Obamamania

Whether you agree with the man or not, citizens of the world across nation borders have celebrated Obama’s presidential win. As shown by the photographs below, people from Australia to India will be affected more than ever by this new president. With the borders between countries becoming less and less important, people from all places of the world are celebrating one another’s triumphs. Especially with the Republican failed efforts at keeping a globally-favorable foreign diplomacy alive, citizens from other nations hope that Obama and the Democrat party can improve America’s policies involving other nations and in this way, save the country’s global image. This just goes to show that all nations, no matter what their economic prowess or social influence is, depend on one another and hence, must learn to work together towards future positive progress.

The following photos are from (in order from left to right): Athens, Greece; Basra, Iraq; Beijing, China; Dakar, Senegal; Denmark; New Delhi, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Obama, Japan; Jerusalem, Israel; Kogelo, Kenya; Kuwait; Manila, Philippines; Moscow, Russia; Sydney, Australia; Paris, France.

Left in the Dust?

I watched a documentary yesterday called “Sari Soldiers” that was a part of a Human Rights Watch Film Festival going on at the James Farmer center. The documentary is all about the political and social crises going on in Nepal, but specifically from a female point of view.

The political instability began following the royal massacre in 2001 when allegedly, the crown prince killed his entire family and then committed suicide. A civil war took place shortly afterwards involving an underground Maoist (socialist/communist) insurgency and the King seizing absolute power from the multi-party democracy. This caused many abuses against human rights and people’s civil liberties, and also changed people’s everyday lives for the worse.

Seeing footage of the atrocities going on in the country of the corruption of the government itself made me realize that certain aspects of globalization such as the increase of international trade or the spread of technology will have no effect or importance whatsoever with such political, economic and social instability going on.

Being one of the 50 poorest nations in the world, Nepal and her citizens have to worry about basic human needs such as nourishment and safety, rather than focusing on other concerns. Globalization can not spread in a nation where there is no infrastructure. So while the rest of the world is advancing due to globalization, extremely poor and unstable nations such as Nepal are left behind, since they can not catch up to the level of competition where everyone else is or has been at.

So what is it that these poor nations need to do? What is it that they can do so they won’t be left in the dust?

God, I feel dumb

I’m sitting here, babysitting my seven-year-old nephew. He’s your average first-grader in a Fairfax County public school. We’re watching Sesame Street. There’s Big Bird singing with some out-of-the-ordinarily cute and ethnic looking girl with pigtails. Just like back in 1992, when we all probably watched Sesame Street as well. Just like always.
Except this is not like always.
Big Bird is not singing in English. He (or she, who ever knows?) is singing “La Cucaracha,” a popular children’s song in Spanish.
Yup, we’re watching Sesame Street in Spanish.
Did I ever think that I would be in this situation? No. But is this a perfect time to blog about something globalization-ish? YES.
Just before you might think that Jakey, my nephew, is not really understanding any of this Spanish and he probably is just zoning out with an occasional drool, he is not. Jakey is actually quite enthralled, sitting on his knees maybe about a foot away from the TV, repeating everything Big Bird says, in Spanish. I mean, if I had learned Spanish way back when I was a little fledgling, just think about how fluent I would be now…
The thing is, I guess people are realizing how important it is for them to understand multiple languages. Nowadays in high schools and colleges across the country, becoming proficient in at least one other language is mandatory.
Jakey’s mom, my cousin, told me the other day that his school has been experimenting with their curriculum and has added learning Chinese to the class’s daily schedule. So Jakey is not only learning his colors in Spanish with Big Bird, he’s also learning Chinese in school, beside all his other regular subjects i.e. reading, numbers, first grade stuff.
I ask Jakey to count to ten in as many languages as he can and he rattles off English. Super star. Then he counts to ten in Nepali, the language that he uses at home with the family. Nice. Spanish? Easy peasy. And lastly, Chinese? Probably a little mistake or two in intonation, but nothing that my deaf ear would pick up.
Basically to sum up this entire post is a sentence: I need to catch up to that brat.

Old Meets the New: why, hello there old! and how are you new?

So this is a photo of a 19th century fort in a place called Umm Salal Mohammed in Qatar. I love how it epitomizes a stark but peaceful collision of the old and the new with the satellite dishes in the foreground. It’s a well captured photograph at summarizing the immense and rapid change in the Middle East, especially with the onslaught of modernization in light of recent demands for oil production. Even in the most remote of areas, a T.V. is showing those who had been isolated, something of the world “out there”. People no longer have to travel long distances to be exposed to different aspects of the world and its diversity. Just arrange the antennae or give the dish a little nudge, and flip the channel! While some may see the satellite dishes as a symbol of progress and modernization for the better, others may see an ancient artifact and place of history and culture being desecrated with “Western” influence. The biggest challenge, I believe in our time, is the challenge of finding an equilibrium or point of agreement where both tradition and progressive modernization can meet.

 photo courtesy of Jungle_Boy (http://flickr.com/photos/jungle_boy/)

thanks whoever you are. Tarzan.

What the..?

GLOBALIZATION IS:

the increasing of communication and innterconnectivity between people and institutions across the globe. Globalization affects all aspects of society, economy, politics, and aspects of our day-to-day lives. Globalization levels the playing field for today and the future’s competition in global trade and economy. It also brings major social change and threatens/challenges institutions of power.

