Cross-Cultural Blog

During the week of May 11th, several classes from Stanford University and the University of Sydney met through video conferencing to practice their presentation skills and talk about their research topics -- within the framework of intercultural exchange. The students in Sydney were studying writing and presentation across cultures -- while the Stanford students were all enrolled in writing class, but with a variety of themes : The Rhetoric of Gaming, the Rhetoric of Global Leadership, and the Rhetoric of the Bicycle, to name just a few.

Below you'll find the students' reflections on this experience.

Posted by Christine Alfano at 06:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

Below you'll find best practices for presenting ideas (whether that be an analysis of a visual text or a research topic) generated by globally distributed student groups comprised of students from Stanford University and the University of Sydney. The students developed these lists after presenting to each other during a video conference on the week of May 11th.

Posted by Christine Alfano at 05:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello everyone in Uppsala and at Stanford!

Please post a comment here to explain your group's discussion, spoof writing, and what you thought of this video-conference connection today. See the lesson plan here: http://ccr.stanford.edu/workshops/050409.html

What did you learn about rhetoric across cultures?
What was most memorable?
What new insights do you have that you can use for your own research paper and future?

Posted by Alyssa O'Brien at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

Published by Feross Aboukhadijeh.

For my research, I will be investigating the phenomenon of cheating in video games.

Almost every type of game—online and offline, single player and multiplayer—has cheaters. However, not all cheaters are the same. It’s impossible to fit all cheaters—or gamers, for that matter—into a single stereotype or definition. The variety and differences among gamers in today’s society is simply too great to allow such a blanket categorization. Mia Consalvo, author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames (pictured at right), agrees. She argues that identifying cheaters as having a unique subculture does not “adequately explain the broader world of gamers and game players that currently exists.”

Everyone cheats for different reasons. Some players cheat to make games easier during solo play. Cheat codes that generate extra lives, allow players to skip levels, or grant God mode (invulnerability) are common examples of harmless cheats that players use to make the game easier. Cheat codes are typically harmless and are often programmed into the game by the developers as “Easter eggs” for dedicated players to discover. Other players cheat to ruin the game experience for other players. This typically occurs online in the form of aimbots (software that assists the player in aiming), twinking (passing on powerful items to players who would not typically have such items), and the illicit sale of in-game currency. Other players cheat for the technical challenge of “hacking” the game and defeating the anti-cheating mechanisms built into the game.

Continue reading "Cheating and Hacking in Video Games" »

Posted by Feross Aboukhadijeh, Stanford at 08:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

In today’s tech savvy era, more and more people are relying on the internet and computers to perform daily activities and tasks. Professional and mundane work aside, technology has taken on more recreational tasks and responsibilities. Once seen as a luxury, video games have become a necessary component of daily life, as it provides gamers/players with an escape from the burdens of reality. Interestingly enough, in both Multi Massive Online Role Playing Games and Single Player Games, the creation of avatars (virtual characters with which players can interact with the virtual world) has become a major lure.

Continue reading "Reality Blurred at the First Log-In" »

Posted by Bryant Cabrera, Stanford at 08:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

For my research topic, I originally intended to write on governmental structure and how its relationship with the citizens of a country affects the games it produces. However, through my research of this topic I stumbled upon a perhaps more intriguing and certainly more defined topic: virtual worlds and their relation to the September 11th attacks. Much of what happened and the surrounding events were supported by the existence of a virtual world. Indeed, Slavoj i ek comments upon this relationship with the virtual world, writing that “’If there is any symbolism in the collapse of the WTC towers, it is not so much the old-fashioned notion of the “center of financial capitalism,” but, rather, the notion that the two WTC towers stood for the center of the VIRTUAL capitalism….’”

There are two significant ways in which the gaming world and the military world have interacted with regards to this attack: flight simulators and government-funded games. Elizabeth Losh of the University of California Irvine investigates the games funded by the government and they deep impact they had on the gaming and development world in her piece titled “Making Things Public: Democracy and Government-Funded Videogames and Virtual Reality Simulations” (This article can be found at http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1183334&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=33116903&CFTOKEN=47434535&ret=1#Fulltext ). This piece serves not only as an introduction to Tactical Iraqi and Virtual Iraq, two games currently funded by the United States government, but also as a sort of summary of the controversy surrounding the creation of these games.

Continue reading "A Tale of Two Worlds: Virtual Reality and the September 11th attacks" »

Posted by Luisa Russell, Stanford at 07:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

My research topic is on the influence of gaming within the whole economy of a country, especially on the positive influence of the release of the upcoming game Starcraft 2 within the Korean economy.

About the Game
Starcraft 2 is a sequel to a strategic simulation game that became the prototype of the current real-time strategy games today. Considering the fact that the gaming market and other markets associated to the gaming market (Internet cafés, food industry, TV Programs) are significant in Korea, even just one game can be an important factor in revitalizing the Korean economy. Other than direct sales of the game Starcraft 2, there are magazines, toys, and other merchandise that are sold under the name of Starcraft 2.

Starcraft 2 features numerous new characters and upgraded visual effects.

Continue reading "Saving the Economy with Starcraft" »

Posted by Andrew Jang, Stanford at 07:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

Video games and movies are both great forms of entertainment. They both have rely on the interaction with their user, or viewer, to create a desired effect. The success of movies and video games also relies heavily on the ability to tell a story. This would make one think that when a popular video game becomes a movie, the film would also be fairly popular. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. What differences in the two forms of entertainment contribute to the success of one and the failure of another? Why have few video game based movies been successful? Have movie based video games faired any better? These questions will hopefully lead to a focused topic analyzing the relationship between video games and movies.
In order to tackle these questions, I will rely on primary research to not only view movies, but to play the games they are associated with. Among the movies I will look at include the Super Mario film, the Laura Croft films, Mortal Combat films, and more. It will also be useful to research video game reviews and film critique reviews to see what elements are analyzed in both forms of entertainment and see why there is little crossover in terms of success. Hopefully, when my work is complete it will become clearer as to which elements of video games fail to translate into success for movies.

