3430 Laughing

Thanks to everyone!!

2009-12-13T01:52:00.001-08:00

We really enjoy this course,
and thanks for your visit and comments!~

hope you can enjoy our blog too^___^
hahahaaa..

Ban tobacco entirely in Hong Kong?!

2009-12-13T01:23:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that smoking is evil, however, smoking still survive all over the world. Hong Kong implements the smoking ordinance that some areas or establishments will become designated no smoking areas. However, somebody argue that it’s not enough; they still suffer from the second-hand smoke. Therefore, they suggest the further legislation—Smoking Ban Entirely in Hong Kong! Is it work? In the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2009, findings shown that there already have 17 countries implemented comprehensive smoke-free law such as Turkey, Colombia, and Mauritius[1]. So, it seems work. Today our topic is whether comprehensive smoke-free should be adopted in Hong Kong. And based on our moral stance, it shouldn’t. Let’s have a deeply look on the issue.

Culture and Conflict

Culture-the norms and values of one’s environment, is the lens through which we judge behaviors and characterize people as victims, heroes or villains.
By Gary Harper, Culture and Conflict

How will this change affect Hong Kong culture? Hong Kong highly developed has been ranked the freest in the world by the Index of Economic Freedom for 15 consecutive years. Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of freedom, for example, religious, media, and speech freedom. “FREEDOM” represents “HK”. That’s the attractive point of HK. But if it enforces the smoking-free legislation, it, to some extent, is to deprive people of the smoking freedom. Cultural identity of Hong Kong will become confuse. Although smoking is not good and smoking-free is implemented in some places, we can’t use one norm in all over the world. Just as what Louis C. Williams said “The standards are different in different places”(Business ethics)

What thing different people’s concern?

The impact of banning smoking in all public places has both its advantages and its disadvantages on smokers, non-smoking people, community, government and the tobacco industry. Whether to execute the policy or not is a difficult decision as different people have different perspectives and invested interests in the issue.

People have significant differences of opinion regarding what constitutes ethical behavior and how ethical decisions should be made. (Business Ethics: Approaches to Ethical Decision Making)

Smokers
The smokers may feel that they are unjustly discriminated against by the society. According to Gallup's latest survey, one-third of smokers felt unjustly discriminated. (More Smokers Feeling Harassed by Smoking Bans, 2007[2]). On the other hand, according to the research done by American Heart Association in Italy after a smoking ban in public places (Heart Attacks Decreased After Public Smoking Ban In Italy, 2008[3]), the research result shows that it will reduce the proportion of the population who smoke, the frequency of smoking decreased from 34.9 percent to 30.5 percent in men and from 20.6 percent to 20.4 percent in women. Some of the smokers may even quit smoking in response to a smoking ban in public places.

The community & non-smoking people
As we all know, there are many people incur smoking related diseases due to passive smoking. By adopting the policy of banning smoking in public places, it’s going to reduce the risk of incurring smoking related diseases and it also means allowing non-smokers the freedom to exercise their right to clean air and healthy lungs, as it will substantially improve the air quality which gets stepped on every time they inhale involuntary smoke. Smoking ban will significantly reduce heart attacks in the city, and attributed most of the reduction to decreased secondhand-smoke exposure. Recently, the smoking ban came into affect in England. However, in Scotland the ban on smoking in public places has been in force since March 2006. Statistics recently released suggest that this is the primary reason for the dramatic 17% fall in heart attacks.

Government
This will help governmental agencies to deal effectively with air pollution and health. The process will help to reduce smoking related diseases and deaths which are a threat to those who smoke. It will also promote clean air and good health among people. It’s going to earn money in countries where fines for individuals and premises where smoking is caught is imposed. However, Hong Kong is a city that promotes freedom; everyone has the rights to do anything (smoking) that do not break the law. Furthermore, Hong Kong is also one of the famous city that attracts lots of tourists every year. With a large tourism trade, the ban may have had a significant negative impact on tourism. Lastly, tax on tobacco products is also a great source of income of Hong Kong government.

The tobacco industry
Tobacco industry will be the one which suffer the most of this policy. It will create an environment where smoking becomes increasingly more difficult as it shift social norms away from the acceptance of smoking in everyday life. As a result, it will reduce the demand for tobacco and the sales will fall.

It seems that there are different and conflicting interests between them. How will it affect the final compromise? Let’s make the assumption first.

Assumption on human nature

According to our group analyzing, we assume that different parties such as organization, government, smokers and non-smokers and so on, are basically amoral and do not consider the existence of morality plausible. They do not care what they do is right or wrong, completely absence of moral beliefs. They only analysis the cost and benefit of doing one thing and concerns their own interest.

‘There is no clear moral compass to guide through complex dilemmas about what is right and wrong.’ by Carter McNamara (Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers)

In this situation, we cannot judge the parties doing right and wrong. In fact, people mostly concern about their main interest (i.e. money and profits) rather than the public health because they weigh the pros and cons in this situation.

For example, many researches prove that tobacco deeply affects not only smokers’ health, but also for non-smokers, however, the organization still produce and encourage people to purchase tobacco so that they can increase their profits. Thus, if smoking bans scheme establishes in Hong Kong and cover all areas, tobacco manufacturing industries must reject this scheme because it will affect the revenue greatly.

When one new policy promotes in the community, it will make many noise. Different people have different opinions and suggestions, and their decisions mostly are based on protecting their own benefits. Indeed, Freedom is the one of culture in Hong Kong, Hong Kong people can express their opinions freely, but they just concern about themselves and ignore the others. As a result, people usually are amoral and further affect their decision making. From our group, we do not suggest smoking bans in all areas and the disadvantages outweigh the advantages of this policy. Instead, we support smoking bans scheme in assigning areas, so it can satisfy different parties.

Wild Imagination --- Smoking Free Utopia
We can go deeper in this controversial issue by making an assumption that is: Should we ban smoking in Hong Kong? That is smoking is not allowed in Hong Kong, even the imported tobacco is prohibited. This policy is currently adopted in Bhutan, so can Hong Kong do this?

No people can smoking here, no passive smoking, all of us will be healthy, no further negative consequences will be caused….. We can think of many good points generated from smoking ban. Is this a better solution, compared to recent policy in Hong Kong? That is smoking is banned in the public area only? The answer is NO.

Back to reality --- Trade-off
The recent policy can be viewed as a kind of trade-off among them since they have different vested interests from this issue. So there will be no such a policy that can satisfy all parties’ wants. Then, some parties need to forgo some interests in order to make comprise to deal with this issue. Thus, each party needs to choose the most important interest to them with the respective decision approaches.

In this issue, it can be said the government has the greatest power in deciding the policy of the degree in smoking since it has the power to make law to control the behaviors of the people. So we will go deeper in the decision approach of government to see the whole picture. To sum up again, the vested interests of government: 1. health issue, 2. tobacco tax, 3. promote trade.

