...and exhausting battle in Iraq we have unfortunately entered into conflict with rebels in Afghanistan. All of this fighting and time spent in theater has taught military members many lessons. Maybe the biggest lesson learned is that we need more cultural awareness among all branches of the military. In this paper we will analyze this cultural issue and how it affects the United States military along with the people of that country. We will also identify ethical perspectives in the organization and compare these ethical perspectives across cultures involved in military operations. The purpose of this essay is to identify the cultural issue and try to understand how cultural awareness can help the military as an organization. According to the United States Army, culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs and behaviors that members of a society use to contend with their world and with one another. It is believed by many military leaders that cultural awareness is the key to faster and more accurate decision making. On the belief that future wars will be similar to the last two we must spend more resources on getting to know the culture and the people that soldiers are interacting with everyday. For example, how would you react if you were walking down the street and someone sticks their middle finger up at you? Well for anyone used to American culture this would be derogatory. Now the same situation in a middle eastern country, such as Iraq, would not be the same reaction...
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...long and exhausting battle in Iraq we have unfortunately entered into conflict with rebels in Afghanistan. All of this fighting and time spent in theater has taught military members many lessons. Maybe the biggest lesson learned is that we need more cultural awareness among all branches of the military. In this paper we will analyze this cultural issue and how it affects the United States military along with the people of that country. We will also identify ethical perspectives in the organization and compare these ethical perspectives across cultures involved in military operations. The purpose of this essay is to identify the cultural issue and try to understand how cultural awareness can help the military as an organization. According to the United States Army, culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs and behaviors that members of a society use to contend with their world and with one another. It is believed by many military leaders that cultural awareness is the key to faster and more accurate decision making. On the belief that future wars will be similar to the last two we must spend more resources on getting to know the culture and the people that soldiers are interacting with everyday. For example, how would you react if you were walking down the street and someone sticks their middle finger up at you? Well for anyone used to American culture this would be derogatory. Now the same situation in a middle eastern country, such as Iraq, would not be the same reaction...
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...Cultural Awareness As an Officer in the military one must remain on constant vigil. Vigilant against the enemy, against complacency, and no less important, we must remain vigilant against alienating those we seek to help. Working to rebuild a foreign land, thousands of miles from home away from your family and friends is already a tough job. Alienating the local population can only exacerbate the problems the military already has. Some of the more important areas of cultural understanding for American Soldiers are religion, and ethnicity. There are five basic tenants of the Islamic religion. These five pillars provide the Muslim people a guide for their daily lives. The shahada is the belief in one true god, Allah. Like Christians and Jews, Muslims believe in only one god, and that god is the same for all three religions. The next pillar is the salat, which requires Muslims to pray five times per day. The zakat is the act in which Muslims provide charity to those in need. It is considered a duty and is taken very seriously. The next two pillars may not happen on a daily basis, but are no less important. The sawn is fasting. Muslims will deny themselves food from sunrise to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan. The final pillar is he Hajj. Any Muslim with the means must make the Hajj to the holy city of Mecca at least once during their lifetime. These five pillars provide the guidelines that Muslims must live their lives by. To understand the people in the regions...
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...Military Interpreter - Iraq Effective communication is the key to survival. Iraqi combat interpreters face a slew of life or death decisions that separate the medal and a body bag. Through self-confidence and perseverance, communication distinguishes interpreters from military factions specializing in intelligence gathering. When well-informed by the interpreter .Understanding the tribal structure gives a great deal of leverage to members in command. To execute a particular and effective assignment .making decisions in a nation’s system. Being well-versed in the cultural rules enhances the linguist’s capabilities and networking experience. Without a background in the nation’s culture. Surviving the bureaucratic environment would be impossible....
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...Michael Merrill Composition 5 February Multiculturalism in America Does anyone actually remember, at what age, when they realized that they were culturally different than the next little boy or girl? Did someone actually inform you that you were culturally different or was it learned on its own as you grew up? In the essay “They’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught”, Susan Brady Konig shares her experience about Cultural Diversity Month at her daughter, Sarah’s, preschool. During Cultural Diversity Month, Miss Laura is teaching the little preschoolers about the differences in each one of their cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The kids are being taught where their family came from, what race the kids are, and how it makes them all unique or different. Little preschoolers should probably have some type of knowledge of their background but not at two or three years old. One would agree with Susan Brady Konig that the idea of teaching multiculturalism in schools can cause cultural divides in this country. If it were to be taught in school, it should be taught later in life when students are able to comprehend and process the differences between ethnic cultures. Kids should be taught the alphabet and how to count instead of learning the color of their skin. They should grow up and learn the American culture before learning about their ancestral heritage. If a child wants to know where they came from or what their culture is, let their parents explain to them why their skin is that...