Posted by Julio Alvarado, Stanford at 03:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

Tracing back the origins of video gaming, it seems that a majority of video games in America were the means of escaping reality for many straight, white male adolescents. Video games offered a life that they couldn't live, rescuing damsels in distress, blasting aliens into oblivion, and attaining glory. They were, of course, direct responses to the life outside video games: unrequited love, bullies, and a lack of social acceptance. In modern times, there is a much wider audience playing video games. The appeal is no longer limited to race, gender, and age. Game designers have also considered sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is the most taboo characteristic of them all, but more and more games have progressed to include homosexual relationships, aside from the typical hero-damsel love story.

Continue reading "Video Games are gay?" »

Posted by John Do, Stanford at 03:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

With sales of over $22 billion in 2008, video games have experienced quite a transformation from the humble Tennis for Two created in 1958 to the graphical miracles of titles like Metal Gear Solid 4 or Crysis. For my research, I will be investigating how the evolution of the hardware and software responsible for these novel forms of entertainment has impacted game play throughout the years.

Continue reading "The Hard and Soft Factors of Gaming" »

Posted by Tyler Crimm, Stanford at 02:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

Who could forget sitting down in front of their Super Nintendo, N64, or any other old generation consoles and feeling the rush of playing video games for hours on end? Video game emulators let you relive the thrill and excitement of these days by mounting any game you can find on your computer to be played at any time. People often throw around the phrase “it's so much fun, it should be illegal.” In this case, it really is illegal. No matter how much fun reliving your childhood through the convenience of your computer or how much easier it is to just download the “ROM” (read-only-memory) for the game you want to play than tracking down a copy of the game, it end up hurting the gaming industry and the publishers who originally put out the games we have grown to love.

Continue reading "The Irony of Emulators" »

Posted by Andres Moreno, Stanford at 01:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

For my project, I will be researching and investigating the uprising, history, and evolution of machinima as a form of film, entertainment, and advertisement. I will also be researching the different techniques and methods that are part of the “machinimation” process. For those who are unfamiliar with the term: Machinima refers to the fairly new method of filmmaking that is created by taking and editing real-time recordings of video and computer games and virtual worlds. The term machinima is also used to refer to the films themselves and is derived from the terms, machine and cinema. Originally, machinima were simple recordings of game play that were captured by gamers to document achievements, stunts, or just really cool footage. Today, machinima have become elaborate, full-length movies or series that are watched, mostly through the Internet, by millions of viewers all over the world.

Continue reading "Machinima: Red vs. Blue" »

Posted by Christian Calvo, Stanford at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

My research addresses the factors contributing to the prevalent sexism in the MMORPG World of Warcraft. First launched in 2004, World of Warcraft’s rich graphics and detailed story lines have captivated countless gamers, promising new goals to attain, new gear to acquire and more content to see with each of its two expansion packs. In the game, the player is able to choose their faction- Horde or Alliance- their race, their appearance, and their gender. Though members of both genders of any given race are placed in the same starting locations upon creation, the player is made painfully aware of the discrepancy; starter gear looks different depending on your gender.

Continue reading "Sexism in WoW: man-made or inherent?" »

Posted by Alex Hicks-Nelson at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

The typical educational atmosphere consists of textbooks, teachers, lectures, studying, and exams. Each of us has experienced first hand this physical method of learning. However, over the past decade virtual worlds have invaded the “traditional” classroom and have secured a position as primary teaching tools. Educational video games that have been crafted to teach students all range of subjects have assuredly impacted the learning environment. Recently, these “learning” games have also become an alternative method to teach medicine, both to the general public and more importantly to those aspiring to enter medical fields. Yet, some of these “new” medical tools are not only influencing education, but rather the games themselves have become a platform for scientific research and the advancement of human knowledge. The creators of the online video game "Foldit" believe they have accomplished just this.

Continue reading "Foldit: From Educational Video Game to Scientific Pioneer" »

Posted by Ben Funk, Stanford at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

For my research, I will be focusing on racism in video games and how it may be related to the evolution of the “gamer”. I have found that gamers and non-gamers have opposite opinions on whether or not they find a game to be racist. One newly developed game in particular, Resident Evil 5, has been criticized by a number of groups for promoting racial stereotypes. The game takes place in Africa, where you play as either the white, male, and American character Chris Redfield or as the African, black, and female character Sheva.

Continue reading "Racism in Video Games" »

Posted by Trevor Scheid, Stanford at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

Gaming is fun, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes video games cross the line, especially when portraying women and violence in games. Two such examples of inappropriate game play are the games Rapelay based in Japan and the Grand Theft Auto series made in the United States. Both games show women being violated in virtual yet realistic worlds where the player can do whatever he wants. The idea behind the game is that you can get away with illegal behavior with no consequences. In one clip of the game Grand Theft Auto 4 found on Youtube, the player is shown driving up to a curb in a stolen car and proceeds to pick up a hooker. While the player drives wherever he wants around the city, the hooker and the main character, being played by the gamer, have an explicit conversation about what they plan to do to each other. After the player drives around for a bit, he decides to stop in a deserted back alley and the car begins to rock back and forth while noises and vulgar language can be heard inside the van.

Continue reading "Grand Theft Auto video and its implications" »

Posted by Mary Beth Corbett, Stanford at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

My topic is the gap between casual and professional gamers. For the most part, only games that involve some form of multiplayer competition can be played competitively, because competition is by definition a test of skill and a multiplayer activity. Therefore, the biggest professionally played games are FPSes (first person shooters, like CounterStrike) or RTSes (real time strategy games, like Starcraft). However, many other genres of games exist. Clearly, there is some gap between casual games and competitive games. According to an article on PBS entitled “Gen Nexters Take Video Gaming to the Next Level,” there is also a gap between casual gamers and competitive gamers. The average age of a casual gamer was 33, while the average age of a competitive gamer was 21.

Continue reading "Differences in Casual and Professional Gamers" »

Posted by Alex Quach, Stanford at 01:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.

Modern video game companies have recently displayed interesting business models behind their cutting edge products. The state-of-the-art software and hardware that readily entertains us today are very complex and costly creations, taking years to develop and often requiring vast amounts of funds and resources to complete. Profitability is a key term that has been brought into question when analyzing current video games systems like Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's Playstation 3 and even Nintendo's Wii.

