EUROPE ---- The Ancient Cultures

Taken from: http://www.linktosacred.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/blend.gif

The history of Europe one of the most awesome and interesting of the entire world. The ancient cultures and empires have the power of involving everyone and wake a huge interest in learning more and more about them. The most acient cultures in Europe are the Roman Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Greece and the British Empire.

The Greek influency is one of the most known around the world. They left us traditions in politics (Democracy), religion, sports (Olympic Games!!!), rethorics, maths and many other topics; they also were the creators of the philosophy and were the first who argued and predicated in the entire world.

Alexander the Great was one of the most illustrated characters of the ancient ages, his tutor was Aristotle and he was the grates representation in the polis during the Peloponessian War conflict in which were fighting Athens and Sparta the biggest "polis" or cities in Ancient Greece.

In the other hand we have the Roman Empire. It was ubicated in the italian peninsula that was full of tribes who always fought for their independence and their own territories. They even fought with the greeks that wanted their territories. Palestine was in that time an Italian territory and by the year of 395 CE the Roman Empire was dividen in two: Western Empire (Italy, Britania, Gaul, Spain and North Africa) their official language was the latin!, and the Eastern Empire (Egypt, Minor Asia, Greece, Macedonia and Palestine) they spoked Greek! but both of them shared the same religion: Christianism.

In 814 the Empire fell apart and was dividen in three kingdoms: France, Italy and Germany.

Question: Which is the most important Roman Empire legacy?

The Empire contributed many things to the world, such as the (more-or-less) modern calendar, the institutions of Christianity and aspects of modern neo-classicistic architecture. The extensive system of roads, which were constructed by the Roman Army, still last to this day. Because of this network of roads, the amount of time necessary to travel between destinations in Europe did not decrease until the 19th century after the invention of steam power.

The Roman Empire also contributed its form of government, which influences various constitutions including those of most European countries, and that of the United States, whose framers remarked, in creating the Presidency, that they wanted to inaugurate an "Augustan Age." The modern world also inherited legal thinking from the Roman law, codified in Late Antiquity. Governing a vast territory, the Romans developed the science of public administration to an extent never before conceived nor necessary, creating an extensive civil service and formalized methods of tax collection. The western world today derives its intellectual history from the Greeks, but it derives its methods of living, ruling and governing from those of the Romans.

Taken from: http://www.eknowledge.org/roman-empire/roman-empire-legacy.html

------EUROPE------ Workshop

1. How is the EU leading the fight against climate change?

The climate change is a topic that concern all the world, many countries and regions have some special programs for preserving their natural resources for not suffering the changes we'll have to face with the climate change and the earthwarming. The European Union by the Kyoto Protocol, established regulations to reduce the emission of carbon and also is inviting every country to see this problem as an important concern for them. The objective is to reduce the emission for 2020 and many countries have been compromised with this cause and now are applying norms that push the institutions to reduce their carbon emission.

2. How is Europe managing its migration flows?
Migration is also a global concern. The EU is now promoting the legal migration for assisting people who arrive there and also they are protecting the borders for preventing the illegal migration by security detenctions for illegal migrators and their expulsion back to their homes.

3. Which are the main challenges for an ageing force in Europe?
The main challenges for europeans in order to keep their country's production levels are:
1. The promotion of the contribution of older workers.
2. The promotion and the effort of mantaining the work and health capacities no matter the age they have.
3. The improvement of working conditions.
4. The increase of the social and economic conditions of the region.
5. Give advantages to old workers and avoiding the age discrimination.

4. How European business could overcome the challenges of balancing the interests of cultural diversity and nationalist interests?
In order to balance the diversity and the national interests the European business have to focus on a global marketing and leave the nationalism behind. The EU is the union of many of the most important nations in the world and for being succesful in business they have to see their nation as a big one but not as individual. The EU can be nowadays seen as a big important country and all the negotiators have to take advantage of their diversity and start making business for improving their economies and way of living. Also, the countries need to eliminate the geographical boundaries that are affecting them so they can start taking decisions as a one and not each one in their own way. If the boundaries and the limitations in terms of nationalism don't change the europeans would never balance their diversity in benefit of their national interests.

Bibliography:

• www.climnet.org
• www.eurofound.eu.int/areas/populationandsociety/ageingworkforce.htm
• www.opendemocracy.net/people-migrationeurope/article_1194.jsp
• www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2006/issue4/0406p27.htm

AFRICA

...It's so ironic: Africa is a continent full of resources and full of poverty!...

