Is the world becoming more culturally homogeneous, or more culturally diverse?

It is a hard debate to decided whether or not the world is becoming culturally homogeneous or more culturally diversified. After reading numerous articles and hearing different opinions on the subject, I have come to one conclusion: that the world as a whole is becoming more culturally homogeneous, but the individual is becoming more culturally diverse.

The reason I say this is that globalization has been introducing various cultures to various places. One can see McDonald's and baseball caps throughout the world, and although that looks like "Americanization", one can also eat at a Japanese restaurant in Mexico City. The point here is that culture has become global and is being introduced everywhere, not only the U.S. In many instances smaller cultures are being lost, and it is evident that the world is becoming more similar. Heather Tyler, in her article "Bollywood versus Hollywood: Battle of the Dream Factories" claims that Bollywood is trying to challenge Hollywood and attack the Western Film industry, by having a strong Eastern one. Bollywood is trying to introduce Eastern culture, and show that it can also be global, and that "culture as a global force...is not confined to the West alone" (333).  So, although Bollywood is trying to promote Eastern culture, in a way it has already been influenced by the west, and in itself is making a homogeneous world culture, while at the same time introducing Eastern Culture to Western Society.

Here, in 2010, people probably know more about other cultures than ever before. People in general around the world are becoming more culturally aware. Western society can begin to understand why Koreans and other Asian cultures take their shoes off when entering a building. American music plays across the globe, while at the same time I may listen to a CD of Peruvian songs. English is dominating the world and the internet, and smaller groups are losing their heritage, but other cultures are being formed while society blends. To me, the most interesting thing about it all is that people are becoming more interested in other cultures. The majority of people become fascinated with other cultures. We are teaching each other other ways to look at the world. Tyler Cowen says "dominant cultures, such as the United States, have an advantage in exporting their values and shaping the preferences of other nations...[but] will not be purely American in any narrow sense" (340). He mentions how American cinema has been shaped by foreigners and that the U.S. tries to "globally sell" it's culture.

Every person and every culture will take what it wants to take from cultural globalization. Just how one story can have a hundred interpretations, so do cultures. The world may be becoming more culturally homogeneous but at the same time it is learning more about the diversity that exists and still persists throughout.

Do NGOs accomplish more good than not?

  In general, I believe NGOs do accomplish more good than not. The reason I believe this is that, NGOs, whether or not they are really psychically making a difference, with women rights, child mortality, poverty, or disease prevention, are sending out a message and making people more aware of an issue. As Boli and Thomas say, INGOs "seek, in a general sense, to spread 'progress' throughout the world: to encourage safer and more efficient technical systems, more powerful knowledge structures, better care of the body, friendly competition and fair play" (227). NGOs also play a huge part in politics. Many times they actually are the enforcers and deliver more assistance than many political systems, like the UN and National Governments. One reason I believe may be the cause of this, is that politicians tend to debate and debate and have problems making decisions. Whereas a NGO, that is specified towards a specific goal, has less difficult with decision-making and is more capable of taking action. Jessica Matthews is a big supporter of NGOs, and she brings up strong points as to why NGOs are making a good impact on society.  The power of the nation-state is decreasing as groups like NGOs are better capable of responding faster to problems.  Even if an NGO does not have the funding to make a difference, they are bringing about awareness to an issue that otherwise may not have been addressed. I believe that NGOs, in most cases, do make a good difference and an important factor of how global politics is being run.