What has globalization ever done to you?

[Sirotnikov]

Cultural Globalization Is Not Americanization

By PHILIPPE LEGRAIN

"Listen man, I smoke, I snort ... I've been begging on the street since I was just a baby. I've cleaned windshields at stoplights. I've polished shoes, I've robbed, I've killed. ... I ain't no kid, no way. I'm a real man."

Such searing dialogue has helped make City of God a global hit. A chronicle of three decades of gang wars, it has proved compelling viewing for audiences worldwide. Critics compare it to Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas.

If you believe the cultural pessimists, Hollywood pap has driven out films like Cidade de Deus, as it is known in its home country. It is a Brazilian film, in Portuguese, by a little-known director, with a cast that includes no professional actors, let alone Hollywood stars. Its focus is not a person at all, but a drug-ridden, dirt-poor favela (slum) on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro that feels as remote from the playground of the rich and famous as it does from God.

Yet City of God has not only made millions at the box office, it has also sparked a national debate in Brazil. It has raised awareness in the United States, Britain, and elsewhere of the terrible poverty and violence of the developing world. All that, and it makes you wince, weep, and, yes, laugh. Not bad for a film distributed by Miramax, which is owned by Disney, one of those big global companies that globaphobes compare to cultural vandals.

A lot of nonsense about the impact of globalization on culture passes for conventional wisdom these days. Among the pro-globalizers, Thomas Friedman, columnist for The New York Times and author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999), believes that globalization is "globalizing American culture and American cultural icons." Among the antis, Naomi Klein, a Canadian journalist and author of No Logo (Picador, 2000), argues that "the buzzword in global marketing isn't selling America to the world, but bringing a kind of market masala to everyone in the world. ... Despite the embrace of polyethnic imagery, market-driven globalization doesn't want diversity; quite the opposite. Its enemies are national habits, local brands and distinctive regional tastes."

Fears that globalization is imposing a deadening cultural uniformity are as ubiquitous as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Mickey Mouse. Europeans and Latin Americans, left-wingers and right, rich and poor -- all of them dread that local cultures and national identities are dissolving into a crass all-American consumerism. That cultural imperialism is said to impose American values as well as products, promote the commercial at the expense of the authentic, and substitute shallow gratification for deeper satisfaction.

City of God's success suggests otherwise. If critics of globalization were less obsessed with "Coca-colonization," they might notice a rich feast of cultural mixing that belies fears about Americanized uniformity. Algerians in Paris practice Thai boxing; Asian rappers in London snack on Turkish pizza; Salman Rushdie delights readers everywhere with his Anglo-Indian tales. Although -- as with any change -- there can be downsides to cultural globalization, this cross-fertilization is overwhelmingly a force for good.

The beauty of globalization is that it can free people from the tyranny of geography. Just because someone was born in France does not mean they can only aspire to speak French, eat French food, read French books, visit museums in France, and so on. A Frenchman -- or an American, for that matter -- can take holidays in Spain or Florida, eat sushi or spaghetti for dinner, drink Coke or Chilean wine, watch a Hollywood blockbuster or an Almodóvar, listen to bhangra or rap, practice yoga or kickboxing, read Elle or The Economist, and have friends from around the world. That we are increasingly free to choose our cultural experiences enriches our lives immeasurably. We could not always enjoy the best the world has to offer.

Globalization not only increases individual freedom, but also revitalizes cultures and cultural artifacts through foreign influences, technologies, and markets. Thriving cultures are not set in stone. They are forever changing from within and without. Each generation challenges the previous one; science and technology alter the way we see ourselves and the world; fashions come and go; experience and events influence our beliefs; outsiders affect us for good and ill.

Many of the best things come from cultures mixing: V.S. Naipaul's Anglo-Indo-Caribbean writing, Paul Gauguin painting in Polynesia, or the African rhythms in rock 'n' roll. Behold the great British curry. Admire the many-colored faces of France's World Cup-winning soccer team, the ferment of ideas that came from Eastern Europe's Jewish diaspora, and the cosmopolitan cities of London and New York. Western numbers are actually Arabic; zero comes most recently from India; Icelandic, French, and Sanskrit stem from a common root.

John Stuart Mill was right: "The economical benefits of commerce are surpassed in importance by those of its effects which are intellectual and moral. It is hardly possible to overrate the value, for the improvement of human beings, of things which bring them into contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. ... It is indispensable to be perpetually comparing [one"s] own notions and customs with the experience and example of persons in different circumstances. ... There is no nation which does not need to borrow from others."

It is a myth that globalization involves the imposition of Americanized uniformity, rather than an explosion of cultural exchange. For a start, many archetypal "American" products are not as all-American as they seem. Levi Strauss, a German immigrant, invented jeans by combining denim cloth (or "serge de Nîmes," because it was traditionally woven in the French town) with Genes, a style of trousers worn by Genoese sailors. So Levi's jeans are in fact an American twist on a European hybrid. Even quintessentially American exports are often tailored to local tastes. MTV in Asia promotes Thai pop stars and plays rock music sung in Mandarin. CNN en Español offers a Latin American take on world news. McDonald's sells beer in France, lamb in India, and chili in Mexico.

