Many more people world wide followed and celebrated President Obama’s victory on global media world wide than any US election before, almost feeling part of the event. People all over the world will follow President Obama’s path with an intensity that has no bearing on their immediate environment or lives. Or does it ? I do not think the world Governments have accepted the full impact of Globalization, despite the obvious effects of it on the downturn in the global economy. And President Obama will do well to face this head on….
…..There is a wonderful Zen saying ” break a blade of grass and you alter the Universe” – and though it speaks about much more spiritual matters, in a way it applies to Globalization. No longer can President Obama declare that he will give incentives to Corporations that keep jobs in the US, and dis-incentives to those that export jobs. This is not going to be possible without a rash of counter measures by other countries that will be even more detrimental for the US economy. And the US economy is so dependant upon the economic health of the world.
Lets understand something. For a century the West and other developed countries have been stealing jobs from the underdeveloped countries by importing their vast needs for raw materials. When a country imports oil or raw iron ore from another it is in effect taking away potential of jobs to turn the oil into fuel and the iron ore into steel in the country of origin, and therefore possibilities of economic development.
We live in a vast global market and community now, where poverty in one part fo the world will affect the rest of the world. In economics , or in disease, or in terrorism and militarism. President Obama must know that he cannot make the US economically isolated.
You are quite right about the indirect outsourcing of jobs from “developing” nations to the “developed” nations. Products like Pepsi, Coke, Nike, Marlboro, Tommy Hilfiger, Lays and a variety of imported alcohol brands do not have any real superiority in quality over other similiar products. In fact, they may be of inferior quality as well as a greater health and environmental risk. They have long thrived on egos of people by raising brand consciousness to ridiculous levels. When these products are allowed to infiltrate the local markets, they take away a great number of jobs, not to mention the environmental impacts of using preservatives, transportation, packaging, etc.
And, many Americans have always considered Made in America products to be far superior than others. There is a truth to it..but it is not because of superority of the people but of the benefits and infrastructure. An auto worker in the US used to get $10 an hour to put 4 screws into an auto part in 1 hour. Of course, it may turn out to be a superior product..while his counterpart in China builds an entire car in an hour. However, Japanese-made goods are truly superior.
Same in the IT and technological industry where local US workers demanded ridiculous salaries for very little work because of a very small percentage of actual technical graduates. While in India, by design, throngs of youngsters were socially pressurized to become doctors and engineers with or without their individual liking..and has now paid off in India’s favour.
The dynamics of this global economy are quite interesting.
In reference to Obama you should watch this promo video that gained more than 100,000 votes on youtube. While bands like Backstreet Boys, Nsync, Boyzone during their popularity days represented diversity with their group members with different looks no one ever considered putting an Indian guy in there. But a pseudo boyband called Boybama to promote Obama in the election race included an Indian. Changing times??? Well i hope so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1dudz3SKjQ&fmt=6
I do hope an Indian would win an oscar soon and not in the foreign language category
Obama – “The Hope”
Because world is passing through recession and elections are held with a new result.
Goodluck !
🙂
43 meet 44
Mr Obama goes to Washington
When Barack Obama met George Bush for the first time four years ago, it proved an unhappy encounter. Matters were not helped at the start when a presidential aide squirted sanitiser on George Bush’s hands before they shook.
Yesterday, the 43rd US president met the man who will be the 44th at the White House again in very different circumstances. This time there was to be no sanitiser and none of the condescension that Obama complained of on the first occasion…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/11/george-bush-barack-obama-meeting
Shekhar,
I am one of the NRI’s living and working in USA since 1988. Jobless numbers have realy gone up over here.
Some Canadian provinces already give credit to R&D done in Canada. The companies claim this credit on their income Tax returns. Samsung, for years, has had unlimited South Korean govt. backing. Even USA, by subsidizing farmers in USA has directly/indirectly led to poor cotton farmers committing suicide in Maharashthra. I love cotton fabrics from India. The smoothness and lightless does not compare to American cotton.
I think jobs can stay in USA by de-valuing the American Dollar. But Americans are addicted to cheaper imports, so many will oppose this proposal. China for years has artifically kept it’s currency low, to maintain exports and jobs in China.
Shekhar,
A few years ago, I made a small movie called Little Terrorist. It was a movie about hope – a commodity that has been diminishing alarmingly in the world over the last eight years of Bushy’s rule – it seemed that all the things one associates with America, free-speech, fairness, equality, opportunity, were compromised – the world had become a cynical, opportunistic, cruel place.
I was finishing up the edit on my new film in Toronto in the beginning of October when I decided to stay on till the AFM which begins in November, sensing that perhaps history was about to be made.
In those three weeks, I was witness to every dramatic twist in the lead upto counting day, an energy that I’d never seen before in the USA, apathy was shed, Obama captured the imagination of so many emotionally disconnected around his own country and around the world.
At the same time, my friends who were working in New York, in particular the bankers, slid from uncertainty to despair, some of whom were unfortunately laid off, and others who went into work each day not knowing whether they’d have a job or not. At that time talk of recession was knocking about. Today we’re talking about depression.
But on the 4th of November, as I flew into LA watching live coverage of the vote counting in the air over that vast country, I couldn’t help but feel a tremendous sense of connect with America for the first time. Later that evening I saw history being made, in a typical American hamburger place, and I along with a room full of wailers got goose bumps and a large lump in my throat.
The rock star president-elect of the United States electrified us.
I discovered a great radio station http://www.kcrw.com – a public service broadcaster – such high quality debates and discussions. And I tuned in eagerly each day in the car or on the laptop…
As I was emotionally buffeted from my friends in NY to the Obama victory in LA, I tried to make sense of all that I’d seen and heard in these weeks.
I can’t help thinking that there is something in there. We’re supposed to serve up films that capture a mood, a feeling, an emotion of the time…
These are times of great hope and of extreme despair, in which hope is going to be a scarce commodity as things grind down and become grim. There are going to be a lot of out-of-work depressed people out there looking for succor.
What d’you think? Films of hope for our troubled times?