“Cultural Anarchy” & The Western Boogeyman

10 Responses to ““Cultural Anarchy” & The Western Boogeyman”

1. halalhippie on May 28th, 2007 8:50 pm

   You’re privileged to laugh it off. Not everyone has the luxury. I believe a good many ppl are sincerely worried about globalization and the impacts it has on their culture.

   I myself get grumpy at times over the American influx in my language, about junk food and stupid soap-operas.And I’m part of the evil, imperialist ™ West. Who can I blame ?

   But at the end of the day I’m confident that whatever parts of “my” culture is worthy will survive.

   “Western countries are fighting psychological warfare to influence [insert your own] youth,” yada yada. Gimme a break. “We” (or “they”) are simply selling cheap $#!t to whomever is stupid enough to buy.

   I’m proud that my daughter prefers kebab to burgers. Globalization has its good points.

2. The Raccoon on May 28th, 2007 9:24 pm

   Cultures are dynamic by nature - whatever you think of as YOUR culture is an amalgamation of countless others. Globalization merely speeds the cultural evolution up.

   It also brings me different kinds of food… so it can’t be anything but marvelous

3. Drima on May 29th, 2007 3:43 am

   I know what you mean Halalhippie. But a the end of the day even if we don’t like it or sometimes get annoyed by it, it’s here to stay.

   “But at the end of the day I’m confident that whatever parts of “my” culture is worthy will survive.”

   Same here, plus not all Sudanese youth for example are getting so into the “hip hop, baggy pants, yo yo, what’sup what’sup” culture which I’m not a fan of by the way. Many stick to their culture and are proud of it. Others don’t.

   But on the other hand like Raccoon said, the food that globalization brings is lovely. Imagine eating burger king early morning, hummus and kebeb for lunch, tepanyaki followed by sushi later in the evening followed by a loooong night chilling with friends smoking shisha/hookah and drinking mint tea at an Arabic restaurant. Next morning I wake up and it’s a bunch of Danish cheese sandwiches!

   As annoying as it maybe is some ways, you gotta love globalization man!

4. nominally challenged on May 29th, 2007 11:25 am

   Imagine eating burger king early morning, hummus and kebeb for lunch, tepanyaki followed by sushi later in the evening followed by a loooong night chilling with friends smoking shisha/hookah and drinking mint tea at an Arabic restaurant. Next morning I wake up and it’s a bunch of Danish cheese sandwiches!

   Sounds like my sort of day, except for the Burger King for breakfast thing. I’d rather start the day with equally globalized corn flakes.

   By the way, is it just me or is the global nature of the anti-globalization campaign simply ironic?

5. daana on May 29th, 2007 5:11 pm

   I don’t think that the cultural globalization is the biggest worry for the anti globalization supporters although it is part of it. However, I think the economic aspects of it is what’s scaring the anti globalization crew. As more and more is imported and exported we will find that bigger corporations will try to maximize its profits by paying less for its workers, thus taking its business to places where they can get cheap labor (that is what’s happening to many American workers who are complaining of this big corporates taking their business overseas). Also, the economic globalization will allow rich countries to use the resources of poor countries for minimal cost. Thus the rich gets richer and the poor poorer.

6. The Raccoon on May 29th, 2007 6:03 pm

   Daana -

   Agreed with everything but the last bit. Thus the poor get a chance to become rich, and the rich get to stay rich. Everybody wins.

7. Drima on May 30th, 2007 2:54 am

   “Thus the poor get a chance to become rich, and the rich get to stay rich. Everybody wins”

   I agree in general. Corporations like Body Shop are doing third world countries they purchase raw materials from a great favor by providing decent jobs and opportunities to people who would otherwise have none.

   But of course there are those corporations that exploit cheap labor in other countries and put workers in harsh conditions with low pay.

8. Roman Kalik on May 30th, 2007 4:11 am

   Well, those corporations that do exploit the workforce don’t do anything that the government there doesn’t allow to be done already. So at worst you get more crap jobs. Which may eventually lead to unionization and a demand to put worker rights in the law. This sort of development requires a lot of low-pay workers first, if industrial-era Britian is any indication.

9. Drima on May 30th, 2007 4:38 am

   Hmmmm… good observation.

10. Roman Kalik on May 30th, 2007 9:33 am

    *bows*

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