Western Culture Has Brought More Negative Impacts on the Malaysian Youth free essay sample

On The Malaysian Youth. Western culture is a body of knowledge derived from reason that began in Ancient Greece. There and in the Roman civilization it developed until the start of the Middle Ages when it largely vanished from Europe. During the Middle Ages, Western culture resided, instead, in the Arab / Persian world to a modest degree. Today, Western culture has at least some presence in nearly all nations of the world. It does not currently exist, however, anywhere in a perfect and complete form. Wherever Western culture exists, it is at least partially mixed, and often largely mixed with non-Western culture. Western culture represents knowledge developed from the reason that has been made possible because of a vast accumulation of understanding related to human nature, including nature and reality, happiness, rights, individualism and science and technology. In Malaysia, Western culture came into influence when the Portuguese arrived in Malacca in 1509, and then captured Malacca in 1511. After that, Malacca had continuously fallen into the hands of Dutch, and then the British. The British gave the most impact to our country, as they changed the administration of the Malay States in Peninsular Malaysia. Since then, our people had been exposed to strong influences of the Western culture, for example in our lifestyle, clothings, language, attitude and thinking. Till now, our country is still under the influence of Western culture, mostly the British, as we are still using the English Law as reference for the legislation in our country. Today, most of the youths in our country are influenced by Western culture. Western culture can be positive, for example, listening of western music and watching western movie can improve our language and increase our knowledge in Science and Technology. We can interact easily with tourist from other countries and leave a good impression to them. On the other hand, Western culture brings more negative effects to our country. Youths learn how to smoke, gang-fight, get addict to drugs that are part of the western culture. The media holds a large responsibility in this matter, as most of the youths learn bad habits through music videos, dramas and movies. Western culture efinitely brings more negative effect to our country. Youths start to lose their own identity and culture of their own races and are easily influenced by the negative culture. It is believed youths liked to imitate and quickly affected by something that is considered attractive or fun. They have the attitude to try something new without thinking of the consequences that will follow. Among the evolving aspects of life including pre-marital sex. Youths love to mimic the way Western people live as seen on television. Therefore, the number of youths who dare to have pre-marital sex are boiled up to the point of having sex at a very young age. Surely this is not suitable for a Muslim country. Even the western older generation will disapprove of such act. Rise in the popularity of a sex and booze culture is a worrying trend in Malaysia. It is becoming gradually acceptable that clubbing, binge drinking and casual sex is an acceptable way of life for a small but growing number of youth. This lifestyle fuelled in part by the growing financial means with sources of income from dual-income families, as well as their personal earnings from part time work, the Malaysian youth has relatively high expendable income. Courtesy of MTV and the Internet showing the rising influence of the western culture of liberal expression; attitudes towards sex and booze are becoming lax. While there have been various campaigns initiated by the government to educate these young people about the consequence of casual sex, i. e. risk of Sexually transmitted Diseases (STD) and Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the care-free attitude of a particular group of youth is a major source of worry. Some of the sexually active youth interviewed claimed to have multiple sex partners even at the young age of 15 and most of the young girls claim to be pressured into committing sexual acts by their peers or boyfriends. A series of scandals also arose due to the widespread usage of camera phones, with the most widely known incident being one that involves a particular polytechnic student, Tammy from Nanyang Polytechnic whose sexual act with her boyfriend was circulated via hand phones and across the internet after she lost her hand phone which contained the self-recorded footage. Majority of the youth have indicated that they would prefer ducation on the practices of safe sex instead of having teachers and parents tell them to abstain from it totally, which will in turn cause more curiosity and desire to experience the forbidden fruit. Other than that, even if sex education is introduced in secondary schools, the result will be mixed, as teachers still tend to be shy about answering and might be caught in a situation where they might feel uncomfortable advocating that it is alright to have safe sex. This is a worrying trend for a unique group of Malaysian youth and the government is taking proactive measures to address it. It is heartening to note that such lax attitude towards casual sex is also being balanced out by youth of the same age group who are against the engaging of casual sex as a matter of principles and are educated about sexual practices and the risks of such casual behaviour. Finally, Malaysia being a Muslim country, it should be stressed again that not all the western living trend can be