My research topic consists of a look into these business practices, and the motivations behind the sales of video game products that turn little to no profit, sometimes resulting in losses. The scope of the research will also include the actions that these companies take in order to boost revenue considering they cannot cut production costs by much. Thus, they turn to extremely well-developed marketing strategies and rhetoric in order to promote continued sales, which in the long run offsets poor gains from high production costs associated with the products.

Continue reading "Profitability in the Video Gaming Industry: Is there any, at all?" »

Posted by Jesse Espinoza, Stanford at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

This quarter, I'm teaching a first year course called the Rhetoric of Gaming. Below you can see my students hard at work in the classroom.

While it may look like they are just playing, in fact these students were performing a group rhetorical analysis of gameplay and game design focused in on educational gaming. We have also been looking at persuasive gaming, advergaming, video game marketing, and virtual worlds/play. In fact, we are also gearing up for a possible Second Life encounter with students from Egypt, where we can mix our interest in intercultural communication with questions of identity, avatar construction, and virtual communities.

Currently, my students are embarking on their own full-length research projects. As one of the first stages in their projects, they were asked to post a blog entry on the CCR blog in which they identify their topic and then describe and analyze one source that they feel will be important for their research.

Their blog posts are listed below -- they would welcome your feedback on their ideas!

• Virtual worlds/gaming and their relation to the 9/11 attacks
  
• women and violence in video games (Grand Theft Auto)
  
• Cheating and Hacking in Video Games
  
• Avatars in MMOs
  
• Starcraft & the Korean Economy
  
• Movies based on video games
  
• Homosexuality in video games
  
• Evolution of hardware and software for video gaming
  
• Gaming emulators
  
• Machinima
  
• Sexism in World of Warcraft
  
• Educational video games
  
• Racism in video games
  
• Casual and professional gamers
  
• Profitability in the Gaming Industry
  

As you can see, they are approaching the issue of gaming from multiple perspectives -- from the technological, to the economic, and the cultural. We're very excited to post on the Cross-Cultural Rhetoric blog to get an international point of view on these issues.

Posted by Christine Alfano at 07:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Right now, students are connecting across a 9 hour time zone to discuss the rhetorical strategies that global leaders use in speaking to different audiences. There are six small groups on each side, analyzing speeches by figures such as Obama & Prime Minister Reinfeldt, the Dalai Lama & Christopher Hitchens, Mona Sahlin & Nyamko Sabuni, Obama & McCain on gay marriage, Al Gore & David Keith & Jill Sobule. See the lesson plan here: http://ccr.stanford.edu/workshops/042209.html

Together, the students wrestled with analyzing the rhetorical strategies utilized in these speeches, with special attention to Doxa -- or the cultural values underlying the oratory -- and a particular focus on how speakers handled elements of gender, race, and religion.

For everyone who participated, we now invite you to leave a reflection on this cross-cultural encounter as a comment to this entry. In particular, you might answer some of the following questions:

• What did you think of today's activity?
• What did you learn about global leadership or ways in which leaders use rhetoric across diverse audiences (be specific if you can; share something that your group discussed!)
• How will your experience in the video conference today enrich your own research project or approach to oral rhetoric and presentation?

Continue reading "Uppsala, Sweden connects with Stanford on Global Leadership Speeches" »

Posted by Alyssa O'Brien at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Moving to the Desert
By Rina Moussa, AUC.

In Egypt, it is getting more crowded every day. This is due to the overpopulation of the city. Moreover, the inhabited areas are those that were eligible for cultivation. It was not a smart decision made on behalf of our country, to locate the housings on this land and ignoring the desert, because now we spend more money than we can afford on importing food that we otherwise could have cultivated in our own country. We are having a serious economic problem, prior to the worldwide economic crisis, which is triggered by our environmental mishaps.
Only recently did the government realize this problem: misusing our agricultural land. Why wouldn’t we use the land that is not fit for agriculture anyway for housing and industry? Then leaving the agricultural land in good shape will be possible; and save our money and spend it on something more worthwhile.

Continue reading "Moving to the Desert" »

Posted by American University in Cairo at 06:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Oil, a crucial element for factory engines and cars, is also one of the main factors that harm the enviromnent. When oil is spilled, it’s toxic wastes can damage fish populations in numerous rivers and oceans. Moreover, it threatens the lives of people by causing air pollution, that is created by the factories’ combustion engines, which is an inescapable impact on society. Furthermore, according to www.offshore-environment.com, some countires, such as Saudia Arabia and the United States produce 28.3 billions barrels everyday, which is a massive amount of oil that can have damaging consequences on the enviromnent.

Continue reading "Vital, but risky" »

Posted by American University in Cairo at 06:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

A few years ago, in the mid 90’s Cairo’s boarders were not too far away from the River Nile, the obvious reason for this was because this is where the water resources could extend to. Cairo was large but overcrowded and after a while, the government needed to do something. Anywhere around Cairo that was not civilized by the tall buildings, homes, businesses, farm lands and water resources was just desert. The government decided to sell this land cheap to businessmen in order for them to invest in it, get water to reach out and urbanize it. One of these areas is now known as 6th of October city and is now a province.
It took several years for this area to urbanize, but has succeeded. 6th of October city has an industrial area and many of the businesses have pulled out to there. This has proceeded to building residential areas in order for people to also move out near to their work areas and live there as well. Since residential areas came to be, schools and educational institutes have also opened and branched out to this new part of Cairo. As a lot of us know, Cairo is a beautiful city and has its’ own charm but is highly polluted and has reached to an extent where it is too difficult to clean up. So far, 6th of October is being very cautious in avoiding such polluting.

Continue reading "Cairo working for a greener future" »

Posted by American University in Cairo at 03:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

" I talk here about the problem of deforestation, how it is caused and how it affects our lives."

Deforestation has become an increasing activity these days. Deforestation is when people start removing forests and cutting down trees. There are several uses and causes for doing so. But there are effects to that as well, and these affects are a threat to all of us humans and other living organisms as well. This is a major problem because it affects my life now and if it continues, it is going to affect the coming generation which could include my children and grandchildren. They could suffer from loss of such resource which could make them suffer.

