The blanding of the world

We took a walk down a side street of Seoul South Korea recently, which is in itself another whole article on its own as you don’t walk ANYWHERE at night in South Africa. The street featured local art and architecture and lanterns hung on both sides of the street. It was pure delight. We feel a strange sadness when we arrive somewhere new, brimming with anticipation for discovery, and find a Starbucks on the corner and a glass office block that could be anywhere from Sydney to São Paulo. It begs the question: if everywhere starts to look and feel the same, are we really travelling, or are we just changing coordinates?

We see the very real effect of globalisation, or as some say “the homogenisation of culture” when the rich, layered, and often messy beauty of local identity gets sanded down to fit a global aesthetic. In Thailand we saw what we called the Russionisation of Phuket, and in Korea it is simply about modernisation.

Whilst globalisation doesn’t always have to flatten culture because it can also connect and enrich it, the danger lies in economic pressures or trends which erase what’s local because it’s valued less or seen as less profitable or less efficient.The question we have not yet found an answer to is “How can we sustainably honour and support what’s still authentic around the world?” We can listen, learn, and most importantly, not demand that the places we go become mirrors of where we’re from.

If we resist sameness in our own lives and choices, we help keep difference alive.

So our invitation is to seek out what’s of a place, not just in it. And let’s fight the quiet war against “same same but different”, wherever we go.