Does government adopt the utilitarian approach?
If so, the government will ban smoking in Hong Kong since it will benefit and protect all the non-smokers, which is the majority in the society, from passive smoking. The affected parties, such as the smokers, tobacco companies, entertainment industry, in sum, they are just minority in this case, compared to the non smoker in Hong Kong.
But what we can see from the recent situation is that smoking is “partly” banned only, and then we can say that HK government is not adopting the utilitarian approach which will benefit the greatest number of people.

So, how about the cost-benefit approach?
Yes, we agree to this point of view. Let’s assume the government balances the cost and the benefit in this issue. The other parties are also adopting this approach. (Maybe we are in Hong Kong, everything is about the efficiency, so the beneficial one should be chosen) we will prove this assumption with the followings.
Under the recent policy, it is all about “Give and Take”. The tobacco companies can still sell the cigarettes in Hong Kong, which is their priority and the only concern, since it is not banned at all, although the policy will affect the sales of their products since the policy will decrease the chance for and also the desire to smoke. The companies have to forgo part of their sales volume to continue to import cigarettes to HK, which is more beneficial than total ban for smoking.

How about the smokers and the non smokers?
The major concern for the smokers is that they can continue smoking while the non smokers can be away form passive smoking. Under the recent policy, smoking is banned in all the public area. It satisfies the major needs of them. The smokers can still continue to smoke in the private area, such as home and open area. The non-smokers can stay away from the passive smoking because there will not be passive smoking in the above smoking area. It satisfies the major concern of them, it shows that the benefit is greater than the cost for them, although smokers cannot smoke everywhere; they forgo some of the rights. At least, it is better than total smoke ban in Hong Kong.

To summarize, the tobacco companies can still sell the cigarettes, the smokers can still smoke, and the non-smokers can stay away from passive smoking. It is a compromise between them.

How about the government?
In view of this, the government will see if the policy fits all the major concern of the different parties, meanwhile, the interests of the government also. The government, in response of this, will make the policy according to the situation. The government can still tax the tobacco product, which is an important income, and also maintain the free trade principle of Hong Kong.

However….can the government still does better than the recent policy?

“Cultural variances are diminishing as a consequence of the internet society; ethical standards in one place now are likely to be similar in other geographic locales.” (By Louis C. Williams)

A great number of mostly developed countries have enacted bans on smoking in public places or workplaces since the early 2000s, often in conjunction with a reduction in the proportion of the population who smoke.Undoubtedly, legislation in prohibiting people smoking is a direct way to reduce the amount of people smoking. However, smoking bans would be turned out some problems such as economics lost and criticized on a number of grounds. Thus, we have some suggestions instead of smoking ban in Hong Kong.

Smoking area should not be revoked
Smoking area should not be revoked if the methods of banning smoking are sufficient. Also, smokers argue that they can have the right to smoke and the smoking area should maintain under no implication on others.

Government
Setting World No Tobacco Day
World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed around the world every year on May 31. It aims to reduce the amount of people deaths from tobacco-related health problems. It draws global attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to its negative. More WNTD should be presented as it can promote the message of smoke-free to more people.

Organization & Individual
1. Setting ventilation system in office
Ventilation can be an alternative to smoking bans as it can reduce the harmful impacts of passive smoking. A study conducted by the School of Technology of the University of Glamorgan in Wales, United Kingdom, published in the Building Services Journal stated that ventilation systems can dramatically improve indoor air quality.

If the Ventilation system was strong enough, the smoke will be deflated and it will drastically reduce the bad effects on others. Therefore, comprehensive anti smoking in public places or workplaces can be instead.

2. Creating anti-smoking environment and culture
Encouraging the creation of more business to join the bans voluntarily, some tax credits and other financial incentives for business should be established. It would probably attract more establishments became smoke-free businesses. Proponents of such policies claim that they would help to increase the options for customers and employees who prefer a smoke-free bar or restaurant without infringing on the rights of business owners.

3. Tradable smoking pollution permits
Tradable pollution permits has been suggested by Professor Robert Havemand and John Mullahy of the University of Wisconsin--Madison and it favored by some economists.
Tradable pollution permits is a market-based alternative and Lawmakers decide the optimal level of smoking establishments for an area. Permits are then auctioned off or otherwise allocated. Nonsmoking establishments can sell the unused permits on the open market to smoking establishments. That means, businesses are required to purchase the property rights over the clean air space of their business in order to let their customers to smoke.

Promotion and Education
Promotion and education are good ways to make widely known about the disadvantages of smoking and make them always on the alert for contracting smoking habit. The authorities can promote a smoke-free culture to the public through the mass media and raise the public awareness on the hazards of smoking and secondhand smoke.

Businesses (such as bars, restaurants) were severely affected by smoking bans since most of their customers are smokers. They will not patronize and the business value of the establishments will be dropped. Some businesses which affected have filed lawsuits claiming that bans are unconstitutional or otherwise illegal.

Bans may move smoking elsewhere
Bans on smoking in offices and other enclosed public places often result in smokers going outside to smoke, frequently congregating outside doorways. The former British Cabinet Member John Reid even claimed that bans on smoking in public places may lead to more smoking at home.

Therefore, some alternatives to bans can reach same goals without such huge controversies and grounds. Government, Organization and Individuals can have a reference on them.

Reference:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_ban

2. http://www.gallup.com/poll/28216/more-smokers-feeling-harassed-smoking-bans.aspx

3. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080211172539.htm

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_No_Tobacco_Day

Immoral scientific misconduct

2009-12-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

Nowadays, you can find many products claimed that they are tested by scientific method. However, by how much, can we trust these products?

Science development is the representation of modern society. Science is a continuing effort to discover and increase human knowledge and understanding through disciplined research (from wiki). Moreover, science lets different countries to cooperate, so it impacts deeply in inter-cultural processes. For example, International scientific organizations, such as the International Council for Science, have since been formed to promote cooperation between the scientific communities of different nations.

However, some people exploit science to make profit for themself, ignoring the moral stance. They buy up the scientists, they do the fake scientific research, and they only concern their benefit and ignore the public wealth. In this blog, we will explore this moral conundrum deeply.

There are so many examples to such misconduct. For example, in the case of Diamond Energy Water, the company claimed that their water system is based on advanced Energy Converter Technology. This technology helps break water molecule clusters into smaller cluster for easier absorption (Hailed as a breakthrough health therapy). In order to make their statement more powerful, it cites several scientists name to prove their product’s credibility. However, sarcastically, those named scientists said that they never done such research, and didn’t hear such functional water machine.

People are basically AMORAL
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept about companies integrates social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. One of the focuses of CSR is ethical, companies should be ethical, and they have the obligation to do what is right, just, fair and moral.

According to Carter McNamara ‘There is no clear moral compass to guide through complex dilemmas about what is right and wrong.’(Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers) We assume that some people are basically amoral and do not consider the existence of morality plausible. They do not care what they do is right or wrong, completely absence of moral beliefs. They only analysis the cost and benefit of doing one thing and concerns their own interest.

