An Egyptian minister and three scholars on Thursday said people need to appropriately examine their own culture as well as foreign influences to gain a national identity and a global perspective in the 21st Century.
At a symposium in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, Mervat Tallawy, Egyptian Minister of Social Security and Social Affairs, argued that people need to be well educated to appropriately decide which foreign influences they should adopt -- and which they should ignore.
Otherwise, said Tallawy, a former ambassador to Japan, globalization becomes merely a cultural invasion into all non-Western countries, which in turn benefits Western or advanced nations.