The Growth of Globalization - Coursework Example

Globalisation is the move towards the amalgamation of the world’s economic orders by removing barriers to international trade such as import quotas, tariffs and export fees. With the increase in trade and commerce around the globe, contacts and conflicts between cultures and nations have reached new limits. It is often related that globalisation is designed to be beneficial to all nations by promoting an international division of labour that promotes efficacy, specialisation and competition. The truth is far from different. Developing nations have been impacted by globalisation both positively and negatively. These impacts have included economic, cultural, social, political, religious as well as other changes that have progressively changed traditional views on these and other matters. (Bhagwati, 2004) The relative advantages and disadvantages of globalisation to developing nations are presented below in various contexts. Trade Globalisation’s largest mark is in international trade that has increase manifold. International trade of manufactured goods has grown by more than one hundred times from its original value of $95 billion in 1995 to over $12 trillion in 2007. (Schifferes, 2007) This increase has emerged due to the emergence of newer production markets worldwide as well as the removal of trade barriers to provide greater access to foreign products and services. The movement of goods and services means that markets expanded in tandem with production areas. Generally production of these goods is carried out in developing nations because it is cheaper due to a host of factors that are analysed later. However, what is important to realise here is that increasing trade means rising GDP levels for developing nations that are involved in manufacturing. GDP is a weak measure of income distribution. On the outset increasing GDP levels mean that compensation to workers in the economy is increasing. However, a closer look reveals that rising GDP levels tend to favour the upper stratums in society. Hence increasing GDP levels help to increase pay levels in such a fashion that income disparity in developing nation’s rises. (Scholte, 2005) Economic Economically as a country moves into the globalisation regime, its workers are offered an opportunity to compete in the international job market. Previously worker’s economic fate was tied directly to the state of the national economy. The success and failure of individual economies has reduced bearing on the wage levels of workers in the global job market. (Reich, 1992) Consequently businesses have begun to outsource their manufacturing and production units to developing nations. This provides businesses with cheap labour and the labour receives better wage rates. (Dicken, 1998) However, there is a darker side to the story as well. Often outsourced production facilities are sweat shops. Workers are given few rights under local laws in order to attract more foreign investment. Working hours are often twelve to sixteen hours a day with little to no option for collective bargaining. Few fringe benefits are offered to workers. Child labour is also used to support cheaper manufacturing as child and women labourers are often paid lower than male counterparts. (Educating for Justice, 2008) Most of the arguments presented above stand true for blue collar workers. In stark contrast, white collar workers from developing nations are encouraged to work abroad through incentives such as higher pays and better standards of living. Developing nations already have limited resources to garner professionals and the movement of trained and experienced professionals to developed nations presents a significant loss. This phenomenon is better known as brain drain and hurts the economies of nearly all developing nations significantly. The movement of engineers, doctors, accountants and other professionals means that the local economy’s development is further slowed down due to the lack of professionals. The African continent suffers an annual loss of around $4.1 billion as roughly 150,000 professionals are employed abroad. (The Africa Monitor, 2007) Similarly, an estimate of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) puts brain drain costs for India at around $10 billion dollars annually. (IANS, 2009) On the more positive side of things, expatriate professionals send large remittances to their parent nations that represent sizable exchange of foreign currency. However, in the longer run brain drain is far more negative than positive for the economies of developing nations. Political Political developments are widely affected by globalisation as the importance of the state decreases. The development of supra-state and sub-state institutions like the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the European Union (EU), the International Criminal Court, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and others mean that modern states are subservient to these institutions for policy guidelines. This limits the effective sovereignty of the modern state. (Scholte, 2005) This phenomenon is far more noticeable in developing nations than developed nations as most developing nations are forced to look for lenders to run their economies. Lenders often dictate economic policy and focus which may not be in line with the developing nation’s best interests. Moreover there are widespread allegations that international institutions play a large part in deciding the fate of local political developments such as election outcomes, the formation of governments etc. (Pologeorgis, 2010) Lingual