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The Last Place
angela morgenstern writes "Buddhist Bhutan was the last place on earth to legalize television. Trading traditional practices for daytime soaps and WWF, many fear that western influence will trample the culture." A whole set of articles about the effect of American television on one of the most remote places on earth - it's official, there is no escape from American "culture".
Actually this is a bit more accurate than you may think. Recently I spent a month trekking in Nepal - a nearby country to Bhutan and one that has only recently (30 years) opened itself to foregin influences.
The popularity of WWF, even high in the remote mountain villages, was not something I expected. Then again, this is usually the only "culture" the US exports.
I also visited the country about 10 years earlier after a few months backpacking through India. For around 3 months I travelled and didn't once see a bottle/can of Coca Cola (or derivative) - it was all local soft drinks that were available. At the time it was a refreshing change, and gave you a much more local flavour.
On my more recent trip you could *only* get Coca Cola soft drinks (Coke, Sprite, Fanta, etc.), even high in the mountains a week's travel from the nearest road. OK, they were locally manufactured (under license) and tasted different (the Fanta was nice!), but it was something that got in the way of emersing yourself in a completely different culture. As for the locals themselves, there seemed to be no benefit whatsoever for them having "Coke" soft drinks compared to the local ones before them.
Ho hum, roll on the Disneyfication of the planet.
...with the risk of being unbearably dull...
The GNP per capita 1995 for US seems to be $26 062, ranking at 12th postition. Bhutan, again, is 145th with a GNP per capita of $172. So, I suspect five bucks is a huge portion of a normal monthly salary.
Why does the kernel go through stable and then unstable forks? Can't it always be a stable build, like with Windows?
If you want a glimpse of Bhutan, read their national newspaper Kuensel on the web. It's in English and it gives a fascinating insight into a country that's still trying to take on the modern world on its own terms.
And it uses Slash.
They really played up that 'defame the Amish' show on NPR that you link to. It seemed like the liberals at NPR were actually gleeful in the endless promotional material they played in the weeks before the program. They also allowed the promotional spots to 'lead' the listener to believe the young Amish were engaging in orgies, rather than a little youthful drinking.
One can reject something one has been exposed to.
Another example would be Buddweiser . I prefer the original but buying the real Buddweiser can get a little confusing especially when the American version calls itself original even though the Czech version has been around longer than America.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.