Continue reading "Threats of Deforestation" »

Posted by American University in Cairo at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

In the last few years, urbanization in Egypt has increased significantly. This phenomenon is natural as Egypt is a developing country. People are migrating from rural areas all over Egypt to settle in major cities like Cairo and Alexandria. They tend to migrate because they see them as a place of hope, where everything is possible. This is very beneficial to Egypt. The fact that more people are migrating to cities, means that more labor and workforce are available for many businesses and industries. This entire process is expected to enhance Egypt’s economy dramatically.

Continue reading "Environment and Urbanization" »

Posted by American University in Cairo at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

While thinking about environmental issues with specific reference to Egypt, I remembered a trip to Aswan and the striking difference between the Nile in Aswan and the Nile here in Cairo. While this is expected because of the difference in the lifestyles between an industrialized area and a desert area, the rate of difference is astonishing.

Continue reading "What happens in the middle" »

Posted by American University in Cairo at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

This post has been created by Global Learning students from Khabarovsk, Russia, for the Stanford-Orebro-Khabarovsk exchange. The exchange is aimed at raising intercultural competence and global awareness of students and faculty

by Liza Shokhina, Anton Nishchev

“Globalization is not the only thing influencing events in the world today, but to extent that there is a North Star and a worldwide shaping force, it is this system.”

Tomas Friedman

Intercultural communication between peoples is an integral attribute of the human society development. Not a single country, even the one considered most powerful in political and economic aspect, can meet cultural and aesthetic requests and needs of the humankind without applying to the world cultural heritage, spiritual heritage of other countries and peoples. The modern world is developing towards globalization. In this regard, the issues about the role and the place of international communication become an integral part of life both for the humankind in general, as well as for the individual.

Continue reading "Intercultural Communication in the context of Globalization" »

Posted by Khvaborsk Intercultural Business Class, Russia at 04:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

It was an unforgettable day, the day I saw dead animals along the canals of Cairo. My dad was driving the car when I shouted at him to stop so I can take a closer look. It was the first time I had ever seen such a horrible image in reality. There were dead horses and cows floating in the water. What was really shocking was that people passing by did not care. It seemed to me that they thought this was normal, an image that they see everyday. But this was a first to me. I was shocked and devastated that somebody would do that.

Continue reading "What Are We Drinking ?" »

Posted by American University in Cairo at 03:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Egypt is a very beautiful country. My family is mostly Egyptian and we have lived in the great city of Cairo for about eleven years now and although the a lot of the time all we can see is pollution, at times, when it has all cleared up, the breathtaking view of the sun setting behind the pyramids of Giza never ceases to amaze me!

I remember when we first moved here my parents would take my brother and me to all the touristic areas so that we could really appreciate our country. We went to Sharm El Sheikh, the Giza and Step Pyramids, felucca rides on the River Nile and all the other typical touristic attractions. I will never forget when we went to Sharm, we went on a snorkeling trip to the beautiful coral reefs of Ras Mohamed. It was better than anything I had ever seen on marine life on the Discovery Chanel! Last Spring break my friend from America came to visit me and so I, of course, planed all the regular touristic sites and this time around, since I am now older and more understanding, I learnt much more about my country and culture and seeing my friend’s reaction to all the wonderful things I introduced her to made me proud to call Egypt my country, my home.

Continue reading "Find Your Harmony With Nature" »

Posted by American University in Cairo at 02:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One of the major environmental problems happening in Egypt is the garbage that people are carelessly throwing in the streets. It has been a way of living for a very long time, and since it has been this way for so long I don’t think the citizens of Egypt really find it as a problem. It is only normal for most Egyptians to finish what they are eating and throw the trash in the street. I think one of the major reasons for why that happens is because there aren’t many garbage cans around so people just take the easy way and stick their garbage in any corner. That corner eventually builds up and moves on into the streets.

Continue reading "Streets of Egypt" »

Posted by American University in Cairo at 02:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

According to your Blog, you guys stated what you had felt about the waste and pollution that caused the death of Salmon fish, the huge mountain of garbage and the disturbed ocean. In response to their blog, I believe the blog’s message was an inescapable kind of message that needs to be read by all people who encourage and increase waste and pollution. Moreover, the images that you posted were not only some images that conveyed “something that depicted the problem of consumption and waste” (Amaya), but also showed your “ethical, spiritual, and moral beliefs” (Bill), which was very effectual in showing your message to the audience. Furthermore, I think that providing your thoughts about a certain image that tackled a specific pollution issue did show your seriousness for showing people the different forms of pollution and also verified your personal beliefs. Moreover, your detailed descriptions of the four different images made them even more touching by clarifying what has happened in them at that time, such as describing what has happened to the Salmon, the huge pile of garbage and the polluted ocean. Indeed, your images acted as a kind of emotional appeal to the readers. Consequently, I was very touched and sympathized with these images, which caused me to actually feel your blog’s message. Also, I think that you, as a group, were successful in posting a very decisive and essential blog, which was been posted especially to show “nature as the victim that must be protected, no longer the wild beast to be conquered, like once erroneously thought of” (Carpenter).

Posted by American University in Cairo at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Introduction:

For many years and in many ways, humans have expended a large amount of their energy in a struggle to control nature. We do our best to predict the weather and harness the wind and geothermal energy. We also spend a lot of energy preventing floods, counteract droughts, making farmland more productive and extracting oil from the ground. The human race seems bent on subduing every aspect of nature as soon as possible and does so often without thought to the consequences. At times the relationship we have with nature is one of commensalism, in which we benefit but are neither benefiting nor harming nature, and at other times, it is one of parasitism in which we are hurting our host in order to maintain our lifestyle. Unlike most parasites though, we don’t seem to know when to stop, and are pushing the control struggle to the extreme. In doing so, we often lose sight of the consequences of our reckless actions.

