What Does Globalization Actually Destroy?
Posted: 2/25/2019 | Feb 25th, 2019
While walking downwards the streets of Medellín, I came across a Dunkin’ Donuts, a donut chain from my hometown of Boston. (It’s the best. Locals are quite attached to Dunkin. Don’t mess amongst a Massachusetts resident too Dunkin.)
As I looked at the store, a pit formed inwards my breadbasket too I got ease too melancholy.
For days, I had been coming across Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFC, Papa John’s, too now, Dunkin’ Donuts!
Medellín had been overrun yesteryear the chains.
Another identify ruined yesteryear globalization!
Another identify where the local grapheme was dying.
Or…was it? (Said inwards a Morgan Freeman narrator voice.)
Was that Dunkin’ Donuts actually a bad thing?
Or that Starbucks I saw earlier? Or all those Papa John’s? (I hateful that garlic butter sauce is amazing.)
As I continued downwards the street, a thought struck me: What had that Dunkin’ Donuts really ruined?
I hateful the shops too stalls nearby were withal amount of life too brimming amongst customers buying snacks too coffee.
What was actually bothering me?
Then it hitting me.
I realized that peradventure why I got lamentable was because what Dunkin’ Donuts actually had destroyed was non Medellin but what I thought Medellin was.
As travelers, I yell back nosotros tend to abhor “globalization” because nosotros imagine places to live a sure as shooting means from books, movies, too our collective cultural consciousness.
We oft convey this picture — based on no firsthand sense — of what a goal should live similar too how the people should act. We imagine deserted beaches, or quaint cafés, or rustic one-time towns, or gritty, worn-down cities because nosotros saw that inwards a moving painting or read a majority 10 years ago. I mean, most Americans withal yell back Colombia is teeming amongst narcos or that Eastern Europe is withal similar it was the hateful solar daytime afterwards the Iron Curtain fell.
This is non a novel phenomenon. We desire the places nosotros see to fit into the box nosotros mentally created for them. We desire our picture of them validated.
Heck, fifty-fifty Mark Twain felt this means close the Taj Mahal:
” I had read a keen bargain likewise much close it. I saw it inwards the daytime, I saw it inwards the
moonlight, I saw it close at hand, I saw it from a distance; too I knew all the time, that of its sort it was the wonder of the world, amongst no rival instantly too no possible time to come competitor; too yet, it was non my Taj. My Taj had been built yesteryear excitable literary people; it was solidly lodged inwards my head, too I could non boom it out.”
I hateful nosotros inwards business office locomote for a sense of gamble too exoticness. To live explorers too regain spots devoid of whatever exterior influence. My friend Seth Kugel said inwards his majority a town inwards England became pop amongst Chinese tour groups inwards 2016 because it was quintessentially English. Chinese tour groups wanted to run into a identify that matched their vision.
Globalization stops all that from happening.
Suddenly, we’re walking downwards the street — too nosotros run into a business office of home.
Our illusion – the myth nosotros created close the goal nosotros are inwards – is shattered.
“Well, there’s a Starbucks. The tourists are here. This identify is ruined now.”
But is that actually a bad thing?
When nosotros imagine how someplace should live — similar Thai islands amongst lilliputian huts too empty beaches, or rural villages filled amongst only local nutrient too pushcart vendors — nosotros seek to freeze the footing (and oft amongst an air of leftover colonialism).
We forget that places aren’t Disneyland too it’s non 100 years ago. Things change. Places develop, mature, too motion on. The footing around us hasn’t stood frozen inwards fourth dimension to human activity similar our theme park. (And this doesn’t fifty-fifty touching on the tip of the iceberg around the colonialism / Western stereotypes associated amongst these ideas.)
Would I rather run into the footing amount of mom-and-pop stores too no Dunkin’ Donuts inwards Medellín?
On the surface, yes.
