USF’s Vietnamese Student Association held it’s annual event to display some Asian pride while also celebrating the mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Guests at the “Heart of Vietnam” banquet were treated to a fashion show, humorous plays, and table-side food service. I was privileged to promote AKO during the event.

I was continually entertained by the various acts on the stage while the food that was served was decent– simple and not too flavorful. I mostly wished that the large USF ballroom was more filled with guests. Compared to the heavily advertised Journey to the East celebration just a month before, less than half of the tables were filled with guests. As a result, I barely sold any AKO products eventhough I had decided that a part of my profits would go towards helping Gawad Kalinga– an organization working to end the poverty found in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, I had a great conversation with a t-shirt designer who was visiting from California. I really hope he can help me out.

Click on my pictures to be transported to the Heart of Vietnam.

Ondertussen al een paar weken uitgekomen, maar daarom niet minder interessant.

De inhoudstafel is als volgt:

( 1 ) Voorpost en het solidarisme - Johan van Slambrouck
( 2 ) Economische soevereiniteit – Sacha Vliegen
( 3 ) Verankering van de economie – Johan van Slambrouck
( 4 ) Over het Amerikaans bankensysteem – Yannick Goossens
( 5 ) Cultuur en globalisme – Yves Pernet
( 6 ) Het verschil tussen natinonaal en internationaal kapitaal – Yves Pernet
( 7 ) Boekbespreking “The Web of Debt” – Yves Pernet
( 8 ) Vlamingen een volk van meiden en knechten, mag het ietsje meer zijn? – Eddy van Buggenhout
( 9 ) De ondergang van Fortis – Johan van Slambrouck
( 10 ) Boekbespreking “The world is flat” – Yannick Goossens
( 11 ) Omdat economie niet aan de economen mag worden overgelaten – Joost Venema
( 12 ) Huizen van Vlaamse solidariteit: solidarisme in de praktijk – Luc Vermeulen

Wie denkt in dit Revoltenummer enkel oproepen te vinden om “alles anders te doen” zonder invulling zal nog verschieten. Meerdere analyses van wat er is fout gelopen, wat er anders moet, hoe dat moet en waarom. Dat is wat u kan verwachten.

Mijn bijdragen plaats ik later nog op dit weblog.

Staff @ Gala!

So this being my first GALA ever while on staff, I had a lot of expectations going into this. And Gala didn’t disappoint! I thought I knew a lot of the other VSAs out there, but to my surprise their was were more people that I didn’t know (staff wise haha).

Of course I was the early one there (besides Wendy) and kept looking at the clock waiting wondering where everyone was at. But sure enough the event started we had most of our staff there and Gala officially started. Everyone’s theme seemed pretty toned down, compared to the themes I saw (in pictures) last year but that doesn’t mean the themes weren’t creative. Themes included: pirates, urban outfitters, money, french people, business attire, and so much more!

The only complaint I had about Gala though was the fact that some of the things we did were quite pointless and were only implemented to waste time, or so it seemed. But that didn’t tarnish that much of the fun so it’s just a minor gripe.

Through all the flaws I enjoyed everyone at Gala this year. From the the other staffs to of course, my lovely staff, I feel that I’ve grown a lot closer to more people. If any of you interested interns are reading this take my word for it, GALA IS WORTH GOING TOO! Well at least once haha.

Welcome to the CPP VSA Blog! Everything is getting edited right now so hopefully by the start of the school year this thing will be fully functional. I had to move the site because the “free hosting” I was using was giving me major headaches and problems. This move should hopefully be a longer lasting  stay . So feel free to look around and also if you have any ideas for the blog feel free to comment them out or email me. Thanks!

EDIT: If you guys really want to have avatars on this site you have to go through Gravatar.com, or you can sign up for a Gravatar by clicking a checkbox when you submit a comment (just make sure to place all the information before the comment to see the check box). I commented on this post as an example.

Wanneer je dacht dat de mensen die de Nobelprijsuitreiking beslissen niet verder konden zakken, gebeurt er dit:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/09/nobel.peace.prize/index.html

The Nobel Committee said it decided to honor Obama for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Met alle respect voor zijn oratorisch talent, maar de man heeft nog niets gedaan. Hij heeft een hoop toespraken gegeven waaruit mag blijken dat zijn ghostwriters zeker talent hebben. Verder heeft hij ook getoond dat hij niet geëvenaard kan worden in het aflezen van deze toespraken. Maar voor de rest heeft hij nog absoluut niets ondernomen dat zou betekenen dat hij breekt met het imperialistische verleden van de V.S.A. Of zijn ze bij de Nobelprijscomissie vergeten dat hij onlangs nog, samen met Sarkozy en Brown, Iran waarschuwde voor militaire actie? Is Guatanomo al toe? Is er een schot (excusez le mot) in de onderhandelingen over vrede tussen Palestina en Israël? Is de steun afgenomen voor regimes als dat in Egypte of Saudie-Arabië? De man is een goede negen maanden president en nu al zou hij deze prijs moeten krijgen. Dat ze daar compleet wereldvreemd zijn bij de Nobelprijscomissie mag toch wel blijken nu. Of waren ze daar zodanig anti-Bush dat ze nu alleen al voor die reden zijn opvolger de Nobelprijs geven?

