The World Through Our Eyes: A Collaboration of Essays by International Students

Contents

CONTRIBUTORS

1   

INTRODUCTION

2   

RESPONSES TO NON-STATE TERROR

3   

THE HYPOTHESIS OF GAIA

4   

SWITZERLAND’S BANKING SECRECY

5   

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY IN THE 21st CENTURY

6   

INNOVATION PERMEATION: HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN BE MADE MORE DESIRABLE

7   

PANTHEON: BRAVE NEW RELIGION

8   

ON ETHICS AND LAW—A NEW WORLD ORDER

9   

POVERTY IN KENYA

10

ECONOMIC INTEGRATION—A MYTH OR REALITY?

11

FROM A FINANCIAL MARKET TO A GLOBAL MARKET—THE NEW MEANING AND THE EFFECTS OF VOLATILITY1

12

CORPORATE STRATEGIES FOR THE 21st CENTURY

13

WORK TO LIVE OR LIVE TO WORK? THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN AND SINGAPORE’S RECENT GRADUATES

14

SOCIAL CHALLENGES TO EDUCATION IN ASIA

15

WOMEN IN "THE REAL INDIA"—FIGHTING CONVENTIONS, SHATTERING STEREOTYPES

16

MANAGING PERCEPTIONS

17

CONCLUSION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the contributions of the individual authors for which I am incredibly grateful, and for their permission to publish the essays, most of which were written for either the 32nd ISC Symposium or the 9th World Business Dialog ue. I would like to give a special thank you to the ISC for the publishing rights of the essays written for the ISC Wings of Excellence Award of the 32nd ISC-Symposium. Secondly, this book would never have been published without Travis Boghetich, who covering the publishing costs, understood my financial situation. Thirdly, a huge thank you to Eric Scherch and his amazing artistic talent for the front cover idea, helping me to visualize the design I wanted and working on it with me. A thank you also to the 2002 ISC-Symposium itself, without which my idea to compile a book would never have arisen. The event was truly inspirational for me. Lastly, I want to thank my family for being so enthusiastic and standing by my ideas and dreams; many of which are now slowly being realized.

CONTRIBUTORS

Sandeep Agarwal (India) completed his MBA in Finance from MDI, Gurgaon in India. He is now working with a private sector bank, the UTI Bank—India, in the corporate banking sector.

Shireen Asaad (India) has a PGDM from the Indian Institute of Management Indore. She was a student participant in the ISC-Symposium in 2002.

Yueh Chin Chia (Singapore) is the 2002 winner of the National University of Singapore Society Medal (Best honors student in English Literature). She is now a teacher-in-training and co-editor of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore.

Jason George (USA) graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently deciding which career field to pursue. He hopes to return to university to pursue further education at graduate level. Jason was the second prize winner of the ISC-Symposium Wings of Excellence Award in 2002.

Jan Gerber (Switzerland) is studying business administration at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. He has worked at different banks and insurance companies in Switzerland. He was part of the ISC-Symposium Organizing Committee this year (after having been a selected student last year). The only thing that he is sure about in his future plans is that he is striving for an international career.

Brigitta Natasha Hanshaw (Scotland/USA) a UK, US and German national, was born in the USA, but has resided in Scotland most of her life. She received a B.A degree in International Relations at Duke University, USA (2003). She is currently reading a Master’s degree in International Studies and Diplomacy at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, UK and strives for an international career and lifestyle on completion.

Sascha Kallmann (Germany), a student of Business Administration in Germany, spent two semesters abroad at Tokyo’s Keio Business School and at Deusto University in Bilbao, Spain. He is active in various student groups and enjoys organizing and visiting art exhibitions of every kind. Fluent in German, English and

Spanish with some knowledge of French and Japanese he likes traveling a lot and has the goal to visit every country at least once in his lifetime.

Bhuvnesh Khurana (India) received his B.A and graduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT), Bombay. He recently obtained his MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad with a specialization in finance. Bhuvnesh is starting his career as a Quantitative Analyst in the Singapore division of a global derivatives house.

Eugene Obiero (Kenya) is a Kenyan by Nationality, born in Nairobi, Kenya on the 28th December 1977. He is a graduate of the University of Nairobi (2002), with a B.A degree in Commerce (Finance Major). He is currently working at Siemens AG Networks in Munich, Germany as a trainee in the Analyst Relations Department. He hopes to pursue an MBA within the next few years and then a career in Investment Banking, Securities Analysis or Asset Management. His long term goal is to be a Funds Manager in Africa.

