The Big 6 Challenges for an Oil and Gas Translator

1. Timeline Requirements

The energy industry as a whole is extremely time-sensitive. It's never acceptable to miss a deadline for an oil and gas translator. Having an idle rig for one day alone, for instance, can cost an oil company $650,000 and that doesn't include the millions lost by not producing oil. Three minutes late could mean $3 million lost.

2. Industry Specific Vocabulary

How many of these expressions do you know?

a) PSA[1]

b) Gone to Water

c) Gunk squeeze

d) Sour Corrosion

e) Gas Cut mud

f) Sidetrack

g) Pipe ram preventer

These are just a few examples of technical terms that an oil and gas translator may encounter and that may need to communicate succinctly and effectively in another language. Most linguists, even if professionally trained, won't know the definitions of these words unless they have industry-specific knowledge. Extensive knowledge of highly technical and specific terms is vital in order to provide accurate high-quality translations.

3. 'Translating' regulations

Each nation has specific codes and standards that must be adhered to. Russia, for example, has the world's strictest regulations on offshore oil production and has introduced new regulations on how foreign assistance missions are to approach Russian authorities when sending in expertise and equipment. Oil and gas translators are responsible for being aware of these and ensuring the translations they produce comply with them.

Failing to budget for good translations that comply with the requirements of target countries can lead to them being rejected (and having to be retranslated). Why not get it right first time?

4. Keeping up with industry social and environmental requirements

Like many industries, the oil and gas sector is under increasing pressure to improve their social and environmental impact. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) are used to assess the sustainability of their approach. The requirements for these open to public review and are imposed on a national level by treaties, national laws, oil and gas industry guidelines, and are imposed as conditions of lending and assistance by international financial organizations (e.g. the World Bank). It is a lengthy procedure that demands a good knowledge of legal and financial terminology. As a result of this constant transnational flow of documents translators should also be familiar with the procedures and documents involved that will be referred to in the process. They should be able to update and amend documents efficiently so they can be approved.

5. DTP requirements

Due to the highly technical nature of many oil and gas translations, specialized desktop publishing tools such as AutoCAD may be required in order to incorporate technical diagrams. Oil and gas translators must know how to manipulate annotations using these tools. It is easy to leave things out without review.

6. Project Specific Multilingual Communication

To date there have been US$ 53.43 billion invested in the pre-salt, with an overall $400 billion expected over the next ten years, including foreign investment from Petrobras partners British Gas and from investment from Chile. There are currently 688 sources of foreign investment in the pre salt project, a figure which not only demonstrates the demand for multi-lingual translations but also shows how, when centered on one project, a streamlined approach is vital to insure that even though they are written in different languages they are 'talking the same language' using the same terminology.

Do you consider the impact of your translation choices when you are choosing a translation provider?

[1] a) Pressure Setting Assembly - A tool used to set permanent tools on wireline using explosive force

b) Describes a well in which water production is increasing

c) A bentonite and diesel oil mixture that is pumped down the drill pipe and into the annulus to mix with drilling mud.

d) Embrittlement and subsequent wearing away of metal caused by contact of the metal with hydrogen sulfide.

e) A drilling mud that contains entrained formation gas, giving the mud a characteristically fluffy texture.

f) To use a whipstock, turbodrill, or other mud motor to drill around broken drill pipe or casing that has become lodged permanently in the hole.

g) A blowout preventer that uses pipe rams as the closing elements.

Translation Source breaks through language barriers using state-of-the-art localization, document management, eLearning development and international staffing resources and technologies that improve time to market and return on investment. From our Houston headquearters and with resources deployed internationally in 4 continents, we help you build relationships across languages that achieve results and impact your bottom line.

Challenges of the Information Officer of the Digital Age

My beloved brothers and sisters in information and communication industry in Ghana, verily, verily, I say unto you that the world wide web with its offspring, the Internet, brought about by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), is very, very useful indeed! If it weren't so, I wouldn't have told you so. But it all depends on how you use its tools to advance your course.

When doing a research to write this feature, I browsed the web and used the Google search engine to look up the definition of the three key words in the headline above namely, "challenge", "information" and "digital." I was amazed at the thousand and one shades of meaning available on the net. Yet, for purposes of this article, I just picked the basic meanings that best suit my intention. And that intention was to try as much as possible to write on technical subjects without much indulging in technical jargons, so that ordinary readers can enjoy reading the piece and understand the real issue at stake.

Thus, Challenge was defined as "a situation or difficulty that tests one's ability to do something." Information - "a collection of related data; knowledge about a topic; data that have been processed into a format that is understandable by intended audience." Digital - "generally, information is expressed, stored and transmitted by either analog or digital means. In a digital form, this information is seen in a binary state as either a one or a zero, a plus or a minus. The computer uses digital technology for most actions."

Analogically, let's say that, as an Information Officer of the digital age, it was possible for me to obtain the meanings of these words on the Internet while using the computer. Otherwise, I would have been obliged to look for a big dictionary, which might not be available for me at the time of writing. The challenge that would have confronted me would have been my inability to obtain these definitions on the Internet instantly if I had not acquired some basic knowledge or the technique of utilising the tools of ICT to search online or the web.