Maar als we dan toch bezig zijn. Ik raad iedereen, die het kan, lid te worden van de Facebook-groep: “We want Obama for the Nobel Physics Prize 2010” Misschien kan het Vaticaan of de Orthodoxe Kerk al beginnen nadenken over een heiligverklaring? Als we dan toch ineens bezig zijn…

Als het Nobelprijscomité echter toch verder deze weg wilt opgaan, heb ik nog een kandidaat voor de Nobelprijs voor de Vrede: Bert Anciaux! De man is al bij een hoop partijen geweest en steeds met dezelfde inzet, steeds met een hoop emoties en steeds vanuit een overtuiging dat iedereen moet overeenkomen met elkaar. Hijzelf is trouwens de verpersoonlijking van bijna een half dozijn partijen, dus hoe meer verenigend kan je wel niet zijn?

We know for the intellectual developments of Femininity’s chronology for VSA’s cherishment in love and relationship that the goal of a lady who is single and free to continue in her thinking and doing, should succeed.

With the case of cry-baby’s it is now a familiarity to become open and honest and equal for the course of justice in emancipation.

With the case of cry-baby’s it is now known that a mandate is only given to girls who chose me freely and chose the reason of love either by a learning methodology or a know-how methodology as: 1) love partner 2) sexual partner 3) marriage partner.

Neither in 1 2 or 3 is a chance of injustice, because the present is used as 101 for honesty that is equal to honesty.
Unfortunately not every female in this world is single, nor open-minded. That is why a mandate is given to single-females.

In the problem how a mandate could be given to A. Z or W.D.C the question is answered as: a friendship mandate, conclusion is than made because of the high developments that everything I wish to do in cause of VSA is part of WSA and RSA, and is a security concern, immediately. I do not authorize individual movements without screening or justice. The goal to justify females is done by “removable judges” as my choice for security concern, and in WSA I remain the virtual judge who judges upon females in large capacity’s because of their femininity and chronology factors.

Females who wish to continue with me and a mandate should remember that your chronology is very important to me and also your open-minded thoughts, in finding out whether any subjective matter is blocking us from continuing in a happy or acceptable way.

Now I am not here to criticize myzelf upon others, but I do have to warn that a large amount of females can become a problem if sociology didn’t protected human rights and our positions through HIMA in WSA.

My request is simple and fair, a larger amount of females have gathered for me, and I have made a decision for them here simply, which is that the cherishment of VSA will be accepted as soon as I judged upon your position, and if you succeeded with Screening I’ll be making sure everything around you is secure and screened, when that is done a mandate will be held plausible, the securities who are at large for screening methodology’s should remember that I do not work with people who have connections to corruptions or are  a strategy, such as AIVD/MIVD. Which becomes a question to judges in HIMA how my screening will work internationally, the answer is than clear, WSA will fascilitate itself.

http://presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=106669&sectionid=351020102

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in the country’s foreign exchange accounts. The September 12 edict was issued following a decision by the trustees of the country’s foreign reserves, Mehr News Agency reported. Earlier, the Islamic Republic of Iran had announced that the euro would replace the greenback in the country’s oil transactions. Iran has called on other OPEC members to ditch the sinking dollar in favor of the more credible euro.

Following the switch, the interest rate for the facilities provided from the Foreign Exchange Reserves will be reduced from12 to 5 percent. Since being introduced by the European Union, the euro has gained popularity internationally and there are now more euros in circulation than the dollar. The move will also help decouple Iran from the US banking system.

Als u zich afvraagt waarom de V.S.A het op Iran gemunt hebben, dit is één van de hoofdredenen. Heel de retoriek over het gevaar van raketten heeft te maken met het scheppen van een anti-Iransfeer. Want als je nadenkt over die Iraanse “rakettendreiging” is dat niet meer dan onzin. Iran overleeft voor een zeer groot deel van de olie-export naar het Westen. Zodra er ook maar één Iraanse raket richting Europa vliegt, stort heel hun economie in.

