Global village is a term, coined by Marshall McLuhan in his book The Gutenberg Galaxy, describing how electronic mass media collapse space and time barriers in human communication, enabling people to interact and live on a global scale. In this sense, the globe has been turned into a village by the electronic mass media.1
There are many people out there who equate Globalization with Americanization and it’s not difficult to understand why. From Beijing to Hyderabad to Kuala Lumpur, “development” has also gone hand in hand with a cultural shift from regional traditions to corporate culture in the form of MTV, Starbucks, and mega-malls filled with the exact same shops as mega-malls throughout the U.S.A.
The irony is that America has so little culture to begin with that I’m not really sure what we’re even spreading besides lethargy. But one thing does remain clear. Despite all the hopeful talk of:
We are, much to nationalists’ chagrin, moving toward a global society. It’ll simply happen more literally in the digital world much much quicker than it’ll ever happen in the physical
Americans are not interested in learning about other cultures while the rest of the world’s 20 and 30-somethings are intensely curious to learn everything they can of whatever 20 bands have been on TRL this year. If you disagree with me, simply look at your blogroll and count how many people on it live in another country. Then look at those blogs and see how many on their blogroll are from other countries.
This is a problem that Israeli blogger, Nir Ofir is trying to confront with Blog Day. The idea is that this coming Wednesday (the graphic with the jumping clock on the sidebar is counting down), bloggers from around the world will link to and introduce five bloggers from other countries to their regular readers. I think this is a fantastic idea. It’s like that icebreaker from junior high where you have to interview your classmate and then introduce them to everyone else. But on Blog Day you don’t have to interview anyone, just get a feel for their blog and let everyone know where they’re from and what they’re about. HP told me a couple nights ago that he’d be taking part and I’m calling out some others here, hoping that they will too. So here’s a list of people I fully expect to be linking to 5 bloggers from other countries this coming Wednesday. If you’d like to have a look around the world to see who else is blogging in English, we’ve been working our asses off at Global Voices to put together the Bridge Blog Index. And if you see anything missing, please feel more than free to add to it (and/or roll back spam if you know how).
- Revaz
- Mel
- Elena Mary
- Elenita
- Cindylu
- Gustavo
- Chris
- Moreno
- Abogado
- Derek
- catarf
- hipocratico
- Candy
- Luiz
- DT
- Seyd
- Elizabeth
- Myke
- Wooj
- irasali
- Joe
- Cesar
- Alma
- Xolo
- DD
- Prentiss
- Thivai
- Liza
- Beckie
- Eduardo Arcos
- Andrew
- Georganna
- Paul
- Andy
- Eduardo Ochoa
- Taran
- Iria
- Leo
- Roberto
On wednesday, I’ll be putting up my five links/introductions and also five mp3’s from my favorite groups outside the US. Can’t wait to see who you guys link to.
Hi Oso,
I really like your idea. However, I don’t appreciate the indirect way you’ve challenged us to join you. Additionally, you’re suggesting we find 5 bloggers in less than three days (without even so much as letting us know about this). If I didn’t have the next few days so densely scheduled with work I’d probably have the spare time to pull this together but honestly… this isn’t enough time.
I’d suggest you extend your deadline. Give us all a month. That’s a fair amount of time. Otherwise I fear your very well-intentioned project with either A) fail or B) make all of us look like insensitive jerks for not taking part (when really we weren’t properly prepared in advance).
Globalization can equal Americanization…we are a hegemon and all…on top of it what language do you think the blogs we read are going to be in? They maybe “international” blogs but what langugae is predominating?
Oh and another thing…are you saying that we bloggers DO NOT have international blogrolls? I mean my blogrolls are predominantly US based however I list others to and mention other “interational” blogs when posting.
Good stuff in the entry. I’ve been pondering what the differences between Americanization and Globalization are… and it all comes back to the media. For example, television – it’s all over, but guess who produces most of the media? I’m sitting here in Guyana watching pirated movies on television… how cool is that?
I think a lot of what is considered Americanization (and consider me in context – I’m a dual citizen living outside of the U.S.) is actually pure opportunism. In some ways, it’s similar to what happened to indigenous peoples around the world and continues to… like the Amerindian Act I’m trying to research in Guyana. The Amerindian Act, simply, is a way to create property rights for people who have never needed them before. Ultimately, it’s one culture defining another culture – and despite the best interests of non-indigenous peoples, consider the implications of Amerindians imposing their property laws on the Western World as a whole. I think a few corporations would be upset.
