Globalization in reality

3 Mar 2010

Globalisation is not a recent phenomenon. It started way back in the fifteenth century. The day Vasco de Gama went round Africa the modern globalisation began. As a phenomenon it has passed through several stages and today we are experiencing a stage, which has been named globalisation.
 
Globalisation akin to neo-colonialism
Globalisation is a western phenomenon or rather it is a European phenomenon. In fact it could be called a British phenomenon. The west is nothing but an extended Europe with the Europeans physically occupying the lands in America and Australia. The colonisation was the beginning of globalisation. The British took with them their culture, politics and economics to these countries and were able to establish themselves after almost annihilating the indigenous populations.

From the very beginning Britain more than any other colonial power had understood the phenomenon of globalisation. It was a case of implanting their political institutions, their economy and their culture in the colonial countries. In other words they had tried to bring the whole world into one system with a common economy, common political institutions and a common culture.

It was the British model of colonisation, which triumphed eventually, with the United States of America playing a bigger role after the so-called Second World War.

Globalisation as world imperialism
The present stage of colonisation can be categorized as world imperialism, with strong cultural and the economic components, where the power is distributed over the whole world. It is very difficult to pin point the centres of power. The power is everywhere and not concentrated at a point. In a sense power in the present phase of imperialism is more like a quantum "particle" that seems to be everywhere, than a Newtonian particle that can be tracked down. Globalisation is a characteristic of world imperialism, which attempts to enforce a common culture and a common economy to the entire world.

‘Globalisation’ - the official definition by West
Globalization describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and trade. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology.

‘Globalisation’ - the real definition
The term "globalization" has been appropriated by the powerful to refer to a specific form of international economic integration, one based on investor rights, with the interests of people incidental. That is why the business press, in its more honest moments, refers to the "free trade agreements" as "free investment agreements"

The key players
Globalization, since World War II, is largely the result of planning by politicians to break down borders hampering trade. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank), and the International Monetary Fund played key role in globalization and we all know USA and Western Europe is the main driving force behind these institutions.

Corporations Vs Citizens
Corporations exercise privileges that human citizens cannot:
   1. Moving freely across borders,
   2. Extracting desired natural resources, and
   3. Utilizing a diversity of human resources.

They are able to move on after doing permanent damage to the natural capital and biodiversity of a nation, in a manner impossible for that nation's citizens.

Multinational Companies and corporations which were previously restricted to commercial activities are increasingly influencing political decisions.

Widening of social inequality
The benefits of globalization are not universal. The rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer.

Cultural invasion
Globalisation is not merely having a world trade organisation and a world economy. It is also a matter of bringing the whole world under one culture. Bad aspects of foreign cultures are affecting the local cultures through TV and the Internet. The so called developed (predominantly West) countries aggressively promote or rather invade their culture into (so called) developing nations in order to market their brands like McDonald, Coca Cola which are more easily promoted under dominant western culture.

It is the cultural component that is the strongest as can be seen in Serbia and East Timor. The western powers are not interested in the market of East Timor. They are more interested in the culture of the East Timor.

The shift to outsourcing
Globalization has led to exploitation of labor. The low cost of offshore workers have enticed corporations to buy goods and services from foreign countries. The white collar slavery is the tragedy of modern era where millions of youth in developing countries are exploited in service fields like software development.

Job insecurity
Earlier people had stable, permanent jobs. Now people live in constant dread of losing their jobs to competition. Increased job competition has led to reduction in wages and consequently lower standards of living of common (working)  people in both developed and developing countries.

Health concerns
Fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC are spreading in the developing world. People are consuming more junk food from these joints which has an adverse impact on their health.

Marxism - Just another form of Globalisation
Globalisation and related world imperialism cannot be defeated based on western theories including Marxism. Marxism is part of globalisation in the sense that it recommends and justifies a common culture whether it is called the proletariat or not, to the whole world. The so-called proletarian culture is nothing but a western culture. Globalisation, which stems from generalisation that is found in the western culture, cannot be defeated by using theories that are based on generalisation.

Jathikathvaya – the viable solution to Globalisation
With or without Foucault there is only one way to defeat globalisation and that is to evolve programmes based on the jathikathvas of the different countries. The jathikathva like Hinduthva cannot be translated into English. It is neither nationalism nor nationality. If we do not have a programme based on the jathikathva it is very likely that all of us in this part of the world will continue to suffer under world imperialism which is only the present phase of a process that was started five hundred years ago.

References:
- Jathikathvaya against globalisation