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Since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began handing out awards for the best foreign language films in 1927, films from 23 different countries have been honored. The most prolific winners have been Italy and France with 14 and 13 wins respectively. Here is a list ranking the Countries with the Most Foreign Language Film Awards.
Nations that have aging populations face a set of particularly daunting challenges. In Japan, for instance, the government is trying to figure out how to bolster a shrinking workforce. Fewer workers put the government in a situation of decreasing tax revenues in the face of higher social security costs for a graying population. Japan is not the only nation contending with this demographic time bomb. All but one of the countries in the list of the world’s oldest populations is european.
Macau, which recently overtook Las Vegas as the gambling capital of the world, is also the world’s most densely populated jurisdiction. The special administrative area of China which enjoys great autonomy, has a population density of 19,488 per square kilometer. Not far behind, is Monaco. The tiny Principality which occupies an area slightly smaller than New York City’s Central Park has a population of 32,796 people crammed into an area of 1.95 square kilometers.
See the list of the World’s Most Crowded Places.
After analyzing a database of employee value scores gathered by IBM between 1967 and 1973, Geert Hofstede, Emeritus Professor of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at Maastricht University, the Netherlands devised a scoring system for cultural dimensions for different countries and regions of the world. One of the these dimensions – the Power Difference Index – is a measure of the degree to which the lesser members of a social hierarchy acquiesce to the system. The motivation was to be able to highlight cultural differences and be able to take their effects into consideration in an organizational settings.
Malcolm Gladwell, the bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, tackles the subject of outstanding achievers and the factors most responsible for their success. In Outliers – the story of success, he challenges the traditional notion of upward mobility achieved chiefly through sheer effort and determination. More important, he argues, are social determinance aligned with fortuitous events and circumstances. Gladwell builds his case convincingly while drawing from the biographies of Bill Gates, The Beatles, and Robert Oppenheimer amongst others.
In making his point about social determinance, he argues that cultural heritage is a powerful force that shapes our preparedness to succeed in the modern world. In the second half of the book, he illustrates how a rigid Korean social hierarchy was found to be the culprit in a woeful period in Korean aviation history. He also points out that the work ethic cultivated by rice farmers in Southern China, as well as the simplicity of number-naming systems in Asian languages have equipped young children from those cultures with an advantage over their counterparts in western countries. He doesn’t dismiss the value of hard work in achieving success nor does he discount the importance of innate talent. In fact, he acknowledges that research shows a minimum of ten thousand hours of dedicated work is requisite in achieving world-class competency in any vocation.
Outliers is enjoyable partly because it deals with a subject that we’ve all given some thought. The narrative is masterfully delivered and the author, as he has in his previous works, succeeds in pushing an idea to the forefront.
Retired general Colin Powell used words such as “transformational” and “exceptional” to describe the first-term senator in his endorsement. Switzerland’s Roger Federer is someone who is also accustomed to accolades and all manner of superlatives being hurled his way. The late writer David Foster Wallace wrote an article for the New York Times titled Roger Federer as a Religious Experience and John McEnroe has suggested that Roger Federer is tennis’ GOAT – Greatest of All Time.
Both men are prodigious record breakers. Roger Federer was the first Swiss to win a major title and Barack Obama is the first African American to win the presidential nomination of a major party.
The tennis star is hailed for his mental fortitude, serve, and all-court prowess. Obama is similarly praised for his intellect, eloquence, and ability to inspire.
While Federer deploys his forehand stroke to subdue his opponents. Obama bludgeons his foes with his unparalleled fund-raising ability.
The two men stand 6′1″ tall. Federer is right-handed. Obama on the other hand is left-handed just like Rafael Nadal.