We care, do you?

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In this issue we talk about:

Content

Global challenges...................................................................................................................................3

22 000 children die each day due to poverty.........................................................................................3

What is terrorism?..................................................................................................................................4

Hunger; a major global challenge even today........................................................................................4

What happened to pollution?................................................................................................................5

The drought crisis on the horn of Africa.................................................................................................6

Varieties of English.................................................................................................................................8

Indian English.........................................................................................................................................8

African English........................................................................................................................................8

Singapore English...................................................................................................................................9

Reflect on how cultural differences and dissimilar value systems can affect communication.............10

Language and economics.....................................................................................................................10

Customs and traditions........................................................................................................................10

Politics..................................................................................................................................................11

Pre-judgment.......................................................................................................................................11

Food and manners................................................................................................................................11

Consequences......................................................................................................................................12

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Global challenges

We face a lot of global challenges every day; terrorism, hunger, poverty, pollution and illness. Lately, pollution and terrorism are the topics we read most about in the papers and watch on the news. What can we do to save the environment? How do we continue living as well as we do today, without causing more natural disasters? How do we protects ourselves from terror, and why was the terror victims chosen? These are questions asked all over the world after 22. July, and the memorial of 9/11.

22 000 children die each day due to poverty

Most of humanity lives on just a few dollars a day. Whether you live in the wealthiest nations in the world or the poorest, you will see high levels of inequality. According to UNICEF, 22 000 children die each day due to poverty. Statistics show that around 27 - 28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted.

Today, about 1.7 billion people are estimated to live in absolute poverty.

Poverty is mainly a lack of useful items such as clothes and belongings, as well as food. If you don't own a home of any kind, you are also stated as homeless and poor.

What is terrorism?

Terrorism is violent acts

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which are intended to create fear and panic.

Religion and conflicts are the main reasons for Terror attacks. 

Recently we had a terror attack in Norway. July 22, Anders Behring Breivik bombed the capital of Norway, aming at the ministry. He also want to Utøya, a political summer camp,  where he killed a lot of innocent kids and teenagers. 

Hunger; a major global challenge even today

Hunger has always been one of the major challenges in our modern-day world.

Starvation is a severe reduction in Vitamin and Energy intake. If it is going on for too long the damages can be severe; permanent organ damage. Six million children die of hunger every year. Children of poor families in other countries often suffers starvation. Their stomach becomes bloated and the rest of the body is skinny as bone. Due to lack of food they get nutrition from what they find, including waste, such as garbage. The gasses the garbage contains releases in their stomach causing it to blow up.

What happened to pollution?  

Pollution has been big in the media the last couple of years. Politicians

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have used the environment as their main focus on how to change the world for the better. Industries try to change their products to more environmentally friendly, and change their image to sell better. 

Pollution comes from CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. Pollution can also take form as a Chemical substance.   

The health hazards associated with exposure to chromium are dependent on its oxidation state. Chromium can be divided in different scales from -2 up to +6 depending on the oxidation state to scale the toxic level. The hexavalent form is toxic. Chromium is found naturally in the earth, plants and animals (including humans), but not in its element form. Most commonly it exists as chromium 3 (found in vegetables and meat). Chromium 6 is found in industry, and if inhaled by humans, a variety of highly deadly diseases can infect the body:

Throat cancer

Respiratory problems

Liver and kidney problems

Skin rashes

Upset stomachs and ulcers

Weakened immune system

Alteration of genetic material

Death

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The drought crisis on the horn of AfricaMillions of people are starving because of the drought crisis on the horn of Africa. During the last past years there have been limited precipitation, and even total absence of rain. This has forced thousands of persons, and even whole communities, on the run. In addition to the drought, the horn of Africa is an apprehensive area. The Africans run from drought to war.

The drought on the horn of Africa is the worst in over several decades. UN has declared starvation in two southern parts of Somalia, which is the country that suffers the most. Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti and Eritrea are also affected by the crisis. Professionals claim that the condition will only become worse. The animals have started to die, leaving the people in the drought area with no hope what so ever. The conflict in Somalia complicates the situation further, as the help have difficulties reaching out to the most critical regions in Somalia. It is not only humans’ lives that are in danger and need help, as the animals die the nomad tradition risk to extinguish. Many organizations are involved, and are trying to help, but the situation is complicated.

A lot of people are doing what they can to help the country and those who are suffering. The drought has gotten a great international response, and

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many countries want to help by sending money. A funding status as of September 6th 2011 shows that the countries in the drought areas has committed 1539 million US$ from countries wanting to help. Different organizations come to the county to give medical help to the kids and the other suffering people who needs help.

They need food, clean water and any kind of help they could get, and this as soon as possible. Kevin Cleaver from The International found of agricultural development means that it should be invested more money in the agricultural research to develop crops and food for the animal that can bear tough drought periods as this.

The drought in Eastern Africa is steadily increasing and getting worse every day. The International community is has not managed to send relief supplies as soon as hoped. And many did not even take the situation seriously until the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon declared the drought a famine, the first one in 25 years, not since 1986 in Ethiopia where over 1 million people died of mal- nourishment. The UN hopes richer countries will take up the challenge and increase their aid. He wants the agencies of the UN to help as soon as possible to prevent the crisis from deepening.  It is embarrassing for the affected developing countries because they can’t do much to help. It is chaos in the major cities and prices are souring. The US will not give much aid because terrorist groups taking advantage of the famine are taxing international aid. The only hope East Africa has now is increased aid and the ever increasing chance of rain.

