MacDonald enables you to enjoy learning local cultures

 -MacDonald is not necessarily an example of negative impacts of globalization-

Does Macdonald represent one of the bad effects made by globalization? Saying negative point of its effect, MacDonald tends to be discussed as one of bad examples of it. Some people urge that it is a negative influence and it has been eroding national culture identities. [1]Yet, does it really do that?

One of principles on the matter of new globalization is thought in a way in which world cultures are Americanized so that the other countries would completely be gotten involved in it and can be no longer their own traditionally unique cultures because of the globalization. U.S. restaurants including Macdonald is also said to take away uniqueness of cultures in products and try to make products Americanized. Even a sociologist George Ritzer expresses his concern about a bad impact of globalization stating “the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world.” Moreover, there is the fact that American fast food chains has dramatically and obviously been spreading out all over the world as looking at the actual increase in number which is the expansion of McDonalds has risen up to over 31,000 restaurants worldwide within the last fifty years.[2]

If we look at only the numbers, and evaluate the value of Macdonald, it can be said to be McDonalized meaning Americanized contributing to a negative impact of globalization spreading all over the world. Such a “surface’ evaluation is also done when you just find that McDonalds are everywhere in your country or even in other countries. However, is that all about McDonald?

Once you yourself go to foreign countries and try food at MacDonald, you will be able to find a local culture including food habits, each practice and religious that each country has.

Talking of the case of India, the first vegetarian outlet located near the Golden temple located in the Siklh holy city of Amritsar in northern India will be open. [3]The country is known for one of the countries which have many religions. Above all, Hindu having more than 85 % of population is the significant religion as well as the rest such as Muslim. [4]It means most of people in India are forbidden to eat pork or meat because of religion. Under such a limitation of food, the purpose of this attempt is to make vegetarian people enjoy their meals even at Macdonald.

Besides the Indian local products of Macdonald, let me introduce some of local meals being sold in other countries.

McRice Burger; in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Indonesia etc.

Image taken from http://goddisguisedasralphierce.blogspot.jp/2012/01/strange-side-of-burgers.html

McSwarama: turkey shawarma in pita bread in Israel

Image taken from http://www.yousaytoo.com/10-unique-mcdonalds-menu-thats-on-the-country-specific-only/1545206

Some of products sold in India

Image taken from http://gazetteazur.fr/tag/mccurry-pan/#

Gallo Pinto in Costa Rica

Image taken from http://www.nysemagazine.com/arcos-dorados

Laksewrap (salmon wrap in Norwegian) in Norway

image taken from http://www.littleoslo.com/eng/home/mcdonalds-norwegian-salmon-wrap

 

MacBeer in Germany and a few countries in Europe

Image taken from http://whatisthehaps.com/2012/04/08/australia-is-where-the-party-is-at/

I myself also found some differences between Macdonald in Japan and in Hong Kong. For instance, though we can get some a Chile source with meals in Hong Kong, we can’t get it in Japan. Of cause languages they speak is different from Japanese and they use both Cantonese and English. I also have never done self-service including throwing away trashes because cleaners would do it, while we have to do self-service after eating in Japan. What’s more, delivery services are widely used in Hong Kong although it is unusual in Japan. I remember seeing many delivery motorcycles running on street in Hong Kong. Most of McDonalds in Hong Kong are open for 24 hours as well. Looking around and you can recognize that customers are from all over the world. You can always hear people talking not only in Cantonese but in English, Tagalog, Hindi, Chinese and the like. I definitely could feel the differences and enjoyed comparing McDonalds in Hong Kong to ones in Japan.

Thus, the opinion that Macdonald’s expansion, as one of the negative impact from globalization, has being losing a culture identity is not necessarily so. Rather saying, McDonalds can teach us cultures since you can learn something different from food of Macdonald in your country including food habits, cultures, and practices of a country where you visit. What about McDonalds in your own country? Each country should have creativeness of its own. Are there any meals different from Japan? What about customer’s behaviors and atmospheres? I’ve never been to visited foreign countries except Hong Kong and China, so I would like to hear about McDonalds in other countries from you guys!

---

[1] Levin Institute.(n.d.) Culture and globalization .Retrieved from http://www.globalization101.org/uploads/File/Culture/cultall2011.pdf

[2] Ibid.