The thing is that… what people read, hear and see is translated into their local view. And America dominates the blogosphere; all the super-popular bloggers are in the United States because… most of the people who read blogs are in… you guessed it. So it’s not too different from having SUV commercials piped into Trinidad and Tobago. Screw an internet connection, they want SUVs. So they buy them, and who cares about the internet connection?
Lessig pointed out in the book ‘Free Culture’, in the context of Intellectual Property, that developing nations should exercise their sovereignity. That should be extended beyond IP. But with major media being such an influence, the people who do try to discuss things within their sphere are marginalized by people even within their own country. It’s an amazing thing, and some attribute it to the ‘colonial mindset’ in some countries. I’m not sure that this is completely the case.
In the end, I typically stay away from major U.S. blogs because there’s sufficient commentary on the U.S. to kill a small horse, and the tone of most bloggers from the U.S. have shown a very narrow-minded worldview – even when ‘taking the side’ for another country or cause. It’s sort of like the moron who is a talk show host who was quick to say the bombings in Trinidad and Tobago were by ‘Al Quaeda’ – when the truth is that bombings in Trinidad have happened since the 1970s, where houses were bombed. Context is key, and until people really start paying attention and swallowing ‘know it all’ syndrome, the U.S. will continue to get a bad rap on this.
Elenamary brings up the topic of language, which is something I agree with – English is dominant on the internet, but per my involvement in CARDICIS, I expect to see supporting documentation for claims that other languages are catching up quickly.
Now on the international blogroll stuff… Look. It’s really simple. It’s not the blogrolls, folks, it’s the weight you associate with the validity of the blog. If you don’t take the time and read what is written, and try to understand it from the *writer’s* perspective instead of your own, you miss the whole point. Then you’re as good as someone who says, “I’m not prejudiced! I have a friend who’s… an extranational blogger.”
Tear down the wall. Tear down the wall.
Erm. I’m in Guyana. Why do I have a U.S. Flag next to my name? Is it where my site is hosted?
Oso,
I certainly will participate in the 3l08, and I will be posting about later today. I linked to your note in Global Voices as soon as I read it.
I already have my five: two in English, and three in Spanish; three in America, one in Europe, and one in Israel/Palestine.
I would argue that my blogroll is somewhat international. I’m a Venezuelan temporarily living in the U.S. I blog in Spanish, but sometimes I link to English and even French and Portuguese sites. In my blogroll you can find blogs based on U.S. México, Venezuela, Argentina, Spain, France, Germany, and Bangladesh. Those blogs are written by Venezuelans, Spaniards, Mexicans, Argentinians, Germans, Colombians, Peruvians, and North Americans. It does not look like UN, but is not a single country blogroll.
Oso,
I have a problem with you essentializing Americans and American culture. Yes, there is a corporate American culture that is exported abroad. There is also a cyberspace culture that we are all part of that while has a strong American component also transcends borders.
Within the US we have a patchwork of different cultures that vary by region, class, ethnicity, and education.
Generalizations about American culture are not very helpful. When I travel abroad I need to confront individuals who say, “Oh you Americans love the death penalty!” I have to then explain that yes I am an American, I do live in a country where a majority of states have the death penalty (but not mine), and no I personally don’t love the death penalty (nor own a gun, a giant gas guzzling car, or eat at McDonnalds everyday).
I support the awareness you and this program are trying to achieve. Like Mel, I don’t have the time to fully participate right now. Just be careful not to essentialize, stereotype, etc. as you push it forward.
Cheers!
Me gusta la idea… es muy buena ehh !!
la voy a llevar a cabo tmb !!!
Saludos
I think this is a great idea and I’ll gladly participate. Yes, it’s a short time frame but it’ll just have to do. It’s not unusualy for things to be thrust upon us in this world with little notice but at least this is a pleasant event.
