Globalization has had a very strong effect on me. It has allowed me to live with my friends and extended families that live in very different cultures and settings. The extended exposure to these different cultures and languages has opened my eyes to the value and diversity we have as a human race on this planet. Different value systems were shared with me from a young age and it gave me a lot of food for thought....
While I was growing up, Lebanon had been going through a civil war. My family would still go to visit our family in Lebanon. I was exposed to the truths of what war can do to a country and a people. Seeing a war-torn Beirut and the people living there just as the war ended had a profound effect on me. Without a roof over their heads, families found ways to survive in a war-ravaged city. It was, truthfully, an awesome show of a determination to survive, and of the human spirit, and it was also a cold splash of reality for me. War and poverty are real.
Globalization has also allowed me to be exposed to several languages. I am fluent in English, Spanish, and French and can speak what I like to call ‘taxi cab’ Arabic. Exposure to these languages has given me a real appreciation for words and their meanings and has allowed me to draw a parallel line between most languages and religions. Although people speak using different sounds and alphabets, they generally speak of the same things and so who is to say that the French language is better than Persian...
Globalization was thus a source of inner strength for me. It also served, however, to be a source of outer frustration. It had taught me so much through worldly exposure, but had left my closest friends and families, whom I shared my globalization experiences with, spread out all over the world. So it was a source of isolation for me too. But as a responsible member of the global community, I chose to channel my joys and frustrations into my work.