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...The Tourism Industry in Iraq Development. It was prepared by the joint venture partnership of The Louis Berger Group / The Services Group under Contract # 267-C-00-04-00435-00 The Tourism Industry in Iraq IZDIHAR— USAID Contract #267-C-00-04-00435-00 International Economic Consulting April 17, 2006 The Tourism Industry in Iraq DISCLAIMER The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. The IRAQ IZDIHAR project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the joint venture partnership of: THE Louis Berger Group, INC. Engineers Planners Scientists Economists THE SERVICES GROUP The Tourism Industry in Iraq IZDIHAR— USAID Contract #267-C-00-04-00435-00 Table of Contents i TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Executive Summary...........................................................................1 II. Tourism: A Global and Regional Perspective...................................3 A. Profile of the Global Tourism Industry................................................................................3 1. Key Trends in Tourism...........................................................................................3 a. Long haul trips on the rise.........................................................................4 b. Safety and security: a growing concern..........
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...Ethnonationalist movements can be defined through The Clash of Civilizations by Sam Huntington. Huntington describes that the differences between civilizations are simple: history, language, culture, tradition and religion. These are also the root challenges behind ethnonationalist movements. Interactions between people from different civilizations are increasing which builds awareness of others' beliefs and cultural differences. As people define their identity in ethnic and religious terms, they are likely to see an "us" versus "them" relation. Example, the Kashmir conflict. Huntington argues that the conflicts in our world today are no longer due to ideological reasons, but that conflicts are due to cultural differences with religion possibly being the major cause of conflict. Contemporary examples include the war in Yemen, South Sudan, and also the Syria-Iraq...
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...Discussing notions of cultural borderlands in relation to Anzalùa’s own experience within the Mexican American context serves as a first step towards the negotiation of the experience of other ethnic groups interacting with mainstream American culture. Exploring the aesthetics of border narratives in the way Anzaldùa constructs it together with the mechanisms of stereotyping and the politics of ethnic identity representations she opts for urges a new conception of the literary creation situated in-between multiple ideological and symbolic borders. The hybrid construct around which the rhetoric of boder is built becomes dialogic: it witnesses the presence of mainstream culture and marginal- ethnic culture .The latter is endowed by the power...
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...Hegemony, Cultural Hegemony, and The Americanization of Imported Media Kerry Manderbach University of Missouri @ St. Louis COMM 6700 Dr. Alice Hall April 10th, 2012 Abstract Media product from the United States has found its way across the four corners of the Earth beginning early in the last century. Films, television programs, music, and printed materials depicting and reinforcing the American way of life have been the predominant form of mass communication and have in turn influenced people from around the world in political, religious and cultural matters. When this effect becomes pronounced due to American media product dominating the local mass communications industry of another nation, it is called cultural hegemony. However, the same effect is not felt in the importation of international media into the U.S. market. Here, most foreign cultural and political meanings are replaced with “Americanized” thought through audio soundtrack dubbing and other methods. This is most often done for commercial purposes rather than any nefarious plot to keep Americans from learning about other cultures. But the effect ends up the same. Here I present some examples from the past and present… Hegemony is defined in our classroom handouts as, “…a means of convincing the audience to accept the existing power structure” (Hall 2012). Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist, developed the modern concepts of hegemony and its variant, cultural hegemony. Jim Glassman (2012) said, “Gramsci’s...
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...aims intervene the discourse of Islamic religion through accounting for the recent but continuing exploitation of Islamic women, in particular, the religious minority group of Yaziti. Foucoult argues that discourse is ‘often rooted in organisaions which both control and are structured by distinct disciplinary knowledge’ (Frow, 2004) regulating the conduct of others (Hall 1997). Such as groups and members of ISIS, representing the Islamic state of Iraq which are regulated by it’s religious discourse. The discourse itself, formulated and produced objects within subjects of our knowledge (Barker. C and Galaniski, D 2001), such as texts like the Qu’ran, a central religious text of Islam, providing strict principles and ethics, encoding a way of behavior that is practiced globally. Acts such as prayer can be understood as a certain tradition or behavior that is governed by religious belief. Throughout the soundscape, I have shown how customs, like this are often exploited through acts of sex and sexual slavery towards the women of Iraq. Evidently, social order is constituted by discourses of power (Barker, C. & Galasinski, D. 2001), thus I chose to highlight the power of the ISIS and regulation of it’s religious discourse through audio reports of women suffering from rape to connote the authority of the ISIS. Hall argues that nothing has any meaning outside it’s discourse’ (Hall.S 1997, pg 45), evidently the file is sequenced to open on a popular theme song of ‘Allahu Akbar’...