Continue reading "The Control Struggle" »

Posted by Stanford: Environmental Rhetoric at 08:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Authors:

Rebecca Castro
Charles Amaya
Janet Bill
Natalie Carpenter: Hoopa, California

Blog Introduction:

The overarching themes of our group are pollution and the environmental consequences of technology and consumption. The four pictures effectively utilize pathos to evoke environmental sympathy. Each image touches upon the dangerous consequences of today's material world and overconsumption. The pictures collectively promote a sense of environmentalism by showing the direct effects of this materialism on nature, from animals, to the ocean, fish, birds, and the landscape overall. Man's direct influence on the destruction of nature is evident in the photos of the oil spill, the tractor driving over the rubbish heap, and the mountain of trash topped off with the construction hat. The photo of the stream lined with dead fish is similar in that it is the result of a manmade dam and has created an uninhabitable environment for these fish, which have a very significant cultural importance to the Native American community in the surrounding area. Each photo connects man to nature and portrays nature as the victim that must be protected, no longer the wild beast to be conquered, like once erroneously thought of.

Continue reading "Environmental Consequences of Technology and Consumption" »

Posted by Stanford: Environmental Rhetoric at 01:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Rutger Rosenborg- Although I am of Swedish descent, I was born in Guatemala where I lived until I moved to San Diego, California at the age of 3. I am interested in Biology, Psychology, and Literature and this is my first year here at Stanford University.

Lily Dinh- I have lived the major part of my life in Georgia on the east coast of the US and am very excited to experience the west coast. I’m interested in pursuing business and/or law and also have a penchant for Latin and the classics.

For centuries, humans have strived to establish their dominance over each other through wars and conflicts. As long as they have been doing this, they have also been trying to conquer nature, to make it less threatening to them. With these attempted conquests, there has always been collateral damage, and there has always been a victim. Mankind often overlooks this fact, and is often ignorant of the dire consequences that our actions have on our fellow humans and our beloved earth. By understanding the loneliness and sadness of those we victimize, it offers us a new perspective that is important to acquire in order to acknowledge and change the way we, as the human race, carry ourselves in the world. Only then can we reduce the detrimental effects of our actions.

Rutger:

Continue reading "Uncontrolled Consequences" »

Posted by Stanford: Environmental Rhetoric at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Authors:

Harjus Birk. Redding, California. Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience major.

Gianni Maize. San Clemente, CA. Computer Science major.

Entry Introduction:

In today’s fast-paced society, we see mechanization taking command over nature in an attempt to overpower and dominate the natural world. Humans have developed the mindset to industrialize in order to improve efficiency, but often times we do not recognize that as a result of our efforts to advance we actually harm the purity of the environment and thus take a step backwards. Our individual images of the Grand Canyon Skywalk and the Human Population Growth Chart are similar in that they help reveal the influence of egocentricity in today’s society. Let’s stop for a second and consider the fact that, though we know our most common daily activities pose a constant environmental threat in the form of landfills, over exploitation of natural resources, etc., we continue to practice environmentally harmful behaviors. We are most definitely affecting the ecological systems that sustain our food systems and yet we do not take initiative in stopping those behaviors before we can only regret our past decisions dreadfully. The backwardness of such a mentality is obvious. It seems that our inherent and all absorbing fascination with the human capacity for discovery has led our race to neglect our direct environment, as we continuously push industry, globalization, and resource exploitation. Our race incessantly tries to prove human dominance over nature and other species, as evident through the construction of the Skywalk and increased mechanization. The desire to advance represents our insatiable desire for universal mastery, and raises the crucial issue of preserving the environment and preventing further destruction of the purity of nature. We must remember to cherish the natural world and environment because it is the world we are going to leave behind for generations to come, and thus humans must judge whether attempts for advancement outweigh the adverse consequences, such as pollution and destruction of the ozone layer. We feel that simplicity is key because often less is more, and this is why nature has been so successful in its entirety as a result of its balance.

Continue reading "The Power of Simplicity" »

Posted by Stanford: Environmental Rhetoric at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Sarah Kaewert
- From: Boulder, CO
- Academic Interests: Literature, foreign languages, ecology
- Outside Interests: hiking, camping, rowing, music

Shannon McClintock
- From: San Diego, CA
- Academic Interests: English (Creative Writing and Gothic Literature), Mechanical Engineering, Law (Criminal)
- Outside Interests: Piano, Acting, Singing, Community Service (Rotaract), Soccer, Running

Human Exploration and the Quest to Understand Nature -- and Conquer It

The images we have chosen explore the concepts of superiority, dominance, and the search for a symbiotic relationship with nature*. Mankind consistently seeks to explore, comprehend, *and conquer nature. We are interested in exploring the pioneering sense of mankind both upon the earth and in the cosmos. *Geographically and intellectually there are so many ways for the human race to grow and learn more about the environment we live in. This is a very important issue, since mankind’s desire to conquer the earth threatens its resources, whereas simply sitting back and not exploring the earth and space can prevent important advancements and discoveries from being made.

Continue reading "Exploration and Exploitation" »

Posted by Stanford: Environmental Rhetoric at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On every scale, humans have always been fascinated by looking at nature, whether through our own eyes, the lens of a camera, or by complicated imaging techniques like x-ray crystallography. Why are we so drawn to nature? Perhaps it is its incredible elegance and beauty. In many ways, nature’s elegance lies in its delicate balance of simplicity and intricacy. The minimalism and cleanliness of method by which all genetic information is communicated is truly awe-inspiring. The complexity of many of nature’s devices is simply astonishing. The sophisticated symbiotic relationships in nature certainly put human civilization into a new perspective. Are we attracted to the continually intriguing arrangements of nature that leave no inefficiency while maintaining an incredible diversity of life? Or is it the visceral emotion evoked by nature that continues to inspire humans to look closer? Certainly nothing can compare to the sheer scope and wonder of an image of our entire planet. Perhaps we keep coming back to nature for its ability to soothe and to shrink our problems into perspective by its utter magnitude.

Whatever the reason, it seems that humans will continue to find new ways to view the world around us. Now let us take a closer look at some familiar images from the natural world and further explore the meaning beyond what the first glance reveals.

