dalillama.com

50 thousand copies in Portuguese… He’s landing folks,

Michael Moore.com.br

“Passou dessa pra melhor”, Sir Peter Ustinov

“It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.” –Sir Peter Ustinov

What he answered when asked what’d he like inscribed in his tombstone: “Keep off the grass”

We’ll miss you…

What was the first thing you heard about Bentley before you applied? Odds are it was the school’s mission statement or that one-sentence description: a business university with “a focus on IT.” Bentley undeniably aims to integrate technology into its curriculum, be it as a learning tool or as one of its seemingly infinite business applications. The dot-boom and subsequent bust brings obvious advantages and disadvantages to this focus from the student’s and future employer’s perspective alike (after all, we all benefit from the priceless benefit of hindsight of the dot-bust). Lately, however, that seems to not be nearly enough.
After it’s all said and done, the only aspect of business which has been steadily growing in importance over the past decades is, at the risk of sounding blasé, one’s ability to abstract in a global perspective and put it to use locally. Globalization (a component of that global perspective) is seen (and taught) more as a movement or phenomenon rather than an instrument. Bentley has been adequately introducing students to globalization through initiatives such as the class book (Thomas Friedman’s Lexus and the Olive Tree, this year), various lectures and the efforts of the International Studies Department. These initiatives alone set Bentley apart from a multitude of colleges. The trick here is crossing the line from “good” to “great”, as Jim Collins would say. Raising awareness and perspective among students on Globalization and fundamentally the world outside the US is not enough anymore. To cross the line, Bentley must not only do the “trendy” effort of teaching what Globalization is, but more importantly teach how to employ its virtues in a business application, effectively recognizing it as the tool it is. If IT bridged the gaps between individuals, nations and corporations, then coupled with globalization it has become the potential to gear it towards a business end. Given this premise, it seems almost logical for Bentley to bridge the two beyond the conceptual and into the practical.
It’s tempting to outline “initiatives” and form “committees” to explore this application, but the truth is that its potential is so great that it warrants a structural reflection by Bentley on its curriculum and goals. The precipice which lies ahead, however, is that of joining the trendy world of the “International Business University” circuit, which now is mostly restricted to various MBAs and the prolific ads on the back of The Economist which universities mostly use to raise funds.
Even this concept of “International Business” has been changing. Until recently, we’ve heard most CEOs and entrepreneurs talk about “international experience” (the corporate kind) as more of an obligation in a business career. After all, it was expected for a prospective high-ranking executive to have international experience in at least one of a multinational’s foreign branches before returning to the home country to take on a higher, broader position. As any expatriate will tell you, corporate “foreign service” is now considered a privilege more than an obligation. It’s no surprise that CEOs such as PepsiCo’s Roger Enrico or Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn made their reputations almost exclusively growing overseas business divisions.
But let’s face it: some people don’t want to move overseas and work in a foreign country. The potential of IT and globalization, if applied correctly, means that we don’t need to produce dedicated international business managers anymore, but more important (and possibly indispensable) is the capacity to produce domestic managers with a global view. Initiatives such as outsourcing and the increasing potential for exports means that we don’t need necessarily have to open full-fledged companies and move overseas to take advantage of the results of globalization and the IT revolution. Expanding overseas is no longer just extending your customer base; it’s finding new suppliers, new services and their providers, new technologies, new opportunities and challenges.
So where does Bentley stand in all this? I’d risk saying we’re barely wetting our feet. Our initiatives have been half-hearted at best despite the best of intentions. Even du jour courses such as Terrorism and US Foreign Policy, with innate importance to understanding and more importantly, taking advantage the new global system, are risking being replaced by even more du jour (bordering on having to be marked “perishable”) courses such as “US elections”, et al. As important IT was in the 90s to both the economy and Bentley, so will globalization be in the next decade. The crux of the issue here is to resist the temptation to stay within the hype and following a trend, giving Bentley graduates a good understanding of the new global system as opposed to the real challenge: being the innovator in teaching Bentley graduates great methods to employ this new system to practical purposes in their careers. The objective is visible and the potential inherent. I, however, can only leave the methods and implementations to our faculty and staff.

Ricardo’s note: This is Erin’s, submitted to the Cornell Daily Sun.

What does it mean to be away from home? For many of us Cornellians, particularly foreign students like myself — I hail from Brazil — it means being separated from family, neighborhood, friends, roots, culture, memories, all the things that one normally associates with the word “home.” Good things.

However, at a time of tragedy, such as last week’s bombing at the Atocha train station in Madrid, it can also mean something very different. It can be quite terrible, in fact, especially if you happen to be from Spain, as my friend Andrew, Madrileno born and bred, is. This piece is about his pain, and our, i.e, the supposedly global-minded Cornell community’s — seeming and shocking indifference to it.

My personal reaction to the massacre, in which (as of this writing) 200 people have died and over 1,400 were injured, was instantaneous. From the moment I heard about the event, the deadliest terrorist attack on a European target since the Second World War, I could not stop monitoring the news. I do that anyway — I am something of a news junkie — but now my appetite became voracious. From websites, from The New York Times to that of The Washington Post to that of foreign newspapers like my own Estado and the Spanish El Pais and others, I kept on surfing, trying to learn as much as I could about the horrific catastrophe. It seemed to me the obvious thing to do.

And yet, as far as I could tell or see, I was alone, or nearly so.

I was shocked and saddened, as was Andrew, when I saw him — standing gaunt and shaken in his Risley doorway — on March 13, two days after the tragedy, as Spain was observing its second day of mourning. He spoke, tremblingly, of the sights he had seen on the television, of the charred bodies, the body bags, the senseless carnage. He also spoke feelingly, and proudly, of how the tragedy had galvanized the Spanish nation, of the millions of raised hands at the demonstrations to protest the bombing, of a people united in sorrow and rage.

At the same time, Andrew spoke angrily about our classmates and their evident failure to comprehend or react to the outrage, or to even try. It really seemed, and seems, as if no one cared, or cares. The lack of importance assigned to the event by the community seemed to be symbolized by the almost derisory mention of the event in The Sun, which ran its article about the bombing on the bottom of the World page. This was a rough equivalent of what the community seemed to think of the event, something that happened on the bottom of the world, something that had happened Out There, and not a tragedy which was as traumatic for the Spanish nation as Sept. 11 was for us. Indeed, all the acknowledgement of March 11 that I could see was the “ETA NO!” sign that Andrew himself had pasted up in Rand Hall.

Andrew was then operating on the assumption, which has since been challenged, that the bombing was the handiwork of the Basque separatist group ETA, even though it now appears to have been the work of Al Queda, or a combination of the two.

But this is besides the point. The point is that, just because Atocha took place on the other side of the Atlantic, it was not something that happened Out There. It was something that took place in our world, something that affected all of humanity.

This indifference of my own alma mater, an institution that prides itself on its global-mindedness, embarrasses me, especially in the wake of Sept. ll, an event, which, if nothing else, should have taught us that there is no Out There. But evidently we haven’t learned. Yet. All of us are Madrilenos. We should know that by now.

Erin Geld is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. she can be reached at esg24@cornell.edu. Guest Room appears periodically.

erin

Original Link

…we now resume our regular broadcast.

Sorry for delays and misdemeanors. I’ve been, err, “disconnected” from the world at large…

Anyways– back from Spring Break. Read the Noam Chomsky book on the plane. Good stuff– I was really amazed not by his opinions, but by the facts he points out. His opinion, for the most part, is good, but unfortunately he sees less shades of gray than I do.

My system is bought and paid for– more on that as we progress.