News broadcasts across our country and across our
globe all have one thing in common; globalization. You cannot watch an hour of
news without coming across an important globalization story, possible affecting
your way of life. Like the recent hurricane Sandy; though not directly affecting
us through weather; could eventually affect us through trade. Globalization is
the interaction of people, politics, goods and services around the world, and
there is no question that globalization is uniting us and converging us into
one culture. But I believe globalization has weakened us as individuals, and is
shaping the way people think and act and how they live their lives. Globalization
can be very negative, and you can see through our every day globalization,
media convergence and transnational corporations, all these aspects of
globalization contribute and are right now taking away from our individual
identity and adding to our collective identity, ruining the perfect balance.
The uniting of our world is directly linked to
globalization, eventually we become alike, having less of an individual
identity and more of a collective identity so we will become one culture. I
agree that this statement is true, that globalization is combining our world
into one society, but I don’t believe that is the direction we should be going.
An example of our world becoming a whole could be the Silk Road. The Silk Road
was a road of knowledge, the interaction of people from all around the world,
sharing exclusive spices and silks, and new science and technology. From the
developing of the universal number system, to the learning of different people’s
cultures, it all brought us together as a whole. Another example could be the
new release that has influenced
popular culture, the hit song and music video “Gangnam Style”. “Gangnam Style” is sung by
South Korean music artist PSY, and as of November 26, 2012, the music video has
been viewed over 830 million times on YouTube, becoming more popular then Justin
Beiber. By the end of October 2012, the song reached the number one position in
more than 30 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and
the United Kingdom, and according to the United Nations, this song has become an
“international sensation”. Even so, listening to the same music and wearing
the same big brand name clothes are just more examples of how we are losing our
unique personal identities, and our identities as a whole. Different cultures need
to become more aware of the convergence of our world and begin to rediscover
their individual and collective identities that set them apart from every other
culture, because without it, we are moving towards one world.
C is for cookie. COOKIE!?! Omm-nom-nom!! The Cookie
Monster from the hit American children’s show Sesame Street, is a character we
all have come to know and love. Media corporations affect and influence all of
us socially, economically, politically and environmentally, and Sesame Street
is one of the very most influential shows because it teaches young children
basic morals and learning skills, and also gives the children relatable role
models. Sesame Street has made its way all around the world, and appears in
over 100 countries today. It’s a show we as children have all watched, children
are watching today, and our future generations of children will watch. Most of
the shows broadcasted, although there are a few culturally specific to their
own countries, are mostly in the general North
Americans’ outlook. If viewing this show by children with the same general
North American outlook is not clearly displaying the convergences of our world
then I don’t know what is. This is clearly another example of how the world is mutually
coming together, strengthening our collective identity as a world, but losing
our identities as a person. Media convergence is one of the major contributors
to the deteriorating of our identity, the fading of us as a diverse world, with
many exceptional, different, and beautiful people.
Banana splits, banana muffins, banana chocolate
chip muffins! Bananas are one of the most popular fruits in Canada, and the
reason for this is because we cannot grow bananas in our climate, but we can
use it for so many things! When bananas were first introduced in North America,
they were a hot commodity and a treat among the wealthy, and being such a
popular fruit, created some competitive companies. But now with bananas being
so common, we can just walk into the grocery store on a daily basis and grab
bananas for a very reasonable price, and we likely fail to remember where they
came from and how they got here. Chiquita, being one of the leading companies,
have banana farms in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama, and ship the bananas
all around the world. With transportation as easy as it is today to fly or boat
over seas to another country, it is just as easy to transfer bananas all around
the globe. But if we receive the bananas and are forgetting where they came
from, then we as a society don’t know the whole story. We as a society might
not know that the bananas are being sprayed with pesticides to kill the bugs
out on the farms, and that wouldn’t be such a big deal, if the workers weren’t
in the fields with the dangerous chemicals too. We are turning a blind eye to
the clear breaking of their human rights, and as a society we need to realize
how lucky we are to even have these bananas. This is
one of the examples that I actually agree with. I don’t believe we should be uniting as one
world, but I believe that the trading or shipping of bananas is actually a fine
way of keeping in touch with the people down in those exotic places. The
bananas are not directly telling us to buy them and everyone should eat them
and we will all become the same, but I can see how people could interpret that,
but what I can’t see is Chiquita taking over and conquering the world.
Globalization is happening. Globalization should create
diversity within our world and create uniqueness within ourselves. Our
everyday globalization, media convergence and transnational corporations do play a huge role of what makes us who we are. But
I believe globalization has weakened us as individuals, and is shaping the way
people think and act and how they live their lives and this is all contributing
to our personal identities and collective identities.
Because everyone is unique and different, what would the world be without a
diverse and different people? I think it would be a very boring, dull, and
unfulfilling place to live and call home.
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