Skip to main content

Home/ International Comm & Culture 2009/ Group items tagged rules

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
amy wu

Rules aim to end exploitation of foreign students - 0 views

www.theage.com.au/...gn-students-20090819-eqmu.html

explotation foreign students Canberra rules international education

shared by amy wu on 27 Aug 09 - Cached
  • The move follows reports that training colleges have profited from recruiting hundreds of students into substandard courses as a fast track to gaining permanent residency here.
  • amy wu on 27 Aug 09
     
    IN A major step to restore confidence in the quality of Australia's international education industry, Canberra is introducing tougher rules to protect foreign students from exploitation by rogue colleges.
glen donnar

Princeton University - Cultural explorations aid learning process for aspiring policyma... - 0 views

www.princeton.edu/...index.xml

intercultural communication college cultural difference

shared by glen donnar on 22 Jul 09 - Cached
  • glen donnar on 22 Jul 09
     
    "The most important rules of the card game: No words, no sign language, no talking; the only communication allowed was through drawing pictures. With these rules, 35 rising college seniors from the United States and several other countries participating in a workshop titled "Intercultural Dimensions of Policymaking" were to learn how playing a card game in complete silence would teach them a lesson about cultural differences."
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
xinning ji

China to appeal WTO ruling on book, movie imports - 0 views

news.theage.com.au/...vie-imports-20090817-ens6.html

shared by xinning ji on 18 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Beijing is boosting demand for pirated products by limiting access to legitimate goods
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 18 Aug 09
       
      it is the biggest issue in China. copyright is illegal in West but the law in CHina is not strict and not enough to exhibit it. Also pirated products are everywhere in CHina, not only in capital city. THe government tried to exterminate them but the copyright market is large, so it is a difficult thing to work out.
  • The WTO said Beijing should allow foreign companies to import and distribute master copies of books, magazines and newspapers and to receive the same conditions and charges as Chinese companies for distributing reading materials.
  • The WTO said Beijing should allow foreign companies to import and distribute master copies of books, magazines and newspapers and to receive the same conditions and charges as Chinese companies for distributing reading materials.
amy wu

Mainland cancels events following Dalai's Taiwan visit - 0 views

www.chinadaily.com.cn/...content_8643829.htm

China Taiwan Dalai Lama relations

shared by amy wu on 02 Sep 09 - Cached
  • The Dalai's visit, ostensibly aimed at comforting victims of last month's deadly typhoon, has posed the most serious challenge to relations between the island and the mainland since Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou took office 15 months ago, the party said.
  • We got a call from them saying they could not attend. They said they had to postpone the visit due to technical reasons and would not provide details. But I think you and I know why,"
  • Beijing had warned that the Dalai Lama's visit was "bound to have a negative influence on the relations between the mainland and Taiwan."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "Why invite a controversial lama who wears saffron robes and Gucci shoes to Taiwan to put on a show?"
  • amy wu on 02 Sep 09
     
    The mainland has canceled or postponed several events meant to highlight its rapidly improving relations with Taiwan, apparently in a show of dissatisfaction over the Dalai Lama's visit to the island, Taiwan's ruling party said Tuesday
xinning ji

Japan's 'herbivore men' -- less interested in sex, money - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by xinning ji on 07 Aug 09 - Cached
  • They are young, earn little and spend little, and take a keen interest in fashion and personal appearance -- meet the "herbivore men" of Japan
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 07 Aug 09
       
      it is quite interesting to learn the new term "herbivore men". I think it is the popular phenomenon in Japan, and also will be a global phenomenon because of the information flow and complex human behaviours
  • some men who she said were changing the country's ideas about just what is -- and isn't -- masculine
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 07 Aug 09
       
      The world is chaning all the time because of the improvement of technology and the high speed of information spread. So we always learn something new, and something is not always static. Traditionally, men in our mind are strong and powerful in sex and social work. But like this article presents, men can be weak and passive. This change breaks the conventional male image and social and cultural role.
  • "Some guys still try to be manly and try to be like strong and stuff, but you know personally I'm not afraid to show my vulnerability because being vulnerable or being sensitive is not a weakness."
    • xinning ji
      xinning ji on 07 Aug 09
       
      These men are confident to show their weakness, so it is kind of personality and characteristics among human beings today. People would not like to hide themselves and to follow the traditional rule. They have more freedom to present their real personality. Therefore, as we can see, even though they are sensitive and passive, they are happy and comfortable with that. I have to say, it is the society the world we live with, in which people can have multiple faces, attitudes, identities and personalities.
Andrew Ooi

Internet users upset over Govt's filter attempt - 0 views

star-techcentral.com/...story.asp

Internet Censorship Malaysia

shared by Andrew Ooi on 23 Aug 09 - No Cached
  • mulling an Internet filtering system similar to China’s controversial “Green Dam” project
  • Government has called for a tender for a system that could block “undesirable websites.”
  • The MSC Malaysia Bill of Guarantees specifies that the Internet will not be censored to ensure the success of the MSC Malaysia initiative
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Many in the Government have blamed the vibrant and critical Internet culture for Barisan Nasional’s losses in the 12th General Election in March last year, and there has been pressure from some quarters to muzzle the medium. The Government had previously considered registering bloggers, many of whom are critical of the ruling coalition.
  • anonymous on 25 Aug 09
     