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Varieties of English

Indian English India is a former British colony, which probably is the reason why they give such an importance to English. Even though Hindu is the official language in India, English is the most written and read, and the most important language, especially in legal, financial, educational and business context. To be able to speak English, symbolizes better education, better culture and higher intellect. For example, schools and universities that emphasize English are considered better than Indian. English is used when Indians with different languages communicate, and a lot of Indians use both English and Indian in conversations. It might be hard for foreign people to understand Indian English, because they use words that are derived from Hindi and the pronunciations are different.

African English There are a lot of different types of English. For example in Africa there is a big variation of the English language. Cameroon English, Liberian English, Nigerian Standard English and Malawian English are some of the different types we can find in Africa. English has been a highly influent and influenced language. As much as 45 % of the southern Africans speaks or have a speaking knowledge of English. Only 10 % of the population seems to have English as their home language. English was introduced in the beginning of the 16th century by explorers and traders that traveled to Africa. They introduced the vocabulary and from that time on, the English language were more and more used by the Africans. In Africa there are about 12 different main languages. Some are Zulu, Xhosa, Southern Sotho, Tswana, Northern Sotho and of course English and African.

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Singapore English There are two forms of English in Singapore, there is standard Singapore English and Singapore colloquial English also called Singlish. In Singapore there live people from all over the world, therefore the language is affected by accents from all over. An example is that about one third of the Singaporean Chinese population in Singapore speaks English as mother tongue, but nearly fifty present speaks Mandarin. Therefore the English in Singapore is affected by different languages, and the accent varies from person to person. Singapore was a British colony from 1819 to 1965, therefore the standard form of English in Singapore is British. The grammar and spelling is almost the same in Singapore as in England. It is the most well educated Singaporeans who speak the standard form of English.

The other form of English in Singapore is Singlish, it is seen as low prestige to speak Singlish in Singapore. The language is influenced by Mandarin, Malay and Hokkien. Therefore they speak English, however they have putted in some non-English words instead of speaking fluent British English.

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Reflect on how cultural differences and dissimilar value systems can affect communication

Group: Alba, Andrea, Thomas and Nora

We are going to reflect on how cultural differences and dissimilar value systems can affect communication.

Language and economicsLanguage is an important factor when it comes to cultural differences and how it can affect communication. It is hard to communicate with people who don not speak the same language as yourself. It is even more difficult if the person neither can talk English nor can speak a language they both understand. This can lead to communication problems if you don not understand a word of what the other person is saying. You then have to use other ways to communicate, for example make a drawing or use your body language. 

Economics can affect communication in many ways. Some people may feel like they are better than other because they have a better economy, or in some religions, are in a higher caste. Some people may believe that people, who have a lot of money, act superior to others because they think they are better than the people who are poorer. A reason for this may be that “the rich” have more effect on the community and generally contributes more.

Customs and traditionsDifferent customs and traditions between countries or continents can be hard to respect and understand and therefore affect the communication (in the world). Some countries have different customs they follow, which another nation might perceive as disrespectful or rude, while the origin of the custom was actually kind-hearted. Communication on global levels can be demanding and difficult due to the misunderstandings that can easily arise during the communication based on different communicative skills and traditions. 

Non-verbal communication makes up an amount of 70% of the communication that persons do. Just by seeing how another's body reacts while communicating with him/her/they can indicate how they really

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perceives your point and whether they agrees it or not. Due to this, non-verbal communication can affect how people communicate and on which level of pleasantness and respect they accept other meanings and points of view.

PoliticsPolitic in different culture or countries can affect the communication between governments in different countries in a negative way. The reason for this might be how someone in one part of the world, thinks the way another country is governed, is wrong. It may also be caused by disagreement in other matters, or a corrupt or dictatorial government in a country might refuse to cooperate with other countries. All these reasons might again cause the country to refuse to cooperate in international matters. And a lack of communication between countries is a matter that can leave them vulnerable to war, in comparison to other countries that are a part of an organization like NATO and FN. But politics don’t have to affect the communication in a negative way. It can also be something people across the world can discuss and share their thoughts about

Pre-judgmentWhen you gather with a different kind of people, it might be easy to judge them by the way they look, their language or the way they choose to dress. This might give you a negative impression of the people you are about to meet; you paint a picture of what you think the group or inhabitants will be like in your mind, when they in fact might be completely different. People might surprise you, so we should all keep an open mind and try not to “judge the book by its cover”.

Food and mannersIn different cultures they eat different kinds of food, and we all have dissimilar ways of how to behave polite while sitting at the dinner table. For example, in China, they find it courteous to burp when they have finished their meal, something that might be experienced as rude and bad mannered in other cultures and countries. All cultures have variations in courtesies and what is found impolite or not appropriate.

ConsequencesIt is common that differences and dissimilar value systems can lead to conflicts between countries, cultures or religions, but in more serious cases, it might also lead to something as severe as

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a war.

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