Listerine is one of the most popular mouthwashes brand in the world. They have over 50 years clinical experiment experience to prove that their product can help people maintain healthy mouth. However, recently, some other research shows that people using the mouthwash products with alcohol will increase the chance of getting oral cancer. Although Listerine states that they have over 50 years clinical experiment experience of their products, they do not consider the existence of morality plausible that they ignore the subsequence of using alcohol-containing mouthwash. They should conduct a more thorough research and experiment of their products before selling it to the market.

And some of them are IMMORAL
Immoral perspective means that people are basically bad and they do something hurt others with the aim of getting benefits. Thus, the society should set some ethical rules which are accepted by major people to punish immoral people. For the long term, the immoral people should be educated and changed their mind.

However, some immoral company deliberately omit the undesirable data. For example, company misleadingly creates desirable result, although they know that what they done may be harmful to the consumers. Therefore, consumers are cheated by these fake scientific researches and further they suffer from these ‘guaranteed’ products.

‘..ethical involves learning what is right and wrong, and then doing the right thing—but “the right thing” is not nearly as straightforward as conveyed in a great deal of business ethics literature.’ (By Complete Guide to Ethical Management: An Ethical Toolkit for Manager)

The obvious example is about Marlboro. In fact, there is growing perception that smoking might be harmful to the health of others. The passive smoking is a sensitive issue to the tobacco industry which causes public prominence and it threaten the tobacco industry. In order to solve these unfavorable problems of Marlboro, Marlboro Company eliminated the sensitive data about passive smoking because these issues affect the tobacco industry so it bought up the scientist to get the desirable result of the research.

Marlboro put a huge amount of funding to establish a team including British scientists and the lawyer. They are operated under the direction of Marlboro. The team mainly produced a research on the problems of indoor air quality and the lawyers to eliminate areas of sensitivity.

However, after this report announcing to public, many people criticize Marlboro that it produce the misleading information to consumers. Actually, their product seriously affects people’s health. Therefore, immoral companies provide fake and misleading scientific data is inadmissible and unethical.
(example’s URL from http://www.ash.org.uk/ash_1cm2x3li.htm)

So, what are the impacts of such misconduct to the inter-cultural process, individual and cultural identity?

“Trust”

Individual might subconsciously believe the advertising once they saw scientific result because people deeply trust the “science”. As “Texted by scientific method” means professional, so they trust it completely. I still remember one time after swimming lesson, I saw my classmate who cleaned her face using a bottle of diamond energy water. Her explanation is that without using this “special” water, her face would suffer skin sensitive so that she brought it from home. It’s not exaggerated, in fact, there are really such guy totally rely on the scientific prove.

On the other hand, the others, who penetrate the pseudo research, might build mistrust with “Science”. They think they are stupid to trust such scientific research before, and never trust it anymore. They will unconscious to those advertising. It might even lead them to resist science, therefore, the term” anti-science” was appeared . But they don’t realize that, science itself hasn’t fault, but those unethical merchants have.

Country which ignores the important impacts of such behavior will develop a “fake culture”. Just like China, it’s famous for its “fake”, fake products, fake statistics and even fake singer in Olympics etc. Such a fake image will impact the others’ trust toward the country. And this negative image will even obstruct the science development. It may be the reason behind why China’s science still not develops well.

As no one trusts the fake culture anymore, how can they cooperate with each other? Science always requires different nations’ cooperation. But the fake image affects the inter-cultural process. For example, America NASA refuses the proposal of collaborating with China in space-development . So if we don’t stop the scientific misconduct, the problem will be continuous and become more serious.

Dilemma
However, some may argue that some fake scientific statistic mainly want to force people to doing something good, so, is not immoral. For example, in our previous blog, it indicates fishers will lost their job by 2050 if we keep on overfishing and shows the alarming amount of extincting marines. However, is the statistic really accurate? Or is it includes some exaggerated statistics in order to shock people to take action? Some people argue that the intention is good, and some fake scientific statistic should be done by the moral stance.

Sometime, it is hard to judge whether a decision is ethical or not since value judgments are personal and differ from people to people. However, we can still analyzing ethical dilemmas with the following models, which are more objective in nature.

Utilitarian approach
By using this approach, the pseudo-scientific research is not ethical at all since it will not result in the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Who will be benefited from these researches then? Surely, the producers and the parties which conduct these researches. They benefit from making profit through these advertisements, which are misleading, at the expense of exploiting the right of getting the accurate information for the customers. The customers cannot make the scientific researches claiming that smoking is not that harmful. It will, as a result, mislead the smokers and the potential smokers to continue or to start to smoke respectively. This is harmful to the customers; it is not simply to make them to purchase the cigarette, even more, it will hurt their health. If they can provide the accurate information in the market, it will save more people from smoking. In this sense, the producers, the minority, can be benefited from these misleading advertisements, at the same time, the public, the majority, suffers a lot. By using the utilitarian approach, these “researches” are not ethical.

Universalism
For this approach, whether an action is ethical or not depends on whether you are willing to be misled by the pseudo scientific researches. Surely, each and every one of us does not like being misled. We always want the accurate information, not the fake one, guiding us to make a wise decision. Otherwise, it will create a sense that the customers are not being respected. However, people do not share the same feeling under the same circumstance. For example, will you feel angry after knowing that the diamond energy water system is just a water filtering machine? The answers will be different among people. Some will be angry since they feel they are being cheated. Others may think that it is still acceptable that, at least, it has water filtering function. To sum up, it depends on whether it is acceptable for you to be misled by these researches. For our group, these unethical misleading behaviors are surely unacceptable since we do not like being misled.

So why these companies still make those unethical decisions then if everyone knows it is not good to do so? The following approach would help to make a better judgment.

Cost benefit
The common goal of giving this misleading information, for the companies, is to sell more products so as to make a handsome profit, regardless the negative publicity form it once these unethical behaviors are being discovered. The companies thought that it is ethical to do so since they can earn more money, which outweighs the cost of the negative publicity. So they will gain from this decision. They aim at short term profit by selling more since the customers cannot return the products or refund, or even they have consumed it. If it is successful to make the people believe in this fake information, it can generate handsome short term profit before it is known to be fake. The companies make the cheating decision using this approach that calculate the cost and benefit from it. If we judge whether conducting the pseudo scientific researches are ethical or not by using this approach, it will be “ethical”. However, it is the standpoint of those businessmen, which our team does not take.

Improve it!
All in all, such climate should not be promoted. We should do something to improve the situation.

Government
“Cultural variances are diminishing as a consequence of the internet society; ethical standards in one place now are likely to be similar in other geographic locales.” (By Louis C. Williams). Hong Kong Government can do a lot in order to prevent companies and organizations misleading the public by using scientific misconduct.

