Right brain/left brain – Red brain/blue brain

This week is a ground breaking one in the history of the UK political process. The country that prides itself on having the mother of parliaments, is finally broadcasting live televised debates between the leaders of the main political parties in the run up the the 2010 general election.

Actually, after the first presidential debate in 1960, there was a hiatus of 16 years until the next debate in 1976. During this time three elections occurred.

When the debates did restart, they never achieved the popularity of that first occasion. The first US Presidential election debate 66 million viewers and that was from a total population of 179 million people.

The contestants candidates will no doubt have a host of body language experts and media guru's grooming them thoroughly. Their every move should act to indicate trustworthiness and approachability, good humor and utmost seriousness, intelligence and the common touch. That's even before they've opened their mouths! It's certainly a difficult balancing act.

You might be wondering if policy is all important at all. Drew Westen, an American professor of psychology, examined the way politicians communicate with their audiences and how we perceive their messages in his book, The Political Brain. His conclusions are many, but one key insight is that it is the emotional part of our brain, rather than the rational part that is key when politics is involved.

One of the most famous examples of this appeal to the rational that is cited by Westen occurred during the presidential debates of 2000. Al Gore made a detailed statement about the differences between Democrat/Republican policy. George W Bush's reply has now passed into political history: “Look, this is a man who has got great numbers, he talks about numbers. I'm beginning to think not only did he invent the Internet, but he invented the calculator. It's fuzzy math. It's the scaring, trying to scare people in the voting booth.” Gore may have been addressing the issue, but Bush's easy bonhomie by-passed the specifics and made a broad emotional appeal.

There's lots of advice for those taking part that's flying around the internet, but let's hope the candidates don't manage to short-circuit our brains with a sweet smile or sad sob story. There is some consolation for the British, the Americans have started calling for a Prime Minister's Question Time-style form of presidential interrogation

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Communication is one of the most pervasive forms of social interaction. In fact, it is deemed to be the most effective form of interaction. Communication is a process in which a speaker relays a message through a channel to a receiver, thus creating an effect and providing an opportunity for feedback in the presence of noise and occurring within a context.

Trenholm and Jensen defined communication as the process whereby humans collectively create and regulate social reality. What people say and do is connected with what others say and do. Therefore, what holds the society together is the ability of its members to act as a coordinated whole, which would be impossible without communication. On the other hand, communication presupposes social interaction. This cyclical process requires at least two people to mutually engage in creating meaning for communication to occur. This start is a kind of communication called interpersonal communication.

White Man's Burden

The movie, Babel, tells its viewers an essential aspect of humankind that has always been ignored, underrated and disregarded: communication.

To relate it in my learnings, it could be recalled that the colonizers coined a term “The White Man’s Burden,” a term referring to the “responsibility” of the Whites to educate the Blacks because of their being backward in lifestyle, ideology, technology and basically the very African Culture. I think that this has always been the problem with the Americans. They think so straightforward and assuming that sometimes they cross beyond the limitations of the other cultures. Boosted with their ego, they think that they are superior more than any other culture or race here on Earth. They think that, there’s always an easy alternative to just get what they want neglecting the sensibility of their recipients. When colonizers invaded Africa, they may had thought that doing such could help Africa in a sense, sadly, it didn’t. It only made the things more complicated for these natives. Poor them. They were trapped in a cobweb that has no assurance or guarantee that these colonizers can bring the harmony in living and in life.

Yummy Hersheys!

Did you know that the famous Hershey's chocolate was actually created by Milton Hershey when he was eighteen?

The revolutionary American chocolate maker Milton Hershey opened his first candy shop in Philadelphia when he was eighteen. And even if he was young and he knew little of his business, still, his lack of experience caused his little ambition to fold more than five years later. It wasn't easy for Hershey. Yes he was able to sustain his candy shop for six years but he felt that his business lacked more. That's why he temporarily halted in his business and worked as an intern for a local caramel manufacturer. In there, he was able to learn that to achieve superior results, the freshest milk was to be used and thus was a lifelong dedication to quality ingredients was born – upon which he would later build his chocolate factory – now the ever famous Hershey Chocolate Company.

Grant Was Granted Greatest Male Star of All Time

Cary Grant was already a performer even before he began his acting career that spread his image across different movie screens around the world. Grant joined a mobile acrobatic troop because he was so desperate to escape the place where he grew up -- an unstable home life and the simple environment of Bristol, England. He became the troop's stilt walker. This position required him much difficult and painful practice before it could be mastered. On the duration when carnival life had taken their toll and when the excitement of going to carnivals of his native England had waned, Cary Grant quit his job for the stage. His starting roles, though relatively small, served to mark the start of what would become a successful career.

