Summarize Spoken Text : Exercise 3

Diasporas – communities which live outside, but maintain links with, their homelands – are getting larger, thicker and stronger. They are the human face of globalization. Diaspora consciousness is on the rise: diasporans are becoming more interested in their origins, and organising themselves more effectively; homelands are revising their opinions of their diasporas as the stigma attached to emigration declines, and stepping up their engagement efforts; meanwhile, host countries are witnessing more assertive diasporic groups within their own national communities, worrying about fifth columns and foreign lobbies, and suffering outbreaks of ‘diasporaphobia’.
This trend is the result of five factors, all of them connected with globalisation: the growth in international migration; the revolution in transport and communications technology, which is quickening the pace of diasporans’ interactions with their homelands; a reaction against global homogenised culture, which is leading people to rethink their identities; the end of the Cold War, which increased the salience of ethnicity and nationalism and created new space in which diasporas can operate; and policy changes by national governments on issues such as dual citizenship and multiculturalism, which are enabling people to lead transnational lives. Diasporas such as those attaching to China, India, Russia and Mexico are already big, but they will continue to grow; the migration flows which feed them are likely to widen and quicken in the future.

The trend that diasporas are conscious about their origins and that host countries are suffering outbreaks of diasporaphobia, results from five factors related to globalisation: the growth in international migration, transportation and communication technology revolution, a reaction against global homogenised culture, the end of the Cold War and policy changes by governments.

A leadership is an influence process. It is the ability to motivate others to do something, believe in something or act in a certain way. The leadership style is the pattern of behaviors used to influence others. What makes a good leader ? Leaders are people who do the right thing. A leadership provides the vision, so that the management gets things done. Many people have been put in leadership positions but they lack the training, particularly in the non-profit-making organizations or those of public interest. Leadership can be learned. There are may classes of tools for effective leadership.

A leader must have a vision. The leader must state in concrete ideas how programs will work, who will be served, what outcomes are expected from a project, what technology will be used and how the organization will get there. To articulate the future clearly, the leader should be able to focus. Tell people what you want and expect from them and never waste their time. There are always distractions and personality conflicts but leaders should be able to see beyond them to what it will take to get the job done effectively.

Leaders are also risk-taker. They must learn from their success and failure. This may sound like a cliche but if you do things the way they have always been done and never take a chance, you will always get what you had before. Leaders should always reward risk-taking in others. The leader of tomorrow is changing from the top-down management style to a friendly approach. Therefore, working together creates the concern for work and productivity that both sides look for.

With the invention of televisions, many forms of entertainments have been replaced. Lively programs like television serials and world news, have removed from us the need to read books or papers, to listen to radios or even to watch movies.  In fact, during the 1970s, when televisions were first introduced, cinema theatres suffered great losses as many people chose to stay in the comforts of their homes to watch their favorite programs. Of course, we should not be too carried away by the advantages of the television and overlook its negative points. Watching television programs takes away our need to read. Why bother to read the papers when we can hear them from the television news reports? Why read books when exciting movies are screened? The lack of reading is unhealthy especially to younger children as they will grow up only with the ability to speak but not write. I have a neighbor whose six-year-old child can say complete sentences like “I like cats,” but when told to write out the sentence, is unable to do so. Not only are the writing skills of children affected, their thinking capacities are also handicapped. Television programs remove the need to think. The stories, ideas and facts are woven in the way television planners wanted. Exposure to such opinions and the lack of thinking opportunities will hinder the children’s analyzing ability.