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GLOBAL DEGREE
A Study of Globalization
Volume 1, No. 2
http://www.gdegree.com
Editor: Mel Ochoa
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"There will exist one degree of separation between the most remote village
and the tallest skyscraper of industry -- a Global Degree."
In This Issue:
I. Featured Essay:
"The Culture of Globalization"
By Klaus Müller,
European coordinator for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
II. Global Agent:
Margarita Quihuis,
Private Venture Advisor
III. Global Spotlight:
UNICEF, Change for Good
IV. Sidebar:
"Drowned Out"
V. Global Wire
+++ Submit an essay to Global Degree +++
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I. FEATURED ESSAY
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"The Culture of Globalization"
By Klaus Müller,
European coordinator for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Reprinted from Museum News, May/June 2003. Copyright
© 2003, the American
Association of Museums. All rights reserved.
Note: This article was written and edited prior to the start of the war in
Iraq. It is our feeling, however, that the globalization movement, as well
as the role culture plays within it, are topics well worth discussing, in
times of peace or war. The move toward a more globalized society, for
better or worse, began long before the war in Iraq and is likely to
continue long after it is over. -The Editors of Museum News.
"If globalization means that the world is a seamless unity in which
everyone equally participates in the economy, obviously globalization has
not taken place." -Masao Miyoshi in The Cultures of Globalization (1998)
"Globalization" is a single word with a hundred different meanings.
Journalist Thomas Friedman, author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree,
believes that "globalization has replaced the Cold War as the defining
international system." He sees a dramatically changing world, driven by a
borderless free-market capitalism and new communication technologies. As
described by Friedman, "globalization is the inexorable integration of
markets, nation-states and technologies to a degree never witnessed
before-in a way that is enabling individuals, corporations and
nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper and
cheaper than ever before."
But while some praise the liberating effects of free trade and greater
global communication, claiming that marginalized groups are empowered as a
result, others fear standardization and forced assimilation into a
Western-dominated world. Globalization is, ironically, a polarizing term.
Whether people focus on the economic, political, cultural, or ecological
consequences of globalization, they see either disaster or potential,
neo-colonialism or free trade, empowerment or despair. And in times of
international military conflict, such as the war in Iraq, the debate over
globalization becomes even more heated.
Even if we use Friedman's working hypothesis as a point of departure and
agree that globalization is an inescapable move from isolated countries to
an increasingly interdependent world, we still face some difficult
questions. What role will culture play in this new globalization movement?
Will it divide or unite? And of more immediate concern to us, can museums
propose or even help shape a better model of a global society than the one
being advanced by multinational corporations?
Museums in the Global Movement
In recent years, free trade, the Web, and cheaper international travel
have combined to help museums achieve recognition as places of exchange
and communication between cultures. New communication technologies and the
removal of trade tariffs have made for the easier exchange of cultural
goods and services, and cultural products have become more accessible to
greater numbers of people. But at the same time it has been widely noted
that market deregulation and free-trade principles are fostering an
environment in which economically strong countries and transnational
corporations dominate local, national, and international business. The
result, some critics contend, is a fundamental and growing inequality of
cultural production and distribution. The danger is that dialogue between
world cultures could begin to sound more like a monologue.
According to Facts and Figures 2000, a study published by UNESCO, since
the 1980s, annual trade in cultural goods has exploded from $95 billion to
$388 billion. Most of that trade takes place among a small group of
countries: United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, and China, which
together export 53 percent and import 57 percent of all cultural goods
worldwide. In the United States, cultural products -such as films, music,
television programs, books, magazines, computer software- constitute the
largest share of U.S. exports, surpassing all other industries.
Though some cultural critics insist that cross-cultural trade inspires
artistic diversity, others argue that the worldwide dominance of an
American mass culture marginalizes indigenous cultural production and
distribution. In this debate, the U.S. film industry often is described as
a cultural monopoly. For example, despite the large number of films
produced by India and Egypt, two countries with robust national film
industries, 85 percent of the films screened around the world are made in
Hollywood.
Western-dominated homogenization, the often feared McWorld, is a serious
concern to some developing countries that lack the economic means to
produce and disseminate their own cultural products. Will their cultural
heritage be consumed by an imported Western model? Globalization in the
21st century has accelerated the scope, speed, and depth of cultural
diffusion. Some believe that a sharp, permanent division will form between
a very few producers and the very many consumers, while others insist on
the value of an international cross-cultural exchange. Culture in its
broadest definition belongs not to one nation but to the world, as
evidenced by the global outrage whenever cultural heritage is threatened
with destruction.
