Latin America

Latin America is the sub region of the southern part of the American continent; it includes all the American countries with a Latin language, especially Spanish, French and Portuguese. Technically Latin America should include all the territories and countries in which a roman language is considered as official. It includes Quebec, New Scotland, New Brunswick, and other territories inside countries with Anglo-Saxon languages, and should exclude some territories in the Caribbean and in South America which official language is not a roman descendent.

In this blog we are going to consider Latin America as the region of America located under the United States and including all the islands of the Caribbean because of its similarities thanks to its common history.

The term Latin America is accepted in almost all the regions called like hat but there are some groups that are opposed to the term because it is not native from the region, and because in so many places natives of the region doesn´t speak a roman language but a native one.

Latin America is very diverse, it includes very different cultures and countries what makes hard to describe the region as one. It includes very rich countries like Brazil or Mexico and poor like Bolivia, it makes the region diverse and hard to describe. But there are al lot of similarities like way of act of the people and other characteristics that can put together one country with another.

Economically Latin America is grouting in a god way and is developing their industries for becoming competitive in the international scenario. It is also a god destiny for foreign investment and for placing industries.

Bibliography:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/América_Latina

North America

Is the northern part of the American continent but sometimes it is considered as a continent itself. The people that consider North America as a single continent include the territory from Panama to Canada in the north. This point o view includes the region of Central America In the continent.

Other position considers North America as a subcontinent of the American country and only occupies Canada, United States and sometimes Mexico.

Is a territory full of natural resources and important characteristics that makes the place a wealthy territory and a god place for the development. It includes the United States of America, the wealthiest country of the world with a huge GDP and development levels that gives its people god standards of living. But for this reason is that is the destiny of a large portion of the migrations of the world.

There is an economical union call the NAFTA (North American Free trade agreement) and is a union of the countries of Mexico, United States of America and Canada, giving the region a stronger position in the world´s trade scenario.

Since the beginning of the history of the continent, it has been populate by outsiders, are the foreigners the ones that has being the protagonist for the development of the region. First were the British, then the French and after the Latin Americans that give the United States the labor force for develop.

The United States is the most developed country of the world and has the stronger Army with almost the 40% of the total expenditures in military issues becoming the most influential country in all the world decision making process.

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America

Australia and Oceania

Oceania is an insular continent placed in the south eastern part of the Asiatic continent. It is an insular territory made of the countries of Australia, New Zeeland, New guinea, and the islands of Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia.

It is the less populated continent of the world (excluding Hawaii) and is reach in biodiversity. Australia is the most important country of the region with the largest territory, the higher population and the economical power of the continent.

Australia is the sixth largest country of the world occupying almost the whole territory of the continent. Its capital city is Canberra and is very influential in the decisions of this part of the world because of all the potential they have and the economical advantages they have.

The continent starts being populated since the first humans start migrating from south Asia to the island. Since the 16^th century, Portuguese and Spanish had discovered the continent but they keep it in secret. Its written history starts after the arrival of the Holland in the 17^th century. They let the land because they considered improper for colonization and in this way British decide to occupy the territory. But its real colonization starts during the “gold fever” when a lot of people move to Australia for the research of gold in the land and generates conflicts between the natural inhabitants and the foreigners that came for the gold.

Nowadays Australia is a developed country with a lot of commerce with the west specially United States of America, is an important destiny for tourism and for investments all around the world

Bibliography:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanía

taken from:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXUPSzPax0Q

The problem with the stolen generation in Australia

Some time ago, the Australian government and the church decide to create a mission for helping the aborigines to get into the society by taking away they children, educating them in the western customs and religion and in this way letting them integrate with the society. But the plan didn´t result that well, no families were willing to give their children to be raised away and the mission failed but some children were stolen from their families and the problem is now when the government wants to give them back home.

Those kids token by the government for the experiment are called the stolen generation and the government is trying to reunite those families who were spited some time ago. It is a hard mission because some of the children don’t want to go back to the original society and also some of the families are difficult to find and to reunite.

