On students and apathy

I do not think that the current generation is apathetic. Their minds and eyes are just simply overshadowed by what the media has chosen to put forward. Although it is hard to determine if the interest of the current generation has modified the media or if it is in fact the media who has shaped the thinking of the current generation. But one thing is for sure, the media and the Y generation cannot survive without the presence of each other. I wouldn’t exactly call students nowadays apathetic, they are just passive in terms of the method they obtain information and also their attitude towards politics and current issues. As the media now focuses more on entertainment and sports news, this information is subtly but surely infiltrating the minds of young people even if they are not consciously paying attention to it. Basically the popular trends are set by what the media displays. For instant, when the Friends sitcom became a hit, girls began to follow the way ‘Rachel’ styled her hair. When hip hop/rap music started to top the Billboard chart, suddenly everyone walks, talks and dresses like 50 cents. The most covered stories currently are probably the presidential election and the majority of the youngsters are well aware if not enthusiastic regarding the matter. During the war between America and Iraq, many of them are concerned and heartfelt on the issue as well and the coverage of the war was massive. What I am trying to point out here is the relationship between the media and its young audiences. Because they have so much more to worry about now, like their studies, like dealing with the terrible boss where they work to earn the increasing tuition as well as their social life, they are so occupied now they have only so much time to absorb whatever that is given to them by the media.

            During each presidential campaigns, candidates for the post promise to change and improve the condition of the country giving the people hope for a better place to live in. And over and over again, they are disappointed by the promises that never came true. No wonder the nationalism and passion for their homeland slowly wear off to the extent that they become so jaded with the whole situation. The youngsters are not entirely to be blamed for their lukewarm response towards political issues.  

Globalization=Americanization?

The author was very blunt when he said that “there are actually two communities in the world today: America and everyone else.”

I believe that the reason as to why America is tuning the rest of the world out is because the output of all things American is sufficient to fulfill the need of all Americans. America houses the world largest fast food chain, the best jeans company, the most colorful entertainment business and the most eccentric mix of people. Even the president of the United States of America becomes a household name.

The rest of the world is amazed by the American way of living and wasted no time mimicking anything new from America. From what they eat, what they wear to what music they listen to, everything is more or less influenced or somewhat initiated from America. One example is a typical day to the mall with my girlfriends. As we roam around the mall, we see our favorite stores. Levi’s, Forever 21, Gap, Nike, and Guess, just to name a few. When we are tired of all the walking on our Nine West heels, we head to Mcdonald’s for some fries and a drink, probably a Coke, while we rest our sore feet before we continue shopping. When it is dinner time, we walk in to Chili’s for their famous Buffalo wings and steaks as we chat our night away listening to some country music the restaurant plays.

Americans are not to be blamed for their oblivion of what is happening to the rest of the world. It is difficult to not tune out the rest of the world when the rest of the world is tuning into America. Americans are only doing what humans are natured to do, complying with the majority. They have no choice but to follow suit. I guess the only solution for this problem is to have the rest of the world to follow some place else instead of America. Why not try China for the next decade or two?

In respond to No Logo

My opinion of the Nike company hasn’t changed much as it is a known fact that Nike is somewhat related to the exploitation of the cheap labors in the under developed countries. But the fact that the real operator and contractor for the factories in these under developed countries are the Koreans and Taiwanese surprises me. When the whole world is criticizing Nike for the exploitations of cheap labors, mainly women and children, the real mastermind behind this incident is quietly operating the factories and discreetly gaining profit from them. It is unclear if Nike is directly involved with the plan of building factories at these countries but they are not the only one to put all the blame on. One thing is for sure though, even if Nike is not directly involved, the company is still buying from these Taiwanese or Korean owned factories. Another fact is that the governments of these countries are actually encouraging these investors to come in and build these factories. Although it helped the economy of these countries, their people are being used.

But it all comes back to business. The main goal of a business is to gain profit by all means, lowering cost and increasing exposure of brand. Globalization has brought about more opportunity for businesses and therefore the expansion of all these businesses to other countries. A part of this expansion is the migration of factories to under developed countries. This is just something we need to accept.

Education:Commercialized?

Education has become the basic necessity to all yet not fully attainable to many. While many people of the third world countries struggle to get their children to school, American schools are used as an arena for large corporations to market their products, to infiltrate the mind of schooling children with advertisements, to shape their lives before they have the chance to experience and decide for themselves. What has become of our world today? Education was once fought for by the leaders of this country. And yet schools in this country are exploited by large corporations for the profit of the already rich. Industrialization, capitalism, globalization; call it anything but whatever it is that is happening has undermined the importance of education, so much so that the true meaning and goal of education is now distorted.

