Cultural Issues in National Problems Essay Example for Free

Cultural Issues in National Problems Essay * Based on your study on this module of cultural theories, international business ethics and the practice of managing across cultures, and assuming the role of a business consultant specialising in cross-cultural issues, write a cultural briefing for the Human Resources department of a real international business. Your briefing should cover a range of cultural issues, including the creation of cross-cultural teams, training employees for expatriate assignments, national negotiating styles and training employees for the challenges of cross-cultural management. This assignment may take the format of a report or a more creatively designed briefing document. Creation of cross-cultural teams Train employees for challenges of cross-cultural management National negotiating style The Chinese Negotiation http://www.globalnegotiationbook.com/John-Graham-research/negotiation-v1.pdf Negotiating in China: 10 rules for success http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackperkowski/2011/03/28/negotiating-in-china-10-rules-for-success/ pp. 163 note However, china is also a difficult and risky market for western business communities to operate in. the surprises, disappointment, and frustration on the part of western business people are not strange. China is a special challenge: it is the world’s largest emerging market, largest communist bureaucracy and oldest culture. These unique features make china a unique case in international business that calls for special academic and managerial attention. Now that china has reached and agreement with the European union and United States of America about its membership in the world trade organization (WTO), the importance of china as a trade partner is going to increase further. Question: * What are the meaningful stages of the Sino-western business negotiation process? * What are the main contentious issues in the formal negotiation sessions? * How can we understand chinese negotiating style observed in various stages from the chinese culture point of view? Ping-Pong model 1, pre-negotiation (lobbing, presentation, informal discussion, and trust building) 2, formal negotiation (task-related exchange of information, persuasion, concession and agreement) 3, post-negotiation (implementation and new rounds of negotiations) The Chinese show keen interests in getting to know the other party during these initial contacts. They try to ascertain whether or not the foreign firm has (1) the most advanced technology required for the project; (2) the willingness to sell or transfer it to the Chinese side by way of, for example, joint venture; and (3) the capacity of delivering the products on time. As one chinese negotiators explained: â€Å"our intention is to import the most advanced technology and to cooperate with large, world-famous foreign companies, because the life cycle of a technology is short. We pay even more attention to the supplier’s houjing(reserve strength) for continuous technological development lobbying: lobbing before the chinese government authorities is one of the most important marketing activities facing foreign firms that want to sell large industrial projects in chinese key industries like telecommunications. Foreign firms must convince the chinese that they have cutting-edge technologies that suit chinese government’s priorities, that they have long-term commitment to the chinese market, and that they are financially strong. They must present a highly reliable image before the chinese, making them feel safe to do business with them. The chinese said that they liked to do business with â€Å"big mountain† like Ericesson that they could trust and rely on in the long term. Presentation: giving attractive and reliable presentations to let potential chinese partners know the company, products and negotiating team members, is an important step toward formal negotiation sessions. Presentations aim to convince the chinese of the sincerity of the company in doing business ith china and show the chinese that the company’s products are and advanced technology with high quality and reasonable price. Foreign firms need to present themselves and their technologies to number of authorities. Very often one has to endlessly repeat the same things to different negotiators who may suddenly, without explanation, be replaced by another team. From chinese point of view, it is done to check the reliability and firmness of the supplier. Informal discussion: initial and informal discussions with chinese organizations often occur directly after the presentations Trust building: the chinese attach great importance to trust building in business negotiations. Formal negotiation * Equity share * Contribution of each party * Management control * Technology * Price * Persuasion * Concessions and agreement Post-negotiation * Managerial implications * Priority * Patience * People the PRC condition (guoqing) is a contemporary social and institutional factor influencing the PRC Introduction Hotel Chocolat is a famous luxury chocolate producer in the UK. It has 55 stores in the UK and 5 stores in the USA and the Europe. (Hotel Chocolat, 2012) The mainly product series are Giant Slabs, Selectors, Sleekster Selections, Liquid Chocolat, The Purist and Coco Juvenate Beauty Range. (Hotel Chocolat, 2012) Hotel Chocolat insists a high quality strategy so that their products are in luxury level, which attracting consumers come back again and again. Now Hotel Chocolat plan to expand the business and brand perception, managers think about enter Chinese market. In China, middle class improving their purchasing power in recent years, within urban residents has more disposable income (Farrell D, 2006). If manager decide to enter China market, human resource management (HRM) department needs to prepare three points, firstly is create cross-cultural team with Chinese employees, secondly is train the British employees for challenge of cross-cultural management, thirdly is negotiating st yle with Chinese. Creation of cross-cultural team and the challenges of cross-cultural management Cross-cultural team is necessary. Nowadays, the globe business activities are an important part of the worldwide economy. Many of different nationality works in one company or even in one group. In this case, Hotel Chocolat will be suggested to build a cross-cultural team within Chinese employees. This program can avoid some potential risk in Chinese market. Here will point out three directions. 1. Language In business group need to keep will communication to reduce the cost of information. Hotel Chocolat is British company so that the English is mainly language. But Chinese employee’s native language is mandarin and Cantonese, which make conversation maybe difficult. Fortunately, Chinese education department push English language teaching from primary school to college. Nowadays, the world’s most populous nation will become the world’s largest English-speaking country, account about two billion people are learning or have learned English (Clifford. C, 2009). Firstly, English level is an important testing standard when manager selects Chinese employees. Secondly, English employ which will work in China suggest to learn basic daily Mandarin. Of course, if possible, Hotel Chocolat should better choose the people who interested in China. 