In Ghana, Information Officers, like any other professionals, have been contributing their quota to the development of the nation from time immemorial. They have been discharging their duties by disseminating government information to the people. They do this by interpreting government policies and explaining less understood or misunderstood issues to the people at the grassroots. They, in turn, send feedback to government by informing the authorities about the sentiments, views, opinions the real feelings of the people on such policies or programmes for necessary reviews or modifications in the best interest of the governed.

For example, the implementation of national policies such as the National Health Insurance Scheme, the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme, the National Youth Employment Programme, the Cedi Redenomination Programme, the Education Reform, the Regenerative Health and Nutrition Programme, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, the National Identification Programme, just to mention a few, are issues that Information Officers have been supporting other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as other public and private organisations to educate the public about their value to society without playing politics with them at all. And where the desired impacts are lacking they have the responsibility to alert Government. Information Officers are professional civil servants who are mandated to play this role to assist any government in power for the prosperity of the nation.

Each year when the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning presents the national budget to Parliament, especially where new policy statements are made in the budget, all Regional and District Information Officers are convened in Accra for orientation. Experts from the Finance Ministry are invited to educate and explain policy issues to these Information Officers to enable them to understand and be well informed themselves first before they go back to their various districts to interpret the policies to ordinary citizens in their own local languages.

The latest policy issue, for instance, was the Communication Service Tax, popularly known as "Talk Tax." Again, when the Bank of Ghana (BoG) came up with the Redenomination of the Cedi programme last year, this orientation was organised for Information Officers, who in turn, went to every corner of the country to explain the programme to the people at the grassroots, in addition to radio and television publicity embarked upon the BoG. This was how the Cedi Redenomination public education campaign was very, very effective and successful nation wide.

One principal and traditional means by which Information Officers have been discharging these functions in deprived and rural communities in the country was the use of the famous Information Cinema Vans. Today with the availability of over 130 FM Radio stations and appreciable number of television stations in the Ghana, Information Officers have access to other communication channels to complement the use of Cinema Vans. Again, Information Officers have the opportunity to diversify the use of Cinema Vans by producing video films, DVD and CD documentaries to supplement their traditional means of disseminating public information to the citizenry.

Now, with the Digital Age, ushered in by ICT, which has transformed the globe into a miniature community, and changed the way things are done from archeology to zoology, Information Officers, too, have new challenges to encounter. As Digital Information Officers now, therefore, there is no way they can discharge their duties effectively and efficiently if they do not acquire some basic knowledge and skills in the application of ICT tools. They need to know something about E-Government strategy. In this context e-Government simply means electronic government or government online.

About 20 years ago or so, the United Nations called on governments the world over to reengineer governance by adopting e-government strategies so as to provide public services to their citizens online. Singapore which was one of the countries in the world to adhere to the UN's call quickly coined a slogan: "Any service that can be provided electronically must be provided electronically." Little wonder by 2004, when UN conducted a global survey to ascertain which countries were providing effective public services to their citizens online, Singapore was second only to Canada. In fact, Canada was first in e-government strategy with Singapore and US sharing the second position before others followed, according to that survey. The question is how Singapore, a very tiny island with a population of less than six million with no natural resources whatsoever, share a position with the all might America in e-government strategy? Whether we like it or not, Singapore is a world superpower in ICT. Period!

E-government has objective and scope. Digital Information Officers need to know some of the basic e-government terminologies such as Government-to-Citizen (G2C), Government-to-Business (G2B), Government-to-Employees (G2E) and Government-to-Government (G2G) etc, so that when they are disseminating government information electronically, they will know exactly what they are about.

Even though the digital gap between Ghana and Singapore may take some generations to bridge, it is gratifying to note that the Government of Ghana has also heeded the UN injunction for adoption of e-government strategy to provide public services to its citizens online. One of measures the Government adopted to this end was the establishment of the Government of Ghana Portal which is being managed by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation since 2003.

At the moment the Portal provides information on all sectors of the economy online. It also publishes major development oriented news on daily basis. It is yet to provide public services online. This has to be done in collaboration with some public services providers. Measures are being put in place for online services delivery on the Portal professionally. One particular development partner which supported the Information Ministry in the establishment of the Ghana Portal under what was known as Ghana Dot.Gov Project was the International Institute for Communication Development (IICD), based in the Netherlands.

It is commendable to observe since 2003, the IICD has maintained its technical and financial support to the Ministry of Information in terms of capacity building in ICT for staff of the Ministry and provisions of some equipment such as computers for the management of the Ghana Portal. Having realised that it is only when Information Officers are trained in ICT that they can cope with the demands of the digital age, the IICD has accepted a proposal to help the Ministry to establish an ICT Training Centre within the Ministry to provide constant training and technological upgrading for staff of the Ministry, the Information Services Department and as well as other MDAs in the country.

At the time of writing this piece, work has started on the ICT Training Centre project. UNDP has also been collaborating with the Information Ministry in the capacity building in ICT as reported in a previous article titled: "Ghana's Community Information Centres (CICs) Project on Course," published in the Daily of May 29, 2008. IICD is also supporting the CICs project in some rural communities in Northern Ghana.

