The hundreds, if not thousands of athletes, who took part in the recently concluded Budapest international athletics competitions, may not be aware that they have been taking part in a global cultural festival. The tens of millions of fans who were watching them in the stadiums or on the TV screens, the idea of global culture might have hardly crossed their imaginations. Yet, what was going in Budapest a couple of weeks back was the most vivid and highest level manifestation of the globalization of modern culture.
Culture is no more considered as something that concerns only a few traditional practices that are kept alive by people living in some of the remote rural corners of the world. The modern definition of culture has become broader, deeper and more inclusive. It has become more important in the context of urbanization than in the older context of rural communities. Culture is apparently redefined to include all ways of life of rural as well as urban communities. It has become a huge industry, and includes hitherto ignored parameters of social life such as “codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, values, arts and foods…etc.”
One of the few opportunities in the world where people of different races, traditions and cultures could come together at one spot and show the world that they share common values, it is at sporting events like the Olympics and international athletics competition that wound up recently in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
It seems that as the world is increasingly coming together, so does the definition of cultural globalization, which has assumed deeper and broader meanings in the process. Thus, “sports have had a profound influence on popular culture and entertainment. They have created iconic athletes, inspired countless works of art and entertainment, and shaped fashion and style.”
Conventionally speaking, cultural globalization is defined as “the transmission of ideas, meanings, and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations. The process is marked by the common consumption of cultures that have been diffused by the Internet, popular culture media, and international travel.” As we have witnessed the emergence of global economy, we have also seen global culture unfolding or spreading around the world with unprecedented momentum under our very eyes. Globalization, whether economic or cultural, has huge advantages as it has also considerable shortfalls.
According to American economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz (i.e. Globalization and its Discontents), globalization might have caused much dissatisfaction around the world. In his book, Stiglitz critically analyzed what could be considered the soft bellies of globalization that, right from the beginning, economically benefitted some countries at the cost of others.
According to him, the rich countries stood to take advantage of the weakness of the poorer ones in the name of globalization which was a new catchword at that time. The last few decades have clearly made it evident the injustices inherent in the global economic system that is reproducing and reproducing the same relations time and again has led to many to discontents in so many African and other developing countries.
We cannot abandon globalization even if we wished it because of its shortcomings that are surpassed by its benefits. By the same token globalization is sweeping the world in its cultural manifestations and continues to do so although there are many critics of its negative impacts. This has become an irreversible process that continues to embrace all countries and peoples in its embrace and thus manifests the most consummate instance of globalization which is not a spotless or perfect phenomenon but something that create both pleasure and dissatisfaction among its practitioners.
Even the results of the athletic competitions in Budapest have certainly created both happy moments and moments of grief among the participants and their fans. Unlike economic globalization which is often replete with disagreements, disputes, conflicts and violent manifestations like the ones that are seen at every venue of the G-7 or G-20 meetings every year, cultural globalization too has its moments of discontents although mostly non-violent in its nature.
Leave alone, sports, even foods and drinks are globalized these days. The McDonald burgers sold and eaten in New York or in some European or Asian country might be different in texture or the way they are sold to the clients but their taste is invariable similar and often attractive to young people everywhere. Anyone who goes to a Mac burger joint would not think that they are enjoying a piece of global food culture. To them calming their gurgling stomach comes first, even if at all they want to reflect about food globalization afterwards.
Thus, by way of reference, examples of global culture include the emergence of global sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup and the globalization of food and drink through global multinational companies like McDonald and Coca cola. There are many aspects of the globalization of culture. According to available information, there are at least eight major areas of global culture that you and I can refer to.
These include care Hollywood’s film industry whose productions are watched around the world; in luxurious Washington or Paris theatre halls as well as in the shantytowns of Addis Ababa or Nigeria. The English language is also being globalized as the language of global arts, culture, business and commerce. As we said above, fast food is being consumed as a global food in many restaurants across the world including in our backyard although the foods are a far cry from the McDonalds burgers.
There is no area of our life that globalization is not reaching. Religions are being globalized. So are international fashion brands, music and many games and recreational outlets. Where will all this lead ultimately? One would ask. Maybe to the globalization of humanity and the emergence of\ human nature that would absorb all the manifestations of cultural and economic globalization? That may sound like science fiction but anyone is free to imagine the ultimate destiny of humanity that is open for all speculations.
International travels are these days serving as vehicles for cultural globalization, whether consciously or unconsciously. Air travel is the best, most efficient and most globalization carrier of global culture, perhaps in a par with television and even more pronounced than the media. That is apparently why the virtual “wars in the sky” waged by air transport companies has become so important that the most successful carriers are those who efficiently respond to global food and drink and other manifestations of culture.
These days, running an attractive airline company is not only about packing passengers in huge dream liners but something that has to do with providing in-flight amenities of global culture. Punctuality, good in-flight services, in addition to the ubiquitous smiles of the hostesses, the books and music that available on board have all become aspects of global culture that no air traveler would want to miss. There is also a transfer of global culture via travelers who land in another part of the world with all their dressing, hairstyle, music on their Wi-Fi, the food they eat in restaurants and the bags they carry on their shoulders, the way they speak their English or any other global language are all silent conveyors of global culture.
Our job, as observers of the growing globalization of culture would be, if at all we have the eye for details, to sift through the tons of global cultures that are reaching our shores every other day, separate the wheat from the chaff, identify what is ours and not ours (if it is at all possible to do so!). We should also try to absorb what promotes African culture whether it comes from Beijing or Kuala Lumpur and get rid of what undermines it. We should try to serve as cultural critics who would minimize the popular discontents that arise from blind copying of everything foreign that does not suit us as Africans.
On the other hand we should cheer up when African athletes win at sports venues without forgetting to recognize the merits of non-Africans because they too, are the creatures of a fast globalizing world or the new citizens the emerging global village that will be all- inclusive, democratic civilized, peaceful, united and serving the ideal of harmony and beauty in modern human life.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
The Ethiopian Herald September 7/2023
