Clash or Complement of Cultures?: Peace and Productivity in the New Global Reality

About the Book

This bookrecommends balance between cooperation and competition in intercultural/international relations, with more emphasis on the former. To make this possible, it describes a paradigm shift and demonstrates why it is logical and how it can be attained—thus going beyond traditional legal and moral compliance. Compliance has been insufficient because morality has been significantly dismissed as a “soft value,” and civil rights laws have been circumvented and frequently ineffective.

Book proposes that revolutionary changes caused by globalization require an equivalent paradigm. Interdependence inherent to globalization will not function if winning-is-the-only-thing mindset continues to prevail in U.S. and the West.

Cultural Complementarity is validated through respected principles and practices in quantum physics, education, business and economics. End chapters focus on national and international applications of paradigm. Appendices have data and suggested programs to test and implement the theory.

Table of Contents:

PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHAPTER 1. History and Violence
CHAPTER 2. Race—A Red Herring
CHAPTER 3. Cultural Blind Spots
CHAPTER 4. Paradigms Define the Limits of Plans and Intentions
CHAPTER 5. Differences Can Be Perceived as Complements or as Barriers
CHAPTER 6. Adversarial Competition and Other Obstacles
CHAPTER 7. Leaving the Past Behind; Choosing Forgiveness
CHAPTER 8. Cultural Complementarity Paradigm
CHAPTER 9. Cultural Complementarity and an American Renaissance: Applications of CC in the U.S. Economy, Education, and Society
CHAPTER 10. Meaninglessness and Globalization
CHAPTER 11. A Vision of Meaning within Globalization
CHAPTER 12: A World with Less Poverty and Greater Overall Prosperity
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES

About the Author :
Hector E. Garcia is President of Mex-US Global, LLC., consultants in intercultural communications and international strategic business alliances. Former professional positions: Executive Director (E.D.), Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs (MCLA); VP International & Domestic Emerging Markets, Wells Fargo Bank; Co-founder & E.D. AHANA (African Hispanic Asian & Native American) Public Policy Forum, MN; E.D. MN/Dakotas Region NCCJ (National Conference for Community & Justice); Publisher, COLORS multicultural magazine, Minneapolis, MN; Co-founder & E.D., Minnesotans for NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement); Mexico Liaison Prudential Bache Securities, NYC, NY; Consultant Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU—part of The Economist Magazine’s financial group) Mexico City.

Review :

Garcia’s insights into the origins of much of modern-day social violence drew me in, especially in the context of recent events within the U.S. and beyond. But it was his clear and passionate call for a new "cooperative paradigm” that kept me diving deeper into this important book. We need more solutions and this book delivers—with visionary yet quite specific ideas about how our
‘differences’ can become the sustainable building blocks of our shared future.

Garcia’s book takes the reader into a new understanding of the troubling tensions between cultures, peoples, and the institutions and organizations we have created, some of which no longer serve us well. Along with the advanced understanding of the root causes of these tensions come new perspectives and tools. Garcia develops these with a strong alliance of creative imagination and extensive practical experience in international and cross-cultural affairs. Garcia has a history of creating the collaborations and alliances that are already at work in the new ways he describes so effectively. The concepts are challenging, much needed, and also practical and essential if we are to move beyond current paradigms that trap us in old solutions. I commend this to anyone who considers this question: How will 8 or 9 billion people not only coexist, but mutually thrive and prosper?.