Realia English A Lecture 5.doc These notes are more than is needed for the section.The reading for this section is the chapter in Oakland with the title 'International Relations'.
This is a two part video of a lecture given as part of the campus course for British Realia on globalisation. There is more information in this lecture than is presented in this section but it is a good support if you need it.
mms://www.mos.umu.se/engelska/globalisation_part1.wmv
mms://www.mos.umu.se/engelska/globalisation_part2.wmv
Globalisation
Like colonisation, globalisation is not easily summarized in a few paragraphs of text and a couple of images. As you have probably noticed the (post)modern world is complex, changing, and networked. Similarly to colonisation, globalisation is not a totally new phenomenon. The Ancient Greeks has a globalisation of their own. Reading Herodotus (5th century B.C.E) you can gain an idea of what the globalised world of 2500 years ago looked like. Today, globalisation is truly global but there are both similarities, variations and total differences in how different local cultures respond to transnational forces and influences that affect us all. You must be able to briefly discuss the concept of contemporary globalisation as:
- Cultural
- Economic
- Historical
- Social
These four aspects of globalisation are the basis for this section. Simply be able to define each and give some examples from those given on this page.
1. Cultural
- The global media system (which includes education) is one part of cultural globalisation.
- "Technology has now created the possibility and even the likelihood of a global culture. The Internet, fax machines, satellites, and cable TV are sweeping away cultural boundaries. Global entertainment companies shape the perceptions and dreams of ordinary citizens, wherever they live. This spread of values, norms, and culture tends to promote Western ideals of capitalism. Will local cultures inevitably fall victim to this global "consumer" culture? Will English eradicate all other languages? Will consumer values overwhelm peoples' sense of community and social solidarity? Or, on the contrary, will a common culture lead the way to greater shared values and political unity? This section looks at these and other issues of culture and globalization." (Global Policy Forum)
- A central term often used in relation to cultural globalisation is multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is government policy in South Africa and Australia, and is valued in the formation of policy in Britain. It has not emerged as a dominant concept in India outside the major urban areas. Although this could be a challenge for India over the next few decades as more and more people will want to share in the economic prosperity of the nation from outside its borders. Multiculturalism generally refers to a state of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity within the demographics of a specified place, usually at the scale of an organization such as a school, business, neighbourhood, city or nation.
2. Economic
- The economic side of globalisation gets a lot of attention in western media, and this is understandable. Economic globalisation can be defined as the process of increasing economic integration between nation states, leading to the emergence of a global marketplace or a single world market. Depending on the paradigm, globalisation can be viewed as both a positive and a negative phenomenon.
- Whilst economic globalisation has been occurring for the last several thousand years (since the emergence of trans-national trade), it has begun to occur at an increased rate over the last 20-30 years. This recent boom has been largely accounted by developed economies integrating with less developed economies, by means of foreign direct investment, the reduction of trade barriers, and the “westernisation” of these developing cultures.
3. Historical
David Held et al. (2005), in Global Transformations, look at four periods of globalisation.
- Pre-modern (before 1500) 'globalisation' was interregional within Eurasia and the Americas, based on political and military empires and the movements of peoples into uncultivated areas.
- The early modern (1500-1850). This was marked by the rise of the West and the movement of Europeans into the Americas and then Oceania. It was in the early modern period that world religions spread and exerted their most significant cultural influence, especially Christianity and Judaism, both of which attained a global distribution.
- Modern globalisation (1850-1945) This period witnessed an acceleration of global networks and cultural flows, dominated by the European powers, especially the British; and the great migration of European peoples to the new world. By the mid-nineteenth century European peoples, ideas and religions had transformed the Americas, with rapid developments in transport and communication technologies in the second half of the 19th century (for example telegraphy, telephones, radio, railways, shipping, canals, etc.) making connections over a large area possible.
Contemporary globalisation is marked by an environment that is degraded in every region of the world, and new patterns of global migration have replaced the old. A worldwide system of nation states, overlaid by a combination of regional and global forms of regulation and governance, has emerged. Although still highly asymmetrical, contemporary globalisation is less dominated by America and Europe: "distributional patterns of power and wealth no longer accord with a simple core and periphery division ... (and) ... reflect a new geography of power and privilege which transcends political borders and regions, reconfiguring established international and trans-national hierarchies of social power and wealth." (Held, et al.) More on Historical Globalisation can be found on this website.