The Australian government thought that a beneficial act was being done by taking the children away from the wild world in the Australian desert and by adapting them into a new culture of the developed part of Australia, but it is hard to force a change of this dimensions into a children that is used to live in a certain way, also it is not acceptable to split a family even if the cause seems to be “for taking them into a better life”.

The result sows that natural things can´t be forced by an government and that the inclusion of a group into a society has to be gradual and with different strategies than forcing them.

Europe

taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lol93tQL1c

Europe is the second smallest continent of the world but one of the most full of countries with 49 countries including the 27 of the European Union. The continent has a very important history for the western part of the world because European countries managed the entire international scenario after the XVI century.

In Europe toke place the two largest wars of the world known as the world war one and world war two, It make Europe a little weaker and give the control of the world to Russia and the United States of America .

Europe still is important in the world because of its economies and the influence they still have in some countries around the world.

Is a very diverse continent, it includes people from all races, religions and languages, but it is thanks to the migrations. Is the home of a lot of the modern languages and the western culture that is the dominant at this point in the history.

Inside Europe is the European Union, one of the most important unions of countries in the recent history; it is conformed by 27 countries and has one single currency (Euro) one of the strongest of the world.

In the military field, Europe has a lot of power in terms of arms and people as well as technology for war, but nowadays they are trying to be in pace because of the looses of the two world wars.

Even though Europe is being losing control it is still a very important actor in the international field and has determinant countries for the important decisions of the world.

The “co-determinism” principle in Germany

The co-determinism principle was first used in Germany in the 1950´s. this principle gives a lot of power for workers inside the organizations, it allow them to have a representation in the board of directors of the company and make them important in the decision making process.

In Germany this philosophy has been asked by the workers and well accepted by the employers creating a harmonic ambience in the company and a sensation of welfare for the employees. The results could be seen in the progress of the German industry and in the quality of life of its inhabitants.

There could be found some arguments in favor of the principle used in Germany:

1. The employees feel part of the company and represented in the decisions taken in the organization, for this reason they work harder because if you have a sense of belonging, you will look for the best for what you belong to.

2. The environment is always getting better because it’s easier to take into account the ideas and needs of the workers because of the representation in front of the board of directors.

3. The fact that workers are represented in the board of directors avoid the common difference inside the factory between employees and employers avoiding as well conflicts that will affect nothing else than the factory.

But not everything is that simple and easy, there are some arguments that could be against the principle:

1. Workers get a lot of power in the organization and start asking for benefits that make the enterprise less competitive.

2. Privacy get affected because the information that should be confidential and exclusive or the directors, can be accessed by the workers and in the case of moving from an enterprise to another they will take also the knowledge and the information obtained from the representation.

The enterprises with a lot of power in the workers are less open for changes like those demanded by the globalization. No movements of factories, no outsourcing or other practices important in a globalized world could be accepted if they affect the workers

Middle East

The financial industry in the Middle East has been traditionally influenced by religion. Today, Islamic banking appears as a growing and successful industry, not only in the Middle East but also in some western countries.

Islamic banking:

Islam prohibits all the activities that charge a payment of an interest rate or businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to its principles.

So what does the financial system do in Islamic economies?

For solving this problem, something was created under the name of Islamic banking, it is nothing else than a system of banking that applies the Islamic rules. In the 20^th century a lot of Islamic banks were created for the economies of the Islamic countries.

History:

During the period between the 8^th and the 12^th century, there was a boom in the Islamic economies called the “Islamic golden age”, a stable economy was created with a single currency and the integration of trade areas that were separate. This is the beginning of the Islamic economy system.

According to Islamic rules, charging a fee as an interest is forbidden and is considered as a sin and for this reason they create a special interest-free banking system. There have been different theories about the creation of the modern Islamic banking system but it was in the 20^th century were they start crating this banks. The system consists in the share of profit or looses by the bank and the avoiding of usury call “riba”.

Key principles of Islamic banking:

· Riba (usury): is totally forbidden

· Sharia (Islamic law)

· Mudharabah (profit share)

· Wadiah (safekeeping)

· Musharakah (joint venture)

· Murabahah (Cost plus)

· Ijarah (leasing)

How do they make profits when lending money?