First, the government should promote correct and ethical value to the companies and people. Always show evidences that pass through different kinds of experiments and researches. It is a good way for the government to emphasize the benefits and the importance of using data, researches and statistics results honestly. For example, it helps company to build up a positive image and it would create an honest environment that customers can have more confidence when they consume.

On the other hand, the authorities can set up new law which forbids people using some incorrect data or researches to mislead customers and citizens. Offenders will have to pay the serious penalties for violating the law. Stiff punishment would scare people and companies from offending the legislation.

Besides, government should take the responsibility for protecting the right of the consumers. As we have mentioned, people are basically immoral. Most of them would only consider about their own advantages and just ignore the right of others.
According to the cost-benefit, they would only consider whether the benefits are useful or not and how great of them. Therefore, if there are no any organizations to keep a watchful eye on the market, the situation would be out of control.

Multinationals
Nowadays many corporations have offices, branches or manufacturing plants in different countries and where their original and main headquarter is located. They have multiple operation points that all respond to one headquarter. So, if some ethical guidelines are set by the head office and encourage other operation points to adopt it, the global environment would become more honest. Telling the staff how to tackle the difficulty when they are facing with ethical problem, for example, how to balance in making a profit without any unethical measures; how to attract the public by using method without exaggeration, immoral. Provided that there are some guidelines, the functional managers and staffs would feel easy to deal with the problems, especially the ethical problems.

By the way, multinational corporations such as Nike and Coca have a powerful influence in local economics as well as the world economy and play an important role in international relations and globalization. Some of them can even affect the governments in establishing the policy. As they have huge impact on the world, they should work ethically as an example and let other corporations, firms and organizations to imitate it.

Reference:

1 http://biocab.org/Antiscience.html

2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/12/olympics2008.china1

3 http://www.blogercn.com/html/30/46830-289837.html

4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism

Save Our Sea! You Can Do It!

2009-11-04T06:11:00.000-08:00

Background
Many "green"products claimed in the market nowadays which customers are sometimes confused by their claims and mistrust about their validity. "Trustmarks help ensure companies follow best practices by setting clear and transparent standards."(By GreenBiz Staff) 1. Ecological label helps consumers to identify products which are more environmentally preferable than other similar products with the same functions in the markets.

Due to the overfishing in recent years, our oceans are under more pressure than before. In order to tackle the issue of seafood sustainability, an organization is funded. Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an independent non-profit organization with an ecological label and fishery certification programme. It aims to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans by recognizing and rewarding sustainable fishing practices. They want to influence the choices people make when buying seafood, and work with our partners to transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis.

The MSC runs an exciting and ambitious program, working with partners to transform the world's seafood markets and promote sustainable fishing practices. It collaborates with fisher, retailers, processors, consumer and others to drive them to sustainable behavior. It never compromise on the environmental standard we set, or on our independence.
Website:http://www.msc.org/

Our Video to promote "MSC"

Hong Kong Culture
Hong Kong is a small city but provide a large variety of food and given the reputable praise of “Gourmet paradise” and “World’s fair of food”. Food holds an important place in Hong Kong. As Hong Kong located near the coast, seafood is especially famous in Hong Kong. People always heard Chinese saying that fish and meat is the essential dish (in Chinese有魚有肉) as it indicated a symbol of abundance and prosperity Therefore, people will eat a lot of seafood in Chinese traditional festival.
Source: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/tc/dining/seafood.html (Hong Kong Tourism Board website)

Protection against overfishing in H.K.
In Hong Kong, the use of explosive, toxic substances, electricity, dredging and suction devices for the purpose of fishing are detrimental to fisheries and the marine ecosystem and are prohibited under the Fisheries Protection Ordinance.2

Public Awareness
Although there is a Ordinance to protect the marine, most people are not aware the problem of overfishing, they do not know the consequences and mainly concern about the quality of seafood. A label which related about seafood is used under the accredited fish farm scheme carry out by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department in 20053. It is a label to ensure the quality of locally cultured fish in order to regain consumer confidence.

In the 1970s, Hong Kong's commercial fishery reach the peak, Hong Kong waters were incredibly rich just decades ago with manta rays, hammerhead sharks, giant grouper etc. Due to overfishing, the fishery in Hong Kong declined. The WWF in Hong Kong launched several campaigns to promote marine protection, for instance, Save our Seas Campaign in 2005 and also Bluefin Tuna in Crisis. Unfortunately, it cannot arouse the awareness of the public. 4

Rhetorical strategies and its effectiveness
When people enjoy and love eating seafood, at the same time, the number of marine products become extinction is increasing. It is due to the problem of overfishing.

“Telling and listening to stories…may be the most powerful means for relaying and retaining information, communicating and understanding important messages, and influencing cultural thought.”(By Kathleen Marvin) 5

Our story aimed at shocking people into actions and to persuade and motivate them to buy the products with Marine Stewardship Council labels. In some countries, “Overfishing has not only proved disastrous to fish stocks but also to the fishing communities relying on the harvest”6 . We show how people enjoy eating seafood at the beginning of the video, therefore to recall the audience’s happy memories of eating delicious seafood. Then, we reveal the fact of overfishing problem with the statement of “If we keep on overfishing, fisher will be unemployed by 2050.”7. This will threaten the audience as seafood will soon disappear unless urgent action is taken to make sure that the seafood is comes from a healthy population and harvested in a sustainable non-destructive manner. If the consumers buy seafood with conscience with the Marine Stewardship Council label, they can ensure the fisheries are following the principles of Marine Stewardship Council standards.

Most people in Hong Kong are educated and they are more and more concern about the environment, even some of the environmental protection actions are legislated by law. The Marine Stewardship Council label is the best and most recognizable eco label for marine products we currently have in the world. According to a survey conducted by WWF in 2005 “97% of Cantonese speakers said that they would stop consuming a species if they found out it was endangered.”8 If people know that the products with this label implying that the fishery is following the principles and have sustainable caught, their acceptance of this label will be much higher and as a result they will start to buy the products with this label. In order to enhance the awareness of overfishing problem in the world of the public, we think that with the use of celebrity to promote the MSC labels, it will catch the attention of the public.

Motivation & Altruism

‘Altruism defines how selfish behavior could have evolved. It is applied not only to people (psychological altruism), but also to animals and even plants.’ 9

Nowadays, overfishing is one of the hot topics in everywhere. People only satisfy their needs and put not much effort on protecting the environment, especially the ocean. Overfishing usually destroys not only the sea, but also marine ecosystems. ‘Life on earth is being destroyed at alarming rate, and evidence is mounting of impending disasters such ecological collapse and climate change that threaten as all’. 10 Therefore, we should spread the message that the importance of the altruism and how unselfish behavior of others.

