globalgabswithash

[globalgabswithash]

Blog post #3 - Thanksgiving is not what everybody thinks

As Thanksgiving has passed for us Canadians, Thanksgiving for Americans is soon approaching. Most people know that thanksgiving is when the Native Americans and settlers came together to feast on their harvest. However, that isn’t the truth about Thanksgiving. The fact has to do with cultural globalization, as the European colonizers try to push their own culture onto other people around the world. The term Thanksgiving was created by the European settlers appropriating the autumn harvest. The Autumn harvest was a celebration of the abundance of food from mother nature. Native Americans of the Wampanoag Tribe taught their own way of life and made an alliance with the European settlers. Without the Wampanoag tribe, the European settlers weren't able to have their own harvest. They even feasted together for three days. Yet, the European settlers did not respect the alliance as they later battled with the Native Americans causing the genocide of millions of native Americans and stealing their land. Thanksgiving is one of many examples of cultural globalization. The Wampanoag Tribe taught their own culture to the Europeans which helped them grow and learn but also the Europeans pushed their culture invading people's land and erasing their culture into having their own single culture. Now that Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated by all, it is damaging to the Native Americans. Americans do not acknowledge the tragedy of Thanksgiving, erasing their wrongdoing and not respecting the deaths of native Americans to have this holiday. People are celebrating a holiday that killed millions of Native Americans. While celebrating this holiday many people are also culturally appropriating. Cultural appropriation is the deliberate use or exploitation of less privileged groups with no understanding or authorization of history, tradition and how the culture came to be. A common situation is when teachers assign arts and craft activity of making a headdress to celebrate Thanksgiving. Headdresses are earned and not some casual hat, disrespecting the Native Americans, and their culture and further perpetuating harmful stereotypes. I hope this brings some knowledge on Native Americans and the truth of Thanksgiving.

[globalgabswithash]

Blog post #2 - How your single cheap shirt affect the globe

You might think buying a cheap shirt isn’t that deep, but it is. Ever wonder why the shirt is so cheap? Or ever wondered how the shirt is made? If you have, you obviously know the deep meaning behind buying a cheap t-shirt. I’m joking but I’m trying to give some insight into how your one cheap t-shirt affects people around the globe. Most popular brands like H&M, Nike, Forever 21 and many others, locate their factories and production in developing and poorer countries. Why would they do that? They exploit and take advantage of their need for employment and their economic state. Your t-shirt or any article of clothing is made by unethical and exploitative companies. How clothing companies profit more from their products, they look for areas with low wages and taxes and poor environmental and work policies. Areas that do have these qualifications are developing countries. There are two sayings that perfectly encapsulate this situation. Competition state and race to the bottom. Since developing countries are in need of an economic boost, they lower their standards for the companies, and “they race to the bottom”. It makes the country look more suitable and attractive as they will pay less than other areas, like developed countries. Developed countries have strict policies that cost more to abide by. However, that is not the only reason why developing countries have low wages and taxes, or poor environmental and work policies, it is also due to the fact that they don’t have enough money to enforce these policies and have a strong economy. Since there are many developing countries around the globe, they lower their standards, even more, to win over the companies, which makes them a competition state. As they accommodate the companies, the standard of living for their citizens' decreases. There is less money funding citizens' health care and social programs. Now you know why your shirt is so cheap and how it affects the globe

[globalgabswithash]

Blog post #1 - I have a Tik Tok Addiction

By now everyone knows what Tik Tok is, if not let me explain. TikTok a social media platform where users able to make 10 second - 2 minute videos and share it to the public. It’s just a simple app but it captivates me and the billions of others on the app. 5 minutes of scrolling then turns to 10 minutes of scrolling then an hour. There’s so much to watch, from dance trends to politics to education to specific niches. I think this is a force of globaliztion. Why? Well, globlization doesn’t really have a definitive description, but how I think of globalization as how we are economically, socially and politically interconnected with one another all around the world. I like to use World Health Organization’s definition of globalization, “the ​​increased interconnectedness and interdependence of people and countries.”

Tik Tok users are able to communicate to whoever, whenever and wherever. With the ability to communicate to 1.39 billion users, you start to be exposed to collective cultures, trends and lifestyles that were not easily accessible before. This can give some people a culture shock, seeing such different cultures from their own. Not only that it brings a sense of a closer global community, but a socially constructed epicentre for media. It’s so easy to create new friends, and see and build a platform with people with similar interests, beliefs and ideologies. I think the most addicting part of Tik Tok, is the ability to learn new recipes, take inspiration from different cool styles and find a common space with like-minded individuals. It somewhat validates how I think since so many others have the same thought or have been through the same experiences.

However, with so many people, they're are bound to be differences. TikTok has a lot, I mean a lot of political content. So much news and current events are shared on the app daily. I’m not going to lie, I sometimes get news off of TikTok, like the queen being dead�� However, it’s crazy to think an app which started growing because of its dancing content is now sharing a platform with political space. Thousands of creators with millions of followers share their political ideologies in short 10 seconds-2 minute video clips, either just voicing their thoughts and opinions, addressing the current issues or just educating people about the current events. The political spectrum on TikTok is wide and expansive that is not just the Right and Left-wing politics seen on the news every day. I think what really made politics an increasingly hot topic and norm on the app was during the George Floyd protest and Black Lives Matter movement. The coverage of this event was huge on Tiktok. The range of content that arose during that time was empowering, enlighting, devastating and sometimes graphic. On TikTok anything goes, from people sharing the footage of George Floyd’s death, communicating when and where to protest, sharing tips on how not to be identified at protests, and educating people about the long history of systematic racism. George Floyd’s death reverberated around the world, with media new coverages, papers and even social media apps like Tik Tok. It has awakened users that they were able to take charge of current events by using the platform in a more serious way. Creators have started bringing attention and spreading awareness to local and global issues affecting the world.

Everything spreads so fast across the Tiktok. Within seconds millions of people could view your video. Whatever is posted on the Tiktok can cause global consequences. 

To be honest, I do feel out of touch with what’s going on with the world when I haven’t been on it for a while. As a person who consumes the news through media platforms like TikTok, it has become an integral part of my social and global awareness. In a 30-second video, I can easily catch up on the unrest in the Iranian protest and in the next video, I can learn how to make an easy 5-minute mug cake. Maybe being addicted to TikTok isn’t as bad as I think it is. Right?