Globalization with Dr. Najib Hourani - Essay Example

Colonization and Globalization An unstoppable occurrence as we have collectively come to realize, globalization is also the ongoing process that widens the local and international perspectives, including the integration, acculturation and diffusion that works to promote a broader outlook of a mutually dependent and interconnected world of nations with simplified transfer of goods, services and capital across worldly frontiers. Factors that facilitate the promotion of continuous globalization include modernized and much more efficient systems of communication and transportation among continents, as well as social, economic and political forces.

The forces of globalization include international commerce and finance, travel and tourism, transnational migration, the media and various high-tech information flows (Nanda & Warms 5). The three dominant views on the historical analysis of globalization include the skeptics who argue that globalization is not so quite a novel phenomenon, the hyper-globalists who do not deny the importance of previous bouts of globalization, but ascertain a historical juncture after ,which contemporary globalization emerged, and the transformationalists who argue that globalizationis the major force underlying the rapid, widespread social, political and economicchanges that are currently restructuring modern societies andthe world order.

Globalization increases economic growth, sadly, also inequality. It may be termed as beneficial in the medium term, but harmful in the long run when neo-colonialism starts to factor in (Kottak 5). The phrase, “the white man’s burden” is used to describe the psychological conception that colonizing countries could bring non-colonized countries and cultures to a much better and superior lifestyle through the displacement and replacement of their customs and traditions. Colonizing nations believed that it was their obligation enlighten these “non-civilized” countries about the goodness that comes with western civilization, obviously an assumption.

Based on Gandhi, the movie, it may be somewhat evident that the Indian nationals may have been more civilized than most of their British oppressors. With the aim of trying to self-preserve the Indian people, Gandhi often undermined this reality. He however enlightened his people that it was very much possible to remain true to one’s own culturedespite the predetermined effects of colonialism (Nanda & Warms 6). The difference between colonialism and globalization is that colonialism aims at completely eradicating the traditions of a people’s nation and implementing a new order that is similar to the country with power, oppressing the indigenous efforts at self-preservation.

This leads to a loss of cultural identity. Globalization on the other hand, normally aims at improving the economy of a country through predominantly better trading environments, thus pulling up a country to levels of major world economies, despite the skeptical line of thought of some economists. Sadly, colonization still exists in this day and age as neo-colonialism. In order to gain any economic advantage, developing countries have to conform to the norms of major world economies, including foreign cultures and laws (e.g. unrealistic cross-governmental deals on land leases) in order to garner the appropriate finances and international market conditions that would enable an economy upgrade (Kottak 4).

Works CitedKottak, Conrad Phillip. Mirror of Humanity. PDF. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010.Nanda, Serena and Warms, Richard. Culture Counts. PDF. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012.