LMV makes several valid points in his/her letter It is the Arabs who should Malaysian-ise to support the thesis that globalisation is certainly not some one-way, imperialist American conspiracy to force everyone to drink Coke and watch sexy music videos.

Globalisation does indeed work both ways. Witness, for example, the massive migration of American jobs to China, India and the Philippines.

But some seem to assume that the standard, western, home-grown American culture is all rubbish. I can only state that some is and some isn't; and that culture takes a variety of forms.

For one thing, US television is certainly not all rubbish; if you want independent verification of this, read the British commentators (not noted for their pro-American bias), praising some American sitcoms such as Third Rock from the Sun as funnier than anything from Britain, and The Sopranos as better drama than anything from anywhere.

Pure choice of programming in the States moreover, has no parallel - satellite TV offering 225 plus US channels plus about 50 pay-per-view movie channels (movies on demand, at least 25 or 30 of them at a time, each one with staggered start times 15 to 30 minutes apart).

Then there are other dimensions of culture. The large cities all have orchestras, opera houses, ballet companies (the latter in New York is among the world's finest) and Washington has the largest museum system in the world.

As for American literature, perhaps if Malaysians read more, their debates might show a bias toward the written word over Madonna's gyrations on MTV.

Then there is the higher education system. Multi-tiered, it offers both the finest elite education and mass access, and has produced by far more Nobel Prize winners than any other country.

American social freedom encourages people to be creative, which is why most of the modern conveniences we enjoy were invented in the US.

All this is home-grown culture too, and it is not all to be sneezed at. The sleazy stuff is the price we pay for freedom, and I'd rather wade through the tasteless flotsam and jetsam to find the worthwhile myself than having the Barisan Nasional government or some Ayatollah deciding for me what culture should be.