On a side note … I’m a little sick of people constantly putting all Americans and the predominance of the English language in a negative light. We are not all carbon copies of one another no more than we all voted for the current administration. And frankly, I don’t believe that English has necessarily eroded other languages at all. Each culture strongly supports their own language within their own societies in most every case. Having one language that is predominant in the world in some things if anything allows for greater communication between people that might otherwise have been unable to do so. It’s a simple by product of the information age. If world governments had gotten together and had scholars create a new language with a new alphabet for all to use as, say, the language of the United Nations, there really wouldn’t be much of an argument now. Everyone would simply be looking at it as a method of fostering communication across all language barriers. Instead, it is English that has become that ‘universal language’ and because it’s also the language of the predominant USA .. it’s looked upon as bad, bad, bad. Well, damn it … that’s just silly. I also would like to point out that English became predominant way before the advent of the internet. It happened due to economics and the need for global businesses to function cohesively. The internet and the world at large can and will always have a large amount of languages but it is simply necessary to have one that most everyone knows. Without that, we’d be even less integrated than we are now.
One other thing … as for one’s blogrolls. It doesn’t make them any less ‘international’ if they are all written in English, Spanish, Cantonese or any other single language. It matters where the author is, where’s he or she has been, and where they’re from. I’ve begun linking on my big blog list page to as many other bloggers from wherever else that I can. Most will likely be written in English as frankly, that’s the only language I can read. That doesn’t mean the writers (who often can write in other languages) are any less ‘international’. They’re simply writing in English to get their blogs out to the widest of possible audiences.
I’m not really sure I have 5… maybe.
All I can say is that the Israeli blogger chose a good day.
It is true that there are people who do not speak English (obviously) nor the other more populous languages such as Spanish or French. Having said that, I stand by my previous statements. I am not saying that it is not a good thing to learn other languages. I would love to be able to speak and read something other than English (though it would be a MAJOR effort as I am terrible at it). My point is simply looking at things from a pragmatic perspective. English is the dominant language in the world. Period. Just looking at it from a volume perspective. I’m not judging this as good or bad. I’m simply stating a fact. Language in and of itself is intricately part of a people’s culture to be sure. So is religion and even political history. However, as much as those things tie a people together within the confines of their individual socieities, they don’t always do much to bring disparate cultures together.
Man, you’re just off base here. It has nothing to do with conceit nor ‘anglophones’ nor Americans being conceited or considering themselves the ‘center of the universe’. Those statements in and of themselves are stereotyping and biased. You certainly can’t speak as anything other than an ‘anglophone’ so therefore can’t state that this view of Americans and native English speakers is predominant among those who speak another language as their native tongue.
I’m not a scholar nor a statistician and surely not a member of Mensa. However, I do know that having at least one common language that most everyone can speak and read (though clearly not all) does help bridge culture and digital divides. I have read some wonderful blogs written by people of various cultures that I might not otherwise have enjoyed due to language barriers. There is a near universal language. Just because it’s English doesn’t make all native English speakers snobs, doesn’t make them arrogant, and doesn’t make them conceited. As a final point of fact .. I’d like to reitterate my view that having a language that is spoken across the globe (nearly) doesn’t do anything to diminish the native languages that exist all over the planet. It simply allows us all a way to communicate and learn about one another much easier. And I think that’s a good thing.
Great idea, who’sever it was – I’m in. It’ll be a good excuse to go through my zillions of newsgator subscriptions.
On the spam situation – Wow, that Nepal page has gotten ugly. Not sure if you’re pulling from a local database or a feed,but either way you should have a chance to manipulate the data in the code before it reaches the client. A few ideas that come to mind – legit posters are likely to submit a domain name only once, so you could eliminate multiple posts which contain a repeated domain name – or if you attack the problem at submit time, you could say if numbrofsubmissionsfromasingledomain>reasonable, ban all submissions from that IP Address. Also you may want to look at the other tags being used – spammers usually try to get everything they can in my experience, so a single post tagged with like 300 countries, or a post with tags NEPAL F$CK S^CK C@CKS^CKER MOTHERF$CKER would be an obvious no-no – you could catch that one by loading George Carlin’s infamous 8 words you can’t say into an array and then parsing the tag string for any of them. You find’em – bam, spam, get outta here.
While I love the idea of this, I need to cull more blogs. I’ll admit that most individual blogs I read are from the Austin area. I’m definitely isolated here! =)
Y’all have fun and I’ll try for next year.