Ghana Government itself has embarked upon other far reaching e-government projects to make the provision of public services to citizens online a reality in the country. For instance, there is a major E-Ghana Project with the support of the World Bank being undertaken by the Ministry of Communications to transform the whole nation into an e-society. Within the framework of this project, a National Optic Fibre Backbone was needed as infrastructure development leading to achieving that goal. In fact, Ghana's Ministry of Communications has already completed the first phase of the National Backbone project.

The Ghana Information and Communication Technology Directorate (GICTeD), which is responsible for the e-government component of the E-Ghana Project, is feverishly linking up with other MDAs to ensure the delivery of the following national tasks for the country to be classified among e-government nations of the world:

1. Establishment of Internet registry for Ghana;

2. Establishment of Digital Signature Registry;

3. Establishment of Certified Electronic Mail System for MDAs and

4. Establishment of Electronic Document Workflow System for Ghana. These entire digital infrastructures must be in place to enable the Information Officer to meet the challenges of the digital age squarely.

Mawutodzi K. Abissath is a Ghanaian journalist, writer, poet and blogger. He is EzineArticles.com Expert Author, author of Kofi Annan the Great - poetry, Friends of Tomorrow-Poems for Young Children and Co-author of Traditional Wisdom in African Proverbs.

He writes from Accra, Ghana

Globalisation - Challenges And Opportunities

INTRODUCTION

Globalisation has become the need of the day for every country of the world - be it small or big, developed or developing nation, Globalisation, which started as back as 1980, has spurred due to technological advancement in the areas of transport and communication and by the selection of big developing nations to bring necessary improvement in investment climate and to open up to international trade and investment. The most encouraging aspect is that for the first time, poor nations are trying hard with desire and commitment to harness the potential and opportunities of their huge labour to break into world markets for manufactured products and services. Since the initiation of globalisation, manufactures have witnessed a rise from less than 25 percent to 80 percent. The major contribution to this increase is made out by Brazil, China, Hungry, India and Mexico.

GLOBALISATION AND INDIAN ECONOMY

24 developing nations, which cover 3 billion people, have doubled their ratio of trade to income over the last two decades. Countries that undertook globalisation at a faster rate have increased their per capita income from 1 percent in the decade of 60s to 3 percent in the decade of 70s, 4 percent in the decade of 80s, and 5 percent in the decade of 90s.

According to the World Bank, in the past decade, the number of the poor in the world (excluding China) rose by more than 100 million. Another study found that during 1990-98, 36 countries had average annual growth of 2.3 percent, 34 countries had a growth of 1.9 percent and 39 countries had no growth with 15 countries experiencing falling living standards.

The World Bank holds the view that the impact of growth on poverty has varied according to the pattern of investment. For example, in India, a given growth rate has cut poverty in some states by four to five times as much as in others. Those states which invested heavily in education and health saw a much higher rate of reduction in poverty. This point of view has been adopted by almost all donors for the disbursement of their assistance to developing countries.

The free trade and investment policies continue to be under attack from many quarters, in that the realities of the developing world are not taken into account. Under attack also are the blatant hypocrisy and double standards that govern the behaviour of rich countries towards the poor countries.

The developing world has not received a fair share of benefits because the rich countries have not kept their part of the agreement reached at the Uruguay Round, under which they had pledged to reduce subsidies to their agriculture by 36 percent in return for the lowering of tariffs on agricultural imports by the developing countries. While the developing countries reduced their tariffs by 50 percent, the rich countries subsidies remained unchanged.

Similarly, the industrial countries had agreed to phase out the protectionist Multi-Fibre Agreement by 2005, But 30 percent of textiles and clothing skills face significant restrictions even in 2004. The average tariff on these goods is 11 percent, which is three times as high as on other industrial goods. South Asia alone loses $2 billion a year due to these tariffs.

Agriculture and textiles together account for 70 percent of the poor world's exports. Developing countries lose nearly $100 billion a year due to rich countries' export subsidies and trade barriers. In rich countries, tariffs on goods from poor countries are four times higher than on goods from rich countries. If poor countries' goods get free access to rich country markets, and if the later remove all subsidies, it would add $1.5 billion by 2015 to poor countries' income, and lift 300 million people from the rank of the poor.

WHY INDIA HAS BEEN LAGGING BEHIND?

It is generally said that India has failed in globalising its economy and therefore, real fruits of globalisation have not been reaped out by the common man. Development economists of India put two arguments in this respect. First, inability of Indian economy to contain fiscal deficit is resulting into stagnation of the country's economy. Second, failure to reform the structure of Indian economy so that sustainable growth is ensured in the future. These issues have far reaching effect on the globalisation of Indian economy. There are two emerging parameters on the basis of which failure could be judged. First, a relatively small change in the components of exports away from agricultural to sophisticated manufactures. Second, decrease in the inflow of FDI.

During the year 1990-91 i.e. pre-liberalisation, agriculture had contributed 24 percent in India's total exports. The share of sophisticated manufactures was 21.8 percent and remaining share i.e. 54.2 percent was of light manufactures. On the other side of it, in the year 1999-2000, the relative share of agriculture was 17 percent ( a decline of 7 percent). The relative share of sophisticated manufactures stood at 29.8 percent (a rise of 7 percent). The relative share of light manufactures remained at 54.2 percent. This means during a span of ten years there was only 7 percent increase in sophisticated manufactures and from that it could be concluded there has been no appreciable degree of globalisation in Indian economy.

