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| Banksy Americans |
Anyone who travels around these days will notice how things are becoming more homogenized. Whether national or transnational, cultures are merging with one another along with long held values and beliefs. Obviously the world has always been in a evolutionary process of becoming, however the interesting fact about the time we live in now is that this ever present transmutation of human society has increased exponentially in both scale and speed.This is due to many factors, such as the widespread effects of the internet, TV, air travel, etc. Globalization is an inevitable fact and there are perhaps advantages and disadvantages regarding this natural trend towards a universal monoculture. Many people would say that the negative effects far outweigh the positive effects. Here is a short list of some potentially negative effects:
* Developed nations have outsourced manufacturing and white collar jobs. That means less jobs for their people. This has happened because manufacturing work is outsourced to developing nations like China where the cost of manufacturing goods and wages are lower. Programmers, editors, scientists and accountants have lost their jobs due to outsourcing to cheaper locations like India.
* Globalization has led to exploitation of labor. Prisoners and child workers are used to work in inhumane conditions. Safety standards are ignored to produce cheap goods.
* Job insecurity. Earlier people had stable, permanent jobs. Now people live in constant dread of losing their jobs to competition. Increased job competition has led to reduction in wages and consequently lower standards of living.
* Companies have set up industries causing pollution in countries with poor regulation of pollution.
* Fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC are spreading in the developing world. People are consuming more junk food from these joints which has an adverse impact on their health.
* The benefits of globalization is not universal. The rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer.
* Bad aspects of foreign cultures are affecting the local cultures through TV and the Internet.
* Local industries are being taken over by foreign multinationals.
* Multinational Companies and corporations which were previously restricted to commercial activities are increasingly influencing political decisions.
It is my belief that we should try and preserve multiculturalism and cultural diversity in general.This will only help the world in the long run by keeping intact indigenous cultures and other traditional worldviews which have a timeless history of experience/intelligence to draw from. If the East is primarily interested in importing Western culture and vise versa this can lead to a dangerous situation that will supplant local communities with far reaching socio-economic implications.
I am writing this from a small village in Bali, Indonesia. Through observing the relationship local people have with foreign visitors (such as myself) provoked this short rant. It is the same sort of relation you will see in most Asian countries that have less access to education, opportunity and other such resources so many of us in the western world take for granted. The foreigner has the money and the local people do there best to provide services to cater to the visitors in order to provide jobs for their local community. Thereby creating a a disproportionate cross cultural playing field. I am not drawing any conclusions to the state of the world. Merely sharing my thoughts and observations as I travel.
To say the least, I feel privileged to be witnessing this time in history.
