Sunday, April 25, 2010

Globalization

Globalization, from my understanding according to Wikipedia, is the “process in which economies, societies, cultures, technology, and languages” all blend into one mega-global idea. It’s like mixing up a whole variety of things that becomes common throughout the whole world, eliminating barriers around countries. This is done through trade, migration, and foreign investments. Honestly, it’s something that contains positives and negatives of which both I agree with. So, on each individual aspect of globalization, I will assert some sort of opinion on. First we have economic globalization. This is a decent opportunity for countries in a lesser state. If huge companies transfer to these countries, their economy would better itself, I would assume. The company’s wealth means more spending throughout the economy in that specific region. I’m going to skip over societies… Then, we have cultures! The blending of cultures is a good thing; it allows people to become more aware and accepting and it’s also a learning opportunity for anything. However, if all the cultures keep blending and mixing and integrating, there may be no individual culture left. Every country would become less and less distinct and more, well, conformed. And we all know that foolish consistencies are the hobgoblin of little minds. Do we want hobgoblins? Do we want little minds? I think not! The individualities of all cultures would slowly fade, and for me, I think that’s severely unfortunate. Now for technology. What would we do without it? HOW COULD WE POST THESE BLOGS WITHOUT IT?! Oh, the horrors! Okay. So if I just take a look around my house and point out all of my electronics, we can see that the globalization of technology deserves an A+. My computer is an HP, which is American, so that counts for America’s contribution to globalization. As for everything that DOESN’T come from America, here is the list. A BMW motorcycle from Germany, a Toyota from Japan, two Acura’s from Japan, A Sony camera from Japan, two Yamahas from Japan… well you get the point. Most of what people own aren’t even from our own country. They’re from Japan (probably the most electronically dominant place ever). Or they’re from Germany, China, or anywhere. To me, technology should absolutely be globalized. Lastly, there is language. Language barriers are an absolute pain and it’s always obnoxious walking through Costco listening to people scream at each other in Vietnamese, because quite frankly it is rude. If I moved to another country and only spoke English, I wouldn’t be able to get away with it. But no, not here. This is a different topic I suppose. But I think that languages are unique to cultures and therefore shouldn’t be globalized. If you live in a certain country, speak the language that is native to it and nothing else. On the other hand, knowing a bunch of languages is key to businesses now because of this globalization. We have business affairs with other countries and miscommunication would be a huge downfall. On the business aspect of it, it’s good. On the cultures aspect of it, it’s bad. Overall, for business growing and expanding in order to make huge profits, globalization is a very good thing. All the other parts, I’m not so sure about…

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