Globalisation Leading Cultural Damage Exploitation Uderdeveloped Nations

¶ … Globalisation leading cultural damage exploitation uderdeveloped nations peoples." It include (a) Definitions "Globalisation" (b) Logic linking globalisation free market processes liberal creed.

Negative effect of globalization to under developed countries

Globalization has been a widely discussed topic among various authors, economics and business analysts and its' from the studies and research that the essay has been built on.

First the essay will explain what globalization is and some of the characteristics of globalization; secondly essay will try and relate globalization to free market process and the liberal creed after which it explains why social responsibilities need to be integrated to the economic policies of a country, thereafter the essay embark on the topic of study and looks at the negative impact of globalization in under developed countries and the way it has caused irreparable damage to this countries' environment, society and culture without even closing the gap in terms of income and economic level between such countries and the developed counties .

Globalization

Friedman, (2008), stated that the process of integration and interaction among various business units, local governments and citizens of different companies, with investments and international trade acting as the driving force and is catapulted by information technology is known as globalization. He further adds on that the integration and interaction of different economies and people of different economy has a very huge impact on the political system of these countries that integrate and interact, their cultures, environment, economic success and development are also greatly affected by globalization.

Chossudovsky, (2003), gave historical background of globalization, saying that globalization can be traced back to the middles ages where reportedly individuals and companies from far countries were had stated buying and selling from each other, the most notable place where globalization started is the famed Silk Road which connected Europe and China cutting across Central Asia.

The current globalization processes are rather in some way similar to the explosion of the market system in 1900's, Morris, (2003)are quoted as supporting this statement by arguing that "many features of globalization that existed periods prior to the first World war are similar to those being exhibited by the current globalization." Though later in their book they came up with contradiction between the two periods citing that technological advancements and reforms in policies witnessed over the past decades have lead to an increased and more established investments, international trade and movement of people across international borders. Thomas Friedman in his studies has echoed that same sentiments that the current globalization is much "cheaper, faster, and deeper than that experienced in the middle ages." Statistics have also shown that in the period between 1997 up to 1999 only foreign investments flows had increased by almost a hundred percent from four hundred and sixty eight billion dollars to eight hundred and twenty seven billion dollars, while from 1950 up-to-date the figure had gone up nearly twenty times.

Technology according to many business analysts and economist has been a major contributor to the current increase in globalization. Advancement in information technology has given every party to globalization i.e. business ventures, investors and consumer an avenues through which they can easily transfer assets, form partnership with potential investors in other parts of the world and also identify economic opportunities available across the globe in more faster manner, with all the detailed economic analysis upon which decision making can be based on.

Characteristics of globalization

Mark (2009), wrote in his book that the first distinctive characteristic of globalization is capitalism as it promotes self-sufficiency and reliance of individuals so as to enable them become masters of their own destiny. It is mainly concerned with making people and the market free, a system that allows economy to grow without any interference and with the assumption that there is no poverty and the main pillars or building blocks of globalization constitute of technology, economy, market and capital.

Francesco (2007) & Ollila (2005), critics of globalization wrote that; globalization is characterized by disintegration of the community that mainly focus on rivalry and competition in the market economy with profits being the ultimate score for everyone. They further lament that globalization is characterized by "cultural globalization" as it promotes one culture, one World economy in its core values of market economy and consumerism, that quietly destroys rooted indigenous beliefs of the under developed nations and its' people and hence creating ethical and cultural vacuum in their lives with no vision and values.

The link between globalization, free market process and liberal creed

The globalization that has been witnessed in the recent decade, according to Perkins, (2004), has been brought about by economic policies that are more inclined towards opening up the local and domestic economy and market. After the World War II and more in particular the past twenty years have seen many countries' government implementing the free-market economy model, which has resulted to increased economic productivity and establishment of new investments opportunities and for international trade. These governments have also engaged in activities aimed at reducing economic barriers that were there before and have signed international agreements with other countries viewed as potential trading partners with an aim of promoting investments, trade in service and goods between the countries party to the agreement. Multinational's on the other hand have exploited these opportunities created by the free market to establish branches in foreign land and also form partnership with foreign players to jointly participate in marketing and production business activities.

Nadeem (2009) & Ollila (2005), both economists noted that liberal creed and globalization, as Liberal creed supplement and constitute to globalization. They described liberal creed in terms of the foreign market that "it is an act of the government through the central bank of setting the foreign exchange regime free from its control and influence, thus there is free selling and buying of foreign exchange in the commercial banks also the rate of exchange is fixed by market forces of demand and supply." However they point out that an economy can be under liberal creed but still the floating rate may be influenced by the government through their action of buying and selling and in such a case the exchange regime is termed as managed floating regime.

Liberal creed just like free market process gives the economy numerous advantages that range from stable stock exchange resulting to stable prices; exchange rate is stabilized to reflect the actual market value of the local currency; interest rates charged by banks on deposits and loans stabilize around the true market rates which make it easier to predict the yields; investor confidence in such a regime increases leading to increased foreign investments; competition leads to free capital movement from areas of surplus to areas of deficit; quality of local goods increases as a result of competition from abroad; increased access of foreign services and goods will improve standard of living.

Need for social responsibility to be integrated into economic policies

The most renowned advocate for the need of integrating social responsibility into economic policies has been Nobel laureate A. Sen. whom through his studies has pointed out that the integration would ensure free trade in the global market by creating a balance in the supply-chain of the market and thus ensuring that farmers in under developed countries get fair prices on their produce.

Referring to the studies and research done by Patrick & John (2009) there is need to integrate social responsibility in the economic policies of countries in sense that would ensure accountability and credibility in all the investments taking place in the economy; accountability in form of legal trade, in terms of financial reporting the business should adhere to international accounting standards among other requirements. The other reason why social responsibility should be integrated in economic policies is to protect the workforce from exploitation by the multinational companies and prevent bad business activities like dumping i.e. exporting low quality goods to under developed countries.