Cary Grant was noted as a debonair leading man, virile and handsome, charming and charismatic. He was awarded as the second Greatest Male Star of All Time of American cinema by the American Film Institute, after Humphrey Bogart. He was famous for his classic films like The Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby, The Bishop's Wife and His Girl Friday.

The Internet Culture and The Effect It Brings To People

The Internet culture has not been showing signs of slowing this trend – this fad toward the never ending quest for human communication even to places wherein real human contact is not possible. There are some people who find comfort when they are with their computers – online. Even if face-to-face interaction is not achieved, they still can seek friendship in cyberspace. Virtual friends gather at imaginary meeting places. In these cyber spaces, they interact with and among each other, they open topics for debates, they open themselves to the virtual public. It is no doubt, therefore, that relationships of all kinds are establish because of the Internet. But, the very fact that this form of communication emanates from distant participants, there is a real impact on this.

Because the interaction is no longer face-to-face, there is already lesser social accountability demanded of one who says something rude in an online chat room than of one who offends someone on face-to-face social gatherings. If one person says something awful online, the act would seem nearly free of consequences. The offender need no subjection to emotional discomfort that could possibly arise when the same situation occurs, only face-to-face.

More Digital on traffic

Eventually, anyone and everyone who runs a blog of their own face two issues. Firstly, how to get people to read the blog, and drive traffic. This is difficult, and can sometimes feel like something of an uphill struggle. The second challenge is how to turn the blog you spend hours on each day/week/month into a money-making website, taking the step from casual autobiography and commentary to an actual business.

So how does one solve these two problems? There are a thousand different blogs that cover similar issues, news, thoughts and opinions, and years into web 2.0, everything that could exist, usually does exist. Loads of blogging experts, from the 'Huffington Post Guide to Blogging' to Problogger.com, say the key is simply to find a subject and stick to it.

But sometimes it's just not that simple. Of course, there's a shed-load of advice on the internet – in fact, a blogger on the MoreDigital team recently spoke about traffic and using tags to generate more of it, and it's posts like these that construct a more realistic approach to making money out of a website. If you're willing to put the time in on the SEO side of things, it's going to be a far shorter haul out of the dungeons of internet obscurity and into the top pages on Digg and Reddit.

There's a ton of ways to start raking in hits and correlating that with cash generated as a result, from text adverts to Google AdSense, which proves there are methods out there that aren't out to scam the visitors to your site. So if I was to write a post about the new Xbox 360 (to pick a current topic out of thin air) and send it to every aggregate site and use fifty different relevant tags, the hits would indeed start flooding in. However, if I then choreographed it with a few relevant adverts and text ad links, I reckon I could make a decent amount of money.

The main challenge is finding a way to do that for many different posts on a daily basis. It's not an easy task constantly creating engaging and well-researched, in-depth content that's light enough for a wide-ranging readership demographic, whilst maintaining enough detail to obtain a cult popularity and social standing within the journalistic community for that particular industry.

So now all that's left is to start working up a plan, and in the mean time, use the advice of the Moredigital.com blogging crew alongside other sources, and begin to work up my web presence. World domination and financial super-success await me! To the keyboard! Oh, wait...

Albanians' Ways of Negotiating

Albanians dress well in business gatherings. Businessmen dress well with their coats and ties. Shoes are always shined and free of dust. Dress suits are common for women. They also prefer wearing skirts or pants and tops. Women have their hair and make up done. Albanians like to be addressed with their titles like attorneys, doctors, engineers, economists.

In meetings, Albanians are not fond of giving introductions. So if you are a foreigner and found yourself not introduced yet, then it is very much fine that you introduce yourself automatically to the crowd. Also, if, say, a mayor or a CEO, passes you, you must stand because this basically means respect for them and that you acknowledge their power.

In negotiations, decisions are not promptly made. Decision-making may take awhile so patience is needed here. It is best to maintain proper composure all even after the meeting. Showing gestures of frustration or anger are to be avoided.

Albanian Practices

Albanians love to spend their extra time in cafes. They do this in a daily basis. Leisure time is usually spent talking to families, friends, colleagues. When they reach home, they chat with their neighbors as well. Albanians are not so particular with time in both social and business meetings.

