Reformation Day is observed in Germany and Slovenia.

Reformation Day is a religious holiday, which is celebrated in many countries of the world with a largely Christian population. It is celebrated on the last day of October every year and celebrate one of the most important and crucial Reformations to have occurred in the history of Christianity, the Protestant Reformation.

Read more about Reformation Day

With the Nordic countries dominating the new World Economic Forum’s
Global Gender Gap Index 2009, it seems that the rest of the world will always be playing ‘second fiddle’ or ‘catch up’ as the top four spots once again go to our Nordic neighbours. I’m disappointed to note that the UK slipped two places to 15th this year but it is still streets ahead of the USA who slipped 4 places to number 31!  Shame on us.

The report’s Index assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities. So, who of our friends in the North won top spot and how did the rest of the world measure up?

Columbus Day is celebrated all over North and South America on Second Monday of October.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian under the sponsorship of the Spanish Catholic Monarchs, set sail with his three ships on an expedition to find a new sea route to India. Eventually, on October 12, 1942, a sailor aboard the Pinta spied land. Children from English speaking countries rembember the day by chanting:

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” The ships were named: Niña, Pinta, and Santa María

At the time, Europeans were in search of trade routes to India and set forth on journeys in all different directions. Most of their journeys ended in vain either being shipwrecked by the violent seas, killed by pirates or killed by the natives of the lands they came across. Columbus was among the distinguished few who did live to tell their tales of discovery and brought unimaginable, fabulous wealth to the Spanish Monarchy and the unknown world into the maps of European travelers.

Find out more about Columbus Day

The Jewish New Year – Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah (literally ‘Head of the Year’) marks the first and second days of the Jewish New Year. It is also the Day of Judgement and the Day of Remembrance. It’s a time for some serious thought about life and a chance to ask questions about your actions throughout the year.

Find out more about Rosh Hashanah.

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

There is a deepening and increasing inequality between men and women
in Italy. The cause of the probelm is being firmly laid at the feet of the Italian Prime Minister, Belusconi.  Equality campaigners have suggested that the continual portrail of women in the media in a demeaning and  sexualised fashion has set back their cause by at least 150 years.

 Having been brought up in the UK and witnessed (albeit I was very young at the time) the women’s liberation movement and bra burning antics of young female students, I thought Britain had a gender-equal society.  It wasn’t until I went to work in Finland, about 15 years ago, that I realised how unequal British society was. It therefore came as no surprise when I heard that the top places in the Global Gender Gap Index went to Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland.  However, finding Italy in 67th position (lagging behind Chile and Azerbaijan) was quite a shock!   Why not check out where your country fits in the league table?   You may be in for a few surprises.

Bribery & Corruption: how things get done around the world.

Since 1995, Transparency Internationl have produced a comparision of 180 countries by their perceived levels of corruption. Denmark is seen to be the least and Somalia the most corrupt currently. Check out your country’s perceived level of corruption.

Ask yourself these questions about corruption:

• What is it?
• Can you find reasons to justify it?
• Where do you think the money/gifts go?
• Why could people from a ‘corrupt’ society be suspicious of you?

Difficult questions to answer as your answers depend on the culture you are accustomed to. The trouble is, what is considered corruption in one country is perfectly acceptable in another. Also, we tend to ‘judge’ other countries by our own experiences and norms. When working in the Middle East, I was amazed to learn that those who come from a culture where ‘oiling the wheels’ (bribery) is comon place look suspiciously on those that do not adhere to that practice. They find it difficult to understand the motivation behind someone whose purpose is to carry out their job well – because it’s their job.

Read about my experiences below and check out the Corruption Perception Index to see how corrupt your country is perceived to be in relation to the rest of the world.

If you are invited to a wedding where the rites and rituals are different from your norms, would you leave?  Well, a minister of the UK Government, Jim Fitzpatrick, did exactly that.  The minister for food and farming and his wife abruptly left a wedding in the East London Mosque in Whitechapel when he was told that it was an orthodox Muslim ceremony where men and women would be segregated.  His excuse for leaving?   He said: “The segregation of men and women didn’t used to be as much of a strong feature. We’ve been attending Muslim weddings together for years but only recently has this strict line been taken. It is an indication of the stricter application of rules that is taking place.” In other words, he was being judgemental: segregation isn’t right and it is especially NOT right in the UK. What he is saying is this practice interferes with social cohesion. It’s wrong!

I find it very hard to understand how an MP is so ignorant of the many practices that go on in this country. It is not just Muslims who might practise segregation at a wedding. Doesn’t he know that orthodox Jewish weddings practise segregation and it is also to be found at Hindu and Sikh weddings, amongst others? He’d better do his homework before he accepts another invite and, frankly, dishonours his hosts. Then, to speak of his anger afterwards seems the height of rudeness. He obviously took offense – but has now given it too.

