The onset of globalization provides opportunities and challenges to an organization that operates in global markets. The elimination of barriers to trade opens up new markets to compete in and simultaneously pits companies against often-formidable competition from other parts of the world. There are many books on globalization. Most of them use a broad brush and are not very useful to a manager who is looking for insights on enhancing competitiveness.

The key to survival and success in the hyper-competitive global markets is the focus this book edited by Dr. Abbas Ali titled How to Manage for International Competitiveness. Dr. Ali has assembled a rich sourcebook of information on competitiveness in international markets.

The book opens and ends with writings by the editor that provide an integrated framework within which several quantitative and qualitative studies and conceptual pieces are offered to provide valuable insights for global managers on the many facets of competitiveness in international business. The book includes writings by distinguished experts on leadership, global alliances, information systems, marketing, human resources as well as cross-border studies. The current edition lacks material dealing with the European Union, the former Soviet bloc countries and Asian countries and the next edition will be enhanced by broadening the geographical coverage.

This is an excellent tool for managers who seek to be competitive in global markets.

With the satellite based wireless technology taking center stage in advanced communications, this book provides a good foundation about LEO Satellites. It is well written and covers mathematical concepts of orbits, DTR's and functional aspects of communication. Need more clarity on state-of-the-art references and usages. The book is useful mainly for Engineers but non-technical person may enjoy as well. I enjoyed this book.

Mr.Hakim is one the best philosophers of the modern arab culture. He captures the heats and minds with his wisdom and wit. His styles is a unique blend of eastern and western paradighms delivered with the simplicity of the besant and the depth of the philosopher. His words and ideas passes through any translation with utter transparency...as if he is telling the story with his own words...
The beauty of the story is that wisdom lies within the story not at the end...a lot of issues are left hanging and the story never ends...but you don't care...you will have what you are looking for

Some photos are memorable and give honour to the talented photographer but there does not seem to be any integrity at all, the book is nothing more than a collection of photographic notes taken in different lands. A number of images have nothing to do with christianity at all. The camera is often more excited about sects and cults. Very subjective views and written statements, too shallow for such a serious subject. A project like this should take a lifetime to complete...

There are some marvelous pictures in this book. The book is large and beautifully printed. It has the weight of talent , time and subject material that makes it a worthy item to have in one's photo collection. I would, however, make an important caveat for those who are looking for a faithful depiction of the faces of Christianity as it exists around the world. They will not find it in this book. It is more of an exploration of "Christianity", and the areas of politics, culture and spirituality that have grown up around it, oftentimes in a way that the author jarringly admits has little to do with actual Christian faith. This leaves the viewer wondering if the unusual or the extreme depicted are Christian or if they just happened to make for interesting pictures. That struck me as disingenous. Adding to the confusion were pictures of Jews, Muslims, Russian Communists, etc.. Personally, after viewing some of the sensational imagery of Santeria in Cuba (which Abbas himself in the book notes acknowledges is a "cult"), I had to wonder if the Christian faith as expressed around the world was being given true justice, which one would expect after five years. The peculiar introduction seems to indicate that a desire to "even the score" after his Islam project was a consideration at work. In the end, I see the book as a fascinating personal project in which a photographer was exploring his own ideas about a world religion, but in the end offered up confusing notions of the faith to match the confused notions of some he was photographing. On a purely visual level, however, it is stunning.

abbas, one of the world's best photographers, goes to the heart of christianity as it is practiced all over the world. there is nothing lacking in this book, nothing he doesn't reveal about his subjects. abbas meets this material half-way, and for that reason some religious fanatics will not like the book. he doesn't just show us what christianity looks like objectively, he puts his personal imprint on every photo. this combination of personal art and documentation is what makes this book better than any book of its kind regarding christianity. so thank you to abbas for tackling a touchy and difficult subject, one that hasn't up to this point been explored by a top photographer.

Olive oil has long been an indispensable ingredient in my cooking, and I cannot imagine being without it. As might be expected, I am extremely fond of Mediterranean food, which I find to be utterly delicious and satisfying. I am sorry to say, however, that I was quite disappointed with the choice of recipes in this book, which presents a very limited view of a great cuisine. Although the text is well written and easy to understand, the same cannot be said for the recipes, which lack clear and detailed directions. The dietary wisdom and practical advice offered by "Olive Oil Cookery" is good as far as it goes, but in my opinion two other books, "Low-Fat Lies" and "The Omega Diet," explain more fully the science validating the Mediterranean diet.