In fact, technological communication is an effective way to convey the altruism messages over the world. In the video, it raises people awareness of protecting the sea as soon as possible. “Initial story must be emotionally moving enough to unleash the narrative impulse in others” (By Kathleen Marvin) . 11When people watch this video, they might feel guilty and sympathy if they keep on buying seafood which is came from overfishing. So, they might change their purchase behavior to buy the seafood with the MSC label to show supporting on this campaign.

The video can boost altruism and build up a global consciousness as it can make people to have sympathy and feel guilty with their selfish behavior. They will not only concern about self-benefit firstly, but also they may seem others as oneself and provide unselfish behavior to others. Indeed, it will have a global impact that people can act a coherent action to echo using the MSC logo to save the sea together. Therefore, this strategy can send the altruism message to the world and encourage people to contribute their effort to our world unselfishly.

Motivates are the reasons that before one take action towards an event.

There are mainly 3 reasons for Hong Kong people to purchase the products with the approval from the MSC.

First of all, it is out of self interest, the popularity of seafood in HK. As aforementioned, Hong Kong people love having seafood. It is a kind of culture and tradition in the festivals. As indicated in the Times magazine, if overfishing continue for 50 years, there will be no supplies of seafood. That means there would be no seafood for Hong Kong people to consume. In view of this, in order to save the sea and while the seafood, Hong Kong people are thus motivated to consume the products approved by MSC. It can extend the time for them to consume the seafood they love most.

Moreover, they act like the environmental protection pioneers. Just like other e-labels’ motivation, if they purchase the MSC approved products, somehow they are protecting the sea from unreasonable exploitation or overfishing. Their thinking is also related to the ethical, responsibility and even social class issues. They think it is political-correct to consume the MSC approved products, otherwise, it is wrong or somehow they may feel guilty for not protect the sea from overfishing. Moreover, they think that they have more power to purchase more-expensive products which are approved by the MSC, so it is the responsibility to protect the sea since they get the power to do so, while others do not have money to do so. Furthermore, they think that acting environmental friendly is also one of the behaviors o middle class or above. So purchasing the products that MSC approved will differentiate them from the other social classes.

Thank you all of you

Thank you again for the useful comments from Mgt3430 classmates and also Mgt2411. We found that it is enjoyable to read your comments, hope you do also when you are reading our blog. The comments are helpful. It makes our blog better. We have chosen the following topics to discuss further. Let’s GO and enjoy.

Some of you ask about which type of marine are going to be extincted. We are going to show some of them to you:

· Bombay duck(九肚魚)

· High-finned grouper(老鼠斑)

· Leopard coral trout(東星斑)

· Humphead wrasse(蘇眉)

· Abalone(鮑魚)

· Caviar (sturgeon) 魚子醬(鱘魚)

· Bluefin tuna(藍鰭吞拿魚)

All of the above we enjoy are going to be extincted. And if we keep ignoring it, the situation would become more serious

Promotion to restaurant

We would promote to the shops and restaurants which have a lot of benefits on selling MSC products. Nowadays, more seafood buyers in Hong Kong give ‘preferred supplier’ status to companies offering MSC-certified fish. The MSC label helps to win customer confidence and loyalty. Customers are willing to buy the MSC- certified seafood than before. Therefore, the sales would be increased if shops and restaurants in Hong Kong sale the seafood having MSC label. Moreover, selling MSC- certified seafood helps the shops and restaurants to build up a positive image in the society. It is because the feelings of MSC label that giving to the public like saving the ocean. The shop and restaurants can earn a high reputation and rise up their sales as they sell MSC- certified seafood.

How the label will be shown? & Will seafood with MSC be more expensive than those without?

The MSC labels are used on packaging, price lists, menus, fish counters and materials highlighting seafood products. Here are the pictures which show the products with MSC labels, including fresh and canned seafood. The fish products with the MSC logo are not more expensive, incidentally, which means that it is just as economical to eat sustainable fish.

Should we organize a “NO Seafood day’?

As some people suggest, Hong Kong should organize campaigns such as ‘no seafood day’ to raise people awareness of protecting ocean. However, we partly agree to hold ‘no seafood day’ in Hong Kong. It is true that large demand of seafood will lead fishers to supply a huge amount of seafood to satisfy their needs. Furthermore, they ignore anything to supply many fishing and finally it leads overfishing. So, ‘no seafood day’ may decrease the demand of seafood and avoid oversupply.

However, the purpose of MSC is not to stop eating seafood and fishing, it aims to raise people attention on the ocean destroyed speedily because of OVERFISHING. Therefore, stop eating seafood is not the main idea of MSC, but promoting using products with MSC is that encouraging fishers correct their fishing methods and be more ethical. Also, this logo aims to increase people sense of protecting the sea. For the long term, the MSC mainly convey message that all people should take responsibility to protect the ocean. So people will act automatically to echo the activity better than punish them or totally change their local culture. The first thing let people echo the logo successful; people understand the overfishing is the one of serious problem to destroy the sea. If people deeply understand the hidden threat, they will try their best to protect the ocean. Therefore, the ocean will be protected, people continue to enjoy the seafood with correct fishing and fishers keep earning money. Eventually, it makes win-win situation.

REFERENCES

1GreenBiz Staff(2009), GreenBiz.com, http://greenercomputing.com

2 The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. Fisheries Protection Ordinance, http://www.afcd.gov.hk/english/fisheries/fish_cap/fish_cap_fpo/fish_cap_fpo.html

3 The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. Accredited Fish Farm Scheme

http://www.hkaffs.org/en/background.html

4 WWF Hong Kong, Save Our Seas Campaign, http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/marine/?source=fp-leftmenu

5 Kathleen Marvin (2006). Business Narration. JFK University

6 Darrell Tan. 2009. Over Fishing. http://geog-ace.blogspot.com/2009/06/over-fishing.html

7 Monica Fong. 2006. General Education, http://ls.hket.com/hk/liberalStudiesTopicsAction.do?action=listnewscornerdetail&id=ff8080810e799f03010f603c6cdb00d7

8 WWF Hong Kong, Seafood Choice Initiative, http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/seafood/bluefintuna/index.php

9 ‘Altruism-what is it?’ Retrieved from http:// www.altruism .org/about/altruism/

10 ‘Altruism-what is it?’ Retrieved from http:// www.altruism .org/about/altruism/

11 Kathleen Marvin (2006). Business Narration. JFK University

Welcome to Marlboro Country

2009-10-03T07:23:00.000-07:00

A old famous commercial of Marlboro

Globalization:
"’The Era of Globalization’ is fast becoming the preferred term for describing the current times” (by Keith Porter1). We totally agree what the author said. People around the world are now more connected to each other. They communicate with each other through economies, societies and even culture aspects. And this phenomenon calls “Globalization”.
Seem globalization is becoming increasingly important to the organizations in the world. Today we are going to bring you to one of the successful globalized company--Marlboro.
Although killing people is generally not a good business practice, Marlboro seems to be having unbelievable success. From an unknown brand in 1955, Marlboro has steadily increased sales, being the “top selling brand in the U.S. and an all-time-best seller in the world,” in just 1975. Then, in 1989, it took hold of almost one-fourth of all cigarette sales, and today it remains “the world’s most profitable brand of non durable goods, surpassing even Coca-Cola!”(By Jessica Jaffe2)

Let's have a deep look of it!

