Globalization in the Arabian Gulf States - Case Study Example

Globalization in Arabian Gulf States Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Globalization is increasing at the highest rate especially in the United Arab Emirates. Globalization is when there are many cultures integrating and becoming a single culture which is accepted by everyone. The Arabian Gulf States have experienced tremendous growth due to oil production which has attracted many people globally to seek employment and also conduct business (Whiteoak et al 2004). This paper will discuss various concepts of globalization according to three articles which provide information about the cultures and growth of Arabian Gulf States. Article one Globalization and the Arab Gulf Summary Within a short period of time, United Arab Emirates has witnessed tremendous growth in political, social and economical. The electronic media such as television and films have played a great role in the development of UAE. At Emiratis, the media used to transmit information include through education, conventional media and interaction through the internet. The capital based TV recognized the need to integrate local and global culture and provided a TV program which could entertain people from the westernized culture. The Channel One TV shows TV program which portrays the culture of the people by presenting the dressing style of the roles models and also show secularism (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). Due to globalization at UAE, the culture has been intertwined with the introduction of new culture. Social media plays a great role in the intertwining of the culture at UAE. The lifestyle of people changed from being kinship based lifestyle to high rise apartments. The population of cities such as Abu Dhabi grew and they started living impersonal life. Almost the whole population of UAE has been transformed, although there are some conservatives of the traditional economy culture of herding animals such as camels. Most of the families maintain their homes in the city. Jobs have also changed from working in a family set up to working anywhere even in a large corporation what is regarded as single person working environment (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). The traditional life of desert sands has been transformed into business and money is the exchange for the businesses conducted instead of the traditional barter exchange. Traditionally, the businesses depended on the Islam ancestors for ideas, but due to globalization, people depend on the media to understand the wave of the global business. The media is the source of the marketplace. Through advertisements, entertainment and news form the basis with which the individuals evaluate their purchases. The social matrix indicates that the young people perceive information in a different way from their parents. The young people are fond of using the internet to socialize as well as mobile phones. These devices have catalyzed the socialization process which leads to globalization. Further, media plays a great role in shaping people’s way of life. For instance, advertising can change the behavior of an individual by influencing his or her buying behavior so that he will develop some identity (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). The conflict between the old values and the new generation values seem to conflict people globally but through education, media and English have helped to integrate different values. Through globalization, the roles of women have changed and they are no longer traditional anchor for raising children, but they have gone out to look for equal employment opportunities. Infrastructure is the main factor which has helped to change the roles of women as women can go out shopping. Some advertisements which are made on TVs entice women to do shopping which was originally perceived as a male activity. Entertainment teaches the new generation to contend from the traditional beliefs by watching programs which are anti traditional values. Most youths in UAE like Western entertainment like TVs programmes and movies (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). The Westernization lifestyle has touched both religious and political subjects hence they have become a political and religious issue. In this regard, the media context in the UAE has contributed much to the globalization. Question: Relevancy of the article In my opinion, I can agree with this article that it will remain relevant in 2014. This is because the globalization is enabled by factors such as education and social sites as well as employment opportunities. Due to good economy of UAE, many job seekers are likely to be attracted to its cities such as Abu Dhabi to seek employment and this promotes globalization of people. I agree with the context the social media. The internet enables people to interact through social sites such as Twitter leading to globalization. What I don’t agree with is infrastructure (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). This is because infrastructure acts as a double sword. It benefits both male and female and therefore it does not favor women only but also men. There are some strategies that the government of UAE will put in place to ensure they manage the influence of the social media. The first one is to develop policies which regulate the use of social media. For instance through advertisement the government can regulate the extent of advertisement so that they don’t influence the behavior of young people. Further, there should be measures put in place to manage the kind of TV programmes which are shown. Some programmes and movies are so influential and therefore they should be managed and regulated to avoid its influences. These strategies can help to manage the influence of the media hence manage the social media influence in UAE (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). Article 2 Globalization and the Gulf Summary The most growing parts of the world are the states along the Arabia Gulf. The people of UAE and Oman have transformed their states into urbanized towns. Due to their growth, there has been globalization along the Gulf. Foreigners have moved into with their high standards of living. As a result of foreigners coming in, there has been multicultural practice although there are some traditionalists which are conservative of their traditional culture (Fox et al 2006). As the states export their oil, they import skills and information to their states that have their own culture leading to multicultural practice. There have been measures put in place to synchronize localism with globalism. Dubai’s GDP grew at 16.7% in the year 2004 while that of Saudi Arabia stands at 10% although it has the largest oil revenues but with high level of unemployment. Leadership among the Gulf States differs according to the economic results. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait started pumping oil between the first and Second World War. Oman is the most traditional society even up to date. The Gulf oil boosts the global economy by pumping adequate oil to serve the global demand. Due to high oil ports, the Gulf States have built modern transshipment ports for easier pumping of oil. The third largest exporter of oil globally is Dubai in Middle East (Fox et al 2006). Besides the production of oil, the Middle East States began to market tourism activities along the Arabia Gulf. The traditional symbols of Arabia integrated with contemporary design to create globalization and this led to technological innovation. The urban cities have become the best places marketed to tourists. They advertise the cultural industries such as mosaic, architectural wonders and fun in the sun which offer facilities for holidays. Global activities such as football and the English language have led to globalization. For instance, the Emirates stadium was named from the Dubai based Airline. The States along the Arabian Gulf market their distinctive places and the cities have become the most preferable touring places by the tourists. The shopping malls are designed in a way that will attract many tourists. Dubai has been linked to the global cities such as Tokyo, Paris, London and New York than its linked with its local communities. The Gulf States are run by practicing capitalism than tribal life. The local companies in Dubai are not transnational corporations which have their headquarters in G-7 countries instead they sought for corporations from the local Gulf countries. This concept has helped to boost the economy of the Gulf countries although in the recent years some international corporations have entered into this economy and owned real estate (Fox et al 2006). The local traditional values combine with international customs to create consumerist lifestyle. The Gulf cooperation council closely works with global financial institutions so that they can get some support for pumping oil. The seminar theorist Adam Smith laid down the principles of economic change which started during industrial revolution in England which then spread to Arabian Gulf. Therefore, globalization in the Arabian States began as traditionalism rather than external impact. The ideology that guides the Gulf States is to maximize profit (Fox et al 2006). From the survey which has been conducted, it indicates that the Eastern States are more of social integration than economic functioning. The core values which guide the Arabian Gulf States in their operations include family priority, religious considerations, kin influence, hospitality, loyalty, pride, sociability, justice, honest, strength, material wealth and modesty dressing. When compared to the core values in the United States, the core values in the US are; equal opportunity, achievement, materials comfort, progress science democracy, freedom and group superiority (Fox et al 2006). There are investigators whose responsibility is to investigate the social and cultural sciences. A micro-evolutionary approach assesses the local population while macro-approach investigates the global science. The international monetary institutions like the World Bank have facilitated globalization in Asia and America; they are reluctant to enter into Middle East due to their cultural sensitivities and social values. Question: Main points of the article The main points of this article are that that the Arabian Gulf States are the most growing countries due to their oil production. The political systems of consumerist have led to their economic growth and also political growth. Dubai is the fastest growing state among the States of the Arabian Gulf. The reason why Dubai is leading among the Arabian Gulf States is that it has systems in place which have attracted many investors to the State. Further, the State seeks the services of the corporations in the Arabian Gulf states instead of global companies which have their headquarters in the G-8 countries. This implies that the wealth is maintained within the Arabian Gulf States (Fox et al 2006). I can agree with the main points because in order for an economy to grow, the investment made should benefit the local community and not in the foreign countries. In this regard, the wealth of the Arabian Gulf States is maintained and utilized by the local communities rather than the global corporations which pump the profits to their countries. This has led to rapid economic growth among the States of the Middle East such as Dubai and growth of cities such as Abu Dhabi. Article 3 Popular Culture and political identity in the Gulf States Summary States which are along the Southeastern shore of the Gulf enjoy cosmopolitan environment. The States are in contact with countries such as South Africa, Iran, Central Arab and sub Indian continent and as a result they share culture and customs leading to cosmopolitan environment. As oil started to flow in the United Arab Emirates, the traditional culture started to diminish due to globalization. Many rich investors abandoned their ways of life and adapted the changes in the global environment. By the year 1990s, the popular culture in the UAE was majorly idioms and symbols which came from outside the country. As a result of these changes, many actors