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fiona hou

Multiculturalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism Eastern societies Western societies

shared by fiona hou on 14 Aug 09 - Cached
  • The term multiculturalism generally refers to the acceptance of various cultural divisions for the sake of diversity that applies to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the scale of an organization such as a school, business, neighborhood, city or nation.
  • Australia The response to multiculturalism in Australia has been extremely varied, with a recent wave of criticism against it in the past decade. An anti-immigration party, the One Nation Party, was formed by Pauline Hanson in the late 1990s. The party enjoyed significant electoral success for a while, most notably in its home state of Queensland, but is now electorally marginalized. One Nation called for the abolition of multiculturalism on the grounds that it represented "a threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values", arguing that there was "no reason why migrant cultures should be maintained at the expense of our shared, national culture."[83] A Federal Government proposal in 2006 to introduce a compulsory citizenship test, which would assess English skills and knowledge of Australian values, sparked renewed debate over the future of multiculturalism in Australia. Andrew Robb, then Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, told a conference in November 2006 that some Australians worried the term "multicultural" had been transformed by interest groups into a philosophy that put "allegiances to original culture ahead of national loyalty, a philosophy which fosters separate development, a federation of ethnic cultures, not one community". He added: "A community of separate cultures fosters a rights mentality, rather than a responsibilities mentality. It is divisive. It works against quick and effective integration."[84] The Australian citizenship test commenced in October 2007 for all new citizens between the ages of 18 and 60.[85] In January 2007 the Howard Government removed the word "multicultural" from the name of t
  • The response to multiculturalism in Australia has been extremely varied, with a recent wave of criticism against it in the past decade. An anti-immigration party, the One Nation Party , was formed by Pauline Hanson in the late 1990s. The party enjoyed significant electoral success for a while, most notably in its home state of Queensland , but is now electorally marginalized. One Nation called for the abolition of multiculturalism on the grounds that it represented "a threat to the very basis of the Australian culture, identity and shared values", arguing that there was "no reason why migrant cultures should be maintained at the expense of our shared, national culture." [83] A Federal Government proposal in 2006 to introduce a compulsory citizenship test, which would assess English skills and knowledge of Australian values, sparked renewed debate over the future of multiculturalism in Australia. Andrew Robb , then Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, told a conference in November 2006 that some Australians worried the term "multicultural" had been transformed by interest groups into a philosophy that put "allegiances to original culture ahead of national loyalty, a philosophy which fosters separate development, a federation of ethnic cultures, not one community". He added: "A community of separate cultures fosters a rights mentality, rather than a responsibilities mentality. It is divisive. It works against quick and effective integration." [84] The Australian citizenship test commenced in October 2007 for all new citizens between the ages of 18 and 60. [85] In January 2007 the Howard Government removed the word "multicultural" from the name of t he Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, changing its name to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
Tony Sullivan

Background Briefing - 5 July 2009 - Cairo, a divided city - 0 views

www.abc.net.au/...2613439.htm

globalisation Egypt

shared by Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Cairo
  • Mr Berry: When you walk in the gate it's nice. It gives you the impression that maybe you have a place in Australia maybe, maybe it feels like you in Australia, maybe somebody else, OK, maybe in Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else in the world, maybe in Italy, maybe somebody has the same feeling like Oh, this looks somewhere in Rome, somewhere in Greece
    • Tony Sullivan
      Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
       
      Describes 'gated communities' for the affluent, being established in desert areas beyond the border of Cairo city.
  • Mr Berry: Golf, it's a very prestigious thing.
  • ...37 more annotations...
  • Not everyone back in Cairo is happy about the obsession with golf courses. Professor of Landscape and Architecture at Cairo University, Mohammad Refaat says they are a status symbol and the game doesn't come naturally to Egyptians
  • Mohammad Refaat: The first golf course that was created in these new developments was in Katameya Heights. It started - why is that? Because we started to have the Japanese in Egypt. The Japanese, they love golf, and we have several firms with Japanese managers, so it became a luxury to provide the service for them. But I believe that we're never going to be golfers as Egyptians, and I don't know, it's irritating now, because whenever you go, whenever you get a project, even in my private office, they say, 'Ah, the golf', and then we start doing the compound. The main idea of the golf from the owners' point of view is that to provide value for the people so that he can start to sell.
  • Mohammad Refaat: The thing is that I feel that we are Westernising ourselves. The thing is that due to the effect of the media, everybody wants to live in a Dallas, or in a Falconcrest or one of these things that we used to see when we're kids.
  • And they did not understand the Egyptian culture. If I speak about myself, I'd rather live in what we call the hara, or the alley, the old alley that we have, you know, when you have people all living in one street, of having all the services in the street, what we call the philosophy of the extended family. This is very, very Egyptian.
  • Anwar Sadat
  • opened up the country to the world, and very significantly, for the first time, all Egyptians could travel overseas.
  • Egyptians from all classes went abroad to get jobs in Gulf countries. They came back with money and with an appetite for things like shopping and luxury living. Some also brought back new ideas about Islam. It was more conservative and fundamentalist.
  • teachers, engineers, medical doctors, peasants, the large peasant migration
  • get passports, go and work in Jordan, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, come back. Some of them also in Saudi Arabia perhaps never ever encountering women, right? And coming back with new notions of segregation, of headscarf, of Islamisation
  • Hagar Cohen: In Cairo today more and more women are segregated and wear the burqa, which is the full head and body cover. But everyone likes the shopping, and the new and glitzy malls are full of people in all kinds of dress
  • It can be uncomfortable now for women in western clothes, who don't wear scarves, because conservative men and women clearly show their distaste. This mix between consumerism and a very religious lifestyle is sometimes known as 'petro Islam'
  • Mona Abaza: They have different notions and variations of Islamic ideologies. There is a difference between a 16-year-old kid who is out of a family of 10 living in a slum, and a schoolteacher who lives long years in Saudi Arabia comes back, very much influenced by what I call the petro Islamic ideology, Saudi Arabian consumerists, very much into conservative accommodationist kind of religion, enjoying a shopping mall but at the same time dressing in Islamic code for instance. So marrying certain forms of consumer culture, but giving it a flavour that can look Egyptian, so that you convince yourself that you are different.
    • Tony Sullivan
      Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
       
