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According to Wikipedia Online Encyclopaedia (2009), “Globalisation in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local a regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together.”
By ‘unified into a single society’ the extracts refers to the combination of economic, socio-cultural, political and technological forces of all countries, demolishing the barriers that make us different societies. As of now most countries participating in globalisation only officially do so economically, hence the term ‘Global Market’ engaging in trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration and spread of technology. While countries in the East, Gulf, Africa and Asia Pacific have refused to fully adopt the other aspects of globalisation, because it is seen as the Westernisation of their own cultures, beliefs, politics and social societies and fairly so. By an argument, globalising a country’s politics means adopting the American or British democratic systems of government. This notion by Western countries that Third World Countries and other nations have to imbibe their own political values before they can fully engage in the global circuit only alienates more countries from believing in the ingenuity of the purpose of globalisation. “...democracy will mean different things to different nations.” was the sentiment of King Abdullah II of Jordan (2003) in an interview with CNN’s Christine Amanpour.
Globalisation of the economic industry is the most successful if you would term the current market a success, as is evident in the financial meltdown in the United States market that has literally affected the economies of every country and the “Global Economy” as a whole. On Monday 17 March, 2008 the 5th largest investment bank in the United States, Bear Stern, sold for $2 a share, down 93% from its closing price the previous Friday and that officially marked the beginning of a spiral of economic depreciation in the United States and the international markets as a result. Other international markets like the Japanese, Tokyo Stock Exchange, began to slide down imitating its New York counterpart simply because of lack of confidence in the stability of the franchises in its market which are connected. The trend continued and spread to other countries and other economic institutions putting the world’s largest and 2nd largest economies in recession and negatively affecting all others.
Socio-culturally, despite the out-right rejection by several governments and societies; Western culture has permeated practically every society in the guise of civilisation. Adults and youths alike have substituted their traditions for Western values or the lack of values as some might argue.
This paper addresses those issues and will try to identify the causes and find solutions to these issues because like every major issue, if it is not adequately addressed it can become a crisis and many will debate that it already is one.
POLITICAL GLOBALISATION
On the dawn of Thursday 20 March, 2003, bomb blasts from a United States led coalition attack rattled the very foundations of the ancient city of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. The United States and her allies had pre-empted military action against Iraq and its then strongman ruler, Saddam Hussein. They sighted as cause for their action, intelligence reports that alleged that Saddam Hussein had built and possessed biological “weapons of mass destruction” and that he was planning to use them against his enemies and neighbours just as he had done in the past. History has vindicated Saddam of that particular allegation but it did not spare him his life or his sovereignty. He was executed by hanging on the 30th December, 2006 after an Iraqi court found him guilty of crimes against humanity in masterminding the murder of 148 Iraqi Shiites, but not before the American government back tracked from their original reason for the invasion twice; from “weapons of mass destruction (WMD)” (Donald Rumsfeld, January 2003) to “Liberating the Iraqi people” (President W. Bush, September 2003). President George W. Bush claimed and implied that he was liberating the Iraqis from the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and tried to introduce democracy to the country. Although it is contrary to the truth, if we gave them the benefit of doubt and attribute their invasion to liberation, it leaves the question of ‘To what extent are the Western nations and their allies willing to go to spread their political agenda?’ Can a socialist or communist government not function in their idea of a globalised world? If one alien nations’ illegal occupation of another sovereign nation is the definition of liberation, then it would be better to live in the bondage of the sovereignty of my own people.
Another scenario where globalisation of politics is used to oppress countries practising varieties of government other than the Western approved democracy is the imposition of trade embargoes, economic sanctions and international monitoring of countries that they regard as aggressive, rogue and sometimes even as far as calling them evil. President George W. Bush referred to Iran, North Korea and Iraq January 29, 2002 as the “axis of evil”, imposing economic and military sanctions and in the long run invading and occupying Iraq as was stated earlier.
So far, globalisation or should I say Westernisation of politics has only hindered the success of the West to persuade other non-democratic nations to adopt democracy. Is it that democracy is not appealing, the approach to introducing it is counterproductive or politics should not be part of the body of globalisation?
