clair031

Dear readers, please accept my apologies for taking so long to publish a new post. I have left the Netherlands towards Brazil on the 18th December 2013 for a very special visit to my beloved family & friends, the Atlantic Ocean, Summertime, colours, flavours, smells and so many undescribable things this amazing land has to offer.  After a very long 52-hour travel by bus, train, airplane and finally car from Recife to Joao Pessoa, the beautiful coastal city in the Northeast region of Brazil where I was born and where my parents, my nieces, most relatives and dozens of friends are based. Coming back to Joao Pessoa - or Brazil, as being in Brazil for me means to be in the paradise-like Northeast region of this country - is always a spiritual journey of self-learning and (re)acknowledging the unique ambiance of Brazil. Cabo Branco Beach, Joao Pessoa/Brazil - my natural habitat Once a famous Brazilian singer, Gilberto Gil, mentioned in one of his tunes a phrase that describes very w...

Summary : The sacred writings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam include fundamental revelations that God (Allah) placed humanity on earth as part of creation.   God’s (Allah’s) creation is for the benefit of humanity, leading to our prospering and growth.   In turn, it is incumbent on humanity to be stewards of God’s (Allah’s) creation so that it can continue to support our prosperity and that of future generations, our progeny. Man-made global warming and its worsening pace threaten the ability of the created world that we inhabit to sustain the diversity of life, including its human population, today and in the future.   Worsening global warming brings more, and more intense, extremes of weather and climate with their attendant harms.   The faithful regard stewardship of God’s (Allah’s) creation as including the imperative to mitigate worsening global warming, and to implement adaptive projects to help minimize its harmful effects. Global warming has been acce...

Today (12th December 2013), Hanze University of Applied Sciences (UAS) hosted another successful event in its facilites at Zernikeplein, Groningen, the Netherlands. "Meet your IC Future" as mentioned in my last post, is an event targeting the 1st year students of Hanze's International & Intercultural Communication undergraduate course which aims to provide some insight about what students can expect upon graduation in what regards their professional life. It is relevant to remark that this was the second time I received the prestigious invitation to be a speaker there. I believe "Meet your IC future" is a very good initiative because it proved once again that students are indeed curious about what they can do in the field of International Communication. When we start a University degree we are full of doubts, uncertainties whether or not we have chosen the right road, what it is really about, if we will be successful in this profession and so on. Evidently, ...

Next Thursday, 12th December 2013, I will be speaking at a very interesting event hosted by Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Groningen, NL) entitled “Meet your IC Future” - IC stands for International Communication. It targets the first and second year students of the International & Intercultural Communication undergraduate course of the respective University. I believe it is a good initiative from the Hanze UAS staff because it gives the opportunity to students to have a clearer idea from the very beggining of the course of what to expect when graduating and the type of jobs that International Communication field has to offer. These advices will be given by young professionals that a few years ago were in the very same situation, full of questions... Hanze UAS, Zernikeplein, Groningen/NL There are a few areas of main concern – or doubts – when someone commences a University Degree. But first of all, what is central is to find out whether or not the course truly reflects what...

The  Department of Cross-Cultural Psychology  of Tilburg University and the  Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR) Nederland  hosted a one-day symposium entitled “ Advancing Intercultural Competence Development: Initiating the dialogue between researchers and practitioners” . The event took place on Wednesday, 16th of October 2013, at Tilburg University, south of the Netherlands. It was a success! This event was part of SIETAR Nederland’s  Elfstedentocht (‘Eleven City Tour’), a tour across the country where eleven major Dutch universities and applied universities involved in cross-cultural research are hosting a meeting for practitioners and scholars connected with intercultural studies. SIETAR Nederland is committed to the development of Intercultural Competence and shares the idea that practitioners and scholars have a lot to learn from each other. The topics discussed in the panels where related to one of the four concentrat...

Monday, 18th November 2013, Groningen - I get a last minute place to attend the International Partners Universities Event (IPUE) at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands. I was extremely interested in attending this event because IPUE would be hosting as Keynote Speaker Sir Professor Geert Hofstede - Knight of the Netherlands Kingdom and one of the most influential management thinkers of the 20th century as ranked by The Wall Street Journal. Hofstede is without a doubt one of the brightest minds in the field of Intercultural Communication ever. Professor Hofstede's speech on his "Cultural Dimensions and respective effects on communication patterns" was - to say the least - very inspirational and clarifying. It is impressive how he deeply understands national cultures in relation to its influence over communication patterns and present it in such a simple way. Hofstede makes possible for us to understand how national cultures may affect communication patterns a...

Much have been said about communication and its relation to culture. Smith (1966) back in the sixties already pointed to the fact that "culture and communication are inseparable", and indeed they are.  However, it is hard to understand why neither the communication scientific community nor communication practitioners in general have given proper attention to intercultural communication theories & frameworks in what refers to its utility in the practice of public relations across borders, which inevitably encounters a multi-cultural environment. Culture permeates all aspects of human life and we are most likely to never perceive it. It is often quoted in cultural studies that "a fish would hardly realise the environment around it - water". The same happens to human beings when staring to its own culture which have a direct impact in the communication patterns used by and with a counter-culture. As Hall (1976) explained in his Iceberg model, most of one’s culture ...