And no, this does not happen only in the United States. Take Malaysia for example. Primary and secondary schooling is made mandatory for all children who are citizens of Malaysia. Schools are built in the most secluded mountains for the aborigine children whose community still led a primitive life in the rural area. The government makes an effort to offer an equal opportunity for all children of the country. Sounds good does it? Take this. School buildings with low student attendancy rate are being torn down quicker than the plummeting of the Kuala Lumpur Stocks Exchange (KLSE) index each year with the reason that these schools are unnecessary. In simpler terms, it is a waste of money. Most of these schools are located at more under developed areas of the country where the communities live far apart. Students, however few they are, now have to travel further and therefore waste more energy, time and money in order to continue their supposedly free education. And it does not end here. Getting into a public university for non-Malays or non-Bumiputras(non-aborigines) in Malaysia is more difficult than launching a rocket, due to a certain quota the constitution implies. Thanks to this policy, those who seek for an alternative is fully exploited by private colleges owned by large corporations and funded by the students themselves. It does not help when the three-year tuition fee for a public university is just a fraction of the tuition fee one pays to attend an accredited and equally well equipped private colleges for one year. One year! Instead of bragging about the car they drive or the clothes they wear, students now brag about the colleges they attend and compare who pays more to attend which college.

What happen to the days where education was solely the search for knowledge that we can apply to the making of the better world? What happened to the ability of mankind to generate the greatest idea, philosophy and theories of art, mathematic, science and life? When Socrates began his career as the father of philosophy, he passed down the idea of self enlightenment through knowledge of everything around us. And because of that, many great artists, mathematicians, scientists and philosophers back in those times contributed their discoveries and leave their mark in what we learn today in our textbooks. I believe it is only when education is free from the influences and interference of anything commercial and corporate can the true goal of it can be achieve. The yearning of knowledge is a sacred process and it should not be tarnished by the corruption of the world and most importantly money, the root of all evil.

 

Right?Left?

As I walked along the pathway in front of Weyandt Hall to library one day, I nearly bumped into a guy with a heavy backpack lugged on one side of his shoulder, headphone in his ears and a cup of coffee in his left hand.Again.

I just don’t get it!!Why do I keep getting into people’s way?

And then I realized people here tend to walk on the right side of the road, meaning they walk towards me on my left while i keep subconsciously walk on the left side of the road, ended up walking straight up to the oncoming human traffic.

I wonder why and finally found the answer to my problem.

Look at this photo of an American highway and take note of the directions of the car on the left lane and right lane.

Now look at this picture of a Malaysia highway and note the directions of the cars too.

The cars drive towards an opposite direction.Here in America,cars drive towards south on the left lane and in Malaysia,cars on the left lane drive towards north.Do you see?

So the next time I get in your way,do forgive me.I’m still trying to get used to the whole direction situation here;)

Quick note: Will be getting a driver license here.Hopefully I’ll get used to it soon or I’ll be bumping into cars instead of human next time.Fingers crossed!

Education and Globalization.

“We(America) are a strange place because we are one of the most multicultural nations on Earth with people in our schools from all over the world, and yet we know less than most nations about the world from which those people come. At one and the same time, we are truly multicultural, we represent the globe, and yet we know little about it.” -Benjamin Barber-

It’s interesting how Barber relates globalization with education while subtly touching on ethnocentrism.

Education has become the basic necessity to all yet not fully attainable to many. While many people of the third world countries struggle to get their children to school, American schools are used as an arena for large corporations to market their products, to infiltrate the mind of schooling children with advertisements, to shape their lives before they have the chance to experience and decide for themselves.

I applaud the American education system for having children exposed to many fields and would love to have my children study here in the States. Unlike many other education system, like what they have in England and Australia where many students from other countries flock to, the American system allows students to freely explore and learn about many fields other than their majors. Whereas the English and Australian system construct a fixed syllabus for the students to follow in order to graduate. American students are more broadly educated but ironically, Americans turn out to be one of the most ethnocentric people. I’m not saying all of them are but the majority thinks and perceives in a way that I would call American-centered, like how Benjamin Barber described Americans as ‘independent’ pre-9/11. There is too much emphasis on individuality in America that sometimes too much of individuality turns out to be self-centeredness. If the 9/11 incident transforms America from ‘independent’ to ‘interdependent’, at least Americans learned a valuable lesson out of this tragic event.

