Uzbek writer speaks of the East and West, negative sides of globalization, freedom of speech & mass media

I just translated an interesting article, which was written by the People’s writer of Uzbekistan, Otkir Hoshimov, and published in one of the regional newspapers of Fergana Valley. I think that it would be of interest to you. Please leave your comments if you disagree or agree with what writer says!!!

Uzbek writer speaks of globalization, freedom of speech, mass media

Every mankind leaves its trace in the history. For instance, we called the XX century, a century of space, a century of cybernetics. We called it a century of man’s reaching the Moon… There is a deep truth in all these words. And we are describing the XXI century as a “century of information science and news, a century of globalization”. There is also deep truth in these words. Nowadays, two worlds in a real sense of the word have become very close to each other. That is, the news about an event that took place in a remote corner of Australia will spread around the world in five minutes. God forbid, if an earthquake takes place in the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the news about this will appear on the Internet in front of a college student in Tashkent within ten minutes. Apart from this, another process, the process of globalization, which is bringing the world together, is gathering strength. Universal monetary unit, universal system of protection, coordinated economy, a unified system of implementing scientific achievements, and the system of Internet, which connects seven continents…
It is quite a useful process. A process, which serves the progress of the mankind and unifies the governments on the path of common goal…
It is so, but what if the globalization causes some problems regarding such issues as national uniqueness and national value? For instance, what if one nation’s customs and traditions, and outlook, which have already taken shape, seems “strange” and “alien” to another nation? For example, I do not know exact translation of such Uzbek words, as “faith”, “conscience”, “tact”, “sin” and “sense of shame” in European languages.
To summarize, the huge wave of the XXI century – a globalization - is entering our life with force and yields its own fruits. Electronic mass media outlets, Internet cafes, discos, video - bars, strip clubs (fortunately, these yet have not taken roots here), soap operas, whose heroes appear every minute on the screen…
By the way, let us talk about the soap operas. Why, such films as “The winter sonata” and “The tale of the autumn” [South Korean soap operas], which were made in accordance with the Eastern etiquette and describe the human’s complex fate astound our spectators and take a place in our hearts? The reason for this is simple. The viewer sees in these films, situations that are close to his spiritual world. At the same time, there are quite superficial and silly movies, and if they are being watched side by side by the father-in-law and daughter-in-law, by the mother-in-law and son-in-law, and by the brother and sister, the level of tact between them would slowly get thinner and finally disappear. Let alone the adults, the children also watch obscene behaviour of a man and a woman on the TV and without even reaching the age of maturity they become shameless. If “intelligent” adults are watching indifferently such entertainments in front of them, then there is no big deal if “unintelligent” kid is watching them too. Today, the child is going to watch a love soap opera and tomorrow without even becoming mature they would secretly go to the video-bars and watch obscene movies. He will start from smoking the cigarette, then move to the drugs and finally will become drug addicted. As a result, one can see that nothing like dignity and pride remains. In the end, a strong boy and beautiful girl will first lose their human face and then their life… The parents will have nothing else to do but to pray. And they do not know that the roots of this tragedy go back to the times when their 10-year-old son or 9-year-old daughter were watching on the TV people kissing and were told via the TV that it is not shameful to fall in love today with one person and tomorrow with another. Without knowing this, they wanted to taste as soon as possible these “mysterious” things…
It is natural that the globalization will not leave aside the mass media outlets. Nowadays, the TV set has become not in a figurative, but in a real sense the looking glass of the world. A person who has got a dish aerial can easily watch hundreds of channels. If he wants he may watch a comedy, a tragedy, an action film, or an erotic movie… Is there a guarantee that a gown up boy or a girl is not watching these things secretly from the parents?
Nowadays, there are around 1000 mass media outlets functioning in Uzbekistan. According to the law, any legal entity or individual possesses the right to publish a newspaper and magazine and to establish a television and radio channel. This is also a fruit of the independence and a sign of freedom of opinion and freedom of speech. However, there are such things that might be common for some foreign mass media outlets, but for our readers and viewers these may be concepts, which would trample our values and dishonour our spirituality. One may give dozens of examples of this. Unfortunately, things describing way of living of the ‘”Westerners”, but which are completely strange for us are also being shown on our mass media. When normal newspapers of huge circulation are printing out article of some shameless woman, called “Being a co‑wife to my daughter’s husband”, and another newspaper publishes a “life story” of an “experienced” prostitute’s “turning into a virgin girl”, this can only be called as an attempt to cripple the national self-consciousness?! What will readers learn from such articles? To what paths will they lead the young people?
Of course, a freedom of speech is a good and necessary thing. But is this right when a freedom granted to someone is used to influence the other’s consciousness, to make nervous thousands of newspaper readers and to disrespect our values?
I remember what one journalist has said during a big meeting. “When a journalist will be able to say whatever he wants at any time and via any mass media, then it truly will be a freedom of speech!” Let us dwell on this. What does it means? Is not it demanding an unlimited right? So, is he a God, that he possesses an unlimited right? “If he is able to tell the truth”, one can understands this. But, what does it means to “say whatever one wants”? What if he said whatever he wanted at any time and via any newspaper or television and radio and defamed an innocent person, which was in reality a made-up libel? What if it is a tension, which is being fueled in order to put one nation against another, to promote the terrorism and in general to provoke an anxiety within the whole society? After all, he wants to say whatever he wants not among a circle of friends or in the café, but via the newspaper with a circulation of thousand copies, via the TV, which is being watched by millions of viewers, and via the Internet that can be accessed from any part of the world! Is not this an embodiment of the saying, which says that words once spoken you can never recall?
Of course, it would be mistake to conceive the globalization as some kind of “alien” concept for us. Globalization is a process, which is taking place around the world and which cannot be turned back. Along with the other countries it is also very necessary and quite useful process for Uzbekistan. However, this should not be a one-way process. Globalization does not mean losing a national identity. The world civilization is considered to be beautiful and rich with distinctive traditions, culture and spiritual values of various nations. Each of these nations has the right to live and to prosper. Nowadays the basis of globalization is made up of Western standards. It is unjust that some country or countries proceeding from their own mentality are “putting into action” the globalization of some nation or nations in other countries. This is the reason for my saying this. Of course, there is a need for the globalization. There is a need for the Internet. There is a need for an exchange of information. All of these are important! However, all of these should not be at the expense of the one side taking place of another and forgetting about one’s own traditions and values! Our history is as ancient as the other nations are. Our traditions are as valuable to us as traditions of other nations to themselves! We are not the infants, who always imitate the others! The whole point is in this! Otherwise, there is a possibility that this process might be useful on the one part, and on another might cause a serious damage. That is, it is possible that our centuries old values might be damaged, the people might turn into a “crowd”, which lost it roots, and the nation might turn into something shapeless, which lost its face. The only solution to prevent this from happening is to protect our values with all our might, and if necessary to show it to the whole wide world, without depreciating the values of others.