En natuurlijk is Iran nu bezig met het versterken van hun leger. Ze hebben genoeg lessen getrokken uit Irak, dat ironisch genoeg kort voor de Amerikaanse inval bezig was met het overschakelen naar de Euro voor de olie-industrie. Komt daar nog eens bij, als Iran een kernwapen ontwikkelt, dan is het omdat ze lessen hebben getrokken uit Noord-Korea die met rust gelaten worden vanwege die kernwapens.

First of all, the role of the Virtual Judge that has been created as a mobility of 3Comaestro’s as 3Com is that the octagonal cause of 8 remains law-abiding, including the building in the future of 12 department’s of maestro’s existing of also the ogc.101.gpc as (O for blood and oxygen, gravitation, criminology) (gravity polar change) an important cause to a succesor of health and security as medical safety.

Where TSWM comes forward, before I replied to any request of authority, or ratification or pursuit or prudential or security or just the reason of qualification, it would be only plausible if it started with 1. security then 2. prudential then 3. pursuit then 4. qualification then 5. ratification then 6. authority.

In my mind it has been proven that I am a succesor of justice in honesty and equality, freedom and movement, peace and safety.
In my autonomy named; HIMA as for Homologate In Maestro’s Amplification’s I became responsible for obeying a qualified capable transpaerant rule of law international, who did not compromize world one focus, the honesty and equality, and the capability of freedom and movement for peace and safey of the honesty and equality to succeed. That is why duplexity is important especially as the analogy of duplexity. To be successful in any ology at all, N.O.R.M.S came at large to proven neologism ology r72 miscellanea strings, as that strings as for interdictions for prohibitations are necessary as acts, which makes acts a N.O.R.M.S factor, which makes it intellectual possible as a science factor because of neologism ology r72 miscellanea strings.

So to prevent that the autonomy is misused or abused, the United Nations proven itself that in the human rights the autonomy remained protected in the explanation/declaration for people with a handicap or let’s say the people’s role above handicap.

To prevent the roles of international law-abiding people at all, to abuse anything or unpurposely the chance to succeed against injustice should be revitalized and held as an issue plausible 24 hours a day for WSA/TSISA so that 3Com remains successful educational, in the demand of justice for VSA as for WSA-RSA-VSA, and the combinated ongoing of pledges because of ogc.101.gpc through the whole world, as in purpose of the future a public duty becomes none-compromizable and none-abusable than all security violations to be proven as illegal, such as in moerwijk, The Hague.

Thus the re-enacted capability of the laws have to be pushed foward to keep a close eye on all viewers and regardances of life of law-makers to succeed against psychiatry worldwide.

The role of TSWM is to revitalize justice for freedom and movement of ministration in trigonometrical amanuensis of ya.man.yo and for the goals of the universal declaration of independence in the future of World One and the focus of World One.

The reason why, is that a society becomes stronger, larger, and families grow through it, social security becomes an independent role and controls and securities for the reason of apendages becomes necessary to give in the form of demand for justice and authority of none-misused ongoing at all. The reason why we need to prevent injustice is thus explained now.

Nguyên tắc vàng: Qua đến US (nói riêng và mọi nơi lạ nói riêng): Nên nhìn trước khi làm (vào quán ăn, nhìn người ta làm và làm theo), đọc kỹ mọi hướng dẫn để tránh mistake và tránh bị embarrassing 

1. Các buổi giới thiệu và định hướng
- Nên tham gia tất cả orientation – general for MU and specific in your department, program, đặc biệt là của library – tất cả các orientation này thường bắt đầu vào tuần đầu tiên trước khi nhập học.
- Kinh nghiệm bản thân cho thấy nên tham gia đầy đủ và ask for information, rất tốt cho sau này. Sẽ có một phần hướng dẫn mở student account and pawprint. Dù biết dùng ngay từ đầu nhưng cũng vẫn nên nhờ người hướng dẫn lại. Vì có người hướng dẫn sẽ có đầy đủ chi tiết và tận dụng được tối đa nguồn tài nguyên MU: ví dụ Bengal (lượng space có trên website), free software and online – easy access software …

2. Tài khoản ngân hàng
- Đa số use Bank of American, campus checking account for student. Khi mở Bank account, mở cả checking lẫn saving một lần cho tiện (no hurt when opening saving account ) và an toàn. Ask for applying credit card và nếu apply được thì apply càng sớm càng tốt. Trước khi mở nên nhờ các anh chị Việt Nam ở đây giới thiệu, sẽ có lợi nhuận cho cả 2 bên ($10) 

3. Thẻ sinh viên
- Thẻ sinh viên cần giữ cẩn thận, và điều quan trọng nhất là khi mua hàng và ăn uống ở bookstore, có thể trả tiền bằng thẻ sinh viên. Nếu phần tiền học phí là do department hoặc các tổ chức trả, nên use student account khi mua đồ ở bookstore, hoặc xin bảng điểm trên Jesse Hall, tiền sẽ không phải do mình trả (a little tricky .. hehehe)