Albanians are still conventional. Women stay at home and take care of the household chores while men are the breadwinners of the family (although there are those women who now go to work and seek the professional life). Women are expected to serve their husbands, their sons and their house guests. Men are generally possessive to their wives. For Albanians, a man and a woman hanging out together is a big deal. A single man and a single woman seen hanging around together in public can be assumed engaged. Arranged marriages are still common for Albanians although there is freedom for young men and women in choosing who they want to settle down.

The Basics of Albanians

Albania is located in the continent of Europe. The major ethnic groups of Albania include Albanian (consisting 95 per cent of the total population), Greek, Gypsy, Serb, Bulgarian and Macedonian.

Let us learn the basics of the country. Handshaking and kissing are two common greeting gestures for Albanian men and women. In terms of their style in communicating, Albanians can be regarded as very straightforward on some cases but may be indirect too in sensitive issues. Say for example, when you appear to be thinner or chubbier from the last time you met, they will tell you explicitly. But when issues are deeper, they will skirt around, instead. Albanians value their families so much that it is normal for them that they project a positive image about their families regardless of their current state. If they have any experience that seems to be bad and shameful, they tend to forget this and never talk about this even to close friends.

China's Rice Culture

For a thousand of years, rice has sculpted much of Chinese culture. The Chinese have been industriously nurturing their land. Blood and sweat and tears have been invested by these diligent people in their aim to get good harvests. With their dedication and hard work in agriculture, China has now achieved several accounts for its stable rural essence.

In countless folktales, rice is enjoyed by gods and mortals alike, and it is considered by many to be the only grain that can link the heavens with the earth. Such beliefs have inspired numerous festivals, rituals and traditions. Many of which are nearly requisite occurrences wherever rice crops are planted. The green, terraced patties that cultivate this grain often hold both cultural and spiritual significance, even among those for whom rice is an everyday sight and source of living. And although effectiveness is not scientifically proven, rice is believed by some to have powerful medicinal properties.

When Giving Presents To Afghans

In giving gifts. There are certain guidelines that you have to know if in any case you plan to give a present to your Afghan friend.

Number one thing that you should put in your head when giving gifts to Afghans is to not give alcoholic drinks. However if you have the knowledge that that person whom you are giving gift drinks alcohol, then you can give him given that you will hide it from the public so to avoid shame. Be subtle enough in giving it. You should not give it directly to the person but rather present it discreetly by placing it near the door of the house or leave it to where you are sitting down. Afghans will assume automatically that there is a present for them if they see something that is left behind. So make sure not to leave any “unintended gifts” in their place as they will treat them as presents for them.

Dining In An Afghan House

Dining. For Afghans, dining is an experience. Dining is a form of interaction that bonds people together. Here are some tips if you are invited to eat in an Afghan house:

If you are invited to go to an Afghan house, make sure to remove your shoes and leave it at the door. When eating, do not be shocked if you sit on the floor or in cushions. It is normal for Afghans to eat while they are squatting on the floor. Your food will be served on plastic tablecloths that are spread on the floor. The owner of the house usually tells you where you will sit. If you can sit with two legs crossed, then do so. If you cannot then sit as comfortably as you can but never sit with your legs stretched and your feet facing the people. Food is served in communal and everyone will share out of what is served. If house owners do not serve spoon and fork, then it is already understood that you should eat with your bare hands. Also, you should not eat with your left hand. When you are full and done eating, leave a small portion of food in your plate, otherwise food will be served to you continually.

Mixing Between Afghan Men And Women

Like most cultures, the gesture of handshaking is the most common form of greeting for Afghans. However, women and men do not shake their hands. They only speak directly to one another. Another form of respect is the putting of their hands over their hearts and nodding slightly to the person they're talking. Afghans usually have lengthy conversations. In a meeting, people involved ask each other about family, health, education or business.

Between Genders. Mixing between genders is a sensitive thing for Afghans. Free mixing between genders is only happening within families. In the workplace, men and women could be colleagues but are still particular in maintaining each other's honor and pride. Men cannot directly talk to women in the streets as this will mean dishonor to women. Women should not look straight to men's eyes. Women should keep their eyes lowered when walking in the streets to maintain their dignity. Women should also dress appropriately to avoid uninvited attention. They should make sure that pants worn are loose fitting so that women's thighs shouldn't be visible.