Added to this, if these trends are compared with economic transformation in East Asia during the period under review, India is nowhere and it proves to be a 'glimmer'. The major factor attributed to these trends is insignificant role played by foreign and joint ventures in the promotion of India's exports during the period under reference.

Foreign direct investment (FDI), one of the most vital instruments for globalising Indian economy, is partially responsible for the failure of globalisation in India. This is because FDI inflows to India never exceeded from a level of US$3.3 billion as against a minimum need of at least US$ 10 billion annually. India is being considered a nation inveterately hostile to FDI to India in comparison to total FDI approved. From the year 1991 to 2001 only 21.7 percent has been actual inflow to India. This is due to lack of proper initiation and implementation of 'second generation' reforms. These reforms relate to factor market and administrative system under which firms have to work.

Indian economy has also failed to link to global economy. It is essential on the part of Indian economy to attract investment not only to strategic industries but also to simple industries. China did a right thing by inviting investment in simple industries.

The other viewpoint in regard to globalisation of Indian economy is that Indian economy globalisation is a 'mixed blessing'. A better alternative is not to opt out of the process of globalisation, but to come out and evolve an appropriate framework to have maximum benefits from the existing international trade and investment scenario. In this regard, it has become imperative to understand the gains and losses on one hand and to study the benefits and dangers on the other hand.

There is an urgent need to cooperate with other developing nations to bring the desired change in the existing international trade environment. Simultaneously, India must identify and strengthen its comparative advantages. This would result into spirit of meeting the challenges of globalisation. India has miles to go to reap out the benefits of globalisation for all its inhabitants. Globalisation of Indian economy must be based on the premise of equality of opportunities for all.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

It is true that the present -day world does not give us any option except to join the process of globalisation, we should along with other developing countries, find ways and means of devising policies and programmers which really help the poor nations and the poor among these nations. We should fight for a more just and equitable world order and develop the strength and unity to resist imposition of unequal treaties and discriminatory trade policies. India signed the WTO accord but the Indian industry as well as trade circles are not fully aware even today of the commitments made by the country.

In fact, the problem with globalisation is that a few may benefit and majority may be worse off. As such, it is necessary that government takes an active part in managing and tackling it. In recent times, an important aspect of globalisation has been outsourcing of jobs, particularly hi-tech jobs, by developed countries like America to developing countries like India. This has been favourable to America as it can now specialise in areas of competitive advantage involving skilled labour and advanced technology. It is, however, argued that today America is producing lesser number of engineers than, say, India or China even as they may e to some disadvantage either because of poor training or such other factors. But then, this disadvantage is more than offset by the wage differentials, causing unemployment amongst American engineers.

It is thus that America has to grapple with the challenges of adjusting to globalisation and at the same time, be more sensitive to the plight of developing countries. No wonder, globalisation can also boomerang, limiting the growth process in developed countries in case workers are unemployed or their living condition become worse off because of outsourcing.

What is more, the main driving forces of present-day globalisation are the market and the return on investment. Only countries with high growth and good prospects or attractive returns have been drawn within the fold of global trade and investment flows. Developing countries attract only 30 percent of global investment flows, but just 20 countries in the developing world attract over 85 percent of total foreign direct investment flows and 94 percent of portfolio investment. Globalisation has thus eluded the rest of the developing countries inspite of drastic liberalisation of their economic policies.

It can also be said that as a result of globalisation, there has been large concentration of activities within certain geographical confines like those of the Asia pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) and the European Union (EU) and this has widened the disparity between the rich and the poor countries. The income-gap between the top 20 percent of the world's population in the highest-income countries and bottom 20 percent of world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the latter accounts for only one percent. And there is no guarantee that more liberalisation by the developing countries will help to narrow this gap.

As part of trade reforms, the tariff and non-tariff barriers have been lowered gradually. India's agreement with the WTO norms has resulted in the country removing the quantitative restrictions on various items and from April 2003 free import of various items has been allowed.

No doubt, an impression has been gaining ground that many an economic ill are due to globalisation. Also, it is felt that increased cross-border trade will adversely affect Indian economy. Moreover, Indian companies fear that they are going to be easy targets for takeover by foreign companies. There may be an element of truth in these perceptions but not all of them may be real.

It is also true that liberalisation of trade and investments increased capital flows and the resultant competition also leads to higher economic growth. Evidence suggests that open economies have prospered better than those economies which have adopted protective practices, as in the case of many of the South East Asian economies.

Therefore, India should rise to avail itself of the opportunities of globalisation. Indian business cannot perpetually live behind protective barriers. It is necessary to push Indian companies into global competition and break their lethargy. To withdraw from globalisation would be an opportunity lost.

No wonder then, however, a first class infrastructure network has to be provided for Indian industry and business so that they become effectively competitive in the global market. Along with that, some law pertaining to labour and production need to be changed while some new have to be introduced keeping in view the global standards that need to be achieved. Surely, by leaving these and other problems unattended, it cannot be expected that Indian industry and business will be able to rise to meet the global challenges.