4. Sách
- Thường thì thư viện không có sách cho course L, chỉ có sách tham khảo, nên phải mua thôi
- Khi đăng ký môn học, nhớ tên mã số môn học và ra bookstore xem sách. Vì bookstore sẽ bán sách tương ứng với môn học in advance. Bookstore có cả new and used book. Mua used book rẻ hơn. Nên check giá online và giá ở bookstore, compare để mua rẻ hơn. Thường mua book online ở Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/). Nên mua book trước, đừng để đến ngày đầu tiên vào học mới mua, vì thường các môn học đòi hỏi đọc sách trước, mà chờ đợi đến khi học mới mua, nhất là mua online, thì không có sách đọc (thời gian shipping online khoảng 1 tuần hoặc hơn).

5. Lớp học – Các khóa học
- Khi đăng ký môn học online, có thể check được số lượng sinh viên trong lớp trước. Khi mới qua, dù trình độ English có khá đến cỡ nào cũng không khỏi lúng túng. Nên ngồi ngay bàn đầu để nghe cho rõ, nhìn cho rõ. Thường lớp có cả TA thì nên tận dụng TA mọi lúc mọi nơi để hiểu đúng và đủ thông tin. (lắm lúc thầy cho bài tập về nhà lúc nào mà cũng hổng biết).
- Sách tham khảo: Thường sách 1 nẻo, bài tập một nẻo, nên để học tốt thì đọc thêm nhiều sách tham khảo. Thư viện có nhiều sách tốt để dùng
- Học kỳ đầu tiên nên take những course nhẹ nhàng (ask advisor or seniors để biết thông tin về course), học kỳ sau hãy take những môn khó, nếu không rất dễ bị B, C do chưa quen với cách học và giao tiếp, ngôn ngữ …

6. Các khóa học ngoại khóa cần thiết
- Có rất nhiều course free: bên IAT (https://mu-webapps.missouri.edu/itpro/itpro) như statistic software, photoshop, powerpoint, … nên đăng ký học … vừa improve tin học, vừa improve listening and communication skills khi có nhiều chance learn and speak with native speakers.
- Course for writing and English improvement: Khoa nào hình như cũng có những course như professional writing … nên check, ask và take course ASAP. Ngòai ra khoa ELSP (English Language Support Program) cũng có nhiều khóa hay có thể học free và có nhiều outside activity; nên contact tại office 208 Reynolds building để check và apply học. Hổng đòi hỏi phải có TA position mới được học đâu 

7. Ăn chơi nhảy múa
- Fall semester thường có nhiều party và free pizza day. Nên tham gia vì có rất nhiều hoạt động ăn chơi nhảy múa ở đó được free. Các building thường có báo của Mizou, cung cấp thông tin ăn chơi, nhất là các lễ hội Mizzou after Dark 
- Nếu thích ăn kem, có một hàng kem Cold Stone Creamery (904 Elm st) rất gần campus, buy one get one free vào mỗi tối thứ 3 cho sinh viên 

8. Phương tiện đi lại
- Nếu không có xe hơi, có thể walk on foot hoặc bike. Xe bus cũng tạm ổn để đi, nhưng thường những chuyến tới Walmart, Mall 1 tiếng mới có 1 chuyến. Có 1 chuyến đến campus thì khỏang 15 phút 1 chuyến, hoạt động suốt ngày. Hơi inconvenient nhưng mà cũng tạm chấp nhận được.
- Có thể tham khảo về city bus – Columbia transit ở đây: http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/PublicWorks/Transportation/
- Sinh viên pay 25 cents cho một chuyến đi. Nếu chuyển từ xe bus này sang xe bus khác, nên xin transfer ticket để khỏi tốn tiền. Transfer ticket có hiệu lực khoảng 2 giờ và chỉ có thể dùng ở một số chỗ lớn lớn như Wabash station.
- Nếu đi xe bus nhiều, có thể mua vé tháng haft fare $10 để dùng trong một tháng (cái này cũng khá tiện lợi)

