the following comprehensively. I. Beyond the internet that enables citizens from almost every country to upload and download information, as well as share and reshare it with everyone, improvements in the transportation systems (and a relatively cheapening of prices) also contribute to the exponential growth of intercontinental travel and tourism, making genuinely shared cultural experiences possible for many people. A middle-class Filipino professional can easily book a flight to Singapore to have Hainanese chicken for breakfast, to Malaysia to eat mee goreng (fried noodles) for lunch, and head back to Manila to order a burger from a local fast-food restaurant or Korean noodles for dinner - all in a day. Meanwhile, elderly Filipino citizens can also easily go to a pilgrimage to Israel or the Vatican, through the convenience of the ever-present travel agencies. Partnerships between telecommunication firms here and abroad have also allowed migrant workers and their families to have cheap access to texts, calls, and video chats on a more regular basis. Innovations in technology and transportation globalized almost everything from languages to cultures, from films to religion, from food to politics. Do you think this will lead to cultural homogenization? Why or why not? II. Proponents of the push for regionalization have become more emboldened after the 2008 international crisis that badly hit the Western economies. Asian economic powers would logically want to expand their countries' internal markets and their neighbors' markets, too, as these can protect them from a recurrence of any American- or European-centric crisis. In recent years, many regional trade agreements creating the free trade areas such as the ACFTA (also known as ChinaASEAN Free Trade Area or CAFTA) and the EAC were signed. The ACFTA framework agreement was signed in 2002 and came into effect in 2010. Under this agreement, "trade between China and six ASEAN countries... has become duty-free for more than 7,000 products." Meanwhile, ASEAN member nations describe AEC as "a major milestone in the regional economic integration agenda in ASEAN, offering opportunities in the form of a huge market of US$2.6 trillion and over 622 million people." Both serve to facilitate swifter and smoother free trade between China and the ASEAN, and among ASEAN member countries. Critics argue that this is a boon to Philippine exporters, at the very least. Why do you think so