Into this debate, prepared for it or not, step the world's museums. Can
our institutions develop a model for operating within a globalized society
that differs from the corporate model, largely based on profits and market
penetration? Can museums, relying on their core principles of education,
communication, preservation, the free exchange of art, artifacts, and
ideas, along with the current focus on building and sustaining community,
offer a new vision of globalization?
The Transnational Audience
In a gradual and complex reorientation of their raison d'ệtre, which has
taken place over the past three decades, many museums today emphasize
serving the public rather than augmenting their collections as their
foremost responsibility. Children's, neighborhood, and community-based
museums were the first to adopt the view that, as Stephen E. Weil writes
in the summer 1999 issue of Daedalus, museums should change "from being
about something to being for somebody."
But if museums are now "for somebody," what does that mean? Who is the
modern museum audience? As museums strive to determine their civic role
and build partnerships with their constituents -often a "local" focus- they
also are challenged to communicate with and serve national and
international audiences - the "global" focus.
With 689 million international tourists in 2001, tourism has become the
world's largest growth industry, generating $476 billion in 2000,
according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO). Although world tourism
declined sharply after Sept. 11, 2001, and is only slowly recovering in
the midst of a global economic crisis, its potential for future growth
seems to be undisputed, even despite the most recent slowdown attributed
to the military action in Iraq. Since the 1990s, heritage travel has been
one of tourism's fastest growing sectors. According to the WTO, in 2002
the number of international tourists exceeded the 700-million mark for the
first time. And according to a 2001 survey conducted by the Travel
Industry Association, U.S. travelers listed visiting museums or historic
sites as number three among their reasons for travel.
Cultural enrichment has become an incentive of mass tourism. As a
consequence, the number of museums and heritage sites is rising worldwide,
as is the percentage of the regional and foreign visitors they attract.
Migration and tourism have changed the way museums operate. Outside the
United States and the British Commonwealth, many museums use English as
the lingua franca to accommodate foreign visitors. Large museums, such as
the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, offer audio guides in as many as seven
languages, and museums worldwide understand that they must meet tourist
demands regarding communication and content accessibility or risk losing a
growing share of their audience.
According to the 2002 International Migration Report issued in October by
the United Nations, "most of the world's migrants live in Europe (56
million), Asia (50 million), and Northern America (41 million). . . . In
the 10 years from 1990 to 2000, the number of migrants in the more
developed regions increased by 23 million persons, or 28 percent." Urban
centers -such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Paris, and
Amsterdam- have become transnational areas that are no longer defined
solely by their nations, but by the rich, ever changing mix of permanent
and temporary residents with widely diverse cultural and ethnic
backgrounds. Globalization, it seems, is happening right in our own
neighborhoods.
Iowa's Des Moines Art Center, for example, is one of many "locally
oriented" institutions creating exhibitions and programs that celebrate
the diversity of world cultures. Says Director and CEO Susan Lubowsky
Talbott: "As our local population becomes more globally diverse, we must
respond to stay viable. . . . When we bring international artists to this
community, we try and partner them with responsive community partners,
from schools to human service agencies."
Interaction with diverse constituencies, both transnational and local, is
challenging museums to develop new communication skills. How will museums
develop successful marketing tools to attract visitors with varying
interests and cultural backgrounds? How will exhibitions relate to and
integrate different minority cultures? As Harold Skramstad, president
emeritus of the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, points out,
"Museums will be extremely important organizations in defining the
specialness of a place, the 'there' of a specific locale." However, a
locale's "there" might have not one but several interpretations, changing
significantly from one audience to another. The Washington, D.C., of the
First Ladies, for example, may appear to be an entirely different city to
the rapidly growing population of recent immigrants from Pakistan who are
settling in the metropolitan region.
Which somebody should a museum be for?
International Influences on Museum Professionals and Museum Practices
It isn't just visitors who are thinking globally; museum professionals
are, too. No longer do their models come solely from around the corner.
Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao and the Tate Modern in London are
providing city councils around the world with ideas about how to revive
depressed industrial areas of their core cities, and international tourism
plays a major role in this scenario. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's
narrative approach to its exhibit content, pioneered a decade ago, is now
used by similar institutions worldwide. National museums everywhere are
inspired by their counterparts in Australia and New Zealand, whose
exhibitions transcend the traditional boundaries of history, art, and
science.
Decreasing costs for communication and travel also are making exchanges
between museum professionals easier. Membership in the Paris-based
International Council of Museums (ICOM) has increased over 50 percent in
the past eight years to more than 15,000 members in 149 countries.