accepted by a Muslim however there are good practices that can be practiced by Muslim. However the guideline to determine whether western value can be accepted will always be in the hand of Muslim parents. They should always monitor their children so that the future of the young Muslims will not be in jeopardy either here or the afterlife. We live in a society where there is a desolation of decency and sins are elevated to sovereignty. Malaysia has come to dwell in an Alice in Wonderland world of fantasy, of self-delusion. Everything has been turned upside down and inside out in our country particularly among our youth. We are fast degenerating into a decadent culture obsessed with selfishness and sin and destruction, and a major cause of this disaster is the overpowering influence of Western culture in Malaysia. Never before in history has mankind been so sex centered. Internet porn, late night TV, and even sex on prime time TV are just a few ways that society pushes pornography right into our homes. Recent laws and policies aimed at reducing those statistics by granting more sexual freedom have not diminished those statistics, in fact there has been an increase in suicide, STDs, alcoholism, and partner abuse. Yet even with these devastating facts, modern culture thinks everybody has to have sex. People who dont have sex are viewed with pity or contempt. We wonder what is wrong with them. Psychiatrists have a field day with people who feel called to celibacy. Teenagers who want to wait until marriage are ridiculed by their peers. I dont believe the answer to our problems is more freedom using contraception and safer sex with condoms. These casual sexual encounters among Malaysian youth have contributed to a social problem that appears every day in newspaper and mass media. From the period of January until July 2010, public were shocked, appalled, dismayed by the increasing reported cases of abandoned babies, some of whom were found dead. This incident indirectly indicated that something is wrong in our society. Statistics from the Malaysia Welfare Department from January to April 2010, reported that 111 unmarried young girls were pregnant. The figure, however, is just the tip of the iceberg as many cases go unreported and pregnancies terminated. It also reported in New Straits Times on 23rd July 2010, the body of a baby girl found in a bag at a bus stop near the Sultan Ismail Hospital, Johor Bahru in the morning. Also there a baby found buried. New Straits Times on 18th July 2010, reported that a fetus was found buried by the roadside in Jalan 12, Bandar Puteri Puchong, Selangor. As mention by the Dr Ismail Thamby in the Bernama on 26 August 2010, normally young people will not think of the consequences of their actions because they are easily driven by factors such as influence by pornographic materials on the internet, as well as they lack of religious knowledge. Sex before marriage means many more broken hearts and broken bonds. People think they should take a partner out for a test drive before getting married. But this hasnt made it easier to learn if the person is compatible because couples having sex often overlook important differences cause the sex is good. People who live together before marriage have a higher divorce rate. Some say that these behavior soil the constitution and purity of a marriage in our country. Dominated and led by developed Western countries, the mass media and the fashion industry have also distorted the perception of beauty among youths around the world particularly in the Asian continent. Body image is increasingly being defined by Western parameters due to reasons such as globalization and high technology. The inundation of Western culture is beyond doubt as it has impacts that are unconsciously detrimental in our daily lives. Through globalization of the Western culture, teenagers are also experiencing new cultures that are absolutely different from local cultures and this can make these youths much more adaptable and accepting to distinctions that vary among societies and even education wise, young Malaysian teenagers have the privilege to obtain trustworthy information which after all, may be the first step for these teenagers take to become international leaders of tomorrow. However, there are always two sides to a story. Leading fast food chain shops such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s and Burger King are making people obese at a young age while glamorous Hollywood actors and singers are mesmerising teenagers into plastic surgery. Unconsciously and involuntarily, teenagers often suffer from the loss of their own unique culture. In the context of body image, young girls are the most affected by the Western culture compared to the opposite sex. Women with petite bodies and girls with a Barbie figure are always shown to be more popular or attractive while the overweight are portrayed as less popular even in the local media which is heavily influenced by Western culture. This leads to a notion that being extremely thin is sexy and creating a unrealistic image on how women supposed to. When this thought grips the minds of youngsters, they take to fad diets and unhealthy methods ( self-induced vomiting, laxative abuse and smoking) or even turn to cosmetic surgeries to get that so-called perfect body. The craze for models or actors and actresses, makes teenagers want bodies and facial features like theirs. It is beyond question there is an influx of Asians trying to look more â€Å"Western†. CNN has reported on Dr Kim Byung-gun is the head of Seoul, South Korea’s biggest plastic surgery clinic, BK DongYang says