Kiss, Bow, Or Shake Hands:

How To Do Business In Sixty Countries

By Terri Morrison, Wayne A. Conaway, George A. Borden, and Hans Koehler

o While in Germany, on business, you meet with your local counterpart. Between your broken German and his

textbook English you are able to carry on a fairly well understood conversation. You reach a lull in your talk

and to keep the conversation going you ask your friend about his spouse and children. Suddenly, he grows very quiet and a look of anger sweeps across his face. You ask yourself, “Did I mispronounce something? Did I say something wrong?”

o In Ecuador, you engage a street vendor in a lively negotiation for one of the Indian artifacts that he is selling. You grow increasingly uncomfortable as you realize that not even a foot separates you from him; you take that to mean he is interested in you personally. Whenever you took a step backward, he takes one step towards you to close the gap. Alarmed, you break off the conversation suddenly and head back to your hotel hoping that the merchant is not following after you.

o On the streets of Copenhagen, you wait for traffic to thin out so that you may cross the road. A driver slows down and signals for you to proceed. You smile and flash an okay gesture (thumb and forefinger forming a circle) at her and then are surprised by the glaring look of disgust from her.

Each of the above examples shows cultural differences that can occur when traveling outside the United States. “Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: How to Do Business in Sixty Countries,” is a helpful reference for travelers. From Argentina to Greece to Japan, the authors present a work that is both serious and funny, practical and helpful, to assist business travelers as they navigate the cultural maze in the land(s) they are visiting.

The book is a helpful tool that will enhance the globetrotter in brushing up on what to expect before his/her trip abroad. Each featured country has its own chapter and contains the following information:

o Country Background — History, Type of Government, Language, Religion, and Demographics.

o Cultural Orientation — Particular Value Systems and Negotiation Strategies.

o Business Practices — Appointments (When to be punctual and when to be purposely late), Negotiating, and Business Entertainment.

Interspersed throughout are cultural notes that are meant to inform travelers how to present their best foot forward and avoid mistakes like those listed earlier. Now, let’s take a look at the examples mentioned earlier and see what went wrong:

o For Germans, family life and business life are kept separate. Germans will find a way to work family into their conversation if they want to share that information with you (see page 131).

o Ecuadorians, like many South Americans, traditionally stand close to one another when conversing. If you move back, they often will close the gap to maintain their close proximity. In the U.S., we are accustomed to at least a two foot gap between people and consider anything closer as threatening (see page 92).

o Danes, as well as many cultures around the world, take the American “o.k.” gesture to be an obscene or insulting response. Be careful what hand gestures you use abroad — you may get a very unwelcome response (see page 87).

Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands is published by Adams Media Corporation, 1994, Holbrook, Mass.

Matt is the webmaster for the Corporate Flight Attendant Community at http://www.corporateflyer.net and http://www.cabinmanagers.com

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Here in part five I bring us to the present day and also return to that first century individual Simon Magus whom I mentioned from the Book of Acts in part one.

In part four I left it with Babylon – that Great City in flames and the merchants of the world lamenting her fall and destruction. (Please note I will be writing a separate article on “That Great City” soon as many ‘experts’ erroneously think it’s Jerusalem.) Hang on a minute, Babylon surely doesn’t exist in a literal sense; it was destroyed by the Persians thousands of years ago, wasn’t it? Yes of course but at the same time the spirit of the image of Babylon was not destroyed, and as already proven by the continuity of the iron in King Nebuchadnezzar’s image, it is Rome that is now modern Babylon. If we remember, the image is a Babylonian image not a Persian image nor a Greek image and not even a Roman image, but Rome is the fourth and last depiction and representation of this Babylonian image so the City of Rome which includes the Vatican is spiritually Babylon. This 21st century Babylon/Rome has a new vassal empire as stated in part four – The EU, recently expanded to twenty seven nation state members. It now stretches from Ireland on the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Bulgaria on the Black Sea in the east, with a population approaching five hundred million. Turkey is also keen to join and with another one hundred million people that’s a very big empire indeed.

People outside and inside of the EU continue to mock it because of all the national in-fighting and ego flexing that drags it down and holds it back. It’s riddled and rotten to the core with endemic corruption at the highest levels. Well, it is Babylon’s Demonic Empire so what else should we expect? Added to that, there is no democracy. All major decisions are made by unelected commissioners and there is a central bank where again all financial decisions are made behind closed doors. How totalitarian and Babylonian/Roman is all that? All new Babylon needs now is a new charismatic ‘King Nebuchadnezzar’ – a Hitler, Mussolini or Napoleon to unite it, lead it and give it powerful empire status once again, and then watch out for this event is just around the corner.

Now because of the general disparaging global and internal view of the EU/New Babylonian Empire, its imminent rise to power will take the world and millions of Europeans completely by surprise. As fast as communism collapsed in Europe so the much faster rise of New Babylon will take people’s breath away. Hitler’s rise to power was swift but that will be shown to be snail’s pace when compared with the meteoric rise to power of Babylon’s new Emperor. The people of the world will be stunned and in awe of him and his new empire, and like King Nebuchadnezzar, will command all to bow down and worship his new image through receiving the mark of the beast in either their hands or their foreheads. The only people who won’t bow down and will not receive his mark will be True Christian believers – The Elect, those chosen from before the foundation of the earth, those faithful and true sons and daughters of God.

