gLoBaLiZaTiOn

article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061031/ap_on_re_as/china_wooing_africa

After talking a couple classes about Africa, the headline “China Defends Dealings with Africa” caught my attention. China, for the past decade has been aiding Africa both politically and economically, raising trade and helping with the building of roads and coal mines for example. China gets natural resources such as oil, precious minerals to feed its expanding economy and new markets. The African countries get investment from China, and both parties are building political alliances in what seems to be growingly a western culture world. An interesting quote that I found in the article discussed how China is a developing nation investing in another delevoping nation. He Wenping says: “China is the biggest developing country and Africa is a continent where the most developing countries are situated. They need eachother.” Although it may seem like they need eachother, in certain parts of Africa China is not favored. They feel that the factories that were set up by China pay poor wages and have poor working conditions. Some critics have also claimed that China has fueled the conflict in Dafur with their arms exports. However, China has also been successful seting up more than 700 projects in Africa in fisheries, telecommunications, hydropower, education and health, proving that they have helped out at some point.

Other than this aspect of the article, there was also the mentioning of the new billboards that are being put up around the capital of China. Police have been pulled back into duty to make sure that these do not pose any threats or violent protests. (The billboards say: “Africa — the land of myth and miracle”) Although China wants to continue with trading and interacting with Africa, it seems as if Africa isnt as suceptible to this idea. I guess we will see what happens as time goes on between the two countries.

Halloween across the US tends to be filled with children dressed up in costumes and going door to door asking for candy, older children going to haunted houses and scary movies, and college kids going to parties. People of all ages get a thrill out of being scared by the ideas of ghost, witches, vampires, etc.

This idea has become a western adapation of what is also known as All Saints Day or All Hallows Eve. Both of these most people are familiar with, learning them through school or during Halloween through articles and such. The countries that have started moving away from these traditions and more towards the western halloween include the US, Canada, the UK, Puerto Rico, and Ireland (with a growing popularity in Australia and New Zealand). Children become excited about dressing up as devils and angels, princes and princesses, ghosts and goblins, etc and go trick or treating. Or better yet, supporting the industries of haunted houses, cornfields and such. This year, the scarying industry is set to generate at least 300 million dollars alone ( source from cnn.com). More and more scary sights are being set up especially in America, as the demand has risen for more scary and thrilling sites.

However, with the focus shifting more towards the candy and less towards the cultural background of this holiday, it seems as if we tend to overlook the history behind it. Although for the most part those who are Christian do go to church on Nov. 1, aknowledging All Saints Day, and many countries in Europe still tend to stick just with All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day, with trick or treating not being introduced and incorporated within their culture.

I still remember Halloween in Poland-were there were large groups of Americans the children would go trick or treating, but otherwise it didnt exist. There was a graveyard across the road from my house, and on Oct. 31, all the Poles that were in the surrounding area would go with candles that were being sold outside the walls and light a candle either for their family member or just for someone in general and place it on the grave. Than that night the graveyards all over warsaw and Im sure other towns were lit up, in remeberance of those who died. Masses would be held that night and the next day, for the Saints and those who died as well. It was a very serious holiday, and other than those Americans and some students from the American School of Warsaw, children were not running around door to door in costumes for candy. The third year though, you did start to see some Polish children attempting the idea, and some houses passed out candy, but it was very few.

Halloween has developed over the years in the Western Culture to being a hallmark holiday. Its now all about the candy, being spooked, dressing up, and so forth. This is not a bad thing, I for one love halloween, but it should be emphasized where exactly the holiday comes from in my opinion, to never lose that piece of history.

So just finished reading for my political science class, on openess and America. It is written by Allan Bloom, and has to do with culture and politics, which happens to be my paper topic for this class. As I was reading it, I came to find myself nodding in agreement with what Bloom was saying. The most common point that ran throughout his paper, was that America and its students in university are losing their interest in other cultures and languages, or learning on such things as Third World Countries, so that they can help to “better” the people that live in those countries.

