Middle East: Malnutrition soars in conflict-ridden Yemen


It is hard to believe that Yemen is now in a situation where up to 5 million people are malnorished and are facing serious hunger.
Saudi Arabia has pledged over 3 billion USD to assist and other countries have pledged significant amounts as well.
But the situation in Yemen is complex.

• The government is not in charge, tribes typically are the only authority
• Al Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is making it hard to get anything done in the parts of the country they control
• A long history of chewing Qatt (a mild narcotic leaf) has depleted the ability to be self-sufficient in food production
• Relief and development organizations do not have enough Yemen-experienced staff available to move into large-scale projects. 

All in all a significant lack of Inter-Cultural Intelligence causes:

• Resources to be wasted
• Head office decisions of NGO's to not reflect the reality on the ground
• Bureaucratic decision making  takes too much time
• Expats that enter Yemen are not Inter-Culturally Intelligent in terms of local dynamics and make unnecessary mistakes
• International donors are trying to by-pass the government at a time when the government needs to be empowered to be seen as a strong contributor to the rebuilding of the nation. 

The reality is that unless serious efforts are made to intervene the people of Yemen will face a disaster that will have significant ripple effects throughout the region.

Thanks to my friend and fellow Inter-Cultural Intelligence enthusiast

Skip Pettit has a significant numbers of years experience in developing leaders. Thousands of people have been blessed by his investment into their lives!
As Skip and I exchanged ideas on Inter-Cultural Intelligence I was encouraged to see his enthusiasm rise!
Thank you Skip for posting this overview of our work at KnowledgeWorkx on your blog!
The Inter-Cultural Intelligence development process that we develope has truly become a life-style for us, and I hope it will become a life-style for many more people. Ultimately we hope to bring reconciliation, unity in diversity, fun, productivity and true value-add to this world.
Click here to read what Skip had to say about KnowledgeWorkx

Inter-Cultural Intelligence and the Olympics

IOR World is one of our KnowledgeWorkx business partners.

They published an interesting article on their blog related to top level athletes and how important it is for them to be Inter-Culturally Intelligent.
Their interview with Michael Blatchford offers interesting insights in the intercultural challenges athletes face on the international circuit.

I like what Michael had to say at the end of the interview:
“The great athlete is the one who best deals with the unexpected. My experience has allowed me the patience to accept the unknown and manage snap changes.” The more experience competing at the world level, the more comfortable the athlete is abroad, and the better he can perform. Experiences that once felt like huge differences turn into much less daunting encounters. It is this type of advice that we can apply to today’s international assignments, as they offer a great opportunity to develop critical global business skills.  It is a great  expatriate who develops these global skills and  mindset that can become a valuable global leader for the company."

Six mental polarities that could contribute to thinking about values across cultures?

John King (author of 'Tribal Leadership') made me aware of Jonathan Haidt's new book: 'The Righteous Mind'.

I am not a great student of American politics and have very few positive words for their two-party political system, but the six polarities Haidt mentions in his book caught my attention. These polarities can easily be taken out of the American political context and viewed within a multicultural context anywhere in the world.
I think they are helpful polarities that can shed light on culturally motivated values.

The book summary on Amazon says:

According to Haidt's and others' research, there are at least six mental 'modules' that go into moral and poltical decisions, and it is difficult to argue that any one (or two or three) are more important than others. And they are:
care/harm,
fairness/cheating,
loyalty/betrayal,
authority/subversion,
sanctity/degradation and
liberty/oppression.

Some people (often of the political left) care most about care/harm and fairness/cheating in their emphasis on egalitarian politics that aim to provide care for those in need and create fair rules in the sense that everyone, relatively speaking, starts on an 'even playing field.' Others (usually conservatives) have tempermants that focus on authority/suversion and loyalty/betrayal, focusing on maintaining or promoting institutions that foster some level of deference to authority (in legitimate hierarchies), and loyalty (whether to country, God, family, etc).

Will Intercultural marriage in the UAE become accepted?

Intercultural marriages for UAE nationals have been a debated issue for years. UAE guys marrying ladies from outside the UAE has been leading the way, but now it seems the trend is edging toward UAE ladies having to look for greener shores when it comes to a life partner.

There currently are 950,000 UAE nationals, 475,000 are male, 20% of eligible males marry foreign women because of less dowry and easier process of getting married. If 40% of all males are at eligible age then over 35,000 UAE national women will not find a local husband. The trend will move toward: UAE national women starting to marry foreign men out of necessity but also because they work harder and are more open minded husbands... 

In a recent study amongst 200 UAE national women: 1/3 said they would marry somebody from a different ethnic background 1/3 said they might consider it.

Circumcision banned in Germany

Circumcision is now banned in Germany. The ruling stemmed from a circumcision that lead to complications with a 4-year old boy. Is Germany ready to do battle with Muslims, Jews and Christians because of one circumcision that resulted in complications?

The logic of this decision trumps everything.
Now let me get this straight: becausse of a complication following circumcision, the boy suffered and as a result circumcision is now banned in Germany. The ruling by the district court of Cologne says circumcision "for the purpose of religious upbringing constitutes a violation of physical integrity".
If we pursue the same type of logic with all other medical procedures that have gone wrong, very soon most medical procedures would be banned in Germany.

BUT: the bigger issue is an issue of lack of Inter-Cultural Intelligence. I am wondering if the legal teams and the judges involved every thought about the wider consequences of their decision. They obviously were not practicing Inter-Cultural Intelligence as they were going through the evidence and as they formulated their final decision. The other thing that is happening here is a classical pitfall in what we would call a "Guilt-Innocence" oriented society. Germany is very "Guilt-Innocence" (wrong<>right) oriented and the legal system is a reflection of that. This case shows that if you just follow the letter of the law and apply it outside the context of relationship and societal dynamics, you end up with a decision that doesn't enhance society as a whole, but actually cripples it to fully be what it was intended to be.
It also points to a serious lack of Cultural Learner mentality and too much Cultural Critic mentality.