Globalisation Vs Nationalism: which side are you on?

[KritiKal-Mind]

We live in a world where connectivity and integration are at their best and still maturing. A world where distance is measured in duration and borders are disapearing. A world where nationalism is threatened by global inclussiveness and cultural uniformity. Where Nation-state and nationalism is seen as a thing of the past and irellevant.

 

The Japanese business strategist Kenichi Ohmae asks this question: "If the Cold War is over and money flows around the world beyond the reach of governments, who, indeed, needs the nation-state?"

 

The answer is simple, we all need nationalism, to heal up the wounds inflicted upon us by the phenomenon which Capitalists call globalisation. We need to feel secure in our own homes/lands, unique in our own terms, and have pride in the culture we practise. This is a much discussed and oftenly contravercial topic, it has been a battle field for those who report that the so-called 'Death of the nation-state', and the nationalism. Inter-paradigm debates (by people with a state) are already being motioned to discuss the threat posed by globalisation towards nationalism.

 

So, in our case or shall I say, in Somalia's case, was our civil war the result of weak nationalism coupled with foreigh global influences?

 

So, I ask, did Somalia ever had anything that even looked like Nationalism? If we are to join the global sphere, do we firstly need to have a nationalistic state, state which can drag us out of the shadows of the embracing warlord?

What is nationalism? Before I answer that question, let me ask another question which of relevance to this topic.

 

In our Somali sense, who is a nationalist?

 

For example, if loyal Somalia Online users are called 'Nomads' to differentiate them from other users like 'Somalinetizen'of Somalinet, can anyone who is loyal to maintain Somaliness qualify to be called a Nationalist?

 

Can nationalism be an ideology that represents and preserves a culture, tradtion, religion and interests of collective group of people in a certain region?

 

My last question is, Do we Somalis really need globalisation more that nationalism or the other way around?

[Baashi]

Enlightening!

Well...I say we need Globalization for investment. But it has its drawbacks..that is mega-corporations, who r out to look after their bottom-line, will dictate the terms to their advantage - make no mistake they run this globalization show. Their 'advantage scenerio' stretch from sweat-shops to the weak environmental laws so that they will be free to dump waste into the surrogate nation.

 

Nationalism is not a variable in the socio-economic equation. It is, however, cohesive catalyst that sheds light the importance of the law, land, religion, and culture. Its drawbacks include militaristic impulses that can be triggered by a simple emotional speech.

[Dhimbil]

This is interesting....i do think we as somalis are in great need of nationalism at the moment, atleast nationlist leaders who can develop goal congruence gov system. However if or when dust seattles back home, we can't do anything else with nationalist, because there is no definite economical benefit to nationalist, atleast i can't see it. There comes the advantage of globalisation in regard to economical development. The world is becoming closer more rapidly and globalisation may become system we can't afford to avoid. So we should embrace it and take advantage before it takes advantage of our resources(if it hvn't already).

 

Peace

[Valenteenah.]

Interesting...My kinda topic!

 

I'm rushed for time at the moment so am gonna havta come back and post my piece later...insha'alaah.

[khadar01]

Globalization does not necessarily mean you have to abondon nationalism.by going global that allows you to expand for trade & development it allows small business grow,in general it's good for the country's economy.at the same time you want to retain your culture,sovereignty & all that makes you nationalist..somalis have being nationals up untill 80ys.somalia is not good example of country that needs globalization what you need first is stable economy.

[mahadi]

Globalization in the current sense of the word really applies to the extension of the world capitalist system through a variety of mechanisms. Such regimes as the WTO and the Intellectual property treaties do not create a level playing field as the rhetoric would have you believe, but rather strength the already greatly unbalanced playing field.

 

Globalization is not a new concept, as it has been occuring for a thousand or so years. Somalia being a prime example of the exchange that occured in the old world. True, certain factors such as information and communication technologies have definitely increased the potency of this old phenomenon.

