Defining Globalization

unlike those anti-globalization types, who tend attribute globalization to everything they don't like (poverty, war, disease, job-loss, etc.) I tend to use Tom Palmer's non-moralized definition , "The diminution or elimination of restrictions on exchange across political borders". That pretty much sums it up. But a friend of mine emails me this more funnier definition :

Question : What is the truest definition of Globalization ?
Answer : Princess Diana's death.

Question: How come?

Answer : An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.

This is sent to you by a Sri Lankan , using Bill Gates's technology, and you're probably reading this on your computer, that uses Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.....

That, my friends, is Globalization!!!!

Cultural Globalization

Tyler Cowen has an interesting piece on the topic over at Mint. The article pretty much echoes what Cris Lingle had to say at a forum I was involved in late last year. The backlash against cultural globalization is inevitable and understandable. A group of people in every society have certain attachments to what they perceive as “their culture” and whenever those traits are seen to be disappearing rapidly; there will be a backlash from some quarters. Cris called this a “Clash of Generations”, he saw it as a battle between young people who want to change things around while the generations before wanting to keep things the way they are. That’s probably true, although I could show few young people who’d viscously defend what they call the “Sri Lankan Culture”.

This backlash, as Tyler argues is healthy as it keeps things in check, as long as one keeps a sense of perspective. It’s perspective that’s unfortunately missing from those who oppose this inevitability.

Cultural globalization is made to be seen as something which comes only from “them to us” and in most cases simply put down to “Americanization”. This clearly is not the case. First of all when “it” does indeed comes from “them to us”, it doesn’t arrive pre-packaged, in fact its always localized, after all (contrary to what left-wing conspiracy theorists may tell you) the “west” is not out to colonize everywhere else, they (and by they, I mean those companies) are just here to make some revenue for themselves. The only way they can do that is to give us something we’d want to have. Tyler notices this when he says,

..some of the chains such as McDonald’s bend towards local taste with curry and tikka and lamb burger. Going out to eat is often more for the air conditioning than for the food.

I can think of many more examples, but most striking perhaps is what I encountered in Bangalore where I found a KFC restaurant with a vegetarian section. That’s right. Kentucky Fried Chicken has a pure vegetarian section. In Sri Lanka too the KFC’s, McDonald’s sells their version of Kottu. Not to mention the many Chinese restaurants serving what’s probably closer to local food than Chinese.

Tyler also speaks about the flip side,

In my home town of Fairfax, Virginia, it is now easier to get a good dosa than a good hamburger, but it still feels like America, albeit a different America than that of 1953.

Tyler of course doesn’t worry much about this, but there are people in the U.S. who especially in light of the emerging population patterns, issues of identity will become an emerging topic in U.S. politics. I’d say everyone should appreciate humanity and just take a chill pill, cultural globalization is inevitable, but it certainly won’t be Americanization nor one-way traffic. Sri Lankans are more likely to wear Kurthas and sing Baila than to flip burgers while listening to dirty rap.

Read Tyler Cowen’s article and Chris Lingle’s talk.

Youth, Culture and Globalization

An increasingly globalized, volatile and a growth-oriented world present its citizens numerous challenges – be it in economic, social, environmental and indeed cultural spheres.

As the global economy steams ahead in full speed, geographical borders are becoming less and less significant as people move around, migrating into cities and countries in search of better opportunities and better lives.

Business corporations in both the East and the West are interchanging knowledge and capital in a mutually beneficial exercise. To succeed in this increasingly border-less world one needs to go beyond the familiar and the uniform and embrace the unfamiliar and the diverse, one must tolerate and accept different customs, behaviors, languages, attitudes and values. In other words, one must embrace multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism, however, isn’t simply just good business, but rather something that contributes a great deal in transforming modern day conflicts in the world and indeed here, in Sri Lanka. Roots of most conflicts or at least lack of progress in resolving them, has a lot to do with lack of understanding and lack of space for a different cultures and identities, which leads to marginalization and discontent which sometimes results in violent aggression and cycles of hatred. It is clear then, that multiculturalism is no longer simply a nicety but rather, a dire necessity in the times we live in.

Read the rest of the post in the BB Blog