Welcome to Continental Forum!

Continental Forum is an organized group dedicated to advocate and expand cultural knowledge. It is open to anyone willing to support its concept and contribute toward its goal and objective. The Forum’s mission is to search, find and reward people who come to the USA with a goal in mind and manage to achieve it. It is to open communications among people of different cultures, and make them aware that everyone can learn from one another. The Forum organizes events to invite members and lecturers to participate and lead people to become interested about other cultures; to encourage newcomers to be acclimated to this society and become worthy citizens of the USA. Consequently Continental Forum is committed to create a cosmopolitan environment where multi-culturally oriented members-and others-can share their knowledge, cultural experiences, be recognized and rewarded for their accomplishments and valuable contribution to the USA. This concept is based on the millions of personal experiences of immigrants demonstrated throughout the centuries; USA is a country that embraces and shelters people from all over the world under its wing. It is about time to acknowledge it and show gratitude. It certainly has ours.

A Word About Cultural Diversity
By M. M. Haviland

The United States has often been cited as the perfect example of a “tossed salad” or “mosaic” of diverse cultures. One of the main reasons why this country is so dynamic is the conglomeration of people from all over the world. Some of this country’s largest cites are the most exciting places to live compared with the rest of the world.

Having had the opportunity to visit and compare cities within the United States and abroad, I observed that cities sheltering the most variety of people are spectacularly alive, maintain the greatest opportunities for jobs, offer an attractive and sophisticated environment and are economically much stronger. Consequently, these cities offer a higher standard of living. For example, ethnic goods and services are visible everywhere, and the people display cultural knowledge. In large cities like New York, for example, I found Americans open to discuss about ethnic food, international events, movies, and are familiar with cultural idiomatic expressions, music, etc. This has not been the case in smaller or rural U.S. cities I visited.

Cities or small towns that managed to stay traditionally the same throughout the years seem remote to cultural minorities. Many of them have limited job markets and poor services, therefore, the quality of life is not as desirable as that of multicultural cities. They may struggle to maintain their traditions by resisting changes and diversity, but are still unable to establish and maintain rich-bonded family traditions because family members tend to move to larger cities in search of better jobs and opportunities.