The base of the Islamic and the rest of the world banks is the same, except that Islamic banks can´t charge any kind of interest fee, instead they make profit being partners in the project they are financing, they have a mechanism in which the bank shares the profit or the looses with the debtor.

Ethical investments:

In the Islamic economy, an ethical investment is that that is made according to the Islamic principles of the sharia, all the investments may be done without violating this rules.

Who is to determine whether an activity is allowed or not?

There is an organism call the “shariah advisory council” that is in charge of making the control of the products and services that the Islamic banks offer. Each bank have to establish a “shariah supervisory broad” to ensure that the activities made by the bank are not violating the Islamic law.

Influence of the Islamic banking in the Middle East economy

The Middle East is ruled basically by the shairia, and everything may go in the same way of the law. The banking system is not separate of this. In this way the rules adopted by banks influence the economy of the region and make the things different of those in the rest of the world, the system makes that the bankers can´t earn money from the interest but from the profit making them take god options when making a loan.

What is the future of Islamic Banking in terms of global expansion and growth?

According to the development of the world, Islamic banking is converging to the western banking system but they will have to respect the Islamic law even if they look similar to western banks. Maybe in the future they will have to open the doors for international banks but they will have to adapt to their rules in order to get into the market. I thing that a close up is necessary between western banks and Islamic banks to learn and develop new ways of offering the banking system.

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking

taken from:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDV6mSnw16o&feature=related

Africa

Africa is the third largest continent in the world but just have the 16% of the total of the world´s population. It has 53 countries organized in a union call African Union, except Morocco. Because of the population majority black, is known as the black continent.

It has a long history; some people agree that the origins of the humans are placed in Africa. For a long period of time Africa has been the destiny for European colonization making Africa dependent from Europe.

Africa was also the home of most of the slaves that were commercialized in America.

Nowadays Africa is finally free but still has a lot of inner problems like corruption and poverty. Is the poorest continent in the world but have a lot of opportunities to get better, is full of natural resources, and characteristics that no other continent has.

Is a continent is not well known yet but offers the rest of the world an opportunity to invest and to place industries in, because of the quality of the people, even if is not the most educated, have special values that make them god workers and important developers for industries and factories.

They are very religious and for that reason they still have values that are gone in other parts of the world like the team work and the groupism that make them a strong force as a team and give them the characteristics for work looking for the common wealth instead of the personal wealth.

Bibliography:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/África

taken from:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI4sDx6SGwA

Answer:

What is UBUNTU?

Ubuntu is a philosophy of life, is a way of coperativism in which all the members of a society become a part of a whole and nobody is independent. It means that everybody is part of the group and the group itself is made of all the members. People belong to the group and are what they are because of it.

There is a phrase that says “I am because you are, and you are because we are” (Khoza, 2006), it means that they are something is tanks to the group and that they will not survive along.

It has its history in the ancient south Africans that lived in community for subsist in the difficulties of the jungle. The term is now applied in the organizations for making the employees work in society and make the job better.

Study Case:

The African bank miner credit decides to purchase MFS, a financial company, to expand their services. But because of a lot of differences between the two companies, the merge seems to be impossible. They try to make the process easier and for this reason they find in the old philosophy of the Ubuntu an opportunity for making the employees work in teams and let the merge be done and success. For that reason they decide to create a camping activity in which they explain the Ubuntu principles and make them adopt the philosophy under the phrase: “what’s good for us is good for you, and what is good for you is good for us”. After the process, employees start relating better and adopt easy the philosophy making the merge successful.

taken from:http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(filosofía)

South Asia

South Asia is a large continent placed in the eastern hemisphere of the world (in an European view of the world), it is very diverse, and full of cultures, for this reason we are going to focus this part of the blog in south Asia specially India.

The countries that cover South Asia are: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. South Asia is one of the most populous in the world it has a population of some 1.4 billion; consequently, South Asia has the half of the world´s poverty. The region has presence of often conflicts between the region's two nuclear-armed states, Pakistan and India, causing political instability.

