Opportunities and Obstacles Provided for Civil Society with Globalization - Essay Example

A GLOBALLY CONNECTED WORLD CREATES OPPURTUNITY AS WELL AS CONSTRAINTS FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ACTIVITS. The world today paints a unique picture of societies evolving itself around new era of technology and science. Societies today seem to compete in a race of bettering and developing new means of communication and expression of speech (Padilla, et. al., 2008). Democracy is the word of town and a constituent feature of many well developed countries, which many developing countries hope to achieve. State and good governance is judged on how well an individual living in within a society is able to express and exercise their freedom and rights of lawful citizenship in a state (Eitzen and Baca Zinn, 2011). Civil society activists play a major role in securing lawful rights of an individual in a given society that even their state government is unable to provide. Thousands of NGOs, trust foundations and support group organizations exists and are thriving hard to provide justice, equality and freedom to the suppressed and needed group of individuals in within a region ((Eitzen and Baca Zinn, 2011). With societies now better connected with WI-FI technology and applications such as face book, twitter, both print and electronic media, one observes a wide influence of cultural, religious and ethnic values of different societies over one another. No two countries share the same economical, religious, educational and traditional standards. Constitution and political influence over law and human rights policies varies widely from nation to nation. In addition lack of literacy rate in the third world states contributes to absence of self awareness regarding a persons own human rights in a state (Eitzen and Baca Zinn, 2011). The mark contrast between two separate worlds co-existing side by side is evident from the fact that while one experiences a protest on animal exploitation making headlines on western media; you will seldom watch a cover story or an article on mass murder and street crimes prevailing in northern Africa and Middle Eastern states. An independent incident of sexual assault is enough to rake the whole career of French minister Dominique Strauss Kahn down the drain; daily reports of human trafficking and group rape go unnoticed in countries such as Thailand and Japan (Padilla, et. al., 2008). When legislation is being passed securing gay rights in United States authenticating their matrimonial rights, eastern states have yet been unable to provide their due share to women living in man dominant society. Only in India the figures show 70 percent rate of abortion carrying female fetuses. In United States a child drags his parents to the court of law for being too prohibiting and demanding whereas child labor is part of life in countries like Philippines and Bangladesh (Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009). For civil rights to prevail states must be governed by law; but in many countries law itself is compromised by corrupt political members of the government. Democracy is the birth right of every human being but tyranny and doctorial rule over Somalia, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, and Libya etc creates a large gap in leading people living within these states to speak freely their mind and exercise their right of expression (Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009). This is where organizations such as Red Cross, WHO, UNICEF, etc. clinch their way to give humanity a chance to succeed in within a political and social jungle we live in today. Various support groups; children support centers, education relevant scholarship projects. Legal nonprofit consultation, medical trust center and environmental organizations are set up; united in purpose to fight back corruption, bring par health, educational and living standards of people residing in a state. They work as a bridge to communicate an individuals need to the designated authorities and government representatives (Berg-Weger, 2010). NGOS and NPOS may use not only legal means to exert pressure on the government sectors but also work their way out through media circuits and arranging mass protest to spread self awareness across and involving more people to their cause. Most of these organizations function on private funding so they require spreading their message through organizing campaigns, workshop and seminars to establish their mark and credibility (Berg-Weger, 2010). Unlimited access of information and communication has contributed profoundly in favor of people working for civil rights. It has provided them with better opportunity to interact and share their regional and state issues with the outside community. Globalization has given birth to large number of international forums working in harmony for the well fare of citizens not only in a specific state but spreading throughout the world their message of humanity (Berg-Weger, 2010). International forums provide a chance of representation for volunteers working from all over the world and helping each to address their issue and working together to come up with solutions either by accepting resolutions, providing international aid for the economically challenged or thus by exerting pressure over the corrupt regime. Such organizations have been very successful (Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009). We do observe positive outcome of international intervention in cases such as Sudanese Drought Crisis, release of innocent victims from Guantanamo prison and bringing forward the true story in Mukhtaran Mai case (Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009). Not only people working in the field for the welfare of society but society has itself become more aware of issues circling their surroundings. Individuals have become keener in regards to their home rights. Tunisian revolution exemplifies such self awakening journey that a society underwent on its own. Youth today is enthusiastic about their countries future goals, understands the importance of their vote and is politically charged in the process of constitution making (Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009). People are learning to stand up for themselves and understanding their self esteem. Only recently when Saudi government took action on women driving in streets of Saudi Arabia, reactions from international community resulted in action to be taken back. Decision of French government prohibiting women to cover their heads with scarf was met with criticism from all and categorized as an act of discrimination against Muslim community. By definition it is a right of every French citizen to dress according to their personnel choice and respective values. Efforts of civil rights protection center in United States have resulted in reinstatement of an