Venezuela - Culture Smart!

Author: Russell Maddicks
Publisher: Kuperard
ISBN: 1857336615
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Book Description
An influential oil producer with a colorful and charismatic president at its helm since 1999, Venezuela is a vast, sometimes frustrating, but never dull country. It is one of the most complex countries in Latin America and one of the least understood. An ambitious attempt to benefit the poor and redistribute oil wealth by President Hugo Chavez has seen a major political transformation in recent years that has put a severe strain on its traditional ties with the USA. He has made steadfast attempts to confront his powerful northern neighbor and reduce Venezuela's economic dependence on the United States. However, Miami remains the top holiday destination for Venezuelans traveling abroad, baseball beats soccer as the preferred sport, and teenage girls still cover their bedroom walls with American idols like Justin Bieber. Venezuelans are known for being friendly, gregarious, and outgoing. They value family over everything and love to criticize the status quo, but they are also fiercely proud and protective of their homeland and react poorly to criticism of their country from outsiders. Culture Smart! Venezuela takes you beyond the stereotypical descriptions of a tropical petro-state, famous for its beauty queens and its populist president, to provide you with an insider's understanding of the country and its people. Practical tips, valuable insights, and vital statistics will help you get to the heart of this vibrant, sometimes contradictory, and increasingly important country.

Nicaragua - Culture Smart!

Author: Russell Maddicks
Publisher: Kuperard
ISBN: 1787029484
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 168

Book Description
More and more travelers are discovering the delights of Nicaragua—a land of lakes and volcanoes. The image has persisted of a country racked by revolution and war, but the reality awaiting travelers couldn't be more different. The largest country in Central America, Nicaragua is also one of the most diverse and least explored, with a chain of puffing volcanoes along the Pacific coast, two huge freshwater lakes, important rainforest reserves on the tropical Mosquito Coast, and tiny, picture-postcard Caribbean islands where English Creole is the lingua franca. Travelers' budgets will stretch further here than in other Latin American destinations, and around every corner, there are cobblestone streets, high-altitude coffee plantations, world-class bird-watching, perfect surf, and Flor de Caña, the smoothest rum that ever came out of an oak barrel. Culture Smart! Nicaragua offers readers an insider's view of the country and its people. It explores Nicaragua's national traditions, turbulent history, tasty local dishes, fun fiestas, and unique cultural expressions. It arms readers with key phrases in Nica-speak, or Nicañol, so you can break the ice, and provides insights into what the people of Nicaragua are like at home, at play, and in business.

Mexico - Culture Smart!

Author: Russell Maddicks
Publisher: Kuperard
ISBN: 1787023435
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 181

Book Description
Don't just see the sights―get to know the people. The third-largest country in Latin America, Mexico is hugely diverse, having both rural backwaters where time seems to have stood still and manic urban centers like Mexico City, one of the most densely populated and exciting cities in the world. This complex and fascinating country is where European and American civilizations first clashed. The repercussions of the meeting in 1519 between the Spanish conquistador HernÁn CortÉs and the Aztec Emperor Montezuma II, and the subsequent devastation wrought by the Spanish conquest, is still felt today. Culture Smart! Mexico takes you to the heart of Mexican society and introduces you to the proud, spiritual, dynamic, fatalistic, and fun-loving people who call this country home. It describes how people socialize, the dynamics of daily life, the importance of family, and the annual cycle of feasts and fiestas. There's advice on how to negotiate a Mexican menu, as well as information on traveling safely, communicating, and provides you with the tools you need to make the most of your time in Mexico. Have a more meaningful and successful time abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. Chapters on values, attitudes, customs, and daily life will help you make the most of your visit, while tips on etiquette and communication will help you navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.

Cuba - Culture Smart!

Author: Russell Maddicks
Publisher: Bravo Limited
ISBN: 1857338464
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description
Cuba is a land of contradictions that is easy to enjoy but difficult for first-time visitors to decipher. The largest island in the Caribbean, it is a tropical paradise that Christopher Columbus called "the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen." It is famous for the romantic charm of its crumbling colonial cities, the beauty of its white sand beaches, and its irresistible Afro-Cuban dance beats. But it is also a land of shortages and tight government control, which has been in a sixty-year political standoff with its superpower neighbor, the USA. The homegrown version of single-party socialism created by Fidel Castro has kept Cuba in a Cold War time warp that only now is beginning to change. As travel restrictions are relaxed US tourists can once again visit the island. Greater flexibility toward private enterprise is opening it up to boutique hotels and high-quality home-based restaurants. There is a boom in special-interest tourism for cyclists, hikers, birdwatchers, and scuba divers, while foreign entrepreneurs are eagerly exploring investment opportunities. Culture Smart! Cuba will take you beyond the usual descriptions of Havana nightlife, vintage cars, and hand-rolled cigars and give you an insider's view of an island that is teetering on the brink of historic change. It offers insights into Cuba's fascinating history, national icons, unique food, vibrant cultural scene, and world-renowned music. Practical tips help business travelers gain an edge on the competition. But most of all, this book aims to show you how best to break the ice and get a better understanding of the infinitely resourceful Cuban people, who despite severe hardships and shortages over many years remain optimistic and fiercely proud of their heritage and culture.

Ecuador - Culture Smart!