Although that increase largely comes from European members who number
nearly 12,000, ICOM has significant representation in North America, Asia,
Latin America, and Africa, and boasts 111 national committees.
As international museum consultant Elaine Heumann Gurian says, "Everyone
visits everywhere. Everyone goes to conferences everywhere. Everyone reads
each other. Everyone now communicates on the Internet, reads each other's
Web pages, and interacts via list-serves."
Networking across institutional and national borders, made easier by the
Web, has become matter of fact. Many international professional
associations have been founded in recent years, including the Instituto
Latinoamericano de Museos (ILAM) in 1997 and the International Council of
African Museums (AFRICON) in 1999. Moderated mailing lists have created
new communication channels and information forums for museum professionals
around the world. And our knowledge of international museums has improved.
Museum portals -such as the British 24-hour museum
(www.24hourmuseum.org.uk); the Australian Museums and Galleries Online
(AMOL); the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN); and the French
JOCONDE Museum Collection Database- provide access to thousands of museums
and their collections with a few simple clicks.
Today, information and ideas flow easily from museum to museum across
international borders. Says Gurian: "Most places I work with [in other
countries] are less timid than the majority of American museums. Having
read our material, they believe it and have put it into practice in ways
that we are still cautious about."
As our frames of reference continue to expand, international standards -for
example, codes of ethics and guidelines concerning the handling of
unlawfully appropriated objects from the Nazi era, as articulated by AAM
and ICOM- are becoming more widely accepted around the world. As standards
of practices in such fields as collecting, accessibility, conservation,
and education become more widespread, they may lead to better museum
practices generally, including ethical practices in collecting. For many
Western museums, this raises the extremely difficult question of
ownership.
Universal Museums, Universal Controversies
Increasingly, museums are being asked to operate in an international
context and to help the public understand the complexities of an
interconnected world. The notion of a global culture is not a new one. As
long ago as 1827, for example, German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote,
"National literature is now rather a meaningless term; the epoch of world
literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach."
Is it the same for "world collections"? Born from the cabinets of
curiosity of the 17th and 18th centuries, museums always have
collected -with and without permission of the owners- spectacular and exotic
objects and specimens from all over the world. One of the most popular
museums of the 17th century was Athanasius Kircher's Museum of the World,
which opened in Rome in 1651. Kircher's global vision was reflected in the
objects he collected for his "theatre of nature and art," including
sculptures from Japan and Egypt, Native American clothing, Chinese maps,
artworks from Sierra Leone, and (as his 1678 museum catalogue details) a
mermaid's tail and the bones of a giant.
While collecting has become more scientifically rigorous over the
centuries, the problem of original and rightful ownership of artifacts has
come under greater public scrutiny. Call it the "Parthenon Dilemma," in
reference to the long running dispute between England and Greece over the
legal and moral right to the so-called "Elgin Marbles," removed from
Turkish-occupied Greece by Lord Elgin in 1811 and displayed in the British
Museum in London.
In December 2002, 18 of the world's leading collecting
institutions -including the Rijksmuseum, the Hermitage, the Louvre, the
Berlin State Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and nine other
U.S. museums- signed a declaration identifying themselves as "universal
museums" and stating that the "universal admiration for ancient
civilizations would not be so deeply established today were it not for the
influence exercised by the artifacts of these cultures, widely available
to an international public in major museums." These institutions also
stated that they would not return artifacts seized during colonial rule or
during similar earlier periods of history.
Initiated by the British Museum, the declaration also affects other
institutions with objects of disputed ownership, such as the Pergamon
Altar at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin (claimed by Turkey); the Benin
Bronzes at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (claimed by Nigeria); and
Egyptian sculptures in the Louvre. The list is long.
While the 18 museums acknowledge and support the recent international
conventions against the illegal acquisition of cultural artifacts, they
argue that "the objects and monumental works that were installed decades
and even centuries ago in museums throughout Europe and America were
acquired under conditions that are not comparable with current ones. . . .
We should acknowledge that museums serve not just the citizens of one
nation but the people of every nation."
The result, not surprisingly, was a storm of protest. Critics claimed the
museums were using the notion of the global museum to support an argument
against repatriating certain selected objects to countries that claim
original ownership.