Of no less concern is the fact that huge global corporations enjoy sufficient financial cloud to erode the regulatory powers of nations and ride roughshod over the rights of individuals to determine their future. Whereas the post-colonialism had held out the promise of an equlitarian world order and globalisation was supposed to deliver economic equality among nations, the reality is to the contrary. In the post-globalisation world in which we live today, inequality is on the increase.

It is said globalisation's driving idea is free market capitalism. Like the cold war, globalisation also has its own set of economic rules which revolve around opening deregulation and privatisation of economic activities. In the era of globalisation, we are all connected as we reach for the internet but nobody is totally in charge. If the defining perspective of cold war was division, it was integration for globalisation. Once a country makes the leap into the system of globalisation, its elites try to locate themselves in a global context.

The financial sector reforms have been particularly significant and banks are now reorienting their strategy to compete with international players. The insurance sector has been opened up only recently and the forces of competition are already coming into play. Industrial licensing has been more or less abolished and the role of private capital has been enhanced in various sectors.

Also, in India's corporate sector some kind of discontinuity is visible as global competition is knocking at their doors. Foreign investments are sometimes looked upon with suspicion and yet they seem to be crucial for modernisation. Now time has come when we should aim at making Indian companies as global companies with the vast pool of trained manpower and skills available in the country. The objective should be to build Indian brands and products which are recognised through out the world.

Nevertheless, all this calls for restructuring on a scale, which has been untried till now in so far as the economy and corporate sector are concerned. The level of performance would need not be sustained by constant innovation, cost reduction and better quality. It has to be recognised that as a consequence of globalistion, free roaming across the global economy by multinationals has encouraged many developing nations to liberalize at great speed. Therefore, mergers and acquisitions have eroded competition and developed monopolistic tendencies, vitiating all fruitful results of a global environment.

INDIA SHOULD CAPITALISE ON ITS STRENGTH

Understanding the current status of globalisation is necessary for setting the course for the future. The main point here is that globalisation is still an evolving concept, and up to now it has been shaped largely by the rich and the powerful countries to assert their advantages in the fields of manufacturing, services and finance. The developing countries have not been able to secure as much benefit from their primary strengths in agriculture and labour as they should have. Although India took the initiative to echo its concern in the Cancun agenda, this subject is yet to again its rightful attention.

It is to be noted that developing countries are not homogeneous. Each country has its own unique strengths, weaknesses and concerns, and each needs to frame its policies accordingly. For India to secure its due share of gains from the globalisation process, it needs to capitalise on its strengths.

India is the second largest country and the largest democracy in the world. Its record on freedom of speech, association and worship is quite impressive. It has well-developed legal and financial institutions and infrastructure, and a large industrial and sophisticated scientific base. Its higher education system is large and capable of achieving excellence.

The most important strength of India is its well-trained but surplus man power which is English-speaking and Western-oriented. It also has a vast surplus of low-skill and unskilled manpower. India's gain could be enormous if it were allowed to export this manpower freely. There would also be other significant economic, political and social gains.

1. International trade tends to grow between manpower sending and receiving countries.

2. When the number of immigrants from a country/region becomes noticeably large and/or economically powerful, they tend to become a political force in their new country.

3. Out sourcing tends to encourage people to obtain education and learn about other countries. As a result, significant outsourcing can become a powerful force for the spread of education.

CONCLUSION

During 1990 and 2003 the volume of world trade has increased and the high and middle income countries have managed to increase their share in world trade. This has happened mainly because of opening up of economies and globalisation. Moreover, the middle income countries have invited more Foreign Direct Investment during the period. In contrast with this, the per capita GDP of the low income countries has marginally increased. The economic inequality has widened between different income groups. Therefore one may be tempted to conclude that the globalisation has not trickled down to the low income countries. In other words globalisation has been confined to developed countries and developing countries have been able to participate in the process.

However, globalisation should not be accused for losing share of the low income countries. These countries suffer from internal problems like rapid rise in population, infrastructure bottle necks, weak financial markets and so on. More access to globalisation and its benefits demand that developing countries first put in place a conducive environment necessary to ensure higher returns and larger markets for foreign investors. To get a share of global capital, technology and output, developing countries have to upgrade their social and economic institutions through administrative, legislative and legal reforms.

Globalisation should not be thought of as a solution to everything. It merely provides opportunities. Those who take advantage, they flourish and those who do not they sink. Globalisation is not supposed to produce equality of outcome but it produces equality of opportunity for those with right mindset. Hence the developing countries have to focus on economic restructuring building market supporting institutions and creating efficient regulatory mechanisms.

Left to themselves the low income countries cannot travel long. What in fact needed is the international assistance and a support mechanism so as to facilitate their participation in the process of globalisation. The challenge of the hour is to make globalisation work towards global prosperity through disaggregate development. The critically necessity in this context are the collective and cooperative actions which should be realized by all countries of the world and particularly the developed ones.

Copyright Violations and International Challenges

Many authors and publishers have been quite alarmed to find their books pirated, and reproduced in other nations and then distributed throughout the world. There have been big cases where stories from very famous authors have been pirated by the container loads. This happens all over the world, and it has been a big issue in China, probably because they produce most of the world's books now.