2. Build Virtual Team In the beginning, Hotel Chocolat should build a quickly communication tunnel between the UK and China department. For a high efficiency, Hotel Chocolat has to build Virtual Team. Virtual Team is basic on advanced information technology to link the geographical dispersion essential employees. It also downsizes the department in China and improves productivity.(Townsend, A, M., and Demarie, M, S and Hendrickson R, A., 2003) Why build a Virtual Team? Here point five factors: (Bettis, R and Hitt, M., 1995) * The flat organizational structure is becoming a good solution to increasing speed to communicate. * The competition and cooperation will be easy in globe economy environment. * Changes in workers expectation of organizational participation. * Adjustment the production of knowledge work environments. * Make trade and corporate activity easily. First of all, to build virtual team needs to pay attention to define the team’s function and organizational roles, build the technical systems to exchange the information. Define the team’s function and organizational roles are the most important thing. The UK and China have seven (DST.) or eight (GMT.) times difference, it make the working time harder. The manager in China who leads the virtual team should clear expectations about team’s performance and criteria. Because of the virtual team’s geographical dispersion, the manager can define the detail of daily report, working schedules and emergency solution. As a new market competitor, Hotel Chocolat will face many difficult, so the virtual team members in both side, the UK and China, have responds to meet online in a short time. In the same time, the virtual team in China needs to have individual ability to control and solve problems. A well communication system in virtual team is a strong support. The technical system should be designed basic on efficiency. One of the reasons is the virtual team members are in different place so that they cannot face to face. If people cannot face to face meeting, some serious and complicated issues will not solve well. In tradition way, the tools have online meeting (Skype), file upload and download (email). If possible, the technical system can use wide-angle camera to build a multiplayer video session, in the meantime, virtual team members can use â€Å"cloud system† to modify the same file in different place together. Within modern technical system, the virtual team becomes more reality and efficient. National negotiating styles When a company enters new market, an excellent negotiating skill will make their process more successfully. In business activities, communication is the key of make a good deal. Within a group of well training negotiating employees, the new market risks, not only China market, will be reduced. As the human resource department, they should make a plan to lead the negotiators’ mind set. Therefore, the â€Å" Ping-Pong† Model (Fang, 1999) is a good choice. (Fang, 1999) The â€Å"Ping-Pong† model is based on the international business negotiating style and Chinese business negotiating style (Fang, 1999; Frankenstein, 1986; Ghauri and Usunier, 1996; Graham and Lin 1987), fang tries to build a bridge between China and the world. In the â€Å"Ping-Pong† Model, there are two major parts. One is the stage of the Sino-Western business Negotiation process and the other one is the dimension of Chinese business culture. In 1996, Ghauri make a structure of the international negotiating style process. He divides the total negotiation into three parts: 1, Pre-Negotiation 2, Formal-Negotiation 3, Post-Negotiation And also Fang realized that in Chinese cultural situation, he also define three main thing: 1, The PRC Condition 2, Confucianism 3, Chinese stratagems Combine these two things, international negotiating style process and Chinese cultural situation, the â€Å"Ping-Pong† Model produced. Next part, it will analyze six factors of â€Å"Ping-Pong† Model. Pre-Negotiation It includes four processes, lobbing, presentation, informal discussion and trust building. In the beginning is lobbing, in China market the government is a powerful force to the market. So it is necessary to have a good conversation with government. Presentation and informal discussion is the base of trust building. In public ways, presentation can show company’s abilities to the company, in other ways, Informal discussion enhance mutual understanding between company and its potential partners. Formal Negotiation In formal negotiation stage, five major contentious issues needs to serious consideration: equity share, contribution of each party, management control, technology and price. For Hotel Chocolat, technology is the top secret so that the human resource department should focus on this part. Post-Negotiation After formal negotiation, the team should be prepared for Chinese trick. One Swedish negotiator recall that (Ghauri P. and Fang T. 2001) Chinese negotiator always take the old issue whatever and whenever, but these situation would not happened in European, Middle Eastern and African countries. Hotel Chocolat website, (2012), Store http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/Chocolate-Store-Locations-Achocolatestore/ (accessed: 8th Oct 2012). Hotel Chocolat website, (2012), Products http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/chocolates-CHC_PRODUCT/ (accessed: 8th Oct 2012). Farrell, D., Gersch, U. and Stephenson, E. (2006), The value of China’s emerging middle class, McKinsey Quarterly, pp69-69. Clifford Coonan, (2009) The largest English-speaking country? China, of course, The Irish Times, 6 June, available at: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/0620/1224249169396.html (accessed at 9th Oct 2012). Townsend, A.M., DeMarie, S.M., Hendrickson, A.R. (2003) ‘Virtual teams’ In Thomas, D.C. (ed) Reading and Cases in International Management: A Cross-cultural Perspective. London: SAGE, pp.269-281. Bettis, R. and Hitt, M. (1995) â€Å"The new competitive landscape†, Strategic management journal 16(S1), pp,7-19. Fang, T. (1999) â€Å"Chinese business negotiating style. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA. Frankenstein, J. (1986). Trend in Chinese business practice: Change in the Beijing wind. California Management Review, 29(1): 148-160. Ghauri, P. N. and Usunier J. –C. (1996) International Business Negotiations. Oxford: Pergamon. Graham, J. L. and Lin, C. –Y. (1987) A comparison of marketing negotiations in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the United States. In Cavusgil, T. (ed. Advanced in international marketing (Vol. 2, pp. 23-46). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Ghauri P. and Fang T. (2001), Negotiating With the Chinese, Journal of World Business Vol. 36, pp. 303-325.