4. Social
- The social dimension of globalization refers to the impact of globalisation on the life and work of people, on their families, and their societies. Concerns and issues are often raised about the impact of globalisation on employment, working conditions, income and social protection. Beyond the world of work, the social dimension encompasses security, culture and identity, inclusion or exclusion and the cohesiveness of families and communities.
- Globalisation brings new potentials for development and wealth creation. But there are divergent views and perceptions among people as concerns its economic and social impact, and indeed widely varying impacts on the interests and opportunities of different sectors and economic and social actors. Some argue that the present model of globalisation has exacerbated problems of unemployment, inequality and poverty, while others contend that globalisation helps to reduce them. Of course, these problems pre-dated globalisation, but it is clear that for globalisation to be politically and economically sustainable, it must contribute to their reduction. Hence the goal of a globalisation which meets the needs of all people. (The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization)
While it is useful to make the divisions between these four aspects of globalisation it should be remembered that they rarely occur independent of each other. An economic factor has social implications and historical factors influence just about every aspect of globalisation today. The area of Political Globalisation, while very important, I have included in the examples of Social Globalisation because politics is supposedly about representation of the people. More General Background on Globalisation
"Globalization is defined here as involving the declining significance of territorial borders in inhibiting the spread of interacting and interdependent global forms of economy, politics, and culture. It involves the diffusion of economy, politics and culture from localized bases to a more global extent. It requires interdependent relations rather than just the movement of, say, people, ideas or money from one place to another. The latter alone involves global movements without necessarily global relations and interdependence becoming established." (Britain and Globalization, Luke Martell, University of Sussex)
Southern Africa
Economic Globalisation
''Globalisation: The Challenge facing South Africa'' (An ANC perspective)
Globalisation has transformed the way in which dominant forces in the global economy have defined their interests in the world outside of their own home base. In earlier economic phases, these forces were focused on ensuring access to cheap raw materials in the periphery as well as whatever access they could get to foreign commodity markets that was compatible with ensuring protected access to their economies at home. They are no longer focused on this. The agenda now of transnational capital is to look for a much broad and far-reaching breakdown of barriers to the free movement of commodities and capital across national borders as well as removing obstacles to setting up production processes in any part of the world.
''South Africa Welcomes China's Investment''
South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in Cape Town on Thursday that South Africa welcomes investment and skills from China. The deputy president highlighted South Africa as an affordable energy-producing country and a "favourite destination for investment that is energy intensive."
She made a key note speech at a China-South Africa business cooperation forum in Cape Town, which were attended by more than 800 Chinese and South African business people. South Africa currently had more investments in China than the other way round, "something we must really fix", Mlambo-Ngcuka said. China's Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai said representatives of 75 of the 79 companies that accompanied Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on his two-day visit to South Africa have identified "definite cooperation interests."
The South African deputy president said that the government welcomed an agreement struck on textile trade, describing it as a unique deal proving that China was "willing to walk the extra mile." She noted that the local clothing and textile industry had experienced decline in recent years. "We hope through our cooperation we can save some of the jobs and part of the industry," she added.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said South Africa's foreign relations were based on non-interference with other countries' internal affairs. She called for good political ties between South Africa and China to be used as a basis for growing economic exchanges.
(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2006)
Cultural Globalisation
Culture and globalisation in South Africa is most often discussed in terms of multiculturalism. The many cultural and ethnic groups that emerged from the colonial period in South Africa have been joined since 1994 by cultures from around the world. The Constitution of South Africa states that "the South African nation consists of a diversity of cultural, linguistic and religious communities" and that everyone has the right "to use the language and to participate in the culture of their choice". How multiculturalism works in practice is variable. The acceptance of alternate cultures is often dependent on the standard of living and the opportunities they are granted, before they are willing to accept that others are also present in the market place or the cultural stage.
Globalising the Media Reform Movement
Media policy is increasingly influenced by trade agreements like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and by global organizations like the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Decisions made by government delegates at the international level, often with heavy lobbying from big media companies, have major impacts on national-level media policies. At the same time, a growing number of media policy activists are engaging in these debates, creating stronger international networks, and pushing for the globalization of domestic victories. This panel will feature media policy activists from South Africa, Brazil, Korea and the United Kingdom.