Maurice Davies, deputy director of Britain's Museums Association,
described the statement as "a George Bush approach to international
relations," reported The Art Newspaper in its February issue. "It is a
very crude statement that doesn't give credit to the subtlety of thought
that many museums give this issue." Professor Andreas Eshete of Ethiopia,
chair of the Association for the Return of Ethiopia's Magdala Treasures,
called it "no more than Eurocentric special pleading" and noted pointedly
that "few of Ethiopia's 60 or so million inhabitants can visit the great
museums of Europe or the U.S. to inspect their heritage." In the United
States, Tom Cremers, Web-site moderator for the Museum Security Network's
listserv, was quoted by The Art Newspaper as calling the statement
"outright cultural colonialism." The International Council of Museums
(ICOM) and Museums Australia were among the groups publicly critical of
the statement, the latter advocating for the return of aboriginal bones,
hair, and other human remains in the collections of European natural
history museums.
The 18 museums may indeed have a legal argument to make about their right
to hold and display artifacts acquired in previous centuries under very
different laws and standards. But they still will have to negotiate with
ethnic groups and nation-states asserting their right to art and objects
that reflect their cultural heritage. As a general principle, AAM's Code
of Ethics for Museums states that "competing claims of ownership that may
be asserted in connection with objects in [a museum's] custody should be
handled openly, seriously, responsively and with respect for the dignity
of all parties involved." And this complex legal and ethical issue will
not disappear. In fact, with the increase in international travel and the
accessibility of vast new amounts of historical records and related data,
it shows every sign of becoming more public and more pressing.
The Web as a Global Medium
One solution might be the Web. New technologies facilitate the
transmission of culture, transcending barriers of geography, ethnicity,
and, potentially, social status and income. The Web has created a
borderless society. As David Weinberger writes in Small Pieces Loosely
Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web, the Web is a "place that has no soil,
no boundaries, no near, no far."
In recent years, 1.5 billion Web sites, including millions of individual
sites, have been established. Never before have such large numbers of
people become producers of cultural content, seeking only the respect of
their peers as their main reward. In a way, the Web has become a wildly
disorganized museum of humanity, with its search machines serving as
rather sloppy curators.
No other medium has made information about museums and their collections
more accessible than the Web, whose potential to build new cultural
environments through sophisticated exhibitions and educational offerings
is just starting to develop. All over the world, digitization projects are
turning hidden collections into visible global assets. Of course, in this
context "global" means the First World: 72 percent of Internet users live
in high-income countries, which are home to 14 percent of the world's
population, according to Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World, a 2002
report from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
In theory, the Web is a democratic medium, where all institutions have
equal opportunity and a global audience has access to many museums. In
practice, however, as explained in Status of Technology and Digitization
in the Nation's Museums and Libraries, a 2002 report from the Institute of
Museum and Library Services, larger museums have a greater presence on the
Web than do midsize or small museums. The reasons are obvious: larger
museums have more funds and Web expertise than do smaller museums. As a
result, the Web doesn't just facilitate access to cultural institutions,
it also contributes to the growing impact of larger, firmly established
museums. In fact, some museums, such as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Tate, have more virtual
than real visitors.
In addition, though the images of millions of artifacts have been
digitized, there is evidence that they do not reach the audiences that
museums envisioned, even in the Western world. Eurobarometer: Public
Opinion in the European Union, an October 2000 report issued by the
European Commission, found that only 18 percent of users with Internet
access visited a museum Web site. In the United States, UCLA's 2001
report, Surveying the Digital Future, states that only 2 percent of Web
users go online to access such cultural activities as downloading music,
and only 3.8 percent use the Web to search for entertainment.
For developing countries especially, the potential benefits of the Web
remain just that -potential. While in theory one can access the Internet
from anywhere in the world, in reality an estimated two-thirds of the
world's population does not even own a telephone. According to Deepening
Democracy, 854 million adults in the world are illiterate; about
two-thirds of them women. Although the adult literacy rate has increased
from an estimated 47 percent in 1970 to 73 percent in 1999, poverty,
gender inequality, disability, and illiteracy remain the most visible
barriers to cultural participation of developing countries. And the
digital divide only deepens this disparity.
When museums think about globalization, it might be wise to keep things in
perspective. Although the global economy affects all countries, not all of
them profit from it. Nearly 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day.
In 2002, the richest 1 percent had total income equal to the poorest 57
percent. Cheaper travel, communication, and cultural goods largely nurture
the developed world and a transnational urban elite. The term "global
village" -coined in the 1960s by Canadian communications theorist Marshall
McLuhan to describe T.V.'s homogenizing effect around the world- has become
a misnomer. While globalization fosters greater connections and
interdependence among the nations of the world, it also contributes to the
divisions between poor and rich, educated and illiterate. Integration and
fragmentation are the two sides of the globalization coin.