9. Du lịch
- Có hai sân bay lớn ở Missouri là ở Kansas city và St Louis. Ở Columbia có 1 airport nhỏ nhưng hầu hết không ai Việt Nam mình đi airport đó . Từ Columbia đến 2 thành phố lớn khỏang 2 tiếng lái xe. Có thể đăng ký MOX để đi đến sân bay. Dịch vụ này thuận lợi vì nó door to door pickup. Số chuyến đi và về Columbia – St. Louis nhiều hơn Kansas city. Giá cho một round trip khỏang hơn $80. Tham khảo chi tiết tại:
https://www.moexpress.com/tac/default.aspx
- Ngoài ra, có thể đi Greyhound (bus) để đến các thành phố khác. Tuy nhiên, không có dịch vụ door to door pickup, nhưng có thể take chuyến city bus 1N để đến Greyhound station. Trang web Greyhound:
http://www.greyhound.com/home.asp
- Deal máy bay:
Có thể use trang web này để tìm vé máy bay rẻ:
http://tickets.priceline.com/flights…10725&plf=pcln
Trên trang Southwest (http://www.southwest.com/) có cung cấp nhiều thông tin của hãng. Có thể download phần mềm DING!. Phần mềm này sẽ tự động cập nhật và báo khi có deal rất rẻ cho một số chuyến bay quan tâm (giá khoảng từ $75 – $117, one way flight cho 1 chuyến bay xa … SO AWESOME!!! )

so it’s my last staying up til 3am night of the summer because why the hell would i stay up til 3am in Seattle. the only reason i stay up late here is because of the blazzzzzin’ wifi so i am able to watch my porn in peace when everyone is sleeping. jk. more like, i talk to shawn.

— speaking of shawn. im a tad bit ticked because he said he would be online to talk to me tonight since it IS my last night of fast webcamming and whatnot which i won’t be able to do in Seattle. but he didn’t show. so i called him via Skype — more on that later — to see what’s up and he’s at a friends house? wtf? i mean, okay. i try not to be the clingy type but maybe i am! did i NOT tell him that i get DIALUP in seattle? gah. i know i’m being pesky but i just really would like to see him for the last time for a while. IM NEEDY. rawh. —-

and then i indulge in my allkpop.com [which i do realize gets news way faster than popseoul. but popseoul gets more cynical and funny and totally biased] and my online shopping and my youtube. bytheway, i stumbled upon this guy on youtube because of the “top watched” videos of the day.

peter chao? http://www.youtube.com/user/pyrobooby

he’s…i don’t know! i mean, he’s clearly faking that accent and he’s just…irritating as “fahk”. but i don’t know why i just had to watch most of his videos! i mean, its like profanity x10. and when i watch it, it’s just like “………o…my…god…what the hell am i watching…” and its just…so…i don’t know! people say you have to be able to laugh at yourself, but he takes that FOB stereotype to the fullest extreme. i cringe watching it but i can’t stop. it’s like that car crash on the freeway that you HAVE to slow down to see everytime and say “wow, i wonder if anyone died” to. okay i don’t know what kind of analogy that was but, all i’m trying to say is that he’s so crude but so freaking ridiculous.

but yes, it’s my last evening, night, whatever in Iowa. im going to miss it but i need to go back to my room im Seattle as well. my vacation here has ending with a in a spray painting daze. i got these rainboots at a garage sale and they fit amazingly but they’re just pink. really really really barbie pink. so i decided to do what any person would do to shoes they don’t like the color of [besides not buy them] — i spray painted them black. though it was more like my brother who spray painted them for me. i just stuck on dots and the paint tape on places that i didn’t want to get black. now they look like some random army boots i got from at trash can. haha, jk. they’re drying so i actually don’t know. we’ll see how they turn out. they were only five dollars so that’s okay if they don’t turn out so great.

i also watched harry potter tonight. overall, i would say it’s an okay movie. i understood what alysonman meant when she said it was boring, then good, then boring, then good. my brother [who has never read any of the books] said he liked it because there was more action. and i must admit, there was more action. the romance was quite stifling though. and what the heck was with the whole ron weasley’s house being burnt down part. err, was that in the book? i mean, what the heck? just adding in random scenes for the hell of it? it felt more like running around for no point. and i was looking forward to all the dueling that was suppose to happen in the castle and the fighting back against the death eaters thing. students against bad guys! i mean, where was all that?!? just harry running around chasing snape down?

— on a very lighter note, hermione granger is looking absolutely gorgeous in that movie. [: im absolutely intrigued where she got that SO SO cute peacoat. the checked one she wore a lot paired with the scarves.if anyone knows, please drop a line please?! 

for the skyping topic, i just did my very first phone call via skype and it was crystal clear! it was quite funny because shawn absolutely did not know who the hell i was at first so he talked to me in chinese [wei? wei? ni wei?] and im like “its hao you dodo.”. but yes, i am thinking about geting DSL for my house because i figured i’ll be needing to get faster internet for school. it’s an easy argument for me to give to my parents too. they’d rather have me study at home then at the library at UW. haha. but yes, maybeeeee sometime soon i won’t have to wait half an hour to load a MV from Big Bang.

also, night market for seattle is coming up. i’m considering asking my parents if i can volunteer with VSA there since i am now joined as a member. it should be fun and a good way for me to be introduced in with the people. i’m serious about joining too and maybe hopefully becoming an official in the future? VSA is Vietnamese Students Association. Night market is this thing held in the summer in the International District which is basically a mini fair with lots of food vendors and a night movie showing on a big projector set outside. it’s just simple fun.

well, it’s 3:30 am so i will head to sleep now. just packing up tomorrow so nothing so busy. i will definitely miss my late night eating out at taco bell or steak n shake and watching movies. and playing scrabble and upwords [amazingly competitive.] but i’m ready to head home. i can’t wait for school to start!

