The Western Bloc, also known as the Capitalist Bloc, is an informal, collective term for countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. While the NATO member states, in Western Europe and Northern America, were pivotal to the bloc, it included many other countries, in the broader Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa with histories of anti-Soviet, anti-communist and, in some cases anti-socialist, ideologies and policies. As such, the bloc was opposed to the political systems and foreign policies of communist countries, which were centered on the Soviet Union, other members of the Warsaw Pact, and usually the People's Republic of China. The name "Western Bloc" emerged in response to and as the antithesis of its Communist counterpart, the Eastern Bloc. Throughout the Cold War, the governments and the Western media were more inclined to refer to themselves as the "Free World" or the "First World", whereas the Eastern bloc was often referred to as the "Communist World" or less commonly the "Second World".
During the British colonial era, English was the sole official language until 1978. Today, the Basic Law of Hong Kong states that English and Chinese are the two official languages of Hong Kong. All roads and government signs are bilingual, and both languages are used in academia, business and the courts, as well as in most government materials today.
The Philippine International Pyromusical Competition, initially known as the World Pyro Olympics, is an annual competition among fireworks manufacturers from different countries held in the Philippines which at its current format runs for five to six weeks every Saturday evening at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay. Two countries fire each day; the last participant fires on the final evening of the event.
The International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS) is the oldest conference in the field of distributed computing systems in the world. It was launched by the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Distributed Processing (TCDP) in October 1979, and is sponsored by such committee. It was started as an 18-month conference until 1983 and became an annual conference since 1984. The ICDCS has a long history of significant achievements and worldwide visibility, and has recently celebrated its 37th year.
The Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) was a yearly report published by the World Economic Forum. Between 2004 and 2020, the Global Competitiveness Report ranked countries based on the Global Competitiveness Index, developed by Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Elsa V. Artadi. Before that, the macroeconomic ranks were based on Jeffrey Sachs's Growth Development Index and the microeconomic ranks were based on Michael Porter's Business Competitiveness Index. The Global Competitiveness Index integrates the macroeconomic and the micro/business aspects of competitiveness into a single index.
The Inter-Pacific Bar Association or IPBA is an international association of business and commercial lawyers, founded in 1991. Its members consist of residents of the Asia-Pacific region, or lawyers with a strong interest in that region. It brings together lawyers from different backgrounds and legal systems and fosters communication and builds stronger ties between these lawyers and thus their countries.
The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report was first published in 2007 by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The index measures the attractiveness of a country as a place to develop business in the travel and tourism industry, rather than a country's attractiveness as a tourist destination. The report ranks countries according to the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI). The TTCI scores from 1 to 6 the performance of a given country in each specific subindex. The overall index is made of three main subindexes: (1) regulatory framework; (2) business environment and infrastructure; and (3) human, cultural, and natural resources. The report also includes country profiles with key indicators from the World Bank, the World Tourism Organization and the World Travel and Tourism Council. From the 2021 report, WEF publishes the Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) as an evolution of the TTCI.
The BYU Ballroom Dance Company was originated from the college of Communication, Dance and Fine Arts Department at the Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. It has been competing and performing around the world as part of BYU for nearly 50 years now.
Poly-World - is a student committee based in a French-Canadian engineering school, Polytechnique Montréal, in Montreal.
A de facto embassy is an office or organisation that serves de facto as an embassy in the absence of normal or official diplomatic relations among countries, usually to represent nations which lack full diplomatic recognition, regions or dependencies of countries, or territories over which sovereignty is disputed. In some cases, diplomatic immunity and extraterritoriality may be granted.
The Brigham Young University International Folk Dance Ensemble is a Brigham Young University (BYU) performing group that performs folk dances from many parts of the world. They were established as a small performing group in 1959 by Mary Bee Jensen and have grown to include around 180 participants. However, about 30 of the dancers participate in the touring ensemble which has performed in many locations around the world including at the cultural festival held in connection with the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea and at the opening ceremonies in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
The 19th Busan International Film Festival was held in South Korea from October 2 to October 11, 2014, and was hosted by Ken Watanabe and Moon So-ri. A total of 312 films from 79 countries were screened with total attendance of 226,473. Hong Kong director Ann Hui receives the Asian Filmmaker of the Year award. The closing film was Gangster Payday.
The 20th Busan International Film Festival was held from October 1 to October 10, 2015 at South Korea's Busan Cinema Center and was hosted by Song Kang-ho and Marina Golbahari.