Visions of Larger Responsibilities
As globalization takes us perhaps inevitably toward a standardized
consumer culture, museums face some challenging questions. Can they make a
meaningful contribution to the preservation of cultural diversity? Can
they effectively document the isolation of marginalized groups, the
disappearance of culturally specific traditions, or the alienation felt by
immigrant residents? Just as museums have established biodiversity
policies that help to sustain the natural ecosystem, can they -or should
they- also strive to safeguard the "cultural ecosystem"?
In an increasingly interconnected world, museums have an opportunity,
perhaps even a responsibility, to become more aware of the global scale of
their topics and the global provenance of their collections. Models
already exist, and they can be found in the museum field itself. Natural
history museums already have gone through much of this process. Specimens
acquired from expeditions to every continent turned natural history
museums into unique repositories of world heritage. Today many of their
exhibitions reflect a global perspective, no matter how local their focus.
In addition, many ethnological museums today strive for more open
communication with their constituencies. And though discussions with
indigenous communities about ownership of objects or display techniques
have often been accompanied by conflict, they often have led to a fuller
awareness of the artifacts -provenance and cultural significance- to the
benefit of the community and the museum.
Despite the challenges of taking a more global perspective in their
overall operations, museums have much more to gain than to lose by
thinking more broadly and reaching out to an increasingly diverse,
transnational audience. With their collections as their core, and with
their missions of civic responsibility and building community, museums,
more than any other institution, have the potential to model tolerance and
respect for other cultures, creating real and lasting understanding.
Museums at their best have the special ability to make us feel -wherever we
come from- culturally "at home."
---
Based in Amsterdam, Dr. Klaus Müller is a museum and web consultant,
independent filmmaker, and European program coordinator for the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC since 1994. He serves as a
representative agent of the Holocaust Museum in Europe.
Dr. Müller worked as a curator with Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield to
conceptualize and develop the current exhibition on "Anne Frank The
Writer: An unfinished Story" at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (June
12 - December 12, 2003) that displays for the first time Anne Frank's
original writings together in one exhibition and portrays her as a writer
in her own right. He played a central role in negotiating this
unprecedented international loan agreement with the Museum's partner
institutions, the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD), in
Amsterdam and ANNE FRANK-Fonds (Foundation) in Basel, Switzerland, to
bring Anne Frank's original writings -never before displayed outside the
Netherlands- to Washington, D.C., in honor of the Museum's 10th
Anniversary.
In addition to his work as a Museum and Web Consultant, Dr. Müller is an
independent filmmaker. He was the initiator, research director, and
associate producer of the award-winning film Paragraph 175, which profiles
gay survivors of Nazi persecution, and assistant director of the film But
I was a Girl, documenting the life of Dutch lesbian resistance fighter and
female orchestra conductor, Frieda Belinfante.
Dr. Müller is a founding Board Member and Web Coordinator of the ICOM
International Committee of Memorial Museums for the Remembrance of Victims
of Public Crimes (IC MEMO). He holds a Ph.D. summa cum laude in Sociology
and a Master's degree with honors in German Literature and Philosophy,
both from the University of Münster, Germany.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council or
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The author expresses his sincere
thanks to Elaine Heumann Gurian, Barry Munitz, and Paula Hutton McKinley.
You can reach Dr. Müller at km@kmlink.net .
SOURCES
Publications
Castells, Manuel. The Internet Galaxy. Reflections on the Internet,
Business, and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Cowen, Tyler. Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the
World's Cultures. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002.
Friedman, Thomas L. The Lexus and the Olive Tree. New York: Farrar,
Straus, Giroux and Anchor Books, 2000.
Hamelink, Cees. J. The Ethics of Cyberspace. London: Sage Publications,
2000.
Jameson, Frederic, and Masao Miyoshi, ed. The Cultures of Globalization.
Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998.
Lo Sardo, Eugenio. Athanasius Kircher, Il Museo del Mondo. Rome: Edizioni
De Luca, 2001.
Legrain, Philippe. Open World: The Truth about Globalisation. London:
Abacus, 2002.
Müller, Klaus. "Museums and Virtuality," Curator 45, no. 1, 2002, pp.
21-35.
Skramstad, Harold. "An Agenda for American Museums in the Twenty-First
Century." In America's Museums, a special issue of Daedalus (American
Academy of Arts and Sciences), Summer 1999, vol. 128.
Weil, Stephen E. "From Being about Something to Being for Somebody: The
Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum." In America's Museums, a
special issue of Daedalus (American Academy of Arts and Sciences), Summer
1999, vol. 128.
Weinberger, David. Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the
Web. Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Books, 2002.
