The Global Voice

We all make assumptions. About people, about places, about countries and cultures. These assumptions can be based upon our past experiences, the experiences of those who influence us or on a piece of information that may or may not have been learned in context.  What we need to be careful about is that we watch the assumptions we make about other people and other cultures. We need to check our assumptions for accuracy.

This short 5 minute film say it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76BboyrEl48

Kari

This movie on You Tube came to me from a friend in Greece. It has English subtitles for the international market. It is a great short reminder for us all. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNK6h1dfy2o

I was in Dublin, Ireland on a business trip to work with my Irish team when the election happened.  This was my fourth trip to Dublin this year and it has been fascinating to see the American election through an Irish perspective. I arrived in Dublin on Election Day morning and there was an air of anticipation hanging in the air.

Tuesday night I caught a couple of hours of sleep and then watched the first returns starting at 1 am  to see if history would be made. Watching the BBC I got to see the elections through a British perspective. With several black BBC reporters filing reports from the US,  I realized at one point that I was seeing more black reporters covering the story from a British perspective than I had seen from an American perspective. One of the reporters interviewed an 85 year old woman who was crying about voting and what it would mean to her to have Obama as the next US President. She said that her grandmother had been a slave. When she came out they asked her to describe what it felt like and she had no words. The camera stayed on her as she walked brightly down the street and into the future of a changed America. That report was commented on numerous times on the following day by people who said they continued to realize the historic significance of the vote for Americans.  People also commented on the outpouring of emotion that was shown by many people as they celebrated the results of the election.

On Wednesday I attended a Cultural Diversity conference. There were many, many people who had been up until 2 or 3 in the morning watching the results and there was a buzz in the room about the results and the significance to the world.  The opening speaker commented that it was appropriate that we would be discussing this topic given the results of the American election.

Anyone who heard my accent immediately asked me what I thought about the results (the first question was always neutral not knowing how I would have voted) and I became an immediate interpreter of the American political system and topics like why we have the electoral college. The taxi driver that morning (who had been up late watching the results) was pleased to have an American who could explain the electoral college and why if the Democrats already had a majority in the Senate they cared about having 60 seats as he had been trying to figure it out over breakfast that morning with his wife.

Given the topic of the conference it was not surprising that people would be interested in knowing how having a black President would impact America in terms of the conversation around diversity. Many people have watched us over the past 50 years and have used our efforts to gain equality for all as an example. When the topic turned to racial equality and what this election represented I often shared the short poem I heard on NPR which was: “Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama is running so that our children could fly.” (unknown).  It moved people in Ireland just as it had done people in the US. There were many comments on how people and children here are inspired by what has happened in the USA.

People also spoke about how the US President is important not just in terms of global security and economic issues but also in setting the tone for so many other topics as well. America does have a huge impact around the world and it is in both large and small ways. In a conversation I had with a colleague she shared how an immigrant from Nigeria, now living in Ireland, had used Rosa Parks as an example as to why something was important to him as a black man. While we may realize more clearly the impact of how our economic policies are felt around the world, I don’t think we often contemplate the impact of other cultural issues such as the civil rights movement.

I have been struck this entire year on how up to date people are in Ireland about America and our political system. Since my trip in January people have peppered me with questions about the candidates, their strengths and weaknesses and who I thought would win the primaries and then as the race narrowed, the qualities of each Presidential candidate. There was been an intense interest and the questions have thoughtful and well informed, at times much more so than with people I have spoken with at home.

While I was sorry to miss the excitement and energy that was felt on election night in the US, it was  fascinating to feel the excitement of people in Ireland about our new President. They, like many of us, realize that he has a steep climb in front of him and that the expectations of him are huge.  In the papers on Thursday headlines ranged from “History is Made” to “Concerns over Assassination” depending upon the type of paper that it was.

There are concerns in Europe about how Obama will succeed and there are hopes that he will. In the midst of the speculation on how he would proceed, I saw a quote from the French paper Liberation. “For now, just for one hour, one day, we will not be prudent or skeptical. Let the world take this moment to rejoice in the promise of hope. Try to believe that for the first time in a long time, the New World deserves its name.”
The French words are echoed in Ireland. Like us, the Irish are concerned about the future.  They express hope for America and our chance to rebuild our connections and our goodwill in the world. There are such strong ties between Ireland and the US that our futures are inextricably entwined. As I travel back and forth in the coming year, I shall continue to observe their perspectives as we move forward.