    Mandatory internet filtering is a form of censorship. Full stop. Not only is the concept being considered in Malaysia but also right here in Australia too. Governments claim the internet filtering will only serve to filter out "harmful" web content - but who is to decide what is "harmful"? The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) serves to monitor web content and attempts to ensure illegal documentation such as child pornography ceases to be available online. But in terms "harmful" content... where is the line drawn?
Rika Ninomiya

QANTAS eyes Malaysia | The Australian - 0 views

www.theaustralian.news.com.au/...0,,24824650-20142,00.html

globalization cultural imperialism hybridization Qantas

shared by Rika Ninomiya on 22 Aug 09 - Cached
  • QANTAS may pursue Malaysia Airlines following the demise of the Australian carrier's $8 billion merger plans with British Airways.
  • Qantas had wanted majority ownership in the deal, reflecting its bigger market value, but BA was not prepared to become a junior partner.
  • faced a number of significant hurdles
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Malaysia Airlines, run by savvy ex-petroleum industry executive Idris Jala, appeared the most likely partnership option in Asia
  • merger with Singapore Airlines, often touted as a good match, was unlikely because of questions of control and potential competition issues
  • He believed another possibility often raised, Cathay Pacific, was also unlikely, as were Thai Airways, Garuda, Philippine Airlines and the Chinese carriers.
  • However, he did not rule out a possible partnership with another European carrier or Japan Airlines in the longer term.
  • Rika Ninomiya on 22 Aug 09
     
    The article talks about Qantas's pursue of Malaysian Airline and other foreign airlines to merge with them. By merging with other major airline, Qantas is hoping to operate in more places which would help increase their market share in the world.
Christoph Zed

McCurry wins row with McDonald's - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8243270.stm

globalisation legislation dominance power-play

shared by Christoph Zed on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
  • The American fast-food giant McDonald's has lost an eight-year legal battle to prevent a Malaysian restaurant calling itself McCurry.
  • McDonald's argued that the use of the "Mc" prefix infringed its trademark. But the Federal Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled that there was no evidence to show McCurry was trying to pass itself off as part of the McDonald's empire.
  • The owner of McCurry insists its "Mc" prefix is an abbreviation for Malaysian Chicken Curry.
  • Christoph Zed on 08 Sep 09
     
    interesting outcome of this 8 year-long legal battle
  • Nora Ibrahim on 10 Sep 09
     
    This news is of particular interest to me because I am from Malaysia and when the news broke out in Malaysia, I thought it was hilarious (at the expense of the owner of McCurry and McDonalds). The funny thing thing is there are numerous of eateries or restaurants that sound similar to the American imports, and this not only happens in Malaysia but in other countries as well. For example, there was a fast food fried chicken joint similar to KFC, that is called McDota (I can't remember the exact spelling) in Malaysia quite some time ago. Anyways, I just thought this piece of news is interesting and funny!
xinning ji

War and Family Left Behind, Lone Afghan Youths Seek a Life in Europe - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...28afghankids.html

shared by xinning ji on 08 Sep 09 - Cached
  • “I want to go to school,” he said in English. “I would like it if I could be — it sounds like a lot to ask — an engineer of computing.”
  • Although some are as young as 12, most are teenagers seeking an education and a future that is not possible in their own country, which is still struggling with poverty and violence eight years after the end of Taliban rule.
  • Once in France, the boys face more hardship. The Paris police have started conducting nightly searches to prevent Afghan migrants from sleeping in Villemin Square. The 15-year-old was placed in a cheap hotel, while others were put in temporary shelter in an unused subway station. Others find their own shelter under bridges and beside a canal
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “How should I make a future?” he asked. “I’m 15 already. I’m on my own. What can I do?”
Yair Frid

Obama says Iran breaking rules on nuclear programs - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by Yair Frid on 25 Sep 09 - Cached
  • The United States, France and Britain have presented "detailed evidence" to the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog that "Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility," President Obama said Friday.
  • Iran "is taking the international community on a dangerous path," Sarkozy said.
  • U.S. and French intelligence officials have known about the facility for several months, the source said. When Iran discovered that Western nations had knowledge of the facility, it sent the letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
  • Yair Frid on 25 Sep 09
     
    Another invasion?.
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,
Shalini Raj

China's Communists Mark 60 Years in Power With Beijing Parade - Bloomberg.com - 0 views

www.bloomberg.com/...news

shared by Shalini Raj on 01 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Christoph Zed on 04 Oct 09
     
    The parade, in best old school communist tradition, is quite an interesting national display of power at this time. While it is predominantly aimed at the Chinese public (though not all, as access to the event was strictly controlled and limited) broadcast by national TV throughout the "Reich der Mitte" it is reinforcing the identity of a military super power, solid leadership and military state institutions, it also serves in a sense as a means of justification and proof for successful ideology to the ruling elite. And of course the display is aimed at the rest of the world, showing that China is a power to be reckoned with, not just economically but also in regards to it's military - just in case anyone has had any doubt. But is that a message the west needs to be reminded of? With the cold war over, and globalization making a path for cooperation and convergence of east and west in both in the economic and political arena, maybe the display is aimed at old friends eg. Russia and possible future "problems" (from a chinese point of view) such as Iran or N.Korea, who are working towards a stronger military recognition and/or are in strong competition with the market powers China has been able to built up eg: India, Japan.
1 - 13 of 13
Showing 20▼ items per page