Srinivas Ramanujam (India) received a degree in business from IIM Calcutta and now works with ICICI Bank (India’s largest private bank) doing Investment Advisory. He hopes to earn enough money to retire early and then backpack around the world. An amateur photographer in his spare time, he dreams of having his own photo exhibition hopefully in the not too distant future.

Akshay Regulagedde (Singapore) is currently a fourth-year undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, studying towards a Computing major and Mathematics minor. When not philosophizing about world affairs, he likes to travel, sing classical music and read about non-mainstream cultures.

Johnny Ryan (Ireland) is currently completing his MA in international relations at University College Dublin, Ireland. He is joint-editor of the History Review, an academic journal distributed globally, and an academic tutor at the Department of History at UCD. He hopes to research non-state terrorism for his PhD.

He is the SMedia Features Writer of the year 2002 and 2003.

All contributors can be reached at:

internationalvoices@yahoogroups.com.

1   

INTRODUCTION

In May 2002 I took part in the International Student Committee’s (ISC) Wings of Excellence Award in St.Gallen, Switzerland. At this conference I had the amazing opportunity to meet many talented, international and fascinating students from all over the world, Uganda to Poland, the Philippines to the USA.

During these few days in May I spoke closely with many of these students. The people I met were truly global citizens, with a passion to learn and make a change in the world. It was this passion and motivation to change the world for the better that brought me to the idea of compiling a book that would give us a global voice outside of the intimate framework of the ISC competition itself.

The different cultures of the world contain fascinating and unique characteristics. It is our responsibility not to destroy these cultures, but to seek ways to bring the world together, to share the world and our societies whilst peacefully acknowledging and respecting our differences.

This book sheds light on some of the prominent concerns we have with the world today. The essays focus on a wide array of subjects from the Swiss banking system to the history of women in India. In the heart of many of the essays lie questions, some also answers. However, whilst many questions lie unanswered in complexity, they have been addressed because of their importance and necessity to confront and understand them, not in the distant future, but now.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

This conference was in many respects the high point of the international experiences in my life thus far. I was brought up as a citizen of the world. As I grew up, this spurred my intense curiosity of cultures and international politics. A brief introduction to my life brings light upon how this initial fascination continues today and why I found it important to share some of the issues and thoughts the students brought attention to in St.Gallen with the rest of the world.

My mother is German. She grew up in the Rhineland Pfalz region of Germany. She came from a comfortable but not wealthy family, her father a head teacher who died while she was still in her early twenties. After high school she worked for a short while as an au pair in Geneva. Soon after, she joined the foreign office in Bonn before being moved to Mali in West Africa, as a secretary to the German Ambassador.

My mother loved Africa where she came into contact with not just Africans but also French and Americans based there. Her time in Africa is still evident around our home in beautiful African jars and ivory statues. Later on after a short six month posting in the German Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, she moved to Australia to become the secretary to the German Consul-General in Melbourne. In those years travel to distant lands was almost unheard of.

In Melbourne she met my father who, originally from England, lived in the apartment opposite. My father came from a middle class English family. After high school he pursued electrical engineering. In his early twenties he decided to leave England and head for the new world at the time, Australia. He worked as an engineer on a large cruise ship that sailed around the world, after which he decided to settle in Australia. Their desire for exploration has most definitely been passed onto me.

After my parents met my father soon took a job in Singapore where they became extremely comfortable financially and lived in a beautiful high rise apartment building overlooking the city. After an extended period in Singapore, my father’s job required my parents to move again and they headed off to South Carolina in the USA, where I was born in 1981.

I came into a richly international family, with three passports to my name. As a young child we traveled to the UK and Germany to visit relatives. When I was four we moved permanently to the UK. Without fail during the summer holidays we would drive our car through the north of France, occasionally stopping in Paris, on our way to Germany to spend time with my relatives. My sister (who was also born in America) and I were exposed to two very different cultures from an early age and also two very different languages from growing up in a bilingual household.

While I was young, the American army still had a heavy establishment in the Rhineland Pfalz region. Sometimes, from behind the high fences of the bases I would watch the men playing baseball, the big army vehicles drive by or hear the sirens go off. As a child I was unaware the bases were established as a result of

WW2 but I could see the