 

By the same token, nationalism in its strict sense has not helped Somalis all that much over the years. Because of our strong identity and homogeniety we have undertaken some ill advised policies such as the Ogaden war.

 

I for one would like to see greater Somalia exist. I hate when I hear ethiopians refer to the Ogadeen as their land inhabited by Somalis. As we all know this is not true, and simple examination of history will validate our claim.

 

Or the neglect by the Kenyan government of the NFD( If you won't help the people then let then leave your government). Somali nationalism is a powerful force, and is one of the reasons both Kenya and Ethiopia have undermined covertly reconciliation attempts. However, nationalism in the broader context of the world is a dying breed, era of the nation-state is coming to an end. More than ever regional economic development will be a requirement for prosperity, or at least stability and a decent life.

 

Salam,

 

MAhad

[Bachelor]

Wonderful topic indeed!

As a nomad we have plenty of things to worry about including "Globalization". First thing first. Isn't it a bit peculiar to talk about this issue. When we couldnt keep a small nation of less than 6 Million people intact forget about NFD and Ogaden (K5).

I 101% agree with Mahadi for berkely. Well said SXB.

Globalization is BAD for somali people it would really damage their already fragile country (culture). Hence, i will rather be a nationalist and see a greater more stronger somalia.

[Valenteenah.]

Well, Mahadi said (and very well too) most of what I would have. I agree with him.

 

I would only add that the culture and ideology of consumerism, carried forward by globalisation, is deemed to be replacing religion in many aspects in the West. It's as if these ppl have been told that the be-all and end-all of life is to consume as many products as possible.

 

Which reminds me of an article carried by the London Metro, which I read a while ago...apparently as many as 130 million ppl are being predicted to die of hunger/famine/malnutrition in the Third World, while 1 billion ppl are being predicted to die of obesity and related problems in the West. Mind-boggling. Pure, unadulterated greed comes to mind.

 

Do we really want the McDonaldisation and Coca-Colalisation of the world? Methinks not. That is one thing somalia definitely doesn't need.

 

Nationalism is another paradox. Ideally, as Muslims, there shouldn't be any boundaries or barriers between the Islamic ummah. Yet there are so many. Nationalism places sovereignty on the people of that particular nation...when in fact under Islam sovereignty rests with God.

 

Having said that...nationalism is crucial for Somalia at the moment...if only to obliterate tribalism from our mindsets.

[KritiKal-Mind]

Hawdy fellas,

 

Well, I quite agree with all the comments posted except Baashi's comment, which fails to tell us how Somalis can engage in a globalized world without having a state?

 

Don't you think that it is the state itself that paves the way for globalization?

 

But if the state's involvements in the markets should be minimal - in a continent like Africa - where there is no infrastructure to support smooth operation of free markets, how can globalization take place?

----

 

Fellas, we should bare in mind that there are two names mistaken to one another. There is GLOBALIZATION (Capitalistic/Imperialistic) and GLOBALISM(is said to a marxist notions)

[Paragon]

[Thinkerman]

wow soem very interesting thoughts on here.

Thx for posting the topic Kritikal-mind.

 

My on 2 cents on which of teh 2 evils would eb more preferable.......well as we can see in the dbates that we do on here the idea of Nationalism is first n formost that which seeks to identify people within a group and thus goes against Isam a sit seeks to divide nationalities amongst there ethinicity rather than bring them under one leadership one way.

 

And with us somalis being as tribalistic as we are nationalism am sure would exhibit some trabil traits and thats a road we dont want to travel down again.

 

were as globalism, as my dear nomad Barwaaqo so elegantly articulated brings on its own set of problems as well as the precieved benefits and thats assuming that the wealth drevied from this is fairly distributed.

 

Anyway the following artcile

 

gLOBALISM

[Coloow]

SHUJU. AN INTRESTING ARTICLE. MOST PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GLOBALISM AND GLOBALISATION!

 

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY GLOBALISATION? ECONOMIC, POLITICAL OR SOCIAL?