Internet in Southern Africa
The internet in Africa is badly underdeveloped with 14% of the world's population but only 3% of internet usage and overall 4.7% penetration. This compares with Europe's 12% of world's population and 26% of internet usage and total 43% penetration (see World Internet Usage)
Internet in South Africa
ZA - 43,997,828 population - Country Area: 1,219,090 sq km
Capital City: Pretoria* - population 1,757,505 ('07)
5,100,000 Internet users Sept/06, 11.6% of the population, per ITU.
165,300 broadband internet subscribers as of Sept/07, per ITU.
Note (*): Pretoria is administrative capital; Cape Town is legislative capital;
and Bloemfontein is judicial capital.
Social Globalisation
Anti-Immigrant Attacks in South Africa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl8PRMHFF_U
"Xenophobic violence, once an occasional malady around Johannesburg, is now a contagion, skipping from one area to another. The city has no shortage of neighborhoods where the poor cobble together shacks from corrugated metal and wood planks.
Since the end of apartheid, a small percentage of the nation’s black population — the highly skilled and the politically connected — has thrived. But the gap between the rich and poor has widened. The official rate of unemployment is 23 percent. Housing remains a deplorable problem." (New York Times, May 2008).
Asians in South Africa
There are about 1.2 million Asians in South Africa, representing about two per cent of South Africa's population. Asian populations in South Africa have their own religions, foods, musics, education systems, languages and so on. Recent investment by Chinese businesses in South Africa is the latest development in the Asian cultural presence in the society.
Historical Globalisation
Colonisation could be described as a form of globalisation in a historical context. The Treaties of Berlin (1885) mark a diplomatic watershed in the age modern imperial expansion by European and American overseas empires, beginning the age of "high imperialism" with the legalization of the Partition of Africa, which also marks a foundation-point for the creation of international law. In the last decades of the 19th century, the global "white man's burden" became a subject of discussion. In this sense the colonisation of Southern Africa can be discussed as Historical Globalisation.Australia
Economic Globalisation
Rio Tinto in Papua New Guinea
Residents of the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea (PNG) filed suit against Rio Tinto, a company listed on both the British and Australian stock exchanges, under the Alien Tort Claims Act in US federal court in 2000. The plaintiffs allege that:
1) Rio Tinto was complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the PNG army during a secessionist conflict on Bougainville; 2) Environmental impacts from Rio Tinto’s Panguna mine on Bougainville harmed their health in violation of international law; and 3) Rio Tinto engaged in racial discrimination against its black workers at Panguna.
Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement
The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) is a preferential trade agreement between Australia and the United States of America modelled on the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The FTA was signed on 18 May 2004, ratified by the U.S. House of Representatives on 14 July 2004 by a vote of 270-156 and by the U.S. Senate on July 15, 2004 by a vote of 80-16. President George W. Bush signed the United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act into law on 3 August 2004. The FTA came into force on 1 January 2005.
Cultural Globalisation
"The Chooky Dancers are a group of 10 energetic young men who had healthy living in mind when they choreographed the performance. Franks son Lionel is the lead dancer in the video footage at front and center. "They (the Chooky Dancers) begun working on this just after this years Garma Festival in Gukula and worked very hard on it, they also do a Bollywood style performance which is also fantastic" Frank said. It seems that talent runs in Frank's family, with Franks Daughter also in an all Indigenous Line Dance Group also who Frank actively plays a role in."
In The Chooky Dancers indigenous Australian culture meets Greek and Indian cultures via Anglo-Australia.
Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways
Building pathways for community development through revival of traditional (indigenous) knowledge within contemporary society.
Welcome to the Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways (TKRP) website. The Traditional Knowledge Revival Pathways was developed from the aspirations of Indigenous Elders, to preserve and recognise Traditional Indigenous Knowledge. With the guidance and instruction of our Aboriginal Elders, we are supporting them to collect information that will be beneficial for County and Community, both in the present and the future.
Every year in the inner city suburb of South Brisbane there is held the Paniyiri Festival of Greek culture. The festival has been an annual event in Brisbane for more than 20 years and celebrates the 25,000-strong Greek community in south-east Queensland, Australia.
Sydney, Australia
With 4.3 million people, Sydney is the largest city and financial capital of Australia. Sydney was founded by the British as a penal settlement in the late 18th Century and today boasts one of the most multicultural populations in the world.
