Eight things to ponder in ‘08

As the year comes to a close, here are some random thoughts about the events of 2007.

1. If Time magazine selects their “Person of the Year” in the second week of December, is there any value in making headlines during the last two weeks of the year?


2. With the recent discovery of a pyramid in Mexico City it is now believed it was first settled in 1325. If Columbus did not discover the new world until 167 years later, could the Aztecs have discovered it?


3. Because Mexico City has been continually populated since being founded by the Aztecs in the 14th century, could it be that Aztecs didn’t vanish, they just quietly blended into another culture?


4. Now that cell phone usage is widely accepted by the luxury-shrugging Amish people, should there be a law prohibiting talking on one while driving a horse-drawn carriage?


5. Why is there so much infighting in cultures?


6. Men in the Baby Boomer generation use Grecian Formula to color their hair. If it is so good why are there Greeks with grey hair?


7. If people want others to know about their culture, why don’t they contribute to MBC Global’s Cultural Bridges?


8. There are at least three sports on the globe called “football”. All of them use hands at some point in the sport to hold the ball. Why then can’t handball players ever use their feet kick the ball?

Should governments fund culture?

Once hailed as a great connector between the east and west coasts of the United States, passenger railroads have had a tough time competing with the speed of air travel. The trend seems to be changing as Amtrak, the largest passenger rail system in America, is seeing increased ridership. New service between Illinois and California is allowing passengers a view of a beautiful American countryside.

The popularity of rural roads throughout the world has been lost in the rushed American culture. Although using rail for commuting attracts riders in busy metropolitan corridors, particularly between Washington and Boston, the long-haul routes have been more of an attraction to foreign visitors. They enjoy the opportunity to see more of Americana as a peer out the windows and stretch their legs at longer stops.

As Amtrak exceeds prior-year passenger counts for the 5th consecutive year, are we seeing a once vanishing culture being restored? The very existence of passenger route is due to government subsidies. Many museums, orchestras, and artist also survive due to government handouts. Critics claim this financial backing to be a waste of taxpayer dollars. However, if rail travel can become self-sustaining does it make a case for government funding of other cultures?

Defining moment: Benazir Bhutto's assassination

Pakistanis throughout the world are mourning the death of Benizar Bhutto, former Prime Minister and candidate vying to return to the office in January's election. This event will have a long-lasting impact in at least three different cultural areas:

Ethnic Culture: The death of a leader can be a defining moment for a culture, and the leader's assassination is always a culturally defining moment. It will impact the Pakistani culture for many years to come. It is likely that those seeking political office in the country will adopt campaign strategies to prevent a similar assassination.

Gender Culture: Bhutto also stood as a role model for many women. She broke a cultural barrier in 1988 when she became the first woman to be democratically elected to lead a modern Muslim country. This immediately made her a role model for an entire generation of women in Pakistan as well as other nations. She gave them dreams and hopes that they could make a lasting impression on history.

Political Culture: As with many significant social events, political cultures are changed by assassinations. The extreme ends of political factions will be intent on lying blame for Bhutto's death. We've seen this historically following the death of Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, Argentina’s Pedro Aramburu, and Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev of Chechnya. In the United States, the assassination of John F. Kennedy is still being debated.

Looking at the impact of Bhutto’s assassination further exemplifies the position of MBC Global that every individual is part of many cultures and global events affect multiple cultures.

Will Smith and the Adolf Hitler comments

Will Smith’s recent reaction to the misrepresentation of comments he made during a newspaper interview shows superior leadership. It was in promoting his most recent box office smash that he made comments about Adolf Hitler.

The specific comment he made was “Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good.'”

Immediately several of the gossip-driven media picked up on the words “Hitler” and “good” in the same quotes. Selecting these words from the longer quote, they created a new story to sell their advertising space. Major media was quick to pick up on the controversy – many also omitting “twisted, backwards logic,” which is an important phrase in understanding what Smith was saying.

Most of today's leaders would have stayed out of the fray following their own misstated quotes thinking the truth would overcome the media surge. However Smith jumped on it immediately to correct any misconception.

This is an excellent example of how leadership is demonstrated. Smith did not want his reputation slurred while waiting for the truth to surface. He apparently understands that the longer misconception is in the public domain, the increased likelihood people will believe it, even once the truth eventually comes out.

Smith also seems to understand what many people have yet to learn. I have worked with thousands of people during my years in retailing and consulting. When you take the time to talk to people you understand that everybody wants to do “good”. It is part of the two universal elements of all people have: a desire for acceptance and a need for security. By doing good they will be accepted. Yet in workplaces some people learn a twisted concept of what good really is from their experiences.

Smith’s leadership ability should be applauded. He tackled controversy head-on. Do you hanlde controversy head-on, or do you hope it will pass?

Could cell phones be a cultural connector?

