Globalisation and Sri Lanka - Part 1

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

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With the advancement of technology, the world is becoming closer together. The Information technology plays key role in making globalisation reality. However it is a tragedy that most of the people in Sri Lanka are in the dark with respect to globalisation.

One of the key reasons behind misconceptions about globalisation in Sri Lanka is rooted in wrong translation of the word "Globalisation" in to Sinhalese as “ගෝලීයකරණය” (Gooliyakaranaya). This Sinhala term literally means making something round or spherical. Probably the pundit who translated this word may have misled by relating the term to globe. In English, the term globe has two meanings. 1. Spherical object, 2. world/earth

However it is clear that the noun 'globalisation' has its root in the adjective 'global. which means “World” and it has no connection to the other meaning of “Spherical object”.

According to the Wikipedia the term globalisation is defined as;

Globalisation (or globalization) describes the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of political ideas through communication, transportation, and trade.

One can clearly see that the term “globalisation” is all about breaking geological barriers in politics, economy and culture by means of technology. Information Technology (IT) plays key role in globalisation.

However, Globalisation has been wrongly translated to “ගෝලීයකරණය” and no wonder most of Sri Lankans (majority being Sinhalese) are utterly confused with this important phenomena.

We all know that world is already spherical (“ගෝලය”) and no one is currently trying out making it spherical any more. If the world was cubical or some other shape, the Sinhala term “ගෝලීයකරණය” would have made some sense :-). This wrong translation had affected Sri Lankan nation lost in globalisation. We are really in a backward state compared to rest of the world.

It is time to rectify the mistake, and first start using a proper term for globalisation. The Sinhala language experts must come up with a better meaningful term. One possible term I may suggest is “ලෝකීයකරණය”.

Read part 2 of the post here (in Sinhala).
- Role of Sri Lankan IT professionals in globalization - Part 2