"Olive Oil Cookery: The Mediterranean Diet" offers some of the most delicious Mediterranean recipes I have ever tasted. The recipes were easy to prepare. The diversity of Mediterranean cuisine has something to offer to all food lovers. And with olive oil as its main ingredient, it is one of the healthiest! I highly recommend this book.

Basically a glorified UK discography, this book will be a disappointment for those wanting to know more about ABBA than their UK single and album releases. Indeed, it is an updated version of the book ABBA For the Record from 1980.

It is hardly a complete story of the band, nor is it truly authorised by the group. After a basic introduction and brief biographies of the four members before ABBA was formed, the text is arranged around the release of every single and album in the UK, and is accordingly centred on the chart and sales performance in the UK. The fact that many singles were hits in Europe and other parts of the world, while singles languished outside the UK charts in the 18 months between Waterloo and SOS is brushed aside, and it's since become conventional wisdom that ABBA's records were universal flops in that era. Coupled with the author's equally inaccurate CD liner notes, ABBA's world history is being twisted to this "Anglocentric" view.

The author also relies to heavily on gossip and hearsay, quoting rumour as fact and thus distorting what little actual ABBA history is included in this book, especially in regard to "unreleased" recordings and "group reunions".

It has to be admitted that there are many wonderful full colour pictures in this book, but unfortunately, very few are given their proper place in the chronology of this book, or are inadequately captioned, so the casual reader will have no idea who is in the photos much of the time(besides the ABBA members) or from what particular period the photos belong.

Sadly, the only other ABBA "biography" to date (bar a couple of books written during the late 1970s), The Name Of The Game by Andrew Oldham et al, is even less factual than this book.

For a more balanced view of ABBA's recording history, look no further than The Complete Recording Sessions by Carl Magnus Palm. The forthcoming books ABBA: The Book should give a better overview of ABBA's entire history, while From ABBA To Mamma Mia (already published in Swedish)will be an excellent look at the later years of ABBA and beyond.

This book is full of great photos of the group, but it only really reflects on their UK single and album release dates,covers,etc.What about the US or other countries single covers and releases and album releases as well.This book vaguely explains the history of the albums in progress of recording.On the back of the book, it says clearly"not for sale in the UK" and all it focuses on is the UK ABBA history.If it truely was the complete story, it would include everything about the group and the songs from around the world.Good pictures, bland telling of ABBA's history.

ABBA Gold is a good book to round out a ABBA collector's library but in my humble opinon it is not the best or the most complete. There are many pictures of the FAB 4 and the text is readable. It is a hard book to find thus a collectable. For more detail information and insight into what was going on in the World of ABBA I recommend "ABBA The Recording Sessions." If you are looking for some rare pictures I recommend the next ABBA biggest seller is "From ABBA to Mamma Mia" coming out in the Fall. Currently it is in Swedish but the English version comes in the fall.

I used this book to study first year Arabic at the University of Utah. My teacher, a native Arabic speaker, often stated that this was the best Arabic learning course that he had ever seen. After studying Arabic for three years, and trying some other books, I must agree. We used the audio and video cassettes to enhance the learning process, and these were very helpful. (You could probably get by without the video, but it would very difficult to go without the audio cassettes.) While this course is great for studying Modern Standard Arabic (the formal written text used in the Quran) it isn't very helpful for spoken Arabic. I would suggest this course for classroom, group or tutoring use in which a native Arabic speaker is present. If you are using it for self study, I highly recommend that you find a native speaker to help you out with pronunciation and conversation. THE GOOD: It is set up like other good language learning programs. It incorporates multi-media and all language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) to help students learn vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. While this may not seem incredible, just try some other Arabic learning courses, and you will see that this is a major benefit of this course. THE BAD: 1) This book assumes that you have already gone through Alif Baa' (the first of three books in this series), and therefore learned how to read and write Arabic. It builds on the foundation started in that book. If you haven't gone through that 6-week course yet then I strongly recommend that you do it first. 2) While the "guess the meaning from context" style of learning is helpful, it can be a bit much in this book. If you do not have the answer key, or a native speaker to help you with the answers, you may not be able to figure out the meanings of some items. 3) Looking back on this book now, I think that the absolute worst thing about it was that it teaches too much Modern Standard Arabic. While this is nice if you plan on studying the Quran, it is not very good for conversing with native speakers in everyday colloquial Arabic. As the series progresses I became very frustrated by the fact that I had studied all this Arabic for all these years, yet native speakers had a hard time understanding me, saying that I sounded like the Quran, or an ancient author. If you supplement this course with conversation (and tons of it) with a native speaker you will benefit MUCH more from the system, and you will probably even learn Arabic! OVERALL: If you are going to study Arabic, then this is the course to use - no doubt about it! If you incorporate the audio and video cassettes, and go through all three books in the series, your Arabic will be MUCH better than if you just use this book alone. Yet the book relies on the multi-national "Modern Standard Arabic", and doesn't give enough support for the colloquial language that is used everyday by native speakers. If you have a native speaker to practice with, I think that you will get the full Arabic experience that the authors had in mind when designing this series.

