Feedback

Hi guys:

This time I'm doing the feedback of the course.

I have one word....AWESOME!!!!

This course I think was so awesome because it let us know many things about cultural traits around the world, also the tools used for the assesment were very cool.

Doing my own blog was like the coolest thing I've ever done in a subject. Also the investigation we've done about cultural facts that may represent an opportunity for a business rocked so much.

The teacher is awesome to, very objective with her comments and very critical, I like that.

Sebas Posada

VISIT COSTA RICA!

HI PEOPLE!!!

As an activity for my Organizations and Culture class, I'm going to show an organization in Latin America promoting the region, the organization I'm going to show to you is Visit Costa Rica (http://www.visitcostarica.com/ict/paginas/ict.asp) a plan created by the ICT (Instituto Costarricense de Turismo) which has the mission of "Promoting a wholesome tourism development, with the purpose of improving Costa Ricans' quality of life, by maintaining a balance between the economic and social boundaries, environmental protection, culture, and facilities."

Through the webpage I've given to you, the visitor of Costa Rica, is given all the tools he may need to plan his travel to Costa Rica, from the Hotel to the Car they are going to rent, also the page provides a MAP (see below) which lets the visitor get information of Tourism according to each zone of Costa Rica.

The website also offfers a contact us option in case the interested turist did not resolve his questions with the Q&A section they provide in the webpage.

The Visita Costa Rica programm also works with the Blue Flag special program to avoit pollution of beaches. "The Blue Flag Ecological Program is an interinstitutional effort, made official through the Executive Decrees # 25626-96, Decree # 31610 S-MINAE-TUR and the Decree # 31648 MEP-MINAE-S-TUR, from February 9, 2004, which included participation from the Costa Rica Tourism Institute (ICT), National Water and Sewer Service (AyA), Public Health Ministry (MS), Environment Ministry (MINAE), Education Ministry (ME) and the National Tourism Chamber (CANATUR). "

Info taken from http://www.visitcostarica.com/ict/paginas/mapas/areasurf.asp?tab=0

We'll I hope this has been useful for you.

Sebas Posada

Indigenous Segregation

Hi everyone:

This night I'm gonna tell you about Indigenous segregation around the world, asnwering a question from a class.

2.Do you know of other cases of indigenous communities that have gone through the same process?

I actually know about some few indigenous peoples who have been segregated in their own nation, to name a few:

• Navajo in North America
• Cherokees in North America
• Bushmen from Namibia
• Pygmies from Africa
• Zulu from Africa
• Tutsi from Africa
• Hutu from Africa
• and many more.

The fact is that in many of the cases these people were forces out their ancestral home ino other lands by the "civilized" men.

Here's an Image of the evolution of Indiginous etnies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Neighbor-joining_Tree.svg

And here's a MAP of the Indigenous Peoples in North America, in the year 2000.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Americanindiansmapcensusbureau.gif

The Bushmen in Botwswana inhabit the Kalahari Reserve. In the 1990s Diamonds were discovered there, and the Botswanian government came to the Busmen and told them the will have to leave the place in order for them to harvest Diamonds.

"In three big clearances, in 1997, 2002 and 2005, virtually all the Bushmen were forced out. Their homes were dismantled, their school and health post were closed, their water supply was destroyed and the people were threatened and trucked away.

They now live in resettlement camps outside the reserve. Rarely able to hunt, and arrested and beaten when they do, they are dependent on government handouts. They are now gripped by alcoholism, boredom, depression, and illnesses such as TB and HIV/AIDS.

Unless they can return to their ancestral lands, their unique societies and way of life will be destroyed, and many of them will die.

Although the Bushmen won the right in court to go back to their lands in 2006, the government has done everything it can to make their return impossible, including banning them from accessing a water borehole which they used before they were evicted; without it, the Bushmen struggle to find enough water to survive on their lands."

http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/bushmen

This is very BRUTAL example of segregation, but this is reality and in many countries of the world this happens every day. The greed for resources has driven mindless many people in our society.

I recommed you to see two movies. Blood Diamond and Hotel Rwanda. These movies are related with segregation in Africa.

Sebas Posada

Best Blog off My Class......The Revenge of The Non-Chosen

HI GUYS!!!

I was cheking all the blogs in my class, and I was thiknig like, whoa!! I shouldn't choose the same blog again, but after looking a lot I got to a conclussion....and It was that the blog of Manuela Osorio is the best, it mixes perfectly both the visual design and the content of the entries.

