The Global Gossip

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What I think

Posted by Unknown Thursday, 27 February 2014 0 comments

It's time to get a little bit gossipy here and expect that North Korea will never find out about it just like in our slumber parties, if you are a girl...

In the past few weeks I've seen and learned a lot of the globalized world, but only North Korea has been stuck in my mind like if it was a pop song pinned in the top 100 of the Billabong Billboard. So grab a chair (duh! you are already sitted) and listen or read whatever is you punks do now.

We all know that North Korea has a communist government and has, for a long time now, had a war with South Korea attempting to rule it but big brother USA won't allow it and neither does SK who doesn't wish to live under such government (and I don't blame them). We all know this story from our class History 101 or if you have seen any movie about it, but let me now really get into what I want to say, well more like write.

Last week, in my Globalization and Communication class, we saw Inside North Korea BBC Panorama News about how supposedly it ruled its land. Supposedly because the government only allowed to tape what they wanted and went baffling lies. For example, the reporters went touring a hospital with absolutely no patients in it and no doctor spoke of them, they just avoided the subject despite the insistent question about them. Later on an anonymous doctor was interviewed revealing the truth about the health care.

Let's say, if you are proud of what you have and it's real why wouldn't you let people see it and show it off? Because it's not their, you are most probably hiding something.

It's not new to us to learn that North Korea is making weapons (if it is please, stop and read your news) Though as we see in the videos they are preparing for a uprising war with South Korea, but in reality nothing seems to be going on at the moment in their so called dangerous border (knock on wood I don't want to give that poor land bad luck). No official is actually guarding it.

But one of the things that truly shocked me was the forced labor camps and how they resemble concentration camps. In the video, the people giving the tour didn't want them to be taped actually. They asked the guest to turn off their devices and to abstain of taking any picture. Weird, specially when your guest are actual reporters.They didn't event want them to be seen at all as if they weren't there and it was part of a dream maybe. Why, why are they hiding these?

These forced labor camps are prision to koreans who refuse to be comunist or dare to go against the sayings of their government. So their is no liberty of expression (yes, super hyper new fact nobody knew, right?) and also the internet is banned and why wouldn't it be if their dictator Kim Jung-un is an internationally known meme who is mocked to behave as a kid.

If it really wasn't a concentration camp the North Korean government wouldn't mind these prisions getting on tape. Why? Let's go a bit back in history and remember the end of the WWII. All nazis were judge for war crimes and punished equally as their victims, which it meant to be tortured in labor camps and then merciless killed. Even Hitler knew what he was going to face and he decided to cowardly run away and take his life as rumor has it. And Germany was split to avoid any other upcoming war.

North Korea resemble me a bit to Nazi Germany. The propaganda that went out in the country and off from it said that nothing wrong was happening and they were preparing the world for a brighter future. Also that its population was happy to live in there. Maybe in North Korea we don't get to hear much of their inhabitants but if we ask someone, they are happy, aren't they? (Shh... don't upset them!)

If the "prisions" in North Korea were discovered to truly be concentration camps expect no less punishment as the nazis, and this is not good for them. It will mean the immenent destrucion of a North Korea and korean culture as we know it. So they decide just to shove it underneath the rug and pretend everything is good and happy.

What troubles me is the fact that people are dying in there with no one ever to treat them as the humans they are, just because they wanted to go a different way. I'm not against communism, but neither I'm pro communism. I believe that every country should have it's own government that works for them but never ever put on the line the human rights and lifes.

I fear if this isn't contained and its kept growing in some few or maybe much more years there will be a war, North Korea is getting ready for it... That is how this affects me, the fear of a sudden war that I still don't know who will be fighting it but I asure you, my neighbouring country, USA, will be part of it. I just hope their battlefield is somwhere there is no mass destruction.

Well that's my gossip, thanks for reading/listening to my words. Please don't believe in conspiracy theories.

So long until next post!

Giselle

Here is the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zDYrFE985g#aid=P-zRfjAqAf8

Globalization and entertainment

Posted by Unknown 0 comments

We have learned a lot of things in this course, because we are able to see circumstances of all over the world. Our teacher showed us some videos for us to watch and analyze, and make activities. We see topics and places like America, Latin America, Africa, among others, and in this way it’s easier for us to know what’s going on in the world.