In some ways, America is an outlier, not a global leader. Most of the world has adopted the metric system born from the French Revolution; America persists with antiquated measurements inherited from its British-colonial past. Most developed countries have become intensely secular, but many Americans burn with fundamentalist fervor -- like Muslims in the Middle East. Where else in the developed world could there be a serious debate about teaching kids Bible-inspired "creationism" instead of Darwinist evolution?

America's tastes in sports are often idiosyncratic, too. Baseball and American football have not traveled well, although basketball has fared rather better. Many of the world's most popular sports, notably soccer, came by way of Britain. Asian martial arts -- judo, karate, kickboxing -- and pastimes like yoga have also swept the world.

People are not only guzzling hamburgers and Coke. Despite Coke's ambition of displacing water as the world's drink of choice, it accounts for less than 2 of the 64 fluid ounces that the typical person drinks a day. Britain's favorite takeaway is a curry, not a burger: Indian restaurants there outnumber McDonald's six to one. For all the concerns about American fast food trashing France's culinary traditions, France imported a mere $620-million in food from the United States in 2000, while exporting to America three times that. Nor is plonk from America's Gallo displacing Europe's finest: Italy and France together account for three-fifths of global wine exports, the United States for only a 20th. Worldwide, pizzas are more popular than burgers, Chinese restaurants seem to sprout up everywhere, and sushi is spreading fast. By far the biggest purveyor of alcoholic drinks is Britain's Diageo, which sells the world's best-selling whiskey (Johnnie Walker), gin (Gordon's), vodka (Smirnoff) and liqueur (Baileys).

In fashion, the ne plus ultra is Italian or French. Trendy Americans wear Gucci, Armani, Versace, Chanel, and Hermès. On the high street and in the mall, Sweden's Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) and Spain's Zara vie with America's Gap to dress the global masses. Nike shoes are given a run for their money by Germany's Adidas, Britain's Reebok, and Italy's Fila.

In pop music, American crooners do not have the stage to themselves. The three artists who featured most widely in national Top Ten album charts in 2000 were America's Britney Spears, closely followed by Mexico's Carlos Santana and the British Beatles. Even tiny Iceland has produced a global star: Björk. Popular opera's biggest singers are Italy's Luciano Pavarotti, Spain's José Carreras, and the Spanish-Mexican Placido Domingo. Latin American salsa, Brazilian lambada, and African music have all carved out global niches for themselves. In most countries, local artists still top the charts. According to the IFPI, the record-industry bible, local acts accounted for 68 percent of music sales in 2000, up from 58 percent in 1991.

One of the most famous living writers is a Colombian, Gabriel García Márquez, author of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Paulo Coelho, another writer who has notched up tens of millions of global sales with The Alchemist and other books, is Brazilian. More than 200 million Harlequin romance novels, a Canadian export, were sold in 1990; they account for two-fifths of mass-market paperback sales in the United States. The biggest publisher in the English-speaking world is Germany's Bertelsmann, which gobbled up America's largest, Random House, in 1998.

Local fare glues more eyeballs to TV screens than American programs. Although nearly three-quarters of television drama exported worldwide comes from the United States, most countries' favorite shows are homegrown.

Nor are Americans the only players in the global media industry. Of the seven market leaders that have their fingers in nearly every pie, four are American (AOL Time Warner, Disney, Viacom, and News Corporation), one is German (Bertelsmann), one is French (Vivendi), and one Japanese (Sony). What they distribute comes from all quarters: Bertelsmann publishes books by American writers; News Corporation broadcasts Asian news; Sony sells Brazilian music.

The evidence is overwhelming. Fears about an Americanized uniformity are over-blown: American cultural products are not uniquely dominant; local ones are alive and well.

With one big exception: cinema. True, India produces more films (855 in 2000) than Hollywood does (762), but they are largely for a domestic audience. Japan and Hong Kong also make lots of movies, but few are seen outside Asia. France and Britain have the occasional global hit, but are still basically local players. Not only does Hollywood dominate the global movie market, but it also swamps local products in most countries. American fare accounts for more than half the market in Japan and nearly two-thirds in Europe.

Yet Hollywood's hegemony is not as worrisome as people think. Note first that Hollywood is less American than it seems. Ever since Charlie Chaplin crossed over from Britain, foreigners have flocked to California to try to become global stars: Just look at Penelope Cruz, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Ewan McGregor. Top directors are also often from outside America: Think of Ridley Scott or the late Stanley Kubrick. Some studios are foreign-owned: Japan's Sony owns Columbia Pictures, Vivendi Universal is French. Two of AOL Time Warner's biggest recent hit franchises, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, are both based on British books, have largely British casts, and, in the case of The Lord of the Rings, a Kiwi director. To some extent, then, Hollywood is a global industry that just happens to be in America. Rather than exporting Americana, it serves up pap to appeal to a global audience.