I had been trying to learn Arabic for a few years and not getting far when I finally was pointed toward this book. Wow -- our small study group made amazing progress. We're in the final couple of chapters and already bought Book 2 in anticipation of starting it immediately afterwards.

The textbook is set up like a workbook, so with the exception of essay-type exercises you do the writing in the book itself. There's a good balance of all 4 skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) so it's not just focusing on reading/writing like other Arabic textbooks do. It assumes you already have basic reading/writing skills, plus know a few vocabulary words that are taught in _Alif Baa_. From the beginning they incorporate real-world reading from newspaper & magazine articles. There's a big focus on educated guessing and using context & other clues to get the meaning. This is extremely useful.

You have to get the cassettes if you're serious about studying, but we managed fine without the video. Near the beginning of the book, the speakers on the cassettes stick pretty close to MSA, but near the end you will hear the Egyptian accent much more -- get used to those g's!

The culture sections at the end of the chapters are actually interesting -- Fairuz, Umm Kulthoom, Nizar Qabbani, etc.

The textbook is meant for a classroom, but we are using it in a small study group. Once we got about halfway, we found it useful to have a native speaker tutor join us for our study group to correct our exercises & do the spoken drills with us. Now that we're near the end of the book, it's almost essential to have that kind of support. Without it you'll have no idea whether your answers are correct on the more difficult exercises.

When you get partway, there will be dictionary exercises. It's important to get the right kind of dictionary, because not all of the Arabic dictionaries you find at the bookstore will work for these. I already had 2 sets of dictionaries, neither worked. Get the Hans Wehr dictionary, which has words arranged by roots/patterns.

I have been studying Arabic for a long time. This book does what no other has done for the arabic language...made it clear, concise and real. Many others have attempted but most fail to teach this as anything other than a language to study the Quran, this book made my studies real and usable(real). If you want a clear concise book that you can honestly use to learn, understand and study; buy this book but don't forget to make them sell you the video and cassettes!!!!!

Dear Mr Oldham,

your book is so full of mistakes that it makes the average ABBA-fan scream for justice. Here are just a few of your inaccuaracies:

You write: "No more carefree laughter..Agnetha sings mournfully on Knowing Me Knowing You"...well, it was Frida who sang lead on this one- a fact that was even mentioned in the liner notes on the "Arrival"-album.

You write:"At the end of their 1979 tour ABBA knew they would never tour again...well, Mr Oldham, tell me then, who toured Japan in spring the following year- impersonaters???

You write: Opus 10 died of boredom before delivery- but the one track they recorded for that album- I Am The City shows that ABBA had lost none of their vitality...well Opus 10 was never recorded because such a project didn't exist and I Am The City was recorded way back in 1982- and not in 1986.

Dear Mr Oldham, you don't even know the bare facts that one can look up in any "Gold" compilation inner sleeve. A man who doesn't even know who sang lead on the worldwide hit Knowing Me Knowing You is surely not the right person to write an in-depth biography.

Save time and effort next time !

I don't like this book at all! First of all, I don't think that interfering of the authors of the book into private lives of Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Bjorn was very nice of them. And then I don't think that these people really can know what they are talking about. I mean, it can be interesting to read about the behind-the scene lives of ABBA members but how can these people write what Agnetha was thinking about sitting alone in her hotel room? No one but Agnetha can know it , and I don't think it was she who told Andrew Oldham about her feelings. I suppose that the authors really did a big research before writing this book but there things they just couldn't know about. They give their idea of private lives of Frida, Agnetha, Bjorn and Benny, told some gossips and rumours but most of those things can't be proved. You may think that I think so 'cause I'm ABBA fan and I just don't like reading some rather unpleasant things about the members of the group. It isn't so. Being ABBA fan I'm interested in knowing as much as possible about their lives, even if sometimes I don't like what I hear. But it should be facts, not rumours! Though I have to admit that this book can give you a lot of fun if you don't take it seriously! I gave it 2 stars only because of the pics. Some of them are really cute!

