Identity lost or Identity gained ?

Having lived like a nomad for the last few decades, the feeling of belonging is often lost and the borders seem to have blurred significantly in terms of our behavior, our values and our thinking overall. There are times when distinctions such as culture, gender, color, nationalities seem pointless and like I have stated in one of my previous blogs, the human need to identify oneself through differences seem frivolous. The more I meet people from different backgrounds the more I find them similar in the core. Sure, cultures, nationalities, accents and looks differ and these aspects do have an effect on relationships. However, it appears that a new bubble of community is formed under this category of people, which we can categorize as the nomadic or the hippies of the new world. In other words, they are the "Expatriates”.

During many farewell dinners with many friends from this bubble of expatriates we have discussed the perils of re-integration that are required for those returning back home. Sometimes happy but more often nervous to be able to adapt to the very same world where they were born and brought up. In a foreign land these same people tried so hard to maintain their identities from home and once back home they find it difficult to adjust to what they once called home.

Ironic as it appears, the transformations of human ideologies with reference to place and environment is natural. Our instinct to adapt to our habitat has been ingrained through evolution. Stepping away from our home countries and cultures brings new perspectives to our outlook, open us to new ideas and points of views. Living as an expatriate broadens our horizons of the range of possibilities of living your life. This makes it difficult for us to go back to our own home countries and fit in. Many of us do go back and like to be close to our own but once an expatriate always the odd one out. I have heard many Swedish friends tell me how out of place they feel coming back to Sweden after their long haul abroad, many Americans are nervous to be back home and many Indians who are back in India but are always looking for cross cultural communities. The sense of a reverse culture shock is a growing phenomenon. 

Should we call this a loss of identity or gaining a more heterogeneous identity? Have we stepped out of the comfort of our widely perceived nationalities or have we stepped into the comfort of the new global citizen ? Our children are growing up in mixed communities that speak many languages, have different hair, eye and skin coloring and perhaps have contrary cultural beliefs. Do these differences make them more tolerant toward each other or will it generate more prejudice ? Will such a multiple exposure to communities and countries make them see the world as a single entity or will they begin to segregate it. Will this international cult of children turn into Aliens, Intellectuals, Visionaries or Freaks ? Is this world ready to embrace differences or generate further divides ?

It remains to be seen which direction our future generations will take as currently the world  ideology looks a bit confusing to me. The post war liberalism has forgotten its lessons already and reverted to conservationism. India’s much proclaimed post war secularism has turned into a traditionalist by banning ‘beef' for its citizens. The making of the European Union embraced globalization and yet the referendum in Britain resulted into the Brexit. Just a few years ago USA welcomed a colored President and now it speaks of creating hostile walls bordering Mexico. If this world is going to take one step forward and two backwards it will be a long time before our children can feel at ease with their new forms of identity.

The world appears to be standing at the crossroads of deciding its own identity, a humanity  that breeds through love and a cohesive progress or a humanity that is segregated through the disparity of hate and conflict.

Facebook: The Reality of Fiction

I have been a Facebook (FB) user since 2007. Having lived in far away places from friends and family, FB became a tool to show and tell. My daughter has almost grown up on FB, videos and pictures of her first steps, her moods, her Christmas, Diwali and Halloween costumes, her school performances, her pets, her hairstyles, places she has been to and her friends have all been shared with my family who lives two continents away. We are grateful to have such media tools available to us to keep us in touch with the lives of our near and dear ones. Facebook has also helped me connect with long lost friends from the neighborhood, from the early school days, from the ones that drifted away from college and colleagues from the various companies and countries we worked in. I am a peoples person and I like to see and hear about people I know, on Facebook I enjoy the occasional virtual overview of my family and friends. Facebook has enjoyed the patronage of such sentiments and grown to an active user base of over two billion as of 2017 figures.

I often receive notifications from Facebook reminding me of my memories, my friendships and sometimes the gestures are heartwarming when FB makes lovely videos to celebrate these memories. Now, with a population of over two billion users it is naive to think these gestures of good will are personally handled by humans. Zuckerberg in fact takes great pride in how advanced and state of the art their systems are that he presented his Facebook vision of around the clock augmented reality with sensors, camera, and chips embedded in clothing, everyday objects, and eventually the human body. So, I can safely assume that the lovely videos which almost seem tailor-made for me are the work of astute algorithms which are programmed to take the feed from my wall posts and design the pre-formatted animated videos.  In one such memory reminder, the video acknowledged my four year old friendship with a Danish friend, the algorithm promptly displayed a white animated figure embracing a brown animated figure.

On the one hand, I appreciate the precision of the algorithm to grasp such a detail and on the other hand I am spooked out about so much precision. This got me comparing the real world scenarios with virtual scenarios. Surely, we give away more information than we intend to through social interactions in the real world however in the virtual world such information is archived and can be retrieved for or against your will without any emotional obligation.

We have been warned by security technologist Bruce Schneier that, “Facebook can predict race, personality, sexual orientation, political ideology, relationship status, and drug use on the basis of ‘Like’ clicks alone. The company knows you’re engaged before you announce it, and gay before you come out and its postings may reveal that to other people without your knowledge or permission. Depending on the country you live in, that could merely be a major personal embarrassment or it could get you killed.”

Besides how the users of Facebook or any other social media may feel at a personal level, Cambridge Analytica has shown us the horrors of political misuse of Big Data and the extent of manipulation it is capable of. Facebook has compromised personal data of 87 million of its users in the United States of America to manipulate the electorate, so how different is this real life trepidation from the story of the Black Mirror episode, “The Waldo Movement” (2013) where a cartoon character takes over the country leading it to a state of anarchy.

The next few decades of human computer interaction enters its most radical phase as the world is poised to slowly transition in the age of calm technology (Weiser,1988) wherein devices will disappear and a digital layer envelops us in our day to day lives. Currently we are choosing to post our pictures on FB and Instagram or express our thoughts through Twitter. Shortly, information may be grasped about us by just being in any digital environment. The prediction is that as we plunge into this third paradigm of the ubiquitous matrix of media and communication, our near future digital lives will be spinning off exponential more intimate data (Nardi et.al., 1999). We have seen the precision with which algorithms can customize and design desired outputs. We have seen how successfully  Cambridge Analytica has managed to analyze Big Data and manipulate the elections in USA. It is only a matter of time before Artificial Intelligence starts to predict the sub conscious patterns of human behavior and the fictional story of “Her” (2013) becomes a reality. 

A large part of FB users may still be oblivious to how their privacy is compromised, but let us not be complacent to the possibility of horrors that the advancement of technology can bring.

Brand XXX

The self proclaimed capital of Capitalism goes to elections next month and I cannot but help to analyze the paradox faced by the country which has conditioned its citizens to the frivolousness of its own capitalistic thinking.

The campaign holds up the “sleaziest brand” of the century and comes up with the most mundane media strategy of creating controversies through “sex lies and videotape” to generate eyeballs (television ratings) and social media discussions. For the lack of any creative energy the communication strategy is a straightforward repetition for an “easy sleazy” brand recall. And in spite of such a nagging media presence when the going gets tough and the brand begins to feel insecure it creates the most childish diversion through a two pronged defense strategy of “counter malice” and a “continuous whine”. Not to mention the constant interruptions, but then like I mentioned earlier this is a part of the capitalistic upbringing. 

Now, now let’s not get carried away under the wave of capitalism and attribute some credit to the public for checking on the brand’s quality. We use the most modern technologies to analyze the performance of such an “X rated brand” and Voilà, it’s not a surprise, the brand is being talked about not just in the political world but across all the segments, entertainment world, news channels, corporate world, academia, social media and even the Tupperware parties. Now this is what a majority of marketing campaigns aspire, any publicity is favorable to no publicity. So, with a marketing mindset if a “Brand XXX” is so much talked about, even if unfavorably, a percentage of users are willing to give it a try, if nothing maybe just out of curiosity. And, the statistics are much higher than you and I would like to believe.

In fact, many marketeers will agree with me that an appalling number of companies have made a fortune selling sub-standard products like the 'wonder-mop' that don’t work in reality but have been sold in large numbers through such a repetitive and/or controversy driven campaigns. In a capitalistic world money needs to circulate, the more the companies make people spend, the better the country’s economy performs.

This is United States of America’s moment of truth as the citizens vote their new brand of leadership, the outcome of these elections will tell us how the majority of Americans think. Are they conditioned to think like the "Capitalistic Brand Rhetoric" that I have outlined above or do they have the depth of reason and are able to see through that they are subjected to an extreme form of  "Media Sensationalism". I do hope for the latter. 

The Great Swedish Immigration

Sweden thrives to the image of being world’s ‘Moral Superpower’. That is probably the reason why the media here is very careful in reporting the dilemma and the near collapse of this ‘welfare state’ (IPC).  Since our move here nearly a decade ago, as work migrants I have noticed the changes in the landscape of the city of Malmo which is the largest entrance and a migrant port due to its location at the tip of south Sweden.

The Welfare system of the country is so generous that a registered refugee receives almost to the equivalent of 700 dollars monthly allowance, in addition to a neat accommodation in the growing Swedish ghettos. Moreover, Sweden takes in more refugees per capita than any other European country.  A majority of asylum seekers are from the war torn Middle-East and Africa which constitute about 16% of the population. However, during the recent Syrian crisis when the refugees were freely allowed to enter Sweden, it has been reported that less than half were actually from Syria and a majority were from Iraq and Afghanistan and even from countries which are not at war.

The latest statistics show that more than 20% of the total population in the country’s inhabitants has full or partial foreign background. The country is becoming so homogeneous that not only the words “immigrant” and “refugee” are blurry in it’s meaning but it is also feared that at this rate the Swedes themselves will become a minority in the next 10-15 yrs.

Such an idealistic state with porous borders is perhaps a great example in humanitarian terms. However, sustaining such high morals in mathematical numbers is bringing a collapse of the welfare system explains the economist Sanandaji. The welfare system is currently working on the phenomenal taxes the state collects from the employed. Nearly 58% of welfare payments go to immigrants. Whereas, the biggest employment gap in all of Europe exist in Sweden as nearly 48% of young immigrants are either unemployed or choose not to work. A majority of criminals charged with robbery, rape or murder are first or second generation immigrants. A country that prides itself in integrating these immigrants has clearly bit into more than it can chew. The crime in the country is on a rise, unaccounted refugees and unaccompanied refugee children are absconding, vandalism in the refugee ghettos is unmanageable and police and the authorities are short staffed to handle it all.

And yet somehow the nonchalant Swedes continue with their everyday routines without a hint of worry. Except perhaps that when we arrived nearly a decade ago, everyday discussions often revolved around the subject of fickle Swedish weather, these discussions are now often marred with the incidents of muggings and robberies. The irony is that on one hand Sweden welcomes asylum seekers to soak up the country’s welfare benefits and on the other hand tax payers like us have trouble in getting visas for visiting family members.

In 2014, Danish historian prophetically remarked in the book "Farliga Ord” (Dangerous Words), that the economic breakdown of a nation always happens quickly and unexpectedly:

"If there is any lesson to be drawn from history, it is that what you do not think will happen, does. Time and again. The final consequence of the West and, above all, Sweden's immigration policy is that the economy will collapse because who is going to pay for it all? 

And economic breakdowns, once they happen, always happen very fast.”

Identifying the Politics of Identity

A majority of countries today are struggling with the horrors of their own creations. Since the beginning of the world we have learned to congregate into groups of distinction. Humans, animals, insects and things are often classified based on their looks, compositions, habitats or habits. It has been our fundamental need to segregate, divide, classify, categorize and label through differences and disparities.

We have supposedly evolved in our bodies and our brains but our minds continue to inhabit this very fundamental human need. On the contrary our minds have evolved its capacity of registering the infinitesimal differences to manifest into a colossal suffering. Now we have learned to stress ourselves with imagined distinctions to haunt us so much that we have lost the capacity of all other senses. Such is our overpowering need to differentiate that we cannot see, hear, touch, smell, taste or feel the similarities of our fellow human beings. Our desire to rule and to dominate is so great that we have fashioned differences to create fake identities through colors and nations and ethnicity and professions and in the process we are now so fragmented that we have lost one of the most distinguishing trait of being a human, the capacity to feel empathy and compassion.

Defining and redefining our identity is hence a political tool to obtain and retain power, the sooner we differentiate these differentiation the faster we evolve ourselves out of permanent self-destruction. If not, the only hope that we will be able to see similarities once again among fellow humans on this earth is perhaps if we were to be attacked by a common enemy such as Aliens from a distant cosmos. If these Aliens are more evolved than us humans that will be the final blow toward permanent destruction of all our collective identities - the relish of most power brokers - the so-called doom’s day. Amen.

Kenyan Wahindis

My earlier trips to Kenya were mostly marked with social hobnobbing amid my sister’s family in addition to the game spotting of Kenyan wilderness. However, this summer my experiences in Kenya extended into the deeper sociological composition, which frame social hierarchies establishing a kind of human food chain, predominantly built on skin pallor.

Since Kenya and India were both British colonies in the early 1900’s the British indentured Indians as skilled labor to build the railway lines in East Africa. The railway lines were laid through the dangerous jungles by sacrificing 2500 Indians to the notorious Tsavo man-eaters. These were the earliest Indian settlers in Kenya some of which still reside along with their families for over 5 generations.

 

Kenya’s elevated city Nairobi privileged with temperate climate and favorable agricultural land was during those times predominantly a white-settler town where the local blacks were not permitted to live. However, Indians fought for their rights and were eventually legally allowed to reside in Nairobi. Similarly, Indians also demanded political representation from the British based on their economic clout however; both prevented any representation from the local Kenyans.  

Currently, although the Indians constitute less than 1% of the total Kenyan population they are integral to Kenyan economy and politics. Indian Gujarati’s and Punjabi’s dominate businesses, trade and commerce and have flourished together with the Kenyan economy. Since, Indians own approximately 30% of all businesses, it is a common sight to see Indian business owners employing local Kenyan workforce.

Indian Diaspora in Kenya is brilliantly represented through Naipaul’s book “A bend in the river” wherein, the KenIndians known as Wahindis in Swahili live in a closely guarded bubble of their religion, language and culture, which is surprisingly endogamous and close-knit in spite of over a century of settlement with the Kenyans. From the Kenyan perspective the Indians are no different then the Colonial powers of injustice and exploitation and this resentment has often taken form of violent crimes.

Nevertheless, KenIndians felt a brunt of causalities during the Westgate siege in 2013 by the Somalian Islamist Group, since the mall is located in the affluent Westlands area of Nairobi often frequented by the Indian Diaspora and nearly 60% of the business owners in the mall were Wahindis. 19 of the total 68 casualties were from Indian origin. And as observed often, occasions that involve a common enemy tend to unite the diversities. There are many stories of how the Kenyans and the Wahindis faced the Westgate crisis together and helped each other during the siege and after.  

The question is weather we require crisis situations for globalization to be truly realized? Will we continue to live in little bubbles of our cultures and identity and looking inward in spite of where we live? Is there any hope for humanity to exist as a whole by shedding our differences and taking inspiration from each others strengths?

Observing Media Patterns of Children

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"The 21st century will not be a dark age. Neither will it deliver to most people the bounties promised by the most extraordinary technological revolution in history.

Rather, it may well be characterized by informed bewilderment."

Castells (1999)

Author of the book, “Rise of the Network Society” Manuel Castells in his interview with Gestner of ABC mentioned that, “The information technology revolution is about how we generate and process information. And information is the key substance of all human activity, and is directly related to culture, to institutions, to experience. So for the first time there is a direct connection between what we think, what we believe, and how and what we produce. Minds become the direct productive forces, and minds are rooted in culture and in social relationships. So there is interactive connection, for the first time, in real time, between nature and culture, through information processing enacted at the speed of light”.

21^st Century infants soon as they develop some basic motor skills begin to patter on mobile devices, haptic experiences of babies and toddlers have been nurtured by tablet touch screens. By the time, children start school they begin to meaningfully use media devices using their smart phones to vote, to play, to chat or to find information. Modern day children are embedded into new media technologies and are setting the trends of media consumption patterns. You Tube mash-ups, Minecraft building blocks and Wikipedia information are already shaping the modern pedagogy. In times when the boundaries between recreation and information are blurring, children are not only consuming media but also actively creating media content.

I have often noticed two extreme sets of discourse toward children’s media consumption patterns. On the one hand there is a pessimistic discourse wherein, children + media = parent anxieties in terms of medias adverse effects on the child’s health, safety and security. On the other hand, often driven by commercial interests, children are idealized as a source of hope and progress whose imagination and creativity are the foundation of the future of a society.

I am however interested a third strand of discourse which is neither pessimistic not idealistic but encourages the young to be included in the discussion and to be taken seriously in terms of how media experiences are offered to them or preferred by them which transpires the culture of the society to be able to be develop them into ‘well-rounded-individuals’.

I propose to take up this subject toward a long doctoral thesis, however my primary motivation for understanding these patterns builds on an everyday struggle with my 10 year old that depends on social media and technology for a majority of her chores. She learns to play the musical notes of her favourite songs on the Keyboard through You-tube videos, finds information regarding her favourite movie stars and pop singers through imdb or Shazam, creates movie videos with her favourite toys on imovies and makes cyber buddies and pen pals through her Vlog channel, she also practices her Mathematic equations through an internet site, Matheletics and researches for her school projects through Google. After a long stroll on the beach or an involved summer afternoon in a park watching the ducklings, she soon comes back to her ipad to find out more regarding the changing tides or the different varieties of swans and ducks. Curiosity of today’s child need parents with the knowledge base of Google and Yahoo, so perhaps if she is not referring to it directly eventually we parents are directing her to find her answers on the internet. With such an overwhelming influence of the media on today’s children, it may be vital to consider its presence not in the background of their lives but rather embedded into their lives. 

Often marketers have used the term ‘catch them young’ to grasp the pristine and undivided attention of children and adolescents toward capitalistic and brand building motives. In the digital age additionally children are exposed to a variety of windows, which can make them wiser faster and/or can also expose them to a variety of threats and challenges in an effort to keep up with the pressures of the fast changing world. Digital media has become part of their academic curriculum and online games and digital apps have become integral to learning pedagogy. Most parents have to perform a tight-ropewalk between maintaining the digital media diet and allowing a healthy growth of knowledge and media skills. These are times for both parents and the young ones to tread the cyberspace with an informed and a poised comportment. By alienating children from such decision-making however is beneficial to neither. Hence, my constant endeavor is to understand the world of children as they are experiencing it and not just by proxy of what the parents choose for them.