Steve Huey :: essays research papers

Omaha, AR(DE)- Amazingly the act to end one’s life ultimately saved it. "Steve Huey" was suffering from an inoperable and fatal brain tumor. Doctors had given him only two months to live, so Huey decided to end It sooner rather than face the pain. He wrote a suicide note and then placed the gun to his head and shot. Later, friends found him on the floor in a pool of blood. They called the ambulance and within hours, Huey was up and walking around. "His sense of humor was amazing, but even more amazing is his luck," remarked his doctor. The chances of him shooting out his brain tumor are 254 million to one. The bullet missed all of the vital parts of the brain and shot out the tumor. Friends and family have urged Huey to put his luck to good use and buy lots of lottery tickets. "I tell him everyday ‘go buy a lottry ticket’ and ‘go bet on a horse’, but he just won’t do it. Sometimes he can be so stubborn," said a close friend. Doctors are cautioning to other terminal patients not to try what Huey did. They say there is no way that they help themselves, they will harm themselves severely. Huey is currently writing a book and is planning a national book signing tour. Also in the works, a movie and a sitcom based on his story. "I am a very lucky guy and I plan to turn this mirale into some serious cash for myself," said Huey in an exclusive interview. An auction is also in the works that will sell the gun, the hosptal bill, and the tumor itself. Any collector will love to own this tumor and should be willing to spend lots of money for it," added Huey. Ice Cream Filled Grand Canyon Mexico City, Mexico(DE) - At the annual conference for the American Citizens For A Better Grand Canyon Group (ACFABGCG), attendees decided that the only way to attract more people to the Grand Canyon would be to fill the natural woder with ice cream. Twenty millions gallons of ice cream will be needed to maintain a full level everyday. It is hoped that this will help Arizona's ice cream manufacturing plants and a fee will also be passed for anyone that looks at the Grand Canyon. In other Grand Canyon developments, a vote narrowly failed to build an amusement park at the bottom under all the ice cream.

