There was even mention of pandemics being an equilibrium mechanism when over-population and drastic environmental changes reach some critical point, which was a timely point given the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, it describes a revolutionary theory of cultural relativism and its applications in a range of professions. INDIVIDUALISM/COLLECTIVISM: Individualism describes societies where the ties between individuals are loose; everyone is expected to look after himself and his immediate family.

As a second generation Nikkei Canadian, and a long term ex-pat, cultural influences and regional idiosyncrasies have fascinated me ever since I could remember. S. dollars of public money from the rich countries was spent on the development of the poor ones'' where this ‘development’ was often the privatization of natural resources in conjunction with governmental capture, the wealthy often Western countries happy with bribery/corruption and hollowing out the rights of workers and rendering legal provisions unenforceable. He begins with an excellent overview of culture and its levels and explains the concept of cultural `dimensions' - aspects of culture that can differentiate and measure differences among different cultural groups.

INDULGENCE/RESTRAINT: Indulgence stands for a tendency to allow relatively free gratifications of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun, whereas restraint reflects a conviction that such gratification needs to be curbed and regularised by strict social norms. It is very interesting and proposes many views on cultural norms, which somehow feel intuitively correct. A number of countries did cross the line from poor to rich, especially in East Asia, but this progress was due to their populations’ own values and efforts, not to the amount of aid money received'' ignores where the manufacturing capabilities are located, wealth influx also of China from the fact of their nationalized ‘state-private’ resources not immediately stolen by tax havens and the points already made.

It's easy to forget sometimes how the culture we're born into can influence our perspective, often in ways we're completely unaware of. This is followed by the statement ''looking back to half a century of development assistance, most observers agree [who? Each of these dimensions has its own chapter in which he shows the results of all countries on this particular dimension.Fully updated and rewritten for the twenty-first century, this edition: reveals the unexamined rules by which people in different cultures think, feel, and act in business, family, schools, and political organizations; explores how national cultures differ in the key areas of inequality, collectivism versus individualism, assertiveness versus modesty, tolerance for ambiguity, and deferment of gratification; explains how organizational cultures differ from national cultures, and how they can sometimes be managed; explains culture shock, ethnocentrism, stereotyping, differences in language and humor, and other aspects of intercultural dynamics; provides powerful insights for business people, civil servants, physicians, mental health professionals, law enforcement professionals, and others.