Question :
What is the truest definition of Globalization ?
Answer :
Princess Diana's death.
Question:
How come?
Answer :
An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, (check the bottle before you change the spelling), followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.
This is sent to you by a Turkish person, using Bill Gates's technology, and you're probably reading this on your computer, that uses Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.... ......
Well that's certainly true today. I guess it has always been that way in Europe but I still find it hard to adjust to all this globalization myself. I rather liked it better when the USA was pretty much a self-sufficient entity growing and making whatever we needed ourselves.
Nat: I guess it has always been that way in Europe
Not really..... Each country used to have its own industry. For instance, most French would have bought French cars, the Germans bought German cards, the Italians bought Fiat, the Spaniards Seat, the British boiught Rover and Austin, etc..... More or less the same applied in every field. FOr instance, in before WWII and even in the 50s, you would have bought cameras, radio sets, washing machines etc... made in your own country.
The global European brand neames apperaed, such as Philips, Bosch, Moulinex, Braun, etc... in home appliances. And now, we have to get used to either brandless Chinese stuff, or new Chinese brand names such as Haier, Datang etc.....
Well I just assumed the with so many small countries so close together there would be natural to trade among yourselves- compared to the US where most international trade must be carried out over great distances. In fact, it's ironic that we would rather import something 8000 miles than make it here at home like we did thirty years ago.
Even if seen from far away Europe seems a small zone, don't forget this is still many different countries, with different histories, and centuries of wars between them. The Americans talked about "Europe" long before we did. EU construction is something relatively recent (from a historical standpoint). The EEC was only created in 1957, and then it took many years for the economies to integrate with each other.