Alice in Wonderland Essay

Alice in Wonderland is a very imaginative book written mainly for children, but adults can also enjoy it. The big theme through the whole book is growth and how people change from being a kid to eventually growing into an adult. The whole mystery of not knowing who you are and being confused about your position in life. The biggest example of growing is when Alice eats the cake and that makes her grow larger, and when she drinks the liquid that makes her shrink. The point when she starts to wonder about her identity is when she starts to think about home and where she really is. Another point is when people ask her who she is and she is not able to explain herself. Growth is definitely one of the biggest themes in Alice in Wonderland. The book tells about how Alice goes through many different experiences with all the different characters. The first sign of growth is when Alice needs to shrink down because she wants to go through the little door into the garden. She realizes that she left the key on the big table so she eats the cake to grow bigger again to get it. She then grows too big which foreshadows that there will be more confusion when it comes to size and how big Alice is supposed to be throughout the story. â€Å"Well, I’ll eat it, and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I’ll get into to the garden† (p. 19). This shows that she’s not very sure about which size she should be while she’s in Wonderland and that she doesn’t understand what is happening around her as she only focuses on getting into the garden that looks beautiful from outside the door. The big moment when Alice understands that she doesn’t know who she is anymore is when she meets the Caterpillar. The Caterpillar asks her who she is and she can’t get herself to explain it. â€Å"I-I hardly know, sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then† (p. 54). Alice explains how she feels like she has lost her identity and doesn’t know if she is still the same person as when she got up the same morning. She says she can’t remember things she used to know so well For example, the rhyme she knew, â€Å"how doth the little bee†. Alice in Wonderland is a well-written story about a little girl going through an exciting experience where she grows, meets different characteristics then what she is used to and it focuses a lot on identity. Alice experiences growing when she eats the cake and drinks the potion. She doesn’t know how to explain who she is to the characters asking her which makes her very frustrated as she is used to being in control of herself. Alice goes through a big experience and learns a lot and I think she might even have got a better view of who she really is by being in Wonderland.

22 Amazing Images of Earth From Outer Space

James Monroe Trotter Educator, Musical Historian and Military Man

Overview James Monroe Trotter was an educator, Civil War veteran, musical historian and Recorder of Deeds. A man of many talents, Trotter was patriotic and believed in ending racism in American society.   Described as a â€Å"genteel militant,† Trotter promoted and encouraged other African-Americans to work hard regardless of racism. Accomplishments Published the first comprehensive study of music in the United States. The text, Music and Some Highly Musical People highlights the history of music in the United States--especially African-American musical genres. The text has been reissued twice.   First African-American to be employed by the United States Postal Service. The Life of James Monroe Trotter Trotter was born on February 7, 1842 in Claiborne County, Miss. Born enslaved, Trotter’s father, Richard, was the plantation owner and his mother, Letitia, was a slave. In 1854, Trotter’s father freed his family and sent them to Ohio. Trotter studied at the Gilmore School, an educational institution established for formerly enslaved people. At the Gilmore School, Trotter studied music with William F. Colburn. In his spare time, Trotter worked as a bellboy at a local Cincinnati hotel and also as a cabin boy on boats en route to New Orleans. Trotter then attended Albany Manual Labor Academy where he studied the classics. Following his graduation, Trotter taught in school for African-American children throughout Ohio. The Civil War began in 1861 and Trotter wanted to enlist. Yet, African-Americans were not allowed to serve in the military. Two years later, when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, African-American men were allowed to join. Trotter decided he needed to enlist but Ohio would not form any units for African-American soldiers. John Mercer Langston urged Trotter and other African-American men from Ohio enlisted in African-American regiments in neighboring states. Trotter   travelled to Boston where he joined the 55th Massachusetts Voluntary Infantry in 1863. As a result of his education, Trotter was classified as a sergeant. In 1864, Trotter was wounded in South Carolina. While recuperating, Trotter taught reading and writing to other soldiers. He also organized a regiment band. After completing his military assignment, Trotter ended his military career in 1865. By the end of his military career, Trotter had been promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. After his military service ended, Trotter relocated to Boston. While living in Boston, Trotter became the first African-American man to be earn employment with the United States Post Office. Yet, Trotter faced great racism in this position. He was ignored for promotions and resigned within three years. Trotter returned to his love of music in 1878 and wrote Music and Some Highly Musical People. The text was the first study of music written in the United States and traces the history of music in the U.S. society. In 1887, Trotter was appointed as a Recorder of Deeds for Washington DC by Grover Cleveland. Trotter held this position after abolitionist and activist Frederick Douglass. Trotter held the position for four years before it was given to U.S. Senator Blanche Kelso Bruce. Personal Life In 1868, Trotter completed his military service and returned to Ohio. He married Virginia Isaacs, a descendant of Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson. The couple relocated to Boston. The couple had three children. Their son, William Monroe Trotter, was the first African-American to earn a Phi Betta Kappa key, graduated from Harvard University, published the Boston Guardian and helped to establish the Niagara Movement with W.E.B. Du Bois. Death In 1892, Trotter died from tuberculosis at his home in Boston.