Imagine a pirating publisher taking all the books on the New York Times bestseller list, and printing tens of thousands of each, putting them into containers and shipping them to the United States for sale in our markets. Also, shipping the same books to many other countries before our publishers get the actual books on the shelves and into those markets. Yes, this is a serious issue.

Indeed, there was a very interesting article the other day in the Los Angeles times titled "China Gives a Shred about Piracy" by Barbara Demick reporting from Beijing China. The article explained that the Chinese government in Beijing had found pirated DVDs, books, and even magazines and they were destroying them. There was even a picture of a large Caterpillar skip loader moving everything into a pile to be burned. Indeed, it seems like a big waste of money to do that, but Beijing figures that it's the best way to send a message to prevent copyright infringement and piracy.

China now has The National Copyright Administration and the leadership in China wants everyone to know around the world that they are trying to stop the problem of copyright violations. This is a very good thing and it's going to make most of their trading partners quite happy, as it has been a very big complaint for a number of years. Indeed, China is also worried about copyright infringements concerning its own material now, as other countries are copying Chinese produced material, and now they understand the economic loss that can occur.

Yes, China is growing up and they are joining the world in getting rid of copyrighted contraband and pirated material. Some critics charge that this is merely a ploy and a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of thousands of cargo containers shipped all over the world of pirated products, and copyrighted material.

Perhaps, there is some truth to both sides of this debate, but just the fact that China is stepping up to the plate to do this, and to make a very public statement shows that things are improving. And that is a good thing. Indeed, hope you'll please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.WorldThinkTank.net - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.

Challenges Associated With Long Term US Presence Advising Foreign Nations

Since our birth as a nation, we have been involved with providing advice to foreign governments. This advice ranges across the spectrum from Diplomatic to economics to judicial, to conservation, to military. Anything one can think up that requires nations to engage each other requires some sort of advice giving. From a military standpoint, the strategic (i.e.-warfighting) to the operational (i.e.-how things are employed in warfighting) to the tactical (i.e. - individual and small unit employment) are the types of advice most often given. Their significance cannot be emphasized enough. At any given moment across the globe, their are individuals representing the US Government, providing advice to these foreign governments. Some of them work in teams and some alone. Some are high ranking officers and some are lower ranking, Non Commissioned Officers. These individuals, typically, live for long periods of time embedded with their counterparts and may develop close relationships with them. This causes a unique relationship to be developed between the advisor and those he is attempting to advise. It also causes some concern for the protection of sensitive information. Most advisors have access to some sort of classified information. Some is releasable to their counterparts and some may not be. How do they protect what is not releasable from compromise or espionage? They will also have access to sensitive information produced by their counterparts. What do they do with this information? These are some of the questions I hope to be able to answer.

The risk of compromise is greater for advisors who live long term with foreign counterparts than it is for others that hold clearances. The clearance adjudication process has a guideline specifically for foreign influence. However, the foreign influence implicated the most is family and there are others. The government should have a vetting process, outside the normal security clearance process, to vet potential advisors before they act in this capacity.

What is it that advisors do and what makes the job hazardous as far as protecting information is concerned? Advisors live and work with an assigned unit and/or counterpart(s) for long periods of time. They may be an advisor to an individual or they may advise a group of individuals that work in a specific area or have responsibility for a specific area. The typical military advisor is assigned to this job for at least one year but may serve longer. Those that function most efficiently in this environment are those that have worked overseas engaged with foreign nationals previously. Advisors are embedded in every way with those they advise. They eat, sleep, work and relax when their counterparts do and in accordance with their schedules. In most cases, there are no other American personnel nearby. This causes a unique relationship to develop between the American and his counterpart. If he is not well trained and experienced, he may become victim to varying degrees on culture shock and, often, suffers from a variation of "Stockholm Syndrome". Over long periods of time, he becomes more and more at risk of accepting the ideology and, conceivably, even loyalty to his counterparts.

What do advisors do that puts them at risk? Simply put, they have access to sensitive information that must be safeguarded. From a US standpoint, not all information that an advisor has access to is suitable for their counterparts. From a counterpart standpoint, they have information that they do not want the US to have access to. Often times, this causes a shell game to be played by the advisor in his attempt to protect what he should and share what he can. Though not a particularly dangerous shell game, it is one that can cause a loss of rapport with his counterparts if not played expertly. This is extremely important as rapport is the backbone of any good advisor relationship.

Being an advisor is an incredibly complex and nuanced job. One is asked to do things completely outside the scope of normal, day to day activities. An advisor must use all techniques at his disposal to convince his counterparts to do the things that he, the advisor, thinks needs to occur. Any good advisor spends at least the first few weeks assessing his counterparts. He must determine strengths and weaknesses without alerting his counterparts. Working with other cultures is a sensitive job. Even though counterparts must always know the extent of the mission and purpose of the advisor, it is often a tough pill to swallow to have an "advice giver". One might say that the unit/counterpart is fortunate to have garnered the attention of the US Government sufficiently to acquire a personal advisor. However, not all counterparts see it this way. Many view their advisors as sanctioned spies or, at best, hindrances to the way operations are normally conducted.