…even though you’ll be hearing about how much i can’t wait for break to start 5 days into the school year. [:

ttfn!

In 2002 schreef Osama Bin Laden in zijn Brief aan Amerika: “U bent een natie die vrouwen uitbuit als een consumentenproduct of reclamemiddel en die een beroep doet op klanten om hen te kopen. Jullie gebruiken vrouwen om passagiers, bezoekers en buitenlanders te dienen om zo de winstmarges te verhogen. Vervolgens slaan jullie jezelf op de borst dat jullie de vrouwenemancipatie steunen.“

Stof tot nadenken met betrekking tot het kijken naar de visie van Al-Qaeda? Citaat gevonden op pagina 58 van het boek “De wereld in 2100″ van de hand van George Friedman.

Het heeft al in de kranten gestaan en tijdens het filmen is hij bij momenten ook weer in het nieuws gekomen met een paar stunts. Sacha Baron Cohen heeft een nieuwe film uit. Deze keer niet met zijn typetjes Ali G of Borat, maar met de vlammende homoseksueel Brüno. Persoonlijk vond ik de film met Borat in de hoofdrol beter, maar ik kon de nieuwste film van Sacha Baron Cohen zeker smaken en dit vanwege meerdere redenen.

Borat

Het briljante aan de filmen van Cohen is dat zij de Amerikanen laat zien zoals ze niet willen gezien worden. Vaak legt hij de vinger op de wonde en toont hij de hypocrisie van de Amerikaanse cultuur aan. Graag gaan Amerikanen ervanuit dat hun land fantastisch is en dat zij de leidinggevende cultuur op deze planeet zijn. Niet zozeer vanwege militaire en economische redenen, maar omdat vele Amerikanen geloven dat hun ideeëngoed vanwege één of andere natuurwet superieur is aan alle anderen. De verbazing van vele Amerikanen naar het uitbreken van het geweld in Irak na de val van Saddam is een spijtige bevestiging van het feit dat Amerikanen er blijkbaar niet in slagen, en dit tot op het hoogste niveau, om zich te verplaatsen in andere culturen. Hun overtuiging dat de Amerikaanse “way of life” zo superieur is, zorgt ervoor dat zij een compleet gebrek aan culturele empathie hebben. Niet dat men alle culturen zoveel mogelijk moet gaan invoeren in eigen land, maar een zekere culturele empathie is wel nodig wanneer men zich op het internationele politieke toneel gaat begeven.

Amerikanen gaan er dus prat op dat hun cultuur superieur is, waarbij ze tegelijkertijd amper lijken te beseffen hoe andere culturen werken. Nu ga ik ook niet beweren dat de gemiddelde Europeaan op een blinde kaart alle landen van de wereld zal kunnen aanduiden of de verschillen tussen de verscheidene culturen uitgebreid zal kunnen toelichten. Maar door de vele culturen in Europa alleen al en de vele eeuwen van conflict hebben wij alvast geleerd dat men de dingen niet moet bekijken als superieur of inferieur (al begaan marxisten en liberalen vaak die fout door hun systeem universeel te willen opleggen). Wat Cohen aantoont, en dan vooral in de film met Borat, is dat een figuur die overduidelijk een karikatuur is blijkbaar perfect wordt aanvaard als een vertegenwoordiger van dat land in kwestie. Hij zou zich spreekwoordelijk zelf met kak kunnen insmeren en de kans dat men hem nog steeds zou geloven is volgens mij zeker reëel.

Met Borat toonde Cohen de mensen vaak zoals ze niet willen gezien worden omdat ze zogezegd tegen de dingen zijn die ze zelf eigenlijk in zich dragen. Zo strijden Amerikanen zogezegd tegen religieus fundamentalisme, maar toont de film Borat duidelijk aan dat de protestante fundamentalisten zeker niet moeten onderdoen voor hun islamitische tegenhangers. Ook is de film briljant in de mate dat mensen die overtuigd zijn van hun eigen groot gelijk, zonder enige plaats voor relativering, op hun plaats gezet worden. Maar het meest briljant aan de film zijn de momenten waarop Borat eigenlijk niets doet, maar de mensen laat spreken en eerlijk hun mening geven.

