Last week columnist David Crane from the Toronto Star (one of my local newspapers) wrote and article entitled Don’t discount the positive side of globalization to which I barely paid attention because it didn’t provide any new information that readers from this blog would already be aware of. I had my own attempt to provide positive arguments for globalization with the post pro-globalization. However in his latest article, Globalization column touched a raw nerve, Mr. Crane admits the reaction of the (Canadian) public to his previous column was:
much more negative than I had contemplated, and much more pessimistic about our own future.
A quick scan of some phrases in the replies he received will give you an idea of what the concerned readers had to say:
“growing polarization of the rich and poor”, “wages are on a downward spiral due to trade”, “corporate oligarchy with no sense of responsibility”, “growth in poverty, disappearance of the middle class in developed countries and the radical further enrichment of the wealthy”
All of which are topics I have discussed in the recent past in this blog: Corporations and their irresponsible behavior, statistics supporting the argument of the scary gap between rich and poor, even some thoughts on the outsourcing culture.
So, Mr. Crane, if you are really interested in maintaining a real debate about the pros and cons of globalization I invite you to participate in a medium where there is space for all the arguments without having to limit your thoughts to the space allowed by your newspaper.
I realize this is a popular topic and our challenge this year is to promote this blog more aggressively so those people reacting to a Sunday’s column have a permanent space to channel their concerns and do something about it.
Yesterday, in my usual monitoring of web analytics patterns of this blog, I witnessed a beautiful event: a swarm of users drop by for a few minutes, courtesy of StumbleUpon. The unusual peak came as a nice surprise even after a great week as a result of recent exposure through the Weblog Awards. In StumbleUpon, users are suggested new sites to visit based on their previous history, and the more people liking a particular site, the more likely it will be suggested to others. The analogy with a swarm or flock comes from the elegant organization that the group achieves without an appointed leader.
In an interview for the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1965, McLuhan explained some of his ideas around the Electric Age:
If the wheel is an extension of feet, and tools of hands, back, arms, electromagnetism seems to be in its technological manifestations an extension of our nerves and becomes mainly an information system. It is, above all, a feedback or looped system.
While web analytics provide a great deal of feedback about users visiting a particular site, I find the most important piece of information is understanding the context with which these users perceive the site. To put it simply, to really understand why a swarm of users is suddenly attracted to these words, I had to join them for a little while reaching some fascinating destinations, not unlike anything I would’ve used here eventually.
When asked about the impact of electric technology to the content we access, McLuhan said:
You cannot cope with vast amounts of information in the old fragmentary classified patterns. You tend to go looking for mythic and structural forms in order to manage such complex data moving at very high speeds. So the electrical engineers often speak of pattern recognition
Elaborating on the participation of which I wrote in lonelytv, an interactive medium such as the blogosphere provides the feedback mechanisms that allow information to flow in and out of our nervous system and augment our perception of the reality in which we live. I write, swarm likes, I join the swarm and evething I see while being part of the swarm is a thought I did not have while writing but have now. The wealth of information, however, requires the development of specific pattern recognition skills. The rewards are amazing, though. Just check the set of images I saw while being part of the swarm.
Notice how after making a selection of 12 countries (India, China, United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Japan, Rusia, Germany, France and United Kingdom) with significant populations and grouping them, the distribution in both cases is very similar with the U.S. & Canada leading the pack.
The reason I make this comparison is because we know exactly how the number of phone users grew over the last 10 years and if we consider that the type of infrastructure development that is required to acquire new Internet users follows a similar path than the one that was required to acquire phone users: Continue reading déjà vu
If you’re a frequent reader of this blog you’ll notice that I’ve changed the banner at the top of the page. While the image I’m using doesn’t do justice to the original located on the facade of the main building of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in the city of Monterrey, Mexico.
This mural (photo taken by Nathaniel C. Sheetz) created in 1954 by Mexican artist Jorge Gonz√°lez Camarena represents the triumph of civilization and culture over the dark forces of stagnation and apathy. It is clearly a carefully thought piece of art well suited for an educational institution, but at the same time provides a great metaphor for the kind of battle that we have ahead in defense of our global culture.