Can you image traveling 20 kilometers (12 miles) everyday – just to charge your cell phone? There may not be electricity in the village of Kajrai, India, but can get a cell phone signal. Forty villagers now have cell phones according to an article published by IBN. Without roads, these villagers travel by foot to Mandi Bamora, another village almost 10 kilometers away. The government has seen much success in making the entire country broadband accessible, however providing electricity to the nation is not keeping pace. As the infrastructure is built, rural Indians are finding the cell phones to be valuable, giving them to relatives in other areas and the security should there be an emergency.

The Amish culture has also had a significant cultural change due to the cell phone. This is a culture where modern conveniences are shunned in an attempt to remain separated from the non-Amish world -- which might distract them from devoting their lives to God. The Amish do not connect their homes to the rest of the world through water, sewer, phone, or electrical lines. A farming culture, they do not drive cars or tractors, and use horse driven carts to take crops to market. Many view the culture as stuck in the 1800s. Despite this living style, most Amish families now have one or more cell phones, recharged by individual power generators on their property.

I wonder if the Amish talk on the phone while driving their buggy?

Are these the last days of the Christian Culture?

Over the history of mankind we have seen many cultures come and go. The Mayan, Aztec, and Inca cultures were very powerful in their day. Each one had thousands of members in a less populated world, a distinct way of life, and strong spiritual beliefs. Today there cultures are kept alive through guesswork by a few curious buffs.

Are we now witnessing the beginning of the end of the Christian culture?

The question is most poignant at this time of year as we see the word “Christmas” replaced with the word “holiday” over and over. We’re not talking about the greeting “Happy Holidays”. This never was a Christian greeting -- it was simply a shortened “Merry Christmas and happy New Year”.

Nor are we talking about “holiday” or “year-end” parties replacing “Christmas” parties. These have been renamed primarily in the business community to be inclusive across a multicultural workforce.

We are talking about the growing trend of renaming Christmas trees “holiday trees”. With little resistance or outcry from the Christian community, this Christian symbol dating back to the 1500s is continuously being renamed a “holiday tree” or “giving tree”.

Guillermo, an MBC Global staff member, asked a question very pertinent to this topic, “what would happen if a mall, school, airport, or government building were to place a Menorah next to a sign ‘holiday candlestick’?” Would there be a public outcry or would there be only a few stern complaints? We know the passion with which Muslims protect their religious symbols.

These last few days before Christmas, each time you see a holiday religious symbol, think of these words. Ask yourself the question: is this a sign of the end of a culture?

Why cultures clash: corn provides insight

The United States has passed legislation requiring a six-fold increase in the production of ethanol by the year 2022. The United States uses 19,650,000 barrels of oil a day, more than three times that of second place Japan according to Wise Geek. Because the US imports most of this oil, they are seeking to reduce their reliance on foreign sources of energy.

However, by requiring corn, in the form of ethanol, to replace foreign oil as a fuel source, they are creating several cultural clashes of note. Here are some questions that might show you how one decision can have an impact on cultures:

• How would you feel if you were a member of the crop-growing farming culture and saw prices rising for the crops you were producing?


• How would you feel if you were a cattle rancher and saw feed prices rising because of the increase demand for corn?


• How would you feel if you were part of a developing nation culture and heard this news while your nation’s citizens were dying of hunger each day?


• How would you feel if you are part of the blue-collar culture about seeing new, potential union, jobs being created at ethanol plants?

We know how the United Nations feels. According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, turning fields capable of growing edible crops into fields growing crops for pure fuel production is a crime against demanding. He has asked for a five-year moratorium on such activity. He recommends the use of jatropha, a drought-resistant crop easily grown in developing nations. A field of jatropha is easy to establish, grows quickly, and has a lifespan of 50 years.

As you can imagine, the position of the United Nations further contributes to how cultures view the use of corn.

Multiculturalism – Smart business or racism?

The Ayn Rand Institute has called multiculturalism “the new racism” that would turn a country into “country into a collection of separatist groups”. They are joined by others believing multiculturalism positions one culture above another culture without stating which culture belongs at the top. This, they contend, will lead to the creation of “separatist groups competing with each other for power”.

Yet if you read yesterday’s definition of culture with an inquisitive mind, you may have already figured out that every individual on this planet is already individually multicultural. Each of us belongs to different multiple different cultures at the same time.

For example, we are members of a specific generational culture. The Baby Boomer generation experienced the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. However each member of the Baby Boomer generation is also a member of an ethnic culture. In the African-American culture, Martin Luther King’s death had a much more profound impact than that of JFK. In European-American homes JFK’s death was a more significant event.

If we were not multicultural as individuals, the events would have had exactly the same effect on every person. Due to the multicultural aspects of our character, events are perceived differently. Neither is better than the other, they are just different.