THIS definition or explanation of globalization was written before we, as a seminar class came up with an awesome definition that I think best embodies what globalization is:

GLOBALIZATION IS:

A rapidly accelerating process which enables, encourages, and advances connections between both individuals and groups worldwide, allowing for the exchange and influence of cultural, technological, economic, and political ideas and their applications.

 We spent an hour summarizing this global phenomenon and we managed to succinctly explain it in one sentence. We did good.

Go figure

So, Friedman talks about the ten forces that flattened the world, and as I’m reading them, I realize that these forces are recent ones. But I came to realize that this phenomenon of globalization actually began hundreds of years ago. Perhaps even as far back as 1492, yes when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He, as were many other explorers, created a new road through which the world opened and through which the foundation of intercontinental communication began. The Silk Road, also, no doubtedly was also a key event that helped with the spreading of ideas, goods, innovation, and people.

You can also name a bunch of others, such as Alexander the Great’s conquest into India or the extensive system of slave trade that fueled our nation for centuries. Also, let’s not forget the Industrial Revolution in Britain. The Industrial Revolution was a major flattener, if not recent, but important one that revolutionized the social heirarchy and challenged it. the emergence of ideology supported people’s belief that they could take control of their lives and do something about it, to change it. This is where the concept of human rights was born; there was a large movement of thinking and action to bring the peasants, who where once illiterate, to the same level of the higher elite. The social heirarchy was flattened, if you will. 

A similiar flattening of societal stratification was presented in an article I recently read in the Washington Post. In India, the social heirarchy, or caste system, is extremely strong, partly because it is deeply embedded in a false perception of religion and faith (which is another topic in itself). But with times changing, and people of even the lowest caste, or Dalit, are taking their future in their hands. The Dalit have been forced into indentured labor for decades and generations, but the article follows a Dalit man who left his age-old generational home (on someone else’s land, interestingly enough) to work as a brick layer in the city as a free man. He soon worked his way up and then saved enough money to start his own textile business, which is now booming.

But the writer’s point in this article was to show that people are working their way through this social heirarchy. The once god-like caste system’s strict social stratification (try saying that five times fast) is now loosening its grip and whether you might think that this is for the better or for the worse, it is happening.

Just as during the Industrial Revolution when people began to demand their rights and began to see the injustices happening to them, the Dalit people here too are also seeing that they can escape their miserably plight of working underneath a domineering owner and also succeed in the booming economy that India is welcomingly offering.

But does this flattening of the social heirarchy lead to good or bad? Is a social heirarchy a necesity in present day society? After writing a bit and reading a little more, I am beginning to see the double-edged sword that is globalization. Like in this very post. I just spent a good half hour contemplating and writing about one side of the issue, and I now end this post questioning eveything I just wrote. Go figure.

ya’ll better keep them accents

I’ve always heard the term “globalization” tossed around on those radio talk shows on NPR or the WAMU, and I always knew some things about it.

It is coming,

it’s big,

and people just didn’t know what they are going to do about it.

That’s about the extent of my knowledge of globalization. And even though, truthfully, I’m only on page 91 of The World Is Flat, what I’ve read about the past couple of days reminds me of a recent experience.

So my dumpy little emachines desktop that’s sitting pretty my home right now (50 long miles away, thank god), was going through a rough patch and I called the Geek Squad. So I’m talking to the “geek” who’s been assigned to me, and as he’s explaining how I can get my computer screen from spastically flickering, I, of course, am not paying attention.

At least to what he’s telling me to do. I was paying attention to his accent. Well, more like his lack of. But actually, there was a tinge of some accent that which I could not have placed my finger on at that moment. So, I, out to stupidly reveal my inattentiveness, ask my geek, “Where are you located?”

A short pause ensues, and in a timid manner, geek starts to apologize profusely. “I’m so sorry ma’am, could you not understand me? I apologize, sometimes my accent gets the best of me.”

What? “Oh no, I was just curious, that’s all,” I reply, trying to sound as sugary nice as possible. Geek then follows to admit that he’s calling from the Dominican Republic.

Anyways, the outsourcing’s not the part of the anecdote that’s bugging me. What is bugging me is that he seemed to be almost ashamed? Wow. According to some of Thomas Friedman’s research, when other countries are hiring employees to work the hotlines or solicit marketing phone calls, they are given extensive training in a sort of, deaccentification. Yes I did just make a word up. Actually, I think what Friedman called it was “accent neutralization.”

But, really. I mean, how narrow-minded must we (as Americans) be if our employees in nations far away feel as though the only way of pleasing us is to pretend to be like us? Whatever happened to a nation who supported the cultivation of diversity? We should be totally fine with accents. But as Friedman writes, “these kids are [eager] to escape the lower end of the middle class and move up. If a little accent modification is the price they have to pay to jump a rung of the ladder, then so be it.” If I’ve learned anything from my father who’s a PhD in economics, it’s that if there’s a demand, there will be a supply. So therefore, there must be a demand for American accents from our part, no?

Anyway, I’m kind of just thinking out loud here and I need to review my math notes. Not that I’ll really be paying attention anyway.