Tony Blair is right that the world should move towards a more culturally intelligible global village. In the present era the world is almost as one in terms of communication, trade and social interests. The political maneuverings are what has kept the world apart because each people and state are uniquely politically different from any other regardless of their proximity to each other. Other than political differences, states are so much alike in terms of people’s aspirations to advance in education, trade, innovation and general development. Nations reach out to each other more easily on issues of mutual benefit and in the process new cultural and social ties develop. When states come together they share their uniqueness and material or resource endowment and in the process create stronger regional bonds. However, when people live in cosmopolitan regions they tend to forgo their uniqueness for the sake of integration and are in danger of losing their cultural identity. The backgrounds and cultures of people are important and worth preserving because it is what tells them apart from others and that is what the world celebrates about them. When people lose their identity they lose their legitimacy as a people and consequently they disappear in the crowds. In the Youtube video posted by HSBC, it shows a contrasting habit of people in France and America at parking lots. Essentially there is general easygoingness of the French people, according to the video, that they are carefree and not very keen on personal space as opposed to the their American counterpart.
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According to Tsui (2007) the article identifies issues that seem to cut across the Asian nation and affect not just the people of China but everyone who lives there regardless of their nationality. These common issues tend to bring people together because they weigh on all of them in equal measure. These issues, according to Tsui, create an identity through social action “that being a Hongkonger does not engender merely nostalgia and sentimentality, but also a base for social action.” (Tsui, 2007, p.12)
By and large there are differences in terms of geographical placement, for example the differences that show between Hong Kong and the Mainland and the socio-cultural distinct identities between the two places play out when it comes to enacting legislation to protect either side.
What emerges from Tsui’s (2007) discussion is that there is the umbrella spirit of a people but still there are divisive issues when it comes to the people relating amongst themselves. The issues affecting Hong Kong are true of anywhere else in the world. The United States of America for example is a nation that prides in its identity regardless of the many different races thereof. However, America is not exactly a homogenous lot. In the age of civil rights movement, blacks were united against what they called white segregation. The issues were however deeper than that since there were among them the poor whites who also were moved to demonstrate alongside their black brothers in a unity that saw the rebirth of America as a nation of equals. It is suffice to say that the issues that divided America such as racism, segregation, and class mentality somehow brought the same people who were tired on the vices in mass movements. Today it is possible to say “E pluribus unum" because the political parties present in the US are divided purely on ideological issues but not on cultural or racial grounds. Consequently, unity in diversity was achieved and regardless of obvious and distinct cultural differences the American people were united in purpose.
The HBSC video reveals some interesting differences in the manner in which people differ culturally from one place to another. Apparently the emerging cultural differences played themselves out in the manner in which business is conducted elsewhere in the world. Clearly, these cultural identities can be used to some advantage because they are not just mere relics in a people’s history.