For those of us working in the field of diversity or who care about the topic this is a time of great excitement and opportunity. May we all bring our efforts to bear to help us move forward.

This a historic election for America. For African Americans the significance of this election has been summarized as:

Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama is running so our children can fly. -Unknown as heard on NPR

From The Week:

“Culture shapes our perceptions so fundamentally that it could even determine how we look at each other’s faces, says Wired.com. Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK studied how Europeans and Asians moved their eyes when they looked at portraits, and they discovered stark differences. Asians focused their gaze at the center of faces, while Westerners looked first to the eyes, then to the mouth. Researchers say the differences reflect different attitudes toward individualism and society. Western culture is more individualistic; the approach to facial recognition is piece by piece and more intimate. Eastern societies tend to be more collectivist, and facial recognition proceeds in a more holistic manner. It’s a matter of debate whether the different styles of facial recognition are a product of the different culture or a factor in shaping them. “It’s the chicken-and-egg problem” says Roberto Caldara. “We’re testing children to see whether these effects arise early.”

About to embark on a series of Diversity training sessions recently, I invited the HR representative of the organization I was conducting the training for to feel free to join in. Much to my surprise, the representative responded with a point blank refusal. She much preferred conducting sessions herself and certainly had no intention of participating in any of the sessions. They were far too personal for her liking she said, and not something she would feel comfortable engaging in. If there is one thing I have noticed that seperates HR personnel from the non-management level employees, it is the lack of person-to-person contact. Again and again the participants to training sessions remark that the Human Resources staff seem removed from that which concerns the rest of the workforce and that they would like to see their HR being more in touch with their ‘clients’. By participating in the training this HR representative could have a) built a personal connection with some of the other employees (her ‘clients’) of the institution and b) been able to relate to the issues that concern them and thereby address those issues more effectively as and when they arise.

I had an interesting encounter at a Pakistani-owned ‘Indian Store’. The ‘Indian Store’ is called such by those of us who frequent it because it sells the spices, lentils, vegetables, grains etc. that are used in Indian cooking. There aren’t that many Indian stores in and around Boston. And as the opening sentence reveals, they are often owned either by Pakistani, Indian, Nepali or Bangladeshi immigrants. My family tends to go to whatever is closest to home, however we have our favorite in the Greater Boston area, and it is one owned by our subcontinental neighbour Fahad-Bhai who is Pakistani (name has been changed for reasons of privacy). ‘Bhai’ by the way, means ‘brother’ in Hindi (and other Indian languages). Persons who are considered close or friends are addressed in a respectful manner by using Bhai for brother and Didi or Behn for sister. Walking into an Indian store is like going home. You smell the aroma of your mother’s kitchen, you see the produce you are familiar with, and the bustle of homesick people like yourself is comforting to say the least. We went looking for unripe, green mangoes. We use these to make mango pickle, something that is eaten as a relish along with the meal. We found the mangoes and a lot more besides. We use these out-of-our-way trips to stock up on all the needs an Indian kitchen might possibly have. As I am a vegetarian, my purchases are directed in that direction. My non-vegetarian husband uses our visit to Fahad-Bhai’s store to satisfy his kabab-cravings. We were all set with our shopping when I remembered the Glucose tea-biscuits. These are tea-biscuits made only in India and I have always loved having them with my tea. Tea, as you might know, is not a simple affair of hot water, tea and a mug. Tea in India consists of much more than that. It involves tea-biscuits, savory snacks if possible, and dried fruit and nuts when available. I rushed to pick-up a big packet of Glucose biscuits and handed it to my husband, already in the process of paying for our groceries. Fahad-Bhai took the packet and turning to my husband told him that these tea-biscuits were not ‘halal’. Halal in Urdu (a language spoken both in Pakistan and India) is the equivalent of Kosher for Jewish people. We both looked puzzled back at Fahad-Bhai who explained to my husband that these biscuits are made with animal fat. This would not have been an issue for either him or my husband, both non-vegetarians. However, Fahad-Bhai, recognizing that I was a vegetarian, advised my husband that the store-saver packet of biscuits I was buying was not ‘halal’ or kosher for a vegetarian to have. Here happened a curious confluence of cultural occurrences. 1-Fahad-Bhai addressed my husband, not me. Being a Muslim, it was appropriate for him to speak to my husband rather than directly to me. 2- He used the Muslim word ‘Halal’, close in meaning to the English ‘permissable’, to indicate something that a Hindu vegetarian can (or cannot) eat. 3- Being a Pakistani- Muslimi, he advised an Indian-Hindu on what was permissable for the Hindu to eat. I was of course hugely thankful for Fahad-Bhai for this information. The biscuits were returned to the shelf and our household is still conducting investigations on what exactly they are made of. However, I was thrilled to bits with what I had experienced and happy to know that borders and religions can be very porous indeed.