Continue reading "A Closer Look" »

Posted by Stanford: Environmental Rhetoric at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This collection of images shows the impact of greed and consumption in our society. The processes of human consumption have led to the pollution of rivers and air, the destruction of wilderness, and sometimes, unwittingly, the destruction of entire towns and cities. Sadly, this destruction frequently occurs in low-income communities around the world. These photographs and the stories behind them are explicit illustrations of environmental racism, socio-economic discrimination, blatant disregard for the environment, and the severe impacts of climate change on the world, but primarily and disproportionately, on the poor. Unless these issues are acknowledged and confronted, those in a power to do so will continue to exploit the environment and those who do not possess the power to resist.

Ana Miller-ter Kuile
Rural Southern Colorado

The Story of Summitville Mine

What is the Summitville Mine?

The Summitville Mine, deemed a Superfund Site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a shocking example of the immoral destruction of nature driven by man’s greed. Galactic Resources, the Canadian mining company that began mining at Summitville in the 1980’s, was not even extracting enough gold from the mountain to make a profit. Yet, they continued to extract ore, tearing down half a mountain and polluting the water of the Alamosa River. The company was careless, with little concern for environmental impact, even allowing one of the liners on a cyanide heap leach pad to tear, releasing cyanide into local water and soil. When the mine declared bankruptcy, they left the mine site in ruins. Mining debris and the horrible memory of the mine and its environmental impact was left in the hands of the people of the Alamosa River watershed, who have attempted to hide the memory by planting trees and waiting for their river to stabilize.

Continue reading "Nature Divided: Man’s Exploitation of Himself" »

Posted by Carolyn Ross, Stanford at 08:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Members:

Name: Birth Place: Academic Interests:
Michael Fanfant: Seattle, Washington: Economics/ Computer Programming
Christina Feng: Vienna, West Virginia: Ecology/ Geology/Conservation Biology
Ilias Karim: St. Paul, Minnesota: Literature/ Computer Programming
Kelly Lacob: Woodside, California: Human Biology/ Creative
Ben Jensen: Las Vegas, Nevada Engineering/Archaeology
Writing

Theme:

Our blog examines many aspects of forces of nature: from an anthropocentric lens that investigates human power, to an ecocritical one that focuses on our relation to our surroundings and how force exists inherent in nature. Our collection of images is a narrative that interrogates the role of force at the level of the individual, the society, and the environment. From the well-defined musculature of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man to the deflated and decaying corpse of a poached elephant, violent forces shape the world around us. Our individual written segments tells our personal perspectives on our theme. Each were written separately, but put together here they establish an important dialogue in today’s ecological discourse.

Images and Discourse:

Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” is a drawing of an idealized man standing circumscribed in a circle and within a square. Each limb is simultaneously portrayed in two positions. In one position each limb is spread apart from its opposite limb. In the other position, the arms are positioned horizontally and the legs vertically. These limbs are partitioned by lines which are located at each limb’s greatest joints. His fingers are extended and the palms are opened towards the viewer. His left feet are turned outwards and his right feet point forward. The man is facing the viewer. His muscles are well-formed and his body is hairless except for his pubic region and his head. His curly hair falls just short of his shoulders. His face is expressionless.

The man standing in the center of the circle and the square characterizes the essence of anthropocentrism, a product of man’s ego. As a species, our foremost concern has always been to first secure our own needs and then try to achieve the mastery over ourselves and the world circumscribed about us that Leonardo Da Vinci’s perfect man embodies. Our interest in the ecosystem that we exist within lies at the perimeter of our consciousness.

Our ego and incredibly self-conscious nature is nothing to be ashamed of. Man’s incredible consciousness has allowed him to maintain the fragile quality of life he requires in many places around the world. However, we cannot continue to turn a blind eye to Mother Nature. Ayn Rand might argue that it is selfishness is the most central of human virtues, but it is damaging the environment that we need to exist.

The time has come for us to outgrow our childish attitudes. We are not the center of the universe, and our actions effect the world around us. Humanity is a clumsy child that has outgrown its playpen and risks hitting his head on the undersized playset. Nature is a struggling single mother on welfare who can’t provide for her poorly-mannered brat son.

Continue reading "Forces of Nature" »

Posted by Stanford: Environmental Rhetoric at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This post has been created by Global Learning students from Khabarovsk, Russia, for the Stanford-Orebro-Khabarovsk exchange. The exchange is aimed at raising intercultural competence and global awareness of students and faculty

Hi, everyone! Abbreviation AIM stands for Always In Motion, the phrase that reflects the lifestyle of everyone in our group!

We all studied abroad and found out lots of interesting things! Currently we are doing reserach about Gender Relationships before marriage in different countries!

Continue reading "AIM: it's about us!:)" »

Posted by Khvaborsk Intercultural Business Class, Russia at 03:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

This post has been created by Global Learning students from Khabarovsk, Russia, for the Stanford-Orebro-Khabarovsk exchange. The exchange is aimed at raising intercultural competence and global awareness of students and faculty

Alisa Kandyba (left), Gleb Scherbina (middle), Natalya Che (sitting)

In our research we are trying to study the aspects of leadership – in general, and connected with some particular spheres of our life, using the examples of sport and fashion

Alisa: Leadership is comprehensive conception, which is rather difficult for understanding and it is culturally loaded

Continue reading "The Aspects Of Leadership" »

Posted by Khvaborsk Intercultural Business Class, Russia at 02:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

This post has been created by Global Learning students from Khabarovsk, Russia, for the Stanford-Orebro-Khabarovsk exchange. The exchange is aimed at raising intercultural competence and global awareness of students and faculty

Hello students from Stanford and Örebro! We are group of the Far Eastern State University of the Humanities. We all study to become translators. We study different languages, but English is our main language. Our future profession presupposes that we should have the ability to get along with people from other countries well, so it’s very important to break our stereotypes and be tolerant to others.
We are a group of 5 students. We are all different, have different interests, so we hope that you like our post as well as communication with us.

