"Go West, Young Man" - Hmm, no thanks...

The mid 19th century exhortation, by which generations of Americans moved across the country from their eastern seaboard arrival point to the west is now only valid from that country if they keep on going... (and of course you can't just say "young man" any more in deference to political correctness by gender - which in this case is fine by me, even if we have gone totally overboard in other instances!).
I started this week talking about globalisation in Korea and finished the week in Shanghai talking to a UK company which is contemplating a serious move into China, in a great cosmoplitan bar on the Bund, the Glamour Bar owned by Hong Kong based Australian friend Michelle Garnaut, where the clientele was a real mixture of nationalities, followed the next morning by visits to a variety of buildings and sites on behalf of some Middle Eastern investors. This is economic globalisation.
If that wasn't enough globalisation for one week, the only member of my immediate family not in China at the end of the week was my wife. Our eldest son (Hong Kong based with an ability to comunicate in Mandarin and Spanish) is embarking for the second year running on some crazy 250km run across the Gobi Desert , with part of the idea being to raise money for charity, (more donations welcome). Our second son (fluent in Mandarin and with good Spanish) continues to work in Marketing and PR in Beijing for a British school and get involved in music as much as he can, and our daughter ( fluent in Spanish and Portuguese) is in Shanghai for a long weekend visiting school and University friends (nearly all of whom are good in Chinese) who have gravitated to Shanghai.
Did I have anything to do with the fact that they and their friends are "global?" Other than having provided a "global" life for them (well, only our children, not the others!) which was perhaps not always easy for them, they have all independently decided that the future lies in the East (or perhaps in our daughter's case, Latin America eventually...but not yet).
I don't need to look any further than my own family and friends to recognise that social globalisation anyway, is already an accepted way of life. Our friends, and the friends of our children are similar to us, if not ethnically at least in thought. It's a start - and it's now "Go East...young person", (of course).

Comments

[JC]

First time I felt about "Globalisation" was when I and a group of friend went to Pattaya for holiday many years ago, my friend was complaining the new Starsbuck destroyed the beachfront scene!

In my dictionary, Globalisation (applied to economy) was an already confirmed termolgy as I was shopping with the same retailer; drinking coffee in the same coffee cafe; and withdrawing money for more shopping and coffee from the same bank cash machine in different cities! Globalisation is good or bad? The answer is always the "Pros. and Cons.". The most simple example to support the pros. side is Globalisation offers me a sense of familarity, no matter how remote and unknown a place I visit, as far as I see my favoured fashion retailer, I go WoW, "They are here too!" and I would then take the ACTION!
The sense of familiarity can be equivalent to finding your country's embassy in this new visit place. You feel you can talk the same language and relate to these people or thing.
However one of the Cons. is to make people, business or things go out of its own character, personality and uniqueness. This, on the other hand, takes me to appreciate the local bontique, elite type of services and small local shop idea more! Is bigger really better??? I guess the question is always controversial. However, to me, whatever goes too one side, it will lose its balance!

In my opinion, there becomes more room for bontique/elite type of business or services which can differentiate itself from the big boy. If Globalisation is a dominated trend, business practice will then become very dull ,non-creative and subsequently inefficient if only one set of standard to follow! The world is big, our idea is even bigger, I assume we can allow to have both concepts "Globalisation" and "localization", as long as they are applied at the right area in our economy.