(Virtual) Departure Lounge

One of the great products of globalization is travel. John Tomlinson, a fundamental cultural globalization theorist writes: “We think of such distant places as routinely accessible, either representationally through communications technology or the mass media, or physically, through the expenditure of a relatively small amount of time (and, of course, of money) on a transatlantic flight” (Tomlinson, 1999: 4). Globalization brings with it the possibility to be anywhere at any time, experiencing cultures that we could have only imagined otherwise. Tomlinson goes on to say: “Jet travel is an intrinsic part of connectivity and, in its increasing commonplace integration into everyday life, demands attention as cultural experience” (Tomlinson, 1999: 9).

I totally agree. And I think today (Tomlinson was writing a decade ago), travel certainly has the attention it deserves. Every other person is travelling – for business, pleasure, Tokyo or New York. I would go so far to call it a trend – people travel not only for the cultural experience but to gain that cosmopolitanist title – the sophisticated/earthy globe trotter.

But of course it would be oblivious (well downright stupid) to assume that this gift of globalization is for everyone. In fact, it probably works out that a mere 2% of the world’s population can afford the means to stack up the air miles. And what about the rest? Here is where Tomlinson’s notion of representativeness of travel and cultures through the media becomes relevant. Anthony Giddens, another guru on globalization, says on the impact of media and technology in general: “as a result of modern newspapers, the inhabitant of a local village has a broader understanding of contemporary events than the prime minister of a hundred years before” (Giddens, 1990: 77). This analogy reveals the strength of the media’s role in bringing home a different location’s events.

One of my favourite websites is Lonely Planet.com. It’s full of life, vibrant colours, vivid images. And the capability to (mind the cliché sign) “take you there” with a click of the mouse. This is one of the reasons why I find the visual element of the Internet highly endearing for the novel cultural lover. One of my other favourites is the BBC’s “Week in pictures”, which picks up some of the most stunning photography from around the world for its online readers to enjoy. Flickr is becoming rapidly popular too – here you can upload and share photos in an organized fashion.

And then of course there is the video on the Web tool – YouTube. What a God send. I now call the beautiful tropical island of Sri Lanka home and recently I came across this YouTube clip that a friend of mine had posted on his Facebook. It was made by the Tourist Board of the Sri Lankan government and with the 20 year civil war in the country recently coming to an end, the clip encapsulates all there is to love about this stunning, now war-free country. Ignoring the obvious capitalist motive, the clip really does capture the country in all its beauty and brings the viewer unable to actually visit Sri Lanka that bit closer.

And so we have the simple wonders of the Web. It is easy to take for granted in this day and age when technology is advancing by the second but we should remember that it wasn’t that long ago when it was difficult to imagine let alone experience a foreign land.  Let’s embrace (virtual) travel  - one of globalization’s first treasures.

Food for thought

Lonely Planet

www.lonelyplanet.com

Globalization and cultural identity – John Tomlinson

http://www.polity.co.uk/global/pdf/GTReader2eTomlinson.pdf

The African Dream

The once “Dark” continent emerges into the light of globalization

When advances in technology are discussed whether over a cup of coffee with friends or by a columnist for The New York Times, the emphasis is clearly on the developed and in most cases Western world. A review of the multinational American corporation Apple’s latest Iphone for instance is more than likely to feature in the media. But what of the developing countries? Hardly any column inches are dedicated to the growth of technology in developing countries.

One of my favourite academics Ramaswami Harindranath (who coincidentally lectures at The University of Melbourne) suggests in the opening chapters of his book Perspectives on Global Cultures that the developed world are yet to benefit from the “trickle down of the joys that globalization brings” (Harindranath, 2006: 14). While this can be argued of the majority of the developing world I believe that this is slowly changing.  The developing world can be said to be playing catch-up with the West.

I have a soft spot for everything African as I spent the first 16 years of my life in Zambia. I was keen therefore to learn more about the progress made in Africa where technology is concerned. In my daily browsing of the BBC website sometime in April I stumbled across a news article that featured the African continent taking on the broadband revolution. The article goes on to state that plans are underway for East Africa to gain three underwater fibre-optic cables. This furthering in technology for this part of the world would eventually mean access to advanced telephone services, Internet banking and downloading of music and film – aspects of everyday life in the Western world which we take for granted.

Encouraged by the hope that Africa is taking small steps towards technological advancement and certainly feeling the heat of globalization like the rest of the world, I did a bit more discovery work on the Web. It was here that I discovered this article entitled Technology elevates Africa’s global status. The article tells the story of a truly African innovation – Ushahidi. Ushahidi (which in Swahili translates to ‘testimony’), as the author of the article Rebecca Wanjiku relates, “is a website and communications platform that was developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election violence in 2008”. While this innovation may seem insignificant in the dog eat dog technology world of the West, this is a major breakthrough for the crisis-torn Kenya and the rest of Africa who undergo conflict-driven and often bloody elections. Using Google Maps, the web engine allows anyone in the world to set up their own way to gather reports by mobile phone, email and the web and then have these mapped.

Ultimately and in my view extraordinarily, we have a piece of technology with a worldly benevolent purpose. With our era tinged with war and conflict, innovations such as these, however small an impact they may have, have just that – an impact. International news corporation Al-Jazeera now uses Ushahidi in its reporting of the war on Gaza. It is certainly clear why Ushahidi has won many awards and continues to have a global impact on the path to a war-free world.

Food for thought

BBC News Africa

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/default.stm

Ushahidi

www.ushahidi.com

Introducing Global Village…

Hi everyone!

Welcome to Global Village… a virtual space that will offer musings on the impact of new media and technological advancements on global cultures and identities. Is the world becoming a smaller place and what does this mean for the global society?

I’d like to say the term was originally mine but sadly that would be fibbing and the credit goes to Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan’s understanding of the term suggests that the globe has been reduced to the size of a village through the means of information technology. Today’s world is smaller as its citizens are able to connect with each other more efficiently through the Internet. As a result, cultures are brought closer together than ever before.

What fascinates me is that through just the simple click of a button we can be anywhere at anytime (virtually of course!). One can watch coverage of Sydney’s New Year celebrations at Harbour Bridge through YouTube from Sri Lanka or read a traveller’s blog in Nepal through an Iphone from Namibia.

In the course of my blog I will cover aspects of cultural globalization, today’s technological impact and also the changing face of the media.

Here’s some food for thought to get you going…

An intro to the term ‘Global Village’

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

P.S. I’ll be adding related articles/blogs/links to my blog entries where relevant in a “food for thought” section