We are from left: Katya, Ilya, Alyona, Alyona and Aleksandra

Continue reading "Group 'FIVE.RU'" »

Posted by Khvaborsk Intercultural Business Class, Russia at 05:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

This post has been created by Global Learning students from Khabarovsk, Russia, for the Stanford-Orebro-Khabarovsk exchange. The exchange is aimed at raising intercultural competence and global awareness of students and faculty

By Ekaterina Vlasenko, Marianna Sidorenko and Ksenya Pekar

People from different countries always have stereotypes about each other. It is absolutely natural as each culture always contains secrets. It is often covered with mystery, unreal stories and subjective attitudes. But some of existing stereotypes are correct and others are wrong. Stereotypes can prevent us from learning some aspects about the country and understanding a different culture in a more appropriate way.
Although sometimes stereotypes can reveal certain tendencies or attitudes, existing in the culture. Therefore we have chosen this topic as our research and we hope to clarify some points and to contribute to breaking certain stereotypes about Russia

Continue reading "Cultural Stereotypes: The Way We See Them" »

Posted by Khvaborsk Intercultural Business Class, Russia at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

This post has been created by Global Learning students from Khabarovsk, Russia, for the Stanford-Orebro-Khabarovsk exchange. The exchange is aimed at raising intercultural competence and global awareness of students and faculty
By Dmitry Galenko, Galina Trotskaya, Olesya Stadnik

Names of people constitute an important part of culture.
Name means a lot for every person and it is his first identification in the society. Names are culturally bound and names are used accordingly in each country. It is important to understand the difference each culture treats names.
Our research is devoted to Russian names, their forms, influence on personality

What is the name?

Galya: When we think of somebody we remember not that particular person but his or her name. When we speak to somebody we communicate with a name. When there are only two people communicating and there is no need to call your interlocutor by the name, still we do it. We call our interlocutor by his or her name.

Continue reading "The Names in Russia" »

Posted by Khvaborsk Intercultural Business Class, Russia at 06:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

The globalization increases. So does the importance of knowledge and understanding for other cultures. Knowledge about how cultural resemblances and differences affect our behavior, and understanding for another cultures attitude, norms and values. This is of outermost importance in business related situations between people from different countries.

The foreign trade between Sweden and Switzerland has increased rapidly in recent years.
Both countries are competent and they have a strong internationalization and a well functioning cooperation.
Due to the evolving relation between Sweden and Switzerland, and my curiosity in the Swiss culture from living in the country for a period of time, I chose to compare the two national cultures with each other.
I asked myself which cultural similarities and differences there are between the countries. I used literature to try to find an answer to this question, but I mainly used Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions to compare and study how the countries related to the four dimensions, Power distance, Individualism, Masculinity and Uncertainty avoidance.
I did an interview with Jacob Wahlberg who is a jurist at Assa Abloy. He is in daily contact with executives from Switzerland and has been collaborating with them for many years. I was interested in how the national cultures influence on a negotiation between the countries. Does Jacob find it different and more complicated to negotiate with Swiss people and if so, what are the differences and resemblances? What is his opinion about the extremely diverted sight on women’s roles in the society, and does it affect the business relation? In addition to the interview, I collected the empirical data from my own experience from living in Switzerland. I also did an interview with Laura Wey, a girl that originally comes from Switzerland but she now lives and works in Sweden.

As a result, after studying the cultures I would say that there are obvious similarities but also many differences between them. They are both two individualistic cultures where you strive for independence and self- reliant. There is no hierarchy and the organizations are constructed with flat decision-making. We have the same sight on work, relations and career, and the fact that we have similar organization structure is a great advantage when we are making business with each other.

There are differences as well. The most evident one according to me is the high masculinity index, and the strong uncertainty avoidance in Switzerland. A woman is not seen and treated as we are used to in Sweden. This might cause a problem in a business situation, because there is a big awareness about men and women’s equality in Sweden.

After doing my study, I realized that it is almost impossible to draw conclusions about the differences between two national cultures because they are dynamic and changes all the time. Also when you compare two cultures, you have to generalize on a national level and assume that a whole nation thinks and acts in the same way. It is difficult because it is a fact that people are not handling conflicts and problems in the same way just because they belong to a specific culture. Hofstedes study; Cultural Dimensions was made many years ago and that makes it even more complicated because a lot has happened since then.
I did compare the national cultures, but one has to keep in mind that my conclusions are generalizations and also a sampling of the total of a culture at one certain moment in time.
Therefore, it is important to adapt to the individual and the specific situation you are in.

Anna Quist Örebro university

Posted by Orebro Intercultural Rhetoric Class, Sweden at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Communicating with strangers can to some people be scaring and instead of trying they avoid it. But sometimes you can’t avoid it. When it comes to communicating in business related situations you can’t avoid it. If you are working with an international company, the chance that you are interacting with people from a different culture or country is relative big. The chance that the meeting will go smoothly is also big, but there is a small risk that there will be problem or culture relative difficulties. There are different ways to succeed in such situations and to overcome obstacles that can be in the way of a successful piece of business.

Continue reading "International business communication" »

Posted by Orebro Intercultural Rhetoric Class, Sweden at 05:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the weakest things about mankind is the fact that we get scared when we’re facing something unfamiliar. We systemize and interpret our surroundings, in order to deal with everyday life. This is the reason for us making stereotypes and being prejudice. Every time we meet an individual that doesn’t belong to our own culture we feel some degree of uncertainty and anxiety. In a globalized business world this may even be the reason for big business deals going to waste. William B. Gudykunst has constructed a theory of how to overcome this fear. It’s called Anxiety and Uncertainty Management.

Continue reading "How to manage intercultural meetings in a globalized business world." »

Posted by Orebro Intercultural Rhetoric Class, Sweden at 05:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

- An intercultural analysis regarding sport and marketing
In our modern, developed community sport has become very important, which means that sport has created its own community area with social, cultural and commercial functions. During the twentieth century a strong growth with different sports, whose practician are professional or amateur, takes place. At competitions, for example The Olympic Games or The World Championship, the national identity grows stronger. The grandstands fill with people wearing different, national symbols and national anthems sings diligent. Feelings like; pride, happiness, anger and sorrow gets an outlet in these situations. This points out how strong people can feel about sport and its context. Sport fills people with interest and compassion. A central perspective, for my description, is the significance of physical activity on an individual level. Training is, for a lot o people, an important element for everyday use, which pave the ways for a commercial market.

Continue reading "Who will you choose?" »

Posted by Orebro Intercultural Rhetoric Class, Sweden at 04:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Привет!

