Category: Cultural EN

Speed has become a modern addiction. Fast cars, fast food, fast talk, fast bucks; subtlety suffers for the sake of speed. Not only small, but also slow is beautiful.   By Jay Griffiths   Take the cow. It can be hard to understand the deification of the cow in Indian villages. But pause. In westernized Delhi or Bombay, amid the fizzing pandemonium of the fast lane, watch the awesome cow...

Contemporary cultural colonialism (CCC) is distinct from past practices in several senses: (1) It is oriented toward capturing mass audiences, not just converting elites. (2) The mass media, particularly television, invade the household and function from the "inside" and "below" as well as from "outside" and above. (3) CCC is global in scope and homogenising in its...

Western deception, distraction & domination One of the great deceptions of our times is the notion of "internationalisation" of ideas, markets and movements. It has become fashionable to evoke terms like "globalisation" or "internationalisation" to justify attacks on any or all forms of solidarity, community, and/or social values. Under the guise of...

Having resolved to live without oil for one year, Mark Boyle discusses the impact this has had on his life, and what the future holds for him. It’s impossible to tell how far down a certain path you’ll walk once you’ve taken that vital first step. Ten months ago I decided that I was going to live as oil-free a life as possible. Originally this consisted of me using no plastic,...

Linguistic diversity is threatened in all four corners of the Earth. That’s the message in a ‘map of endangered language “hotspots” compiled as part of a project called Enduring Voices, which is backed by the US National Geographic Society. Most attempts to document linguistic diversity simply count the number of languages spoken in each geographic area. By this measure,...

The Consumers Association of Penang is very concerned over a recent media report about the increasing number Mat Rempits with the potential to pose a threat to national security. This concern is shared by the Traffic Division of Bukit Aman, especially since an increasing number of youths below the age of 15 years are getting involved with the groups. The situation has become increasingly...