Hollywood's dominance is in part due to economics: Movies cost a lot to make and so need a big audience to be profitable; Hollywood has used America's huge and relatively uniform domestic market as a platform to expand overseas. So there could be a case for stuffing subsidies into a rival European film industry, just as Airbus was created to challenge Boeing's near-monopoly. But France has long pumped money into its domestic industry without persuading foreigners to flock to its films. As Tyler Cowen perceptively points out in his book Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures (Princeton University Press, 2002), "A vicious circle has been created: The more European producers fail in global markets, the more they rely on television revenue and subsidies. The more they rely on television and subsidies, the more they fail in global markets," because they serve domestic demand and the wishes of politicians and cinematic bureaucrats.

[Sirotnikov]

Another American export is also conquering the globe: English. Around 380 million people speak it as their first language and another 250 million or so as their second. A billion are learning it, about a third of the world's population are exposed to it, and by 2050, it is reckoned, half the world will be more or less proficient in it. A common global language would certainly be a big plus -- for businessmen, scientists, and tourists -- but a single one seems far less desirable. Language is often at the heart of national culture: The French would scarcely be French if they spoke English (although Belgian Walloons are not French even though they speak it). English may usurp other languages not because it is what people prefer to speak, but because, like Microsoft software, there are compelling advantages to using it if everyone else does.

But although many languages are becoming extinct, English is rarely to blame. People are learning English as well as -- not instead of -- their native tongue, and often many more languages besides. Some languages with few speakers, such as Icelandic, are thriving, despite Björk's choosing to sing in English. Where local languages are dying, it is typically national rivals that are stamping them out. French has all but eliminated Provençal, and German Swabian. So although, within the United States, English is displacing American Indian tongues, it is not doing away with Swahili or Norwegian.

Even though American consumer culture is widespread, its significance is often exaggerated. You can choose to drink Coke and eat at McDonald's without becoming American in any meaningful sense. One newspaper photo of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan showed them toting Kalashnikovs -- as well as a sports bag with Nike's trademark swoosh. People's culture -- in the sense of their shared ideas, beliefs, knowledge, inherited traditions, and art -- may scarcely be eroded by mere commercial artifacts that, despite all the furious branding, embody at best flimsy values.

The really profound cultural changes have little to do with Coca-Cola. Western ideas about liberalism and science are taking root almost everywhere, while Europe and North America are becoming multicultural societies through immigration, mainly from developing countries. Technology is reshaping culture: Just think of the Internet. Individual choice is fragmenting the imposed uniformity of national cultures. New hybrid cultures are emerging, and regional ones re-emerging. National identity is not disappearing, but the bonds of nationality are loosening.

As Tyler Cowen points out in his excellent book, cross-border cultural exchange increases diversity within societies -- but at the expense of making them more alike. People everywhere have more choice, but they often choose similar things. That worries cultural pessimists, even though the right to choose to be the same is an essential part of freedom.

Cross-cultural exchange can spread greater diversity as well as greater similarity: more gourmet restaurants as well as more McDonald's. And just as a big city can support a wider spread of restaurants than a small town, so a global market for cultural products allows a wider range of artists to thrive. For sure, if all the new customers are ignorant, a wider market may drive down the quality of cultural products: Think of tourist souvenirs. But as long as some customers are well informed (or have "good taste"), a general "dumbing down" is unlikely. Hobbyists, fans, artistic pride, and professional critics also help maintain (and raise) standards. Cowen concludes that the "basic trend is of increasing variety and diversity, at all levels of quality, high and low."

A bigger worry is that greater individual freedom may come at the expense of national identity. The French fret that if they all individually choose to watch Hollywood films they might unwittingly lose their collective Frenchness. Yet such fears are overdone. Natural cultures are much stronger than people seem to think. They can embrace some foreign influences and resist others. Foreign influences can rapidly become domesticated, changing national culture, but not destroying it. Germans once objected to soccer because it was deemed English; now their soccer team is emblematic of national pride. Amartya Sen, the Nobel prize-winning economist, is quite right when he says that "the culturally fearful often take a very fragile view of each culture and tend to underestimate our ability to learn from elsewhere without being overwhelmed by that experience."

Clearly, though, there is a limit to how many foreign influences a culture can absorb before being swamped. Even when a foreign influence is largely welcomed, it can be overwhelming. Traditional cultures in the developing world that have until now evolved (or failed to evolve) in isolation may be particularly vulnerable.

In The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy (Free Press, 2001), Noreena Hertz describes the supposed spiritual Eden that was the isolated kingdom of Bhutan in the Himalayas as being defiled by such awful imports as basketball and Spice Girls T-shirts. Anthony Giddens, the director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, has told how an anthropologist who visited a remote part of Cambodia was shocked and disappointed to find that her first night's entertainment was not traditional local pastimes but watching Basic Instinct on video.

Is that such a bad thing? It is odd, to put it mildly, that many on the left support multiculturalism in the

West but advocate cultural purity in the developing world -- an attitude they would be quick to tar as fascist if proposed for the United States or Britain. Hertz and the anthropologist in Cambodia appear to want people outside the industrialized West preserved in unchanging but supposedly pure poverty. Yet the Westerners who want this supposed paradise preserved in aspic rarely feel like settling there. Nor do most people in developing countries want to lead an "authentic" unspoiled life of isolated poverty.

In truth, cultural pessimists are typically not attached to diversity per se but to designated manifestations of diversity, determined by their preferences. "They often use diversity as a code word for a more particularist agenda, often of an anti-commercial or anti-American nature," Cowen argues. "They care more about the particular form that diversity takes in their favored culture, rather than about diversity more generally, freedom of choice, or a broad menu of quality options."

Cultural pessimists want to freeze things as they were. But if diversity at any point in time is desirable, why isn't diversity across time? Certainly, it is often a shame if ancient cultural traditions are lost. We should do our best to preserve them and keep them alive where possible. As Cowen points out, foreigners can often help, by providing the new customers and technologies that have enabled reggae music, Haitian art, and Persian carpet making, for instance, to thrive and reach new markets. But people cannot be made to live in a museum. We in the West are forever casting off old customs when we feel they are no longer relevant. Nobody argues that Americans should ban nightclubs to force people back to line dancing. People in poor countries have a right to change, too.

Moreover, some losses of diversity are a good thing. In 1850, some countries banned slavery, while others maintained it in various forms. Who laments that the world is now almost universally rid of it? More generally, Western ideas are reshaping the way people everywhere view themselves and the world. Like nationalism and socialism before it, liberalism -- political ideas about individual liberty, the rule of law, democracy, and universal human rights, as well as economic ones about the importance of private property rights, markets, and consumer choice -- is a European philosophy that has swept the world. Even people who resist liberal ideas, in the name of religion (Islamic and Christian fundamentalists), group identity (communitarians), authoritarianism (advocates of "Asian values") or tradition (cultural conservatives), now define themselves partly by their opposition to them.

Faith in science and technology is even more widespread. Even those who hate the West make use of its technologies. Osama bin Laden plots terrorism on a cellphone and crashes planes into skyscrapers. Antiglobalization protesters organize by e-mail and over the Internet. José Bové manipulates 21st-century media in his bid to return French farming to the Middle Ages. China no longer turns its nose up at Western technology: It tries to beat the West at its own game.

True, many people reject Western culture. (Or, more accurately, "cultures": Europeans and Americans disagree bitterly over the death penalty, for instance; they hardly see eye to eye over the role of the state, either.) Samuel Huntington, a professor of international politics at Harvard University, even predicts a "clash of civilizations" that will divide the 21st-century world. Yet Francis Fukuyama, a professor of international political economy at the Johns Hopkins University, is nearer the mark when he talks about the "end of history." Some cultures have local appeal, but only liberalism appeals everywhere (if not to all) -- although radical environmentalism may one day challenge its hegemony. Islamic fundamentalism poses a threat to our lives but not to our beliefs. Unlike communism, it is not an alternative to liberal capitalism for Westerners or other non-Muslims.

Yet for all the spread of Western ideas to the developing world, globalization is not a one-way street. Although Europe's former colonial powers have left their stamp on much of the world, the recent flow of migration has been in the opposite direction. There are Algerian suburbs in Paris, but not French ones in Algiers; Pakistani parts of London, but not British ones of Lahore. Whereas Muslims are a growing minority in Europe, Christians are a disappearing one in the Middle East.

Foreigners are changing America even as they adopt its ways. A million or so immigrants arrive each year (700,000 legally, 300,000 illegally), most of them Latino or Asian. Since 1990, the number of foreign-born American residents has risen by 6 million to just over 25 million, the biggest immigration wave since the turn of the 20th century. English may be all-conquering outside America, but in some parts of the United States, it is now second to Spanish. Half of the 50 million new inhabitants expected in America in the next 25 years will be immigrants or the children of immigrants.

The upshot of all this change is that national cultures are fragmenting into a kaleidoscope of different ones. New hybrid cultures are emerging. In "Amexica" people speak Spanglish. Regional cultures are reviving. Repressed under Franco, Catalans, Basques, Gallegos, and others assert their identity in Spain. The Scots and Welsh break with British monoculture. Estonia is reborn from the Soviet Union. Voices that were silent dare to speak again.

Individuals are forming new communities, linked by shared interests and passions, that cut across national borders. Friendships with foreigners met on holiday. Scientists sharing ideas over the Internet. Environmentalists campaigning together using e-mail. House-music lovers swapping tracks online. Greater individualism does not spell the end of community. The new communities are simply chosen rather than coerced, unlike the older ones that communitarians hark back to.

Does that mean national identity is dead? Hardly. People who speak the same language, were born and live near each other, face similar problems, have a common experience, and vote in the same elections still have plenty of things in common. For all our awareness of the world as a single place, we are not citizens of the world but citizens of a state. But if people now wear the bonds of nationality more loosely, is that such a bad thing? People may lament the passing of old ways. Indeed, many of the worries about globalization echo age-old fears about decline, a lost golden age, and so on. But by and large, people choose the new ways because they are more relevant to their current needs and offer new opportunities that the old ones did not.

The truth is that we increasingly define ourselves rather than let others define us. Being British or American does not define who you are: It is part of who you are. You can like foreign things and still have strong bonds to your fellow citizens. As Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian author, has written: "Seeking to impose a cultural identity on a people is equivalent to locking them in a prison and denying them the most precious of liberties -- that of choosing what, how, and who they want to be."

Philippe Legrain is chief economist of Britain in Europe, the campaign for Britain to adopt the euro. He has been special adviser to the head of the World Trade Organization, and trade and economics correspondent for The Economist. He is the author of Open World: The Truth About Globalisation (Abacus, 2002, with an American edition expected early next year from Ivan R. Dee).


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http://chronicle.com
Section: The Chronicle Review
Volume 49, Issue 35, Page B7
[/q]

[Sava]

You have to be kidding, right? There's no way I'm reading all that.

[Az]

What Sava said.

[Bereta_Eder]

Attitude of work and course from the factory of Palco in the Petra'lwna to the ministry of Work realised Wednesday under redundancy workers in this. His householder multinational Schiesser announced Tuesday that it will close the concrete unit so that she transports her activities in neighbouring Bulgaria, where the cost of work is considerably lower. «Ca we exhaust the margins, we will continue all the efforts so that it finally does not close the factory in Athens of Swiss Schiesser Pallas», it ensured the minister of Work and Social Insurances Dimitris Re'ppas the demonstrators. ARMING minister supplemented that the ministry of Work discusses with the company alternative proposals of improvement of competitiveness, however executives of ministry does not hide their pessimism, after the difference of wage between Greece and Bulgaria is particularly important. The phenomenon of relocation of enterprises of intensity of work to countries with lower working cost is catholic, declared the minister of Work speaking today in radios of Athens. ARMING Mr Re'ppas in any case was committed in the demonstrators of Palco that, if finally do not attribute the efforts is maintained in activity the enterprise, the government will advance in beam of metres of support of workers and workers that will be found without work in a sector that mastj'zetaj by the crisis and where have reached most workers (or more usually most) in a advanced age. This metres were not announced more concretely but according to Mr Re'ppa will be specialised attempting they answer concretely in the qualifications and the needs of each worker. It is marked that from 1995 up to today the Schiesser-Palco has decreased the places of work at 360, while if finally it interrupts indeed her work, find without work 560 individuals, mainly women, in their big majority above 40 times. Yesterday Tuesday were carried out successive meetings of minister of Work Dimitri Re'ppa, undersecretary of Work Lefteris Tzjo'la and general secretary of ministry Ioanna Panopoy'loy with the representatives of Schiesser what however led to shipwreck, kacw's the last ones were presented irremovable by their place for closure of factory of Athens in 30 the month, in which are occupied 500 individuals. The representatives of multinational invoked «akrjvo' working ko'stos» in our country marking that, in the unit that will be transported the activities of company in Bulgaria, the cost of work will be decreased at 75%, while they denied also the proposals of leadership of ministry of Work for subsidy of conservation of places of employment. ARMING minister of Work declared that the common redundancies are not acceptable metre and it prompted the involved sides to advance in consultations on the search of viable solution. The workers in the unit from their side, direct in resorts in the justice invoking the labour law va'sej which before the realisation of common redundancies he should become consultations, something that did not become in the concrete enterprise. One interesting aspect of affair is that, according to insistences but anepjvevaj'wtes information, the factory of Schiesser Palco in Bulgaria was founded with subsidies that received the multinational in the frame of developmental law of our country. As indirect confirmation more can in any case be considered the yesterday's statement of minister of Economy Nikos Hrjstodoyla'ki on review of developmental law. Statement of Palco AE The also Greek subsidiary company of Schiesser commercial Palco AE, hurried Wednesday it clarifies that her activity in Greece will not be influenced by the interruption of operation of productive unit in Athens. On the contrary as is reported in the relative statement, the operational plan of company Palco AE, which occupies perj' the 70 individuals today, it forecasts the increase of places of work at 30 individuals moreover the next two times. Palco AE constitutes a separate clean commercial unit where you belongPalco AE constitutes a separate clean commercial unit that belongs also in the Swiss group Schiesser, independent from the Schiesser Pallas LTD, which on 30 May announced that it interrupts the operation of her productive installation in Athens. The last five times Palco AE bought from the productive unit of Schiesser Pallas LTD in Athens of only the 20% of products that it traffics in in the markets. For the use 2002 the company presented cycle of work 11 millions of Euros roughly and profits 333.000 Euros. Reactions from KKE, SYN and Working Centre Athens The reaction of trade unions and parties of Left it causes the closure of factory of Sisser Palco. The KKE points out that the case of concrete company should be developed for the export of conclusions with regard to «tin policy of government, but also ND and his SYN, that voted in favour the treaty of Maastricht, that guarantees the release of capital, merchandises and services and working force. Call in the government it intervenes so that is recalled the decision of company on interruption of operation of unit, addresses the Coalition. In his statement, his chairman SYN Nikos Kwnstanto'poylos, underlines that the company transport her activities in Bulgaria and the Greek government watch the deindustrialization of country as spectator. With permanent mpoj!kota'z the products of concrete company if it is not recalled the decision on interruption of operation of factory, warns the Working Centre Athens and it asks from the government to intervene so that are maintained the places of work of 500 workers.

[Bereta_Eder]

Attitude of work and course from the factory of Palco in the Petra'lwna to the ministry of Work realised Wednesday under redundancy workers in this. His householder multinational Schiesser announced Tuesday that it will close the concrete unit so that she transports her activities in neighbouring Bulgaria, where the cost of work is considerably lower. «Ca we exhaust the margins, we will continue all the efforts so that it finally does not close the factory in Athens of Swiss Schiesser Pallas», it ensured the minister of Work and Social Insurances Dimitris Re'ppas the demonstrators. ARMING minister supplemented that the ministry of Work discusses with the company alternative proposals of improvement of competitiveness, however executives of ministry does not hide their pessimism, after the difference of wage between Greece and Bulgaria is particularly important. The phenomenon of relocation of enterprises of intensity of work to countries with lower working cost is catholic, declared the minister of Work speaking today in radios of Athens. ARMING Mr Re'ppas in any case was committed in the demonstrators of Palco that, if finally do not attribute the efforts is maintained in activity the enterprise, the government will advance in beam of metres of support of workers and workers that will be found without work in a sector that mastj'zetaj by the crisis and where have reached most workers (or more usually most) in a advanced age. This metres were not announced more concretely but according to Mr Re'ppa will be specialised attempting they answer concretely in the qualifications and the needs of each worker. It is marked that from 1995 up to today the Schiesser-Palco has decreased the places of work at 360, while if finally it interrupts indeed her work, find without work 560 individuals, mainly women, in their big majority above 40 times. Yesterday Tuesday were carried out successive meetings of minister of Work Dimitri Re'ppa, undersecretary of Work Lefteris Tzjo'la and general secretary of ministry Ioanna Panopoy'loy with the representatives of Schiesser what however led to shipwreck, kacw's the last ones were presented irremovable by their place for closure of factory of Athens in 30 the month, in which are occupied 500 individuals. The representatives of multinational invoked «akrjvo' working ko'stos» in our country marking that, in the unit that will be transported the activities of company in Bulgaria, the cost of work will be decreased at 75%, while they denied also the proposals of leadership of ministry of Work for subsidy of conservation of places of employment. ARMING minister of Work declared that the common redundancies are not acceptable metre and it prompted the involved sides to advance in consultations on the search of viable solution. The workers in the unit from their side, direct in resorts in the justice invoking the labour law va'sej which before the realisation of common redundancies he should become consultations, something that did not become in the concrete enterprise. One interesting aspect of affair is that, according to insistences but anepjvevaj'wtes information, the factory of Schiesser Palco in Bulgaria was founded with subsidies that received the multinational in the frame of developmental law of our country. As indirect confirmation more can in any case be considered the yesterday's statement of minister of Economy Nikos Hrjstodoyla'ki on review of developmental law. Statement of Palco AE The also Greek subsidiary company of Schiesser commercial Palco AE, hurried Wednesday it clarifies that her activity in Greece will not be influenced by the interruption of operation of productive unit in Athens. On the contrary as is reported in the relative statement, the operational plan of company Palco AE, which occupies perj' the 70 individuals today, it forecasts the increase of places of work at 30 individuals moreover the next two times. Palco AE constitutes a separate clean commercial unit where you belongPalco AE constitutes a separate clean commercial unit that belongs also in the Swiss group Schiesser, independent from the Schiesser Pallas LTD, which on 30 May announced that it interrupts the operation of her productive installation in Athens. The last five times Palco AE bought from the productive unit of Schiesser Pallas LTD in Athens of only the 20% of products that it traffics in in the markets. For the use 2002 the company presented cycle of work 11 millions of Euros roughly and profits 333.000 Euros. Reactions from KKE, SYN and Working Centre Athens The reaction of trade unions and parties of Left it causes the closure of factory of Sisser Palco. The KKE points out that the case of concrete company should be developed for the export of conclusions with regard to «tin policy of government, but also ND and his SYN, that voted in favour the treaty of Maastricht, that guarantees the release of capital, merchandises and services and working force. Call in the government it intervenes so that is recalled the decision of company on interruption of operation of unit, addresses the Coalition. In his statement, his chairman SYN Nikos Kwnstanto'poylos, underlines that the company transport her activities in Bulgaria and the Greek government watch the deindustrialization of country as spectator. With permanent mpoj!kota'z the products of concrete company if it is not recalled the decision on interruption of operation of factory, warns the Working Centre Athens and it asks from the government to intervene so that are maintained the places of work of 500 workers.

[Spiffor]

I've read the first post.

What globalization brought to me : I watch Japanese anime, I have read Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mark Twain, I live in Germany talking to people from many countries in the world, I'm eating Kebabs and Chinese soups on a near daily basis, I listen to Rammstein and to Georges Brassens etc. It is great, I love it

Yet, I am very awry towards American "cultural imperialism" (nobody seems to agree with me here). I take big pride in boycotting McDonald's, Coca Cola, and everything that looks like it (such as the Belgian fastfodd "Quick" or the ne Mecca-cola).

To me, Globalization is a terrific chance to get the best from everywhere in the world. But the US massive culture ahs tried to flood the market and to get rid of the other cultures (to keep the market for itself, obviously). There seems to be a trend of global rejection against the US. If it can defeat the American cultural tidal wave, it'll have at least one good consequence.

Don't get me wrong, I do not hate the American culture. I hate its attempt to flood the world.

[Az]

I DID NOT FEEL SEPARATED I FELT VERY CLOSE EVEN THOUGH WE WERE THOUSANDS OF MILES APART AND I WAS SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE HERE I FELT CLOSE HOW ARE YOU THIS IS DURBAN WE FEEL WE ARE A PART OF THE WORLD AT LAST IN THE PALACE HERE I AM WAITING FOR THE PRESIDENT I SEND YOU GREETINGS HERE I AM IN THE GALLERY LOOKING AT THIS BIG PENCIL I AM LAUGHING COGITO ERGO SUM GO GO GO SENTENCE swing swing swing ring ring ring ring ring let herethereeverywhereGUMBOGUMBOhellholeI DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY A LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING FREEDOMFREEDOMFREEDOMGET OFF ME GET OFF MY BACK SCRATCH MY ASS DOUGLAS HOW ARE YOU? FAR AWAY YET FREE DONT COME AFTER ME PHI KAB NAUNG LANG PHAU PHI NAUNG SEX RELATIONS BETWEEN FIRST COUSINS ARE FORBIDDEN THE MOON BRIGHTENS THE BATTLE CAMP SO YOU LIKE TO LOOK AT ME PAY FOR IT YOU PAMPER ME SO MUCH YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A QUEEN I SEND GREETINGS FROM FRANKFURT GOD BLESS AMERICA AMERICA NEEDS IT ANIMALS ARE GOOD TO THINK AND GOOD TO PROHIBIT BE GOOD IT IS THE TIME TO BE GOOD I LOVE EVERYBODY I HATE EVERYBODY THE SON IN LAW MUST NOT ENTER ENTER THE SLEEPING QUARTES THROUGH THE DOORWAY OF THE PARENTS IN LAW CALL ME RIGHT NOW TO SAVE THE WORLD I LOVE YOU WORLD WORLD WHEN WILL YOU SEE HOW BEAUTIFUL YOU ARE STOP DYING WORLD HERE IN THE BRONX WE HATE THE POLICE GIVE ME YOUR HAND I FEEL YOUR FINGER HERE MANY MILES APART I THINK IN BASEL WE UNDERSTAND AND APPRECIATE YOUR WORK KEEP GOING WE ARE BEHIND YOU NO BODY CAN SWEAT SO MUCH WE FIND YOU NEAR EVEN WHEN FAR TO THE HEALTH OF DON CESARE'S WOMA N AU REVOIR MONS ENFANTS RED RED RED RED RED RED RED RED RED RED RED RED RED BLUE BLUE BLUE BLUE I AM SO BLUE I SAW A MAN HE HELD A STICK OUT TO ME I HOLD THIS STICK OUT TO YOU ACROSS THE WORLD I ASK YOU WHEN WILL YOU COME TO MOSCOW AGAIN DOUGLAS er mirror miroir mirage THE BUSHES TWITCHED AGAIN THE STICK BEGAN TO GROW SHORTER IN BOTH ENDS HERE IN KAUNAS WE HAVE SATAN MAKING LOVE TO AN ANGEL IS THIS WHAT DROVE HIM INTO HELL WELL THis thing of of writing in all caps is getting a bit tiresome and why does this sentence have sound so disgusting and arty who do think we are

[Spiffor]

This thread is a pain

[Oerdin]

I'm with Sirotnikov on this one. Anti-globalization people tend to focus on the very small portion of bad things instead of on the vast tidal wave of good things. They instead try to portray everything new as evil American imperialist attempts to destroy the world, but, the fact is most of it doesn't come from America. The U.S. maybe more accepting of these new trends and so you'll find a U.S. based company trying to sell Chinese style fast food or Turkish style smoke pipes or what ever but the claim that the US is flooding the world is just wrong.

The truth is there is change afoot as Hungarians eat Tacos, Arabs learn that maybe the mullahs don't have all the anwsers, Thai dress in the latest chinese made cloths designed in Italy, and Americans start listening to Columbian Cumbia music. All this change is frightening people and so they lash out at the only thing they see... the US.

[chequita guevara]

Strawman!


So-called "anti-globalization" isn't against cultural exchanges, especially considering that many of their leaders come from different countries. When a demonstrator wears a Palestinian Kafiya and a Peruvian hoodie, he's hardly saying that he believes in cultural and economic isolationism.

The "anti-globalization" is an internationalist movement, borrowing from all cultures, all countries. They seek to deepen ties between peoples, rather than allow corporations and cultural elites to dominate and dictate what contact shall be.

