CULTURAL EXPERT: 5th post

CULTURAL EXPERT: YANTING






http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_5/dolfsma/

Music, it’s not just putting a few notes together. It is an arrangement of different frequencies to produce a universal love, and the word here is UNIVERSAL. People from all around the world listen to the same songs. Their languages do not matter; their race and religion do not matter. Thus, it is globalised.

There are different kinds of music, such as rap, country, rock, disco and pop rock with different formats. Furthermore, with internet booming, people share their music through cyberspace with no boundaries.

“With a global music scene there is ripe opportunity for cross-pollination but at the same time in order for mass appeal an accidental aesthetic imperialism which emerges, in which culturally specific and rhythmically unique musical idioms are all transformed to have the same disco beat behind them.”

Taken from: http://www.egs.edu/faculty/schmidt/schmidt-music-globalisation-2001.html

‘With the every growing N’Sync fan clubs and Britney clones, the world is turning into a stage for pop culture and its glamorous unattainable standards.’

Taken from: http://www.wowessays.com/dbase/ab4/ios47.shtml

Music has “grown over the last fifty years, from Elvis Presley and The Beatles to today’s top stars, to support a global industry worth $30 billion. The culture around pop music is constantly changing. It is difficult to predict where the next success will come from, and what the audience will buy into next. It is perhaps this lack of predictability that makes the pop world so alluring, attracting new generations of fans willing to buy the next wave of products.

Up to 90% of the global music market is accounted for by just five corporations: EMI Records, Sony, Vivendi Universal, AOL Time Warner and BMG. Collectively, these corporations are known as ‘the Big Five’, and operate in all of the major music markets in the world. Each of the corporations maintains their headquarters in the US, the largest of the world’s markets.”

Taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1042_globalmusic/

To conclude, all those that I have mentioned are all traces of globalization regarding culture.

Your cultural expert, Yanting!

CULTURAL EXPERT: 4th post

CULTURAL EXPERT: YANTING

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2482097,00.html
http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/362073/blog-growth-dips-as-technorati-tackles-splog-problem.html?keywords=technorati

As the article suggests, blogging has became a phenomenon over the past few years. People all over the world are starting to blog, be it using blogger, livejournal or diaryland. It all started out as an online personal diary, but has evolved to become blogshops where people can purchase items online or even a platform for people to discuss certain issues.

People can read off from a foreign blog, and even though it may not be of their native language, they translate into other languages like English and repost it for others to read. This is how blogs have changed the method local and global issues are discussed, becoming a reflection of this interconnectedness and an increasingly globalized world.

Everybody from all over the world can read what you typed and posted, it uses the cyberspace that does not affect people with their distance between each other. It bridges both language and culture, between both sides of the countries. Like MSN messenger service, it uses instant messenging allowing people to chat with other people even from far away countries.

From the article,
“Every person sitting in front of a computer is a peer and together they are creating the global digital society,” he said.

Therefore, blogging is indeed globalised and it connects people from one side of the globe to another. Just look at what you are looking right now, blogger?!

Your cultural expert, Yanting!

CULTURAL EXPERT: 3rd post

CULTURAL EXPERT: YANTING

http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2003/0730glocal.htm

http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/special/2007/0410bottomline.htm

http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2005/0215mongolia.htm

People from different countries speak different languages. But what is happening now, is that with globalization taking place, other languages somehow gets eroded and it leads to the rise of a language, English language. Even though not everybody knows and speaks English, there is an increasing trend of people attending extra English lesson.

Through globalization, the English language has achieved a status as the world’s official language and it is now a dominant language for two billion people in at least 75 countries. As English is the most common language to communicate scientific, technological, academic, and international trade information. English is clearly the world's lingua franca, but how did it get that way? Part of the reason is the feedback loop driving its history - a dynamic which may serve to illustrate how globalization often is the result of a natural course of events: before English infiltrated the world, many of the world's languages infiltrated English.

English, like so many other aspects of Western culture, has the potential to bring people together, or the power to divide people into classified groups. As the debate goes on, English will continue to grow and change with the same force that has always driven the patchworking of language: the natural desire to exchange goods and ideas. Thus, with that we can see that globalization is also partly due to the dominance of the English Language.

Your cultural expert, Yanting!