The Most distinguished achievements of the region are in the fields of education; industry; health care; information technology. Those based on research and development; international trade and business enterprises and outsourcing of human resources; and pharmaceutical industry.

The code areas of difficulty that remain are high levels of corruption, disagreements on political boundaries, and inequitable distribution of wealth.

In South Asia Hinduism and Islam and in some of its countries Buddhism is the dominant religions. Other Indian religions and Christianity are practiced by significant number of people.

India is the most important country of the region because of its size (3.287.590km2), its population (3.287.590), and its economy that is one of the most fast grouting of the world.

For all the reasons mentioned above India is one of the best destinies for the foreign investments around the world, most of the call centers are placed there, most of the outsourced activities are also made in India.

India have very important advantages for making all the activities outsourced there like well educated people, low salaries and the difference of ours that make them work while the western hemisphere is sleeping so jobs could be don from a day to another, for example a lot of medical centers are outsourcing the analysis of the radiographs in only one day. But this is not the only industry that is outsourcing in India, almost all the jobs that don’t require direct contact with the costumer, are turning to be done in India.

Bibliography:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/India

What do you think are the reasons behind the fast-growth outsourcing industry in India?

India is a country full of opportunities for the world of businesses; it has one of the largest population in earth, is a fast grouting economy and has a very well educated people being this way a perfect destiny for the investments and outsourcing.

India also has a special social system in which you belong to a caste and you can´t scale. It make the workers more accomplish with the labor they are intended to do and avoid problems between stakeholders and stockholders.

India has become one of the better destinies for outsource any kind of jobs, everything that you can do without touching the client could be don I n India by a lower cost and wit the characteristics of quality you demand.

The fast grouting of the outsourcing market in India comes thanks to all the characteristics that make the marker attracted to look for this country. They have a very well qualified people to work, thanks to it the Indian labor force is well demanded around the world. They speak excellent English, so they are able to work with almost the whole world because this is the universal language and is the most spoken as a second language. The salaries in India are lower than in most of the countries of Europe, America and some in Asia, so it’s cheaper to contract with people in India than in most of the countries of the world.

They have another advantage and is the time zone in were they are placed, because gives them the opportunity to work while America is sleeping creating a new service in which you ask for a service, they do it during your night and you get it the next day. This is a service that countries closer could not offer to America or even Europe.

taken from:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3nZ1xPmbLM

National and Organizational Culture

Culture is always a determinant topic in the development of a country, a society or an organization; it determines how the group of people acts and how they relate each other.

Culture has had a lot of different definitions but most people agree that culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.

In a country, culture differentiates the national inhabitants from the outsiders; it is a group of characteristics that makes the group different from the others.

In most of the cases, the culture, values and beliefs inside a country should be similar in order to make the connivance better and easier for the people, but in most of the cases, there are several differences inside the sub groups of the society and it makes the relations harder. It is important to understand the culture of a certain group of people to understand “their way”, the way they act, they relate with the others.

Culture could be an obstacle for the international relations because of all the barriers that it creates for the people involved, but is also a powerful tool for the people that get to know the differences and use them for the own benefits.

An organization acts pretty much like a country but in a lower level; it has its own culture, its own values and is because of this that all the organizations should be considered different and should be treated like that, for example talking about something as simple as paying, there are some preferences and different styles in all the organizations so it is important to understand the differences in order to understand the way of each organization.

Bibliography:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture

2. Corporate Culture: more myth than reality? While business success and failure are often laid to "culture," the term is elusive and frequently misused. Experts in organization behavior say it's difficult to alter a company's culture, and when it does shift, it's often the result of successful business performance changes; Millman, Gregory J.

Essay

The importance of culture inside the organization.

Nowadays, the organizations are becoming more internationals, the employees are more from other countries, the costumers, are all around the world and the scenario is the earth. But even with all this globalization, is still there an own culture inside the organizations?

There is a globalization process going on and all the organizations must get into it, but there is an organizational culture that is different in all the organizations and is proper for each one and is this organizational culture the one that differentiates one company to the other.

