Globalism and localism

I feel that living in a small community in a country at the lower end of the economic spectrum (it is ranked 103rd in per capita income, though significantly higher in HDI rankings) allows a person a unique opportunity to guage the far-reaching effects of globalization. In the villiage, everyone has a Nokia cellphone, and my host brothers love to watch such dated cartoons as Tom and Jerry and Looney Toons (I even caught the tail end of a Woodey the Woodpecker episode). The teenagers listen to American pop and rap music despite not understanding the lyrics, which is probably for the best, since the lyrics would emit a rather unfavorable impression of American society (as I speak Shakira is blaring rather loudly in the Internet Cafe). At the same time, there continued presence of traditional practices and notions of space. Tonight, for example, I am to attend the equivalent of a bachelor party - which severely contrasts with the image of the American version is that all attendees will be male and sober. What is unique and intensly localized is that as far as I can tell, only the immediate region practices this event. In the rest of the country, only the bride has what is called a Henna Night (Layla al-Henna). 20 kilometers away, in Irbid, this practice is entirely foreign. The uniquness is further attenbsted by my laguage instructor, Ahmed, who, when hearing me tell him of my invitation laughed, assuming I had misunderstood. He then spoke with my host mother and my translation was verified. There then seems to be a very tenuous balance between extreme locality and identification with one's region and a monolythical globalized (or even national) culture.