Think Local, Act Global.

Yes this may be the reverse of the old-ish adage, "think global, act local," but it seemed to resonate in Paul Hoffert's talk on "Rethinking Canadian Culture and Arts Policy." Paul talked a lot about the importance of local arts and cutltural communities and how the process of cultural diffusion is rampant in our world. He also stated though, that the popular idea of the global village is a myth. He used the example of Spiderman in India in which the character of Spiderman became a young Indian boy from Mumbai, instead of a young American boy from New York. Paul said that this was a sign of the slow halt of globalization, where local cultures are becoming more important in the arts than the global market. But I wondered, isn't the fact that Spiderman is in India AT ALL an enormous example of globalization? Sure the big American distributor put a local spin on an old American favourite, but it still remains just that - an old American favourite. To me this is a mark of continuing cultural diffusion. And I also have to wonder, if Spiderman became Tom from Yellowknife, sported a lumberjack shirt and worked as a mountie by day, would this satisfy CanCon regulations?