The writer of this article Kwame Anthony Appiah is a philosopher and currently teaches at Princeton University. The author is remembering the culture and history of the Ghana and remembering several aspects of the Ghanaian society. In this article author is discussing a festival that took place in Kumasi and also describes the historical derivation of the festival and the city. The article focuses on the broad spectrum of cultural, economic and other differences between the rich and poor countries. The author analyses the relation of western and native countries and also the relation of rich and poor in the same societies. This paper discusses the author’s concerns about the impact of globalization over native cultures and also talks about other related aspects of the subject matter.
The author seems to be concerned over the globalization and its negative impacts over the cultures of various indigenous societies. Author says that the western thoughts and behavior has affected the non western societies and these societies have started following western nations knowingly or unknowingly. This blind chase has left these native societies detached with their identities. The author feels that the people of these indigenous cultures have been trapped somehow in the claws of western thoughts and they have lost their own genuineness in this cat and mouse race. They have adopted the dressing, food and all other styles of westernization but in order to adopting western culture, they have compromised with their original ides. The author says that they have been deliberately adopted the western lifestyle but somehow they feel that they have been trapped because there are many things in the new culture that does not suits them.
The author blames this trend of adopting westernization for various infirmities in the societies of the native countries. Author says that a number of problems have arisen in the societies just because people are misguided or aggrieved by the western thoughts. Author goes one step ahead and says that the extremists or jihadist elements are also layered as a part of this trend and they are either inspired by the western thoughts or they have adopted extremism because they are aggrieved by the policies of western nations. Author presents some examples where people have revolted and adopted the path of violence seeing the Christian fundamentalists and against the policies of western nations. The author says that the extremists in order to compete with the Christian fundamentalists have crossed the line and ultimately the society is compelled to face the loss and consequences. The religious thoughts of the native countries, this way has been widely affected by the western civilization and thoughts. Author mentions that people who are fighting against west wanted to take the issue at large level by putting it as sixth pillar in their religion Islam. These fundamentalist are a creating a serious challenge for the people who are adopting western culture. Sometimes such challenges and cultural conflicts take a broad shape and resulted in war, murders. The author quoted few examples of such religion wars like French war.
Cultural differences between different societies are also noticeable and the same is based upon a number of various considerations. Apart from the cultural differences, cultural preferences are also deciding factors in the relation between the rich and poor countries. Every society designs the cultural preferences according to their interests and benefits. Ethics, according to the author are least effective these days because of the prevailed interest. The author mentions how there is a huge difference in the figures and the reality of the woman equality and racial equalities. The people who talk about such issues do neither ready to follow nor ready to implement the racial and woman equality. There is a need to change the minds and the way, people think about these things. The author believes that change is the natural law and it is necessary for the development but the direction should be positive and following anything blindly without knowing the consequences yields some vague results.
After having observed the abovementioned analysis, it is good to say that the author has made these findings based on the regular observations. Some of author’s opinions may appear to be biased and impractical but when we examine them in the light of above said thoughts, it seems that there is much reality in the findings of the author. When we see the international policies of America in the Afghanistan, it becomes easy to find that America played a big role in the issue but when Osama bin laden became a danger for the America itself, the hue and cry was made on the issue. A huge campaign was driven to catch and kill him and finally Osama was killed. There are many other examples of the dual standards of the western thoughts and policies. They have again and again made dual standard policies and utilized these policies for their own interest wherever necessary. Such thoughts and standards have substantially affected various aspects of the life in the native countries like Religion, ethics as well as other aspects of the life. The author has used his scholar expertise and wide experience of teaching to find the balanced conclusion.
The author suggests that the difference between the rich and poor countries is widening day by day and this gap has been turned in exploitation of the poor countries by the rich nations. The price of Ghanaian cocoa has not been appreciated to that extent but the living cost of the people has been highly increased in the native countries. The reason behind such things is the tendency of the rich countries to exploit the poor countries. They want to use their resources but when it comes to play their role, they do not want to improve their life conditions, education and standards. Author says that the situation is so dour that the tendency of such exploitation is not only visible in the different societies but also in the same societies between different classes. The people, who are influenced, have a tendency to exploit their subordinates or the people who are weaker. The article covers a wide range of people and is an eye opening for those who are affected in any way with the related subject matter. The people who intend to exploit or the people who are vulnerable to get exploited can see and interpret the things their way. This article analyses the relation of western and native countries in a new context with a new approach. Though the things are visible in the society since a long time but seeing the things with a different approach is a commendable job done by the author.
Work Cited
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. "The New York Times." 1 January 2006. nytimes. 14 April 2012