Author: Culture Smart!
Publisher: Kuperard
ISBN: 178702301X
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
Don't just see the sights—get to know the people. The people who inhabit the diverse landscapes of this beautiful land are proud, friendly, hospitable, and hardworking, but to understand the culture in any depth, you need to know the complex historical divisions between the highlands and the coast, and the rigid class and racial discrimination that has dominated the country's history. This updated edition of the award-winning Culture Smart! Ecuador takes you beyond the usual descriptions of what to see and digs into the heart of this multi-layered nation to give you an insider's view of the people and their traditions, history, food, and culture, and the practical tools to make the most of your time there. Have a richer and more meaningful experience abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. Chapters on history, values, attitudes, and traditions will help you to better understand your hosts, while tips on etiquette and communicating will help you to navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.

Colombia - Culture Smart!

Author: Kate Cathey
Publisher: Kuperard
ISBN: 1787029158
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 168

Book Description
Colombia has a spectacular and variant landscape, embracing tropical beaches, highland plateaus, the rugged, snow-capped peaks of the Andes, arid deserts, and dense Amazonian jungle. Colombian society is equally diverse. Stylish, cosmopolitan cities coexist with poverty in the beautiful countryside. As a result of the 16th-century Spanish conquest, modern Colombia's multiethnic society is a synthesis of Spanish, indigenous, and African traditions—evident in the music, in the food, and in Barranquilla's famous Carnival. The Colombian people are emerging from decades of crushing civil war and lawlessness with their spirits unbroken. Animated, lighthearted, and ever ready to enjoy the moment, they are looking to the future with hope and are eager to share their rich and beautiful country with the outside world. This pocket-sized book reveals Colombia's key customs and traditions, examines life at home and at work, and introduces some distinct and delicious culinary quirks. There is also advice on safe travel, vital information on how business is done, and how to communicate effectively across the cultural divide.

Venezuela

Author: Russell Maddicks
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description

Hugo Chavez

Author: Cristina Marcano
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588366502
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Book Description
He is one of the most controversial and important world leaders currently in power. In this international bestseller, at last available in English, Hugo Chávez is captured in a critically acclaimed biography, a riveting account of the Venezuelan president who continues to influence, fascinate, and antagonize America. Born in a small town on the Venezuelan plains, Chávez found his interests radically altered when he entered the military academy in Caracas. There, as Hugo Chávez reveals in dramatic detail, he was drawn to leftist politics and a new sense of himself as predestined to change the fortunes of his country and Latin America as a whole. Portrayed as never before is the double life Chávez soon began to lead: by day he was a family man and a military officer, but by night he secretly recruited insurgents for a violent overthrow of the government. His efforts would climax in an attempted coup against President Carlos Andrés Pérez, an action that ended in a spectacular failure but gave Chávez his first irresistible taste of celebrity and laid the groundwork for his ascension to the presidency eight years later. Here is the truth about Chávez’s revolutionary “Bolivarian” government, which stresses economic reforms meant to discourage corruption and empower the poor–while the leader spends seven thousand dollars a day on himself and cozies up to Arab oil elites. Venezuelan journalists Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka explore the often crude and comical public figure who condemns George W. Bush in the most fiery language but at the same time hires lobbyists to improve his country’s image in the West. The authors examine not only Chávez’s political career but also his personal life–including his first marriage, which was marked by a long affair and the birth of a troubled son, and his second marriage, which produced a daughter toward whom Chávez’s favoritism has caused private tension and public talk. This seminal biography is filled with exclusive excerpts from Chávez’s own diary and draws on new research and interviews with such insightful subjects as Herma Marksman, the professor who was his mistress for nine years. Hugo Chávez is an essential work about a man whose power, peculiarities, and passion for the global spotlight only continue to grow.

The Night

Author: Rodrigo Blanco Calderon
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 164421041X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
For readers who love Bolaño, a new voice of Latin American fiction, winner of the Mario Vargas Llosa Prize. Recurring blackouts envelop Caracas in an inescapable darkness that makes nightmares come true. Real and fictional characters, most of them are writers, exchange the role of narrator in this polyphonic novel. They recount contradictory versions of the plot, a series of femicides that began with the energy crisis. The central narrator is a psychiatrist who manipulates the accounts of his friend, an author writing a book titled The Night; and his patient, an advertising executive obsessed with understanding the world through word puzzles. The author shifts between crime fiction and metafiction, cautioning readers that the events retold are both true and manipulated. This is a political novel about the financial crisis and socio-political division in Venezuela from 2008 to 2010. The title of the book, originally also in English, is a gesture towards Chavism's failure to resist US influence. Yet, the form is unapologetically literary, a reflection on the depiction and distortion of reality through storytelling. Blanco Calderón said about the potential of language, "I am convinced that all the evil in the world begins in them: in words" (Caracas, 2010).

The Evolution of Government and Politics in Venezuela

Author: Tammy Gagne
Publisher: Mitchell Lane
ISBN: 1545751544
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 62

Book Description
The Evolution of Government and Politics: Venezuela provides an opportunity to explore the government and political structure of Venezuela and how the nation s government evolved and changed through History. The young reader is encouraged to analyze past events and draw conclusions about how outside factors modified Venezuela s political system and world influence. The Venezuela title has been developed to address many of the Common Core specific goals, higher level thinking skills, and progressive learning strategies from informational texts for middle grade and junior high level students.