We make little groups and make a contribution of our own, making research of topics like entertainment industry in the world, music globalization and transportation. We were able to see and to learn that now we are more connected than ever.

More specifically in the world of entertainment, we can see how music, series, movies, and a lot of stuff are approaching us and it’s easier for people to watch material of all over the world, and to the producers of entertainment to get a bigger public.

Globalization has helped me personally also because I’m able to know things of the world and get to recognize places I don’t even visit yet, thanks to the internet and to the news. Also in the world of entertainment I can watch the series or episodes that are not airing in Mexico, the movies and music also.

GLOBAL TO PERSONAL

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, 26 February 2014 0 comments

GLOBALIZATION OF FOOD:
GLOBAL TO PERSONAL

by Sofía Guzmán

So far we have covered a lot of gossips around the world (well, more facts than gossips) We discussed about Media and how it may or may not unite differentes cultures, we talked about technolgy and how it has change the way we interact with each other and we compared the transportation and entertainment business between countries, and one subject that affected me the most (in a positive way): globalization of food.

It make sound like a joke, like "Seriously, that's the most important thing you've learned?" but think about it for a second, food is becoming the greatest killer of Americans and their Western Diet is the most globalize food! I'm talking about fast food: meat with more meat at the top, fatty fries, sodas, fake cheese, cero greens and the health problems it cause. Mexico, not far away from the headquartes of toxicity, also loves these kinds of foods and I started to notice I was part of it.

After doing a lot of research, watching food documentaries and talking about in class, it was an issue that I wanted to change in my life. My daily diet didn't consits 100% on fast food , but I certainly had bad habits, I ate meat every day, was addicted to tortillas and bread, didn't drink water and just bought processed products. So, I make a challenge and for 30 days I only ate vegetables, fruits, seeds and drink green juices and water. It was harder that I thought, but at the end it was all worth it. I lost 7kg (15 pounds) and gain a lot of energy! Now that the challenge is over I finally said goodbye to the western diet and adopt (or at least try to) the healthiest diet possible, based on India, China and Japanese diets, the healthiest countries in the world.

(I mean just look at the flags!) <--click to watch the magic

SINGLE STORY

Posted by Paulina Talamás Tuesday, 25 February 2014 0 comments

Personal reflection of the material in class: Single Stories

By: Paulina Talamás

Of the material we have covered so far in these classes the one topic that i think affects me personally is when we talked about single stories. Stereotypes are defined as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Even if we admit it or not, we know that we have been there; either someone has held one towards us or the other way around. And the danger of it relies on judging a whole group of people just because of the actions of a few that relate to the same group.

This ethnic or racial stereotypes can be hurtful to a lot of people, maybe most people don’t see this as a danger, but it is an unwise practice and not beneficial neither for the person holding the stereotype and much less beneficial towards the person who is been stereotyped.

There isn't a single benefit found in joking about a group of people’s beliefs or way of believing just because they’re different about yours. This is what really makes the world a beautiful place to live in, finding differences among people, learning from them and enjoying them, for the world is full of diversity and is what makes the whole trip (life) worth our while.

GLOBALIZATION in my LIFE

Posted by Unknown 0 comments

By: Laura Reyes

Since we started the course of Communication and Globalization we have learned the impact globalization has had in different industries like the transportation industry, the entertainment industry including music, literature, movies, television, videogames, etc. Also it has influenced in the food industry, now many restaurants need to include in their menus global plates, they need to think and act globally. But personally I believe that for us to not only see the bad issues globalization we need to think in a global way, but act in a local one, so that we can avoid cultural imperialism’s development to increase.

The trends that I've seen has had more influence in my life are related to globalization in the entertainment industry, specifically in the movie and television content because since I’m from the North of Mexico, from a city that is borderline with Brownsville, Texas I have always been influenced with the American culture and this increased with all the movies I’ve watched from company productions from Hollywood, Warner Bros, etc. Like the Cultural Imperialism says, the developed and powerful countries like the United States spread their ideologies to the subdeveloped countries like Mexico, and this has created the acceptance of certain stereotypes or it places the national culture as something inferior, that’s why I feel like this trend has influenced my daily life, and now that I’m more critically I can notice all the ideologies that have been imposed by the USA and how this affects the cultural diversity in the world.

I invite you to watch this mini video of Cultural Imperialism related to Music Industry in Spotify and USA music: