I guess using Starbucks in my original manifesto was dead-on. Via kiddo I’m learning of an article written by Bruce Horovitz published on USA Today entitled “Starbucks aims beyond lattes to extend brand”. I guess I’m not being paranoid. Global brands ARE buying our raw culture and selling it at a premium in the form of cool trendy products.
Some may argue that having an advocate for the dissemination of culture across the world is a good thing, I wonder what will be the mechanism to decide what is embraced and what is not. It will most certainly be money. This is how culture looses.
The debate that will be taking place within this space is relevant to everyone, regardless of location, ethnicity or age. As this group of students (are demonstrating, the power of globalization and its repercussions will touch us all. Through a series of reports they explore the many faces of globalization and its influence on culture, environment, politics, economy and technology. While all of them are interesting, the posts from Jerene (color coded in yellow, for differentiation) are particularly insightful and very much in tone with my own opinion. What interested me about these posts is his authentic young voice calling out on a very large issue with a tone that could very well represent the entire population of students outside of North America. A few particularly good quotes:
Once a world saturated with various colourful traditions, beliefs and human individuality will be despoiled and abandoned. The world will entertain a uniform, monotonous and ultimately dull culture. Isn’t that sad?
A globalised world, which consists of diverse cultures, traditions and social practices – this is what is to be attained. Globalisation is positive when we can learn more about other cultures, watch performances put up by [...]
From the photo linked in my last post, I realized there was an article from the National Geographic somewhere about Global Culture. In particular it was the August 1999 number, which of course now that I’ve seen the full cover I remember. I’ll have to get a copy of it.
However in the meantime I’ll have to settle for their online essay on Globalization.¬† It captures the essence of what I want to write about:¬† the false perception that everything that surround us in our modern life is part of our culture just because is persistent.¬† We are loosing our capacity to be unique.
In my introductory post I mentioned that this town was the perfect environment to sustain a project like this one. At the time I was thinking of the tech-savvy community and their obsession with tools to exploit social networks, but there is more.
Toronto is currently hosting the CONTACT photography festival with the theme “Imaging a Global Culture”. From its home page:
CONTACT 2006 focuses on photography that reflects the dramatic increase in global interconnections over the past decade.
I can’t think of a better time to have started this blog.¬† Since I’m just in the process of shaping this space I figure I could use some photos to help convey the concept.¬† If you happen to come across any that does, please submit the url.¬†¬† Here is the first one: a photo from Flickr.¬†
I realize now that the name of this blog may be deceptive. It implies that the subject that interest me is “Global Culture”, when in facts this project is all about “Local Culture”. I will defer to a future post trying to define one or the other so for now the wikipedia definition of culture will have to do.
At the core of this initiative there is a profound conviction that it is the little cultural manifestations that surround us every day the ones that need support. It is the Local Culture that needs advocates so it’s not diluted among the overwhelming amount of marketing messages that try to keep us loyal to the products of global corporations at the expense of a future where there is no memory of our authentic origins and no foundation for a meaningful society.
So my vote is to keep an eye on what is happening in the global context and do the analysis work on how it may affect those around me in order to preserve what we consider our cultural heritage. Or as this partner blog suggests I intend to read globally, blog locally. My commitment is with the community [...]
Since I’m in the process of defining what this blog is all about, I’m browsing around looking for others talking about the global culture. Here is the first one: global village. Their vision statement is quite good and in sync with what I believe. Even recognizing culture at the core of this process.
While this is my first post, I’m hardly a new blogger and this is definitely not a new idea. This is the culmination of many discussions around the topics of globalization, culture, migrations and the impact that new technologies are having on them. So to all of you that beta-tested the concept, assume this space as yours and keep the energy flowing.
A very powerful catalyzer to finally kick-off this blog was the Mesh Conference in Toronto. It gave me the confidence that the times are good for new entrepreneurs and confirmed that this city is the most appropriate environment to seed this idea. There is a very active community of Web 2.0 enthusiasts that will certainly power the many faces of this project.
To define this project, I guess the easiest thing to do would be to quote the original email sent to my parents, but since we correspond in Spanish instead I provide a loose translation of the same:
“Over the last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about the processes of cultural coupling that we’re subject to as we find our way in a new community. Certainly, large global [...]
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