      Also discussed in relation to Salafism, a quietist social current encouraged by Saudi Araba, in 'The fever under the surface', The Economist 25 July 2009, p11-12, part of a special report on the Middle East.
  • the gated communities inside. the more upmarket, the faster they're selling, and they have names like Beverley Hills, Hyde Park and Dreamland.
  • Another kind of cultural reference for all of this is old Egyptian movies from like the 1950s you know, black-and-white films, where the setting was very, very often the Pasha's villa, which always had a very grand staircase, and a very grand entrance. This is the sort of lifestyle that Egyptians haven't had access to since the 1950s because of the crowding and so on and so forth. So now it's sort of become a lifestyle option for wealthy Egyptians that wasn't really there. So you can now have your own Pasha's villa.
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hussanein says she isn't comfortable living in a place with a name like 'Beverly Hills'. Dina Hassanein: That's a very sad thing, because we have a remarkable history and civilisation and yet, you know, we can't think of any Arabic word of our own that we could use to name the places. So I can tell you, Beverly Hills Egypt is nothing like Beverly Hills California
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein is a modern woman. She lives on her own, and has a fiancé who lives nearby. She is very beautiful and smartly dressed in Western clothes. She has a job which involves interaction with all sorts of people
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein and other residents have to rely on Old Cairo for almost everything, including shops, restaurants, and health services. There are also no local street markets, little shops or stalls, or workshops. In some places, the rules even forbid them. Big supermarket chains can be found easily, but you have to drive to get to them
  • Said Sadek: And you have rulers who believe in gated communities. Mubarak himself, lives in Sharem el Sheik or Borg el Arab, isolated, always isolated. The ruling elite in Egypt are isolated. And so you can tell by this political orientation of the elite that this is what they want, an isolated community because they cannot meet the demands of the masses. There are 40% of Egyptians below poverty line, earning less than $2 a day. And so this abject poverty amidst people who have a lot of money, may drive people to be envious
  • Very poor quality housing found in slums and shanty towns is expanding in Cairo
  • r Cohen: What in terms of sewage and garbage services? Are they available? Manal Tibe: We are talking about no water, so don't talk about sewage and garbage
  • Hagar Cohen: Manal Tibe says that the government isn't doing anything to improve conditions in slums, but has been very generous to private developers of gated communities. The desert land is subsidised by the government as well as the price of fuel, electricity and water. And that makes expenses in gated communities very low.
  • Manal Tibe: More hatefulness from poor to rich people and also to the government. Now, poor people that they want revenge, and this is being interpreted in some crimes against rich people.
  • Hagar Cohen: Dina Hassanein is missing city life, but at the same time she says that she doesn't fit in there any more
  • Dina Hassanein: It's not that I don't want to live there, it's just that our realities are very different, the places that we go are very different. If I were to walk into a slum I might get torn apart. You can't just walk in wearing normal clothes like we do into a place like that. I can barely walk down the streets without getting harassed actually, because it's a much more conservative society, so it's just different, it's almost impossible for these worlds to intermingle.
  • Hagar Cohen: These two very different worlds are on display inside some of Cairo's shopping malls. Western music there is piped through just as it is in any Australian city. This shopping mall is in the suburb of Giza. It's one of the most exclusive ones in Cairo. There's a care there serving Caesar salads and cappuccinos. Just across the road is the Giza Zoo, which is a popular hanging out venue for poorer families
  • This shopping mall
  • It's only a few days before Christmas when we're here, and in this Muslim country, it's ironic that Christian carols are playing throughout the atrium. Mona Abaza: It's a mix of definitely well-to-do Egyptians, and lots of expatriates, foreigners coming. You can see the Christmas decoration. During Ramadan they make Ramadan decorations, tents and Islamic style, and in Christmas they put Christmas decorations
  • Mona Abaza: There is this idea that the old downtown city is now slowly being depopulated by its, let us say, middle class. It used to be a very important commercial centre. It is now losing out this significance, because the centres have been now little by little moving out. So the idea is to get out of the city, because as if it's the inside is rotten, and it's very interesting how the poor can easily look at the lifestyles of the rich. Now this is evidently a bit of a problem for the rich, so that is why they opted for the American Dream, which is getting out and walling off.
  • Mona Abaza: If you look at it just visually, the problem is slums. One can easily say that the view is that as if the whole of Cairo is consisting of slums. Now the past 20 years, the neo liberal ideology of the government is to try and handle the problem of slums, and the way they handle it is as if it's an evil, a cancer that has to be drastically eliminated, with violence, because they consider and they believe that in slums, that we have the breeding of terrorist ideology, Islamist, poverty, violence etc. Now all this is quite often very over-exaggerated. I mean it's a form of discriminating the poor, that's clear. But you have the issue also of the city now experiencing a new form of cleaning up geared towards of course the encouraging of tourism and sites of consumption. So the cityscape is taking place as a huge space for consumer culture and tourism
  • Hagar Cohen: The American University, where Professor Abaza lectures, has also moved out to the desert and is now based in a town called New Cairo. She says it's a bad move, because a whole generation of well-off young people will be isolated, away from historical Cairo or the old Egyptian culture
  • Mona Abaza: You might be astonished but my students, 18 years old, 19 years, have never for instance known anything about downtown, have never even gone to downtown.
  • You will find the American fast food and the Egyptian fast food, and Italian, Mexican. Upstairs there is a McDonald's and Kentucky
  • Towheid Wahab: There is a rule here in the University. There's no mosque, there's no church, there's no temple, there's no monastery. All the people here are equal to do their religion by their own
  • Max Roderbeck: There are good reasons why they want to move, because you get a nice amount of space, you can re-brand yourself with a new image of being something that looks very modern instead of something that's fitted into a shabby old neighbourhood. There's certainly a trend, I mean there are quite a lot of institutions that have moved out.
  • Max Roderbeck: The danger of Cairo being hollowed out is pretty real. And I mean, some of the things that a city needs to be vibrant, seem to be already been pulled out of the centre of Cairo. I've seen other places where downtown becomes either a hollow shell, or ends up just being a sort of transport hub, you know, a sort of junction of roads and things. And I think it's a very real danger with Cairo.
  • Hagar Cohen: Somehow, Cairo has always managed to function as a lively city, says Max Roderbeck, but this time around, things are different
  • These satellite towns were developed in this way because of the government's quick sale of the land to private hands. They wanted to make a return quickly, and big villas and golf courses were in demand. But they don't work as lively urban centres, says environmental architect, Abbas el Zafarany
  • Tony Sullivan on 05 Aug 09
     