Some other blogs have very good entries but are not friendly to the eyes.

You can find Manuela's blog here http://19890522.blogspot.com/

Sebas Posada

E-Commerce in The Middle-East

Hi People!

As you know, Electronic Commerce has grown a lot in our days. There's few people who has not ordered something via internet in Amazon or eBay or sites like those in our culture.

The fact is that in our western culture business tend to be agile without to much strict law. But it doesn't mean that in all places of the world it is like that. And altough it is inevitable for a country to be touched Globalization (Unless they are like North Korea) many islamic countries have specific laws in the way the must conduct business.

Lets begin talking about e-commerce. ¿What is it? "The use of electronic transmission mediums to engage in the exchange, including buying and selling, of products and services" [Greenstein Marilyn, 2001 ]. Now let's see which benefits it gives to us:

As you can see it has a lot of benefits, but nevertheless it has also some risks:

1. Security

2. Product quality

3. Payment problem

4. Product delivery problem

5. Difficulties to locate right web site.

Islmace people "places more value on someone's word as opposed to a written agreement. A person's word is connected to their honour". So for them, having business without speaking is hard, as they are not putting their honor in risk.

According to the Qur'an, Allah has prohibited interest but accepted trade, these are the literal rules taken from Qur'an.

• "Alla hath permitted trade and forbidden usury" (2:275)
• "When you have finished your prayer, then disperse, seeking the grace of God in WORKD AND TRADE".(62:10)
• "There is no harm in trading while ye are engaged in pilgrimage". (2:192)
• "O man of faith! Do not devour the goods of another with injustice but trade based on mutual agreement and good-will is allowed". (4:29)
• "O ye who believe fear Allah and give up what remains of your demand for usury, if you are indeed believes". (2:278)

From the above, we can see that trade can be donde only if there's no injustice or usury interest. To the islam e-commerce is a way of Bai-Salam (buying and selling in advance), and the conditions applied to Bai-Salam are:

• Price fixed with offer and acceptance.
• Pay in cash or goods,
• Products have to be clearly identified.
• Delivery date has to be fixed.

Thus we can see that no all the rules are applied in e-commerce, in some cases when you buy online the things don't come as you saw them, or the delivery date is not the one you expected. But companies doing e-commerce in Middle-East should strictly follow these rules.

In spite of having so many rules, the e-commerce has grown a lot in this region. According to "BusinessIntelligence" Middle East (www.bi-me.com) on February 7 2010, the "Growth of Middle-East e-commerce are expected to surpass 15% in 2010...(...)... The region also reported the highest internet growth rate in the period 2000-2009 at 1648.2%".

Thus, we can see that even the region has very strict business laws, people is investing there and beggining to do all type of businesses.

Sebas Posada

Info taken from:

http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=44093&t=1&c=12&cg=2&mset=1022

http://www.banglajol.info/index.php/IIUCS/article/view/2584/2229

http://www.islamtoday.com/

Trade Unions...Europe and Colombia

FHi Everyone!!!

I'm going to talk about Trade Unions in Europe, and will compare it to those in Colombia.

In 1973 the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) was establipshed promote and represent european workers rights in the "EU" institutions.

But since the creation in facto of the European Union, and the integration process concerning the Euro, the setting in which the Trade Unions operate has changed a lot. According to the ETUC "To Defend and bargain for their members effectively at national level, they must coordinate activities and policies across Europe. To influence the economy and society at large, they need to speak with a single voice and act collectively at the european level."

The European Union itself has a special information service for workers in europe called worler-participaton.eu which is a service of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) which is financially supported by the European Community.

As we can see Trade Unions have space in the European Scene. Nevertheless and according to the Federation of European Employers in only 8 out of 27 EU countries, more than a half of the employed population is part of a Trade Union.

A very important in the European Trade Unions is that they must learn how to integrate themselves all accross Europe in order to effectively be representend. Because as the EU gets more and more integrated, European Legislation gets stronger and workers start to be influenced by EU's decisions. Thus is urgent for any Trade Union to get involved in the integration process. In Colombia, as we are not integrated in such a way, we don'thave to deal with a soutamerican (in a future possibly UNASUR legislation) legislation that affects soutamerican workers. Workers in Colombia must deal with the internal issues they have.

For Colombian workers there exists the ENS (Escuela Nacional Sindical), founded in 1982 in Medellin, it strives for protection of the Colombian workers.

Info Taken from:

www.worker-participation.eu

www.fedee.com

www.ens.org.co

Sebastián Posada