The Static Page

A Great Divide

One thing fairly indisputable about our community - and indeed many Internet communities - is the geographical diversity of the participants. Admittedly, IWETHEY has a high-proportion of North Americans, but there are also people from various parts of Europe and Australia and hopefully other places that I've forgotten. I'm not surprised we don't have anyone from an African country, nor to my knowledge from the Middle East. I am a little surprised, though, that there appear to be no natives of Japan or some other part of Asia.

International operations often require personnel to travel to a different culture for one reason or another. Sometimes this travel is virtual, as typified in many stories about logging on from across the world. (This does not always remove the need to speak the locals) Other times the travel must be physical, with all the attendant ills that go with long-distance travelling and encountering a different way of thinking and speaking.

Of course, such diversity is supposed to be good. Discussion comes up all the time about differences in background and culture. Some become avenues for humour. Others keep recurring. It is often an illuminating experience to grasp another culture. Serious study will usually bring a new appreciation of the other side.

Apart from the encounters here, what international experiences have you have? Where were they to? Where they physical or virtual? (Perhaps had to become the other!) How different was it from what you knew?

Wade Bowmer, aka Static

Comments? Email me at static dash page at yceran dot org.