ECONOMIC GLOBALISATION
The stock markets crash, the economic meltdowns, etc all these financial crisis can be categorised into one phrase, the global economic crisis. Of all the aspects of globalisation, financial and economic unification has been the most successful; so much that a financial meltdown in a single country sparked a series of meltdowns. Like a domino effect, it has caused the world’s first international economic crisis since World War II.
With global monitoring institutions such as World Trade Organisation (WTO), Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) etc put in place to manage the distribution of the economic gains of member countries, globalisation seemed to be heading on the right path. The reality of the situation is more complicated. These bodies are unable to ensure equality in the distribution of profits made, and as a result a lot of countries refuse to participate or join the global organisations. For the most part, these monitory organisations are a success. Countries with larger and more successful economies and producing power receive higher profits especially in successful years of harvest (Saudi Arabia and other OPEC member countries made unprecedented gains during the crude oil price hike, when a barrel of crude oil rose to an all time high of $147.27 in July, 2008) and the less successful and productive countries suffer during those times and suffer even more in an economic downturn.
Globalisation has failed to balance the financial structure but is rather enriching the wealthy states in times of opulence and facilitating impoverishment for the developing states and during times of deficiency the developing states suffer even more. The global economy is so structured in a way that one economy depends on the other to succeed and the larger the economy, the more necessary it is that that large economy be sustained in order to sustain the smaller economies. This has never been more evident than in recent times with the world’s largest economy, the United States economy in recession. The entire world is seated on the edge of their chairs watching and uncertain of the consequences of a failed United States economy. The global structure of this new economy has countries like United States of America, Japan, Germany, China and the United Kingdom, the largest economies with the greatest buying and producing powers to continue to buy raw materials from poorer countries and produce finished goods and sell them back to the poor countries at high prices as a form for mutual economic sustenance. Most international monetary transactions are done using the American Dollar and as a result a fall in the value of that currency (US$) is damaging to most financial transactions, so much that some countries no longer transact business in their domestic currency but accept the US Dollar and other financial dominant currencies.
The global economic structure has succeeded in isolating less economic viable nations especially in continents like Asia and Africa, and left most of those countries dependent upon the successful ones and bodies like IMF and World Bank for sustenance, loans and handouts from aid groups. As at February 1st 2009, $1 was equal to Z$4 trillion (Four trillion Zimbabwe Dollars), the country is currently experiencing 231million% hyperinflation and is still under, United States and international economic and political sanctions. With an uproar over the state of the country also suffering epidemics of diseases like AIDS and cholera, the same organisations crying out are the same organisations imposing economic hang nooses upon them. Cartels of the richest countries (G8) are held annually forced to be witnessed by begging Third World countries soliciting for financial aid, assistance and investments from the eight nations.
In an ideal, competitive global market, other countries would be looking forward to the depreciation of the United States economy to create a level playing field and opportunities for their economies or at least competition rather ‘bailing out’ the one financial super power. Instead we have countries like China, unwilling but yet loaning Trillions to the United States to ensure the economy remains the biggest uncertain of what their own economic future will be if the US economy collapses on its own incompetence.
SOCIO-CULTURAL GLOBALISATION
The world as we know it is filled with diverse cultures, traditions and religions. In most cases, a people are identified by their traditional attires, cultural behaviours and sometimes religious practises. These obvious distinctions have been a barrier between communication, trade, socialisation and tolerance in general but it is becoming less obvious and obviously more blur for us to distinguish one people and culture from the other. Globalisation in recent years has been gradually and subtly bridging that gap to the applause of most observers. It is attributed with the increased tolerance among different races, ethnic groups, countries and even religious bodies. It is seen as another stage of civilisation in man’s evolution process. Civilisation in this context is again the adaptation of Western cultures, social behaviours, morals and Schools of Thought. Unlike other Western influences, the socio-cultural influences are sometimes adopted unconsciously by individuals and in cases where they are consciously practised; it is welcomed in the society as modernisation. The socio-cultural practises are influenced by exposure to modern facilities like satellite TV, the internet, different genres of modern music, and is even taught in schools in subjects like anthropology and popular culture. It would all be merry if this adaptation of Western cultures only meant the positive traditions were the ones inculcated i.e. the appealing cultural influences, but the contrary is the case and the questionable values of the West and other cultures are quickly merging and losing the ability to retain moral and religious values.