But if I actually yell back close it, that’s because I desire to escape my home, non live reminded of it. It’s because I’d similar the footing to jibe the i I run into inwards books too movies. It’s because no i is completely immune to the views I precisely talked about. I’ve created a castle inwards the heaven that I don’t desire to run into destroyed.
But business office of the fine art of regain is having your preconceptions shattered.
For example, most Americans (and peradventure fifty-fifty most people inwards the world) persuasion Republic of Colombia equally this remote jungle amount of coffee, crime, fruit, too narcos roaming the street. It’s gritty too dangerous.
But Republic of Colombia is goose egg similar people yell back it is. Medellín has i of the best shipping systems I’ve ever seen exterior Scandinavia, too Wi-Fi is everywhere. There’s also some incredible Michelin star–worthy gastronomy taking identify here. Bogotá has world-class museums. Digital nomads flock there. The roads are stellar. Many immature people speak English, they are educated, too they are really informed of footing events.
So, equally Republic of Colombia sheds its narco yesteryear too embraces the footing equally much equally the footing embraces it, should nosotros – I – live surprised that the guy riding inwards a lilliputian jeep is playing Taylor Swift, or that burgers too pizzas too gin too tonics are actually popular? Should nosotros live surprised that Colombians desire a sense of savor of the footing too?
We oft yell back of globalization equally a one-way street, where the Western chains “invade” other countries. Our conversation inwards the West is ever close how we’re ruining other places.
Yet these places don’t go on tourist dollars alone. Locals produce consume there. Who are nosotros to say them no?
And I oft yell back close the reverse: when people from other non-Western cultures travel, produce they convey the same reaction?
Do Colombians locomote somewhere too go, “Ugh, a mondongo identify here? This identify is ruined.”
Do Italians abhor the sight of pizza on vacation?
Do the Japanese lament seeing sushi abroad?
I don’t desire to run into the golden arches adjacent to the Pyramids, but is it therefore bad that in that location are some franchises inwards Egypt? Who are nosotros to say, “Hey, y'all can’t convey that. I desire to imagine your province equally this Arabian Nights fantasy! Get rid of that pizza place! Where are the guys on camels?”
Whether it’s a chain or precisely a type of cuisine, I don’t yell back the mingling of cultures is such a bad.
Globalization is non perfect. And, of course, its benefits aren’t balanced. People convey written volumes on this subject. Let’s exit that aside. I’m non hither to hash out that. I’m hither to ponder globalization too our perceptions of it equally travelers.
That Dunkin’ Donuts reminded me that the globalized footing that allows me to live inwards Medellín also allows Colombians to access non only my civilisation but other cultures equally well.
I yell back nosotros quest to halt viewing globalization through the myopic one-way lens of existence a Western traveler.
Do nosotros actually desire places to rest impoverished / secluded / unconnected therefore nosotros tin flame convey an “authentic” sense based on some fantasy nosotros convey close a destination? Do nosotros actually non desire the locals to sense pizza, or burgers, or Scotch, jazz music, or Thai pop, or anything else non local?
I don’t yell back nosotros should await at globalization equally causing a identify to live “ruined.” Cultures are ever inwards flux.
The same procedure that has brought unfamiliar cultures to us has also brought parts of our civilisation (among others) there.
When y'all convey to a greater extent than cultures interacting amongst each other, y'all larn to empathise that everyone is a human existence too shares the same wants too needs.
And I yell back that is something nosotros should celebrate.
Matt’s note: Before everyone freaks out inwards the comments, allow me live clear: I am non proverb globalization is all rainbows too unicorns. There are a lot of problems amongst multi-national corporations, specifically, when it comes to taxes, labor, too how much coin they maintain inwards a country. There are also a lot of environmental too social problems related to outsourcing. Those are of import social too economical issues that quest to live addressed politically therefore that everyone tin flame portion the benefits of a to a greater extent than globalized world. I don’t deny in that location are problems. But this post is only close looking at the number from a traveler’s perspective.
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