Web sites
AAM Diversity Coalition:
http://aamdiversitycoalition.homestead.com/divcoagenda.html
Center for Arts and Culture. Access and the Cultural Infrastructure. Issue
paper by Allison Brugg Bawden, November 2002:
www.culturalpolicy.org/pdf/access.pdf
European Commission. Eurobarometer: Public Opinion in the European Union.
Report Number 53:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/
public_opinion/archives/eb/eb53/eb53_en.pdf
European Community's resolution on cultural heritage and globalization:
www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_Co-operation/Heritage/Resources/econfer5.asp#P20_1971
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Status of Technology and
Digitization in the Nation's Museums and Libraries, 2002:
www.imls.gov/Reports/TechReports/intro02.htm
International Council of Museums (ICOM) Activity Report, 1998-2001:
http://icom.museum/act_rep2001/page54.html
The Power of Cultural Tourism. Keynote presentation by Gail Dexter Lord at
the Wisconsin Heritage Tourism Conference. Sept. 17, 1999, Lac du
Flambeau, Wis.:
www.lord.ca/publications/articles/power_cultural_tourism.html
UCLA Center for Communications Policy Internet Report 2001. Surveying the
Digital Future, Year Two:
http://ccp.ucla.edu/pdf/UCLA-Internet-Report-2001.pdf
UNDP Human Development Reports, including Deepening Democracy in a
Fragmented World, 2002: http://hdr.undp.org
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO). Culture, Trade and Globalisation: Questions and Answers:
www.unesco.org/culture/industries/trade
UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Facts and Figures 2000:
http://portal.unesco.org/uis
UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Literacy report:
http://portal.unesco.org/uis
United Nations Population Division, Department of Economic and Social
Affairs. 2002 International Migration Report, Oct. 28, 2002:
www.un.org/esa/population/
publications/ittmig2002/ittmigrep2002.htm
U.S. Department of Commerce. A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding
Their Use of the Internet: www.ntia.doc/gov/ntiahome/dn/
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[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
================
II. GLOBAL AGENT
================
Global Agent profiles a "globalist" making an impact on a global level
with an overview of some of the responsibilities, experiences and issues
involved with their job. Each profile includes a short bio and a Q&A
format piece.
Margarita Quihuis,
Private Venture Advisor
Margarita Quihuis is an independent venture advisor who brings her deep
private equity experience and network to turn pre-funded and early stage
startup companies into viable, fundable and sustainable businesses. In
addition to her advisory practice, Ms. Quihuis is co-founder of Open
Capital Network, an accelerator and venture fund aimed at developing
technologies for emerging global markets. Prior to OCN, Ms. Quihuis was a
venture partner for NewVista Capital, executive director of the Women's
Technology Cluster, head of New Media Development at IDEO, and director of
IT at Horsley Bridge Partners, a multi-billion venture fund-of-funds. She
has held technical positions with Getty Oil, Raychem Corporation and
Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing.
Ms. Quihuis has served as a consultant to the U.S. State Department on
entrepreneurship and has been widely quoted in the Asian Venture Capital
Report, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes ASAP,
Red Herring, CNN and CBS MarketWatch. Other activities include
participation on the executive committee of Hispanic-Net, serving as a
board member of NanoSig -- a northern California based organization
dedicated to the commercialization of nanotechnology -- and sitting on the
board of Agent Software. She also sits on the advisory board of Women In
Technology International's Global Executive Network and acts as an advisor
to Acrossworld Communications. Ms. Quihuis holds a bachelor's degree in
Petroleum Engineering from Stanford University.
I first met Ms. Quihuis a few years ago while attending the Silicon Forum,
a roundtable discussion with leading Silicon Valley thinkers founded by my
friend Auren Hoffman. We recently had a chance to sit down and discuss her
thoughts on globalization.
Global Degree: As a venture advisor, what has caught your eye on the
global stage?
Margarita Quihuis: I am fascinated by social applications such as fuel
cell technology because I can see a market for this in the developing
world. Some tend to take for granted how an application like solar-powered
fuel cells can change the global landscape. It's not simply a means to use
our laptop or PDA at the local coffee shop. When you think about the lack
of electrical infrastructure in the developing world, where one cannot
depend on a steady and reliable current, it becomes a much-needed
technology. Everything we produce on a technological level in the first
world is designed with the assumption that it will reside in a clean,
air-conditioned room with AC power, no power spikes and it is up 24/7. As
soon as you get out of that environment, though, our technology does not
work -- or does not work as reliably.