The city’s population is primarily of European extraction (British, Irish, Italian, Greek and Maltese) with about 15% being of Asian origin (Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai and Indian). There are also sizeable communities of Pacific Islanders, New Zealanders, Lebanese, Turks and South Africans. The official language is English but the government, as part of its proactively multicultural approach, recognizes some 30 “community languages” and government services are also available in these. 35% of Sydney’s population were born outside Australia and in downtown Sydney this number rises to 70%.
Sydney continues to be first port of call for the 120,000 odd migrants to Australia each year, attracting some 40% of all newcomers. The makeup of the migrants tends to reflect global politics. In the 1970s Lebanese and Vietnamese fleeing war, in the 1980s South Africans and Hong Kongers worried about political change, in the 1990s Croatians and Bosnians fleeing civil war and most recently Iraqis, Somalis and Rwandans.
Social Globalisation
Indigenous well-being in four countries: An application of the UNDP'S Human Development Index to Indigenous Peoples in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States
Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand consistently place near the top of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index (HDI) rankings, yet all have minority Indigenous populations with much poorer health and social conditions than non-Indigenous peoples. It is unclear just how the socioeconomic and health status of Indigenous peoples in these countries has changed in recent decades, and it remains generally unknown whether the overall conditions of Indigenous peoples are improving and whether the gaps between Indigenous peoples and other citizens have indeed narrowed. There is unsettling evidence that they may not have. It was the purpose of this study to determine how these gaps have narrowed or widened during the decade 1990 to 2000.
''Australian Diaspora''
The Australian diaspora refers to the approximately 750,000 Australian citizens who today live outside Australia. The term includes several hundred thousand who spend some time in the United Kingdom and Europe but return to Australia. The Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement made it easy for Australians to migrate into New Zealand and vice versa. Australia is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly the British Commonwealth), so their migration to other Commonwealth members like Canada and Great Britain has fewer restrictions and limitations than American citizens who choose to migrate into Australia.
Many well-educated Australians, including scientists, find unique employment opportunities overseas, particularly in the United States of America. Key factors influencing this phenomenon are seen to include the rise of a global labour market, more accessible and economical international transport, and increasingly sophisticated communication technologies, along with a growing interest in travel and the broader global community.
The term Australian diaspora appears to have originated in the 2003 Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) research report "Australia's Diaspora: Its Size, Nature and Policy Implications", authored by Graeme Hugo, Dianne Rudd and Kevin Harris. This report both identified the phenomenon and argued for an Australian government policy of maintaining active contact with the diaspora.
The diaspora has been the focus of policy concerns over a so-called "brain drain" from Australia. However the 2003 CEDA report argued the phenomenon was essentially positive: rather than experiencing a "brain drain", Australia was in fact seeing both "brain circulation" as Australians added to their skills and expertise, and a "brain gain", as these skilled expatriates returned to Australia and new skilled immigrants arrived. Some Britons went to Australia like Elton John from Great Britain (but lives part-time in the US), and one rich Australian expatriate, Rupert Murdoch went to the US to become CEO of 20th Century Fox Television Networks.
On Sunday, 11 December 2005, approximately 5000 people gathered to protest against recently reported incidents of assaults and intimidatory behaviour by groups of non-locals, most of whom were identified in earlier media reports as Middle Eastern youths from the suburbs of Western Sydney. The crowd assembled following a series of earlier confrontations, specifically an assault on three off-duty lifesavers which took place the previous weekend. The crowd initially assembled without incident, but violence broke out after a large segment of the mostly white Australian crowd chased a man of Middle Eastern appearance into a hotel and 2 other youths of Middle Eastern appearance were assaulted on a train.
Historical Globalisation
Like South Africa, Australia has been the location for migrations, integrations and conflicts that had their origins on a global scale. One example of globalising forces in a historical context in Australia is the 40 000 Chinese who travelled to Australia in the gold rushes of the 1840s. Soon after the discovery of the goldfields in Victoria an exodus of unprecedented volume started, bringing to Australia people with a range of skills and professions, unthought of prior to the discovery of gold.
Australia attracted adventurers from all around the world. The majority of these new arrivals were British but also included Americans, French, Italian, German, Polish and Hungarian exiles.The largest foreign contingent on the goldfields was the 40,000 Chinese who made their way to Australia.
