modern day colonialism

so a month and a half ago, i had a conversation with someone who spent the summer in costa rica. and he brought up how costa rica has become very much like america because all these corporations are doing business or opening offices or just the amount of american tourism that goes through there and has influenced everything...such that it was like being at home, only they spoke spanish everywhere. he was somewhat frustrated by that, i think, because he seems to be somewhat nomadic himself and wanted to get away from the system we have here.

that got me thinking...what about places like iraq where we are not only imposing potentially our economy, but our whole system of government as well...and it's not well-received...but we keep trying and doing and making our presence known anyway.

and what about multiculturalism? how does that play into things? i did some great reading at the end of the summer by a somali-born muslim woman who addressed the issue of multiculturalism in her books. essentially, she pointed out that we need to be very careful when we wave the banner of multiculturalism, because there are parts of every culture that we should in no way embrace. from her experience and context as a muslim woman, the practice of female genital mutilation was accepted along with the rest of their practices when so many muslims immigrated to europe in the mid-late 90's. and it shouldn't be so. if we think it's a barbaric practice, chances are, it probably really is.

but what about the barbaric practices we, as a "highly civilized" society, endorse or carry out ourselves when we thrust ourselves into these modern-day colonialist practices? who will judge us? will we have to wait for the historians, or will we finally stand up and say "enough"?