I'd said of the Americxan fast-food transnationals:
>>the capital alone
>>is cosmopolitan
To which you replied:
>This from someone born in the Netherlands who lives in Australia, a
>nation populated by recent immigrants and their descendants?
Well, I thought I was pretty clearly talking about one aspect of capitalist transnationalisation - thinking that it might be an idea to try to have a hand in shaping the process rather than opposing the thing as a whole or accepting it as a whole.
And I might also make mention of the fact that I came to Australia twice, in 1963 and 1972. Then it was easier for non-English-speaking blue-collar scum to enter the Commonwealth of Australia than it was to pass through the eye of a needle. You'd have a better shot at the needle nowadays - just ask all those poor immigrants we're deliberately slow-broiling in the Woomera detention camps as we tap away.
So, discounting hapless refugees, the cosmopolitanism bit is not advancing apace, Doug - not for the world's proles and peasants, anyway. Capital and cultural californication are on the move much more than people and mutual discovery. That may not be so visible to Yanks, I dunno - perhaps Gar was on to something. But go ask 'em in Woomera, mate.
Cheers, Rob.