    The complexities of globalisation evident in Egypt's largest city and its surrounds
fiona hou

QQ: Master of the Micropayment. - 0 views

zerosocialmedia.com/...qq-master-of-the-micropayment

QQ China Lagest instant messenger service micropayment

shared by fiona hou on 14 Aug 09 - Cached
  • QQ is China’s largest instant messenger service; in 2008 it owned 86% of the market, with MSN owning 5%, and a bunch of others owning less. QQ dominates the market – but the money made seems not to be from its instant messenger; rather its leveraging and channeling that huge audience through a gauntlet of micro-payments.
  • How is this achieved? It’s very smart – QQ doesn’t aim for the brain, it aims for the heart using QQshow – which is very similar to Yahoo Avatars, but with a  “billion’s of RMB from China youth market” twist.
  • QQ is head and shoulder’s above its competition, of this there is no doubt. Why? QQ is more than an instant messenger service, it’s a portal to a vast array of entertainment services in China; ie: while MSN, skype, etc, focus solely on instant messages, QQ IM is just the first step in a long sale.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • There are many reasons why QQ remains top dog in China IM; it led the pack during the Internet boom in China, it’s parent Company Tencent, controls many of China’s top sites, and its a domestic Chinese product fueled in part by nationalism, and in part by insight into what Chinese really want, and what they are willing to pay.
  • So what are they willing to pay? We’re talking pretty small amounts, like RMB 10/year (about USD 1.50)for “Red Diamond” membership. Sounds like nothing right? We’ll when you multiply that number by 100 million, then you can begin to see the power of China’s massive population coupled with payments that are way under their daily budget.
  • QQ is more than an instant messenger – way more; the messenger is simply a portal to a thriving online community fueled by an endless series of micro-payments. The avatars of these communities engage users on a “heart” level – they are invested, they have spent time, they have spent emotion. By connecting on a low-barrier, simple value-add proposition, QQ has leveraged it’s community in a way no other site in China has.
  • Taking this further, Brands that sell to the China youth market can quickly tap into a giant market of very engaged individuals. This is a perfect medium for fashion, beauty, and fun accessories. With the right content, it’s an excellent way to drive trials and sales, build brands, and create memorable experiences.
  • fiona hou on 14 Aug 09
     