City of God may be a great movie and making good money, but how many of these films are there? Considering the size of the Cannes Film Festival, there should be many of these films making it. Yet there are not.

[JohnT]

I agree. No wonder I identified so closely with JS Mills in that "which philosopher are you" thread a week ago. Good article, Siro.

Che and his ilk want the benefits of globalization without the mechanisms required to make it work.

[BeBro]

You all know that I´m a lazy bastard, so is there a short form?

[Panag]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I'm with Sirotnikov on this one. Anti-globalization people tend to focus on the very small portion of bad things instead of on the vast tidal wave of good things. They instead try to portray everything new as evil American imperialist attempts to destroy the world, but, the fact is most of it doesn't come from America. The U.S. maybe more accepting of these new trends and so you'll find a U.S. based company trying to sell Chinese style fast food or Turkish style smoke pipes or what ever but the claim that the US is flooding the world is just wrong.

The truth is there is change afoot as Hungarians eat Tacos, Arabs learn that maybe the mullahs don't have all the anwsers, Thai dress in the latest chinese made cloths designed in Italy, and Americans start listening to Columbian Cumbia music. All this change is frightening people and so they lash out at the only thing they see... the US.

hi ,

and there is the irony that the communicate true the newest cellphones and the net , ... in english , .....

where would they be without the technological innovations the us gave them , ....

have a nice day

[Spiffor]

Oerdin :
I don't agree with what you believe of being the bulk of the cultural globalization. Sure, globalization brings many good from all around the world. But the American culture is way, way, way overrepresented in this.
I agree with Che : how many "City of the Gods" ?

However, much to my pleasure, I notice this American overrepresentation is slowly fading away nowadays. It has not dispappeared yet, but I sure hope it will in a few years/decades.

[Oerdin]

Che: The Anti-globalizers say they are internationalists but their fear mongering is the greatest restraint upon further international exchanges.

Spiffor: I can't argue with you that the US is quick to go after any potential market opportunity but it is hardly the "tidal wave" people keep talking about. This sort of reminds me of the anti-Japanese pobia that swept the industrialized world in the late 1980s through the early 1990s; supposedly the Japanese did everything so much better that they were going to take over the world and put everyone else out of business.

Of course that never happened. The fear mongers were exaggerating then and they're exaggerating now. Same crap in a new wrapper.

[Sava]

I tend to not agree with the anti-globalization people. I'm somewhere in the middle. As with anything in capitalism, it needs to be regulated to prevent abuses.

[Arrian]

Siro.

I actually read the whole thing. For the most part, I agree.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Spiff, I don't know whether to laugh or cry when you say things like this:

I take big pride in boycotting McDonald's, Coca Cola, and everything that looks like it

Not because you don't buy that stuff (good, because it ain't exactly healthy), but because you "take big pride" in it, because you're rejecting the "flood" of American culture.

You're talking about FAST FOOD AND SODA. Get a ****ing grip!

-Arrian

[General Ludd]

I'm not reading any of that, but just so you know, "anti-globalization" is a very misleading term created by the media. The 'anti-globalization' activists are not against globalization, they are for it - it is even what makes the movement posible. What they are against is the way it is being done, and the way a select few are managing the entire world for their own profit.

[Spiffor]

Arrian, I know it is probably our strongest disagreement when it comes to the issue. Let's just say I give more cultural value than you to these fast food and sodas.

[Arrian]

Clearly.

Me, I thoroughly enjoyed the Sesame Chicken combo lunch special I ate for lunch yesterday from "Beijing Garden" the local Chinese restaurant. I might go eat at "Tapas" (a local Greek place) soon, last week I had some really tasty fajitas over at "Puerto Vallarta."

My Anglo-Saxon blood is not boiling over the intrusion of these furriners & their food.

-Arrian

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Arrian
Clearly.

Me, I thoroughly enjoyed the Sesame Chicken combo lunch special I ate for lunch yesterday from "Beijing Garden" the local Chinese restaurant. I might go eat at "Tapas" (a local Greek place) soon, last week I had some really tasty fajitas over at "Puerto Vallarta."

My Anglo-Saxon blood is not boiling over the intrusion of these furriners & their food.

-Arrian

The only food that isn't foreign to North america is Native American food, and I'm willing to bet you've never had any of that before.

[Sava]

Sorry, I'm not a big fan of Buffalo meat and puddle water


JK/ A JOKE!

[Spiffor]

Indeed. I also enjoy eating at my Chinese restaurant every Saturnday I spend in my hometown, I eat Turkish Kebabs regularily (edit: read twice a week), and I sometimes even buy myself some Floridan orange juice (viciously expansive however). I am also a very big fan of feta cheese.

My beef is not with foreign, or even American penetration. It is about what I deem to be a too deep penetration.

[Oerdin]

I'm all for deep penetration.

Especially with some of the cuties in the "Babes" thread.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I'm all for deep penetration.

Especially with some of the cuties in the "Babes" thread.

[Spiffor]

It hurts when you the one being penetrated.

[Sava]

I wouldn't know...

[Spiffor]

Naturally, You're American