21 May – World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
21 May – World Day for Cultural Diversity
Today is the UN World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. This day not only celebrates the richness of the world’s cultures, but also the essential role of intercultural dialogue for achieving peace and sustainable development. As a global company active in more than 100 countries and employing 79 nationalities, we believe that cultural diversity enriches us and is a driving force of innovation and growth. This is reflected in our equal employment and zero discrimination policies.*
We support and celebrate this day, and take the opportunity to let some of our many employees from all over the world highlight culturally diverse traditions that they have been sharing with their communities for many years.
May 21 is the UN World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. As a global company active in more than 100 countries and employing 79 nationalities, we believe that cultural diversity enriches us and is a driving force of innovation and growth.
We support and celebrate this day, and take the opportunity to let some of our many employees from all over the world highlight culturally diverse traditions that they have been sharing with their communities for many years.
Agfa employees share their favorite cultural tradition
Joli Schuett
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario/Canada
Job title
Clinical Analyst
Culture I identify with
Swiss
Cultural highlight/tradition
Celebrating Christmas
Dean Cox
Located in
Australia
Job title
Business Development Manager Oceania
Culture I identify with
Australian
Cultural highlight/tradition
Spending time in the water
One of the great things about being a Sydney-sider and an Australian is that we love the water and spend a fair amount of time in it, near it and exercising in it. A great tradition we have is to go for a swim on Christmas day and enjoy the sun. Mind you, you can swim all year round here. Australia is surrounded by amazing beaches, and we love to explore and enjoy the ocean with the underwater life.
Mehwish Kamal
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario/Canada
Job title
Post-Market Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs
Culture I identify with
Pakistani
Cultural highlight/tradition
Eid
Mehwish celebrates the Muslim tradition Eid after completion of the holy month of Ramadhan when all Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. She also shares other aspects typical of the Pakistani culture, including typical food and the salwar kameez national dress. The language is Urdu and Mehwish speaks this as well as English and Malay.
Grace Feliciano
Located in
North America
Job title
SVP of Client Services
Culture I identify with
Filipino
Cultural highlight/tradition
New Year’s Eve – Filipino style
For Grace, New Year’s eve is a wonderful time with lots of Filipino traditions that she now also “forces” her own kids to follow, including displaying round fruits, wearing polka dots serving sticky rice (malagkit) and noodles (pancit) to symbolize togetherness and long life, jumping up and down and banging on pots and pans and her childhood favorite, the coin shower. Find out why in the movie.
Leah Teng
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario/Canada
Job title
IITS Monitoring Team Lead
Culture I identify with
Chinese
Cultural highlight/tradition
Dragon Boat Festival
Leah’s family celebrates traditional Chinese festivals. She particularly loves the Dragon Boat Festival, which commemorates the tragic death of a poet who threw himself in a river over 2000 years ago in an act of patriotism. It involves eating zongzi or rice dumplings, as well as an exciting boat race with dragon-shaped boats that has spread to more than 85 countries worldwide.
Carl Syms
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Job title
Account Executive
Culture I identify with
French culture in the Province of Quebec, Canada
Cultural highlight/tradition
Québécois
The Canadian province of Québec was influenced by several cultural and ethnic groups. From the First Nations to the French, English, Scottish and Irish settlers during the early years of the country’s forming, Québécois have developed a rich tradition. Carl made a movie showing some of the highlights…
Inoussa Mouiche
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Job title
IITS Monitoring Specialist
Culture I identify with
Cameroonian
Cultural highlight/tradition
Dish with ndjapche vegetables
For Inoussa, food is an important part of his heritage. He highly recommends trying introduces a delicious traditional West-Cameroonian (Bamun) family meal made with couscous, roast meat, tomatoes and other flavorful ingredients and called “Ndjapche” legumes. (couscous de maïs avec de le’gumes) which embodies a quintessential part of his culture, “togetherness”. It unites families and it is sometimes used trick people into revealing secrets because they some people forget themselves when they eat it.
Lirui Peng
Located in
Mortsel, Belgium
Job title
Industrial Inkjet Marketing Manager
Culture I identify with
Chinese
Cultural highlight/tradition
Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon boat festival in China doesn’t only mean racing dragon-like boats in the river and eating rice dumplings on the day (5th day of the 5th month of the traditional Chinese calendar).
About 10 days before the festival, every household hangs a bouquet of sweet sage and mugwort. The unique scent of the plants is believed to keep the harmful insects away, and is also a symbol to keep bad luck away because of the sword-like shape of the leaves. Moms prepare scent sachets for their children to wear through the season (about a fortnight). The sachets contain a.o. borneol, mica, and menthol to keep mosquitos away and can use as a sniffing pouch in case of mild sunstroke.
At night, people take hot baths in the water made from the sage, mugwort and other herbs. The hot scented bath efficiently removes fatigue and refreshes the soul and mind. It is also believed to repel bad luck.
This tradition has passed in generations in my family. Now we are passing it to the next generation.
