Monday started off in flight with the unintentionally offensive marketing ad by Asian airline giant Korean Air.
The airline is promoting it's newly added flights to Nairobi, but unfortunately referred to Kenyans as "primitive." The airline apologized and removed the ad for revisions. Below is the revised version, which has the classic generalizations.
The use of "primitive" disgusted residents of the East African nation and others in the black world. However, I do not find this surprising and, in fact, I'm used to it.
This goes again to show why global awareness and having a broad worldview is so absolutely important, especially if you live in a homogeneous society where meeting someone who does not look like you is a rarity. Everyone, in Kenya and in South Korea and everywhere else on this planet, should educate themselves by the virtue of critical thinking to become culturally relative and culturally sensitive.
This world is shrinking, thanks to the advent of the internet. It's baffling that a country like South Korea, which is considered one of the most (if not the most) wired nation in the world, still has these embarrassing moments. I hate to say this, but if multicultural/global awareness training does not take place in this Asian economic power, these upsets are bound to happen again.