CULTURAL EXPERT: 2nd post

CULTURAL EXPERT: YANTING

http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/analysis/2004/0115plato.htm
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2004/0730exchangeprograms.htm

America is an influential area that it gradually leads to its culture being one that affects the rest of the world. In addition, there are certain icons that associate with the American culture. For example, McDonald’s, Starbucks, or even sports like basketball. I am sure that these logos are not unfamiliar to you as we can find them almost anywhere, even in countries like Singapore. There are 30,000 restaurants in over 120 countries. There is also hard rock café, that is situated in certain countries and they have already become international. Thus, we can say that it is all globalized even if one does not associate it with American culture as they are still known, globally.

On the other hand, it is not just the American culture, many cultures from other places are dispersing but the dominant one is still the American culture. For example, British TV produced shows like, ‘American idol’ and ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ which possesses a threat to US shows. With that, Disney is also popular not only amongst the kids, but young adults and young adults as well. This is also part of globalization, having the American culture to be rippling outwards, in terms of music, movies, television and even software.

Additionally, conflicts will occur if there is a great cultural value gap. American culture is a mixture of influences and approaches from all around the world.

“In May 1999, a Pew poll found that 71% of Americans agreed that cultural diversity was a "major reason" for America's success”.
http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/culture.cfm

On top of that, to show that globalization is taking place and has taken place, the second article states, in the last line,

"It's just like America," he said. "I don't feel so homesick."

Your cultural expert, Yanting!

Ethnical issue of cloning

Dolly and her first born lamb, Bonnie

Dolly, a Finn Dorsett ewe was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell. She was cloned at the Roslin Institute in the United Kingdom and lived there until her death when she was six. Dolly's publicity was inevitable because it showed that the genetic material from a specific adult cell programmed to express only a distinct subset of its genes, could be reprogrammed to grow an entirely new organism. However, amidst the celebration of a success in technological advancement in cloning, a more critical issue arose from such a success. It is the ethnical issue behind cloning. There have been many ethnical concerns in controversial issues on the cutting edge of science, cloning in this case. Cloning will do more harm than good to the world, as it challenges the sanctity of life and question even the most basic individuality of each being human being. In a world where human clones are present, it might be conceivable that parents are no longer significant, for they are merely ‘donors’. Even religious groups are beginning to oppose such act of cloning, on the grounds that life beings are conception. Life begins on the inception of pregnancy. There were even arguments if technology allow for successful cloning of humans, prejudice may develop against the clones, as they are being seen as ‘lesser’ form of human beings. The social implications of an human clones, have been explored in the famous movie, The Island.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloning

Technological Expert - Ernest Ting

CULTURAL EXPERT: 1st post

CULTURAL EXPERT: YANTING!

articles:

http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2006/0609kofifootball.htm
http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2004/olympics0810.htm

When one mentions the Olympics and the World Cup, I can almost guarantee that nobody will be unfamiliar with. Both events are international sporting competitions that are held in different countries every four years for Olympics and every two years for the World Cup. How then, do we relate them with globalization?

In the first article, the writer, Kofi A Annan, mentioned that the World Cup actually makes the United Nations green with envy. This is a funny sight as a large international organization is actually jealous of a sporting organization, FIFA. But the truth is that they are not as popular as FIFA and the reason is that FIFA has more members than United Nations. Furthermore, soccer is a game that appeals to all, young or old, of all race and religions, and even though it may seem to appeal more to males, females do enjoy the sport.

Everyone talks about soccer, regardless of which team they support, they stay up till next morning just to see a group of people running over a little ball for 90 minutes. Soccer forges an identity amongst people, people become friends or ‘brothers’ if they know that the other person supports the same team as them, be it Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool or even Tampines Rovers. Therefore, it is evident that soccer is a more than popular sport and it just cannot compare with the United Nations as they deal with international issues that does not exactly interest or appeal to the public. Thus, concluding that it is indeed globalization.

Similarly, Olympics is another event that almost everyone is the world knows of and fascinates them. Even though not everybody is a sportsman, they too, will catch the opening of the Olympics, the last man lighting up the stadium with the torch, blazing the whole area with the sporting sensation. It is, like the World Cup, an event that catches the attention of many, creating a topic of conversation when one is in school or at work. Thus, even those that do not have interests in sporting events are still interested as it is a big event that generates competition between countries just to host the event.

Even though the second article focuses on the Olympics being a platform to create and strengthen the identity among individual nations, writer, Emma Wensing also states that it is a global broadcast, indicating that it still relates to globalization. The reason being that almost the whole world will watch the exact happenings over television, and although some countries focus more on their national players, the competition is still the same, nobody watches a different one. That is globalization.

