Glocalization

Namaste!

Yesterday I watched an interesting Discovery Channel special called Globalization. It was an amazing TV show explaining how the Globalization phenomenon is affecting young people of Bangalore and India in general.

Thomas Friedman, three times Pulitzer Award winner and well-known as the author of "The World is Flat" explained how the explosion of wealth in some Indian cities (like Bangalore) is erasing hundred of years of culture and tradition of one of the most populated countries in the world. I must admit I was surprised. I had heard about how you can go back in time just walking a few meters in main Indian cities but it was shocking actually see it (at least on television). Big and state-of-the-art buildings surrounded by poor (very poor) neighborhoods, young people Americanized, extreme capitalism, ancestral traditions lost among others problems were shown in this special.

But something that really inspired me was a concept this author introduced during the show: Glocalization. This term is a portmanteau of globalization and localization trying to explain the way in which ideas and structures that circulate globally are adapted and changed by local realities. We can not fight against Globalization, this is a reality we are living and we must accept it, but we can do is try to press multinational corporations that are running and international business in our communities to tailor its outputs and organization to our own local taste. Corporate responsibilities are more important than ever before. Companies must admit the way they are affecting its environments (social, economic, natural, etc.) and seek for options to minimize this impact.

To all my Indian friends, I really loved this show and for sure someday and somehow I will visit your country. I just hope to do it before your culture basis have been truly affected or forgotten.

Aapkao doiKyao ²