"The case of contamination" by Kwane Anthony Appiah, analysis in ways in which the world is becoming globalized and contaminated. The article began with a description of a scene in which Ashanti, (the king) was in a ceremony in Kumani and before the king arrived, people were talking in their phones, and others were expressing their ideas on educations, science, technology and other related world issues. Even too many people’s surprise: The king happily announced that he will also be meeting with the head of the World Bank. With all of these, there's only two sides to choose from: those who agree with globalization and those who don’t agree with globalization. Weather people agree with globalization on or not, the truth of the matter is …show more content…
The influence of Cosmopolitans do acknowledge the fact that many people believe that their culture is being threaten by competition due to worldwide economy. Appiah uses as an example how Asantes farmers have been able to sustain their lives because of cocoa trees and they fear that if there were a downfall due to globalization as it did in the past, then they will have to find another way of sustaining their lives and that might be challenging for these people just as it might be an upbringing to others- as I stated before there are many pros and cons to this idea, just as globalization might bring out many opportunities to many communities, along the way many sacrifices will have to be implemented.
Appiah also describe how relationships though the world are changing. He states that an example on how his when his father was young, a person of the village would take on an farm that their village chief would give them and him and his brother would work in the farm and provide for his family with clothes, food and shelter. Everything from marriages to funerals were taken care off for generations to come but due to gas prices being so high, the transportation of the crops are highly expensive. Also, the young people are being exposed to other cultures and are beginning leave their villages to other places. As much as it would be good for them for their villages to stay connected and
When it comes to globalization, everyone may have a different vision of it’s outcome. For Marcelo Gleiser, the author of “Globalization: Two visions of the Future of Humanity”, a completely globalized world may result in a dystopia. In contrast, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, the author of “A Mickey Mouse Approach to Globalization” and Tanveer Ali, the creator of “The Subway Falafel Sandwich and the Americanization of Ethnic Food” may think of globalization as other cultures sharing each other’s components to interact on a new level and spurring a more “open-minded” (Ali 27) individual.
Socially, globalization impacts the lives of people by impacting their work, their families, and their societies. This is because globalization affects the security of a country, its culture, and identity by introducing new ways of thinking and living. In the article, The Case for Contamination, the author Kwame Anthony Appiah, observes
In “The Case for Contamination” the author Kwame Appiah analyzes and points out the many ways in which the world is becoming globalized. He uses many extensive examples to show that the world is getting ‘contaminated’. By ‘contamination’ he means that the mixture of all the innovative values and traditions are damaging and eventually destroying what our ancestors have left us. In his analysis, he describes the gradual transformation of many cultures and different religions to support his points but in his personal opinion he is very open-minded and is not greatly influenced by his religion. His tone is informative and gives the reader the freedom to decide between
In the article, “The Case for Contamination”, by Kwame Anthony Appiah, the author focused on globalization and its effects on the world. He stressed how new innovations and traditions, rooted from modernization, are essentially contaminating age-old customs and values. Appiah used examples from his personal experiences to illustrate the shift from traditional customs to modern practices within cultures. Although the author explained how globalization adversely affects traditional values and cultures, he also stressed the importance of free will and that ultimately, the people choose which course of action globalization will take on humanity. Though that may be true, the fact still remains that the world is being contaminated with new, modern innovations and values, and globalization is negatively affecting society.
Appiah spends more than half of his introduction describing how complicated the word cosmopolitanism truly is. He keeps revolving around the overlapping idea that we as a people, are not confined to the limits of what our eyes can see. Our strengths, our experiences and our knowledge comes from more than where we were born or how we were raised. We cannot and should not be limited to those
Individuals of the same ethnic background share the same culture a factor that explains that there, as many cultures as there are ethnic backgrounds across the world. Globalization has, however, led to interaction of people from varied cultural backgrounds. Because of the interaction, globalization has been accused of limiting cultural diversity. It is, however, not the case in reality. The purpose of this paper is to analyze some of the factors that justify that globalization has not limited cultural diversity as its critics say. Thus, globalization should not be viewed as a hindrance to cultural diversity because the best subject of moral concern should be the individual person and not the nation, community or the society.
Through the lenses of preservationists, culture is authentic, carries traditions that keep historical ancestry alive, and is threatened by “cultural imperialism”. From a cosmopolitan perspective, culture is the freedom of choice, made up of multiple values and ideas that allow individuals to reinvigorate its uniqueness in an ever changing society. In “The Case for Contamination”, published by the New York Times Magazine, Kwame Anthony Appiah addresses the concern regarding the diminishment of cultural identity in poor countries by introducing the idea of cosmopolitanism: being free from cultural preordains and engaging in a pluralist society. Appiah endorses globalization and explains that resisting cultural interconnection will perhaps trap people in a stagnating society and avert it from achieving a pluralistic environment. He claims that cosmopolitanism enables individuals to adopt foreign culture based on how they see fit within their cultural context, and without “structuring the consciousness” and detaching people from traditional beliefs.
