Increasing globalization erases national individuality<\/p>\n
By Graham Best<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): I came to work in Indonesia because I wanted to
\nexperience something different. Like many or even most people in
\nBritain I knew nothing about this country. It was, I thought, a
\nsingle tropical island near Malaysia. Of course I knew all about
\nBorneo from wildlife documentaries, and plenty about Bali from
\nholiday programs, but I didn't know they had anything to do with
\nIndonesia. My first glance at the atlas was a revelation.<\/p>\n
As I pored over books about my destination I realized it
\nwould be quite a change from Britain. Different religions,
\ncultures, languages, flora and fauna, food (which I was
\nespecially looking forward to) clothing and even a different way
\nto bathe.<\/p>\n
When I arrived, it was no disappointment. Walking down the
\nroad in Britain's capital city I wouldn't turn any heads, let
\nalone elicit cheerful greetings and enquiries as to where I was
\ngoing. I felt like a minor celebrity.<\/p>\n
My first encounter with Indonesian food was also a memorable
\nexperience. Something I shoveled into my mouth on the assumption
\nthat it was some harmless variety of green bean turned out to be
\na red hot coal. As I sat gasping for air and crying into my
\nnoodles, I reflected that we don't see fresh chilies very often
\nin Britain and when we do they're not mixed into the meal whole.
\nNow I tuck into Padang food nearly every day.<\/p>\n
Just as memorable but a lot more pleasurable was my first
\nexcursion to the Thousand Islands. Snorkeling along the coral
\nreefs I saw things I thought only existed on the Discovery
\nChannel. In Britain you are lucky if you can see your own hands
\nthrough the silt.<\/p>\n
In Britain the shock of pouring a ladle of cold water over
\nyour head could kill the sick and the elderly, but at 30 degrees
\nCelsius and 95 percent humidity it's actually very refreshing.
\nThe thing that terrified me most of all as I was preparing to
\nleave England, the Asian toilet, can also be got used to with
\npractice.<\/p>\n
The roads, however, lived up to their reputation. I've been
\nparachuting and potholing, but the drive to Pelabuhan Ratu and
\nback was by far the most frightening experience of my life. After
\nseeing the exhaust from a Metro Mini I started thinking I might
\nas well take up smoking.<\/p>\n
So when I went back home for Christmas and friends and family
\nasked me, \"What's Indonesia like?\", I had plenty to tell them. It
\nis different, I told them as I babbled on like some 20th Century
\nCaptain Cook. Well, as I said, on many levels it is. However, on
\nsome it is getting less and less.<\/p>\n
It was not until I was standing in that most Western of
\nthings, a shopping mall in Cheltenham, that I realized this. I
\nstood there and tried to pick out the differences between it and
\nthe ones 7,500 miles away in Jakarta. McDonald's and Wendy's
\nserve the same food, the only concession to the tropics being the
\naddition of Chili sauce. In Britain the people generally have
\nlighter hair and were taller, but they wear the same clothes.<\/p>\n
Back in Jakarta I watched Asian MTV, in English, playing the
\nsame videos that I had watched on the British Top of the Pops. I
\nalso saw English football matches on Liga Inggris.<\/p>\n
If you lived in a modern house and don't like rice you could
\nspend a whole year here and never have a mandi or eat Padang
\nfood. It'd be your loss, but you could do it.<\/p>\n
Shopping malls and McDonald's restaurants are the same the
\nworld over and satellite TV makes short work of national
\nboundaries. As developing countries develop people with access to
\nthese developments lead increasingly similar lives. They become
\npart of a global culture. Globalization is the buzzword of the
\nmoment, but it wasn't until I came here looking for something
\ndifferent that I really grasped what it meant.<\/p>",
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