The knowledge we have of Africa is limitaded for our mediocrity, we think of Africa as the poorest continent, full of problems, full of hunger, full of violence but we never think of it as a beautiful, incredible, full of resources and richness continent where people are forgotten and exploted.

Africa is composed by 54 states and has more than 2000 ethnic groups what means that has the most important cultural development in the world; people have different ideologies and beliefs but share the same country and even the same city. The presentation in class talked about many important topics like the fact that Africa is the most multilingual continent in the world and the languages that are spoken include european languages that in some countries are learned because once they were colony of any european country, also the slavery that is incredible that it is still used nowadays in some countries, they also teached us about the quantity of resources that make them a very rich region in the world but also one of the most troubled one (conflict f the diamonds), also they talked about the main facts of the region like the climate that varies from country to country where we can find huge desserts and thick jungles and reinforest regions.

Question: Why is HIV more widespread in Africa than elsewhere in the world, and why are some parts of Africa affected more than others?

No-one really knows the full answer to this question. However we do know there are many factors that influence the rate at which HIV is transmitted.5 6 Such factors include poverty; economic disparity; social instability; gender inequality; sexual violence; other sexually transmitted infections (which facilitate HIV transmission); lack of male circumcision; high mobility; rapid urbanisation and modernisation; and ineffective leadership during critical periods in the epidemic’s spread. Some scientists believe that differences between HIV subtypes have an effect on transmission rates. There is also some evidence that genetic factors and parasitic worm infections (common in sub-Saharan Africa) may make a contribution.

People in sub-Saharan Africa don't have many more lifetime partners than people in other parts of the world. However, researchers have found that in some areas it is not uncommon for people to have two or more regular sex partners at the same time. Someone is most likely to transmit HIV during the period shortly after they are infected, when they have very high levels of virus in their body. Therefore someone who has two or more concurrent partners is more likely to transfer HIV between their partners than someone who has a series of monogamous relationships. This too may help to explain why HIV is more widespread in Africa.

Taken from: http://www.avert.org

"Acute Schistosoma mansoni Infection Increases Susceptibility to Systemic SHIV Clade C Infection in Rhesus Macaques after Mucosal Virus Exposure", Chenine et al, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 2(7), 23rd July 2008
"Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines mediates trans-infection of HIV-1 from red blood cells to target cells and affects HIV-AIDS susceptibility", He et al, Cell Host Microbe 4(1), 17th July 2008
"Brief but efficient: acute HIV infection and the sexual transmission of HIV", Pilcher et al, J Infect Dis 189(10), May 2004
"Concurrent sexual partnership help to explain Africa's high HIV prevalence: implications for prevention", Halperin and Epstein, The Lancet 364(9428), July 2004

MOVIE: PARAISO TRAVEL

...What an excellent movie!!!! The images and reality of this film are incredible!!!...

The main objective of the movie is to show how migrants suffer when they are going to another country and culture where they don't know anything about their believes, behaviors, language, etc. but they just want to have new and better life opportunities and live in better conditions far away of the conditions they had on their original country, the migrants never imagine how may work, suffery and sometimes humiliations in their "new home".

Paraiso Travel shows two colombians, a boy and a girl who leave their cities and go to New York for a better life conditions. They get lost and all the movie shows the guy looking for the girl; he passes the worst circumstances while he's looking for her, even he has to work as a cleaner, sleep on the streets, suffer of thirst and hunger and feel humiliation for his situation.

The movie has a really nice message: don't believe that is easy to leave your own country and get to another one and magically you'll have the life of your dreams. Think that is better to stay in a country where you know your language, behavior, people, etc and work really hard for being successful that to leave and pass the worst time in your life!!!

QUESTION: How many awards did Paraiso Travel win?

Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2008	Won	Audience Award	Favorite Foreign Feature Simon Brand
Huelva Latin American Film Festival
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2008	Won	Audience Award	Simon Brand
Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2008	Won	Audience Award	Best Film Simon Brand
		Jury Award	Best Film Simon Brand
San Diego Latino Film Festival
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2009	Won	Corazon Award	Narrative Feature Simon Brand
San Francisco Bay Area International Latino Film Festival
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2008	Won	Audience Award	Narrative feature Simon Brand

Taken from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475860/awards, http://www.paraisotravelmovie.com/

MIGRATION AND EXPATRIATES

Migration is understood as the movement of people from one place to another to set their residence in a different country or place for a temporary or permanent time.