employee previously forced to resign from company on grounds of suffering from AIDS disease. Not just this, but on basis of this case constitutional amendment was passed and now labor laws are in place that govern and secure rights of an HIV+ employee to work respectably in corporate sector. Whether it’s the Tsunami disaster of 2006 Indonesia or the devastating earthquake that hit northern areas of Pakistan in 2005, we find civil society volunteers offering their services on ground working in partnership with International Aid organizations making an improbable task of rebuilding and re establishing migrants and providing them with food and medical necessities of life and thus bringing the nation back on its foot (Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009). Just as globalization has impacted on the outcome of societies developing in the modern times, it also has led to greater challenge for activists and volunteers working for a society (Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009). Being globally connected also creates global issues. Economic recession, War against terror, Global warming, rising inflation and high oil prices, bad governance, indebted national economy, lack of natural resources and water shortage, epidemics and natural disasters are few issues shared by most countries together. It is no longer an independent crisis but faced by all nations of the world (Taylor, 2008). Unfortunately corporate, national and political agendas of each country differ widely, making it hard to reach a consensus on any one single problem unanimously. This creates problem for civil society activist as governments and regimes tend to suppress and constraint them according to their advantages. In many a states such as Syria governments set up their own government organized NGOs. This deprives honest and credible civil rights movement of a chance to represent their country issues on international forums. As a result NGOs participating on the world forum is mere government puppets safeguarding their political rights rather than discussing true issues surrounding their society (Taylor, 2008). Funding is another main constraint. Most of the International civil rights organizations are heavenly funded by corporate sectors of developed countries. Political conflicts and corporatocracy of such countries influence the flow of money and aid assigned to the third world states (Taylor, 2008). International monetary fund was originally created to help nations unable to meet their economic demands to manage international influx of funds for bettering life standards and creating opportunity for their respective citizens to progress but reality check shows large amount of funds being cleared through IMF not to support a countrys need but to impose more political and strategic pressure on such states (Taylor, 2008). Not only have the donating nations applied unjust conditions for the receiving state but the regime and government accepting large amount of foreign exchange has in many cases failed to deliver to the people of the country. Nigeria, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Pakistan are few states in the long list where such funds are indirectly channeled for the purchase of ill-legal arms and ammunition or else pocketed into the politicians coat. Thus satisfying a personal agenda rather than benefitting the people. Again such actions on part of the government discourages authentic civil rights organizations active in within a state, as they mostly run out of funds to carry out their missions (Yunus, 2009). In many countries national security and war against terrorism is used as an excuse to disengage freedom of expression and communication among civil rights movements. This enables the government to apply censors on any publication, print or electronic media reports or exchange of documents via internet that they find conflicting with their international image. Thus blocking any channel of communication through which a humanitarian group may work. Some countries do not even allow International aid organizations to function in within their state boundaries. Countries use legal barriers to discourage entry of international organizations in the state (Yunus, 2009). Furthermore in most countries NGOs are subjected to strict government supervision and their activities are closely monitored. Any action on that is deemed to be in conflict with state governance is subject to suspension immediately. Certain states have imposed legislation that does not allow mass gathering, free opinion poll and peace protests to be held in within the state. Such a conduct may lead to prison sentence and the person be termed as a rebel of the nation and be dealt accordingly (Yunus, 2009). In view of recent times one cannot ignore the importance of civil rights movement working in different parts of the world. Their contributions are marked and their impact on society is evident. It is due to the efforts of such selfless people that life is pumped back into those who are stranded alone on the long road (Yunus, 2009). The need now is to support such groups and forums and keep on encouraging them to they continue working in the right direction. Humanity is beyond state boundaries and globalization must ensure that humanity and compassion succeeds ((Lindio-McGovern and Wallimann, 2009). References: Berg-Weger, M. (2010) Social Work and Social Welfare: An Invitation. London: Routledge. Eitzen, D. S. and Baca Zinn, M. (2011) Globalization: The transformation of Social Worlds. Wadsworth Publications. Lindio-McGovern, L. and Wallimann, I. (2009) Globalization and Third world Women: Exploitation, Coping, and Resistance. Ashgate Pub Co. Padilla, M., Hirsch, J., Munoz-Laboy, M., Sember, R. and Parker, R. (2008) Love and Globalization: Transformations of intimacy in the Contemporary World. Vanderbilt University Press. Taylor, G. (2008) Evolution’s Edge: The Coming Collapse and Transformation of our world. New Society Publishers. Yunus, M. (2009) Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of capitalism. PublicAffairs Publishers. Bibliography: Anderson, Ken (2000) ‘The Ottawa Convention Banning Landmines, the Role of International Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Idea of International Civil Society’, European Journal of International Law 11 (1): 91-120.  Keck, Margaret and Sikkink, Kathryn (1998) Activists Beyond Borders (Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Chapters 1 & 6.  Price, Richard (1998) ‘Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines’, International Organization 52 (3) (Summer): 613-644.  Raustiala, Kal (1997) ‘States, NGOs and International Environmental Institutions’, International Studies Quarterly 41 (4) (December):719-740. Wapner, Paul (1995) ‘Politics Beyond the State: Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics’, World Politics 47 (3) (April): 311-340.  Read More