Brüno

Veel meer dan Borat moet de film met Brüno het hebben van het shockeffect. Scenes met homoseksuele handelingen en op een bepaald moment een penis die in volle glorie staat te zwaaien in close-up zijn beelden waarbij ik me toch afvraag waarom kinderen vanaf 12 jaar toegelaten zijn. Niet dat ik zwaar geshockeerd was, maar ik kan begrijpen dat ouders met jongere kinderen hier toch vraagtekens bij plaatsen. Al vraag ik mij dan weer af hoe het komt dat ouders naar deze film gaan met hun kinderen zonder zich daar eerst over te informeren. Je kon immers op voorhand in de kranten en op internet lezen wat voor film dit was en wat voor beelden je zou kunnen verwachten.

Het is vooral interessant om te zien hoe mensen op bepaalde situaties reageren. Zo is Brüno op een bepaald moment ouders aan het ondervragen in het kader van een fotoshoot waarbij hun baby’s betrokken zouden zijn. Meerdere ouders hebben geen problemen met hun kinderen in gevaar te brengen of zelfs hun kleuters te doen afvallen voor de fotoshoot. Of hoe sommige ouders hun wensen vanaf een zéér jonge leeftijd op hun kinderen projecteren. Ronduit amusant was het toen Brüno, vastgetekend in een SM-tenue aan een andere man, aan de beruchte Godhatesfags-mensen vroeg om hen los te maken. Interessant was het toen Brüno in een talkshow verscheen en vertelde dat hij een homoseksuele alleenstaande vader was. De zaal zat namelijk vol met zwarten die dit duidelijk afkeurden, en terecht, maar blijkbaar nog afkeurender werden toen bleek dat het om een zwart kind ging. Of hoe men iets als een etniciteit niet zomaar van zich kan afschudden zoals sommigen ons zouden willen doen geloven.

Conclusie

Persoonlijk vind ik het twee geslaagde films, al is Borat de betere van de twee aangezien hij minder op het shock-effect mikt. Sacha Baron Cohen is briljant in marketing aangezien hij er telkens in slaagt om mensen van beide kanten van het spectrum op hun paard te krijgen. Met Brüno waren zowel conservatieven als homo-activisten kwaad. En ondanks het feit dat ik een enorm belang hecht aan etnoculturele identiteiten en een conservatieve beleving van normen en waarden, kan ik wel lachen om deze films. Een gezonde dosis relativering kan geen kwaad, zolang het maar geen overdosis wordt. Een film als Brüno is dan wel grappig, ik zou er wel geen vijf per jaar willen zien verschijnen in die aard.

Amnis, the quality, innovation and productivity enabler, has announced a collaborative training programme with The Institute of Operations Management (IOM), an executive arm of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) and the professional organisation for operational management professionals.

This is the fifth year that Amnis and the IOM have collaborated to deliver a high quality training programme and to date this has benefited many hundreds of members and non-institute members of the IOM.

Amnis’ Mark Eaton, said: “The partnership between Amnis and the IOM works very well as it enables us to bring our high quality training and support to a much wider audience and, at the same time, adds real value to IOM members as well as raising the profile of the institute and its excellent work.”

The programme for 2010 includes a broad range of topics around Lean and Transformational Change – including how to change cultures and how to ensure that Lean becomes embedded inside organisations.

Leonie Edwards, manager of the IOM on behalf of the CILT, commented: “The workshops and masterclasses we have run with Amnis have proved hugely popular with Institute members and non-members alike. They have given value to hundreds of people over the last four years.

“Our 2010 programme with Amnis contains existing favourite workshops and exciting new ones. With Amnis, we are also offering institute members and non-members the opportunity to participate in the extremely practical ‘Accelerated Lean Skills Programme’ on 29th and 30th September and 1st October 2009 and, again, in April 2010.”

More information is available from Ruth Bodman on +44 (0) 870 446 1002. End About the Amnis/ IOM training programme

The training courses are:

 • Understanding Lean – 9th March 2010, London

 • Value Stream Mapping – 23rd March 2010, Corby

• Lean for Managers & Executives – 20th April 2010, London

• Lean, 5S and Standard Work – 4th May 2010, Corby

 • Expert in Lean Masterclass – 8th June 2010, London

• Sustaining Lean – 22nd June 2010, Corby

About Amnis

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in innovation, transformation and organisational improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges. Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.

Further information from:

Ruth Bodman, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002; ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Healthcare organisations – including hospitals – are giving up too soon on ‘Lean’ based improvement initiatives, according to specialist healthcare quality, innovation and productivity improvement enabler, Amnis.