Having a hybrid power source becomes interesting and compelling. Anything
from hybrid cars to solar charges will make a significant impact on how
people work and play. Applications such as laptops, cell phones and PDAs
then become global. You can use your computer during a blackout in
California, in the Egyptian desert or in a small, rural village in India.
I believe that such technology will be developed at a faster pace from
within developing countries since their citizens will benefit to a greater
degree from it. For example, India developed a PDA that supports
multilingual software development. In the United States we tend not to
think about this because our frame of thought is to support English and
maybe a few European languages. In India they need to support something
like 20 to 30 languages. We are going to see huge strides in software
development within countries other than the U.S. simply because they will
be used as social applications. This means that a place like India will
move to a hybrid fuel source because they have a much more vested interest
in such progress.
GD: What are your thoughts on development throughout the world?
MQ: I think development can be good. However, there is no question that
development presents many losses. On the whole, though, I think people
live healthier lives and have more choices because of development. I think
it is especially good for women. When you look at the amount of labor
women exert around the world in terms of gathering water, taking care of
children, taking care of the elderly, farming, tending to healthcare,
conducting micro-entrepreneurship -- these women are exhausted. Anything
that can help them is good. Giving them a pump for water, giving them a
means to earn money so they can buy services instead of having to do
everything themselves, is good. I think development is a great blessing
for women.
GD: What are some of the more interesting examples of globalization that
you have come across?
MQ: There is definitely a change in the way business people think. C.K.
Prahala asserted that the developing world, including the poor, is an
untapped market. Business people tend to have a bias in terms of viable
consumers for products and services. We overlook the people who are hidden
in plain site, if you will. When we look at developing countries and study
their markets we need to rethink all of our prejudices and assumptions
related to why people buy and sell goods. And how people use goods. The
fact that poor people can't afford the inventory cost of the product
doesn't necessarily mean that they don't want the product or don't need
it. They just don't want to buy a huge bottle of it. A soap company in
India has made a fortune by packaging and selling a mini-size,
one-time-use shampoo that costs a few pennies instead of forcing people to
spend valuable money on a large bottle. This is sort of an opposite way
from how Americans think: bigger is better since products become less
expensive in volume. Disposable phones and pre-paid calling cards are
other examples of overlooking the obvious markets. This didn't seem like a
viable business model, yet it has turned into a multibillion-dollar
industry. When you look at the early adopters you find the extralegal
community in the United States. I think businesses are now looking for the
ultimate untapped market through globalization.
Companies have focused so much on the middle-class, yet the rest of the
world does not fall into a "middle-class" like that found within the
United States. There is no such thing as a middle class in many places
throughout the world. We are trained in America to market our services to
the broad base of consumers: the middle class. But that training doesn't
work globally. We need to think outside of the box on a global level.
Again, the obvious customers are hidden in plain sight.
A good political example of this is Vicente Fox when he campaigned to
become president of Mexico. As strange as it sounds, he spent time
campaigning in California because he saw customers hidden in plain sight.
Knowing that 20 to 25 percent of the Mexican labor force lives in
California, and that Mexicans residing in California keep in close
communication with family in Mexico (and talk politics), he found a way to
leverage an untapped market.
The other interesting thing I have noticed is how much globalization is
indeed making lifestyles more efficient. I recently came across a cement
company that allows people to buy cement in Los Angeles and then delivers
it to building sites in Mexico. These are individuals who are living and
working in California and send money back to Mexico on a regular basis
through a remittance service so the family can build a house. The cement
company cuts out the middleman -- the remittance service -- and provides a
direct service. This benefits consumers greatly. Buying the building
material online is cheaper and delivery of the product is faster. It also
gives the consumer more control over how the money is spent. Through a
remittance service, the family in Mexico might divert the funds into
different areas. In this way, the money goes directly toward the purchase
of their product (cement). It was a clever way to use technology to
capture a huge part of the remittance market. This more efficient
interaction is a direct result of globalization.
GD: What is your favorite book and movie?
MQ: My favorite movie is "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th
Dimension". I've always wanted to become Buckaroo Banzai with so many
different interests and talents. It's a fun cult movie. My favorite book
right now is "The Tipping Point". It speaks to a global community in
detailing how poor societies operate and are more socially interconnected
than other groups. As you become more affluent, your dependency on others
decreases. When you are poor that whole "communal operation" is a survival
skill.
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[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
=====================
III. GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT
=====================
Global Spotlight highlights an organization that is interacting with
globalization in some way.
This issue: UNICEF Change for Good® Program
While traveling, I usually calculate how much money I'll need for a taxi
back to the airport and then convert my foreign currency into U.S. dollars
at a bank rather than at the airport (assuming I'll receive a better
rate). Without fail, I'm always left with a few paper bills and coins that
end up in a small box at home as keepsakes. I recently came across a more
fruitful use for those souvenirs.