    QQ is China's largest instant messenger service; in 2008 it owned 86% of the market, with MSN owning 5%, and a bunch of others owning less. QQ dominates the market - but the money made seems not to be from its instant messenger; rather its leveraging and channeling that huge audience through a gauntlet of micro-payments.
Nadeem Uddin

'Viagra cream' could prove safer - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8263307.stm

shared by Nadeem Uddin on 21 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Nadeem Uddin on 21 Sep 09
     
    'Viagra cream' could prove safer\nViagra\nSide-effects can include headaches, blurred vision and upset stomach\n\nA cream allowing erectile dysfunction drugs to be applied directly to the skin could one day make them safer to use, say New York scientists.\n\nStudies in rats suggest that Viagra, Levitra and Cialis could pass through the skin in tiny capsules, they say.\n\nThe research, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, could mean fewer side-effects, and even significantly speed up the drug's action.\n\nHowever, it could be a decade before creams are fully ready for use.\n\nThe arrival of erectile dysfunction treatments in tablet form has been one of the success stories of the modern pharmaceutical industry, with some estimates suggesting that tens of millions of men worldwide have used them.\n\nHowever, although they have worked for many men, they also carry the risk of side-effects such as headaches, blurred vision or upset stomachs.\n\nIn addition, men with severe heart problems, or who have just suffered a stroke, are advised to avoid the tablets altogether or use them with extreme caution.\n\nLess risk\n\nFor many, this could be solved by the development of the cream, with would confine more of the active ingredients of the drug to a single area of the body, rather than circulating them widely.\n \nThe response time to the nanoparticles was very short, just a few minutes, which is basically what people want in an erectile dysfunction medication\nDr Kelvin Davies\nStudy author\n\nThe research team at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, in New York, used nanoparticles, each much smaller than a grain of pollen, and found a way to encapsulate particles of the drug inside.\n\nTheir early tests involved just a few rats bred to have erectile dysfunction later in life.\n\nOf these, 11 were treated with nanoparticles containing Cialis, a newer erectile dysfunction drug called sialorphin, and nitric oxide, a chemical also needed to wid
fiona hou

Obama wishes he was as popular as Bush - Telegraph Blogs - 0 views

blogs.telegraph.co.uk/...shes-he-was-as-popular-as-bush

Obama Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

shared by fiona hou on 14 Aug 09 - Cached
  • The latest Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracking Poll is a significant blow to President Obama’s flailing presidency, just 7 months since taking office. According to Rasmussen, a highly influential pollster, Obama’s approval rating now stands at just 47 per cent, with 52 per cent disapproval, and 37 per cent strongly disapproving.
  • At the same time in his first presidency in August 2001, George W. Bush’s approval ratings stood at around 55-59 per cent in most major polls, with roughly 35-38 per cent disapproval. It was not until Spring 2004 that Bush’s ratings were as low as Obama’s figures in today’s Rasmussen poll – more than three years into his first term of office. The White House will point to other surveys that show stronger approval for Obama, but all leading polls demonstrate that support for the president is eroding. The Obama presidency is sinking faster than almost any other in recent US history, largely because he is trying to force a radical left-wing agenda on a nation that is still far more conservative than liberal, that overwhelmingly believes in limited federal government, free enterprise and decentralization of power.
  • It is hardly surprising that Obama’s standing in the polls is declining. He has launched a highly ambitious, ideologically driven agenda to transform the United States by expanding the role of the state at the expense of the individual, while at the same time weakening America’s defences and undercutting its standing on the world stage. It is a recipe for failure, and a left-wing vision for the future which fortunately is being rejected by the American people.
  • fiona hou on 14 Aug 09
     
    The latest Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracking Poll is a significant blow to President Obama's flailing presidency, just 7 months since taking office.
glen donnar