Steps to Global
In WW2, Marlboro produced tobacco for the Army. So it got the popular support when the war was over. Afterward, Marlboro has established very well in the developed countries after WW2. But recently, smoking is largely suppressed in these developed countries, such as the ban of advertisement in the social media, ban of indoor smoking, etc. It largely hurts the revenue from these countries. So Marlboro turns the attention to the developing countries. It starts to launch a massive marketing campaign in these developing countries, such as Southeast Asia, China, Africa.

Slogan: Come to Marlboro Country
The word “country” has double meanings. One is the countryside of the West; the other is the nation, the America. If we stick to the second one, we can realize that the “country” implies the American identity so the advertisements try to construct an illusive American identity in their consumers. Moreover, it means that the products will be sold to the world. At the same time, remind others that Marlboro is an American brand.

Welcome to Marlboro Country

Marlboro is a famous brand of cigarette made by Philip Morris UA. Marlboro launched its first business in USA. In the early 1960s Philip Morris invented "Marlboro Country" and distilled their manly imagery into the rugged cowboys known as the "Marlboro Men". A cowboy, western landscape and red color reminded audience the Marlboro trademark. It led Marlboro to the global dominance.

Other than established its own imagery, Marlboro has sought to maximize global awareness of its product by sponsoring motor racing. For instance, Marlboro had sponsored Formula One in the past. Formula One has an image of dynamic, macho and international which potentially bring these image values to Marlboro. Now, Marlboro is sponsoring Team Penske in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series and adult cigarette smokers and trade partners will be invited by the Marlboro brand to IndyCar Series races around the country to support Team Penske.

Just like what Venture Republic mention that “Culture becomes a very crucial factor that determines the band’s success. Many global brands have dealt with cultural issues very well and have adopted their brands to suit the diverse cultural demands of different regions in which they operate.”(Venture Republic, Cross-cultural branding and leadership)Marlboro realize the importance of Culture difference, it try to identified core similarities in the lifestyles and needs of young consumers worldwide, such as independence, enjoyment, freedom, and comfort. It adopted standardized global marketing efforts, creating a central brand images and promotions, but allowing regional managers to create regionally appropriate individual advertisements and different taste if necessary. For example, Marlboro produces different type of cigarette for different markets with respect to tar, nicotine and nitrosamine content. It tried to balance the standardization with customization. And this strategy suit the diverse cultural demands of different regions in which it operates. It helped Marlboro successfully enters into different culture.

Get support from Alliance
Marlboro understands that there is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry’s interests and public health policy interests. So it tried to avoid conflicts of interest for government officials and employees. PMI reports meeting with 2,800 government agencies and 8,000 government employees to promote its system for tracking and tracing cigarette products. Through these effort, Marlboro established relationship within the governments. For example, this year, Philippines customs authorities signed a Memorandum of Understanding with PMI; Marlboro will presumably gain access to law enforcement personnel and customs data. 3

In 2005, Marlboro signed two cooperation agreements with the China Tobacco Corporation. First, producing Marlboro cigarettes in China; second, establishing joint ventures abroad. Due to these agreements, Marlboro can not only enjoy the lower production cost, but also open up the foreign market for Chinese cigarettes (joint venture provided comprehensive Chinese style cigarette series). Meanwhile, Morris International has the biggest competitiveness enjoying a huge advantage in the strictly-controlled Chinese market. 4

Intercultural Communication

“Intercultural Communication” is always a complicated term. Thomas Friedman has claimed that “Intercultural communication theory, namely, our very understanding of culture, society, and communication.”(The Lexus and the Olive Tree, 1999). So, how Marlboro builds up its intercultural network, and satisfy different culture and society to achieve the goal of communication? Let have a look on it!

Operation in the local factories
Marlboro sets up joint venture to manufacture the tobacco in different countries, usually the production is for local consumption and for export to the near regions. But the working cultures differ across different countries. Thus, it is quite impossible for the products will be homogenous in the worldwide due to the difference in working practices. According to the article addressed by SUSUMU YOSHIDA, 2002 "Few people realize the importance of training to training to overcome the communication barriers." (Globalization and Issues of Intercultural Communications). In order to solve this problem, Marlboro hires local people to be the manager in different factories, thus the managers can communicate better with the local workers. Local managers must have a better understanding in the local culture, background, value and norms. As a result, this can enhance the effectiveness of intercultural communication. For example, a Japanese manager will be hired instead of an American, it enable him to communicate better with the local Japanese workers.

Standardized production method
The working cultures are different in different countries. They have different working practices all over the world. For example, in some culture, some prefer a warmer working condition, and some prefer a cooler one. But the indoor temperature will affect the quality of the tobacco. So a set of standardized rule is set to ensure the products all over the world are more or less the same. These standard rules are applied to the production process ranging from conditioning, casing, cutting, drying, flavoring to blending. 5

Extensive research in the taste of customers
Since the culture and taste are quite different in the countries. So Marlboro, as a global company, tries to fit the needs of different taste. Thus, Marlboro conducted lifestyle studies, brand communications and brand images in Hong Kong, China, Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, etc. Local research firms do extensive researches to find out the lifestyle. For instance, a Hong Kong research firm will be hired to conduct the researches for Hong Kong people. It ensures the accuracy of the result. 6

Local Cultural and Individual Identity
Marlboro Man gives the positive image for smoking by global marketing
Everyone knows that smoking is undoubtedly harmful and unhealthy. But the Marlboro Man suggests another view. It gives us a cool, strong feeling, which is shown in the advertisements. Although Marlboro does not tell us in words, not saying “Smoking is cool”, it is the feeling that everyone receives. It affects the perception of people in the world toward smoking, especially young adults who are mentally immature. The young adults are easily affected by the advertisements. This is used to develop a global Marlboro brand identity and positioning. The marketing strategy successfully turns smoking and Marlboro from bad to not bad in the eye of almost every global citizen. It positives the global view to smoking and more importantly Marlboro.

Globalization of Marlboro enhances the intercultural communication in a manner. For example, there are now over hundred international groups of Marlboro in Facebook. Facebook provide a platform to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. The smokers could communicate and share their common interest by adding other members in the group.
[http://www.facebook.com/search/?init=srp&sfxp=&q=marlboro+cigarette#/search/?flt=1&q=marlboro%20cigarette&o=69&sid=746679745.1433395518..1&s=0]

However, as the Marlboro Man permeates in different countries, it led to more and more people light up the cigarettes. This situation is serious as smoking is now not only the adult’s privilege, but also the teenagers’. Marlboro Man sends the message of adventure, independence, freedom, and heroism to the youngsters. Mislead them a scene of fashion and trendy. Even people know that it harms their health, Marlboro become an object of worship. In Hong Kong, for example, there are many slogans which praise this evil corporation such as” 漫漫長路買包萬寶路” (Buy a Marlboro in this livelong way) and “讀萬卷書不如食萬寶路” (Having a Marlboro rather than studying hard). Just like some people said that “呢個係男人既世界, 呢個係萬寶路既世界” (This is the world of man, this is the world of Marlboro). We can see the power of Marlboro.