This is a triumph of style over substance. The research is very poor with the result that there are a lot of factual errors in this book. I counted three in the first chapter alone (an example is the scoring system used in Eurovision in 1974). The main one, of course, is the repeated reference to Frida and Agnetha hating each other, which simply wasn't (and isn't) true. Nevertheless, this book is a fun quick read and the author's opinions, which range from comments on ABBA's music (which, in general, they rave about) to pop lyrics in general and musicians in the movies, are lively and entertaining. If you just cut out the personal stuff between the girls, the rest of this book will tell you as much as you ever need to know about ABBA, unless you're more than a casual fan. For those wanting more, 'Bright Lights, Dark Shadows' fills out the details, in a less tabloid fashion - but that still has it's moments of wrong-headedness (the comments in regard to the failure of Chess, in particular)

An interesting book and an occasionally enjoyable read, although some of the theories are very bizarre and completely lacking in support.

My primary complaint however is that although the author makes a small case for the possibility that sumberged lands exist in the far east, he completely fails to make any credible argument to connect these submerged lands to Atlantis. Since the author has tried to hype the Atlantis angle and failed to support that hype, he gets one star.

Wow, what a book!

Some interesting points made in the book are: 1) Aryans are descended from Reptilian-shapeshifting aliens which previously colonised mars, 2) the dinosaurs were not killed by a comet, they migrated to another astral plane of existence, 3) Apparently the reptilian aliens are still active on Earth (they are the illuminati) and they operate secret underground laboratories, George Bush and the British royal family are shapeshifter aliens bent on world domination...

The most amusing thing is that the author claims there is scientific evidence to back up his claims.

Turning to the more sensible part of the book, the Author presents a reasonable case that the line of Cain founded Atlantis / Lemur and that the same story exists in the Vedas. He presents some interesting arguments for this, which are fairly believable, however, we are forced to accept his word on certain points such as translations and references, (because most quotes are not included). Unfortunately, the other more outlandish ideas proposed in the book destroyed my faith that his more reasonable points might be correct.

There are also blatant innacuracies. 1) He states that Cro-Magnon = Aryan. While the Aryans are a cro-magnon race, so are the other races on earth (Asian, African Finno-Ugric. 2) He proposes that the inhabitants of India were Neanderthal and that the Aryan invaders butchered them. This is totally false - the Dravidian aboriginals are Cro-Magnon like the rest of us. 3) His dates for the emergence of Cro-magnon and Neanderthal man are wrong. He states 100,000 BC, however, science has basically proven it was 250-300,000 BC.

Mr. Abbas is obviously not a native English speaker and the book does not seem to have been proofread. His style of writing comes across as energetic and enthusiastic and the book does not loose anything due to the continuous gramatical errors - in fact it adds flavor to the book. Its mostly pleasant reading.

One chapter is devoted to summarising the Mahabarata stories. Imagine condensing all the 9-10 "Wheel of Time novels" into one chapter, describing the major loves and wars, then you have an idea what its like - its utterly incomprehensible (unless you have previously read the full stories).

I have read many alternative books such as those by Bauval, Hancock, Flem-Ath, Wilson, Sitchen etc., and I agree with many of their arguments, but this book does not present a scientific or logical case for anything.

It is however very amusing, so buy it for a laugh!

First of all I would like to say that I really enjoyed reading this book. It presents a compelling theory on the location and history of Atlantis. It shows how civilization began around 100,000 years ago. In the begining there were two centers of civilization which are mentioned in Genesis as Garden of Eden(Lemuria) and Enoch(Atlantis). The author presents a good case that Lemuria existed from Sudan to India and Atlantis existed from India to Indonesia.

The thing I liked the most about this book is the chronology which is based on scientific dating methods. Like Neanderthals appeared around 100,000 years ago and this was the time when civilization began from Africa and Middle East(Eden). Then around 40,000 years ago another specie of humans appeared known as Cro-Magnon man. Author argues Cro-Magnons in world mythologies are known as Aryans or white race, who first appeared in Europe.

Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons went to war with eachother and due to the superior(Aryan) technology of Cro-Magnons they were able to eliminate Neanderthals from earth within a few thousand years. The author also presents a good case that after Cro-Magnon man appeared in the world it was an age of high technology.

The end of Pleistocene ice age was the cause of Global Flood around 11,500 years ago. Bible mentions it as the Noah's flood. After this flood humanity had a new begining. Atlantis came to an end with this flood.

In this book the possibility of hollow earth and reptilians living there as mentioned by David Icke and many other researchers is also explored but it is not the theme of the book. The case of artificial structures on Mars and possible life is also explored. This book has 30 chapters and all contain good information. The author also mentions Bible as the most accurate record of human history.

In short this book is fascinating, it presents a curious mixture of global mythologies and science, read it with an open mind and you will enjoy it!