Atheism is becoming more popular than ever as youths steadily deviate from the religious beliefs of their parents and the ones who retain the practise, do it ‘open minded’ as is politically correct these days. The internet, the ultimate communication and connection module of our generation has become the primary engine for the immoral practises with an outstanding 4.2million pornographic websites (12% of the total websites) and monthly pornographic downloads of 1.5million (35% of all downloads) and every single information that is attainable is available on the internet. The medium which is very difficult to police is also used by children and it exposes them not only to pornography but age sensitive information. Adolescents and teenagers in so called “less civilised” nations have been exposed to the stresses and effects of the “civilised” societies. Depression and anorexia among other psychological unbalances which were literally unheard of in these societies have become part of the vocabulary of communities that were never exposed to these before. Suicide rate has increased drastically, especially among youths; violent crimes which are amazingly accurate imitations of fiction from TV and videogames are also on the rise. Random shootings in schools and public places are becoming a regular. Adults and parents are not omitted from the influence of the global trauma, parents no longer are able to provide the simple things their children need instead they go for luxuries that are now termed as necessities and the parents need to work extremely long hours to be able to provide these amenities. As a result they need they’re children to be looked after in their absence, so the children are left with their TV and videogames as babysitters. The senior citizens may be the most affected by this new culture, they are no longer taken in by the children they raised when they age but are sent to Elderly Homes where they are away from their families and most of the time die in isolation because of that. There are even more issues like the loss of the ethnic language; people are looked upon as lower in social status because they are unable to speak fluent English language and are even unemployed in their own country for not speaking the second language. Globalisation has now created a new socio-cultural issue of lack of identification and it is not too late too tackle this issue before it becomes another crisis.
RESOLUTIONS
Globalisation as a package is a wonderful concept that if executed properly and without hidden interest and agendas will definitely spur social, economic, political and technological growth and unity around the world.
Politically, globalisation is unable to unite the world especially at this time. One country cannot forcibly or by aggressive persuasion impose its system upon other countries. Democracy out of all the governing systems is definitely the most appealing but it also has to adjust to the people it intends to rule and their values and traditions. A government is supposed to be designed for the people it governs and since people and their beliefs differ, it is difficult to prescribe an ideal pattern of governance for every state.
Devising a perfect economy with no trade barriers and ‘free trade’ across the globe is more idealistic than feasible in the present day, but to bring us closer to an actualisation, the double standards have to be dropped. Countries should no longer be given preference on what can be sold and bought, and until there is absolute and genuine free trade, there should be a level of disconnection between one economic state and another. This way if the stronger economies begin to weaken it will leave open opportunities for other economies to emerge instead of following cue to fall too.
Finally, the socio-cultural influence is almost too imbibed to erase. The Western culture has been able to merge with other cultures and the exposure of cultures can be reciprocated so that the West can learn the positive practises of other cultures too. Parents and guardians also need to take greater charge of what they allow their children get exposed to; teaching them their own traditional values and empowering them to make good choices when they are eventually exposed to the global scenario.
REFERENCES
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization
• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization/
• http://knol.google.com/k/adrian-campos/effects-on-globalization-in-culture/xmqntv02bugi/5#
• http://www.reformwatch.net/fitxers/124.pdf
• http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ihsg/publications/pdf/No-7-1.PDF
• http://premium.europe.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/27/sprj.nitop.amanpour.abdullah/index.html
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7865259.stm
• http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/19/sprj.irq.main/
• http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-03-17-bear-stearns-bailout_N.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_of_Saddam_Hussein
• http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030710.urums0710/BNStory/International/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_of_evil
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_of_petroleum