The organizational culture should be proper and is the responsible of creating value to the company, the best way of creating value to an organization is through the culture, it is the one that can make the enterprise work in a way that differentiates it from the competitors and is how it is recognized from the other.

The organizational culture should be well specified and accepted by all the members of the organization and should be defined according to the beliefs and desires hat even the owners and the employees accept about the organization. It should define the way that the rest of the people conceive the enterprise.

If there is an important change for an organization such as a merge or else, the culture of the organization should be adapted to the new culture of the merged company, and is a matter of the human resources team to make the integration process easy and to adapt, without changing, the organizational culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWiZ4f6Qzhs

Ethnographic research

Ethnography has to do with the cultural issue of the people; it includes customs, beliefs and behavior, of a certain group of people. When is used in an investigation, it needs that the investigator understand the way that particular community acts and way they do it so, and it is only possible by making the correct approach to the group and mixing and getting touch by the group analyzed.

For making a correct ethnographical research, it is important to have a close up with the group investigated, but also is important to include in the investigation topics like history, beliefs, even language must be taken into account in order to do a good investigation.

These kinds of investigations are made by “researchers trained in the art of ethnography” (according to Mr. MICHAEL GENZUK, PH.D, in the text: A SYNTHESIS OF ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH).

For the research, the experts usually use some common methods like interviews with the people inside and outside the community been observed, observation of the way they live, how they act and other situations that define the way this certain group is; and finally documentation that includes an historical framework, some thoughts of the members of the group and other information that can be helpful for the investigation.

Ethnographic studies may be holistic; they may include all the different aspects that can affect the way of acting or living, etc. of the investigated group of people in order to have the most information as possible to do a certain description of the group of interest. It includes: the place where they live, the improvements they've made to that place, how they are making a living and providing food, housing, energy and water for themselves, what their marriage customs are, what languages they speak and so on.

It is important to be very open-minded and to let behind all the pre-concepts of the group investigated in order to have a non weighted point of view and make a better research and more specific one.

Bibliography:

1. Mr. MICHAEL GENZUK, PH.D, in the text: A SYNTHESIS OF ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fM_CJ5vDK4

Answers:

Case 1:

the first case that will be analyzed, is a study made by “InsightExpress” in the United States to assess the barbecue preferences of the American consumers 18 and up. What they wanted with the research was to understand behaviors around barbecuing and condiment usage and to see firsthand the condiments consumers keep in their homes.

The research was made by the net, and the answers were analyzed and organized in order to take better conclusions, also the respondents were asked to take a picture of the condiments in their refrigerator using their mobile phone camera in order to make the research even more clear. InsightExpress surveyed 1544 respondents for the online phase of the research and 156 pictures were submitted, representing a 10% participation rate. (Case Study: Mobile Ethnography Research, Posted by Joy Liuzzo on February 5, 2009)

The research result shows that the most popular items to barbecue were: Hamburgers, chicken and steaks; and the most used condiments were: BBQ sauce, marinade and ketchup.

Taken from: http://mrspace.ning.com/profiles/blogs/case-study-mobile-ethnography

At this study, we can see that Americans prefer to barbeque hamburgers, chicken or stakes, if we take into account that there are more than 300 million people living in the US, with a considered purchasing power, we can conclude that this could be a good market for exporting this barbeque products, and also the result can tell us that other type of products are not going to be as well accepted as the ones mentioned before.

Case 2:

The second case is going to be invented by me in order to make it easier to understand for the reader.

The investigation is going to be about the acceptance of the president Chaves in Venezuela.

The investigations consist in living in Venezuela for one year (a year could be a regular time to understand what people feel about their president),and make some interviews with the people from all the society, even the higher and the lower classes to avoid weighted results; also it will include some observations of the things that happen inside the country and how they affect the image of the president.

The results shows that most of the people in against the president Chaves, this tendency is more notable in the higher classes but there is an non conformism feeling in the lowest spheres too.

This result is important for the people in the international business because it shows that is not a matter of love of the people what is going on in Venezuela but a matter of something different hat could change very easy and also the way that the nation is managed. It includes the international relations of the country and obviously that affect the commerce to and from the nation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWq6IhwxHbw