Appiah defines Cosmopolitanism as being conscious that every citizen that belongs to a community among other communities. The writer wanted to remind the reader the value being of conscious that we are part of a bigger community. Appiah main idea in his work was to start having conversations that discuss cultures, beliefs and values to expand our knowledge about other cultures and not having the excuse of marking another culture’s belief right or wrong. He argues that by using Cosmopolitanism we can create a more united community.
In this week’s “Working with Evidence”, the primary focus was on globalization, which is the process of businesses or other organizations developing international influence or operations on an international scale, after World War II. Based on the provided six images and the text of Chapter 23, it presented different ways various groups of people experienced globalization since the end of World War II. To begin, visual source 23.1 (‘Globalization and Work’) shows a Chinese-owned company producing jeans in a small country in southern Africa called Lesotho - this image shows the economic benefits of globalization. Many companies in wealthier countries would often find advantages to build facilities in places where labor is less expensive or environmental regulations are less restrictive. However, some companies would abuse the process of economic globalization as shown in visual source 23.3 (‘Globalization and Protest’). Visual source 23.3 shows a protester in Sao Paulo, Brazil, holding up a sign that reads “A better world according to Monsanto is a world with more cancer.” The company Monsanto is a major producer of herbicides, genetically modified foods, and many highly controversial chemicals such as DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange, and bovine growth hormones. In dozens of developed/developing countries activists have demonstrated or riot against government policies that removed subsidies raised prices on essential products, frozen salaries, or cut back on social services. Although
At this point of time, globalization has grown to be a phenomenon that is significantly important economically, politically, and culturally. The amalgamation and incorporation of the world economy around the globe has reshaped business. Not only this, it has created "new social classes, different jobs, unimaginable wealth, and, occasionally, wretched poverty" (Kiggundu 2002, p. 4) by restructuring the lives of the individuals. For some, globalization is associated to modernism and contemporary practices. Others understand it as American domination (particularly those living in Asia). On the other hand, some people believe it to be the emasculation of America (Kiggundu 2002, p. 4).
In Kwame Appiah’s introductory chapter, Critical Thinking, he delves into the topic of cosmopolitanism, and its necessity within our modern world. Appiah claims that while complete cosmopolitanism may not be obtainable or optimal, partial cosmopolitanism is the ideal model for us to follow. He supports this claim by highlighting that the modern world is expanding rapidly in its population leading to a critical need for conversations to be established amongst ourselves. As a civilization who is divided by borders, social and cultural constructs we have little to no room for the fundamental ethical bonds that we possessed thousands of years ago. Furthermore, not only is our exponentially growing population the issue, but also our blatant
The author of the article named Kwame Appiah who is also from Ghana, precisely analyzed and demonstrates examples of the ways in which the world is indeed becoming globalized. Depending on how one may look at globalization, it may appear as a good thing, or it may appear to come off as a bad thing. It will all be based on that person’s paradigm or personal experiences/beliefs. From the author Kwame Appiah’s standpoint he demonstrated globalization as a positive thing yielding good results.
The world is not a large and strange place anymore. The world is a place that is interconnected and intertwined. The world has become from a place that each country and their peoples are separate and isolated to a place that each country and their peoples are part of a global network. Thanks to globalization this is occurring. Globalization is the ‘international integration” or ‘de-bordering’ – “a number of highly disparate observations whose regular common denominator is the determination of a profound transformation of the traditional nation-state” (Von Bogdandy 2). Globalization is connecting different people from different cultures and backgrounds together. More and more corporations are entering new foreign markets to sell their
Source I’s perspective is the view that through globalization; many cultures are destroyed and that this diminishes society. This source outlines a
Cosmopolitanism does have its limits in achieving its aims. It is necessary that one tracks the historical roots of cosmopolitanism to understand what visions it sets out to propose for IR. In Hellenic era, cosmopolitanism finds its meaning when Alexandrian intermarriage took place (Russel, 1945: 220), introducing the concept of ‘mankind as a whole’. Similar notion came into being in Stoicism in which people, apart from their own local identity, are united under a world citizenship (Nussbaum, 2010: 156). Kant, in the eighteenth century, furthered expounded on cosmopolitanism by suggesting a rule of cosmopolitan law and universal liberties (Held, 2010: 3).