When it comes to exploring the different cultures across the world, major similarities can be evidently pointed out. A mistake people make in trying to study the world cultures is to lay emphasis on a single tradition which depicts certain people or a region as different and unique. This leads to stereotyping which should be avoided by looking at the bigger measures of a culture. Across all continents, Asia, Africa, North and South America, people’s lifestyles have proven to be more similar than they are different. This has been shown in various aspects of the day to day life.
A major similarity in cultures has been brought about by the globalization factor. Across Asia, Africa, North and South America, people have shown the importance they attach to economic progress as a means of fostering development and prosperity. As a result, countries have resulted in doing business together in terms of importing and exporting commodities. This can be interpreted as a result of all regions embracing a common culture of freedom and democracy. As a result, it becomes crucial that any country that results to doing business with another take time to understand the other’s culture as this can result in conflicts. A good example of how cultures are interwoven is the flooding of American food chains like McDonald’s and Starbuck in China (Bibikova & Kotelnikov, 2001).
Negative cultures have also been a common factor in these regions. All countries in the regions have been burdened by the issue of corruption. Latin American countries have been the worst hit with corruption an issue that has also been said to deter many African countries from accelerating their development plans. Pollution has also been a major concern across the regions. The increased rate of global warming has been attributed to a culture of pollution that is common in developed regions like America and Asia. China and U.S.A have been the subjects of scorns in major world environmental forums as the leaders in emissions of green house gases. Another widespread negative culture is widespread joblessness. This has been a budding factor in all the regions. The issue of unemployment has been a major point of political campaigning where aspiring candidates promise to create jobs for locals, an example being the recently concluded U.S midterm elections where American citizens expressed their concern over the increase in unemployment rates prompting the Republicans to use it as a campaign measure (Baker & LeTendre, 2005).
Education has been a common value among the people of various regions. Although he levels of embracing the same are lower in certain regions like Africa and some parts of Asia, the value of having education is appreciated as evidenced by the increased number of institutions offering the same. Due the globalization factor that has resulted in the cultures being interrelated, it has become essential for people in different regions to study the culture and way of life of other regions, and a majority of these aspects are being offered in class settings an example being study of foreign languages. An example is the number of American Universities in China, the high number of Africans seeking to further their education in America and the introduction of Spanish language in the American curriculum (Pickering, 1994).
An important aspect of how universal cultures have become is best displayed in the manner football has been popularized across the regions. The game of football is played in every country with major competitions like FIFA World Cup being held to honor the same. The popularization of the game has invited an economic aspect which has brought about development of major football clubs made up of players from all over the world. The different players abandon their cultural differences and ‘speak’ a common language of football. European leagues and English in particular have emerged as the most contested ones with the clubs drawing their players from all regions for the common passion of football. In the FIFA World Cup which is the most popular competition, the venue is changed from region to another and different countries are usually represented with values of commonness being emphasized as diplomatic ties are strengthened.
Reference List
Baker, D. & LeTendre, G. (2005). National Differences, Global Similarities. Stanford: Stanford University Press
Bibikova, A. & Kotelnikov, V. (2001). Philosophy, Cultural Values, and Mindset. East versus West. 13(2), 1-3.
Personal author, compiler, or editor name(s); click on any author to run a new search on that name.Pickering, J. (1994).
The name assigned to the document by the author. This field may also contain sub-titles, series names, and report numbers.Comparing Cultures. A Cooperative Approach to a Multicultural
World. Portland:
Publisher name and contact information, as provided by the publisher; updated only if notified by the publisher.Weston Walch Publisher.
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