Every now and then I am given the chance to see exactly how international the US is. I attended a global conference in Boston recently and on the last evening met a man named Isaac who had come from Ghana to attend the conference. He solicited my assistance as he wanted to buy a car and have it shipped home to Ghana. The next day found me in the local car dealership with a Russian salesman who offered up a car, but it wasn’t exactly what Isaac wanted. Then we were off to test drive a car at a used car dealership owned by a man from China and staffed with a Mexican crew. My local Lebanese mechanics checked out the car to see if it was a good buy.

Over the course of that weekend Isaac met a pastor from Uganda in the lobby of his hotel. He offered to help and introduced Isaac to a pastor from Ghana who lives in a city about 60 miles west of Boston. Isaac did eventually get his car and at the moment it is on a ship headed to Africa. Every morning Isaac would call to give me an update and I would advise as best I could on topics as diverse as foods to bring back home and house-hold appliances that would fit in the trunk of his car. Eventually he purchased a washer and drier set which were squeezed into the car for the trip back home.

It was a fascinating few days as we tested cars, shared cultures and swapped stories about the world driving around Boston. And, I was reminded again of what makes this country so great. People come from all over the world and end up helping a man from Africa purchase a Japanese car and send it back home. Can you get more global than that?

I recently spoke at a conference for professional women. It was a small affair but the topics were timely and pertinent to women wishing to further develop their careers. I am always interested in learning new ideas and I enjoy speaking at conferences, sharing my thoughts and learning what is on other people’s minds.

I was struck however by the luncheon program which was a women’s wellness seminar. While I applaud the idea of promoting better wellness for women, I do not think that a professional seminar for women is the place for us to buy jewelry, examine breast molds and learn how to do a self exam or to purchase intimate toys. A men-only professional skills conference for example, wouldn’t have tables set up to sell DIY-tools or information on cancer screenings. I would have liked to see tables that sold professional development books instead, or coaches who provided tips on improving communication or a company that helps people to become better organized.

I don’t feel that women need to behave just like men to get ahead. But I do feel that a line needs to be drawn between professional seminars and a health expo. If we are to help each other be successful in the business world, then we need to keep in mind what we are expecting from ourselves and leave the personal toys for a different location.

CCI is expanding into Ireland and so I have been traveling back and forth regularly. It has been fascinating to see how another country is undertaking the diversity journey. Ireland is now more diverse demographically than the US. Almost all of this has come in the past 10 years and so the rate of change has been staggering. At the moment, many immigrants are coming from Eastern Europe with the expansion of the EU. Ireland now has a huge Polish population. I was traveling in the northern most country of Ireland (Donegal) and I was following directions to a remote B&B where I was staying. I am five miles out of town, on a small one track “road” that has grass growing in the middle of it. I come around the corner and see a car stuck in the ditch – apparently the owner had pulled over too far while attempting to let a van pass. When I asked one of the men from the van if I could help he just smiled at me. The second man poked his head from around the back and said “He just arrived here from Poland, he doesn’t speak English yet.” A few minutes later I discovered that the owners of my B&B were a German couple who had arrived about 8 years ago and I would continue throughout my time in this remote section of Ireland to hear foreign accents and to hear languages other than English and Irish spoken. Kari