* This commitment is part of Agfa’s Corporate Governance Charter under ‘Appendix A: Code of Conduct and Statement on Ethical Business Conduct’ and is detailed in Agfa’s Diversity Chapter of Agfa’s annual report. Both documents can be consulted on Agfa’s website: https://www.agfa.com/corporate/investor-relations/.
Joli Schuett
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario/Canada
Job title
Clinical Analyst
Culture I identify with
Swiss
Cultural highlight/tradition
Celebrating Christmas
Joli moved from Switzerland to Canada 30 years ago. She still loves the way that Christmas – or Christchindli – is celebrated in Switzerland, complete with bell ringing, conversations with real angels and caroling.
Dean Cox
Located in
Australia
Job title
Business Development Manager Oceania
Culture I identify with
Australian
Cultural highlight/tradition
Spending time in the water
One of the great things about being a Sydney-sider and an Australian is that we love the water and spend a fair amount of time in it, near it and exercising in it. A great tradition we have is to go for a swim on Christmas day and enjoy the sun. Mind you, you can swim all year round here. Australia is surrounded by amazing beaches, and we love to explore and enjoy the ocean with the underwater life.
Mehwish Kamal
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario/Canada
Job title
Post-Market Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs
Culture I identify with
Pakistani
Cultural highlight/tradition
Eid
Mehwish celebrates the Muslim tradition Eid after completion of the holy month of Ramadhan when all Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. She also shares other aspects typical of the Pakistani culture, including typical food and the salwar kameez national dress. The language is Urdu and Mehwish speaks this as well as English and Malay.
Grace Feliciano
Located in
North America
Job title
SVP of Client Services
Culture I identify with
Filipino
Cultural highlight/tradition
New Year’s Eve – Filipino style
For Grace, New Year’s eve is a wonderful time with lots of Filipino traditions that she now also “forces” her own kids to follow, including displaying round fruits, wearing polka dots serving sticky rice (malagkit) and noodles (pancit) to symbolize togetherness and long life, jumping up and down and banging on pots and pans and her childhood favorite, the coin shower. Find out why in the movie.
Leah Teng
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario/Canada
Job title
IITS Monitoring Team Lead
Culture I identify with
Chinese
Cultural highlight/tradition
Dragon Boat Festival
Leah’s family celebrates traditional Chinese festivals. She particularly loves the Dragon Boat Festival, which commemorates the tragic death of a poet who threw himself in a river over 2000 years ago in an act of patriotism. It involves eating zongzi or rice dumplings, as well as an exciting boat race with dragon-shaped boats that has spread to more than 85 countries worldwide.
Carl Syms
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Job title
Account Executive
Culture I identify with
French culture in the Province of Quebec, Canada
Cultural highlight/tradition
Québécois
The Canadian province of Québec was influenced by several cultural and ethnic groups. From the First Nations to the French, English, Scottish and Irish settlers during the early years of the country’s forming, Québécois have developed a rich tradition. Carl made a movie showing some of the highlights…
Inoussa Mouiche
Located in
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Job title
IITS Monitoring Specialist
Culture I identify with
Cameroonian
Cultural highlight/tradition
Dish with ndjapche vegetables
For Inoussa, food is an important part of his heritage. He highly recommends trying introduces a delicious traditional West-Cameroonian (Bamun) family meal made with couscous, roast meat, tomatoes and other flavorful ingredients and called “Ndjapche” legumes. (couscous de maïs avec de le’gumes) which embodies a quintessential part of his culture, “togetherness”. It unites families and it is sometimes used trick people into revealing secrets because they some people forget themselves when they eat it.
Lirui Peng
Located in
Mortsel, Belgium
Job title
Industrial Inkjet Marketing Manager
Culture I identify with
Chinese
Cultural highlight/tradition
Dragon Boat Festival
Dragon boat festival in China doesn’t only mean racing dragon-like boats in the river and eating rice dumplings on the day (5th day of the 5th month of the traditional Chinese calendar).
About 10 days before the festival, every household hangs a bouquet of sweet sage and mugwort. The unique scent of the plants is believed to keep the harmful insects away, and is also a symbol to keep bad luck away because of the sword-like shape of the leaves. Moms prepare scent sachets for their children to wear through the season (about a fortnight). The sachets contain a.o. borneol, mica, and menthol to keep mosquitos away and can use as a sniffing pouch in case of mild sunstroke.
At night, people take hot baths in the water made from the sage, mugwort and other herbs. The hot scented bath efficiently removes fatigue and refreshes the soul and mind. It is also believed to repel bad luck.
This tradition has passed in generations in my family. Now we are passing it to the next generation.
* This commitment is part of Agfa’s Corporate Governance Charter under ‘Appendix A: Code of Conduct and Statement on Ethical Business Conduct’ and is detailed in Agfa’s Diversity Chapter of Agfa’s annual report. Both documents can be consulted on Agfa’s website: https://www.agfa.com/corporate/investor-relations/.