World War II The End Of The War - 975 Words

World War II was a war that had started for the first. With two sides the Allied Powers versus the Axis Powers. The end of the war went out with a bang. World War II was a gigantic fascinating process of events; the war itself started on September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945. There are many fascinating things about World War II, but the beginning is always interesting. Coming just two decades after the last great global conflict World War I. The Second World War was the most widespread and deadliest war in history. The war was brought due to there being not really a side that had been defeated and among other things lead the first war to the second. It involved more than 30 countries and resulting in more than 50 million military, and civilian deaths with some estimates as high as 85 million dead. Sparked by Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939, the war would drag on for six deadly years until the final Allied defeat of both Nazi Germany and Japan in 1945. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident. As the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the m id-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, the Germans gained an undisputed advantage. Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and waited expectedShow MoreRelatedThe End Of World War II984 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction The dominance of world by the United States started by the end of World War II. The dominance marked the beginning of the cold war which dominated the world affairs up to the early 1990s.The United States and its partners faced the Soviet Union and its allies. The war was marked by a lack of global wars but a persistent regional proxy war. 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Censorship and Ethics in Malaysia free essay sample

For example the issue of race, religion or the monarchies of the country are subjects that lead to provocation amongst the people of the country. It is stated in article 10-4 in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia that â€Å"Parliament may pass law prohibiting the questioning of any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of part 3, Article 152, 153 or 181 otherwise than in relation to the implementation thereof as may be specified in such law†. Part 3 refers to the citizenship, article 152 refers to the national language, article 153 refers to the reservation of quotas in respect of services, permits, and etc for Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and article 181 refers to the saving for the rulers’ sovereignty. This act clearly states no one should converse or debate about the given matter above that could well be imposing to the interest of the Nation’s security or the Malaysian government. With the emergence of the media that was invented for a long period, we have been constantly striving to understand the effects of media and how it plays a role in the behavior of the people receiving the information. The media had always been given conflicting views on whether it is building up the qualities of human life or either destroying it by creating social disorders. In the Malaysian media context, censorship has always been a rising issue in the process of adapting to a modern knowledge based economy and keeping at par with other international media. Malaysia has always practiced those stringent forms of media censorship banning over hundreds of movies, songs, television, print and other media sources that contains an explicit or derogatory contents that is contrary to upholding morality which is expected in the local society. There are countless of media sources in forms of books, television, films, music and videos from around the world that penetrates through our Malaysian media. Most of which undergoes the process of monitoring and filtering to check that it is suitable for the local content and does not cross the boundaries of the local standards. The possession or an unlicensed use of a printing press is deemed illegal under the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984, therefore journalists who are reporting ‘sensitive’ issues are always given guidelines before hand to avoid any unwanted impressions that could cause a stir. Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, the â€Å"Ex-Malaysian Home Minister said that in 2003 the guidelines that concerns censorship that was drawn up in 1993, underwent through a process of restudying due to some of the rules being inapplicable to current terms as he believes that it would create a better nation in this country. The censorship guidelines of Malaysian media has axed out many explicit contents relating to nudity and violence that could contribute towards the behavior of the people in the country. For example movies that has nude scene that is deemed â€Å"too explicit† would be removed from its contents. There are many explicit contents that could send out a negative message that influences the younger generation of this country therefore the raise for awareness in the standards of morality should be taken into a serious consideration as it could lead to a more jeopardizing act such as crime and violence that could abrupt the peace that the country upholds. A theory is brought up that there is a correlation between criminal offenders and the explicit content shown on television such as obscenity and violence. There are many areas that are under the supervision of the media control in areas of television, printed media, films and cinema, internet, and music. All of these are given a strict sanction that eliminates the undesired or inappropriate contents of the media. The censors blocks out