[3] Daily mail reporter. (2012). Mcdonald's to open first ever vegetarian-only restaurant next to golden temple in indian holy city of amritsar.. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2198197/McDonalds-open-vegetarian-restaurant-Golden-Temple-Indian-holy-city-Amritsar.html

[4] Indiaonlinepage.com .(2012).Hindu population in india.. Retrieved from http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/hindu-population-in-india.html

Myanmar (Burma) is making a soft landing

 ~ Democratization in process under the military government~

After the independence of Myanmar from the Britain in 1948, the civilian government under the military control by Ne Win, which would give citizens and the country itself about hard time about for 50 years later on, came into existence. Myanmar controlled by Ne Win seemed to be so far away from democracy at that time. Not only citizens there but people all over the world would never imagine the existence of democracy in Myanmar.[1][2]

However as the military government system was controlling the country, objections toward its system increasingly arouse from other countries including U.S.[3] It also deteriorated relationships with foreign countries, which worsen economy as well. While neighbor countries spreading stable relationships with other countries and were growing economically.

As the growth was taking place in countries around Myanmar, the citizens’ desire for democracy got increased. This will enable the following that the government realized that the military system would never work on modernizing Myanmar if they continued the same system and it also acknowledged the necessity of new movements in government itself. It is the movement that is the way to democratize the country slowly as remaining military system in it.  The relation between government and citizens became well-balanced, which can be thought to create relatively the stable condition in Myanmar today. Saying it more simply, the existence of military has made today’s Myanmar under stable condition. The condition of today’s Myanmar is being democratized with military government which is controlling citizens moderately.[4]

That kind of dramatic process has started since Thein Sein, a Burmese politician and former military figure who has been President of Myanmar, became a prime minister of Myanmar in 2007. Leading with the new system of governing by him, a national referendum also became be in adaption and further democratization was getting in process. In 2010 The Burmese military authorities finally released the pre-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been in house arrest for anti-military activities .Moreover Thein Sein has been a prime minister of Myanmar since March 2011 and NLD led by Su Kyi was reregistered as one of political parties.[5] Through seeing those changes briefly, democratization in Myanmar seems to be in process gradually with its military government. It is not progressing sharply and rapidly but it is surely and moderately making steady process. How process for democratization in the country is being made looks exactly like how a plane is trying to make a soft landing on ground. Slowly but steadily.

What if people in Myanmar should defeat military government? A condition would become serious unlike the stable one in the current Myanmar. Here is a typical bad example. It is Tunisian revolution, a democratic movement against government taken place in Tunisia from 2010 to 2011. Movements against government were spread to a whole country and they contributed to the end of 23 years in dictator power. Such demonstrations opposing governments would not stop and which were expanded to the other nations including Libya and Egypt in the Arab nations. Dissatisfaction towards dictatorship was into explosion, which led to the situation no one could control a country at all. Revolutions can sound to be success since there is no government which annoys citizens. Citizens must have felt that they finally could gain freedom being away from governments. However was it really great to them overall? There is no one who controls, or rather saying organizes a country and citizens fall apart with their own desires. Therefore a condition would be deteriorated worse than before. Economy is also stagnant because of it. Under such conditions, there should be no way to make progress towards democracy.[6][7][8][9]

              Myanmar didn’t follow such path but chose its own path as remaining military power in the government. What’s more, it has being trying to make great process in making the country democracy not in a brutal or rash but a sober way by using military power. The new act in military government itself can be said to contribute deeply to the steady democratic process. It tells us that initiating a reformation with brutal and bloody fights is not always a helpful way to solve a problem. Now look at Myanmar. People there definitely didn’t initiate a dramatic reformation at all. Nevertheless they are keeping up the present government in order to change a country gently. It represents a new way of reforming.

---

[1] Brief information about History of Myanmar http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/myanmar/index.html

Brief history of Myanmar

[2] http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/02/world/asia/myanmar-timeline/index.html

[3] Relations with foreign countries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Burma

[4] new movements in the government

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2012/0330/Reforms-in-Myanmar-4-reasons-the-military-changed-course/Leaders-protecting-themselves

[5] release of Aung San Suu Kyi

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11749661

[6] Worse conditions after revolutions

In Tunisia

http://www.tunisia-live.net/2011/11/14/nearly-one-year-after-the-tunisian-revolution-sidi-bouzid-remains-a-neglected-town/

[7] In Libya http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/09/13/parry-libya-arms-embassy-attack.html

[8] Libya

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-libyan-revolution-a-brief-summary

[9] In Egypt

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/11/06/egypts_struggle_ahead_111959.html

The drug war in Mexico

The drug war in Mexico - 麻薬戦争-  Little known fact happening in Mexico today

　

Mexican military standing while burning tons of the drug, marijuana taken　from

http://intermexfreemarket.blogspot.jp/2011/01/killing-fields-of-mexicos-terrifying.html

Mexico is one of the flourishng and energetic countries in termes of great world heritages, delicious food, worldwide festivals and sports. It is also one of the countries I would like to visit oneday. However there is also a part we pay little attention , which is the fact that the country plays a major role in drug productions and its main strasit place. Those played roles are taken place in serious condition within there in recent years because of the intensification armed conflict between the Mexican drug cartels and its government, which is the actual war called “the Drug War” happening today in the country.

