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Blog #4 - My Changed Opinion

The semester is almost done and the course material is coming to an end, my thoughts on globalization have become ongoing when it comes to watching the news, or talking to my friends about political or global issues. This course has really given me the ability to think about the content outside of the class and in my everyday life. I do have to say my views, opinions and perspectives have changed since the start of the course, so I will dive into more detail and list a couple. I found every week of the course interesting, but I do have to say my opinions towards global sporting spectacles have slightly changed. Watching the Olympics is something I have always looked forward too, my family and I sit down and watch as many events as we can, it is always memorable. Unfortunately I never knew what happens behind the scenes of these massive events that take place every two years, and are viewed by individuals across the globe. I never knew the likelihood of struggle that some countries have experienced over the years; for example, countries going into debt and taking loans so they can afford to build facilities that they may never use again; this is a fine example of the Olympics in Greece in 2004, who hosted the most expensive Olympic Games with a cost of approximately $15 billion US dollars. Now when I think about the Olympics, I see the negative side where it really only benefits the rich and powerful and leaves countries with longterm debt to take care of. I am not saying I will never watch the Olympics ever again, I just think its good to see the other side to it so you are self-aware and knowledgeable of what happens in the shadows. Another opinion of mine that has strengthened was the idea of “voluntourism”; volunteering and tourism mixed together. I never had thought negatively of voluntourism, because most of my friends who did it went with a purpose and not for a simple Instagram photo; However, after learning about it, it wouldn’t be on my bucket list anymore, now that I know the more controversial side of it. Yes, young students or recent graduates, come with a purpose to help out in a country that is struggling, but how are they helping when they are only a temporary fix to the struggle? Voluntourism lacks the idea that it is most important and effective to teach the locals how to provide and help themselves rather than doing it for them; for example, teaching them to build their own house. The contribution can have limited effectiveness and will create an attachment amongst the volunteers and the kids, who gain strong connections with the volunteers who aren’t their permanently. Once again, I am not bashing the system, I just believe it could be much more powerful if it had a different purpose and objective than it does right now. Throughout this course I began to make even more connections to the content and the real world, I would watch the news and then realize, “Dr. Stockdale talked about this term last week”, and then I would tell my parents or ask for their opinions. There are other ideas I would have loved to list, but then it wouldn’t be a blog post, rather an essay, but those were a couple of topics that had the ability to change my perspective.

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Blog #3 : Cultural Convergence

Cultural convergence is becoming more and more common as we transition through our lives, and do you want to know the reason why? As globalization develops and becomes more advance, so does the emergence of cultural convergence. Look at McDonalds; a fast food restaurant that originally started in the United States, and now has diffused globally. For most, it may seem normal, walking the streets of Europe and coming across a McDonalds, but when you think about where it originally started, it’s pretty cool! The thing is, a lot of people look at cultural globalization as a one way street; America outward, meaning that the world seems to be adopting more and more Western norms. The critics are more or less the same, people believe that cultural globalization actually takes away from the diversity and the traditions of cultures. However, other countries are also making a mark on society as well, for example Bollywood and Bollywood dancing. Bollywood started in India; the Hindi film industry, and has been successful in many countries such as the United States and Canada. Some critics may also call Bollywood’s transition into America, ‘cultural appropriation’, for example when Selena Gomez performed, “The Heart Wants What It Wants”, at the MTV music awards while wearing a bindi, but that’s a whole other topic of discussion. 

I strongly believe that improving technology is a big driver to how society transfers cultural traditions, beliefs, and ideas. Pop-culture, which is linked to “Americanization”, has really taken a swing internationally. Western movies and music are constantly being viewed and listened to globally. I personally don’t listen to Chinese music, and honestly never have, nor have I watched a movie made in Italy, and that probably goes for a lot people; However, America has a large influence and great popularity amongst many countries when it comes to pop-culture. Now if we disregard the factors that drive globalization; trade, investments, and technology, we can see that a big reason to why Western norms are diffusing and converging so rapidly, is due to the strong presence of the English language globally. As English being a very prominent language in most of the world, this gives it the ability to easily get through to society.

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Blog #2

Let’s talk about ‘slowbalization’, the idea that globalization is losing its strength and the economic gaps between countries are becoming wider. “Long-term cross-border investment by all firms, known as foreign direct investment, has tumbled from 3.5% of world GDP in 2007 to 1.3% in 2018” (Economist, 2019); Japanese and other Asian firms each made more money selling things to the other parts of Asia than to America in 2018 (Economist, 2020), these are just a couple of many statistics proving the point that globalization is on a downfall. One of the many causes of slowbalization was the financial crisis in 2008, which made banks disinclined about financing trade (Economist, 2019). Today, COVID-19 is what has ‘turbocharged’ slowbalization, due to the lack of global flows, the lack of integration, and the idea that it’s “every country for themselves” (Rubin, 2020). Everyday for the past eight months, our human connections have worsened due to decreased travel and in person contact. I guess you could say that slowbalization is creating more regionalization than ever before, through society supporting more local and regional businesses rather than international ones. Globalization as we all know doesn’t only revolve around finance, trade and production, but also global integration and interconnectivity. With the powerful effects of COVID-19, society is unfortunately losing strong connections internationally; for example, when countries were not sharing their medical supplies with other countries in need at the beginning of the pandemic. This showed us how in a time of crisis some countries will fend for themselves rather than support others. We see the loss of international relationships when we look at how certain groups of people have been discriminated against since the start of the pandemic. Discrimination is highly experienced within individuals of Chinese, Korean, and Southeast Asian culture because they unfortunately carry the stigma that they “started this virus”. We can see the social divide and discrimination between the ‘masker’ and ‘anti-masker’ communities; this affects the way we look at one another locally and globally. Yes, the world will never be perfect, but I really do believe that COVID-19 is influencing our social and economic downfall, also known as, slowbalization.

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Blog #1

This is me, everyday I sit in my basement doing school work by my computer, with my phone by my side. Just typing this out sounds depressing, but currently this is what I need to do to get through my first year of university. Globalization traces all aspects of life that have to do with maintaining social interconnectivity, one being technology which is also known as ‘disembodied globalization’. Technology is demonstrated in all of our every day lives through all  of the social media platforms, The World Health Organization updating us on the daily COVID-19 cases, or even a quick zoom call with all my classmates.  The fact that we can all converse no matter our location shows us how far we’ve come in this material world. Technology has helped us gain more global connectivity which has helped supply chains and international trade prosper. Technology helps keep big operations and enterprises in tact with the ability to communicate no matter the distance or the language. Technology has been a big part of my life throughout high school and now in university, and as my mom always says it is literally at our fingertips, whatever we want, all the questions we have, all the clarification we need, all the Friday night plans we want to make, it is so easily accessible. Just the other day I was on a zoom call for school with a boy who lives in Rwanda, and two weeks before I was FaceTiming my cousin who lives in New Jersey, without all these social media platforms that can connect us instantly, we would lose our ability to communicate, learn, and keep the economy growing especially during this pandemic. Globalization gives us the ability to be educated about world issues which allows us to be proper global citizens, because every human being matters (Appiah, 2007). This will give us the chance to learn and discover other cultures and interesting events that take place in other countries rather than just our own. The fact that I can sit in my room open my laptop and search up the best Chicken Parmesan recipe then post the results on my instagram is just one of the very few perks of technology today.