In conclusion, the
West must revise its conception of development. Economic growth without social
and cultural justice cannot be our idea of development. It is imperative that
development is measured in terms of the quality of human life, which can be
reflected in, for example, better education, health and life expectancy for
every single member of society. This is only possible if men and women are
equally empowered, in theory and in practice. And the West has a crucial role
to play in this process. Anything that falls short of restoring peoples'
dignity, sense of identity, continuity and security should never be accepted.
Africa needs to learn to respect the dissenting voice of its own people. And at
the same time, the West needs to take heed to the saying of the African people "that
you cannot manage or know the affairs of the house of your neighbour."
I believe that cultural imperialism could be a good
thing if we are able to filter and adopt good ideas that are useful to us. Our
culture is always evolving-for better or for worst would be dependent on the
culture that judges at that point of time. If there is a good habit, such as
clearing your table and tray after eating, to pick up, why not? (Evidently,
Americanisation has yet to fully invade our Singapore culture, considering the
fact that at IKEA, despite having a sign of “Please clear your table and tray”,
there are still many trays littering the tables.)
With the advent of technology, we are able to gain
more knowledge of what we, humans, deserve and have the rights to. As such, the
government has but limited rights to censor contents-much less a culture- of a
country. At the end of the day, it is up to us, media consumers to choose what
values we should embrace and what we should not, based on what our own culture
deems as appropriate.
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