There are different types of migration, some examples of these types are: Internal migration (move to a new place in the same state, country or continent); External Migration (move to a new place in a different state, country, etc) ; Emigration (Move to a different country); Inmigration and Population-Transfer.

Expatriates are people who work or live outside their home countries and stablish their residence in a different place from their original one.
There are three types of expatriates; the first one is the Parent Country Nationals and is referred to the people who work in a different country from their own one. The second one is the Host Country Nationals and is referred to a person who works for any organization that has its headquarters located in a different country and the las one is the Third Country Nationals and is referred to a person who is not a citizen of the country where he r she works at.

The factors for leaving a country are divided in two principal groups, the Push group and the Pull group. The push factors are economic, cultural, political and environmental situations that force people to move away to a different place, some examples are lack of jobs in the country, pollution, poor medical care and natural disasters. In the other hand we have also the Pull factors, these ones are also based on the same conditions of the push factors but happend in countries where exists job opportunities, good education and medical services, political and cultural freedom and many other situations.

Not always the migration of a country to another is legal or happends in regular conditions. The irregular immigrants are not counted as people who belong to a country by the governments but there is always a calculation of the % of ilegals in different countries around the world. The United States has the higher % of illegal immigrations in the world, followed by countries like Russia, Germany, Ukraine, France, UK, and many others.

When people leave their countries looking for better opportunities and higher life quality appears what we know as remmitances. Remmitances are all the transfers of money by the immigrants to people who live on their home countries. Countries apply different regulations for these transfers and also include them in their internal economy accounts.

QUESTION: Which are the top ten sending countries to the United States in the last years?

Taken from: http://www.migrationinformation.org/datahub/countrydata/data.cfm

MANAGING DIVERSITY ACTIVITY

VALUE CHAIN (GENDER)

Activity/Process: Discussion on the participation of women in sports that are made "only" for men at the University.

Outcome: Good results for EAFIT in tournaments where the University will be represented by women in sports like soccer and ultimate.

Impact: Increase the participation of women in everything. Stoping the chauvinism in the world and demostrate that women are as powerful and strong as men and that we also have the opportunity of develop any activity we like and have exellent and recognizable results.

Value-Added: Reduce the chauvinism and increase the equality in every activity.

VALUE CHAIN (ETHNICITY)

Activity/Process: Promote the relations with foreign students by making integration parties, activities, forums, etc only focused on the exchange students so they can feel they are included in the campus life and will help them to adapt to their new life easily.

Outcome: Improve the cultural relations in EAFIT.

Impact: To make the foreign students feel better and help them to adapt easily to the University.

Value- Added: Teach how to apply the concept of managing diversity and the importance to be open minden in a global world that is based on the relations between people from different cultures and beliefs.

MANAGING DIVERSITY

Managing Diversity is very important because it will increase organisational effectiveness and will help to compete succesfully in a global marketplace. The main objective of Managing Diversity is to focus on maximizing the employees activities so they can contribute to organizational goals and have good results in their work.

It's a fact that the decision-making groups that have more diversity generate higher number of solutions for an specific problem or situation and also base their final decision in alternative options before acting in some way that maybe will be bad for the company or organization.

Time, Efficiency, Money and Unhealthy tensions are some of the elements that will improve with a well managed diversity.

HOW TO MANAGE DIVERSITY?

1. Drawing upon individual tolerance and self-control --> Act as a group trying to accept others opinion and point of view in specific situations.

2. Trial and error processes + personal --> Try to generate friendship between the members of the team, this will bring better results and will help people work better.

3. Setting Up Transational Cultures --> A good management will create an international culture that will make other feel identified.

QUESTION: WHY MANAGING DIVERSITY IS A COMPLEX PROCESS FOR ORGANIZATIONS?

The complexity of differences is wide ranging and because of that there is not one way of doing things or seeing or being in the world. People are not the same and although they want to be treated equally, this does not translate to being treated the same This has implication not just in respect to the workforce but also in the delivery of public and private services, the design and development of products and procurement activities.

These issues are not just about discriminatory practices but they modify the nature and demands placed on leadership and management and bring into prominence the concept of diversity. How well or how prepared managers are able to invest in the concept of diversity will impact not just on work issues but also on sensitivity to customers’ needs, legal compliance, business’ ethical issues, profitability and even social cohesion.

Taken from: http://www.managingdiversity.co.uk/managing_diversity/md_introduction.php