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“Globalisation”- the other name of
“Global Colonisation”
Globalisation means Colonisation of the Third World and Slavery of Millions of People of African and Asian Continent through the First World and it’s Imperialist and Capitalist Mechanism and money making Machines namely “International Monitory Fund” (IMF), World Bank, World Trade Organisation (WTO) etc.
In a world where a few Hundred capitalist Businessmen run the Mechanism of Imperialist Economy producing more Poverty, dependency, higher rates of debts around in the Third- Fifth world specially in Africa and Asia where the Governments are forced to act as part of their Capitalist Mechanism and manage to drain out much more wealth for themselves, Globalisation could only be named as “Global Colonisation” in the 21 Century .
- studygroup -
A Short History
The term "globalization" was popularized by Theodore Levitt, a professor at the Harvard Business School. Levitt has been erroneously credited with coining the term in 1983, but the word "globalization" can be traced back to 1944. The term has been used by economists since 1981 however its concepts did not permeate popular consciousness until the latter half of the 1990's. Various social scientists have tried to demonstrate continuity between contemporary trends of globalization and earlier periods.
Globalization is sometimes viewed as a Centuries long process, tracking the expansion of human population and the growth of civilization that has accelerated dramatically in the past 50 years. Earlier forms of globalization existed during the Arab Empire, when knowledge from many cultures were integrated, and during the Mongol Empire, when there was greater integration along the Silk Road. Global integration continued through the expansion of European trade, as in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Portuguese and Spanish Empires reached to all corners of the world.
Globalization became a business phenomenon in the 17th century when the Dutch East India Company, which is often described as the first multinational corporation, was established. Because of the high risks involved with international trade, the Dutch East India Company became the first company in the world to share risk and enable joint ownership through the issuing of shares: an important driver for globalization.
Liberalization in the 19th century is often called "The First Era of Globalization", a period characterized by rapid growth in international trade and investment, between the European imperial powers, their colonies, and, later, the United States. The "First Era of Globalization" began to break down at the beginning with the first World War, and later collapsed during the gold standard crisis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) provided a seminal critique of this period as being characterised by the exploitation of the third world by those in the first. This theme forms the basis of many recent critiques of globalisation.
Globalization in the era since World War II has been driven by advances in technology which have reduced the costs of trade, and trade negotiation rounds, originally under the auspices of GATT, which led to a series of agreements to remove restrictions on free trade. The Uruguay round (1984 to 1995) led to a treaty to create the World Trade Organization (WTO), to mediate trade disputes and set up a uniform platform of trading. Other bi- and trilateral trade agreements, including sections of Europe's Maastricht Treaty and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have also been signed in pursuit of the goal of reducing tariffs and barriers to trade grand.
The world increasingly is confronted by problems that can not be solved by individual nation-states acting alone. Examples include cross-boundary air and water pollution, over-fishing of the oceans and other degradations of the natural environment, regulation of outer-space, global warming, international terrorist networks, global trade and finance, and so on. Solutions to these problems necessitate new forms of cooperation and the creation of new global institutions. Since the end of WWII, following the advent of the UN and the Bretton Woods institutions, there has been an explosion in the reach and power of multinational corporations and the rapid growth of global civil society.
Globalization advocates such as Jeffrey Sachs point to the above average drop in poverty rates in countries, such as China, where globalization has taken a strong foothold, compared to areas unaffected by globalization, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty rates have remained stagnant.
Critiques of the current wave of economic globalization typically look at both the damage to the planet, in terms of the perceived unsustainable harm done to the biosphere, as well as the perceived human costs, such as increased poverty, inequality, injustice and the erosion of traditional culture which, the critics contend, all occur as a result of the economic transformations related to globalization. They challenge directly the metrics, such as GDP, used to measure progress promulgated by institutions such as the World Bank, and look to other measures, such as the Happy Planet Index, created by the New Economics Foundation. They point to a "multitude of interconnected fatal consequences--social disintegration, a breakdown of democracy, more rapid and extensive deterioration of the environment, the spread of new diseases, increasing poverty and alienation which they claim are the unintended but very real consequences of globalization.
The critics of globalization typically emphasize that globalization is a process that is mediated according to corporate interests, and typically raise the possibility of alternative global institutions and policies, which they believe address the moral claims of poor and working classes throughout the globe, as well as environmental concerns in a more equitable way.