Personally, I have always taken an invitation to an occassion like this as a great honour and a priviledge. The invitation demonstrates acceptance of me as a person even though I may be ‘different’ and it gives  me a wonderful opportuntity to experience someone else’s culture, traditions and religions. It gives me an opportunity to learn. Jim Fitzpatrick should be tolerant enough to be respectful of others and their practices especially at occasions like these. Why like these? Well, especially for marriages, people often like to celebrate these occasions in a way that has been traditionally handed down – this style of ceremony was the family’s choice and has probaly been in their families for generations..   This was not the occasion to make political statements. May the happy couple be blessed with a happy marriage without the fuss.

However, there are aspects of what Jim Fitzpatrick has said that we all ought to take account of. Evidence exists that shows there is a rapid encroachment of Islamic fundamentalist leaning in specific areas of London, Birmingham and Manchester. The influence of the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) is seen as distrubing as it appears to be enforcing its views on the local Muslim population. Muslims in Britain have come from so many different sects and countries that their religious faith and practices are as diverse as those within the Christian religion.  We readily accept that there is a huge difference between a Jehova’s Witness and a Baptist – so to in the Islamic faith. We cannot homogenise Muslims into just one group.

There are two specific expanding followings of extremely hardline muslims groups energetically operating in this country, to spread their particular ways; the Wahhabi sect (Saudi Arabia), and the Deobandis sect, (India). A lot of money is pouring into this country backing them. Fitzpatrick seems to be nudging us to open our eyes and take stock. Not against Muslim people at large, far from it, but at the political movements out to further their own ends. The Government Minister said he believed the East London Mosque was being influenced by the Islamic Forum of Europe, seen as a backer of Sharia law. “I think the stranglehold influence of the IFE is present more than ever. We are trying to build social cohesion in a community but this is not the way forward.”

Our culture in the UK, evolved through Protestantism, believes that everyone was born equal in the eyes of God and Man so segregation of any desription is a No-No. This issue is not about a right to choose to segregate, but about whether we tolerate the whole idea of segregration. Afterall, it’s not such a big leap between male and female segregration and between black and white – and I think we can all agree, that was plainly unjust.

Footnote: Muslim weddings I have been to usually have the main wedding ritual segregated. In one room , the priest deals with the groom asking him 3 times if he takes the woman as his wife. Then he goes to the other and asks the bride 3 times if she takes the man as her husband. After that, there are prayers and the ceremonial ritual is over. Then, men and women have mingled in the same room.  Segregation at weddings isn’t laid down by Islamic law.

For the first time in the whole history of the world we face the phenomenon of, not just globalisation, but CULTURAL GLOBALISATION. But does it really exist and, if so, so what?

Undoubtedly cultural values and identities are being shaped and reshaped with the media playing a significant role in our daily lives. Many of our ideas about the world, our understanding of what is happening everyday and, it can be argued, even our values come from beyond our personal experience – they are formed by what we see and hear via the media.

We receive ideas about the world as ‘packaged’ or ‘bite-sized’ versions of events and issues straight from the media and we just know this has a strong influence on individuals and ultimately society as a whole. With the spread of the media to even remote places on the planet, its influence brings out important issues concerning the affect on national or local cultures and their responses. Young people of the MTV generation around the world probably have more in common with each other than with their parents. But MTV reflects the attitudes and values of western countries, especially America, and is argued to be contributing to the homogenisation of global culture – which, according to research, is expanding rapidly.

Cultural globalisation is a result of the economic activites in developed countries of news and entertainment – the media that produce televison programmes, music and movies and distribute them across the world. This happens because THEY can, whilst other nations can’t. American dominance in this respect is uppermost because of a powerful economy and because of the English language. Even the statistics on book translations shows the number of American books translated from English far out weighs those being translated into English. However, this American dominance would not have come about without the economic power of the big corporations.

In some countries, American television constitues 50% of the programs as the host country does not have the resources to fund the cost of production and distribution of their own. Expensive, blockbuster American movies have been a dominant force but are seen to represent ‘a type of homogenous, uniform culture permeated by western capitalistic values… full of elaborate technical effects and focus on stunts, action, and violence instead of character and emotion’.  Undoubtedly, action movies are more easily understood in non-English speaking , diverse cultures  – in other words they can travel.

To a large extent CULTURAL GLOBALISATION is happening by default – because of econimc advantage. That of the US.  However, all is not lost. India has become the world’s leading producer of fiction films, with Bollywood circulating films to Indian Asia, Indian Africa and the UK. France, too, has retained a strong film industry which has received Government subsidies.

If Cultural Globalisation is an accident of econmic power then we can argue that as other countries rise in economic power Westernisation or Americanisation will lessen and the world will be treated to a greater variety of media input.