In 1861, Chinese immigrants made up 3.3 per cent of the Australian population, the greatest it has ever been. These Chinese were nearly all men (38,337 men and only eleven women!) and most were under contract to Chinese and foreign businessmen. In exchange for their passage money, they worked on the goldfields until their debt was paid off. Most then returned to China. Between 1852 and 1889, there were 40,721 arrivals and 36,049 departures. There were campaigns to oust the Chinese from the goldfields. The motivation was based on racism and fear of competition for dwindling amounts of easily found gold as the Chinese were known as untiring workers.
Today the Chinese Australian presence in the nation is significant. In the 2006 Australian Census, 669,890 Australian residents (or 3.4% of the resident population) identified themselves as having Chinese ancestry. The early history of Chinese Australians had involved significant immigration from villages of the Pearl River Delta in Southern China. Less well known are the kind of society Chinese Australians came from, the families they left behind and what their intentions were in coming. Many Chinese were lured to Australia by the gold rush. (Since the mid-19th century, Australia was dubbed the New Gold Mountain after the Gold Mountain of California in North America.) They sent money to their families in the villages, and regularly visited their families and retired to the village after many years, working as a market gardener, shopkeeper or cabinet maker. As with many overseas Chinese groups the world over, early Chinese immigrants to Australia established Chinatowns in several major cities, such as Sydney (Chinatown, Sydney), Brisbane (Chinatown, Brisbane) and Melbourne (Chinatown, Melbourne). India
Historical Globalisation
What the Ancients Did for Us - The Indians
India as a globalised society was a fact long before the term globalisation was coined. When the forces of Alexander the Great left India in 322 B.C.E the Maurya Empire arose. The Maurya Empire reached its globalised peak under Ashoka the Great (304-232 B.C.E) who built temples to the three major religions of the time (Hindu, Jain and Buddhist), encouraged philosophy and education, used his position to propagate the relatively new philosophy of Buddhism to new heights, as far as ancient Rome and Egypt.
India is one of the oldest and richest civilizations in the world. It is home to the world's first planned cities, where every house had its own bathroom and toilet five thousand years ago. The Ancient Indians have not only given us yoga, meditation and complementary medicines, but they have furthered our knowledge of science, maths - and invented Chaturanga, which became the game of chess.
According to Albert Einstein, they "taught us how to count", as they invented the numbers 1-9 and 'zero', without which there would be no computers or digital age. Unfairly we call this system of counting Arabic numbers - a misplaced credit.
Two thousand years ago the Indians pioneered plastic surgery, reconstructing the noses and ears on the faces of people who had been disfigured through punishment or warfare. They performed eye operations such as cataract removal and invented inoculation to protect their population from Smallpox, saving thousands of lives.
To create images of their gods they invented a technique of casting bronze called 'Lost Wax', a five-millennia old process still in use today. India was one of the first civilizations to successfully extract Iron from ore and they quickly learnt how to cast huge structures with it - some of them surviving. Their metallurgists went on to invent steel which they called Wotz. It would take the British until the 19th century to come up with the same substance.
In 1790 the Indians defeated the British Army in the battle of Pollilur with a secret invention – the rocket. The British eventually stole the idea and used it against Napoleon's fleet.
But perhaps the most important invention the Indians have given us is cotton. 3500 years ago whilst we were lumbering around in animal skins and itchy wool they were cultivating a plant and weaving it into a material that would revolutionise Britain. They also pioneered the printing and dyeing of cotton in a staggering array of colours and invented the spinning wheel - something Europe wouldn't catch up with until the Middle Ages. The mechanisation of this simple device by Hargreaves and Arkwright led to the industrial revolution and turned Britain into a superpower.
A lesson in humility for the smug West: Many of the western values we think of as superior came from the East and our blind arrogance hurts our standing in the world by William Dalrymple
About 100 miles south of Delhi, where I live, lie the ruins of the Mughal capital, Fateh-pur Sikri. This was built by the Emperor Akbar at the end of the 16th century. Here Akbar would listen carefully as philosophers, mystics and holy men of different faiths debated the merits of their different beliefs in what is the earliest known experiment in formal inter-religious dialogue.