Defining culture

Before we go any further with this blog we should take a moment to define the word “culture”. It is the word providing the predominant aspect of “multicultural” and the basis for “diversity” programs. Many people give this word an extremely narrow designation, thinking of it as racial or religious. This is not the view of MBC Global.

To ensure MBC is using the term correctly, we need to look at the dictionary. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, Culture is “The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.” The dictionary further explains “these patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population.”

With this thinking it is easy to understand there are many categories of culture. Let’s say your family is planning a summer weekend reunion by a wooded lake. Some will look forward to the weekend as they will be able to swim, ski, hike, relax, read, or engage in quiet conversation. There six items can be categorized as “recreational”. Upon further analysis, the first three are “active recreations” while the last three are “sedentary recreations”. Dig down further and you will find that each of the six activities can also be considered a culture. Swimmers, for example, may prefer pool, fresh, or salt water, still or gently tidal waters, and so forth. People who prefer pools think and act differently from people who are avid about swimming in the ocean. In fact, each level of these categories and subcategories give us more insight into a group of individuals, with the familiarity helping us to better relate to the culture’s members as customers or employees.

View of culture = perceptions of the past

Could it be that our entire view of life is based on each individual’s past. That argument is made in the article “Do Your Employees Consider Your Corporate Policies Racist”, published by Workforce Management. The article begins by providing survey results showing a difference in perception of major headlines over the past decade. It concludes by suggesting analysis methods to determine the answer to the article’s title question.

In the interim, the article makes the claim “a person’s belief ultimately comes down to one simple thing: a personal perspective, shaped by personal experience and values.” If this is true, how does one change perspective?

MBC Global finds that in many cases an organization’s product mix, services offerings, marketing strategy, and storefront appearance also reflect thinking of days-gone-by. New thinking is required for survival in today's economy -- which is very culturally driven. The analysis recommended by Workforce Management is important, however should not be limited to a review of human resources policies or racial culture. Look at the cultures present in your marketplace and see how you can improve.

Corporate Culture: Why is it so hard to change?

Researchers at Ohio State University have concluded a study of 286 businesses that were spun off from the parent company between 1980 and 2005. Looking at 10 policy areas, they found a remarkable connection to the policies of the company from which they were spun off.

This further exemplifies the difficulty with which culture can be changed. Corporate cultures are well ingrained at all levels of an organization. New people to an organization they complain about certain elements of a culture, but once they start to follow the accepted culture of the organization they begin to find success. The more they follow the culture, success continues.

When they reached the upper levels of the organization, any proposed change to the culture is a threat – why would they want to change a culture that made them successful?

So how do you change the corporate culture?

Actually there are two ways that cultures can be successfully changed.

1. From entry-level up. Most experts will tell you that this is impossible. They are incorrect. Cultures have been change from the ground up when the culture has been so oppressive a mutiny occurs. Workers at the lowest level of the organization can create a culture that slowly passes up. It is a very difficult and very rare process, one that is not recommended.


2. From the top down. To be successful in changing a corporate culture, it has to be sponsored by the highest levels of an organization. Sponsorship does not mean approval – it means participation. Unless the top levels of the organization truly want change, it will not happen.

Benevolence Culture: Business giving

Every business owner is challenged by the causes they support from a benevolent or charitable standpoint. Thanks to tremendous help from The Zakat Foundation of America, MBC has been able to add a new page to our Cultural Bridges providing insight to the culture of charitable giving.

The information they provided discusses the foundation of charitable giving in the Abramic faiths before discussing the Islamic faith specifically.

The Chicago area organization answered MBC Global's plea for assistance in building cultural bridges. Be sure to visit the new page to learn more about charitable giving as the humanity principles on the page should challenge us all.

Knowledge of the culture of charitable giving provides a business owner or sales person the opportunity to connect with a community in the proper way. It is not simply enough to make charitable contributions, they must be made correctly and in the right attitude.

Once you have visited the page, share your thoughts and experiences about the culture of charitable giving. How has giving to others blessed you? How has receiving charity under the guidelines giving in this cultural bridge, whether or not faith was involved, had an impact on you?

Welcome to the Tapestry™ Blog

People have been asking us when we would enter the world of blogging. They claim that as an organization seeking to help others maximize bridges to culture through educational programs and marketing it is only right that we should use the open forum of a blog as another bridge-building tool.

After all, they point out, blogging and bloggers have developed their own culture. Therefore MBC Global should build a bridge to that culture.

This blog will serve as a point for people to share their thoughts, insights, experiences, and knowledge of the cultures as they reply to our postings. It is an open forum, so we need to point out that the views expressed in the comments on this blog are not always going to be factual. Anytime we learn of incorrect or inappropriate information, we will remove it. Simply send an email to us using the contact page at mbcglobal.org.