Ever met a good friend in a really unlikely place? Ever ran in to someone who you were ironically connected to from the other side of the world? As this commercial shows, people are now connected in the strangest ways.
I started thinking about this, while I was reading a blog post by Jordan. While he was explaining about his roommates from various parts of Canada, I was thinking about all of my foreign connections, and how much I now rely on technology to stay ‘in touch’. I can get away with not talking to my brother in weeks, but through text messaging, I know how he’s doing. In fact, I probably talk to my friends in mexico more then I talk to my friends who live in Regina! 10 years ago, this would have been expensive, 50 years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible! Technology is developing so rapidly that suddenly, our world has become a lot smaller. And although the commercial means to make the ending seem funny, in reality, there are special laptops created to be located in desolate areas….although how well they work on PartyPoker…who knows….Through global connections, people everywhere are becoming more and more alike, both through culture and what is available to them.
It’s crazy what we now deem to be important. I’ve heard statistics about how there are goals to have internet access available to the entire world by sometime in the next few years…..and yet the millenium goals which were supposed to be met by 2015 are NOWHERE CLOSE to being completed…and this is for meeting basic needs such as food, health care and education! Economically, there is still a large amount of disparity between nations, but this will never change. We live in a well off country, but we need the poor countries to stay that way. Capitalism….Its set up to keep the rich rich, and the poor poorer. We might complain about equal rights for all, but would we really want to be in someone else’s shoes? Those of us here in Canada, although we complain about gas prices and the cost of foreign fruit in the winter time, often we forget about how good we have it. We can ACCESS these products from half-way across the world…imagine the price if we had to do all the work that is involved in getting some of these products ourselves?? And the shopping trips when we find all of our ‘bargains’ (guilty…) how can the stores even afford to put prices that low?? Because it’s on someone else’s tab… It’s the low amount that we pay foreign countries to make all this stuff. Because here, although we will, we don’t LIKE to spend a lot of money on things. More for Less…that’s our motto, and through this, we have a disregard for countries poorer and therefore, often more vulnerable to whatever action our economy and industry decides to take. And so, wherever some sweat-shop ran by children paid by pennies is, it will continue to break environmental laws, labour laws, etc, and get away with it. Who’s to stop them? We get our low prices, and thats supply and demand.
Another way that our world keeps getting smaller, is through culture. ‘Western culture’ has essentially taken over the world. There are so many influencing factors that make it nearly impossible to stay away from. It’s funny, the first thing I noticed when I went to Nicaragua? McDonalds. English has a major impact as well. In any professional field, English is often the functioning language ( when dealing internationally anyways). I heard a statistic once that in about 10 years, China will be the largest English speaking country….. ?????? I find that bizarre. So then, shouldn’t it be us who should be learning to speak Chinese????
And so, although globally we are more connected, we have a kind of materialistic attitude towards reaping the awards of globalization. I think we need to focus our attention instead on the humanity side of things, and instead of taking from and using each other, let’s use our collective knowledge and resources and help each other out.
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