Мы студенты из Стэнфордского Университета в США и мы очень рады иметь возможность с вами общаться!

Hello, students from Khavaborsk and Oerebro!

This is Chris, Melissa, and Simon and we’re from Chicago, Los Angeles, and South Korea respectively. We are all sophomores at Stanford University! Chris is an economics major who likes to breakdance on his spare time. Melissa is pre-law and likes to play tennis! (And penguins!!) Simon is a materials science and engineering major and he likes to play soccer.

We would like to share with you a bit about Stanford culture. Stanford is a very liberal college and people feel very free to just talk to strangers on campus. Stanford has a wide-range of student groups, such as fraternities, minority groups, and pre-professional clubs. Because Stanford is a private institution and is smaller than public universities, there is a greater amount of interaction between students in classes and in extracurricular activities. Stanford is also a community devoted to service related activities, and so we have a lot of students interested in volunteer and non-profit groups.

Christophe:
What are the first words you think of when you hear the name “Bill Gates?” For the overwhelming majority, the words “rich,” “wealthy,” and “genius” come to mind. At the same time, philanthropic foundations in the United States are known for being wasteful and ineffective. For my research project I explored the context and strategy of the rhetoric of Bill Gates in regards to his recent work from the Gates Foundation. How does Bill Gates’ use his almost mythical success as an entrepreneur and his newfound identity as “the next Carnegie” to build partnerships in the world of philanthropy and export his vision of using business approaches to philanthropy? In exploring this thesis, I contrasted Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” and Bill Gates’ first “Annual letter from the Foundation.” This gave me real insight into using different styles of speech (high vs. middle) and how to collaborate with people who may have large egos (other billionaires). It also allowed me to partially construct Bill Gates’ personality and his extreme acuteness when dealing with people and building partnerships.

My research ends on an optimistic note, urging private citizens to take note that philanthropic foundations should be accountable to the tax-paying body. This paper has led me to be very interested in the multi-billion dollar industry of private philanthropy, and I have high hopes that Bill Gates can use his ethos to urge many of his fellow foundation heads to take responsibility for their effectiveness, or lack thereof.

Melissa:
First of all, I think one of the most important things I’ve taken away from taking this amazing rhetoric of leadership class is the preparation that goes into giving an effective presentation. Before I didn’t realize that transforming a research paper into a speech/presentation takes a lot of work and creative energy! My research paper discussed changes in feminist rhetoric through time, specifically exploring the rhetoric used by Gloria Steinem and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I found that the reason Stanton’s speeches still remain so powerful today is she uses the basic philosophical idea of individualism that appeals to a universal audience and transcends time. On the contrary, I found that Steinem had generalizations and logical fallacies in her speeches that weakened the power of her rhetoric. Thus, I feel that feminists today should learn by Stanton’s example and promote gender equality by using rhetoric that has a universal appeal and includes men, instead of alienating them.

I would love to hear you thoughts on my research and would be happy to answer any questions you have! =)

Simon:
There is only one nation on earth where you can still see the living examples of the Cold War. Ever since 1950, the Korean peninsula has been in war, and to this day it still remains to be divided.

My research on presidential rhetoric for Korean unification came to a conclusion that the rhetoric despite its long history over half a century has actually not changed ever since the beginning of separation. The ‘one-people, one-nation’ argument has been the impetus for the unification rhetoric, and I found its limitations in different historical cases of presidential rhetoric. Former President Kim Dae-jung, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his efforts of promoting democracy and reconciliation with North Korea, employed rhetoric of democracy and freedom in East Asia, and my conclusion supports his rhetoric with more global and universal basis for the fundamental argument of unification.
At the end, what I realized was that it is no longer an issue only concerning Korea but the whole world. I hope to see the two Korea’s united and come together finally through global communities support and love for peace.

Continue reading "Cross Cultural Leadership Rhetoric- Chris, Mel, Simon" »

Posted by Stanford Global Leadership Class at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (35) | TrackBacks (0)

Salam, muraho!
(that’s hello in Arabic, Kinyarwanda :))

Sarah: I am originally from Jordan and this is my second year at the fabulous Stanford University. My long-term goal in life is to return to Jordan, and using the skills and connections I have made here in the US, help my country go from a developing to a developed nation. Originally, I thought the best way to do this is to become involved with the UN or non-profit work, but last year, I read a book called The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C. K. Prahalad that completely blew me out of the water and made me question all my presumptions. This book argues that the best way to improve a country’s welfare is to start a for-profit and treat the lower class population – or the ‘bottom of the pyramid’, as the book refers to them – as consumers, and not charity cases. By engaging them as discerning consumers, and providing them with the products and services they need, you can greatly improve their standard of living.

Questions for the students in Örebro and Khaborovsk, out there in cyberspace:
What do you think about Prahalad’s proposal? Do you think his business/consumerism model is a better model for development than philanthropic work?
What about ethics? Do you think that it is unethical to make a profit from those in the lower class?

Ingrid: It is really interesting that you post your age in your intro! Where I am from in Rwanda, it’s quite normal to include your age in your intro, just like you guys did, Contrary to here in America, where it is not that common to have age as relevant in a introduction; so talking of intercultural, this is something!
My research topic was analyzing the rhetoric of raising awareness for social justice, specifically the rhetoric that Dr. Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health (a non-profit organization that provides medical services to the poor- see pih.org) uses to raise awareness for social justice. I was interested in this topic because I had a suspicion that raising awareness about social justice has become an end in itself instead of it being a tool to have Social Justice. I found that the reason why raising awareness becomes an end in itself is because the term “raising awareness” is ambiguous; as a leader whose goal is Taking action and creating change, your rhetoric has to always emphasize the start point and the end point- the problem at hand and the transformation that you are working for. A leader has to thoroughly understand the problem he/she is dealing with and the transformation that needs to occur, most of the time, to understand these things means learning from the people concerned with the problem you want to solve; their culture, customs, beliefs, their suffering, their ideas…

Questions:
Is activism for Social Change is something commonly done in Universities in Sweden?

Continue reading "Sending you good vibes from Stanford ;)" »

Posted by Stanford Global Leadership Class at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)