The movement is very broad, including church groups, national liberation factions, peasant unionists, intellectuals, artists, protectionists, anarchists, those in support of relocalization and others. Some are reformist, (arguing for a more humane form of capitalism) while others are more revolutionary (arguing for what they believe is a more humane system than capitalism) and others are reactionary, believing globalization destroys national industry and jobs.
One of the key points made by critics of recent economic globalization is that income inequality, both between and within nations, is increasing as a result of these processes. one study from 2001 found that significantly, in 7 out of 8 metrics, income inequality has increased in the twenty years ending 2001. Also, "incomes in the lower deciles of world income distribution have probably fallen absolutely since the 1980s". Furthermore, the World Bank's figures on absolute poverty were challenged. In particular, some economists are skeptical of the World Bank's claim that the number of people living on less than $1 a day has held steady at 1.2 billion from 1987 to 1998, because of biased methodology.
A chart that gave the inequality a very visible and comprehensible form, the so-called 'champagne glass' effect, was contained in the 1992 United Nations Development Program Report, which showed the distribution of global income to be very uneven, with the richest 20% of the world's population controlling 82.7% of the world's income.
Distribution of world GDP, 1989
Quintile of Population
Income
Richest 20%
82.7%
Second 20%
11.7%
Third 20%
2.3%
Fourth 20%
1.9%
Poorest 20%
1.4%
SOURCE: United Nations Development Program. 1992 Human Development Report
Most importantly, critics of recent economic globalization see that these developments are not at all occurring in a vacuum, but feed into ethnic, religious, and factional tensions that lead to wars and help breed terrorism. Furthermore, these terrorists, now globally interconnected and empowered with knowledge, create a whole new category of warfare based, in part, on the disruption of the interconnections which are both created by and necessary for globalization. Some commentators believe the nation-state is ill-equipped to deal with this emergent threat.
In terms of the controversial global migration issue, disputes revolve around both it’s causes, whether and to what extent it is voluntary or involuntary, necessary or unnecessary; and its effects, whether beneficial, or socially and environmentally costly. Proponents tend to see migration simply as a process whereby white and blue collar workers may go from one country to another to provide their services, while critics tend to emphasize negative causes such as economic, political, and environmental insecurity, and cite as one notable effect, the link between migration and the enormous growth of urban slums in developing countries. According to "The Challenge of Slums," a 2003 UN-Habitat report, "the cyclical nature of capitalism, increased demand for skilled versus unskilled labour, and the negative effects of globalization — in particular, global economic booms and busts that ratchet up inequality and distribute new wealth unevenly — contribute to the enormous growth of slums."
Various aspects of globalization are seen as harmful by public-interest activists as well as strong state nationalists. This movement has no unified name. "Anti-globalization" is the media's preferred term; it can lead to some confusion, as activists typically oppose certain aspects or forms of globalization, not globalization per se. Activists themselves, for example Noam Chomsky, have said that this name is meaningless as the aim of the movement is to globalize justice. Indeed, the global justice movement is a common name. Many activists also unite under the slogan "another world is possible", which has given rise to names such as altermondialisme in French.
There are a wide variety of types of "anti-globalization". In general, critics claim that the results of globalization have not been what was predicted when the attempt to increase free trade began, and that many institutions involved in the system of globalization have not taken the interests of poorer nations, the working class, and the natural environment into account. One of the proposed solutions to the uncontrolled environmental damage created by global econmic expansion is to set prices for that environmental damage done to the biosphere, so that the economy 'sees' the price signals from the environment, and begins to internalize the value of the environment. The present global economic system, critics of globalization would note, does not price the damage (e.g., pollution) done to limited environmental resources making those resources, in effect, free. Economic theory, however, holds that items of economic utility and in limited supply should be priced in order to be used efficiently by the market. Presently, the two proposals for sending these price signals to the economy are a 'Carbon Tax', proposed by in the U.S. by Al Gore, and a 'Cap and Trade' system, as has been create in the European Union.
Economic arguments by fair trade theorists claim that unrestricted free trade benefits those with more financial leverage (i.e. the rich) at the expense of the poor.
Some opponents of globalization see the phenomenon as the promotion of corporatist interests. They also claim that the increasing autonomy and strength of corporate entities shapes the political policy of countries.
Some anti-globalization groups argue that globalization is necessarily imperialistic; it can therefore be said that "globalization" is another term for a form of Americanization, as it is believed by some observers that the United States could be one of the few countries (if not the only one) to truly profit from globalization.
