Adieu 105.1 K-mozart...

A sad sad thing has happened for classical music fans in LA. K-mozart, which was formerly an excellent classical music station, has shut down. It baffles me that such a large metropolitan area can't sustain a radio station such as this. I suppose it can't compete with the mass market commercial radio stations anymore.

This led me to ponder what happens when corporations infiltrate the market of foreign countries. How many countless gems have been lost amidst McDonalds and Nike. It's not that I'm against globalization. I think being able to share and interact with other cultures is amazing. So much new knowledge and interesting facets about the lives of other people can be relayed in the blink of an eye, but what are we missing out on? Moreover, what are we taking away. Are we a generation that is trying to homogenize the people of the globe? And to what extent will the impact of this have on future generations of other countries. They say that "times change and people change". This is a very real prospect, but the real question is, where do you draw the line. There is no way to stop globalization and in many ways globalization adds a lot to society, such as creating global awareness of pressing needs in other countries, but I think it's absolutely pertinent to remember this: when we enter other countries we need to remember that we are guests of that country and we need to be courteous and respectful of the people and their culture. It doesn't matter if we're entrepreneurs or health workers, we need to be mindful of whose space we are encroaching on.

And going back to the travesty of my lack of K-Mozart, at least I can take solace in the last remaining FM classical music station in the Los Angeles area, KUSC.

Globalization

In the video for week 2 there was a particularly interesting one on globalization. In the beginning, it mentioned how droves of people protest and are against sweat shop labor in other countries and so on and so forth. Its funny because for a while I always thought of myself to be one of those people. About a year ago I saw a piece on one of those news shows (like 20/20 or Dateline..I can't recall exactly which one it was) on how people in places like Sri Lanka and Vietnam where all the big factories are going think all of us are, to put it bluntly, stupid. As noted in this video, yes these factories are only paying the workers far less than what any factory workers in the US would receive. Practically dollars a day. However, in comparing the amount that they would have earned in another factory, this is apparently far more. So in a sense, these factories coming in these poor countries is a good thing. Because these foreign factories are paying more than the ones established in the region, it drives up the overall rates of factory workers in all factories. This is definitely good. However, I still am a bit uncomfortable with this. The rates begin to grow, and the foreign factories leave so they can set up shop in another country with cheaper rate. Thus, the thousands of employees that big companies like Nike employs all of a sudden find themselves without a job. Conversely, the corporation has now moved in a more poor region and thus helps build the new country up economically. I can see the pros and cons of both sides, but I think there needs to be some sort of ethical stipulation to these corporations before they come in and set up shop. They need to not only guarantee the better wages in respect to the country's wages, but also other benefits (i.e. health and at the very least a good severance package when the company closes to allow these people to go on until they could find another job).

This is also leads me to think about, as Americans we always complain about outsourcing -- all our jobs are going overseas. The truth is, America can no longer be a country of factories. We need to, as Dr. Shahi has stated, evolve and be innovative. If we are to survive as a global power, we need to put more money into our schools, ensure that every child has a good education. America's elementary school system is failing in many states. If we don't encourage the young minds of our nation, we have no hope but to fall fast and hard.