took various steps to appreciate the traditional culture. The senior members of the family in power formed a network of clubs which could be responsible to protect the national culture. One of the clubs is called the Emirates Heritage Club which is based in Abu Dhabi (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). In addition to heritage clubs, there were some societies which were formed to promote cultural understanding. The expatriates took time to learn and understand the local culture especially the Arab language. These organizations published many books and journals so that even the overseas Universities can teach the Arab culture. The oral history project has been done in three stages. The first stage is the conducting interviews with specialists in UAE in the years of 1970s and 1980s and these interviews make up the archive. The second stage is the interview of 38 people between 1999 and 2003. Finally, there interviews conducted with more than 100 people who are residents of al-Ain community. The interview was also conducted with Saif al-Riyami who was a retired general. In addition, another revealing interview was conducted with Khamees al-Mirri. He is believed to be aged 120 years and was once a pearl diver who then later became camel breeder. He explained that people earned their living through pearl diving and survived during winter by breeding camels and hunting hares (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). The extensive oral history from archives focused on archeology and indicated how territories emerged. There was a symposium which aimed to discover the archeological discoveries. The second symposium was held in the year 2004 and the features that distinguished the local structures were established like the artifacts. The Zayed Centre has encouraged people to recognize the urban heritage of UAE. The aim of sensitizing people on their culture is to restore key historic structures especially those of the 1950s back to their appearance (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). There were older techniques which were used to educate people on the traditional culture. The problem with rebuilding the traditional culture is that the trained experts became the expatriates and there was high turnover cycle which led to the need of supervision services. The society was being protected from inventorisation of language and artifacts. The ways in which cultural cultivation can be achieved is through social ambience and top down technique which is initiated and funded by the authorities. The government of UAE has taken various steps to salvage the rural culture. Firstly, idioms and practices of the traditional culture have been collected and memorized. The government of the Emirates set up Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH). Questions I think sensitizing people about the importance of the local culture is a good idea because through encouraging people to understand their culture will help to maintain the traditional structures. This will help to create awareness of the local structure so that the society will be able to maintain its values. This idea will also enable people to understand their culture and the importance of maintaining the local culture. I think these clubs do not build cultural awareness. The reason is that many people are assimilating the new Western culture through education and social sites of the internet. This implies that it is hard to build cultural awareness as many people have interacted and created new culture which they think is superior to the traditional culture especially the young people. Not many people attend these clubs hence they are not appropriate to many young people (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). I agree with the statement that Cultural nationalism is a dynamic feature of all modern societies. Crucial components of a national culture take shape as the nationalist movement begins to coalesce, but the precise mix of icons, tropes and practices that constitutes the national culture evolves over time. The reason why I agree with this statement is that culture evolves with time. Culture evolves when people share common interests and customs. Culture has been changing over time due to globalization and from the previous trends; culture is likely to change over time (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). Therefore, each society has its own features which lead to cultural nationalism. The functions of ADACH are to educate people on the cultural aspects so that they can learn to appreciate their culture. ADACH also promotes literature and arts, encourages artistic creativity, and protects the cultural assets as well as developing museums. It also conducts archeological research; it has the responsibility of planning the urban history and manages the landscapes of culture. ADACH also preserves and promotes local heritage. ADACH took over the operations that were conducted by Abu Dhabi cultural foundation and they offered various programmes like drawing and ceramic classes. These classes could be offered at the evening so that people can learn the local heritage skills (Alsharekh & Springborg 2008). Conclusion The States along the Arabian Gulf have experienced high globalization rate due to its oil production. Dubai is the most growing State due to its policies. Due to globalization, the Arabian Gulf States are finding ways they can preserve their culture as it is threatened by the Western culture. In this regard, the government of Dubai has developed various organizations such ADACH which play various roles in preserving the local culture. The organizations offer lessons which teach people on the importance of preserving the local culture. References Alsharekh, A & Springborg, R. (2008). Popular Culture and Political Identity in the Arab Gulf States, London, School of Oriental and African Studies. Fox, J. W, Mourtada-Sabah, N & Al Mutawa, M. (2006). Globalization and the Gulf, New York, Routledge. Whiteoak, J Crawford, N & Mapstone, R. H. (2004). Work values and attitudes in an Arab Culture, Dubai Swan and Walters. Read More