Growing up glued to my television screen, I would often fall victim to the algorithms of advertisements, sandwiched in between scenes of my favourite film and serials. In order to  appease this feeling of impatience during such interruptions, my brother and I would often entertain ourselves in memorizing and reciting some of the commercials, with its constant repetition and catchy slogans making their way into our brains like earworms. However, there was always one advertisement, that, among many others, would be subjected the most to our ridicule. This advertisement would be later known as the Save a Child for 50 Cents a Day public service announcement, from UNICEF. The overt seriousness and very obvious message of “PLEASE FEEL BAD!!” being reinforced throughout the PSA always rubbed us the wrong way, even though we couldn’t exactly understand it at the time. Since then, I would skip through many commercials and short documentaries of (mostly white) celebrities going to third world nations, as they hold random children in their arms and preach about the difference they have made to the world, before they leave in their private jets.

It wasn’t until I was older, that I realized these feelings of discomfort was also being felt by a great number of others, who have went even further to criticize and define the almost insincere and exploitative nature of these videos. One of the major criticisms that has remained its prominence and relevance, is the issue of the white saviour complex – which refers to the self serving and somewhat colonial act of privileged people extending a helping hand to those who are unprivileged. This is something that growing up and observing such actions, I could always detect but never exactly pinpoint and articulate what was wrong.

Often times, these demonstrations of white saviorism, prevalent in many groups powerful white figures, will be acted upon in moments of weakness – as a way to repair one’s image. Julieanna Goddard, most well known as YesJulz, an increasingly popular social media influencer, was recently outed and criticized for her repetitive and unapologetic acts of cultural appropriation of black culture, leading to her deserved loss of many followers and opportunities. Since then, Goddard has been making numerous attempts to get on people’s good side again – without much success. With her most recent effort to redeem herself, Goddard has unintentionally added more fuel to the fire – as she posts a picture of herself with a group of Ugandan children on instagram, and adds the caption, “WE GOT LOVE.” Since this photo has been posted, Goddard has only received more criticism – with many catching on to her selfish motive behind the seemingly harmless photo. This cheap attempt at reversing her actions, of which may have really had good intentions, is further exacerbated with her need to post it on instagram – losing its sense of authenticity. Now, her actions can only be reduced to an act of the white saviour complex – with the African children acting as props to her process of trying improve her image.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo_slklFlgG/

Within the past few decades, the world has seen a great increase in the international flow of goods and services, thereby implementing a huge shift in the global economy. This process is defined as globalization, with multiple businesses and organizations establishing their international influence, and subsequently changing the environment of all participants, including households, firms, and other businesses. This has resulted in a more interconnected and integrated world, with almost everything we use and share being the direct effects of globalization.

    That being said, although we seem to be aware of this fact, it’s very difficult to actually acknowledge everything in our life to be a result of globalization. With the world developing so quickly, and the participants expected to adapt at the same pace, it’s a lot easier to take all of our experiences and the items we use for granted. Personally, I have gone about my whole life almost ignorant about all the ways in which this highly globalized world has played in any kind of role for me. However, in the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to become a lot more conscious of my surroundings and am shocked to find just how easy the effects of globalization has made my life for me.

    As a university student living away from home, I have had to adjust to many of the changes the standard student life experience has brought upon me. One of those changes includes regular grocery shopping, which is something that I did not really have to worry about before. Nevertheless, just walking around in a grocery store, one could find just how the all the forces of globalization has worked its way into everyday life. All of this had suddenly hit me when I was in the produce section, and realized that the apples that I was placing in my cart were the perfect example. First of all, these apples were more than likely not locally grown – they are more likely products of importation, from fields of workers who are also most likely being tired out and underpaid. Above that, the simple awareness of here these apples come from wouldn’t have been made possible if I hadn’t read about it on the internet or school textbook. Yet, here I am, chucking my apples in my cart, continuing to support practises that I don’t necessarily agree with because of their convenience.