What? War is happening in Mexico? This is my first thought when I knew it. I’ve never though of it happenening since there is no such news on recent papers. Yet the condition is excalating and getting worse than I thought.  

“The Drug War” is the conflict between Mexican drug cartels fighting with the others and the Mexican government forces[1]. Though the fight between the drug cartels have already been happening since Miguel Angel Felix Gallardp, who was a ruuner of the cocaine business and the head of the most powerful drug cartel in Mexico, was arrested, the violence has still kept on worsening even today. In fact, about 48,000 people have been reported to be killed and more than 5,000 were reported to have disappeared since 2006 which is when the Mexican preseidet Felipe Caldeton officially made a declaration of “war” with preparation of organized crime and set Mexican military to fight with cartels.[2] Not only those humber of victims but also there tens of thouthands of children orphaned bcause of this conflict[3]. It also involves more than 50,000 soldiers thousands of the Navy, federal police and local police forces[4]. Since its act of government, its conflict has got even deteriorated.

Mexican soldiers and tons of drugs being burnt taken from

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/7506688/Mexico-drug-wars-graphic-pictures-illustrating-Mexican-gang-violence.html?image=10

Brutal violence on streets including killings, kidnappings and torture is everywhere, which is the real situation of recent Mexico[5]. Besdies the facts mentioned above, it is also reported by the poll done by the daily newspaper La Reforma, Mexico City residents, saying the public insecurity in Mexico is a crisis worse than its ecnomy[6].

Click here to listen to the news about this issue http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/47426255#47426255

There are too many affairs such as the news of Syria, European economic crisis and nuclear issues, going on in this world so that we tend to forget the other issues to be acknowledged carefully . We can see those news everywhere on recent papers and they are important issues to be considered. Hwoever it seems that there are little information of what is actually happening in Mexico today. Because of that ‘too much focus’ on the recent news, they tend to forget the serious fact happening in Mexico. The drug war has been still going on since the rivals of drug cartels rose their power to extend their territories for money as well as the declration of war by the president Caldeton to combat with them. I hope the war is over as soon as possible for pceace in Mexico. I decided to share this fact here because it is very shocking and I flet the necessity of sharing it with others reconsider that there are not only the news we always see on papers or TV but the fact which is only known by a little number of people.

---

[1] Mexican drug war . (n.d.). Wikipediea. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War

[2] Ashley , F. (2012). The mexico drug war: Bodies for billions. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/15/world/mexico-drug-war-essay/index.html

[3] Ibid

[4] Mexico: Widespread rights abuses in ‘war on drugs’:impunity for torture, ‘disappearances,’ killings undermines security. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/09/mexico-widespread-rights-abuses-war-drugs

[5] For more detailed news of violence http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/13/worst-atrocities-in-mexicos-drug-war

[6] Mexican drug war: 10 shocking facts. (2011). (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/mexican-drug-war-10-shock_n_187361.html

“Home-Grown Terrorism” - the issue facing international society By Yukako

By Yukako Ikeoze

I’ll share curious news happening in the international society in this blog. This time is to be home-grown terrorisms. Have you guys heard of this kind of terrorisms before? When I knew about this issue for the first time, I did feel so curious to start researching more about this.

What is home-grown terrorism? It is the terrorisms done in a certain country by the own countrymen. Offenders terrorize in their home countries where they have grown up. They, who are citizens or residences of Western countries, are terrorizing not as a group but as an individual by being inspired the idea of sword. In detail, there are three categories in home-grown terrorists which are immigrants and visitors, the second or third generation members from the Muslim community and converting to Islam. Though they have no formal connections with any terrorist groups in many cases, they get brainwashed easily to attack their homelands because of the great temptations and recruitments by using the extremist videos and materials on website. As we know, website is being very common in our lives and easy to get information. Using this trend of the social network, terrorist organizations are widely spreading their ideas such as on Facebook or Youtube. More strategically, targeting younger generations, they themselves make hip-hop songs or videos calling to join al Shabaab, a terrorist group in Somalia which has connections with al-Qaeda. Those activities are known as cyber-jihad. Thus, there are ways or resources to support for acts of terrorisms more than we know.

Here are cases regarded as home grown terrorisms. On November 2009, the serious home-grown terrorism was occurred in the U.S. An American psychiatrist called Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a son of Palestine immigrants, killed 12 people as well as 31 wounded at the army base in Texas. Also about three years ago, as many as twenty young Somali Americans in the U.S. disappeared suddenly. The young Somali Americans went back to Somalia, their father land, and learned how to use weapons in war-torn Somalia. As staying there, they were greatly attempted and brainwashed to be home-grown terrorists.

