North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 03/04/1996

The It's Monday March 4th tonight searching for the fountain of youth in North Carolina now. A pleasant Monday evening everyone I'm worried about right. I hope you had a great weekend. Thank you for joining us back here for another week of North Carolina now. Festival 96 continues this evening so tonight's edition of North Carolina now will be a bit abbreviated. What's you know with today's global marketplace knowing those very important cultural nuances about the country that you're doing business with could make or

break a deal. Well this evening's guest has written a book on the subject you'll meet Namli later in the program. But we start the show with a continuation of our multi-part series called Creative retirement. We've all heard of that mythical fountain of youth being able to sip the water and turn back the clock. But we know in reality that Aging is inevitable. What doesn't have to be inevitable is becoming frail and weak with age. There is something we all can do to ensure that our retirement years will be lived to their fullest. Reporter Kelly McHenry explores the many choices out there to help you start a health and wellness program. If a doctor handed you a cup filled with liquid that he said would add years to your life keep you healthier during those years and perhaps protect you from crippling diseases. Would you drink it. Well I don't know of any magic elixir yet that will do that. But health experts say there is something that can deliver some of those benefits. That magic elixir is a combination of exercise stress

management and good nutrition. Experts say you don't have to run the marathon. Just find a good way to fit 30 minutes of exercise three times a week into your schedule. You might try a wellness center if there's one close by. This one in Pine Hurst is the largest hospital based wellness center in the state. It's much like a traditional health spa with a full lot of exercise equipment and a pool for swimming and water exercises. But there's also a medical staff on hand to help you. A number of people here are heart patients in rehabilitation. Heart surgeon Dr. Robin cumming says exercise benefits everyone but seniors should check with their doctor first. I'm sure your physician would want to probably do various chemistries blood work and even may want to do a treadmill test or to do a good cardiovascular evaluation to see what kinds of exercises you could. Who could perform versus those that you might want to restrict or stay away from. 73 year old Joe Riley is a former heavy smoker and confessed couch

potato. He admits his physical fitness used to be less than desirable. I was in lousy shape to be honest with you. But a heart attack and a triple bypass changed his ways. He quit smoking and four years of steady exercise has improved his fitness. I would say 100 percent better. I'm not saying that I'm a principal Marvel but compared to the guy that I was 10 years ago there's a market differential. The cost here is about what you pay for a traditional health spa and some wellness centers even offer tips on how to cook food with less fat and cholesterol. But if there's no center convenient to your house don't worry. Health is as near as your local parks and recreation department. Most county or city parks and rec departments offer a number of fitness programs for seniors. This Body Magic class at the Chapel Hill senior center concentrates on improving mobility and flexibility especially for those with stiff joints. Seventy

six year old Cornelia Broadfoot suffers from arthritis throughout her body. When I don't get the supplies in just a week's time there's a note in the difficult yeah. And one of the things that helped me a lot about this life. We have an exercise that helps us to get down when you know get up when we're dying and I kneel down to get in my lower kitchen cabinet and I used to have to get a lot on and climb up the ladder to get off with the flow now. I just have to grab lightly on to someone I can stand up. Obama is center has many other classes including weight and strength training. Many here do a lot of traveling and they want to be prepared for the extra walking and recreational sports that involves the center is also a great place to meet people and keep fit together. But if there's no center near you try staying fit at home by adding exercise to your daily routine. Eat something as simple as making a cup of coffee.

Put the sugar bowl up where you have to reach to actually get full range of of motion of that joint. If you live out in the country where your mailbox is a good ways down the lane. Get your children to put a lawn chair out there half way. Set the lawn chair out and walk half way to the mailbox and back. Or whatever the distance you can comfortably walk and increase where you place that chair closer and closer or maybe you can make it all the way and part way back. In fact a recent study shows heavy gardening Burns 416 calories an hour. That's more than bicycling or weight training. If you have trouble sticking with a program pair up with a friend then encourage each other. And perhaps the best motivation is to think about all the fun things you want to do during your retirement. The better shape you're in the more fun you'll have doing them. So the choice is yours. You can sit back do nothing and take your chances. Or you can take what the doctor ordered a commitment to health and wellness.