The TV Watch - Ultimate Media Moment - Michael Jackson's Memorial Service - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...08watch.html

mass media communication

shared by glen donnar on 21 Jul 09 - Cached
  • most everybody around the world stopped what they were doing — on television, on the Internet and on the street — to look and listen.
  • as the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, showed in 1997, communal sorrow is moving, public frenzy is alarming, but the two together make for irresistible television.
  • Brian Williams of NBC, who sat on a special platform outside the Staples Center, told his colleague Lester Holt that the public had a way of deciding for itself what matters, “despite, at some times, the news media’s better wishes.” He added ruefully, “And this is an event because it is.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Most anchors tried to define Mr. Jackson’s place in pop culture and American history. His popularity is universal, but his death was commandeered to mark a milestone in African-American history. Nancy Giles, an actress and CBS News commentator, said on MSNBC that he was “a trailblazer in the same way President Obama is.”
  • That homage, as much as the music, was the measure of the event’s success: for at least one day, the Jackson camp managed to take command of the coverage, setting the agenda for the news media as well as the mourners.
Christoph Zed

The Axis of Honour: Honour, Modernity, and al Qaeda « The Sensible Jew - 0 views

sensiblejew.wordpress.com/...-honour-modernity-and-al-qaeda

globalisation terrorism al qaeda values society capitalism pluralism secularisation colonialism moral honor

shared by Christoph Zed on 23 Aug 09 - Cached
  • So many scholars and commentators attribute suicide terrorism to such factors as poverty, foreign occupation, or religion, among many other things.
  • Over the past two hundred years, there has been a global, though highly uneven, shift within the values systems of various societies.
  • One particularly profound transformation has been the relegation of one’s religion to the private sphere, as a matter of purely personal choice.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • So societies that have embraced modernity, have effectively “privatised” religion. Indeed capitalism has been the driving force behind secularism because it required the dismantling of the communalist society.
  • Replacing the old communalism is heterogeneity and pluralism. These have eroded not only religious monopolies, but their centrality in various societies. The end result of this is a society’s secularisation.
  • Globalisation, in which western technological and cultural products predominate, is often framed as a form of colonialism.
  • Ironically, the rise of transnational Islamist terrorism is also a product of globalisation.
  • As the power of the nation state diminishes, religious ideology’s mobility allows it to permeate shifting borders.
  • The current face of modernity is therefore ideally suited to –  and an ideal breeding ground for – the creation of suicide terrorist groups.
  • In order to fortify the in group, moral strictures must become ever more rigorous, while condemnation of transgression must become ever more vociferous – and violent, thus intensifying the demarcation between “good” and “bad”.
  • terrorism implies a crisis of legitimacy
  • But can we say that such a crisis of legitimacy applies to transnational terrorists such as al Qaeda?
  • modernity is an attempt to destroy community and communalism…, all those forces which created identity and authority
  • such threats to communalism result in feelings of humiliation amongst those who do not benefit from the new order.
  • humiliation therefore “links the concepts of honor and human rights in an enlightening way, providing a framework both for ideologies and for the transition between them.”
  • Scott Atran identifies the primacy of honour throughout Arab societies, noting that the Arab perception of being humiliated by outsiders is a prime motivator for suicide attacks.
  • There emerges from the collective sense of humiliation something of an obligation to demonstrate outrage and embark on actions – even if they have little chance of success – in order to avenge honour. Martyrdom is one such example.
  • Beit-Hallahmi writes, that under such circumstances, “contemporary martyrdom can be viewed as an uprising against the end of history and the final triumph of liberal capitalism.”
Christoph Zed

War Profiteers?: Study Reveals Germany Is World's Third Largest Defense Exporter - SPIE... - 0 views

www.spiegel.de/...0,1518,553755,00.html

economics germany export defense military EU Europe globalisation markets

shared by Christoph Zed on 30 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Germany Is World's Third Largest Defense Exporter
  • Once one of the world's most aggressive powers, Germany today likes to project a pacifist image
  • a report released yesterday by the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), a German think tank, reveals a different side of Germany's relationship to war.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Germany, it turns out, exports nearly a billion euros worth of military goods each year ($1.55 billion) to developing countries.
  • That makes Germany the European Union's biggest military goods exporter, and worldwide it's behind only the US and Russia,
  • The BICC's annual report, guest-authored by former UN Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix, focused on the rise of military spending all over the world, a development that the end of the Cold War was supposed to reverse. Instead, global spending on weapons and armies rose by 15 percent between 2001 and 2006. Today it tops €650 billion ($1.1 trillion). A third of that is spent by the US.
  • "We see a revival of Cold War politics without the Cold War -- a Cold Peace, if you will."
  • "Apart from America there are a number of fast-growing countries -- like China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, not to mention Russia -- where the global trend towards militarization is showing itself most clearly,"
fiona hou

