New Relationships

Transportation technology advancement in the mid 18th century was the birth of the term and the idea of “tourism.” Primarily, such term was associated exclusively with the elite class, but later developments led to a solution that would open up the industry to a much wider audience; DELAG Airlines. Founded on the 16th of November 1909, the Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft is the world’s first passenger service airline. Despite the introduction of such a convenient transportation method, it was not until the 1950s that the airline services were seen not as a supplement to rail but as an effective method of transportation in itself. As technology in general is advancing, costs are being reduced and now the world is becoming an option in vacation planning for more and more people. In combination to the transportation advancement is the communications technology. It was only since 1988 that the internet was open for commercial use. As both technology in transportation and communications is advancing, we are able to see cross borders with less chances of the intake information being tainted. Within a short time frame of 6 decades, the world transitioned from mine to ours.

So what is the point to this story? Globalization, as we know it today, is just a young, new term. Topics dealing with whether we are destroying cultures by "helping" or imposing our laws and views on others are only a recent trend. It has only been covered by many media sources ever since the late 90s (e.g. banning of the Shaking Tent rituals of the aboriginals in Canada).




The growth of a nation or a mass institution can be compared to the growth of a single person. Just like a maturing teenager, different nations are just now opening their eyes to the world. Even the often hated giant corporations such as Starbucks or McDonald’s, as ahead as they are in their game, only recently went global. McDonald’s introduced localized menus and interior designs to be more culturally friendly and accepted in more recent years. Carried in the 2007 January New York Times paper is an article that quotes Denis Hennequin, the president of McDonald’s Europe, stating “To make McDonald’s and a Big Mac work in the country of slow food, we felt we had to pay more attention to space and showcasing." Menu wise, McDonald’s introduced McCurry Pan in India, rice based sandwich in Hong Kong, McArabia in the Middle East.

It can, therefore, be said that our nation has just met other nations and are now in the beginning stages of figuring out what each of them like or dislike.

Redundant to say, it is normally the giant corporations that have the capital to spend on research and development of products that would cater to each different countries and nowadays even cities. Corporations are on their tiptoes, living in the future, and acting as headlights to the possible problems and solutions that nations or institutions will have to face. They have shunned the light and brought about the problems of having to be more localized in order to be successful. We know some problems but we still should be learning more problems.


So, “should you do nothing because it might be wrong?” “Is it possible to ever come up with a successful design for another culture?” I can’t help but doubt the existence of UNHCR had the creators asked those questions in their development stage. “Should we not even try because we might offend someone? Should we not find out what works because we don’t want to find out what doesn’t? Before we judge and dismiss any knowledge we have as being cynical, we need to realize that we as nations are at a similar stage as that of a young child - still learning, unaware, and easy to judge. We need to realize that we need failure to know success, that to that one starfish "it matters."