Recalling the 9/11 and the death of Osama bin Laden, the fear of the terrorisms were thought to be gotten rid of from people’s minds in the U.S. They might have felt relieved because of the end of the period, terrorism. However it still seems to me that people have to pay attention carefully to terrorisms even after 9/11 and the death of the al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden since there is high risk of influences being homegrown terrorisms. That means that terrorism still remains in the international society and will be increasing in the future, according to the analysis done by Alley Pregulman and Emily Burke from the CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) saying “On the basis of current trends, in the coming years the homegrown movement will likely grow in size and scope while experiencing an overall shift in its composition.” 

Although what I wrote here is only part of the information about home-grown terrorisms, I am quite surprised at the facts that the society is still in tension because of the “home-grown” terrorists. This problem should not be ignored to stabilize the safety in the international society.

Work cited

Kimberley L. Thachuk, Marion E. “Spike” Bowman, and Courtney Richardson. (2008). The homegrown terrorism the threat within. Retrieved from http://www.ndu.edu/CTNSP/docUploaded/DTP%2048%20Home%20Grown%20Terrorism.pdf

Stragetic and international studies, Retrieved from http://csis.org/files/publication/120425_Pregulman_AQAMCaseStudy7_web.pdf

 McNabb, D. (n.d.). Terror suspect due in court in st. paul on friday. Retrieved from http://internationalextraditionblog.com/2011/08/11/terror-suspect-due-in-court-in-st-paul-on-friday/

Joshua , P. (2010). Homegrown terrorism reflects the changing tactics of al-qaeda. Retrieved from http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/homegrown-terrorism-reflects-the-changing-tactics-of-al-qaeda-31520.html

The Image taken from http://www.google.co.jp/imgres?um=1&hl=ja&rlz=1C1_____jaJP486JP487&biw=1517&bih=674&tbm=isch&tbnid=zG4j0Mw6a1tJ3M:&imgrefurl=http://breakthematrix.com/latest/as-obama-moves-against-homegrown-terrorists-it%25E2%2580%2599s-time-to-read-the-fine-print/&docid=wEeQ6y0GCV919M&imgurl=http://breakthematrix.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/terr.jpg&w=300&h=225&ei=f6_cT9DlE6atiAfc38m7Cg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1242&vpy=327&dur=465&hovh=146&hovw=200&tx=166&ty=55&sig=100802066155305500798&page=1&tbnh=141&tbnw=193&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0,i:104

What the World Looks Like by Yukako

“Draw a world map freely as you imagine!!!” How would you write your own world map if you are told to do so? I had never paid careful attention to how the world map looked like before that lesson. There was confusion in my mind at first, and so were there in the other students, I guess. Everyone looked like, “What? How are we supposed to be drawing the world maps all of the sudden?” Writing a world map sounds easy to draw, yet actually it didn’t go easy to me for the first time. The second time drawing went much easier to me.

Through the first observation, all the students emphasized their own countries and drew them much larger than the other countries around. They also didn’t draw their maps in detail. All the drawings seemed to be lack of geographical techniques because everyone drew it with easy shapes, yet they were still remaining their own countries on the maps to be the clearest and the detailed shaping.

How was the second observation? Well, what I observed by taking a look at the other’s maps for the second time drawing appeared to be very interesting to me. Second time drawing could be much easier comparing to the first one since everyone got ideas of how the general world map looked like after the first observation of others’ ones. Everyone drew the map of the world widely on the paper and tried not to focus on only the shapes of the countries they had already known. Besides, the maps of the most students from Japan drew their county with smaller sizes than the sizes for the first time. To be more interesting, more than half students drew the maps with much deeper strength of brushstrokes. That might show that they got better confidence to imagine in how the world map looked like after glancing through the others’ maps for the first time.

After observing all the drawings of the first and the second time, what I found something in common was that we never drew all the same map. The world maps we had drawn never looked the same. I realized there were many ways to draw the world maps meaning I could see the world maps from the other students’ perspectives. I myself drew my country Japan at the center of my map while the other students from the other countries never drew Japan at the center. The overcall observation tells me that there are various ways to express one thing.

Seeking the reasons why we drew the world maps after the observations, I found the importance of imagining the locations in worldwide geographically with wider Imaginations as a student of international relations. I am going to study more about the world internationally in detail. Without the great geographical imagination, you never get into deep understandings in any fields relating to the world wide studying. You can’t even imagine the rest of the world greatly unless you understand how it looks like. You had better be able to imagine the world to consider various kinds of international matters with more deep understanding as well as to broaden your own horizons by getting ideas from the other perspectives.

Those are what I’ve learned from the lesson of the observation of the world map. 

Yukako Ikezoe