And one more piece of advice doctors say you should always stretch and warm up before exercising. That will help prevent injuries and allow you to get the most out of your workout. Well we've put together this special booklet that contains all of the information from our creative retirement series. You can receive a copy for your contribution of twenty five dollars to you and CTV. Stay tuned to festival 96 immediately following North Carolina now for more information. Well coming up how to land that foreign business deal. This evening's guest has some advice. But right now here's Michel Louis with the news that's making headlines around our state. Good evening Mitch. Thanks Marina. Good evening everyone. The export of an manufactured tobacco was up nationally last year according to the U.S. Agricultural Department. More than 209 thousand metric tonnes were sent overseas and 95. The export increase was marked by a rise of 7 percent in the value of an manufacture of tobacco over 1994. But U.S. manufacturers saw 4 percent drop in the value of overseas to direct sales. The import of an manufactured tobacco dropped a

full 22 percent in the same period parts of western North Carolina are still in flames. Fires in the piskun National Forest are requiring out of state help firefighters from Texas and Oklahoma are joining North Carolina crews to contain the blaze. The cause of these fires near the Caldwell what TOG county line hasn't been determined. Funeral services were held today for retired Supreme Court chief justice Suzy M. Sharpe the late Justice died on Friday at her home in Raleigh at the age of 88. Just a sharp was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 1962 by Gov. Terry Sanford becoming the first woman appointed to the state's highest court. She had another first in 1974 when she became the first woman in the United States to be named chief justice of a state Supreme Court. Being a stand out in a man's world was a role Sharper was used to in a 1981 interview on North Carolina people. She told William Friday what it was like as a female student at U.N. Si's law school in the 1920s.

So I just came over from woman's college in Grange and I was ONE gal in a class of 16 Bowers that was a finished year class. I suppose the law school had less than 100 at that. I'm sure it did. Now I understand that one third of the population of law school are women. Sharpe retired from the bench in 1979. She rode more than 600 Court opinions including decisions barring cameras from the courtroom giving college students the right to vote where they attend college and stripping hospitals of their immunity from lawsuits. A 1968 decision on the use of public funds. Let us appear your court judge last year to ban the use of public money for business incentives. That case is now before the state Supreme Court. Could Bertie County be the home of North Carolina's mega city. A group in Calford think so. A committee is gathering signatures on a petition to incorporate the western half of Bertie County into one large city. The new city would

include Calford rocks a bell all lander and a Lewiston Woodville as well as miles of farmland and forest in total the proposed mega city would cover 330 square miles making northeastern North Carolina home of the state's largest city. Charlotte currently holds that title. Members of the Bertie County Committee say this consolidation will help attract revenue and private development to the area. And now let's take a look at tomorrow's weather forecast. The warming trend will continue and we'll have spring like temperatures once again. Highs will range from the mid 50s in the northern mountains to the low 70s in the southeast quadrant of the state. Partly cloudy skies a forecast for most areas. However the western part of the state is expected to have cloudy skies with a 30 percent chance of rain. And business news first union has been placed in a position that will lead the way to making paper obsolete and processing accounts. The U.S. Treasury has chosen the Charlotte based bank as the recommended bank to encourage the government 71 departments and agencies to electronically process funds. The change will affect receivables

such as student loans FHA mortgages and oil and mineral rights. ValuJet airline is starting services in Charlotte. Despite the queen city's refusal to give the low fare airline one million dollars in marketing assistance Aviation Daily says ValuJet did manage to get promises of marketing help from Mobile Alabama and Fort Walton Beach Florida. And now here's a look at what happened on Wall Street today. Our state is increasingly becoming a player in the global marketplace. North Carolina

exported more than 12 billion dollars worth of goods to foreign countries in the first nine months of last year alone. Many business people here in North Carolina and around the country are learning more about the culture and customs of foreign countries in order to improve their international business relationships. That's the topic of tonight's business interview with Christina Copeland. If you were traveling overseas for your company would you know when it's appropriate to give a gift to your host. And when it isn't our guest tonight nearly truck does as president of Global Business consultants and Pinehurst Nann trains executives and learning the customs of the countries where they do business. And she's just written a book about it called rules of the game global business protocol. Thanks for being with us tonight man. Thank you Chris it's great being here. Why is it important to understand these rules of the game why when we go to other countries don't accept the fact that we're all from different cultures and just accept us the way we are. Well people think they'll act and react differently around the world if you want to be in business for the short

run. You can take your chance if you want to be in business for the long run. You must know these rules before you go in order to apply. Get to business quicker and have longstanding accomplishments with it. You present this really your training as if it were a game. Why do it in that manner. I did it as a game because I felt like that I did not know every situation people would fan themselves and the reader all my clients. So I want to have again that blueprint by which people could learn quickly without a lot of do's and abuse. I wanted them to have something that would be able to launch them in the past so they could understand how to conduct themselves. For example I developed a play a portrait for each region of the world that I dressed and for each country and for and the questions are the same but the answers would be different depending on which culture you negotiating or working with. For example how they view the four and how do they give feedback.