 

I AM A FUN OF ECONOMIC LIBERALISATION AKA GLOBALISATION:

GLOBALIZATION IS A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD. ON THE ONE HAND IT PRESENTS OPPORTUNITIES ON A GLOBAL SCALE, ON THE OTHER HAND IT POSES THREATS AT THE LOCAL SCALE.

 

BUT IT DOES PRESENT AN INTERESTING PARADOX: WHILE THE FEAR IS THAT WE SHALL BE SERVED BY SINGLE STATES, FIRMS ETC, GLOBALISATION ARGAUBLY DEPENDS ON THE LOCAL MILLIEUX IN ACQUIRING THE RESOURCES. FURTHERMORE THERE IS EQUAL ACCESS TO RESOURCES.

[Dalni]

That photo has different meaning. It asks "Somalia, a failed state?" and the man sitting down is wearing a Gucci T-shirt which got there by means of globalization.

[Che -Guevara]

Globalization is bad for somalia as we don't have the infrastructure and the people needed to compete on the global stage. I just don't see how a poor farmer from Jubba or cattle herder from the Hawd could compete with goverment subsidiezed wheath farms on the plains of the Dakotas or the Australian cattle farmers. Third world nations have to resort to protectionism,or the market will flooded with cheap products from the west, and the local businesses can't compete with subsidiezed products. Case point, Indian farmers who fed india's billion people are going out of business coz these poor farmers can't compete with cheap imports from America. The Indian goverment foolishly jumped on the globalization bandwagon in the 90s. Todays its farmers along with its population are paying the price. The suicide rate among indian farmers shot to the sky and people go hungry in India for the first time in its young existance as an state. N Ask any Indian wat Enron did to the state of Gujrat in India.Enron robbed the entire state blind by bribing every official. Transnational corporations are more powerful than weak third goverments. Even look at Iraq, American companies resconstructing Iraq will borrow money from banks. The loan will be paid back by using future Iraqi oil revenues. Iraq is gonna be in debt for along time to come, no matter how rich it gets.

 

Nationalism too is bad for somalia atleast for the moment. Blind nationalism is wat led to 1977 war, a mistake we are still paying for. Wat we need now is to reconcile and rehabiliate people(Very Important thing to do). I think somalis will better handle the idea of nationalism the day when we stop asking "yuu Yahe madaxweynuhu" and starting asking " Maxuu ii qabti ama bulshada u tarey".

As for the idea of globalism...It is terrible idea, one dats doomed to fail anyway. I think some people think maybe ppl will get along if there was one global culture or some sort of uniformity. Humans by nature have the urge to group themselves into different parts. These groupings will stay even if we had same culture,religion or race. Heck, the left-handed might hating the right-handed people..lol.. Globalism is associated with one world goverment, imagine concentrating the world in the hands of few people.wat makes anybody think the powerful few could solve problems of the world any better than those before them. :confused:

[Rahima]

Am I allowed to say neither?

 

Undoubtedly, as Muslim people, neither would work for the Somali people.

 

It seems we all clearly see that globalization works against us, but it seems we are not understanding what nationalism entails.

 

Allow me to inform you fellow nomads that Islam forbids Nationalism (the general definition of it). Islam strives to abolish Nationalism.

 

The following hadiths prove this:

 

"Whoever calls for Nationalism is not one of Us."

 

"Whoever fights under nationalistic banner, gets angry for it, calls for it or supports it, and for that gets killed then it’s a death of Jahilyah"

 

 

However nomads, this does not mean that we as Somalis cannot work towards the betterment of our land and people, but it must be so that we do our part for the betterment of the Muslim lands as a whole and the Muslims as a brotherhood.

 

Remember that our allegiance is towards Allah and His religion, not to our country simply because Allah chose us to be from there.

 

So bottom line, my point was we as Somalis do not need either of the two, but rather require adherence to the religion of Allah, Al-Islam.