A survey puts the total number of speakers for Mandarin at 845 million people, for Spanish at 329 million speakers and for English at 328 million speakers. (Colls, 2009) Given these figures, English is still the most dominating language within the global arena and is considered by some to be the lingua franca of globalisation. To put things into perspective, around 35% of all cables, telexes and mail are sent in English and around 40% of the entire world’s radio programmes are delivered in English. Moreover, English is considered to be the most dominant language in cyber space. (O'Neil, 2011) This means that developing nations have to adopt English as a medium of instructions in schools to ensure that the educated masses are familiar with English. Often social spending is already low and the requirement to teach children in two different mediums (the native language and English) places more strain on social spending. Moreover English has displaced some smaller dialects in developing nations as the relevance of these local dialects to the global economy waned. However the adoption of English by a majority of people around the globe will accelerate cultural assimilation and would also help remove differences as middle men translators such as religious clerics would not be required anymore. Ecological As mentioned previously, most production units are being outsourced to developing nations. Most of these production units and industries are unregulated by local governments in terms of pollution. Pollution regulations would increase production costs as effluents would have to be treated and emission levels would have to be controlled stringently. This would dictate the use of more expensive equipment and treatment facilities which would show up in production costs. In order to remain competitive production units and industries in developing nations spew out pollutants that cause extensive ecological damage. (Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008) Cultural The movement of goods, services and ultimately ideas has meant that weaker cultures are being invaded around the globe. Dominant cultural influences such as those of the developed nations are travelling across the globe in various forms such as movies, cultural products, fashion, clothing etc. Developing nations are facing increasing threats to their socio cultural values that are being bombarded by cultural norms and values from developed nations. For example, most developing nations are experiencing massive changes in the traditional family structure due to industrialisation and cultural influences. However the traditional institutions are fighting back and this infighting tends to reduce the productivity and satisfaction levels of individuals who feel torn apart. Moreover, developing nations may also face cultural extinction such as the adoption of foreign language, clothing, mannerisms etc On the other hand globalisation is promoting a unified culture that will help developing and developed nations to remove differences. However such changes are very gradual and their positive aspects are not immediately apparent for developing nations. Health Infectious diseases have been turned into pandemics at the hands of globalisation. The ease in transporting goods and human beings has meant that infectious diseases have also travelled far and wide. Historically, the Black Death in the 14th century in Europe killed off one third of its population but it was brought from Asia. Similarly around 90% of the indigenous population of the South American continent such as the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas were decimated through small pox introduced by Spanish settlers. (Daulaire, 1999) In recent years diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), avian / bird influenza, HIV / AIDS, Dengue fever and others have spread around the globe consistently. While developed nations posses larger and more developed medical facilities, the developing nations are put at large risk because of these diseases. Controlled social spending often means that health facilities are available only to a few in developing countries. The spread of these diseases means that developing nations have to pay costs in terms of lost work hours and increased health spending. (Cockerham & Cockerham, 2010) Conclusion Globalisation is both boon and bane for developing nations. It is up to developing nations and developed nations to work out strategies that promote boon and mitigate bane for developing nations. If such an approach is not used, there are great chances that the bane may turn into little more than bane for both developing and developed nations. The current spate of terrorism around the globe is more rooted in economic disparity than in religious, cultural or other ideologies. The need of the hour is to set the record straight by promoting globalisation that offers “unity in diversity” in place of marginalisation. Bibliography Bhagwati, J., 2004. In Defense of Globalization. New York: Oxford University Press. Cockerham, G. & Cockerham, W., 2010. Health and Globalization. 1st ed. Polity. Colls, T., 2009. The death of language? [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8311000/8311069.stm" http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8311000/8311069.stm [Accessed 19 August 2011]. Daulaire, N., 1999. 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[Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.theafricamonitor.com/news/ethiopian/april2007/290407/report.htm" http://www.theafricamonitor.com/news/ethiopian/april2007/290407/report.htm [Accessed 19 August 2011]. Read More