Impacts of Globalization

Globalization means a world that is interdependent between each country or an integrated world. An important factor that brings globalization is technology. The improvement of technology has enabled one to communicate, interact and travel around the world. For some globalized products, such as Mc Donald, Coca-cola, and Visa Credit Cards, the world from different parts have started to change and develop to a same generation. In the situation where one may affect another, there have been many changes in indigenous cultures in the world, which is the native cultures from different parts of the world. This is reflected in changes in economics, social behavior, religion, language, art and creativity. These impacts may be helpful or harmful to human beings.

The most concerned issue of the impacts of globalization on indigenous cultures is the economic change. Due to globalization, changes in the financial system in any banks affect one and another, and the financial system may give a direct reflection on economic activities. According to Hill(2005), about 25 years before, Islamic banking does not condemn interest, even though it is defined as unjust by Koran. After the indigenous people such as Pakistan adopted the condemnation system, all the Islamic banks from the world have averagely obtained more than 16 percents profit from its capital. Besides, globalization also improves the lifestyle of indigenous peoples in the form of urbanization. In the past, indigenous people live in small villages, but they live in cities now. It was supported by Some 300 million Chinese farmers are forecast to more to urban areas (2007) which reported in Beijing that, a forecast of over 300 million farmers in China will move to urban areas in the next 20 years. This is because globalization of the world trading has discovered the potential market of China which has huge population. This had provided more job opportunities. With higher income, they can obtain better living. This situation claims that, globalization has helped to develop the world economy and increase the production of indigenous peoples. Therefore, globalization has greatly affected the indigenous cultures.

Secondly, globalization has changed the social behavior among the indigenous. Firework was invented by the indigenous of China, and it was played during the Chinese New Year festival. Due to globalization, indigenous of Malaysia play fireworks on their New Year festival before it was illegalized. This is because globalization allowed fireworks to be traded. However, firework is dangerous, and some may suggest that this is the negative impact of globalization. Furthermore, entertainments of indigenous people were changed. In the past, the Chinese in China play dice or mahjong, but they play poker which was origin from western now. However, poker cards have been used as a gambling tool by the Chinese, and this has been argued that globalization has provided more opportunities of gambling to the world. Therefore, globalization may seriously affect the social behavior of indigenous people, and it can be a negative effect.

Thirdly, the impact of globalization on indigenous people has included the religion and beliefs. As the world is now more interdependent, religious effects are now more noticeable. Esposito (1999) claimed that, the increased of Muslim believers had raised the number of mosques in America, in which the demand had increased. This is because globalization has built up a better interaction between the Muslim and the indigenous of America. When the missionaries were allowed to travel to other countries, they might have the chances to influence the indigenous people in their beliefs. However, this may brings a lot of conflicts. The indigenous people who had practice different religion with their own cultures may quarrel or even fight for their beliefs. Besides, the change in beliefs also affects decision making. Payton (2007) states that “Dawn Gibbins, the founder and chairman of international flooring business Flowcrete attributes much of her company’s success to the ancient art of feng shui”. This shows that the English indigenous is affected by the Chinese beliefs, and they might make a lot of decision due to feng shui. Feng shui is not recognized by the scientist yet as it is not perfectly supported by scientific evidences. Some may claim that this is a negative effect because the decisions made are irrational. Consequently, the impacts of globalization on indigenous peoples’ religion may seem to be positive or negative effect.

Besides, impact on language is obviously seen. Globalization has enabled one to immigrate to another country. For an example, Malaysia, a country of multi races with multi languages might have an advantage in communicating with foreigners. As referred to Nazaruddin Hj.mohd Jali rt al. (2003), the official language of Malaysia is Malay, but a few of languages are commonly practiced in the society too. Normally, Malaysian can speak Malay, English and even mandarin. This is because of the immigration of Chinese from China in the past, and the recognized of English as the international language by the world. But this may lead to a situation where the native unable to speak their indigenous language in a proper fluent. They might use a lot of other languages in their conversation and have less practice on their indigenous language. To conclude, the impacts of globalization on indigenous languages can be beneficial or harmful to the society.
Lastly, traditional art and creativity of indigenous people might be affected by globalization too. As globalization provide the opportunities for artists to exchange knowledge with one and another, one may come out with a fusion design which includes different styles from different cultures. There might be a better invention in art, as the advantages from the art of different indigenous cultures are adopted. According to Payton (2007), Gibbins who is a success business women practise feng shui to redesign her company’s logo. This situation claims that the design of English indigenous was affected by the art of Chinese feng shui. However, when the norms were break, the traditional art might be evolved and lost its original form. When this situation continuously affects the indigenous culture, the traditional arts of music and building’s structures might become pictures or even wordings that written in the history. Therefore, globalization can brings positive and negative impacts to the art and creativity that practiced by indigenous people.

In conclusion, indigenous people from different parts of the world have been affected by globalization in economics, social behavior, religion, language, art and creativity. These impacts may be helpful or harmful to human beings. Although some may claim that globalization is good for the world as the interaction between countries is better, and even the indigenous was benefited in certain things, some may still suggest that globalization is harmful to indigenous in certain views. So, it is unarguable that either globalization is a good or bad develop of the world to indigenous cultures. However, globalization will continuously affect the indigenous in the future, as it was unstoppable when the technology provides such an environment for human beings.

References:
Esposito, JL 1999, The oxford history of islam, Oxford University Press, New York

Hill, CWL 2005, International business: competing in the blogal marketplace, 5th edn, McGraw-Hill, New York

Nazaruddin Hj.Mohd Jali, Ma’rof Redzuan, Ashrulkhadi Abu Samah, Ismail Hj. Mohd Rashid 2003, Malaysian studies nationhood and citizenship, trans. Wong Fook Khoon, Peason Malaysia, Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Payton, S 2007, ‘The yin crowd’, Financial Management, December, p.20

Some 300 milliion chinese farmers are forecast to move to urban areas 2007, Cities Alliance, viewed 22 December 2007,http://www.citiesalliance.org/publications/homepage-features/jan-07/million -chinese-farmers-urban-areas.html