old event report transcribed: USSR and Nationalism

Back in October I attended a talk about the Nationalism in the post-soviet states of the former USSR. The globalism is fairly apparent since in Europe many nations are faced with this on a daily basis. And it seems to be for the most part ignored in this country in favor of what are seen as bigger problems in the Middle East. This talk focused on thhe way Russia took advantage of the situation in Georgia, when Georgia took with it two other rather separate ethnic groups. After this the Georgians failed to treat the other groups with an appropriate level of respect. Russia took this opportunity to support to the other two ethnic groups, Ossetia and Abkhazia. They became separate and independent to a degree with the help of the larger nation, asserting its power even as it was no longer the Soviet Union. But as recently as last year Georgia decided that they were not happy with this state of affairs. However once again Russia was not pleased with this idea,and is once again in support of the smaller groups resisting the ethnic authority of Georgia. And since then we have the state of affairs we have today.

In any number of places we can have similar events take place, ethnicity is often the way that politics are decided. Even in a non-hostile situation, like Asia, ethnocentricity reigns supreme. It creates a security blanket for the people of a nation, especially in times of hardship like the current global economic crisis. Some of the greatest wars in history have been fought on the idea that one group of people is better than another, that white is better than black for example. Ethnocentricity seems to bring out the worst in peoples all over the world. And as a world culture it is in our best interest to take head of this, so we can correct the mistakes of the past.

Event: Japanese Cooking Night

I attended and took part in a Japanese Culture Club food night. During the evening we made a few varieties of Japanese food as well as watching films in Japanese and sharing cultural experiences. This was an opportunity for those who knew Japanese recipes to share the knowledge and for other students to have a chance to taste them. Also a member of the faculty came, who was interested in sharing her experiences and those of her son who lived in Japan. While cooking we were able to discuss culture, as well as the unique experiences of a foreigner living in Japan. This took into account the different world view prevalent in Japan, and being an outsider in a culture that prides itself on its group unity. There is of course a need to be a in a group within the country that and outsider cannot quite resolve, because they are always an outsider. In particular I cooked a dish called Okonomiyaki, which has no real Western equivalent. Overall it was a good experience, and its global aspects were clear to see as we, a group of Americans shared the culutral food of a island all the way around the world. It was plain to see the challenges of migration in our discussion about living abroad and the challanges of doing so in a non-Western thinking culture. Good food and good discussion were had by all. Also some of the movies on had a historical context.

This article takes up the idea that technology and mass media is slowly but surely eroding boundaries between nations. The advent of technologies that cross borders is definitely a challenge to national and cultural power, because of the difficulty that nations have controlling what goes on in these mediums. From a western perspective this is a good thing, because it helps eliminate radical ideas and separatist groups which lead to misunderstanding and war. There is a simultaneous desire for the propagation of these ideas, but also for the power to limit them in the interest of national security. At the same time that this posses a threat to the security of nations it also tends to enforce international agreements, making the information more available and easier to enforce. The article goes on the detail some of the issues that India has had with this very phenomenon.
The second article is significantly more dense in language to describe the telling of history and culture. The author talks about the end of history, due a global sense of apathy and goes on to say that it is no longer able to captivate the attention of the masses and transcend mundane cycle of daily life. Perhaps humanity and our history has already reached a "critical mass" so to speak. Another theory states that we are so caught up with finesse and detail that we have lost sight of the bigger picture. It has been lost behind all the attention we pay to detail. I believe what the author is trying to say that the advent of our new technologies and media have led us to a downfall of sorts. However the language making reference to the cosmic order makes it a little hard to penetrate the meaning of the article. The media has changed our language and our way of thinking, and the knowledge that we cannot trust everything we see on tv is pervasive. He suggests that by having the information, or news, so readily available it becomes less real to us and that when these images are gone that they leave no impression.
These two articles seem to take opposing views on technology. But I would agree that both seem to think that the media is changing the way people think, be it about news or history or the national borders we call home. I tend to agreement that international propagational information is a good thing and encourages discussion and the spread of cultural understanding. Although it makes our world increasingly small, and may somewhat densensitize us to reality I think this is the key to understanding between opposing groups of people. Education is the key, and media plays a key role in it.

This reading evaluated the world-economy in the terms of capitalism. Although I know very little about economics, they author seemed to favor a capitalist global economy. It presents the global economy as in fact the ideal place for a capitalist system to occur. It seems that the world has been moving towards this sort of economy since the establishment of inter-state trade. Although in the past this has deteriorated into state controlled empires, in recent years it has stabilized into more favorable climate. The author seems to think of this as a good thing, with separate states participating in the control of the endlessly increasing profit. Although many may want to have a totally free market economy this is unlikely and not profitable. Being totally free market enables the consumer to drive prices so low that any incentives of a capitalist economy disappear. This kind of global economy also favors the formation of monopolies. However these will always be disputed in this global economy because the losers will always want to achieve this favorable situation for themselves and therefore will seek the downfall of the existing monopolies. However it is difficult to generate true monopolies so instead we generate quasi-monopolies, who are operating solely on the principals of capitalism, and seeking profit for profits sake. The endless accumulation of capital as the author of this article puts it.

It seems like this author would like to see the current global economy to continue to form as this ‘global capitalism’. He backs up his assertion but I don’t think he has introduced many counter-arguments. Altogether I think he makes a good argument for why this kind of system benefits a global economy, and the various states that make it up. He asserts that since a global economy lacks the structure of a single state government to keep it in control, the principals of capitalism are ideal for this. While I do not know too much about economics I feel like this is a reasonable assumption.