Welcome to the 7th episode of ‘absolutely intercultural!’.
After a round of feedback we continue our discussoin about “Culture as the software of the mind” in our column ‘absolutely theoretical!’. We talk about how we integrate updates into our daily lifes and will continue the next time with another aspect.
OK, and we couldn’t help noticing that there is something going on in Germany right now – The FIFA World Cup 2006, so the rest of this show is devoted to the game of all games!
For our column ‘absolutely personal!’ Anne interviewed John Brodie, a member of the tartan army, about a trip to Belarus he made last year and why he is cheering for the Togolese team right now in Germany.
Right after that we have a report of an eyewitness of the match Sweden vs. Trinidad & Tobago. Marie Nilsson from Sweden will let us sneak a peek into the stadium.
And for the last part of the show, which we might call ‘absolutely prepared!’, Laurent has interviewed Dr. Beate Blüggel, who works for the “Deutsche Volkshochschulverband” and who has organized the welcoming of millions of fans from all over the world in German trainstations.
We hope you enjoy the show. Please let us know what you think about it by leaving a comment here on the blog or by writing us an email. You are of course always welcome to send us an audiocomment and make suggestions on what we should talk about in our shows.
The Host of this show is: Dr. Laurent Borgmann
Chief Editor: Karsten Kneese
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Hey there . . . Thanks again for the great podcast. The absolutely theortical and personal segments are great.
You mentioned that similarities of 9-11 be like b.c.e. and a.d. and you are correct. My history teacher used to tell us that everyone in the U.S.A. has a “Where were you when?” moment (i.e., I can ask my parents where were you when Kennedy was shot, and they are able to remember every detail about what they were doing, the smells, their feelings, the feelings of people around them, etc.) 9/11 is my generation’s “Where were you when?” And you are correct that many people look back to a pre-9/11 time period with nostolgia. We place time frames around post- and pre-9/11. It is a weird time that U.S. is in right now and our political rhetoric is casting a negative light while the rhetoric of the people is not being heard.
Anywise . . . I find it hard to stretch the culture is the software of the mind because I cannot fit in the idea of hackers utilizing software flaws to take over and exploit systems, what about trojans, viruses and all the nasty software out there to change the software that people use. I mean one could look at colonization and imperialism as viruses and trojans, but the way that it is talked on the show seems to reflect an additive approach where everything seems to add to ones software for the better. . . .anywise . . I leave it at that.
Thank you as always . . and as always I am looking forward to more podcasts!
Re: Paul’s question: software of the mind – where do viruses and “Trojan Horses” fit in?
Hi Paul,
thanks for your encouraging comments. Of course, when we try out new things we are always a little self-conscious and worried about the reactions of the listeners. However, our audience seems to be so polite that we never get really harsh criticism. We will see, in the next show from Germany I will try out what happens when I sing live and without accompaniment 😉
Concerning your challenging question where viruses come in I will try to get some people together and bring up your idea and throw it around a bit until we will find some kind of an answer. Thanks for suggesting topics like that. I had not thought about viruses and Trojan Horses, to be honest. Let us hope we will have someone with us who knows exactly how they function.
Watch out for the round table discussion in the next show from Germany. I hope to be able to raise this question.
Interculturally yours
Laurent
PS: Stay tuned!
Hi, please take a look at my blog which explores how interractions occur during a process of cultural adaptation between the Chinese and American cultures.
http://www.vguanxi.com
Vida