Some argue that globalization imposes credit-based economics, resulting in unsustainable growth of debt and debt crises.
The financial crises in Southeast Asia that began in 1997 in the relatively small, debt-ridden economy of Thailand but quickly spread to the economies of South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and eventually were felt all around the world, demonstrated the new risks and volatility in rapidly changing globalized markets. The IMF's subsequent 'bailout' money came with conditions of political change (i.e. government spending limits) attached and came to be viewed by critics as undermining national sovereignty in neo-colonialist fashion Anti-Globalization activists pointed to the meltdowns as proof of the high human cost of the indiscriminate global economy.
Many global institutions that have a strong international influence are not democratically ruled, nor are their leaders democratically elected. Therefore they are considered by some as supranational undemocratic powers.
The main opposition is to unfettered globalization guided by governments and what are claimed to be quasi-governments (such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) that are not held responsible through transparent or democratic processes by the populations that they affect and instead respond mostly to the interests of corporations. Many conferences between trade and finance ministers of the core globalizing nations have been met with large, and occasionally violent, protests from opponents of "corporate globalism".
Some anti-globalization activists and supporters object to the fact that the current "globalization" encompasses money and corporations, but not people and unions. This can be seen in the strict immigration controls in nearly all countries, and the lack of labour rights in many countries in the developing world.
Another more conservative camp opposed to globalization is state-centric nationalists who fear globalization is displacing the role of nations in global politics and point to NGOs as encroaching upon the power of individual nations. Some advocates of this warrant for anti-globalization are Pat Buchanan and Jean-Marie Le Pen and Ned Pencil.
Many have decried the lack of unity and direction in the movement, but some, such as Noam Chomsky, have claimed that this lack of centralization may in fact be a strength.
According to Economics, globalization is the convergence of prices, products, wages, rates of interest and profits towards developed country norms. Globalization of the economy depends on the role of human migration, international trade, movement of capital, and integration of financial markets. The International Monetary Fund notes the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions, free international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology. Theodore Levitt is usually credited with globalization's first use in an economic context.
The Winners
Those who appear to be in control of the process (transnational corporations (TNCs), "multilateral institutions and governments of wealthy industrialised nations) don’t have the interests of everybody in mind. Consequently, economic and financial globalisation is happening at a rate disproportionate to all other developments. Economists and world leaders speak in terms of revenue, exchange, capital movement, and interest. Such concepts as emotion, Cultural identity, equality, environmental protection and social benefit are foreign and are left out of the equation.
'Transnational Corporations', Transnational corporations (TNCs) are quietly gaining dangerously unaccountable political power in both rich and poor countries. For example:
Finland is home of the mobile phone company Nokia. This company is so big that it accounts for 2/3 of the stock exchange, 1/5 of all exports, a significant proportion of the country’s tax revenue and employs over 22,00 Finns. By threatening to remove production to another country, Nokia effectively holds the Finnish government to ransom and so has a great influence in its political decision making.
Wal-mart is a huge American department store. Its clothing range is produced in factories in Bangladesh, taking advantage of the fact that there are no minimum wage laws there. Wal-mart is 55 times the size of the entire Bangladesh economy. By threatening to remove production to another impoverished (and therefore cheap) country, it has negotiated a deal with the government so it no longer pays a single cent of taxes.
Some of many problems caused by Globalisation
The resulting problems are huge, and hit even women, children and those on the periphery (especially in poorer countries) the hardest. These problems include:
- Exploitation in employment – as well as appalling wages and working conditions, in many cases women and children are abducted and forced to work in oppressive factories or as sex workers.
- The rise of the HIV / AIDS, pandemic, displacement and longer working hours resulting in the orphaning and abandonment of children.
Neglect of the sick, illiterate, disabled and elderly as governments’ priorities shift towards economic growth and servicing of public debt.
HIV and Aids
('There are two kinds of International Financial Institutions (IFIs); multilateral development banks (including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund [IMF], Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank) and Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). IFIs invest large amounts of public money in developing countries, thereby gaining a level of control over the development agenda. IFIs have been heavily criticised for forcing a neoliberal development model upon communities all over the world, originally through Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and now via Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), often with negative social and environmental consequences etc.
('Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome', 'Aids'"AIDS – stats, info, aid agencies etc'
Sweatshops
('A factory where people work in poor conditions for what is often less than a living wage, making a variety of products including clothes, toys, shoes, and other consumer goods. The term comes from the lack of adequate ventilation and implies generally unsafe conditions. Workers may suffer physical, mental, or sexual abuse as well as having to work long hours. Some companies employ children. Most countries where sweatshops are found forbid trade unionisation, making it hard for employees to protest or improve their conditions.)
The widening gap between the rich and poor
Globalisation is the process of increased international interconnectedness; the organisation of social, cultural and economic life on a global scale, and the growth of a global consciousness. This process is age-old, but since the 1950s the pace of this global integration has accelerated dramatically. This is due to massive improvements in communications, information and transport technology which means goods and information can travel much faster. Increased trade liberalisation and financial market deregulation since the end of the Cold War have also encouraged the process. Globalisation is a complex phenomenon as it presents the global population with opportunities, but it also has the potential to increase suffering and inequality. Statistics show that, so far, globalisation has widened the gap between rich and poor.
Despite extensive plundering of the world’s natural resources, this wealth has been shared less and less equally and extreme poverty remains. The gap between rich and poor is growing on a local and an international level:
The richest 20% of the world’s population enjoy 86% of its resources while the poorest 20% must survive with a little over 1%.
The 225 richest people in the world have the equivalent income to the poorest 2.25 billion.
The world’s 3 richest people have fortunes equivalent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world’s poorest 36 countries. 200 million children never start school (3/4 of these are girls). The amount needed to send these children to school each year is less than the amount spent on cosmetics in the USA and less than half the amount spent on ice-cream in Europe.
Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered through international agreements - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), for which GATT is the foundation, have included:
- Promotion of free trade
- Reduction or elimination of tariffs; construction of free trade zones with small or no tariffs
- Reduced transportation costs, especially from development of containerization for ocean shipping.
- Reduction or elimination of capital controls
- Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local businesses
- Restriction of free trade
- Harmonization of intellectual property laws across the majority of states, with more restrictions.
- Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. patents granted by China would be recognized in the United States)
Globalization can also be defined as the internationalization of everything related to different countries [Internationalization however, is a contrasted phenomenon to that of Globalization]
The Role of Road traffic as a tool of globalistaion
The capitalist owners of industry are excited about policies that facilitate transnational trade because of their potential to increase profits. It is more profitable to manufacture goods in low-income countries where wages are low than in high-income countries where workers enjoy higher wages and standards of living. But the people in low-income countries cannot afford to buy expensive manufactured goods and so the finished goods have to be transported back to markets in high-income countries. Much of this so called 'trade' is not international trade at all but the movement of materials within transnational corporations. Nevertheless, it requires cheap transport which means good roads, preferably paid for by the public and cheap fuel. If business had to pay the full social and environmental cost of transport then transnational trade would be very inefficient and there would be less enthusiasm for it. Fortunately for business, the public pays much of the costs so that transnational trade can be very lucrative.
Trade causes injury because it generates huge volumes of road traffic. Because wages are lower in Mexico it makes business sense for US firms to move manufacturing to Mexico. Truck miles travel in the US has increase by 21% since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Similarly, in the European Union, road freight increased by 44% between 1991 and 1999. Per km travel, heavy goods vehicles are twice as likely to be involved in fatal road traffic crashes as cars. In 2000, trucks accounted for 8 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal crashes in the US resulting in 5,282 deaths and 130,000 injuries. In UK, heavy goods vehicles are involved in about 15,000 injury crashes per year resulting in some 580 deaths. Over half (58%) of cyclist deaths in inner London are due to heavy goods vehicles. Economic globalisation leads to more freight on longer journeys and this means more road deaths. In low and middle-income countries, which bear the brunt of the global road trauma epidemic, trucks are involved in the majority of traffic crashes. In India, trucks are involved in half of crashes in cities and two thirds of crashes on highways. Victims are predominantly pedestrians and cyclists who are more likely to sustain serious chest and head injuries if struck by a truck than if struck by a car.
Policies that make transport cheap for business also make it cheap for everyone else and so they increase traffic across the board and not just truck traffic. The relationship between the price of transport and road deaths was shown during the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo when a sudden hike in oil prices resulted in a substantial fall in traffic volumes and in child pedestrian death rates. Fuel prices in low and middle income countries are remarkably low, with little or no fuel taxes in many countries and subsidies in others. The excess road deaths resulting from this are a huge human cost to the populations of these countries but this does not appear on balance sheet of the global corporations.
