market reforms in the aftermath of Tiananmen bloodshed, the paramount Chinese leader advised the party state, “Guard against the Right, but primarily against the Left.” How do you make sense of Deng’s warning against the leftist political thought and…
‘Freedom Writers’ and the Economics of Race and Gender
The movie Freedom Writers is one of the most touching to have come out of Hollywood in recent years. Starring Hilary Swank in a lead role, the movie takes up a subject that is at the heart of American culture, namely the economics of race and gender. On a cursory viewing the story looks deceptively…
Influence of television in our society
Media is very important in today’s world, especially television. We now live in the Information Age and it is through media that information is transmitted. In olden days, media was not developed properly and so transmitting information was difficult. Starting from newspapers and magazines, technology had improved steadily to give us radio and television. More…
Problems with traditional ethnographic film-making as exemplified by Nanook of the North
The film Nanook of the North is a pioneering effort by film-maker Robert Flaherty. Released in 1922 and filmed in the immediately preceding years, the film was a tentative experimentation in two genres – ethnography and documentary. At a time when the written word was the primary mode of information dissemination, Nanook of the North…
The Fallacy of the American Dream: The Reservation Cab Driver and Mexicans Begin Jogging
The notion of the American Dream, whereby through hard work and earnest enterprise a citizen could rise to a comfortable standard of living is an exaggeration. Despite being the richest country in the world, the United States also has the greatest disparities in distribution of wealth. Moreover, public institutions in the country have failed to…
Do privacy rights extend to sexual orientation?
Privacy rights have taken added significance in urban centers across the world. As societies become more urbanized and proximity between strangers increases, instances of breach in privacy is bound to grow, leading to expansion in laws relating to privacy. In highly advanced societies like the United States, the rate of urbanization is very high, which…
Big Eight’s criticism of commercializing cherished cultural traditions such as the Rodeo
Big Eight is quite right in criticizing the commercialization of cherished cultural traditions such as the Rodeo. Rodeo shows started as a form of entertainment and show of expertise among horse-owners. When it started, players’ skills were truly tested, for no two horses are the same and they have to adjust to the vagaries of…
Opportunities and challenges posed by the diversity of the U.S. Population
The United States is famous in the rest of the world for being a ‘melting pot’ of different cultures, ethnicities and regions of origin. But it would be hasty to conclude that this ethno-cultural collage took shape through a smooth process. Looking back at the two and half century old history of the country, one…
Why Americans should embrace Alternative fuel vehicles?
Energy sources alternative to fossil-produced oil have been talked about for many years now. Yet no meaningful transformation to these energy sources have been practically implemented so far. Transportation industry, with its assortment of different oil-guzzling vehicles, is the chief culprit in this regard. If this trend is to continue in the future, then very…