Not so much a powerful reading experience as an attempt to influence international policy.
As the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Columbia Journalism Review and Slate contributor Simon (Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge, 1997) has a worthy agenda, which he advances here in a manner devoid of both sensationalism and much literary flair.
Mainly, the author lets the facts speak for themselves, using the murder of Wall Street Journal South Asia bureau chief Daniel Pearl as a springboard for an examination of how “Pakistan not only was one of the most deadly countries in the world for the media but also had one of the world’s worst records for bringing the murderers of journalists to justice.” Effective journalism requires presence close to the action, and thus closer to danger, and as news organizations have reduced their international staffing, the void has been filled by bloggers, freelancers and activists, lacking whatever resources and protection that institutional backing might have afforded them. The Internet might make it easier for such journalists to get the word out, but cybertechnology also makes them easier to track and monitor and for terrorists to respond with “institutionalized and now ritualized kidnapping, featuring hostage videos to exert political influence and secure ransom.” Though much of the book explores repression in totalitarian regimes, the United States and its supposedly free press doesn’t escape criticism: “For freedom of expression advocates, the U.S. efforts to use the Internet to spy on the world while simultaneously promoting freedom of expression online are contradictory.” As an extended policy paper, the book expands the traditional definition of “journalist” and suggests that awareness of the problem might be the first step toward reducing such censorship, which has often taken such ruthless forms.
Not so much a powerful reading experience as an attempt to influence international policy.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0231160643
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Columbia Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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