Amnis’ Mark Eaton, explained: “A number of improvement initiatives underway in the healthcare sector are based on the concepts of ‘Lean’ and ‘Lean Sigma’ but, like many organisations in manufacturing where Lean has its origins, there is already evidence that some healthcare organisations are giving up on these initiatives before they realise real results or are simply changing processes and doing nothing to change the underlying culture and behaviours.”

According to Eaton – author of the book ‘Lean for practitioners’ – the top five reasons why this happens are:

1. Lean is not a Board issue but, instead, is launched at divisional or even individual department level. This leads rapidly to fragmentation of activity and dissipation of effort.

2. Not ensuring that the productivity improvements expected through Lean are aligned with the organisation’s objectives. This leads to Lean being ‘out prioritised’ by other activities and put on hold and, once it is on hold, it is one step from being mothballed.

3. Not building on previous experience. This is where Lean tries to undo all of the good things that have gone on – and are currently going on – and this builds resentment from frontline teams.

4. Building reliance on external consultancies or agencies. Building internal capability and, even more importantly, involving a healthcare organisation’s frontline teams, is the only way to get Lean out of the textbook and into the clinic.

5. Many organisations simply give up when they encounter problems, resistance or changing priorities because they have not built up the resilience that is needed to get through the initial period of turbulence.

“Starting out by treating Lean as a Board level issue, approaching it in a flexible manner and recognising the difference between changing processes and changing behaviours are the keys to long-term success,” said Eaton.

To help organisations to understand how Lean helps drive improvements in quality, innovation and productivity, Amnis runs a number of workshops for executives and front-line teams – including its Accelerated Lean Skills Programme.

 In partnership with the Institute of Operations Management, Amnis is running an ‘open’ version of this programme from 8th to 10th September 2009. For more information, contact Amnis at info@amnis.uk.com or call 0870 446 1002.

About ‘Lean’ and ‘Lean Sigma’

Six Sigma is a business management strategy, initially implemented by Motorola, which enjoys widespread application in many sectors of industry. Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and variation in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organisation who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organisation follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).

Lean Sigma incorporates the speed and impact of ‘lean’ with the quality and variation control of Six Sigma.

Coined by Jim Womack’s research team at MIT in the 1990s, ‘Lean’ means doing more with less. The core idea behind ‘Lean’ is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. A Lean organisation understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continually meet those needs.

About Amnis

Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in quality, innovation and productivity improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.

Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team are leaders in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.

Further information from: Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

According to the specialist healthcare quality, innovation and productivity improvement enabler, Amnis, redesigning end to end clinical pathways is the basis of improved healthcare performance. Amnis’ Mark Eaton, commented: “However, the days of doing high level pathway redesign and value stream mapping using brown paper and sticky post-it notes alone should now be at an end.

 
“For some time, service improvement professionals have found themselves tasked with spending hours using Visio or PowerPoint to create passable facsimiles of the diagrams appearing on brown paper – so that they can be sent out for comment and updating after the event. These experiences have helped them appreciate the limitations of the ‘brown paper approach’ in this important work.”
 
Amnis and their partners at Process Master, designers of the award winning Leanpad for Healthcare software, which enables users to create, edit, attach documents, communicate, report on and add performance data, are to run a high level Masterclass, in London, on 21st July to set out a viable, cost effective alternative.
 
“The Masterclass will introduce service redesign specialists and others tasked with managing the redesign of clinical pathways to the key things they can do to drive better service redesign activities,” said Amnis’ client services’ director, Ruth Bodman. “It will also allow people to play with, and understand the flexibility and capabilities of Leanpad for Healthcare software.
 
“The event will allow delegates to review the most productive ways to improve the quality and effectiveness of their clinical pathways; gain answers to their problems with Value Stream Mapping and Pathway Redesign Activities from the ‘experts’ and fellow delegates; gain practical experience of using pathway and process software that should reduce the time taken to capture, edit and share information by up to 80 per cent, and find out what other organisations are doing to ensure that their improvement activities are a success,” she said.
 
The Masterclass takes place at IMECHE, in Birdcage Walk, London, SW1. For further details, or to book a free place, contact Amnis’ Ruth Bodman at ruthbodman@amnis.uk.com or call 0870 446 1002.
 
End
 
 
About Amnis Limited
 
Working with both public and private sector organisations, Amnis is a consultancy which specialises in quality, innovation and productivity improvement, helping clients plan and deploy strategies for successful transformation. Its goal is to help clients not only deliver sustainable change but also to develop their capability to tackle their next challenges.
 
Providing both consultancy and training services, Amnis’ team includes specialists in Lean/Six Sigma, organisational development, strategic planning, change management and systems thinking.
 
Further information from:
 
Mark Eaton, Amnis, 00 44 (0) 870 446 1002; markeaton@amnis.uk.com 
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com