Working as an advisor creates an environment where a unique set of dynamics comes into people for both parties. T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) wrote his famous "Twenty Seven Articles" in 1917 which have become sacrosanct of the modern advisor as these tips are still accurate today. First, advisors have no positional authority over their counterparts. T. E. Lawrence's tip number three (As quoted in Ramsey, n.d.) states:

"3. In matters of business deal only with the commander of the army, column, or party in which you serve. Never give orders to anyone at all, and reserve your directions or advice for the C.O., however great the temptation (for efficiency's sake) of dealing with his underlings. Your place is advisory, and your advice is due to the commander alone. Let him see that this is your conception of your duty, and that his is to be the sole executive of your joint plans. (p. 4)."

As the above quote demonstrates, advisors are exactly what their name indicates, a consultant. It is up to their counterparts to make decisions and issue orders and, in fact, this is the end result desired from the advisor viewpoint. We do the counterpart no good if we usurp his authority even though, at times, it may seem the right course to take. Second, the counterpart has no real authority over the advisor. The fact that there is an advisor present is usually because of a much higher level agreement between militaries. This can cause an adversarial relationship, especially if there is asymmetry between ranks. In my particular case, I was a senior warrant officer advising a General officer. While I was able to work past the difference in rank, it took time and lot of hard work on my part to get through the indifference. Third, the advisor tends to be able to circumvent some bureaucracy, due to his access to higher levels of command. The senior military officer at a US Embassy is normally a Colonel (O-6). His counterparts are the host countries most senior officers. The advisor tends to have the ear, directly, of the senior military officer who has the ear of the host countries military command. This can work both in favor (cutting through bureaucracy) or against (fear caused by counterparts knowing of this access) the advisor.

There are many challenges associated with advisor work. The advisor must be versed in both his culture and the host nation's culture. He must understand who commands him and where he stands within the hierarchy of his host. He has to know when to provide input and when not to. He must know how input is accepted amongst his counterparts. He needs to know when, where and how to apply pressure and when not. He needs to know what support the US government is willing to give and how far to take it. He must know when to coerce and when not to. While most military organizations have some sort of interaction with foreign nationals, they do so from a position of strength. They have something that the foreign representative wants. This could be security, food, housing or any numerous other things. An advisor offers none of this. On the contrary, he usually needs the host nation to house him, feed him and protect him. Under these conditions there must be some trade off. Otherwise, what is the motivation for the host nation entity involved to cooperate? Rapport and relationship building then becomes the greatest challenge.

Additional concerns are the legal issues involved. The Advisor tends to walk a gray area as far as the law is concerned. Not that there is not sufficient applicable law to govern what they do and how they conduct themselves. On the contrary, there is almost too much law. Military advisors are governed by International, US and HN laws. In most cases, an advisor is not likely to have all these different legal nuances explained to him, so it is incumbent upon him to conduct research. On the US side, it isn't so gray. All senior officers and non commissioned officers know of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and, generally, if one lives by this code, this is sufficient. There is the "Posse Comitatus Act" which prohibits military members (minus certain exceptions) from being used in a law enforcement capacity. There are the annual DOD Appropriations and Authorizations Acts which define the things that the DOD has the lead in conducting. However, what is the advisors status in the host nation? Is he considered a diplomat? Is he a member of the Administrative and Technical Staff? Is their a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) signed between the host nation and the US?

Though not typically the case, he may have no legal status at all. It behooves the advisor to conduct research to, at least, discover the international laws that have been agreed upon between the US and the Host nation and seek legal advice (always available to military personnel). At a minimum, there will be local rules and regulations as well as social mores that he will have to identify and seek to conform to. Every installation or military camp will have its own set of rules that the advisor would be wise to follow. Nothing will cause a loss of rapport quicker than blatant disregard for the Host Nations rules, regulations, customs and courtesies.

Military Advisors are assigned to work as advisors in areas that are of interest to the US. Since they live with their counterparts, they are exposed to their counterpart's sensitive information. In many instances, they are the only US representative in the region. In most cases, they have access to US classified information that may or may not be releasable to their counterparts. The advisor, often, does not have the appropriate containers authorized to store classified information, so he is often forced to carry it on his person at all times. This can be rather cumbersome and often forces the advisor to avoid classified information.

The greatest risk, however, remains his constant exposure to the constant queries from his counterpart for US information. In many instances, his counterpart may be a foreign intelligence officer. Additionally, advisors typically live in remote, austere camps where penetration from local insurgent groups or terrorists is likely or least plausible. These requests may seem benign, and most are, but the advisor can not afford to let his guard down either. The queries come so often that the advisor can become worn down by their insistence if he is not careful.

The most likely risk, however, is from the close relationship that develops between the advisor and his counterparts. After working for a long period of time, the advisor may become complacent. He also will likely become friends, to a degree, with these individuals. It is a fair assumption to make, that, at least, the intelligence personnel he associates with always be attempting to garner whatever information they can from the advisor. The advisor must be aware of this at all time and guard against becoming overly friendly with his counterparts. Professionalism goes along way. In Colombia, we came to an agreement with the Military for separate housing to be provided at each installation, specifically to guard against this. We found that having some sanctuary that the advisor team could, at least occasionally, retire to went along way to resolving some of these issues.