A.Sen together with other authors that includes A. Hopkins, (2004), stress the need for social responsibility to be integrated into economic policies so as to safe guard the environment from pollution largely attributed with globalization and ensure that companies take active part in conserving the environment.

Negative effects of globalization on the culture and society of under developed countries

From its definition globalization refers to the integration and interaction of people and companies, hence through globalization there is an integration and interaction of different cultures in terms of beliefs, mode of dressing, type of foods people eat and activities they practice.

Grinin, Beliaev and Korotayev, (2005) have given various examples to show effect of cultural mix caused by globalization and they include; the culinary culture most notable being the American burgers, Japanese noodles, French cheese, American fries, Indian curry and Italian meatballs have been adopted by people of different culture into their culinary. Starbucks and McDonalds are a good example of companies that have been able through globalization to take culinary culture that's originally American to other cultures most notable the Chinese. Another area where cultural mix has been cited and is caused by globalization is the use of Chinese characters in tattoos by non-Chinese individuals.

Thou globalization has brought very many benefits to the World economy, but it is still blamed in many under developed countries for its negative impact on the cultures of its people. Hobson (2004), elaborate more on this point by saying that globalization has caused an irreparable damage to such cultures in the sense that such cultures are known for their strict adherence to cultural belief and practice, but on the onset of globalization their indigenous language are facing extinction due to large influence of language considered to be for global use such as English, French or Italian. People would prefer these global language rather than their own because of their wide use and acceptability in many parts of the world.

The other cultural norm that's facing extinction is clothing an example is in under developed countries where women mostly are known to wear strict dressing codes as a cultural practice, but globalization has made it impossible for such a culture practice to continue since the interaction exposes such persons to other mode of dressing and also the fact that modern clothes have infiltrated the under developed market makes it impossible to abide by these cultural dressing codes.

Culture has also suffered a blow in under developed countries due to people abandoning local tradition food and opting for Western foods, this has been termed by some authors as "Mcdonaldization or Pizzanzation. The other way through which culture of under developed countries has been negatively affected by globalization is the infiltration of Western behaviors through internet and television programs; behaviors that were initially deemed by such cultures to be ungodly or non-accepted tend up being part of their own cultures. The current globalization in under developed countries hasn't in real sense elevated such economies as in most cases they are usually consumers of global goods rather than producers, in addition to that there cultural values have also been eroded leaving them at a total loss due to globalization.

Negative effects of globalization on the environment of under developed countries

In Africa for example, the current wave of globalization has put a lot of pressure on them to create more space for construction of factories, offices, hotels, schools, roads among other infrastructure facilities needed to support globalization. To achieve this objective trees are cut down and forestlands are cleared, leading to environmental degradation. Also the increased investment activities means more offices and factories need to be built to satisfy the demand, hence more trees will be felt down and more quarries need to be dug to provide the sand and stone for construction, all of which will have an overall environmental impact on under developed countries that are in the stag e of developing.

Axel, Noel & Pim,(2005) in their book they wrote that when Brazil economy was developing in the 1960's, there were recorded activities that took place that led to environmental pollution, such as in the mid !960's the burning of Amazon forest to create space for cattle ranching.

Environmental analysts have noted that in the past under developed countries that had been no well established polices to protect against dumping of low quality and toxic goods from industrialized countries, were victim of dumping; foreign companies that operated in regions with strict environmental policies against disposing of toxic goods or unwanted products, that is also a closely monitored affair at their country with numerous procedures to be followed, opt to dump such goods in under developed countries that didn't have such strict policies against dumping

Most multinationals are rushing to under developed countries to tap into that unexploited market niche, they do so without putting in place necessary measures to safeguard against environmental pollution, more so the government in such countries are not strict on this companies for them to observe environmental laws or participate in environmental conservation in the community that they operate in. This practice has so far led to massive emission of toxic gas and waste both into the air, water and land of these countries, consequently under developed countries are more harmed by globalization than they benefit to make it worse the multinational channel most of their profits back to their mother country without doing any development in this countries.

Conclusion

Globalization as described by Amaladoss, (1999) aims at creating a one united global economy, which it has so far achieved in this mandate. Since Middle Ages globalization has been an ongoing process that has largely been catapulted by the onset of technological advancement that has also increased in the past decades, the other factor that has also led to this current wave of globalization being seen is the government's economic reforms that aimed at making the market economy more liberal that it was allowing free movements of good and people.

The topic has attracted wide attention from scholars and authors, who have conducted studies and research to explore the positive and negative side of it; positive impact of the globalization are many starting with the advanced education system we undertake to the employment opportunities that we see around but most notable and the general advantage of globalization is economic success that has been experienced over the past decades. The negative aspects of globalization are also numerous ranging from health issues, environmental factors and socio- cultural factors among others.

This essay objective was to justify that globalization has led to irreparable damage on the social, cultural and environment of under developed countries without even changing the income gaps between developed economies and developing economics, also the under developed economies have continued to experience stagnated growth while the developed economies continue to experience robust growth. This for a fact stands to be true as major economies are the drivers of globalization and tend to benefit more than the under developed economies that mostly act as market for consumption of manufactured goods while the developed economies are the manufactures. The under developed countries' gross domestic product and debt ratio can also justify this fact.

Environmental laws are neither not followed or are not well established in under developed countries thus exposing them to great environmental irreparable damage, socio-cultural norms and belief have been eroded by the Western cultures that are considered superior. Thus the essay can conclude that as the rest of the World continue to benefit from globalization, the under developed countries on the hand bear the negative aspects brought about by globalization.

Reference

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