Your cultural expert, Yanting!

environmental
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2007/2007-05-10-01.asp
This article is about the climate change caused by globalisation affecting people living in low- lying areas in the pacific. There is a very large amount of financial assistance provided to them.
A new environmental strategy backed by a $100 million grant package from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was agreed to on Wednesday by the heads of state and top government leaders of the 15 small island states and territories at the Pacific Leaders Conference.
The people living in these Pacific states are in grave danger from the rising ocean levels. Due to their low level of elevation, they will be among the first environmental refugees should the ocean levels continue rising.
All these happenings are due to the changing global climate caused by excessive pollution by humans, from transport or industrial uses. These all play a part in globalisation. For example, the improvements in transportation now enable people to get from one continent to another in a matter of hours, when it would have taken days a hundred years back. However the downside to this is the huge number of polluting cars. Also, due to huge worldwide demand, factories are built to cater to the huge demand. These factories often spew enormous amounts of pollution.
The pollution rises up and creates a greenhouse effect, causing the earth to be heated up. The ice in the poles will thus melt and result in the rise in sea levels.
This $100 million marks a huge increase in environmental funding in that region, as for the past 15 years all the funding there amounted to only $86 million. The $100 million, which will be spread over 3 years, will allow countries to focus their strategies on a set of priority issues for the global environment, build and capture synergies, and apply a common set of tracking tools to monitor progress, instead of working one project at a time.

Nathaniel

The cutting edge of nuclear weapons

The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the dropping of little boy
















The fat man mushroom cloud resulting from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki













The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks during the World War II against the empire of Japan by the United States of America under US president Harry S. Truman. On Aug 6 1945, the nuclear weapon “little boy” was dropped on the city of Hiroshima followed by the denotation of the “Fat man” nuclear bomb over Nagasaki on August 9 1945. It is estimated that as many as 140,000 had died in Hiroshima by the Bomb and its associated effects, such as radiation exposure. The estimated number of deaths in Nagasaki is roughly 74,000.

On Aug 15, 1945, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied powers, signing the instrument of Surrender on September 2 which officially ended World War II. The bombings did ended the war months sooner than would otherwise have been the case, saving many lives that would have been lost on both sides if the planned invasion of Japan had taken place. However, the bombings brought about a more critical controversy, the invention of Nuclear weapons. A nuclear weapon is significantly more powerful that the largest conventional explosives and a single weapon is capable of destroying an entire city.

From the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the destructive side of technology has become an inexorable fact. Technology has brought about great destruction with its modern advancements in Weaponry. With increasing developments in nuclear weapons and more weapons of mass destruction, the potential annihilation of the human race increase. There were claims that if such devastation was brought about over half a century ago, the destructive potential of today’s weapon is unimaginable. Such weapons of mass destruction have certainly squeezed the Earth into a size so small and vulnerable. We are living in constant fear from the cutting edge of Science and Technology which will only bring more harm than good. Technology shrinks and threatens the world with such massive capabilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombings_of_hiroshima_and_nagasaki

Technological Expert - Ernest Ting

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12748

Chinese banks have been critisized by green groups for their increase in funding for environmentally hazardous and controversial projects both in developing nations around the world and at home.

Many of these projects will be huge enrivonmental problems, involving building of dams and such. The responsibility too cannot be solely laid on the Chinese banks, for international banks such as HSBC, RBS, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America all own large shares in Chinese banks.

This lack of environmental financing standards is causing much harm on the environment. Such large international corporations should be good role models of environmental-friendliness. It indeed is globalisation which has enabled the international banks to obtain control of the Chinese banks and used them as fronts to gain from the environmental projects available without tarnishing their name.

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12751

Bottled water costs from 240 to 10,000 times as much as water straight from the tap. However, world consumption of bottled water more than doubled between 1997 and 2005. In the quest for cleaner water, bottled water has become all the rage. For the record, here is a fact- bottled water in developed countries such as Singapore could be scrutinised using lower standards compared to our tap water.

The cost of producing bottle water is expensive, both environmentally and economically. The plastic bottles, deposited in landfills after they have served their purpose, take a long time to decompose. The natural springs the water is derived from are pressured too, as the supply gets rapidly depleted due to excessive withdrawal for bottled water. Add that to the energy cost of producing the plastic, bottling, packaging, storing and shipping bottled water all over the world.

Polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, is normally what is used to bottle the water. It requires less energy to recycle and does not release chlorine into the atmosphere when burned. But recycling rates have declined. 23.1% of PET bottles were recycled in the USA in 2005, compared to 39.7% ten years before.