Economic recovery could be bad news for Germany - Telegraph Blogs - 0 views

blogs.telegraph.co.uk/...-again-something-is-in-the-air

Germany recession election telegraph

shared by fiona hou on 14 Aug 09 - Cached
  • News that Germany and France have, with a mini-bound, escaped recession must be the most ominous development of the week.
  • For those within this system, Germany had been an extremely comfortable place until the downturn. But the apparent failure of its export-driven social model changed all that. As a result, Germans had begun to campaign for a responsive political system.
  • In all sorts of ways,  Germans had begun to realise that the economy - and thence German society - had reached the end of the post-war path. The worry is that today’s GDP figures will drive them back to the old, familiar way of thinking.
  • fiona hou on 14 Aug 09
     
    News that Germany and France have, with a mini-bound, escaped recession must be the most ominous development of the week. Though it has always proved a mirage in the past, the possibility of change had appeared to be taking hold in Germany.
fiona hou

Inclusion is the key to social harmony | theage.com.au - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...ial-harmony-20090807-ecv6.html

shared by fiona hou on 12 Aug 09 - Cached
  • fiona hou on 12 Aug 09
     
    It is sort of a comment on the counterterrorist issue which happened recently from a chief commissioner of VIC police. It expresses the hope from the police, that all the residence, including the members from descrimnated communties and the members may descrimnate against ones from other communities, should be responsible for the safty of the whole society rather than just the police are involved. To persuade all the residence feel positive about the prospect of social harmony and minimize the discrimination against some communities, this urgent appeal is a strategy from Victoria Police. As a matter of fact, I suppose that the main point of the author truly makes sense, and the argument makes me think a lot about some social problems in China. Social harmony is one of the slogans from Chinese government these years and I think, the sense of participation is significant for Chinese people, as well, to deal with the social problems. As the article's title said, inclusion is the key to social harmony.
Christoph Zed

Terrorists in the Making?: Egypt Pursues Europeans Taking Arabic Classes - SPIEGEL ONLI... - 0 views

www.spiegel.de/...0,1518,651318,00.html

islam multiculturalism terrorism egypt usa faith

shared by Christoph Zed on 26 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Many deeply religious students from Europe come to Egypt to learn Arabic. The question is: are these European Salafists coming to study the language of the Koran or to prepare terrorist attacks?
  • Young men with downy beards, caps, kneelength a traditional Arab galabeyas and sandals sat chatting in a McDonalds' restaurant in Nasr City, a large middle class district in the eastern part of Cairo.
  • In the neighborhood Egyptians, the European Salafists - Sunni religious fundamentalists - are outsiders.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Ashraf, a 26-year-old Dutchman of Moroccan descent, came to Cairo a year ago. "To learn Arabic," he says, "the language of my religion."
  • "We aren't hurting anyone," says Ashraf, whose apartment was recently searched. "We only come to study and pray."
  • "Religious fanatics want to be taken seriously," says Walid al-Gohari, founder and director of the Al-Fajr institute, one of the many language schools in Nasr City. "But Salafists who don't even know Arabic are not considered credible."
  • The Egyptian security service is concerned about the situation. It therefore keeps a close eye on fundamentalist visitors with a European passport.
  • As a precaution, the security service picked up hundreds of foreign students in a few days time, among them a few from the Netherlands.
jung moon

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - 'Native English' is losing its power - 0 views

www.atimes.com/...HI15Df01.html

english' china culture international globalisation communication

shared by jung moon on 05 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Even as the English language continues its meteoric global rise, native speakers such as the North Americans, British and Australians will soon become a rare breed, overwhelmed by the many millions who have started speaking English as their second language.
  • the new lingua franca in what is now often called a flat world.
  • "So the balance of power is changing, and when the second-language speakers adopt English language as their own language or as a second language, they actually take control of it, mix it and use it with their own language, developing new forms, vocabulary and ways and using English."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • "China now produces over 20 million English speakers each year, and possibly within a few years, there could be more English speakers in China than in India."
  • Graddol's findings predict that by 2015, there will be about 2 billion people from Asia and non-English-speaking Europe learning English.
  • However, that is not necessarily good news for native English speakers. Instead, it could come as a big blow because "they can no longer look the other way, celebrating the rising hegemony of their language".
  • As English becomes more widely used as a global language, it will become expected that speakers will signal their nationality, and other aspects of their identity, through English, Graddol says. Lack of a native-speaker accent will not be seen, therefore, as a sign of poor competence.
  • jung moon on 07 Oct 09
     
    I hope someday I can speak 'Konglish (Korean English)' in everywhere. :D
glen donnar

Hip-hop helps build bridge for city's newcomers - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...s-newcomers-20090725-dww4.html

immigration australia communication program mentor intercultural

shared by glen donnar on 26 Jul 09 - Cached
  • A dynamic music program is helping migrants connect to their new home
  • His experiences as a migrant give him the perspective needed to work with other newcomers."There's a system, and many people get trapped in that system," he says. "They put you in a housing commission flat when you first arrive as a refugee
  • I was battling a lot of things, like racism and stuff, and hip-hop helped me understand a lot of things about the government, about what happened back in Africa — it gives me more self-confidence to be here. So if I face racism I don't take it personally, I think, 'Maybe I need to educate you about some stuff.' "
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Both MCs have day jobs as youth workers and that can feed into the hip-hop workshops.
  • "You've got to understand how much the media affects young people, in so many ways," says Azmarino. "For example, the African community — what happened a few years ago in Kensington was all over Channel Seven, and it made them feel like they were a gang. That's like putting oil in the fire. They're teenagers and they're already feeling all those things, and then they were getting disrespected by the whole of Melbourne."
fiona hou

