Living In a global village - How the Internet has changed the face ofinteraction

[caption id="attachment_21973" align="alignleft" width="300"] Booth volunteer represents the handicrafts of the global village.[/caption]

Rob Chernish---Have you ever wondered how Earth has become smaller in some ways?  For example, how does someone in a tiny town get toys from China, pasta from France, coffee from Columbia, sausage from Spain, and who knows what, from somewhere else?   In days gone by, going to the market was a weekly or monthly affair, and the trip usually involved bringing some supplies to trade with your neighbors and others in the village.  There were games played and the interaction and social activities were vast, and it is with this concept in mind, that the global village has been introduced via social networking and the worldwide web.   

No longer are the people of the same race or from the same tribe, nor are the products at the market in the village all from the same producers, instead, what we are seeing now is a total global world where instead of having multiple small villages isolated from each other, we have a global village.

The concept of the “global village” was first coined by Marshall McLuhan, a popular contemporary media theorist who studied the impacts of globalization and wrote many books during the 1960s, illustrating the future potential of this concept.  McLuhan has since passed, but his predictions have fulfilled themselves in our modern world.  No longer are people isolated from other cultures and races, but are intertwined among a network both physically in our modern societies, as well as digitally across the internet and social networking.

How is this village evolving?  The answer has yet to be given on how our world will continue to evolve, but given the increased connectedness of international and national trade agreements and greater population migrations, it looks like it is going to continue to mesh and mingle.  Consider the currency of the Euro, and how it has impacted the countries of Europe by bridging them through their common currency.  This is how villages of the past also became united.

Other examples are most prevalent in the marketplace, where if you stop to take a step back, you can see the global movement of products and supplies much like the caravans of old.  However, the most obvious examples have been introduced by the internet and social media following  McLuhan’s prediction where he envisioned how the global population would be connected through time and space by electric technology to add:

• Instant Communication


• Removes Space / Regional Barriers


• Audio - Video Interaction With Anyone - Anywhere - Anytime


• Extension Of Consciousness


• Increased Social Functions


• Revolutionary Social Structure


• Realtime Interconnectedness 

Many of the traits of the traditional village, especially those relating to communication and interaction have presented themselves in a global village through the advent of the internet and information communications technology.

What other ways can you think of that make our world like a traditional village?   Do you think it is safe to say it is a global village?  Do you think McLuhan was right in his predictions?   Many people are still wondering whether technology will bring us together or push us apart, but the growing consensus, especially among the younger generations who openly embrace the aspects of social networking that technology offers say that is gives them much more freedom to interact with their friends across space and time in ways they never dreamed of.  Moving forward with new technology that continues to make communication even easier than our current models is breaking down many of the traditional barriers that prevented communication outside of closed groups and communities.  Even the Khan in the hills in Mongolia has a cell phone now, albeit no service, but one day our local village will become the global village we live in….if Mcluhan’s predictions were correct.

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Author Bio: Rob Chernish is a media theorist and alumni from the University of Lethbridge who is currently studying the effects of mass media on local village populations.

Black on white crime examined in relationship to equal justicefollowing Zimmerman verdict

[caption id="attachment_6526" align="alignleft" width="480"] Judge's tools[/caption]

Carol Forsloff with Casey Buxton---While black youth kill each other more than they do folks outside their own circle, it turns out that white youth are victims of the crossfire of racial tensions and violence.    But where is the lens for examining fairness and justice in race outside of the emotions expressed after the George Zimmerman verdict?

A group of black teenagers shot and killed a white baby in March 2013.  An email chain has been fostered to underline the issue of race within the problem of teen violence, however it is tinged with another insertion on President Barack Obama, intimating that he only worries about African American teens, as in the case of Trayvon Martin.   But it does point to an issue often ignored in the day to day discussions of race and violence and what is fair and reasonable in the application of justice.

In the case of black teens killing a white baby, this took place during a robbery attempt.  The mother insisted she had no money, at which time one of the teens went over and shot the baby in the face.

One article observes that those interested on matters of race and violence may often not be interested, or focused, on crimes when they involve black on white crime, as in the case of African American teenagers killing an unarmed white woman  in Georgia.  Often this type of information comes from someone trying to prove that the problems are equal when it comes to race, on matters of violence and justice.    But a balanced perspective must include the fact that the violence that occurs among the races has more than a one-way street.

