11/10/2011 Religion Egypt has in recent months been riven by sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians, the

latter groups largely made up of members of the Coptic Orthodox sect. Egypts Christians have long complained about discrimination at the hands of the state. Gender India is suffering from the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. India, like other Asian societies, has been battling the bias against female offspring for years. Even though an increasing number of women are entering the workplace, social attitudes remain traditional, with boys considered breadwinners and girls seen as liabilities who need large dowries for marriage. A recent World Bank report said more than 1.3 million pregnancies involving female fetuses are terminated in China and India every year, because of the preference for boys. Japan The Japanese workforce is one of the best educated, trained and productive in the world. Japan has a strong work ethic and culture of excellence. The people of Japan are very industrious and take pride in their work. Japan has a strong track record in innovation and new technology. It used to dominate the world in consumer electronics and now is a world leader in building hybrid, electric and other fuel-efficient vehicles. It is also a leader in green technologies, robotics, game technology, anime and so on. In the corporate world, Japan has produced notable global champions such as Toyota, Panasonic, Sony and Hitachi. There are 68 Japanese companies in the Fortune Global 500. Japan is immaculately clean and takes excellent care of its environment. It has a long and rich history and its heritage in arts and crafts is carefully preserved. Japanese people display qualities such as resilience, determination, courage, discipline, unity and civic-mindedness, as exemplified by their reactions during the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and a damaged nuclear power plant. 13/10/2011 Blockbuster scam in China, where cinema operators undeclared their earnings to boost their profits at the expense of film producers Soft power: Taiwan launches three Taiwan Academies in the United States, which will spread Chinese culture with Taiwanese characteristics, similar to Chinas Confucius Institutes, which promote Chinese culture and language and already number almost 700 around the world Mr Paul Gilding, author of the book The Great Disruption argues that our global market capitalism system has offered broken promises. It promised that if we let the rich get richer, let corporations focus on profit, let pollution go unpriced and unchecked, we will all be better off. Instead, while the rich are getting richer and corporations are making profits, people are getting worse off drowning housing debt/people who worked hard but still unemployed/environment getting more damaged. On the other hand, Mr John Hagel III, in his book The Power of Pull, suggest that we are in the early stages of a Big Shift, precipitated by the merging of globalization and the IT Revolution. In these early stages, we will experience growing pressures and deteriorating performance as we continue to

operate with institutions and practices that are increasingly dysfunctional. Yet, the Big Shift also unleashes a huge global flow of ideas, innovations, new collaborative possibilities and new mkt opportunities. 15/10/2011 Many private businesses in China routinely use underground lenders (loansharks) because govt-run banks typically lend only to big state-run corporations. Illegal lending in China amounts to about US$630 billion a year, or about 10% of China's GDP