Pirates and Indians

Recently, I stumbled upon an article about a new wave of high-tech piracy. And no, this is not the same kind of piracy where an acne-afflicted teen or young adult logs on to The Pirate Bay and downloads a free movie or two. Rather, it is the much older and time-honored tradition of taking a small boat, heading out on the high seas, and plundering passing vessels for their goods, and taking their passengers for ransom. And while the old-fashioned kind of pirates may conjure up romantic, Eurocentric Johnny Depp-esque visions for some, the reality today is much different. With the ever-increasing volume of international trade, much of which relies on seaborne transportation off the coasts of some of the most chronically impoverished regions of the world, piracy has become an impressively attractive and lucrative career. By some estimates, effective pirates make up to $40,000 per year, which is significantly higher than what many Americans make, let alone the average residents of poverty-stricken sub-Saharan nations. Better yet, the income is 100% tax-free! In order to stay competitive in the growing piracy marketplace, many pirates have gone high tech with equipment imported from far-away lands, and use "night-vision goggles, carry rocket launchers and navigate with global positioning devices." This weaponry, which would not have been obtainable for pirates if it were not for economic and technological globalization, allows pirates to plunder ships that would not even be traveling with the same frequency or quantity of goods and people if it were not for the same globalization. So in this sense, it becomes apparent that some globalization works towards increases in crime, which are not the result of Western, American, or commercial cultural influences, but more likely the result of simple human nature taking advantage of the global exchange of goods, services, and ideas. Needless to say, some people will commit crimes no matter how much foreign influence an area faces. However, this behavior clearly causes problems in relations between the victims, who are exclusively foreign and almost always better-off, and local populations, thus contributing to fragmentation between those cultures.
Now what, you ask, does this have to do with Indians, other than by allowing me to write a catchy title, reminiscent of Peter Pan, to this post in a vain attempt to get somebody to actually read this (other than Beth)? As a matter of fact, many Indian communities (subcontinental, not Amerindian) have used technology and the global exchange of cultures and community not to assimilate with local populations, but instead to increase solidarity with their cultural compatriots, thus strengthening their cultural norms against any signs of westernization or other globalized integration. This article, albeit from CNN, gives an interesting take on the use of the internet as a tool to link people from around the world into a common community. In most cases, this is predicted to cause internet users to integrate, either with their societies as a whole as homogenization or hybridization theorists might argue, or with other internet users, as "elite-culturists" might argue. However, in this case, Indian communities use advances in telecommunication and social networking not to integrate into a common culture, but rather to insulate themselves from dilution by other groups in their "pure" ethnic families. This story describes how the internet and cheap and reliable cell phone service have enhanced the ability of Indian parents to conduct arranged marriages for their children, many of whom actually seem grateful for the help in finding a suitable partner. What we see here as a result of increased international trade and communication is not cultural integration, but rather the opposite: some American-born Indians are actually being married to Indians from the subcontinent in order to keep in touch with their ethnic roots. While much more benevolent than the example of piracy, this story also gives evidence that globalization as we see it today does not always result in cultural integration.
While it is out of the scope of this post to make a case as to whether the overall trend is towards homogenization, hybridization, or fragmentation, these are just a couple of stories to remind us that while an increase in integration between nations and peoples might benefit the world in some regards, in the end, people generally like to continue doing things the way they have always done.