After the George Zimmerman verdict, where a Hispanic male was found not guilty of killing an African American teen, speculation has principally been on the American justice and its lack of fairness to African Americans.  On the other hand, OJ Simpson was not found guilty of killing his wife, despite what many considered very clear and detailed evidence.  In high drama, many celebrated the verdict and few asked about the fairness of the verdict itself.  Jurors were seen shaking O.J. Simpson’s hand not long after he was acquitted.  In fact it has been reported that after that acquittal, many African Americans celebrated for weeks.

But are we seeing widespread celebrations from the Hispanic community after Zimmerman’s acquittal?

Justice  might seem to hang in the balance on the Zimmerman case, but a balanced view might produce a conclusion that race as a factor in crime is not a reasonable factor for any race at any time.

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"Casey Buxton" is an African American teenager who did not want to reveal location or race, but helped with this story in finding some perspective and information, that is helpful in the examination of the Zimmerman verdict and violence and the matter of race in equal justice.  He says, "I don't like it either way."  We had discussed this as two people on a bench in Portland after the Zimmerman verdict.   His perspective is like most people, of all races.

Oregon region working to remove its red, to be green in race relationships

[caption id="attachment_10684" align="alignright" width="336"] La Grande, Oregon--one of the conservative towns in Eastern Oregon[/caption]

Carol Forsloff — The South has wonderful traditions of courtesy, decorum, family connections, and a friendly way of greeting people that make people smile. It is, however, a region that remains in the shackles of its past, still struggling to cross the racial divides. But it is not the only place where racial divisions continue and where history put an X on the hearts and minds of people for generations, with Oregon being one of those places that many would not know, or remember, with its own racist past.

Oregon also almost became a slave state. There were loud voices from those who saw the potential of the new frontier, discovered for the country’s expansion by Lewis and Clark, sent by Thomas Jefferson following the purchase of the Louisiana territory, extending to Oregon. The expedition brought a hardy type of folks with rough and tumble ways and also a tradition of using slave labor or cheap labor for expansion. That was particularly true of the gentlemen farmers and the new entrepreneurs, who saw opportunity in the new lands. Those new lands promised a level playing field for the new, bright business man of land and cattle and later railroads and the industrial movement, that also maintained a caste system of color throughout much of the Wild West.

The Oregon County provisional government may have outlawed slavery in 1844 but that was to keep African Americans out of the state and was not a voice of the abolition movement.

When Oregon became a state in 1859, the country was divided North and South. The term Yankee often did not reference the Westerner, but the classic country man was not one dedicated to the expansion of human rights in the new territories. And the restrictions on personal affairs continued until the 1950’s, a time when intermarriage between people of color, including Hawaiians, African Americans, Asians, and Native Americans, was illegal under Oregon law. Miscegenation laws were passed in 1866 and remained until 1951, with a number of legislators opposing the law as "unfair to children"

The problem continues in some places in Oregon. While the spotlight often focuses on the South, the rural areas of Oregon retain its racial divides. Portland, the progressive city that folks point to as modern, upbeat, and environmentally friendly, still has a low percentage of African Americans, and most of these people live in defined districts, areas of the city that have been labeled by color for generations. Only 6.4% of Portland's population is African American. And Bend, Oregon, about a three-hour drive from Portland, is one of the ten cities in the United States with populations over 50,000 with the least population of African Americans at .3%. Folks who visit there notice it is a "very white" city, yet still extol the friendliness of the folks.

There have been pockets of enlightenment and the enlightened, dating back decades. Girls Polytechnic, a technical high school that no longer exists, with the transitions of its once active base  in central Portland. Girls came from all over the city to attend the school.  African American girls (as it was an all-girls school) were on the rally squad, student council offers and figured into school beauty contests, albeit not the more prominent one at Rose Festival. That has changed, and many of the high schools have integrated May courts and representation at major affairs. But it has been a long, hard road for the rank and file of African Americans who continue to face problems related to the state’s past in many areas of Oregon. And Oregon as a whole is considered enlightened with most people cringing with notions of racial prejudice and looking forward, not behind, when it comes to the advancement of minorities.

Those government officials and humanitarian groups often focus on the South and sections of the Midwest for racial imbalance, but Oregon is one of those areas in need of education and communication on matters of race. It may be green on the outside, but it has conservative areas and its redness in the areas of race continue to haunt a state known for its enlightenment and yet a place that has had its own struggles with race in America.