At the same time, it enhances the cooperation within different countries. Its influence is far-reaching for the human health. Different countries work together of anti-tobacco campaigns. For instance, WTO set the “World No Tobacco Day” on every 31 May. Also there are many organization and activities to against it. Marlboro indirectly link different countries connected with each other.

A Corporate Social Responsibe Company?
Marlboro tries to being a Social Responsible Corporation. It concerns the environment impact of its operations, such as air emissions, waste generation and water consumption. Marlboro implemented an energy efficiency program in its factories which could reduce the emission rate. Besides, most of its facilities have achieved environmental management system certification from the International Organization for Standardization.

Marlboro realizes the importance of youngsters’ education. It gave financial support to the teachers, community organizations, youngster experts and hygiene units in more than fifty countries.7

Moreover, Marlboro support community initiatives in countries around the world, such as response to the Asian tsunami, programs against domestic violence, shelters for street children or food drives for the hungry. In 2008, it made charitable contributions approximately $20 million.

Or a Evil Corporation?
Marlboro tries to make smoking less evil by launching new packages and flavors of cigarettes. The products branded "smooth", "silver" or "gold" are generally believed to be healthier and easier to give up, according to a survey. In our opinion, these subtle changes are not ethical. Because it tried to make people think it is less harmful than the original red one. Actually, it is not the case; they are equally harmful from the scientific researches. It misleads the customers in an indirect way by giving implying information to customers that it is not as harmful as the red one. As a result, it will attract lots of potential customers, who will not smoke before if there is only the original red one.

Although tobacco advertisement is banned in many countries, Marlboro launches the campaign in other countries which are non-smoking-ban, are totally unethical. For example, in Indonesia, there are Marlboro man giant billboards and Marlboro-sponsored kiosks everywhere. Marlboro targets the teenagers as they can be long term customers in the future. Teenagers, who are not mature enough, will be addicted to smoking easily, influenced by the mass advertisements. Moreover, in Russia, he wants the brand focus on “Dad’s smoke”. It tries to make the children to follow their dad to smoke. It will increase the chance the minors will smoke. It is something unethical. From the pictures, what you can see is something attract youngsters, and even children attention.

Marlboro claimed that it does not encourage people to smoke, just to encourage people to have higher quality cigarettes. It is apparently false. If it is true why there is Marlboro man, who makes people think smoking is so cool, or I will be as handsome

as Marlboro man when I smoke. It is sure that Marlboro is
attracting new customers.

The war against smoking
As the vector of the tobacco epidemic, the tobacco industry's actions fall far outside of the boundaries of global corporate responsibility. Therefore, global and local actions should not provide the tobacco industry with the two things that it needs to ensure its long term profitability: respectability and predictability.

Non-smoking measures are in fact still controversial. From the liberal point of view, the measures are limiting a person's choice and freedom. However, anti-smoking is certainly a mainstream of the world community. So we support the world keep the anti-smoking movement.

Thank You!
First of all, thank you for all the comments, which kindly lead us make improvements. During the discussion, there is a question that seems interesting and causes a number of responses. Is Marlboro a necessary devil? So our group wants to show our stance here.

Our View of "Evil"

Undoubtedly, Marlboro sells the tobacco which is harmful to the smokers and also to the non-smokers. Or you can say if there is no Marlboro, there will be other tobacco companies. People will still smoke once they are addicted to smoking. Yes this is somewhat true. However, Marlboro encourages immature teenagers to smoke.

The marketing strategies of Marlboro can be described as misleading. It misleads the teenagers, who is immature, to think that they can be as cool as the Marlboro Man if they smoke. The advertisement hides the horrible truth of smoking by putting the cool image that is not true in front. It attracts the immature teenagers that do not know the adverse effects of smoking. From this point of view, Marlboro is unethical to promote this brand using these marketing strategies.

I hope the above one clearly illustrates our stance towards the moral issue of Marlboro, which lots of us talking about in the discussion. Thank you once again for the comments. See you next time.

Website: www.marlboro.com/
(Limited to adult smokers 21 years of age or older)

Reference:
1 http://usforeignpolicy.about.com/od/trade/a/whatisgz.htm

2 http://www.us-marlboro.com/marlboro-man/the-imagery-fantasy-and-symbolism-of-the-marlboro-man/

3http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/sites/default/files/INB3%20English%20FINAL.pdf

4http://www.us-marlboro.com/2009/07/research-report-on-chinas-cigarette-industry-2009/

5PM’s Global Strategy: Marlboro Product Technology, B&W, 1992

6 How Philip Morris built Marlboro into a global brand for young adults: implications for international tobacco control, N Hafez and P M Ling, 2005

7http://www.philipmorrisinternational.com/PMINTL/pages/eng/Default.asp

"TRUST" in the Intercultural Communication

2009-09-09T00:12:00.000-07:00

3430Laughing

Hello everybody, we are "Laughing", we want to have fun in this course, and keep laughing all the time! Our memeber include:

Yeung Hiu Man, Cathy

Cheung Kei Kei, Yuki

Ngan Lit Kwan, Steven

Tam Lai Hung, Michelle

Wah Sai Fung, Nelson

We both come from Global Business System Management(GBSM)!

The creation of this blog is one of the assignment of the course—MGT3430 Intercultural Communication for Business. We are now going to discuss a blog which we think that it is quite successful in promoting Intercultural Communication.

The blog we have chosen to review is:

[http://cindyking.biz/category/cross-cultural-communication/]

Introduction of Author

This cross-cultural communication blog, Cindy King, is created by Cindy. She is a cross-culture marketer and an international sales strategist. The blog shares the writer’s experiences an d information about difficulties in communicating among different countries.

The targets of the blog are international sales and marketing executives. It also provides a comment area which is a mean of exchanging ideas, asking questions, and leaving comments, it helps build a better relationship among Cindy and those international sales representatives.

The main motivation behind the creation of the blog is to convey the messages about the importance of intercultural communication skills to the world. Due to globalization, businesses from different countries transact with each other more frequently.

Why we choose this blog?

Intercultural Communication for Business (MGT3430) aimed to introduce and enhance students’ understanding on the key concepts, theories, and business practices of Intercultural communication. In Cindy’s blog, she divided her blog into several categories and under Cross-Cultural Communication we can find lots of information about Intercultural Communication. The content of her blog is very comprehensive. It covers different topics on Intercultural Communication, For instance, cross culture differences, and cross culture skills.

