Globalisation is the buzz word of the post-modern world needs to be gilded with the wisdom of the east to gain universal approval, particularly in Third World countries, said Professor Syed Siraj, chairman, Mass Communication Department of Allama Iqbal Open University, in a public talk delivered here at the Institute of Engineers on Tuesday.
"Everyone knew that the globalisation is the buzz word of the times and it had revolutionised Information Technology industry where the accent is on high speed, with everyone wanting things here and now, touching the good and features of this concept that every country is vying for adopting in its economic system", he said.
The concept had brought boon to the businessmen, who see it as a wonderful strategy to increase profits and power. Consumers want the same brand over and over again. As for the non-government organisations (NGOs), they see it as a levelling tool to improve the society by inculcating the realisation of democracy and humanism.
He said globalisation concept has made national boundaries irrelevant with governments being unable to control media content, and information is equally shared by all over the world, to provide greater access of information, and enormous amount of data is available for free.
"Eight million words are transmitted every second through the Internet and the Web-sites. And, the present IT system has increased, audiences in the media for programming as well advertising, he remarked.
"From terrorism to environment, HIV-AIDS to Sars (bird flue), free trade to protections, population growth to poverty, globalisation had deeply impacted human life in the new millennium, balancing the positive and negative effects of this new phenomenon, which every country is making part of its system."
Nevertheless, the professor was more expansive while explaining the evil side of this process and said globalisation has made the people of the Third World victims to cultural imperialism. Giving examples of this process, he said we get images through the media, and then we go out to giant, Mac sandwiches, hamburgers, and we speak only English at home, at the expense of own tongue. 'People now like to watch TV, throwing away their habit to read books or visit relatives, even forgetting to attend marriages and funerals of loved and dear ones.
The Third World countries have also rejected economic, cultural and media globalisation because of inequities it has brought to world-wide news flows and for spreading harmful western values for indigenous culture, specially the American dream of wanting wasteful products which were not durable and lasting had to be thrown about.
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