Fury over attacks to greet Brumby - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...reet-brumby-20090916-froe.html

racist attack India Australia

shared by fiona hou on 17 Sep 09 - Cached
  • A TRIP to India next week to promote Melbourne as a safe city has turned into a monumental challenge for John Brumby after another racist attack that has attracted fresh headlines and anti-Australian fury across India.
  • Two Indian men and another two of Indian origin say they were racially taunted and told to ''go back to your country'' before being kicked and punched by attackers who were part of a large birthday celebration at Legends Entertainment Centre. The Indian Government increased pressure on Australia last night over the ''recurring attacks'' on its citizens. It called on authorities to ''take all necessary steps towards the safety and security of Indians''. Indian consular officials in Melbourne were also ordered to investigate.
  • One of the victims, Sukhdip Singh, 26, had been in Australia just one month. A relative said he had suffered head and facial injuries and wanted to return to India immediately. His uncle, Mukhtiar Singh, 45, also a victim, said Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's recent assurance to India's Foreign Minister that Australia was safe for Indian students rang hollow. ''I used to say the same thing … now I would say Melbourne is worse than a Third-World country, violence-wise,'' Mr Singh told The Age. Recalling Saturday's incident, he said his nephew was taunted with verbal abuse and racial slurs in the bar before they were later set upon in the car park by about 20 people. ''I have lived here for 22 years,'' Mr Singh said. ''I've got my own business here, my own house, my kids have grown up here. Why should I go back? We all come from somewhere.''
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • headline on the front page of the Asian Age said: ''Oz mob of 70 attacks 3 Indians'', while The Times of India ran a timeline of attacks under the heading ''No end to hate?''. Mr Brumby said such incidents would make his mission to India all the more difficult. ''Some of the events of the last few months have damaged our brand and the Australian brand in India,'' he said. He said the Government was committed to fixing the problem, and raised the possibility of giving police more resources to deal with it.
  • Education for foreign students is Australia's third-biggest export earner, bringing in more than $16 billion a year.
anonymous

Aids ist ein Massenmörder: Campaign - 0 views

www.aiem.de/...index.php

shared by anonymous on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
  • The "AIDS is a mass murderer" TV and cinema advert
  • The new campaign, designed by Regenbogen e.V. in conjunction with the advertising agency das comitee, speaks in clear terms: its slogan is "AIDS is a mass murderer". It features the greatest mass murderers in recent history having sex. TWITTER PROFIL 
  • The "Adolf" poster The "Saddam" poster The "Stalin" poster
  • Christoph Zed on 08 Sep 09
     
    Content Warning: Male and Female Nudity. The Germany made "Aids is a mass murderer" campaign has caused quite some stir, interestingly more outside of Germany than in Germany. It not only depicts Hitler, but also Saddam and Stalin in a poster AD campaign, as well as (very graphic) video. The controversy around the campaign raises a few questions, in regards to contemporary understanding of the holocaust (and other brutal mass-murdering regimes), ethics and contemporary sexual behaviour as well as acceptance depiction of sexual imagery in popular media and advertisement.
sayaka uchida

Can a Mother Lose Her Child Because She Doesn't Speak English? - 0 views

www.time.com/...0,8599,1918941,00.html

language migrant

shared by sayaka uchida on 28 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Can the U.S. government take a woman's baby from her because she doesn't speak English? That's the latest question to arise in the hothouse debate over illegal immigration
  • Can the U.S. government take a woman's baby from her because she doesn't speak English? That's the latest question to arise in the hothouse debate over illegal immigration,
  • Department of Human Services (DHS), which ruled that Baltazar Cruz was an unfit mother in part because her lack of English "placed her unborn child in danger and will place the baby in danger in the future."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The social-services translator also reported that Baltazar Cruz had put Rubí in danger because she "had not brought a cradle, clothes or baby formula." But indigenous Oaxacan mothers traditionally breast feed their babies for a year and rarely use bassinets, carrying their infants instead in a rebozo, a type of sling.
  • sayaka uchida on 28 Aug 09
     
    Can the U.S. government take a woman's baby from her because she doesn't speak English? That's the latest question to arise in the hothouse debate over illegal immigration,
xuejiao lin

Kseniya Simonova - Sand Animation - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