Ok, back to that Simon Magus individual. In Acts 8 we read of him in very negative circumstances indeed, as he tries to purchase The Holy Spirit from the Apostle Peter. He belonged to, and was a signed up member of, the Mystery of Iniquity as mentioned by Paul in 2 Thess 2:7. Notice how it’s all about Mysteries!! Now this Simon’s evil and blasphemous act, in itself, reveals a spirit – a spirit of the Devil. This spirit is the spirit of the love of money or better, filthy lucre. In the future, it would always be money that was obtained through manipulative, ruthless, deceitful, dishonest or even criminal ways and that would be the identifying sign of the organisation that Simon Magus would help found. The future building of a worldwide organisation that Simon Magus and those like him would establish. Make no mistake this Simon Magus was possessed of the spirit that founded the miry clay addition to the Babylonian image – the Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox religions that buy and sell ‘salvation’. These were and still are religions with money, power and worldwide influence and religions with religious leaders that couldn’t give a toss as to where the money originates; including the manipulated hardship and poverty of the millions of those that give to it.

This is why the character of Simon Magus the sorcerer in Acts is so important in the identifying of Babylon or the Mystery of Iniquity at that time in history i.e. the first century. This Simon was a sorcerer, a deceiver of the people and a big shot. As a sorcerer, like those who sucked up to King Nebuchadnezzar, he was a charlatan and con-man (Herbert W Armstrong). It also means he was a smooth talker, charismatic and influential (The Pope) – people listened to him so he was an enemy of the Apostles in their mission as spokesmen for The Word of God – The Lord Jesus Christ. This Simon, wanted to buy salvation and the organisation he helped found has been marketing or buying and selling ‘salvation’ ever since.

Here is another important Truth. All cults and many denominations or daughters of the Mother of Harlots are dominated by the spirit of the love of filthy lucre. Just do a little research and you will find they are all tainted with same brush; very secretive about their finances. Armstrong and his Worldwide Church of God, wasn’t the only one; JW’s, Mormons/LDS’s, Moonies, SDA’s they’re all the same. There are also many denominations (Demon-inations) that are run and organised on a love of money foundation and are, in reality, just little cults themselves. I know, to my shame, I’ve been there and I’ve worn all their blasphemous tee shirts. Being there though was all part of the learning curve; we are, after all – witnesses and we should learn from what we witness.

We’ll now move on, as that’s enough of the negative stuff, let’s return now to Daniel 2:34-35 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, (symbolism for The Chief Cornerstone – The Lord Jesus Christ) which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth (Brackets mine).

All the above events must take place before The Lord Jesus Christ returns including the mark of the beast whereby unless human beings receive this mark they will not be able to buy or sell goods of any description. Again, another sign of the end but His glorious Kingdom must come – it’s inevitable and no one can stop it. How do I know this? Simple, all the prophecies written in Daniel 2 have come to pass apart from those just ahead of us so I know they will happen and the new ‘King Nebuchadnezzar’ and his New Babylon will be smashed, nay pulverised, into chaff and carried away on the wind – gone forever.

Here too we have more evidence that the Kingdom of God will be here on this earth. The Stone is The Lord Jesus Christ and mountains are symbolic for nations or kingdoms and His Kingdom or mountain will fill the whole earth. One earth and one nation ruled by The Lord Jesus Christ with a little help from His brothers and sisters – The Elect.

As always, you can reach me at yes2faith@yahoo.co.uk with any queries.

Charles Crosby

2059

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The Rules of surfing have been around for many years, they are often unspoken and always bent or broken to a degree. Yet we surfers, wether experienced or absolute novice can not afford to ignore them. In today’s utterly crowded conditions we must all try a little harder to monitor our own behaviour in the water. Simply because without some idea of what is ok in the water, and what is not, we destroy and devalue the surfing experience for all others around us. Here are the basic rules, it’s a very good idea to learn them, ignore these guidelines at your own peril.

1. Have fun, but not at the expense of the other people in the water

2. Don’t drop in (this means don’t catch a wave that someone else is already riding). The surfer on the inside (closest to the breaking part of the wave) has right of way

3. Don’t be a snake! (A snake is a surfer who constantly paddles to the inside, or turn inside someone after they started to paddle into a wave, and then invoke the drop in rule). In other words try not to be greedy

4. Don’t paddle through the line-up. (This means don’t paddle out where the other surfers are riding, it’s very dangerous for all involved).

5. Do show some courtesy and respect to both the more experienced surfers and the locals, remember this. When are surfing away from home, you are surfing in someone else’s home. Show some respect.

6. The surfer on the wave has right of way, if paddling out, try to stay out of the way, take the hit from the white water rather than risk ruining another surfers wave. You would not run into traffic, do not paddle into the line of an oncoming surfer.

7. Use common sense where crowds are an issue. If you turn up to a break that is already heavily crowded, then consider surfing somewhere else. Adding to an already frustrated and aggressive crowd won’t help you or them

8. Wear a leg rope. Occasionally you’ll see a surfer in the water who is not using a leg rope, they are usually very experienced and rarely loose control, and they are the only exception to this rule.

9. Always hold on to your board when a wave hits you (throwing your board away and allowing your leg rope to do the job for you, is very dangerous to the other surfers in the water)

10. Never use your board as a weapon or as a means of protection from a possible collision. Many beginners will throw their boards in front of another surfer when afraid of a possible collision. This is incredibly dangerous.

These are the basic rules that have been in force for many years out in the surf. Yet for the last ten years these rules have been broken on a regular basis, mainly by newcomers to surfing. The result is chaos, and learners have come to be resented by the more experienced surfers. learn these rules and apply them, become part of the solution, rather than a part of the problem.

For more information about learning to surf, visit The Surfing Gooroo Learn to Surf guide [http://surfing-gooroo.com/main.cgi/Learn%20to%20Surf/Learn%20to%20Surf]

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