Do we have too many Preconceived Notions?

I was talking to a friend about India, when she said “Do you still worship snakes?” and I could not say anything but laugh. May be Yes still in some rural places but I haven’t seen it in my whole life. So does it still make India a country of snakes? And yes I admit we had a shameful and horrendous incident of a girl being raped last year but does it make India as a nation unsafe? Well the answer really varies but I guess it is still NO. I know one may wonder that as an Indian I tend to incline towards my country but I also came across a very interesting article by Canadian writer and traveler Mariellen Ward – Top 5 myths about India. And you will find many other articles online.

 
But all these things surely make one wonder how many preconceived notions we all carry? Below are listed some with answer - 

Does Dubai look like desert? - Below I have shown two pictures of Dubai. My this blog will highlight more places in Dubai. Now you decide on your own.  Also refer to their tourism site - http://www.visitdubai.com/ - if you want more details.

Is Africa poor and disease ridden place? - Africa is the world's second largest and second most populated continent; and like all other countries, African countries are also fighting within social and economical problems. But that doesnt make "all" of the Africa a poor place. Here is the list of 15 richest countries of Africa. As per World bank news article many countries in Africa grew their wealth much faster than world's average.
Not to forget africa has the world's largest desert - Sahara desert and the world's longest river - Nile. as per Business Insider magazine's article it has one of the most luxurious train in the world -  Rovos Rail, Pride of Africa

USA is the best place to live? - Yes it is one of the best places to live. But depending on other factors people may or may not find it suitable. Here is the Wikipedia link to see what the stats have to say.

Not just about countries or people but also about daily activities like:
Using anti-bacterial soap keeps away from cold and flu - The fact is it doesn't matter if you wash your hands with a normal soap or anti-bacterial soap. Cold and flu are spread by virus so the anti-bacterial soap wont help. The purpose of frequent washing is to ensure we wash off the viruses from our hands so that they dont spread rapidly. In fact some experts even say that anti-bacterial soaps should not be used much as they clean up the good bacteriastoo. Details can be found at this WebMD article - Plain Soap as Good as Antibacterial 

Eating rice daily makes one fat - I dont know what to say here as you may already know that rice is staple diet of many communities and all have skinny and fat people.

French fries are "French" : well may be some of you already know this. French fries  are not French, they were invented in Belgium and to add to it they are not healthy either. They are counted in junk food. If you want to verify the facts here is the link

If you know about other misconceptions do write in the comments section below and I will dig deeper and put them on here :)

We are living in a world where technology has opened gates to knowledge like never before. I am not saying preconceived notions are bad. But they are not always true and sometimes we pass them on without even verifying facts. So lets make use of Google, Wikipedia, How stuff works and other great websites and verify the info before passing it on!