From the UNICEF Web site:
The next time you travel, please donate your leftover foreign currency to
UNICEF through the Change for Good® Program.
Change for Good® is a partnership between UNICEF, the United Nations
Children's Fund, and the International Airlines Industry, designed to
redeem passenger's normally wasted foreign currency and convert it into
life-saving materials and services for the world's undeserved children.
Thirteen airlines worldwide collect foreign currency for UNICEF.
Participating airlines include Aer Lingus, Air Mauritius, Alitalia, All
Nippon Airways (ANA), American Airlines, Asiana Airlines, British Airways,
Cathay Pacific, Crossair, Finnair, JAL, QANTAS and TWA.
It is estimated that US$72 million in inconvertible foreign coins and low
denomination bills are forfeited each year as a result of international
air passenger travel. The International Air Transport Association reports
that the world's airlines carried over 489 million passengers
internationally in 1999. Even allowing for passengers not carrying
currency, such as children, millions continue to be lost each year.
Accumulating these pocketfuls of foreign change can yield tens of millions
of dollars per year and help save lives. The average passenger carrying $2
in foreign change, for example, could buy 30 oral rehydration packets - a
lifesaving mixture of salt and sugar which prevents death from dehydration
- or 25 immunization needles, or enough high-dose vitamin A to protect 30
toddlers from blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency for one year.
Since 1991 over US$27 million has been raised for UNICEF around the world
through the Change for Good® program.
Learn more:
http://www.unicefusa.org/support/cfg.html
[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
==========================
IV. SIDEBAR: "Drowned Out"
==========================
Sidebar is a section devoted to an interesting -- or devastating --
outcome of globalization, a unique tidbit relevant to the global economy
or a thought-provoking quote from an individual within the audiences
served by Global Degree.
This issue of Global Degree highlights a recent documentary by Franny
Armstrong (Spanner Films Ltd.).
"Drowned Out" follows the Jalsindhi villagers through hunger strikes,
rallies, police brutality and a six-year Supreme Court case. They are
faced with three choices: move to the slums of the city, accept a place at
a resettlement site or stay at home and drown.
The people of Jalsindhi in central India must make a decision fast. In the
next few weeks, their village will disappear underwater as the giant
Narmada Dam fills. Best selling author Arundhati Roy joins the fight
against the dam and asks the difficult questions. Will the water go to
poor farmers or to rich industrialists? What happened to the 16 million
people displaced by 50 years of dam building in India? Why should I care?
Reviews:
"At once angry, compassionate, disturbing and yet empowering, it makes for
urgent and necessary viewing." - Time Out
"A film of enormous heart, grit and insight that is both taut political
essay and enormously moving plea." - San Francisco Film Festival Jury
My friend Sanjeev Bery met Franny Armstrong at the 2003 San Francisco Film
Festival and was able to obtain for me a review copy. I urge you to watch
this film, regardless of your politics. "Drowned Out" is a captivating
documentary on the real-life struggle between the powerful and the
vulnerable in the shadow of globalization -- and the definition of and
issues surrounding "progress".
Watch the film and learn more about the director at:
http://www.spannerfilms.net/watch_films.htm
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[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
==============
V. GLOBAL WIRE
==============
Headlines related to globalization from the world's leading news sources.
"Globalization challenges Asian languages"
Asia Times
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global%5FEconomy/EG31Dj01.html
"Peru, Ecuador Reflect Broad Latin Changes"
Associated Press
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/6193067.htm
"Sri Lanka's Village-Based Alternative to Globalization"
NPR - Weekend Edition
http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1321059
===================
ABOUT GLOBAL DEGREE
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Global Degree is the leading e-journal studying the impact of
globalization and the relationship between business, geography, demography
and global economics. Each issue of Global Degree offers a timely, open
and multidisciplinary discussion of globalization from different
perspectives including, but not limited to, business, politics, academics,
technology, economics, activism and foreign policy. Essays and interviews
will touch upon ideas, opinions and concepts related to trade, investment,
technology, labor, governance, law, political and/or social unrest, the
environment, and culture.
EDITOR: Mel Ochoa, contact(at)gdegree.com
http://www.gdegree.com/about_the_editor
Global Degree welcomes essay submissions, feedback/comments and
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or advertising purposes. The opinions expressed herein are those of the
contributors and not necessarily shared by the Global Degree staff. All
editorial rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Mel Ochoa.
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