¶ … Countries
Angola and Belgium: A Cultural Comparison
Although both nations have French-speaking elements to their cultural and history for geographical and colonial reasons, the cultural elements present and characteristic of the African nation of Angola and the European nation of Belgium are more striking in their differences than in their similarities. The tiny European nation of Belgium, despite its poverty of natural resources and diversity of culture, has a prosperous manufacturing sector, a flourishing tourist industry, and a relatively secure place in the European Community. This congenial economic relationship with international structures of management may be contrasted with that of Angola.
According to the Lonely Planet Guide to Angola, a "peace agreement signed in April 2002 may have ended the 25-year-old civil war that has decimated Angola. However, Angola is still unstable and unsuitable for travel." (Lonely Planet, "Angola," 2004). In contrast, Belgium is a European nation primarily known for its relative state of peace and ability to attract tourism and foreign investment. (Lonely Planet, "Belgium," 2004). Belgium's status as a star on the world political, as opposed to economic map, is said to be rather dim, not because it is a dull place, but because of the retiring quality of its inhabitants. In contrast, the relative prominence of Angola as an issue of African importance has been due to its civil war. It is politically central but economically poor and investors still shy away from its borders because of fears of its political instability.
However, this does not mean that all is harmonious in Belgium. Both nation of Belgium and Angola are remarkable for their existence within the crossroads of a multiethnic and complex political struggle for dominance, one on the European continent, and the other on the...
Even if a recent civil war has not occurred within the borders Belgium's own nation, Belgium's relative proximity to the ethnic struggles that have gripped the European continent have made it hyperaware of the often difficult role that diversity plays in the modern workforce. Thus, both Angola and Belgium present for the modern manager of an international business, a national study in the need to have a sensitivity to difference and diversity of religion and national origin in the workforce.
The development and halting and starting process of becoming integrated into the European Union has certainly affected Belgium, often thought of culturally as a kind of poor sister country to France. Occasionally, in terms of its influence in setting forth the legalese of the economic terms of the EU it has felt looked down upon for both its French and German dialects and its potential economic contribution to the developing superpower of the European Union. In its own way, Belgium is just as divided as Angola. Described as a "rich and bubbling vat of beer, chocolate, oil paint and bureaucrats, Belgium gives off the heady pong of the bourgeoisie. But stir the pot a little and you'll find an artificial state roughly made up of two parts Germanic Flemings to one part Celtic-Latin Walloons." (Lonely Planet, 2004, Belgium)
Angola similarly was torn, as "the end of hostilities is just the first step in Angola's journey of a thousand miles. War leaves scars: millions of displaced, homeless, maimed, orphaned, starving and diseased Angolans. This means no infrastructure, poor roads, crime, graft, up to eleven million landmines - and a glimmer of hope." (Lonely Planet, 2004, "Angola) Unlike the recent history of Belgium, however, the damage that diversity has caused to the infrastructure of Angola has been physical rather than ideological. The nation is so…