A quick note: Many schools are utilized by large corporations in their marketing scheme and there isn’t much that the government has done to prevent it. Has this situation got to do with the main source of funding for the presidential campaign coming from large corporations?Would it help if Obama wins the next election since he claimed that his campaign is funded by the people of America?

globaliSation.

Here is a fact not many people know. Malaysia is actually the 10th biggest country to trade with America.

I was quite surprised when I was told. I wonder what Malaysia has that the Americans want?Still have no idea thou.But it sure confirms the fact that globaliSation is not only the Westernization of the non-Western world. It is mutual.

But then again, is globaliSation actually a new idea?Is it something that only started when the Internet was becoming more and more widespread? Or when McDonald’s became the favorite fast food chain to people around the world?

Malaysia was once colonized by the British. If it wasn’t for the English, Malaysia probably would not have become Malaysia today. It was during the colonization by British when the 13 states Malaysia has now were united under a single government. Singapore had also briefly joined Malaysia only to become an independent republican 2 years after the formation of Malaysia due to a civil dispute(not civil war as there wasn’t any bloodshed).

Why would a nation so powerful like England came all the way to South East Asia? The same reason why fleets were sent to the New World in search of gold. Only Malaysia was mass producing rubber and rich in tin that the English so needed during the Industrial Revolution. Even back then globaliSation occurred.Interracial marriage, international trade and interesting cultural exchange were happening before the term ‘globaliSation’ was coined. If the development of technology did not initiate globaliSation, it sure propagates the process.

Oh,another interesting fact. Ever notice the similarity of the Malaysia flag and the Star Spangled Banner?

Malaysian flag. Jalur Gemilang (loosely translate to Stripes of Glory)

American Flag.The Star-Spangled Banner.

Just do it.

Globalization has influenced the way we live one way or another. It brought with it aftermaths that do us good or the opposite but it has definitely impact our lives, nonetheless. Thanks to globalization, now we can enjoy a hamburger or two when we travel to Indonesia, purchase a car at a lower price and even earn a higher salary from a foreign company who invests their money locally. At the same time, we have globalization to blame when we begin to lose our identity as well as our culture.

Both the articles state that globalization has brought adverse effects to certain communities, like Vietnamese factory workers, where people are exploited for the benefit of the stronger party, as in the share holders of the Nike Company. Speaking from a non-American perspective, I think that the real victims here are the people of America as well as all consumers of Nike from developed countries. In reality, the standard of living for the supposedly underpaid factory workers has risen with their job opportunities with the factory whereas the people of America and other consumers are the one exploited, having to pay more for the products of a lower cost of production. In addition to that, the cash flow of the wages paid to the factory workers that could well be circulated in America if the factory were to be set up locally is now circulating in the Vietnamese money market. In spite of that, the profit of the sales makes the rich richer and in this case, a minority of the American benefits from globalization. As the saying goes, there are two sides to the story and like it or not, globalization is here to stay.

About Globalization

Globalization is definitely here with a bang. Many thanks to the development of technology. If it weren’t for the emergence of Internet and telephone, or advancement of transportation, many could still be unaware of the 9/11 incident or taking months to travel from England to the United States by sea. Technology has made communication and traveling gazillion times better than the times of our grandparents. As I was traveling here to the United States from Malaysia, I was surprised to see the majority of the passengers were Caucasians. Not because it was the first time I was surrounded by so many foreigners(to me they are), but because of the fact that there are so many of them, in Malaysia. Maybe this scenario will explain my shock better. When a foreigner from a country outside of Asia is asked if he or she knows where Malaysia is, two common answers would be “No” or “Never heard of it”. When telling them that Malaysia is above Singapore, they would exclaim, “Oh, it’s in Thailand!” It’s funny how the strip of land in between Singapore and Thailand can be so easily overlooked. Especially when it isn’t the whole of Malaysia. The land I mentioned just now is called Peninsular Malaysia. There is a huge land, in fact about half of the Borneo, is also Malaysia. So to have so many non-Asians coming to travel or live in Malaysia is something I had never known. So it is no wonder why there are more and more interactions and intervention in between countries economically, socially and politically. Name of countries no longer distinguish one country from another based on their culture and people, but in fact it has become solely the name of a piece of land. Because we live in a one world community and people all around the world probably operate or think alike, one way or another.