Which country would you like to visit?

I am not sure which countries you've all had a chance to visit, but I try to make my way to as many foreign countries to experience the culture and people as I can. I try to keep mental notes on how the people act and interact with each other.
On a recent trip to the Bahamas (unfortunately, it wasn't for work), I made it a point to try to interact with the locales and understand how the interact with someone from another country. I suppose coming from the U.S. I am not accustomed to friendly strangers so any act of kindness or gratitude is always noticed and appreciated.
What do you all think of this? Do you think we as Americans have become a society of individuals not concerned at all in how we interact with others? Is technology to blame for our woes or are manners and civility going the way of the dodo?

Technology replacing real life events?

I read an interesting article which talks about technology being possible better than real life events. This kind of goes with my topic about technology replacing human contact for management. Have a look and let me know what you think. The author does a great job and examining different sides of the story.
My feeling after reading the article that perhaps technology will never be able to replace that face-to-face contact with all of it's subtle nuances. Have any of you ever had a situation where you felt technology would replace your human interaction?

Managing employees in foreign countries from the US

Managing employees in different countries, per my experience, has been a difficult rewarding task. I currently manage local controllers in Canada, Brazil, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, UK, India, Singapore, and mainland China. As the international controller for my company I have both cultural differences to overcome as well as language barriers.
Technology has made it such that communication with affiliates outside of 9 hours is possible via email. This also helps with the languag barrier. However, when I visit these locations the personal face-to-face meeting provides quicker and more reliable results. Is technology the cure to communication issues? Will personal contact ever be replaced in certain circumstances?
I was considering broaching this topic or related topic for my research paper for the semester. What are your thoughts? I believe the research is out there to cover this topic easily.

Welcome to my page!

Welcome all, I hope that my blogs are both entertaining and fulfilling while you fulfill your obligations!