More public education perhaps will help increase recycling rates. But it is globalisation that has brought about the want of bottled water, for convenience, for cleanliness and for the social prestige involved in drinking bottle water.

Nathaniel

http://www.enn.com/invest.html?id=1578

The hotel industry has shown steps to become more eco-friendly. There have been an emergence of eco-hotels. These hotels fall in several categories; those that conserve ecologically significant habitats, "green" hotels that reduce, recycle, minimize waste, and conserve water, sustainable hotels that harvest food from gardens on the hotel property or obtain part or all of their power from renewable energy, hotels that encourage community involvement, and hotels that offer some form of environmental education to their guests. These are all different steps taken by different hotels, which have earned them the title of ‘eco-hotel’.

This is definitely a step in the right direction. This shows that people are indeed doing something for the environment. These hotels may be just trying to attract more customers with their title, but ultimately, these steps are benefiting our environment.

Even though none of these certification programs are regulated and compliance is voluntary, but that has not stopped any of these eco-hotels from becoming certified. In fact it's to their advantage. According to them, hotels see a net benefit to transforming their facilities and operations, meaning the benefits including savings in operating costs and increased revenue from attracting a responsible tourist outweigh the costs (e.g., equipment, human resources, consulting fees, and certification

However, as the article shows, these awards are given out by different bodies, so there is no really certified body judging them. Thus, these hotels are in varying degrees of their title. As such, it may become quite confusing when differentiating. If there was a central committee to give out these titles, they will become more standardised.

Nathaniel

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12746

Gir National Park in Ahmedabad, an Indian state, houses the only Asiatic lions surviving in a natural habitat. However, in the last two months, more than a dozen lions have died, seven of which had been the victims of increased poaching. The state has been asked to relocate its lions to a reserve in a neighbouring state, Madhya Pradesh, deemed the most suitable site as an alternate home for the lions. Conservationists say keeping all the big cats in Gir is also a serious risk as a single epidemic or natural disaster could wipe out the entire population, which was 359 in 2005.

The locals are refuse to, though, as they say the lions are the pride of their state. The federal government is instead asking for an expedited move and have prepared the sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh for the lions.

The increase in poaching is indeed a huge threat to the lions, considering that half of the lions lost in two months were poached. And it is obvious which lions were poached, their claws, teeth, and some bones are removed from their carcasses.

Indeed, with globalisation, the black market for rare animals has increased. This of course leads to people turning to poaching to make a living, especially in the region of Africa and its surroundings, where the world’s poorest are and will do anything to make some money. If there is no market for these poached animals, there would not even be any poachers. Another example is whaling, which is a very big thing happening, and greenpeace being one of the leading organisations stopping it. Also, the culling of sharks for their fins. These are leading to imbalances in the ecosystem, due to global demand.

Thus, the effect of globalisation on the environment, this time on the ecosystem.

Nathaniel

Email shrinks the world

Email shrinks the world
“The theory that almost everyone on Earth is connected to anyone else via a small number of acquaintances seems to hold true for email, too.” BBC news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3132023.stm

In this article, social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment to establish an idea that almost everyone is only six friends or acquaintances distant from anyone else. In his investigation, Stanley Milgram randomly selected people in the US mid- West to help get letters to a stockbroker friend in Boston in the East. However, the letters are not to be directly sent to him. Instead, those who are taking part were asked to hand them to people they knew well who might have social ties that might take the message closer to the target.
Technology indeed has shrunk the world into a miserable size. People now are connected to each other through a worldwide network of thousands of computers and computer networks, called the internet. The world today is no longer a vast and troublesome world where information takes ages to reach a target. It is an internet world, where long distance communication is being taken care of. From online chatting to online video conferencing like Skpecast, human are now stuck comfortably in their little cells. The internet world today inexorably makes face-to-face human contact redundant these days.
The world present today is a vast and complex world with millions of ways to communicate with one another and make new friends. Popular online websites such as Friendster uses chains of acquaintances to help people meet and make new friends. Online shopping have even witness a rise in popularity in recent years. Websites such as ebay and amazon have made shopping so much easier for people in the comfort zones of their homes.
However, even though technology such as email have made lives for people so much easier, face-to-face human contact and interaction is still vital and should not be compromised. Even till today, business deals are still done face-to-face, strategic partnership, large scales agreements, hiring, firings, acquisitions are still primarily done face-to-face. Technology shrinks the world, making people from all around the world closer. However, it still has it pros and cons and they are illustrated in the above discussion.
technological expert
Ernest

GLOBALISATION IN TJC!