Representatives of Muslims (Sunni and Shi’ite as well as Sufi), Hindus (followers of Shiva and Vishnu as well as Hindu atheists), Christians, Jains, Jews, Buddhists and Zoroastrians came together to discuss where they differed and how they could live together.
Muslim rulers are not usually thought of in the West as standard-bearers of freedom of thought; but Akbar was obsessed with exploring the issues of religious truth, and with as open a mind as possible, declaring: “No man should be interfered with on account of religion, and anyone is to be allowed to go over to any religion that pleases him.” He also argued for what he called “the pursuit of reason” rather than “reliance on the marshy land of tradition”.
All this took place when in London, Jesuits were being hung, drawn and quartered outside Tyburn, in Spain and Portugal the Inquisition was torturing anyone who defied the dogmas of the Catholic church, and in Rome Giordano Bruno was being burnt at the stake in Campo de’Fiori.
Internet in India
The internet is expanding in India but access remains a problem because of difficulties with installing infrastructure for delivery. However the numbers are huge compared to other countries with even a small percentage of the population gaining access. According to the Internet World Stats website in 2007 there were 42 000 000 internet users in India. Many of these use Internet Cafes and communal internet access points. Internet censorship in India is carried out by Central as well as state governments of India, despite Article 19 of the Indian Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech to all its citizens.
Top 6 Activities carried out by Indians on the World Wide Web are as follows
- Job Search
- Instant Messaging more in SME and business environment
- News
- Music Explains the popularity of YouTube even in remote corners of India
- Chatting This includes chatting for Multiple purpse includes dating, matrimony etc
Environmental Activist Questions the Goals of Globalisation
For three decades, physicist Vandana Shiva has been a key activist in the fight against globalization, especially in her native India, where she says it threatens hundreds of millions of peasants still down on the farm. She's accused beverage companies of stealing the people's water in India, this footage by a new documentary by Swedish filmmakers Per Holmquist and Suzanne Khardalian. Outside the European patent office, Shiva challenged corporate patents of seeds, what she calls the biopiracy of natural resources.
Guntur: The heart of the Bt cotton controversy
Shailendra Yashwant travels to Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, centre of the cotton ginning industry and a town that reeks of pesticides, where the controversial field-trials of genetically-altered Bt Cotton are quietly going ahead.
Helena Norberg-Hodge @ CERES (February 23, 2006)
Helena Norberg-Hodge, a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award or Alternative Nobel Prize, is the founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (http://www.isec.org.uk), co-founder of the Global Eco-village and author of numerous works, including the inspirational classic, Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, which together with an award-winning film of the same title has been translated into more than 30 languages. Renowned for groundbreaking work in sustainable development, Helena Norberg-Hodge’s ISEC network runs programs on four continents aimed at strengthening ecological diversity and community, with a particular emphasis on local food and farming, Her latest book is Bringing the Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness. This talk was recorded (poorly) at CERES community environment park in Melbourne Australia.
G. P. Sawant, a professional letter writer in Mumbai, is a winner and loser due to globalization. Video
Not long after the women would descend on this swarming, chaotic city, they would find him at his stall near the post office, this letter writer for the unlettered. They often came hungry, battered and lonely, needing someone to convert their spoken words into handwritten letters to mail back to their home villages.
The letters ferried false reassurances. The women claimed in them that they had steady jobs as shopkeepers and Bollywood stage hands. Saying nothing of the brothels, beatings and rapes, they enclosed money orders to remit home rupees agonizingly acquired. Many called Sawant brother and tied a string on his wrist each year in the Hindu tradition.
Sometimes, suspicious parents would board a train to Mumbai and turn up at Sawant's stall, which a daughter had listed as her address. Sawant greeted them kindly but revealed nothing about the woman's work or whereabouts.
Such is the letter writer's honor code: When you live by writing other people's letters, you die with their secrets.
A letter writer in India signs off on the new economy
England
Historical Globalisation
Promoting Free Trade in the Victorian England (Video)
The latter half of the 19th century is often seen as an era of globalization. An intellectual case for free trade had been developed by David Ricardo in the early part of the century. However, it was many years before the doctrine took hold politically.