his clinic, performs 100 surgeries a day, ranging from eyelid surgery to nose reshaping to facial contouring. Dr Kim explains that prior to surgeries, the patients express their hatred toward their Asian appearance and want little less to do with the Asian look and prefer to look Caucasian. In Malaysia, women haven’t gone to such extremes to look westernised but it doesn’t mean Malaysian women have different perspectives. Forty-one percent of Malaysian women interviewed in a survey carried out by Synovate (News Straits Times, May 4, 2006), used skin-whitening products. It is so as a dissatisfactory towards their â€Å"ethnic and local† appearance. Rarely is Asian particularly Malaysian natural beauty is recognized or acknowledged in the local industry however models and actress which have a hint of Caucasian features is considered absolute beauty and glorified. Malaysian youth need to realise these ideas of beauty in the Western media are unrealistic and the portrayal of women in fashion magazines and advertisements are air-brushed. This total lack of representation has created stereotypes and double standards. Likewise, on billboards and in magazines everywhere, it seems, there’s a male Adonis, with chiselled features, buff, and full head of hair. The notion that males are immune to the impacts of the western culture in the context of perception on beauty is ridicule. Many males are becoming insecure about their physical appearance as advertising and other media images raise the standard and idealize well-built men. Researchers are seeing an alarming increase in obsessive weight training and the use of anabolic steroids dietary supplements that promise bigger muscles and more stamina for lifting. According to a study done on Malaysia by the Asian-Pacific Cosmetics and Toiletries (2007), Malaysian men no longer confine their beauty products to toiletries such as deodorant, shaving and shampoo but also facial skin care products including skin brighteners. Malaysian youth need to realise changing your outwardly appearance will not make you feel any better however finding your inner beauty and building on your positive self-image will help you find the beauty on the outside. Apart from improving on self-awareness, they need to embrace their own culture and ethnicity proudly which will create cultural diversity that is distinctive, rather than trying to parrot other cultures leading to a world with no uniqueness. Moral values are most definitely declining in today’s society. There used to be atime when majority of people would have had nothing to do with such things as abortion and gay marriage. However, these are issues that are even less important in the grand scheme of things, less fundamental than a basic value such as honesty. So many young people in high school and college are dishonest in their schooling and this effects all of society because they gain degrees and then jobs based on falsified education. This becomes a detriment to all of society and shows itself in other declining values. Our society’s values are deteriorating, because it is evident with things that are happening, such as violence, porn films and so on. Our society has been on a download spiral when it comes to values. You can see this in all the violence that happen everywhere, as well as at places where one used to feel safe, like school area that are now danger zones. Also, all the issues with unlawful postings of erotic pictures and not to mention, child pornography. Technology has played a big role in promoting this, but the fact that the people have no values makes it worse. The value of society is definitely deteriorating as there is lack of respect for one another. The value of society has deteriorated as there is lack of respect, lack of morals and ethics in the younger population, disrespect for elders, carefree attitude towards life, lack of goals and the spirit of achievement. Moreover there is also lack or responsibility in the society. They are too busy with providing basic necessities to their family. Anyone can look at our culture and see how our valued traditions have deteriorated greatly since the 60’s. For those of us who have been around awhile, it is alarming the way our culture has turned back from traditional values which we once deemed good but now declare them bad and outdated. Commitment to marriage and family, the sanctity of human life, integrity and honesty, personality and corporately, have all been compromised and devalued in today’s society. The lack of religious education in our society produces an increase in negative activities in society. Porn, homosexuality and other such things are not the reason our society is losing its values. The reason is that the one study that is to be teaching value to humanity is not being taught. Society implodes on itself when the value of others decreases, the idea of a narrative is lost, and hope is not an actual concept. Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of a lie. Hypocrisy is not simply failing to practice those virtues that one teaches. It’s a practice that one tries to avoid. Hypocrisy means Jealous play-acting, acting out, coward or dissembling. The word origins from the greek. Hypocrisy can also mean a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements. It also can be the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case. Mainly we Malaysians learn about hypocrisy from the western world. We are more influenced from them than we know it. An example is the hypocrites who criticize other people for not voting but who dont always vote themselves. It’s funny how people can criticise us and they themselves are equal or lower than us. In Malaysia, we are taught to be ourselves and act normal without judging anybody or any life being Due to the mass influence from the western world we are indulged in the Hypocrisy world. Some Historians date back Hypocrisy to the English in Britain. According to some historians and theories, it may be caused due to the way the English way of life, which may seem to be posh and rich. Hypocrisy nowadays can be seen among teenagers and also some kids here in Malaysia. It’s a sad thing to see that our young generation are falling into the western influences. We can say by trying to act like them we are also being Hypocrisy. The young generation or the youth of Malaysia fall into this trap easily because of the vast media here. Media here such as â€Å"HBO† â€Å"MTV† or any kind of western orientated shows has played a big part in Malaysian youth minds. One does not say that all western shows are wrong or bad but it does give a huge impact on the youth minds. The younger generations have the wrong concept of thinking that the western culture is much better or cool so they try to be like the western people or characters. Hypocrisy is very common among Malaysian people here. It’s just that some people are unaware of it assume it is a part of them; therefore it is taken in easily. Hypocrisy is not a physical disease or effect. It’s a personality disorder. A minor disorder which does not cause any harm. Nowadays, we can see there is a lot of westernization in Malaysia. People in Malaysia like to copy the style from western country because they think that country more develop than our country. From my point of view, westernization in Malaysia give disadvantages rather than good thing. Furthermore, there are lots of social problems among teenagers that try to be like western people. They imitate the way of their life more to westernization. For example, they live together without have the status of married. This will give negative perception towards Malaysian people. They also change the way they eat. For example, they eat using spoon, fork and chopstick but not using their hand anymore. Moreover, they also eat the western food and not interest with local food. They just eat western food such as steak, spaghetti, pizza, chicken chop and etc. Besides, we can see the way of Malaysian people especially teenagers talk are most to the westernization. They’re not polite and use the harsh words while they are talking with each other in public. They also do not care about their own custom and cultural. They also love to fight with each other to show their stronger. For example, there is lots of social group in Malaysia such as punk, skinhead, grunge, black metal and others. These groups bring the bad habit to the youth of today such as social issue. The deterioration and alteration of an object begins right after the object is made and continues at increased rate with the passing of time due to action of increasingly aggressive environment factors. Resistance in time depends on the stability of the materials and on their compatibility. Moreover, any intervention on the object after it is finished affects it. Unauthorized preservation-restoration, improper maintenance, failure to comply with protection and display rules have a negative impact on the object. Anthropic factors have the most serious impact. Vandalism and counterfeiting actions may be controlled. Overall, we can see there is a lot of westernization in Malaysia. It is undeniable that the western civilization has brought us goodness in some ways, but it has also brought many wrong teachings into our treasured culture. People in Malaysia like to copy the style from western country because they think that Western countries are more developed than our country. From our point of view, westernization in Malaysia gives more disadvantages rather than advantages. The westernization gives bad impact on Malaysian people especially the youths because we can see that teenagers today have lack of moral values. They also do not respect to the elder people. This is because their mind is very much influenced by the western culture. These immoral acts will soon demolish the good qualities one should have. Besides, we can see the way the youths of Malaysia express themselves with the Western slang. They are not polite and they use harsh words freely without feeling ashamed of themselves. They also do not care about their own custom and culture. For example, there are many of social group in Malaysia such as punk, skinhead, grunge, black metal and others. These groups encourage youths to divert themselves towards the wrongdoings of the Western culture. Furthermore, there are lots of social problems among teenagers who try to be more and more like western people. For example, they live together without have the status of married. This will give a negative perception towards Malaysian people. Premarital sex is the next stage of young, immature couples living together. They don’t seem to think of the after-effects of their actions. The beauty perception has also changed. People nowadays think beauty is all about being skinny and model-like thin. The girls nowadays go on major dieting plans just to feel accepted. They rather sacrifice their happiness and health all in the name of beauty. In the end of the day, we ourselves are contributing to the negative growth of the Westernization which is happening. We should protect our culture rather than imitating western culture or become part of them. We should be proud with our culture and do not let the negative side of the western culture shape the way we think.