Just as there are risks for the US Government, the host nation has risks. Military Advisors are embedded with their counterparts. In order to be a functional advisor, one needs to have complete access to all aspects of operations. Though this is necessary, it is not always immediate. Few counterparts will allow an advisor immediate access to what they feel is classified information and for the same reasons that we do not. They do not trust that the advisor will not compromise their operations. The advisor must employ human relations skills in order to build rapport and develop a trusting relationship with his counterparts. Access is gained over time, never immediate. My counterpart was a good natured, General officer who had worked most of his years in Southern Colombia and was a Special Forces Officer like myself. I had to build a friendly relationship with him before I could even think of talking about operations. This meant that I had to spend a lot of time talking to him, eating with him and providing all the ancillary help (logistics, information, etc) that I could. Slowly, but surely, our relationship developed into a very strong one. He would not travel anywhere without his American advisor and felt very proud that he had one assigned to him.

The salient point is that foreign nations, even allies, do not want us to have access to all their information any more than we do. Even though foreign nations often safeguard information differently than we do, an advisor has to be very careful not to compromise his relationship over access to information. An advisor may be expected by his US command to garner information, but this must be resisted to the extent that the relationship is not compromised. All it takes is one incident involving trust and the advisor can longer function during his tour.

Another risk, and not an insignificant one, is the espionage threat that exists from the supported nations intelligence services. Advisors are at a greater risk than most others as they are embedded with the foreign unit. In most cases the advisors counterparts are, at least, the Commander, the Operations Officer (S/G/J-3) and the Intelligence Officer (S/G/J-2). I started out as an advisor to a Joint Task Force (JTF), so these three were my principal counterparts. Since the J-2 was one of my counterparts, it meant that I had to advise members of the entire J-2. This ranged from analysts to their counterintelligence officer. The advisor needs to keep an especially close eye on the later and attempt to persuade him that the advisor is not a threat. His purpose is to protect the unit and their military, essentially, from the advisor (among others). His advice to the J-2 on releasability alone caused me a significant amount of extra time and work trying to break down barriers. The J-2 is the senior intelligence representative that an advisor works with and, thus, has the most potential for being an espionage threat. They constantly, and seemingly innocently, probe the advisor for information. The advisor has an obligation to safeguard government information. His relationship and isolation make this an especially challenging job. The advisor must be constantly aware of his role and remember that, no matter how friendly they may be or what kind of relationship develops, they are still a foreign nation. It is the nature of the game for the counterpart to attempt to collect information from the advisor He must be constantly aware that this will occur and be somewhat guarded. He must learn to strike a balance between seeming aloof and building rapport.

The US Military has a reputation for wanting quick answers for everything. Reports on progress are constantly demanded, pressuring the advisor to "fill in the blanks". They are told, on the one hand, that they must allow their counterparts to command while they advise. However, US Commanders demand results and become impatient when they don't get them. Advisors are often put into a precarious position. Command and report or be viewed as an ineffective advisor (Ramsey, n.d., p.18).

What does all of this mean and what can be done to protect US government sensitive information? First, individuals that are to be assigned as advisors need advisor unique training. Aside from cultural awareness and orientation training, advisors need specific training on the importance of protecting classified information from espionage. They need to be informed on how foreign intelligence agencies work and what to be aware of. Further, advisors should receive special training on anti-elicitation techniques. How to respond to serious and detailed question asking is not intuitive. They need to be able to understand and recognize collection efforts directed against them and be able to react in such a way as to not divulge information while maintaining there position within the hierarchy without losing rapport. Finally, advisors should attempt to acquire separate living arrangements. They should not be superior to their counterparts, but should be separate. It is important for the advisor to have his own space so he can decompress from the foreign culture and collection efforts that surround him. Advisors should be assigned as teams, instead of individuals, where possible as he needs to be able to take a break and reconnect with US social mores and values.

Being an advisor can be a unique and rewarding experience. However, the potential for espionage is great. The US government should be proactive in assigning and training advisors in order to better prepare them for this experience. A pre-screening interview in order to determine the loyalty of an individual or psychiatric evaluations should be considered as advisors are currently assigned throughout the world engaging foreign forces of all types. We would be well advised to take the advisor role seriously.

References

Ramsey, R. (n.d.). Advice for Advisors: Suggestions and Observations from Lawrence to Present. Global War on Terrorism, Occasional paper 19. KS: Combat Studies Institute Press. Retrieved on 4 September, 2007 from [http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/ramsey_op19.pdf]

Ramsey, R. (n.d.). Advising Indigenous Forces: American Advisors in Korea, Vietnam and El Salvador. Global War on Terrorism, Occasional Paper 18. KS: Combat Studies Institute Press. Retrieved on 4 September, 2007 from [http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/ramsey.pdf]

John C Haywood is a soon to be retired Army Special Forces Senior Warrant Officer. He has spent most of his Special Operations career deploying around the world, especially in Latin America. He moved to Colombia in 2002 as an advisor to a Colombian Counter Narcotics Joint Task Force where he worked in the field for fifteen months. He then moved to Bogotá where he became the Action Officer for US Southern Command's Planning Assistance Training Team (PATT) where he planned, organized and executed the program and then became the senior tactical advisor and operations officer until the summer of 2006. He is currently employed as a Doctrine Writer at the US Army John F Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School and is retiring from the Army this summer after twenty five years in service.