Good Morning Fellow Bloggers,
chapter four was a really interesting in that it covered so many different aspects of how to go about international business.  When I spent my 10 months in Iraq, it could almost be considered a business venture.  We prepared by going to intensive classes on culture and language as well as knowing the differences between the different religions.   Being that we worked in prisons, it was important that we knew what religion the prisoner was so that we put them with like minded individuals.  How a normal in-processing event would go would be a search and then the question "Sunni or shite?" depending on the response, determined which way they went.  If they wanted to be a stubborn and not answer us, all we had to say is "oh, so you're Takfiri?" the Takfiri were the extremists and if you were not actually a Takfiri, they would insure you had a quick death while in prison.  This little memory brings in to my mind thinking of how different cultures work and operate and what kind of necessary training could be required to enter a foreign country.  An article that I found very interesting that plays a great deal into what Hall and the others from the book discussed is attached below to get a better grasp on the cultural dimensions of Iraq.

http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Iraq.html

Thanks,
Dustin Weinert