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...fifteen years, the U.S. government has wrestled continuously with how properly to approach the ongoing phenomena of burgeoning regional terrorism and global insurgency. In an effort to cognitively frame the rising power of ethnic and racial groups resident in formerly weak or powerless states that are the main sources of current conflict, it has settled upon characterizing the new operational environment as “complex.”1 To some, this characterization may seem to imply that the socio-political and socio-cultural operational environments in which military forces had to operate previously were not complex; that the operational environments in which such conflicts as the American Civil War, World War I or II, or Vietnam were fought were simpler. Irrespective, the reason the now somewhat voguish term complex may have gained its current ascendancy in the lexicon is that it expiates semantically the frustration strategists and policy makers feel toward pesky conflicts not only in Iraq and Afghanistan waged by resilient adversaries, but emerging conflagrations throughout the Middle East and Africa led by stateless entities such as Al Qaida and the Islamic State that they have not been able to effectively contain. Consequently, policy befuddlement over the seeming intractability of such conflicts and policy failure to deal effectively with them is exculpated by their ‘complexity.’ At this writing, the doctrinal military solutions for dealing with so-called complex environments...
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...Clash of civilizations script What Huntington thinks * in his hypothesis he thinks that today’s world has actually come to a period where the age of ideology or economically has ended. * Instead he says that the primary source of conflict between nations and humankind will be cultural and religious. That nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations ad even groups of different civilizations * Huntington also suggested that the main reason of world politics tend to be conflict between western and non-western civilizations Why civilizations will clash * differences based on history, language, region, religion, tradition and culture are more fundamental and stable that other differences between people. And these fundamental differences are product of centuries so they will not disappear anytime soon * The world is becoming a ‘smaller’ place and as a result interactions across the world are increasing which intensifies ‘civilization consciousness’ and the awareness of differences between civilizations and commonalities within civilizations * Due to economic modernization and social change, people are separated from longstanding local identities. Instead, religion has replaced this gap, which provides a basis for identity and commitment that transcends national boundaries and unites civilizations. * The growth of civilization-consciousness is enhanced...
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...Baghdad city was one of the wonders of the world. ... It is [our] hope that the aspirations of your philosophers and writers shall be realized and that once again the people of Baghdad shall flourish, enjoying their wealth and substance under institutions which are in consonance with their sacred laws and their racial ideals.[1] The government of Iraq, and the future of your country, will soon belong to you. ... We will end a brutal regime ... so that Iraqis can live in security. We will respect your great religious traditions, whose principles of equality and compassion are essential to Iraq's future. We will help you build a peaceful and representative government that protects the rights of all citizens. And then our military forces will leave. Iraq will go forward as a unified, independent, and sovereign nation that has regained a respected place in the world. You are a good and gifted people -- the heirs of a great civilization that contributes to all humanity.[2] Britain's 1917 occupation of Iraq holds worrying parallels with today.[3] After the euphoric 1917 capture of Baghdad and expulsion of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq soon became an ever deepening financial drain and graveyard for Britain. The same situation faces the US and to some degree...
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... encouraged, motivated or demotivated, discouraged and dissuaded the contingent workforce within Blackwater. It will also evaluate the dimensions of the organizational culture, which supported the creation of a strong culture within its contingent workforce operating in Baghdad, Iraq. A foundation and structure composed of solid core values, principals and positive behaviors helped support optimistic perspectives in the organization. According to our text, a contingent workforce is, “part-time, temporary, and contract workers who are available for hire on an as-needed basis” (Robbins, S. P., De Cenzo, D.A. & Soulter, M. 2013). Additionally, elements such as external and internal environment, environmental complexity and environmental uncertainty will also be examined to determine both positive and negative impacts created within the culture of the organization. A decisive mission statement also assists in encouraging optimistic views regarding internal and external environments within the organizational culture. It ensures that all parties involved has a mutual understanding of what is expected from the organization’s mission while running security protection details throughout Iraq....
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...Xinhua News Agency unveiled an ongoing feature entitled “New Silk Road, New Dreams.” The series promises to “dig up the historical and cultural meaning of the Silk Road, and spread awareness of China’s friendly policies towards neighboring countries.” The first article [Chinese] was titled “How Can the World Be Win-Win? China Is Answering the Question.” The Xinhua series promises the clearest look so far at China’s vision for its Silk Road Economic Belt as well as the Maritime Silk Road. One of the most informative pieces released Thursday was a map showing China’s ambitious visions for the “New Silk Road” and “New Maritime Silk Road.” It’s the clearest vision to date of the scope of China’s Silk Road plan. The map shown, the land-based “New Silk Road” begin in Xi’an in central China before stretching west through Lanzhou (Gansu province), Urumqi (Xinjiang), and Khorgas (Xinjiang), which is near the border with Kazakhstan. The Silk Road then runs southwest from Central Asia to northern Iran before swinging west through Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. From Istanbul, the Silk Road crosses the Bosporus Strait and heads northwest through Europe, including Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Germany. Reaching Duisburg in Germany, it swings north to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. From Rotterdam, the path runs south to Venice, Italy — where it meets up with the equally ambitious Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road begins in Quanzhou in Fujian province, and also hit Guangzhou...
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