So first, dealing with the idea that America is losing interest in other cultures. Since I have been back in America, I have begun asking my peers about travelling and leaving the US of A. It helps me to sometimes identify with people or have a common interest when they say yes they are interested and want to travel or have travelled over seas. However, I have already met a couple that have said they dont want to leave the United States, they have no interest and probably never will. This I found puzzling, why wouldnt you want to explore the world? experience things you will never experience in America. One reason could possibly be they are comfortable here, have never left their hometown, or surrounding states, and dont feel the need to. But how will they ever know if they are missing out on something they could truely love? Maybe because I have moved around my entire life, both State side and overseas, I have a biased opinion on travelling and seeing different cultures, and therefore cant relate to these ideas. But for whatever reason, America and the young people have lost interest for the most part in countries other than their homeland.

The second point that I found interesting from this political scientist, was that although Americans arent interested in Europe and Asia, they are interested in Third World Areas, such as Africa. And the main reason he gives is that they are trying to force upon these people a “better” lifestyle, and are condensending while doing so, and in a way imperialism is starting to look more like what the Americans are trying to accomplish. Now I must admit, I am lacking in knowledge about this area, but in a way i agree. I believe we should help out Africa and other developing nations, but we do not need to force upon them ideas from a democratic society or our beliefs. Just because our system works for us and our beliefs work for us, doesnt mean that we need to spread these throughout the world. Helping is always a good thing, and something we, as a Superpower should do, but we should stop there and let countries make decisions on their own, without us getting involved.

Just thought I would say some

Growing up I heard every once and awhile the mention of the “seven wonders of the world”; big and glorious things that people could just look at and ponder the existence of such creations. However, it has been brought to my attention, that these seven wonders no longer exist in todays world. The seven wonders of the world until the present were-the hanging gardens of Babylon, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the Colossus at Rhodes, the Lighthouse of Alexandria and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

All of the sites mentioned were once considered by people around the globe great things that nothing could be compared to. In todays world though, new things have met the criteria of amazement and have replaced these seven wonders. The only new criteria that has been given for choosing what is a “wonder of the world” is that it had to be built or dicovered before the year 2000.

About 200 different sites were nominated by people around the globe, and these were than brought down to 21 sites that a group of “professionals” deemed most wonderous. On July 7,2007 the new seven wonders will be announced by the organization that is running the voting. So far the only original seven world wonder that made it on the list was the pyramids in Egypt. On the new list (whole list at the bottom), sites range from the statue of liberty to Timbuktu city.

I dont agree with the placement of the Statue of Liberty and also the Eiffel Tower as world wonders. Compared to the original seven world wonders, these do not even compare. Yes, these are wonderful monuments that represent many ideas, but if one looks at these and than the Hanging Gardens or the Lighthouse, they just dont compare. However, one can argue that all of this is subjective and is dependent on the person looking at the site, but than criteria should be more strict, instead of just “discovered or built before 2000″ as to make it more objective.

With a new age upon us, many things are subject to change, as can be seen with the new seven world wonders. People have changed their mind on what they think in todays world can be seen as a wonder, but I dont think that they should be changed. If you look at the new list and compare it to the old seven wonders, it seems as if they arent even close in the spectacular nature of the original seven. And I dont believe that there is a need to change them,especially with options such as the Statue of Liberty for example, which I do like and think is great and a symbol of my country, but to see that and than for example the Statue of Zeus, there is a difference in the way it was built, the history and the appearance. But with time things must change, and I’m sure this is just one of the many things that will change throughout my lifetime.

List of 21 new world wonders to be voted upon:

1 Acropolis, Athens, Greece

2 Alhambra, Granada, Spain

3 Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia

4 Chichen Itza Aztec site, Yucatan, Mexico

5 Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

6 Colosseum, Rome

7 Easter Island Statues, Chile

8 Eiffel Tower, Paris

9 Great Wall, China

10 Hagia Sophia church, Istanbul, Turkey

11 Kyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan

12 Kremlin/St.Basil’s, Moscow

13 Machu Picchu, Peru

14 Neuschwanstein Castle, Fussen, Germany

15 Petra ancient city, Jordan

16 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

17 Statue of Liberty, New York

18 Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom

19 Sydney Opera House, Australia

20 Taj Mahal, Agra, India

21 Timbuktu city, Mali