The story narrated by the mural is based on a piece of Mexican mythology which narrates the triumph of the feathered serpent Quetzalcóatl over his nemesis, Tezcatlipoca. The battle between these two deities represents the continuous struggle between light and darkness, civilization and chaos. On the left side one can identify several hands charging against the lord of darkness while carrying with them a man and a woman representing humanity. As victory is secured, Venus, the star of the morning, announces the dawn of civilization which is represented by three open hands carrying agriculture, technology and culture.
It is our mission to use the tools of civilization such as culture and technology to keep humanity moving forward without allowing the dark forces of globalization to rule the world. In the myth, the two gods are related, often considered twins. This is a particularly important image that conveys a clear message: in this battle we are not going to find an enemy other than our own apathy, which takes us through the easy path at the expense of a wholesome future. Settling for a life style characterized by a culture of consumism and indiference to the real problems of our age is what must be defeated.
Since I don’t drink coffee, it is hard for me to judge them on the quality of their product. And as hinted by my very first post I must have some sort of obsession with coffee:
Global Culture should not be about MacDonalds and Starbucks in every little town around the world. It should be the opposite: being able to experience your own cultural heritage in the context of a foreign community. So if you come from Venezuela, where good coffee is a century-old tradition, you should be able to find the equivalent to your traditional coffee house wherever you go. If done well, becoming a global citizen should not require you to loose your cultural baggage.
If you read through the reviews, most people are drooling over how cool the Far Coast lounge is, but people like Paul Terefenko from NOW Magazine have dissected every element of their operation, from the apparent eco/social responsibility of the brand to the extensive market research that allowed them to come up with refined spaces that appeal to the knowledgeable urbanite.
If you liked the interactive visualization from Gapminder about human development trends you are definitely going to enjoy watching its creator Hans Rosling debunk the myths about the developing world earlier this year at the TED Conference. This global health expert uses the power of statistics to convey his strong message about global trends.
It’s only fair to promote a real debate on the issues that concern us. Through this blog, I’ve always talked about the negative impact of globalization, so to fuel the debate I had to find a voice that cheers loudly for it: George Reisman is a well known economist, author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics. A new article posted on his website capitalism.net entitled Globalization: The Long-Run Big Picture provides a first-class defense of the theories behind globalization, saying that it that
has the potential to raise the productivity of labor and living standards all across the world to the level of the most advanced countries
It’s hard to argue against such a wonderful picture, with people in Africa, India & China enjoying the same quality of life than those in North America or Europe. He even makes such utopia seem very reachable
by incorporating billions of additional people into the global division of labor, and correspondingly increasing the scale on which all branches of production and economic activity are carried on, globalization makes possible the unprecedented achievement of economies of scale.
I have to admit my lack of formal knowledge in most economic theories, so someone will have to read the full article to determine its merits as an academic exercise. However, the statement that in 100 years, globalization would’ve accomplished its mission of raising the productivity of labor and per capita output in the rest of the world by a factor of 20, is naive at best.
The danger of doing math with such big numbers is that it is too easy to loose sight of the singularities that completely corrupt the results.
While no one can deny that the European Union and the U.S have some of the best standards of living, it is important to take note that they are also home to the wealthiest people on earth. If we were to analyze the ratio of GDP that comes from the top 100 richest people over the years, we would probably find that their influence on the global economy grows at a much higher pace than the rest of the population. This means that as the economy continues its amazing climb through the trillions, a higher proportion of it will belong to a selected minority, cancelling the positive effect that it should have on the rest of the population.
Division of labor is one of the fundamental principles that fuel globalization. The more people in the pool, the better such division can be performed. Ideally, the whole world would be cooperating to produce the maximum output possible. However, in the name of such utopia too many corporations run wild, careless of their environments, without cooperating with the societies in which they exist. So much for a wonderful theory.
If you read through the reviews, most people are drooling over how cool the Far Coast lounge is, but people like 
. A new article posted on his website 
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