Crossing Borders: A "Global World"

As I was reading through Arif Dirlik's "Third World Criticism in the Age of Capitalism" I couldn't help but feel critically nostalgic--feeling as if some of his ideas are rather outdated, or are presented in a fantasized way. 

It is also one I don't necessarily agree with.  There are several issues that beg to be questioned.

Dirlik highlights the fact that capitalism has become decentered and is no longer dominated by Eurocentrism(Postcolonialisms 577).  Because of this the "transnationalization of production is the source at once of unprecedented global unity and the unprecedentied fragmentation in [the] history of capitalism [and] the homogenization of the globe economically, socially, and culturally is such that Marx's predictions finally seem to be on the point of vindication" (Postcolonialisms 578).

I have to disagree with Dirlik on this one.  THERE is no such existence of  unity in global production and cultures.  In fact I would have to argue that the center of capitalism has not really been "decentered" but "recentered" in a place directly across the sea from Europe.  This place my fellow poco scholars would be the United States of America.   The United States has become a culture of capitalistic nature, even worst than what was going on in the 1960's.   The very fact that Black Friday has turned into "Gray Thursday" and "Cyber Monday" is the very proof one needs for the justification of our "bourgeousis" type society.  The poor want to be richer, so they spend money they don't have, to maintain the appearence that they have expensive taste.  Must I continue? The United States my friend is the new capitalist center, which has begun to assert its own imperialist reach across seas, and then some.   Must we be reminded of the factory fire in Bangladesh this past week killing how many workers? Not to mention they were producing American goods. 

The other issue I have with this statement within Dirlik's work is the fact that cultures have become unified.  Really?? In the United States alone, a person of different ethnicity can not go down the street without illiciting a degrading stare from some culturally ignorant hypocrite.  In fact how many hate crimes against ethnic or racial others are commited within the United States in one day? I don't know the exact statistics, but I would have to guess that they are extremely high.  If a country like the United States who is founded upon the ideals of equality and is the supposed "melting pot" of the world is not culturally unifed, then it is no way possible for the world to become one culture. 

With the way the world looks now, I would have to argue that there is no such concept of a "Globalized World" according to the type that Dirlik outlines. I would have to argue that there are Global Superpowers that extend their imperialistic practices to try and colonize our current world.  I do believe that people are intermixing between cultures, and that people are becoming more culurally aware.  Borders are being crossed, yet there are still powerful divsions between North America, Europe, and Asia.  I would argue that each continent is fighting for global control.  AND if that were to happen our culturally "diverse" world would cease to exist and we would all become mindless global capitalist.

I know my views are somewhat negative, but it is because of the current state of our "Global World" that I am doing my best to become a post-colonial scholar.

*****

I had read the entire book of Rushdie short stories in East, West and I must say the two that really stuck out in terms of globalization were "Good Advice is Rarer Than Rubies" and "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers." I'm sorry to say but I must make this explication of these text rather short because I have three final papers I need to finish so I will give you my thoughts in a rather short way.

In "Good Advice is Rarer Than Rubies" there is emphasis placed on the discussion between Muhammad Ali and Miss Rehena's eyes.   Miss Rehana wishes to leave her cultural home, India.  Muhammad Ali represents cultural purity--or anti-globalization.  He tries over and over again to convince Miss Rehena not to go and argue for a permit to leave, but alas the tempation for Miss Rehana to leave her own poor statis and travel is great.  However, Muhammad Ali knows the power of money and wealth is the equivalent to the passport he is witholding from Miss Rehena.  It can be implied that Ali was in the possession of a forged passport, therefor he was aiming at improving his own pocket wealth through the process of allowing globalization. Overall the story, plays with the concept of identity, and the crossing of borders--eventually Miss Rehena passes the colonial interagation that will alow her to leave.  She passes through the colonial gaze, and gains her ticket to globalization.

In "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers", the concept of global capitalism is at its finest.  The ruby slippers represent one of the most important piece of capitalist propoganda for they come from a movie that would become a global hit, The Wizard of Oz.  When it first premiered in 1939 the movie grossed 3,017,000 dollars (IMDB) but after each realease it gained more and more gross income.  However, whats important is that The Wizard of Oz has become a global icon, to the equivalent of Star Wars. Everyone knows these iconic movies, and the Ruby Slippers are the most iconic.  Everyone has travelled from all over to see and bid for the Ruby Slippers including "politcal refugess, conspirators, deposed monarchs, defeated factions, poets, bandit chieftens" (91).  The people stand and "pools of saliva begin to form" (90).  The low down people, and the higher up people come and are unifed in wanting this one object--a pair of ruby slippers.

However, the most important passage of this short story is the one that reads:
We revere the ruby slippers because we believe theycan make us invulnerable to witches...because of their powers of reverse metamorphosis, their affirmation of a lost state of normalcy in which we have almost ceased to believe and to which the slippers promise us we can return; and because they shine like the footwear of gods. (92)
There is longing in this passage, a want to revert to what was before.  Yet, it is only through the capitalistic practices that the people can regain their salvation.  To revert from a globalized society, to become something other more defined in ones own culture. 

Both these short stories were awesome, but I have more to say about where I want to go and what I have learned.

*****

 As a post-colonial scholar I feel like we can learn the secrets, and create the vocabulary, that can help us become better global citizens by promoting dialogue between cultures and people that are different.   Some might say that as a White American Male I couldn't possibly succeed in the field of post-colonial studies because I don't understand or live in a post-colonial society. I couldn't possibly understand what it's like to be colonized and fight against the types of injustices that occur everyday in our post-colonial world.  Sometimes I feel like I am intruding in a field that isn't my own cultural inheritance. But then I realize that I know what its like to suffer the colonial gaze, to have the government control my body, to suffer injustice at the ideology of sexual oppression. I also realize that colonization is EVERY person's inheritance in this world.  Afterall, the first humans were nomads who migrated across millions and trillions of frozen Earth to populate it, we are more interconnected than we like to think.  As a post-colonial scholar I want to seek to create healthy cultural relationships, understand the world in terms of its diverse people. I also want to understand sexuality and its place in different cultures.  I want to rectify the division that global capitalism has created within our  every changing world.

Above all though  I want to question the existence of homosexuality in the Arab world, because homosexuality has been such a major issue in my own world. 

This is where I see myself going as a post-colonial scholar.

As for now, I will continue my journey to understanding our post-colonial world.