International Women’s Day is a global day to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. The first IWD was launched by a woman named Clara Zetkin (German) in 1911. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. However, the plight of women and the hardship they still face in many countries is highlighted by many organisations – see below.
Global issues facing women include:
Females in developing countries on average carry 20 litres of water per day over 6 km
Globally, women account for the majority of people aged over 60 and over 80
Pregnant women in Africa are 180 times more likely to die than in Western Europe
530,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth each year
Of 1.2 billion people living in poverty worldwide, 70% are women
80% of the world’s 27 million refugees are women
Women own around only 1% of the world’s land
AIDS sees women’s average life expectancy reduced to 43 in Uganda and Zambia
Women are 2/3 of the 1 billion+ illiterate adults who have no access to basic education
Read Fakhria Ibrahimi’s account of the plight of women in Afghanisaton
Official International Women’s Day site – see how you can help bring about change in the world.
Photograph by web/graphic designer Melanie Cook, used with permission. Thank you!
Chinese New Year is rich in traditions, rituals and folklores. 
The celebrations take place over 15 days. It has been said that it is a combination of the US Thanksgiving, and Western Christmas and New Year. This is hardly an exaggeration! The origin of the Chinese New Year itself is centuries old – in fact, they say too old to actually be traced. All agree, however, that the word Nian, which in modern Chinese means “year”, was originally the name of a monster that preyed on people the night before the beginning of a new year. Previously, the Chinese lived in a totally agrarian society and only took a ‘holiday’ once a year after the harvest and before planting new crops. this coincided with the lunar New Year. The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Beginning of Spring.
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National Foundation Day is a day of celebration throughout
Japan. Each year, on 11th February, the country remembers its historic roots. National Foundation Day, or Kenkoku Kinen no Hi, has its roots in Kigensetsu, or ‘Empire Day’, founded by the Meiji Emperor in 1873 to honour the Imperial family line and the founding of Japan. However, it is now thought that the Meiji government wanted to raise the profile of the Imperial Emperor and unite the modernising Japan as a nation-state following the abolition of the traditional Shogunate. Although done away with after World War II, Kigensetsu was subsequently revived in 1966 as National Foundation Day.
History tells us that Japan’s first ruler was Emperor Jimmu, a descendant of the Sun Goddess, who was crowned on 11 February, 660BC. This day is regarded as the founding of the nation. Although this is now considered to be a myth, it was a strongly unifying idea and lead to the belief that Japan as a nation was invincible.
I was recently sent an email with some amusing photos 
comparing overcrowded trains in India and Pakistan (as pictured on the right) with slick, modern trains in other parts of the world. I began to wonder just how stereotypical were these pictures and whether any of them depicted a true-to-life view of train travel around the world. My investigation led to some interesting blogs and some stunning pictures.
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The Celebration of the Birthday of Guru Nanek is a Sikh Tradition 
Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak, and present day Sikhism is still based on his teachings and those of the nine Sikh Gurus who followed him. Gurus Nanak is never worshipped as a God, but as a human being held in great respect.
Chusok Thanksgiving Day is a public holiday in South Korea.
The Chusok Harvest festival is one of the most important festivals in throughout the world, whatever culture or religion it might be, or however it is named; Thanksgiving in America, Pongal in India and Chusok in Korea. This festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth Lunar month of every Lunar year. Let us see more about the Festival of Chusok, its Legacy, its rituals and what it means to the people of that culture.
Find out more about the Chusok Festival in South Korea
Originally got this via @raykwong through one of his Tweets. Interesting to read the attitudes of young Chinese shoppers and how global companies are looking to China to help them meet their turnover targets.
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I got the following story from David Willoughby, a freelance writer now living in Tokyo:
Whilst in Japan, I happened to find myself seated next to another foreigner who recognised me from the gallery event we had both just attended. We chatted amicably for a while … A little while later, he stood up to leave. “If you like art,” he said to me, almost as an afterthought, “you might be interested in this.” And he nonchalantly tossed onto my table his business card on which he had biro’d the details of some upcoming event he was attending.
It wasn’t just the contrived nature of his networking spiel that made the exchange so unforgettable, it was in the small details. It was in the way in which he dealt his card onto the table rather than to me directly, minimising the chance that it might be rejected. It was in the fact that he waited until the final seconds of our encounter to produce it so that neither of us would have to endure the awkwardness of the moment. Before I had a chance to digest what was written on the card he had vanished.
The exchange would have been amusing for any watching Japanese who are, of course, far more comfortable with the use of business cards, or ‘meishi’. In the West, business cards are strictly for networking and careful consideration must be made about if and when to proffer the card – not so in Japan.
www.tokyoartbeat.com
Find more information about cross cultural differences in the exchange of business cards by clicking on the following links:
Top Ten Tips on passing business cards with cultural fluency
Japan: everything you need to know about business card ‘meishi’ etiquette
U.S., Britain, Australia: Business Card Etiquette
The art of business card giving: an East West perspective
For those in Asian countries, the exchanging of 
business cards is symbolic; it symbolises the beginning of a relationship. In Japan, meishi koukan is so important they even have an etiquette for it. If travelling to that part of the world, ensure that you have a vast amount of cards with you (read below to understand why) as people formally present cards at the beginning of every first meeting. This is exceedingly important if you are on an extended business trip.
Read the tips below to understand what is involved with business card etiquette and then watch the selection of videos that I’ve come across online that teach the novice how to exchange a card. If the card exchange goes badly, well… not much hope for any successful business relationship in the future!
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People in the Far East are NOT casual so be very respectful
of their way of dressing; if you do not conform they will think you are being disrespectful. The Chinese have seven layers of wrapping presents, so wrapping YOU should be equally important- it’s all about FACE. The dominant feature of business practice is your Personal Network: based on duty, obligation and trust.
So far in this section you’ll find the Top Ten Tips for doing business in five countries of East Asia, along with opening times, holiday dates and festivities. These are: China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and Myanmar (Burma).
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Hello, I'm Deborah Swallow and, for the last fifteen years, I've worked in over thirty countries addressing the complexities of people working internationally across multiple cultures, so individuals and organisations alike can gain an authentic competitive edge and win in international markets. 
