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On one hand, I think it's naive and imperialistic in its own way for those of us on the outside to lament the disappearance of "native" cultures - we want a lot of primitive places to stay primitive and untouched so we can vacation there, or even just know it exists as some kind of potential contrast to our own modern lives.
On the other hand, there is something sad about the homogenization of culture. I'm a big believer in the value of biodiversity and cultural diversity - when faced with crisis, the more viewpoints and adaptive strategies you have, the more likely someone is to emerge from it.
Even when Western culture moves in, however, there are still very idiosyncratic local strategies for adapting to it and adapting the media itself to their own needs.
Incidentally, Bhutan is one of the first (only?) countries to use the Happiness Index in place of purely economic indicators to determine progress. I wonder how this will impact it?
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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