Afghan Families Are Sacred

Afghanistan is a big country. It's population has reached to thirty million by July 2005. The country's population is not limited to Afghans only. It has opened to tourists and guests all over the world. As a result of this, there is a wide variety of races and tribes that are living in the country.

For people in Afghanistan, the family is the most important unit. Men and women are particular with social responsibility as they are enclosed to practice the traditional setup. Women take care of the household responsibilities. Men, on the other hand, are breadwinners. Families still practice arranged marriages based on status, connection, tribe, wealth and social displacement. Families live in kala. Kala is a walled compound where families live. Even after marriage, sons are required to live with his wife in a particular room under the same roof. For Afghans, families are sacred thus should be given utmost premium by everyone – even foreigners.

Afghans Way of Living

Afghanistan is located Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, and east of Iran. Kabul is the capital city of Afghanistan. Afghanistan has arid to semi-arid climate, cold winters and hot summers.

The official languages of Afghanistan aer Pashtu and Dari. An estimated thirty-five per cent of the Afghan speaks Pashtu while half of the whole population speaks Dari. Aside from these two, languages such as Uzbek, Turkmen, Baluchi, Nuristani and Pashai are also spoken. Bilingualism is also common in Afghanistan.

The belief system that is practiced by more than half of Afghanis is Islam. This is reflected in the personal, social, political, legal and economic lives of the believers of the religion. For Afghan Muslims, it is their obligation to pray at least five times a day. Friday is their holy day. During this day, shops are closed to dedicate time for worship. Instead of the conventional Saturday and Sunday weekend, Afghans have it on Thursdays and Fridays.

Thai Etiquette

Interesting Thai etiquette should be taken into account before you decide to visit the place. This may not be important to you, but all these are perceived by Thais as their forms of respect and pride. So since Thailand is not your territory, better brace yourself.

Thais treat a man's head as the highest part of the body. If you accidentally touch someone's head, you are required to ask for immediate apology. Kissing in public areas like the streets or sidewalks is an act of rudeness. Even if Thais have liberal understanding on sexuality, they maintain a strong sense of decorum. Thais have high regards to their kings. Thus, any show of disrespect to their kings is a major faux pas. Anything that displays the king's image should be treated sacred. These include their currency, magazine covers, postage stamps and newspapers. You should not toss these to the ground nor treat them harshly. Licking the back of postage stamps is a no no. Money dropped by accident should immediately be picked up for brushing. Most importantly, these items should never be trod upon as it is like you are putting your foot above the head of the monarch.

Education And Economic Status Of Thailand

Education in Thailand has been given its highest premium by its government. It has achieved its greatest progress throughout the years since 2001. Thailand's government has always been proud of the turnout computer literacy rates among pupils and students all throughout the country. Moreover, there has already been a widespread use of the English language in schools and universities.

Thailand, after enjoying its recognition as the world's highest economic growth rate from 1985 to 1996, has been considered a newly industrialized country. Thailand's economy continues to boost because of strong exports. The country's exports has reached to an increasing value of over $105 billion worth of products and services annually. Exports vary, but are not limited to, rice, agricultural products, rubber, jewelry, textiles and footwear, automobiles, computers and electrical appliances.

Language Games Of Thais

Thais are courteous people. This is what my friend has been telling me because he has basically traveled to Thailand from time to time. I have proven true when I went there last week for a visit. Not only they are warm in welcoming you, they are also very polite and tact in treating you. These are both expressed in their verbal and non-verbal languages.

Thais are very particular with their social identity as deemed by age or wealth. They initiate a gesture called wai. This is done by gracefully bringing together the hands to the chest or beneath the nose to show great respect and submission. Thais call their older siblings as pii. Thai words are added to the end of every sentence especially when talking to strangers, elders, or colleagues. Kha is added to sentences when you're talking to a female. You add the word khrup when talking to a male.

Thais Are Proud People

Thais are very proud people. Like any other Asian country, Thais have a rich history, well-established hierarchical structure of status. Thais are said to be one the races in the world who enjoy high level of literacy. Thailand has put its premium to improving its educational system. The country has a well-organized structure of school system of pre-school, primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Both the public and private sectors promote quality education enabling them to contribute greatly to the country's overall development. The government even supports free education providing it until Grade 12.

Because the country has never been colonized, they shout it out loud to the world that their educational system is not based on European models. It improvises its own model that is both essential and beneficial to Thai students. The country has updated curricula that are reliable and coherent. These enable the students to learn to adjust rapidly and appropriately to the signs and times.