Cultural Globalisation
Brit Paki
The term British Asian is used to denote British citizens of South Asian ancestry or South Asian immigrants to the United Kingdom. Britain's large South Asian population is mostly a legacy of 200 years of British hegemony and colonial rule over India (See British India). Note: In current British usage, the term does not include East Asians, who are known by their respective national origins (e.g. Chinese, Japanese) or under the umbrella term "Oriental". Wikipedia
Goodness Gracious Me
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5147636284090988855
A BBC English language sketch comedy show originally on BBC Radio 4 and later televised on BBC Two (the radio series from 1996-1998 and the TV series from 1998-2001) based on four British Asian actors: Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia. In the television version most of the "white" parts are played by Dave Lamb and Fiona Allen, while in the radio version the white parts were played by the cast themselves.
Many of the sketches explored the conflict and integration between traditional Indian culture and modern British life. Some reversed the roles to view the British from an Indian perspective while others poked fun at Indian stereotypes.
One of the more famous sketches featured the cast "going out for an English" after a few lhassis. They mispronounce the waiter's name, order the blandest thing from the menu (apart from one of them, who opts for the safer option of a curry) and ask for 24 plates of chips. This parodies the often-drunk English people "going out for an Indian", ordering chicken phall and too many papadums. This sketch was recently voted the 6th Greatest Comedy Sketch. More Videos from GGM
The New Sound of Asian Britain
The BBC Asian Network is a national digital BBC radio station geared towards playing the best in new British Asian music and covering British Asian issues.
Social Globalisation
What Makes You British?
The increasing ethnic diversity of British society means it is difficult to define what makes someone British. Prime Minister Tony Blair says that "blood alone" does not define national identity and that modern Britain was shaped by a "rich mix of all different ethnic and religious origins". These views were reflected by the Queen, who talked about "our richly multicultural and multifaith society" in her jubilee speech to Parliament. However, many disagree with these definitions of a multi-cultural Britain. The comments on this article are interesting as they express a broad range of opinions from 'British' peoples.
India wins the cricket and this is how it looks, not in India but in London
The Digital Divide
The digital divide is the increasingly gaping void between those who are "connected", with two-way, video-rich, on-demand media being pumped into their home (or mobile device) over IP ("Internet Protocol"), and those who aren't: of the 40% of adults in the UK who don't have internet access, we reckon half of them have very negative attitudes to new media and don't see the benefit of the internet, the red button and - to a certain extent - mobile phones. A two-tier nation. Every bit as stark a divide as would be access to free health care for some and not others.
Economic Globalisation
The giant Indian company Tata Group brought both Land Drover and Jaguar in March 2008. In January, Tata launched the world's cheapest car, the Nano, priced at $2,500 (£1,250). It is quite amazing when one considers that sixty years ago the British were leaving India having occupied it for 200 years and now Indian companies are buying British assets on the symbolic (and economic) scale of Jaguar.
A recent poll by Deloitte in November 2006 showed a sharp increase in worries about outsourcing of white collar jobs in the UK. Just 13% said it was a good thing, compared to 29% in January, while 82% of the public believed enough jobs have been sent abroad already, and 32% wanted to force companies to bring jobs back to Britain.
"Industrialisation is a globalising form that originated in the mid 18th century in Britain, a nation already at that time quite globalised through foreign trade and colonial connections. In part British industrialisation was an attempt to compete globally with rivals in areas such as textiles. From such origins industrialisation has spread through creative adaptation, affecting areas of life throughout societies where it has been introduced. It has also provided bases for further globalization through developments such as steamships which facilitated global transportation, and industrialized arms production that allowed for imperial domination. Britain has not only been an initiator of globalising industrialisation but also a globaliser of free trade. In the mid 19th century it pursued global free trade, often, as contrary as this sounds, imposed by force. (Osterhammel and Petersson 2002: ch. 4). As we shall see shortly the UK continues to be associated, relatively speaking, with a free trade version of capitalism." (Martell)
According to the British Government Treasury Department report on Globalisation (2005):
- "The UK is in a strong position to respond to the challenges and opportunities of globalisation. It is the location of world-class businesses and sectors; has particular strengths in finance, science, innovation and creativity; and a long history of trading links across the world. Macroeconomic stability, flexible markets, and openness to competition have given businesses a good foundation from which to plan, invest and compete both domestically and worldwide. Businesses in the UK’s financial services, pharmaceuticals, high-technology manufacturing and creative industries, among others, are thriving in increasingly integrated, competitive global markets."
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