This year, Cindy stated out four Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges including Mindset, Clarity, Trust and Personal development. She provides daily short tips on each of these topics to help people improving their intercultural communication skills. She updates the blog every day to provide the latest information to the readers. Sometimes her posts were interrelated with each other, which make the readers keep reading the blog every day. Here is the free download Cross-Cultural Communication Calendar Poster designed by Cindy to help the readers on the skills. We think it is a very creative way to strengthen readers’ understanding on the topics. After reading Cindy’s post, you will think deeply on the topics of her post, as she will ask the readers some questions regarding the post, for example “How much effort in personal development do you think you need to develop cross-cultural skills?”

Here are the Tips provided by Cindy which we find it useful:

Clarity - “Ask questions to get specific information and avoid assumptions”

Sometimes, we make assumptions on what other people says by the characteristics of their culture and rare to ask for more information as we assume what we think is right.

Mindset - “Different cultures have different view points. Open your mindset to reach understanding.”

People have different perspective as people have different culture background and they have their own beliefs. When we talk with other people we need to open our mind to accept other people’s point of view. We need to look at an issue from another angle to get more new ideas which we never thought of.

Although Cindy did not provide examples to all the tips, many tips provided by Cindy are very useful and we can think of the tips ourselves and relate it to our real life experience when we communicate with others.

Cindy not simply teach the skills by wordings, she provide a list of Movies which the reader can improve their cross-cultural skills by watch them. It allows the readers to do thinking on culture issues independently when they finish watching the movies.

http://cindyking.biz/movies-on-adapting-to-different-cultures/

Whenever the readers want to ask for advices or chat with Cindy, there are several ways to interact with her such as Twitter, Facebook, Skype, etc. Also, when readers want to get more information about a certain topic, there are sources and articles on the blog provided by Cindy for the readers.

A key of cross-cultural communication: "TRUST"

According to the comments, many people think that the vital skill of successful cross-cultural communication is ‘TRUST’ since we cannot know everyone and understand their own mind. But how can we build up the relationship with people who come from variety of places and how to keep it for long time? Nowadays, “TRUST” plays an important role, as Cindy mentioned, if we communicate with people without trust, no one is willing to keep the relationship and they may be envious of each others. Furthermore, it will destroy the reputation and promises between others and begin a competition between countries.From our group of views, we agree that trust is the key of the intercultural communication. It is not only benefit to us, but also our community, even the world.

Firstly, communication with trust can build up a long-term and stable relationship between people who come from different countries. If we communicate without trust, there are only jealousy and cheating in the world, so there is no co-operation with each other. World War I and II are good examples; each country was envious of the other country, so they improved their military to protect themselves. They even built up the fake confederation against others; but all of these reflected that without the trust between countries. As a result, they could not co-operate with each other and led to war. The same theory applies to intercultural communication, trust is based on honesty, we need to open our mind and listen to each others so that it decreases the chances of misunderstanding and argument. Therefore, we can build up the firm and long term cross-cultural communication with trust.

Second, intercultural communication with trust can raise the reputation, it is not only our own personality, but also is our nationality. As Cindy mentioned, trust is based on honesty, so it also represent our own personality. If we can be an honest and believable person, many people are willing to make friends with us based on our good background and reputation. Therefore, we can gain the trust from others, indeed, we widen our interpersonal network. Besides, it benefits our business work because of good reputation. For instance, the clients or customers are confident of your company, without any written contract so that your company can guarantee the promise and they trust your company. In the future, the company will increase the chances of co-operation with other companies which are local or international; it is the easy way to be a globalized company. Furthermore, for the countries’ images, many people represent own nationality, we can make a good image to the others and show how your country civilization is.

However, there are some risks in it. Some people will take advantages of trust to do some illegal things, such as stealing the bank account numbers, signing the fake contract and so on. Therefore, we should pay more attention on it and further realize their own culture like working and daily style, personality. Therefore, intercultural communication is a complex knowledge; we should learn the basic theories and gain the real experience to understand the others in different culture.

Why we like the blog?
We like Cindy King’s Blog due to several reasons. First, the colorful design of the blog gets our attention and attracts us to spend time reading it.

Second, this blog gives some tips related to the cross-cultural communication in the business environment. Since the writer is a veteran international marketer, we find that the tips are particularly useful and practical. It will aid us a lot in the course to write a useful blog since there are also lots of examples illustrating the cultural differences among different countries.

Suggestion for Improvement

A concise content

Although Cindy King has already created a great blog, some improvements can still be made. The content of the blog can be shorter since the length of the content is sometimes quite long. Otherwise, the reader may feel bored when they read through the blog.

User-friendly

Also, her blog is quite difficult for beginners, the one who reads her blog first, to use. It is because the blog has lots of quick links, categories and resources pages. It seems easy to get lost on her blog at the first time. It would be better to be more user- friendly by adopting a simple approach.

Focus more on social aspects

Moreover, Cindy King’s blog seems to focus too much on business aspects rather than social aspects. Readers may not deeply analyze and understand on the intercultural communication. For examples, how different intercultural group of people communicates with each other? How to get along with others if cultural shocks existed? The blog didn’t illustrate much on this topic that university students, like me, would eager to explore more about it. Nevertheless, it is easy to show understanding for Cindy as she is a Cross Cultural Marketer &International Sales Strategist for 25 years who is full of experience and have lots of information about difficulties in communicating among different countries.

Comparison with other blogs

We found that this blog is more interesting comparing with others we found in the searching process. It is easy to understand the content since the writing is not very formal nor technical. So it is suitable for the beginners like us, who want to know more about intercultural communication, to read. It is more understandable.

In the search process, there are also other blogs that we found interesting but not as good as the one we have chosen:

1. Cross-Cultural Blog by Stanford exchange students
http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2009/04/intercultural_communication_in.html

This blog is about Globalization and cross-cultural communication. The content is in good quality but not rich enough. It consists of one article only. So, comparing to the chosen blog, ours is better in terms of the richness of content.

2. Wandering the world
http://www.clintrogersonline.com/blog/category/intercultural-communication/

This blog has lots of cross-cultural news all over the world from a global perspective. So it will be useful for the students who study the related issues. But, there are not enough daily examples in explaining the intercultural communication.

Thank You!
Thanks for all your comments, all of which are such a big help! We especially appreciated the information and advice you offered. Your assistance has been invaluable and makes us improve. We agree that our blog lacks of examples, so we now add more examples (e.g. the tips provided by Cindy.)

Also some of you talk about the “TRUST”. We have now given our point of view about this topic to you.

Thanks for “3430nice” comment to point out our mistake that there is a contradiction in our blog. And we have corrected it immediately.

At the end, some commentators suggested we could do more on the comparison part. We tried to do so, and hope you all can have a more comprehensive comparison among Cindy’s blog and others.