What is the attitude towards or towards schedules etc. you feel it's very important that the business person understand the culture and the history. So this is not just a matter of knowing that you should present a business card with two hands in Japan. But understanding the symbolism behind it. Yes in some countries you with people you would build a relationship for other countries for example Germany. You get right down to business and then you build a relationship. And the more you know about people's cultural underpinnings the way they think feel act and react the better you have an understanding. So for general purposes put coaches into three different types tribal collective cruellest and cultures. Now not everyone in these cultures or the same or act the same but that is a general way that they got their roots in their beginnings and is just like if if if you went out to build a relationship the more you know about me my background what I'm like then the better faster we can get to a relationship.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is called the exciting game of international dining or as I've heard some other people refer to it the art of the meal. What are some of the biggest pitfalls of Merkins encounter in trying to dine with a foreign host. One of the pitfalls we fall into immediately is that we're the only culture in the world of the zigzag fashion we take a knife and fork we cut I'm made of visually place the knife to the right. Then we switch hands and put the fork in our right hand and eat that way. And all the other cultures in the world and continental style if they're using knives and forks. So it's important that we know that first and then if you in Arab countries say you eat only with your right hand never using your left hand for anything and using chopsticks all those things can be variables. And sometimes we get strange in unusual foods that we must say that's one of the big ones. So as suggest that we don't ask what it is and we swallow it quickly and pretend it's just.

Another thing that you bring up which is very important is for business women traveling abroad because the rules are very different sometimes for women in certain cultures what happens in those cases where we know the rules and how they would vary for a woman in certain coaches then we are better to level the playing field quicker and more effectively. For example I was suggest that we go to one's turf the first time we're getting ready to conduct business with them for women. I asked them to fine util to her because some in an Asian culture coaches may not feel as comfortable in a phasing with women in the theater as a fund a neutral place maybe a trade show for that initiative. First time of meeting with them or a hotel conference room someplace outside the office where it will be not as confrontational to them am I. Now you deal lot with training executives here in North Carolina and across the country with foreign places. But is there also a different culture in different parts of the United States. If you're going to deal with a businessman in North Carolina isn't that different than dealing

with a business person in New York. Yes and I have a second will be coming out shortly. On that how we do business regionally from the West Coast East because middle America southern states because it is different as all of our culture and culture has underpinnings and then we have a subset coaches for that. And we must understand how people view business and that a lot of business that I do in the South I have to teach people from other sections of our country's southern culture because they don't and culture is different from say Midwestern. It is a culture shock for foreign business people when they come here. Yes and I do have a chapter in the book that addresses how we host the internationalized when they come here for example. Oftentimes we have them to find their way to the hotel to their to the company instead of meeting them at the hotel. Oftentimes we don't set the room up right where they will be staying. For example with Japanese couples it's to one man and his spouse was

travelling together you would have two beds in the room instead of a single bed in the room. You would want to have going to be in the room. And also you'd like to have cold German beer for the Germans who would be visiting with you. And always always serve them with whether they're in your company or not with china cups and saucers not paper cups and saucers. So unlike a lot of it's just good polite behavior. Nan thank you so much there's so many interesting points in the book who will have to have your back or to come up with the one on the Americans. Thank you Chris was great being here. To eat. That's our show for tonight we're ending early in order to make way for festival nine to six in a

special encore presentation of Les Mis. You know festival is our major fund raising drive of the year when we ask you for your financial contributions and don't forget that for a contribution of just $25 you can receive your copy of our creative retirement booklet with all the information from our special series. The number to call to make your pledge is 1 800 9 8 4 9 0 9 0. So please stay tuned to you and see TV throughout the evening enjoy the wonderful programming. And please lend us your support. We'll be back here tomorrow night for another edition of North Carolina now in the meantime. Have a great evening. Goodnight everyone.