Torn
I can’t decide if I care about globalization theory or not. I’m reading this book (Tomlinson, J. (1999)) and at times I’m like, “Yeah!” and at other times want to kill myself for not spending this time and money digging wells in Equatorial Guinea.
And why are there so many places with the word “Guinea” in their name? It’s like street names in the Twin Cities - letters can be combined in a myriad of ways. Get creative, colonial overlords.
Scene - a ship in the 1600s:
Captain: Men, we’ve spotted land again. Who would like to name this one? Alright, you there, Johnson, you haven’t had a go.
Johnson: Well, sir, we appear to be near the Equator…
Captain: Equatorial Guinea, it is. I like the way you think, Johnson. Now… who would like to name that piece of land over there?
These are the things that go through my head when I laugh to myself for no apparent reason.
As I have another paper to write this week (and let me tell you, it’s going to be great!), here is a YouTube video of a cat:
Also, I think my right eye is a wee bit infected from my contacts. I’ll let you know if there are horrific pictures.
Sphere: Related Content
September 11th, 2007 at 6:34 am
The other Yay Globalism go-to book is “the World is Flat”. It’s interesting if not overly wishfull. I think massive push towards globalization has less to do with altruism or even the white man’s burdon and more to do with US labor movments failing to globalize as well as their corporate counterparts. Infact us labor orgs have pretty much failed to do much of anything lately than fight over the scraps of industry left in the US.
One interesting technique in this area these days is the popularity of Microloans. Basically, the new favorite technique of Missionaries is to lend sums of money to developing nations at low interest (undercutting the WTO particularily) to develop local business instead of say just building a church. The longer term success of this idea has not been seen yet. Onward christian dollars!
September 11th, 2007 at 8:26 am
I didn’t mean ‘Yeah!’ as in I’m excited about it. I was talking about the value of debating, in a large number of books and journal articles, the degree to which it is occuring, the speed of ‘the tearing apart of space from place’, etc. Or doing spending my time doing something practical.
Also think a NYT columnist isn’t going to cut it in terms of intellectual theorising down here. At UniMelb, you go Stuart Hall or you go home.*
Also, I don’t know about Christians providing microloans, but that’s not the thrust of the industry.
*-God. I’ve started making theory jokes. Someone come get me and bring me home.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Sidestepping the confusing exchange above–Did that cat just die? I think they killed it.
It hardly seems appropriate to suggest that the ills of globalization are due to the inability of domestic labor movements to globalize at the same rate as corporate outsourcing to free-trade zones around the world.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
The cat’s just a little tipsy from vet-provided drugs. I really like the bit where it sits motionless for 10 seconds and then just falls over. My experience with wisdom-tooth Vicodin wasn’t nearly as exciting.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:23 am
Jeremy, why not appropriate? Not entirely, but I can see increased global operation (at least in manufacturing) as a reaction to the cost imposed by a domestic labor movemement without influence on a global scale. the wobblies had it right, and that was 100 years ago.