I doubt I’ll be participating, and not solely due to my disgust at your:
America does have a culture, and it does export it and it is looked at and imported from abroad. America’s culture is hard to define because it is derived from within its own borders as well as from without (like most cultures, believe it or not).
Another thing, which I think succinctly puts Myke’s point: language does not equal culture. That is to say, language is a conveyance, not the determiner of a culture. I wrote a paper once on Irish language death coinciding with growth in Irish culture. What, you ask? How can that be? Well it does be.
My reason for not participating is less academic though: time, like it is for Mel, is not in abundance for me. Plus I don’t even have a blogroll set up yet (I know, I’m slacking). How about a challenge for me to do that? that I can promptly disregard
🙂
I also don’t buy your hypothesis: number of international blogs on your blogroll equates to your level of interest in “learning about other cultures”.
Oso,
I was not blaming you for the timing. I was just indicating that while I think it is a good idea, I don’t have time at the moment to participate.
As to essentializing – yes we all do it, but we should try not to. I tried to be very careful to say in the previous comments that the rhetoric in Northern Europe was that of attributing certain traits to Southern Europeans. If it came across that I was saying that all Northern Europeans were doing it, then I need to be corrected.
As far as the US goes, however, I think we need to be even more careful. The US is such a big place and it has such a mix of cultures that it is hard to say there is an American culture. You mentioned bluegrass, folk music, basketball, hamburgers and coke as American culture. What about Mongolian BBQ? Salsa dancing? Cow tipping? Grits? Zydeco? Lowridders?
I think certain aspects of the so-called Black culture are now accepted as “American Culture”: rap, jazz, hip-hop. Why? Probably because it has been commercialized. One of the biggest corporate movements at the moment is to commercialize Latino cultural markers. However, in a certain way, this movement is “creating” a new Latino culture. Is it American? Yes. However, many would fight me on that claim.
I think it is best to speak of American cultures (in the plural). This saves us a lot of trouble.
Good discussion, though. Thanks, Oso.
Myke,
Apparently you don’t understand what I mean by ‘perception’. How you are perceived. How people perceive others. Typically, how you perceive yourself is not how others perceive you – if you don’t believe me, go ask someone who hates you what they think of you, and then ask someone who loves you. People have their own *perceptions*, and feeding those perceptions is something that can work *for* or *against* you. That said, Americanization is synonymous with Globalization to many – and the Anglophones are seen in much the same way by people who are not Anglophones.
Tolerance is fine. Acceptance is better, but it comes with sensitivity to other perspectives. Would you say that what you wrote is sensitive to other perspectives? More importantly, would *other people* think that?
I understand your points, Myke. I just caution you on how they are expressed and how they can be perceived… trust me on this. Even English is prone to interpretation of the reader, and that interpretation extends beyond the author’s intention based on how the author wrote it. It’s an unfortunate part of life that we all have to live with if we wish to communicate effectively – and ‘Damn the Torpedoes’ is a bit like you came across to me. So instead of fighting with you about it, I tried to understand your perspective and discuss it with you. I’m not claiming better or worse status – I claim a different perspective, which should have equal footing with your own. Understand that last sentence, and you should understand what I mean.
I’ve got to run to work so this is going to be short, but multiculturalism and nationalistic culture is very much not limited to the U.S. So if you’re going to call it American cultures, you should also call it “Mexican cultures” and “French cultures” and “Japanese cultures” because even the most homogenous societies are quickly adapting to new influences brought from immigrants, refugees, and global media. I think that blogs are a beautiful way to both accelerate the process as well as preserve and document traditions. Especially when we start actually talking to one another.
And yes – very good point about the waspy bias of the examples I gave of American culture.
Hey Oso, I’d like to hop on the meme, but I don’t have time at the moment. I’ll probably get on it after BM. I’m tempted to just post my OPML file… hah.
Os, i think this is a brilliant idea. I’m going to try my best to have something on that day, si no, just continue to check up on my site ‘cos things are brewing up again.
I just finished mine. I kind of cheated on one but sheez I really don’t know many blogs outside of the U.S. What a xenophobe I know! JK.
What kind of tequila are you taking??
Oso, I have no idea why it does that (above) You should delete it …se ve feo (the trackback thingy). Sorry!
uh-oh, i missed the deadline. i just came across your challenge, but better late than never no? i’ll see what i can dig up.