Mother House: a Small, Yet Successful Japanese Company in Bangladesh.

Many people argue that a multinational company exploits both human and natural resource in a developing country. Such business destroys the local tradition and pays minimal wages to its workers. But is there any way to solve this problem, and yet to maximize business opportunities in global markets?

Mother House, a Japanese clothing and accessories manufacture, has unique operations in Bangladesh. Let memake two points about this company.

1-Many workers in a developing country are unskilled and receive low wages. However, Mother House trains unskilled workers to manufacture high quality products and charge premium prices on these products. As a result, workers are more skilled and receive higher wages than anyone else at other manufactures.

2-"Americanization" leaves a concern that it wipes out the local tradition in a developing country. However, Mother House sells clothes and bags which are based on the Bangladeshi tradition. This business activity does not neglect the culture in Bangladesh. Instead, it promotes the uniqueness of Bangladeshi clothing to other mass markets such as Japan. This sustains the Bangladeshi tradition and encourages other local entrepreneurs to export their cultural products to other countries.

HL Extension Geography!!!!!!

I was regretting bit about my diploma subjects because I wanted to take history and economics in addition to geography and business management which I currently take. But I will no longer regret.  The HL extension of geography, whose theme is "Global Interactions" , will start from next week.

I pre-read the fact sheet about globalization as homework, but the concept is just fascinating because this course is well beyond what students are expected to learn in geography classes. It involves not only environmental sustainability, but also political, economic and cultural interactions between countries. As we are taking every subjects separately, we tend to think from only one perspective. For example, you might think about profit maximization but not about ethics and women empowerment when you take a business class. But in this geography HL extension, I will consider Globalization from different geographical perspectives:environment, politic, economy and culture. This is just awesome....!!!

Food Culture in Italy

              Have you ever noticed the Italian people tend to be conservative about food? The TV program broadcasted the food culture in Italy. The TV program carried out the interview about what foreign cuisine Italian people liked. And the surprising fact was that they answered that they were all satisfied with Italian food, more specifically their local cuisine. Resultantly, this passive attitude toward the "foreign cuisine" causes an issue for some international businesses.

              Because the Italian food is embedded so strongly in the Italian culture, many multinational fast-food chains such as McDonald often face difficulties in entering the market in Italy. In addition, The Japanese owner of the Italian food restaurant encountered some discriminations when he first opened the restaurant in Milan because nobody in Italy would ever think that "Japanese can cook Italian food for Italian people in Italy."

              All of these facts struck me. We see many Italian restaurants wherever we are in the world, but we do not see many foreign cuisine in Italy. However, on the other side, Milan will hold a Milanoexpo-2015 whose main theme is "Feeding the Planet". It will be very interesting to check out how much Italy would accept the other food cultures from all over the world.

Can Africa be the Most Productive Energy Producer?

Africa is still recognized as a continent with scared natural resource and low economic developments. This fact discourages investment from more economically developed countries as there is no reason to invest in regions without any economic potentials.

However, I still see potentials in Africa in terms of energy production. It is said that the whole continent of Africa produces the annual electric power consumption of the world population by absorbing solar energy for only 6 hours. Now, knowing this fact, we suddenly see possibilities of economic development in Africa. Production of solar energy develops not only African economy but also sustainable and renewable resource.

Still, some issues are remained. Firstly, a current solar panel absorbs only 20% of solar energy. Secondly, high cost of installment and maintenance limits the targeted users. Thirdly, current technology cannot transport electricity from one continent to another. Nevertheless, rapidly developing technology will eventually increase efficiency of energy absorption, lower the costs of installment and make energy transfer easier. Therefore, even though installment of solar panels does not immediately give excellent outcomes in Africa, the bright possibility still exists.

New US Sanctions on North Korea

Recently, North Korea showed a positive attitude toward a high-level summit with South Korea. Even though this statement would possibly re-strengthen political ties between two countries, South Korea welcomes new US sanctions on North Korea. It seems that the American condemnation of a possible cyber attack from North Korea influenced the South Korea's acceptance of new sanctions.

I personally think South Korea's action was right. Though this act of welcoming sanctions ultimately worsens its relation with North Korea, the relation with the US is more economically and politically important for South Korea. The US is the one which militarily protects South Korea from threats of North Korea. Therefore, the decision about which country South Korea should be with was very obvious in my opinion.