Kseniya Simonova Sand Animation culture

shared by xuejiao lin on 05 Oct 09 - Cached
  • xuejiao lin on 05 Oct 09
     
    Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who creates sand drawings in front of audiences. Here she is performing on Ukraine's Got Talent: Here, she recounts Germany conquering Ukraine in the second world war. She brings calm, then conflict. A couple on a bench become a woman's face; a peaceful walkway becomes a conflagration; a weeping widow morphs into an obelisk for an unknown soldier. Simonova looks like some vengeful Old Testament deity as she destroys then recreates her scenes - with deft strokes, sprinkles and sweeps she keeps the narrative going. She moves the judges to tears as she subtitles the final scene "you are always near". Kseniya Simonova's simple sand animation has captured a universal chord for the Ukraine where emotion runs deep entrenched in a war that has generational wounds. You don't have to understand the culture, the humbling of the people will touch you. The artist Kseniya Simonova won the competition and justly so. If you are able to bring out emotion like that and bring out tears in all, your message was well received and deserve to win.
Wye Keen Wong

Chinese film directors' withdrawal from Melbourne festival supported at home_English_Xi... - 0 views

news.xinhuanet.com/...content_11760493.htm

shared by Wye Keen Wong on 29 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Jia Zhangke and Zhao Liang, had withdrawn their films from the festival in protest at the inclusion of a documentary about Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uygur Congress (WUC), which the Chinese believed to be behind the deadly July 5 riot in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 30 Jul 09
       
      It is the hot topic during these days, not only in Australia but also in China. This Xinhua News is governed by Chinese government. Basically, it serves for government.
    • Wye Keen Wong
      Wye Keen Wong on 05 Aug 09
       
      Article in today's AGE on apge 3 about Rebiya Kadeer who is in Melbourne to attend the film's opening
  • had attracted more than 4,000 comments. Almost all of the postings were in support of the two directors.
  • Only a couple said Jia was trying to earn publicity, but they were immediately criticized by others, defending Jia as a talented director who had always been low-key .
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 30 Jul 09
       
      It is a kind of strategy the press used in PR. It is trying to convince the publics what is the right decision Jia made. Also the word "only" it used is trying to say that nearly all Chinese support Jia, and no one has disagreed.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  •    Jia said in a letter to festival organizers that the Urumqi riot had caused many deaths and many people believed the WUC headed by Rebiya Kadeer had unavoidable responsibility for the violence
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 30 Jul 09
       
      I would like to believe it is the truth. What Jia did was not imposed by the government, because I watched this riot on TV, and it made every Chinese upset and hurt. It was terrible to see the violence, in which innocent people were killed and beat on the street, many shops and restaurants were robbery, and cars were burned. What they did was not going in an appropriate way to ask the government for the independence. they really made social disorder and ruthless
  •  "However, the Melbourne film festival organizers have turned it into a political drama by inviting Rebiya Kadeer, a political liar," he said.
    • Wye Keen Wong
      Wye Keen Wong on 05 Aug 09
       
      Is a separation beween art and politics ever possible?
Christoph Zed

Chris Anderson on the Economics of 'Free': 'Maybe Media Will Be a Hobby Rather than a J... - 0 views

www.spiegel.de/...0,1518,638172-2,00.html

shared by Christoph Zed on 29 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Yes. It's all about attention. That is the most valuable commodity. If you have attention and reputation, you can figure out how to monetize it. However, money is not the No. 1 factor anymore.
  • maybe the media is going to be a part time job. Maybe media won't be a job at all, but will instead be a hobby
  • The question is can people get the information they want, the way they want it?
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The online economy is about the size of the German economy. And it's based on a default price of zero. Most things online are available in a free form. We have never seen an economy this big with a default price of zero. I realized that we needed an economic model to explain how an economy could be based on "free." And we need to understand the psychology of that. We have the psychology of free, we're drawn to it, but we feel cheated by it. If something used to be paid for and then it becomes free, we think the quality is lower. But if something has always been free, and remains free, we don't think that.
sayaka uchida

Top 10 Geekiest Constructed Languages | GeekDad | Wired.com - 0 views

www.wired.com/...-geekiest-constructe-languages

language

shared by sayaka uchida on 27 Aug 09 - Cached
  • 1. Klingon Perhaps the most fully realized science fiction language, Klingon has a complete grammar and vocabulary, permitting countless nerds to learn it like it was high school Spanish. Fans have translated Shakespeare, Sun Tzu and the Bible into the language. There’s a Klingon Language Institute, the purpose of which is to promote the language and culture of this nonexistent people. You can even select Klingon as your language of choice in Google.
  • it has become almost de rigueur for fiction writers and moviemakers to include a constructed language (conlang) when crafting a new universe. Here are some of the best:
  • sayaka uchida on 27 Aug 09
     
    I believe Klingon speaking people certainly share some value and the way of thinking....
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