areas that touches the subject of nudity, sex, profanity, violence and sensitive issues regarding of religious themes in films. The internet however was imposed a very lax and lenient rule compared to the other media branches as it was uncensored and civil liberties was assured until the 11th of June 2011when the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission issued a letter to all Malaysian ISPs and blocked several websites which includes several file-hosting website and also peer to peer traffic sites. They have been allegedly breaching the code Section 41 of the Copyright Act 1987, involves dealing with pirated contents. The Malaysian government nonetheless has a very tringent rule over the printing presses and the publication of the country. Printing presses and publication companies have to abide to the Malaysian statue, Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 which administers publication and all usage of printing presses and all printing presses require a license granted by the Home Affairs Minister, renewed every year. 56 publications including the Indonesian translation of â€Å"Charles Darwi n’s on the Origin of Species† were banned by the Internal Security Ministry. In the areas of Films and cinema, a Malaysian government ministry called the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia was established to inspect films that penetrate into the Malaysian market. It is under the Film Censorship Act and was revised in 2002 under an updated version of the Act which states that any film that is to be screened in the country was to be licensed by the Board therefore allowing not one to view any film that has not been legalized or viewed by the Board. It also states that the Act bans the possession or screening of any subject in terms of pornographic and provocative contents. The act of doing so would subject the screener of the films in those contexts to be fined or even imprisonment for that matter. The Board observes the uncensored films and decides whether its content was appropriate for the people of Malaysia. Only after the Board is satisfied that the film complements the rules then only will the film receives the approval for its release. The materials censored by Censorship Board are inclusive of trailers, posters, advertisements and the film itself. There are hundreds of titles of films that passes through the Malaysian market and these films would be viewed and the censors would pay attention to the details such as profanity, obscenity, violence and films that touch sensitive issues that could well be provocative. These parts are either axed out from the movie or the movie itself is completely banned if the board found its content too inappropriate for Malaysian audiences. There are a lot of numbers of films from the western media that was censored or banned from the Malaysian market due to its inappropriate content but some would later be released censored on optical media such as in DVD or Blue- Ray formats. Some of these titles includes movies like â€Å"Piranha 3D, Borat: the cultural learnings of America, Paranormal Activities† and so on due to its heavy explicit contents that contains obscenity and violence. Censorship is a growing issue in Malaysia where many musicians also have been banned from performing in relation to racial, moral and most popularly, religious concerns. There are numerous cases where musicians and performers are refrained from wearing inappropriate attires to censoring the music that they produce. For instance in 2003, American rock band Linkin Park was told to refrain from wearing shorts while performing and singer Mariah Carey was asked to cover up during her stage performances. Malaysian organizers of the Pussycat Dolls concert were also fined for infringement of the decency laws. In August 2008, Canadian rock singer Avril Lavigne faces a threat of cancellation urged by the country’s opposition party, PAS as her performance was deemed to provocative for the youth of the country. Eventually the concert went on scheduled with a critical success. In 2012, Erykah Badu, an artist from the United States was denied permission to perform in Malaysia hence cancelling her concert as it was found that she had tattooed the word Allah on a part of her body. In terms of songs, there are hundreds of songs over the years that was refrained from air play or censored in its content then only allowing it to be broadcast to the mainstream Malaysian media as these songs were considered unsuitable for broadcasting on its radio and television stations. For example the song â€Å"Born this way† by American Pop artist Lady Gaga was banned from its broadcast due to its controversial lyrics that portrays the liberties of sexuality such as the issue of being gay,lesbian or bisexual which is considered as ‘taboo’ in the general Malaysian context. The question of censorship however was quite contradicting when it comes to the â€Å"K-pop† phenomenon that is set quite ablaze in Malaysia with performance of artist such as Wonder Girls who were part of MTV World Stage Live In Malaysia 2010 The appeal of â€Å"K-pop† lies in the influence of the youths these days towards the interest of fashion . The phenomenon also consists of inappropriate attired boys and girls group that could sent out subliminal messages to the younger generation of Malaysia. Censorship is always a growing issue in Malaysia. Some condone by the rule of censorship to the utmost level due to respecting the religious and morality values of the country as it also brought up to the attention of some, that the censorship of a certain areas that were considered petty or trivial is considered very â€Å"closed minded† and inconvenience to those who preached on civil liberties.