The Asian Highway Network: The way to transfer Wealth from Asia to West.
One of the most ambitious road building schemes currently underway is the Asian Highway Network. This 130,000 km road network across 31 countries is co-ordinated by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the aim being to "promote international trade and tourism." The network will undoubtedly result in huge increases in road traffic throughout the region and a corresponding increase in road traffic injuries. Analyses of US data show that the infrastructure changes that most increased road deaths and injuries were added lane miles of road capacity and increases in the percent of lane miles that are arterial roads. If transport is made cheaper, in this case by providing free road space, then more of it will be consumed and there will be more road traffic injuries.
Probably the most important advance in road safety in the last century was the recognition of the need for what is known as 'the systems approach.' In aviation, by far the safest mode of travel, it is accepted that the operator is only one part of a dynamic system, with specific limitations and predictable error rates and that safety is best assured by designing systems with these limitations in mind. A systems approach to road safety accepts road user limitations and aims to reduce traffic crashes by designing the traffic environment with these limitations in mind.
The systems approach has important implications for accountability. The historical view of road safety is that when crashes occur they are the responsibility of the individual road user but from a systems perspective it is those that build and operate the road system that will have the greatest impact on road safety and thus the burden of responsibility. Although UNESCAP has a duty of care to the people of the countries affected by the road network, there is little evidence that it has taken its responsibilities seriously. Safety related activities to date include sponsorship of a road safety conference, occasional publications, development of an injury surveillance database and preparation of guidelines on accident costing. The Commission claims "ongoing regional road safety initiatives with the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP)" but since GRSP has projects in only 3 of the 31 network countries, the value of which are open to question, it would be a mistake to hold out high expectations. Indeed, here GRSP is serving its main political function of providing a fig leaf behind which global business can hide its neglect of road safety.
Whether the Asian Highway Network will bring prosperity to the rural economies of Asia remains to be seen but there is every reason for scepticism. According to UNESCAP papers "the crucial role of transport in economic development has been universally accepted." Also accepted is the fact that the economic losses associated with traffic injuries in developing countries is close to 2% of GDP, nearly US$ 100 billion, which is twice as much as all overseas development assistance.These huge economic losses will undoubtedly inhibit economic development and perpetuate poverty.
And who will benefit from the increased international trade? Will small rural farmers in Asia compete with the subsidised grain from US and European agribusiness? Far more likely is that the new road network will be an effective way of transferring wealth from the public purse in poor countries to private pockets in the rich with the major burden of road traffic injury falling on the poor.
The present interim Govt. of Bangladesh (2006-2007) taking advantage of corruption commited by the ex- political parties who were mostly busy with their party and family based politics ignoring national interest is an active part of globalisation mechanism fullfilling the task of Asian Highway network and other tasks in the Region.
Cheap fuel: Oil wars
The injury control community has traditionally divided the territory into intentional and unintentional injury but in 'the whole picture' the categories are blurred. Cheap transport, which generates huge numbers of 'unintentional' road traffic injuries, depends on cheap oil and a large amount of intentional injury is needed to keep the oil price within acceptable limits. Oil is the quintessential strategic commodity. Speaking about Iraqi oil, the British Cabinet Minister Sir Maurice Hankey said "control over these supplies becomes a first class British war aim." That was in 1917 when wartime petroleum shortages motivated the British capture of Baghdad.
Whilst it could be wrong to suggest that the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were entirely motivated by oil it would be foolish to claim that oil was irrelevant. Oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region are estimated at 160 billion barrels and Iraq has an estimated at 113 billion barrels. The US Department of Energy estimates that the 'peacetime' military costs associated with ensuring petroleum supplies from the Middle East ranges between $6 and $60 billion annually. The Gulf War in 1991 is estimated to have added an extra $30 billion to the yearly expenses and the on going war in Iraq is likely to prove even more costly. These costs are paid by US taxpayers as 'defence' spending in order to stabilise the oil price and ensure the 'efficiency' of international trade.
Although the Middle East has dominated energy security concerns in recent years, military expenditure and oil security are a global concern. Colombia provides only 2% of US oil imports but the security of these exports is a key US military objective. Colombia has long been a recipient of US military assistance but the 2003 aid package specifically included funds to protect the Caño Limón - Coveñas pipeline which is part owned by the US based Occidental Petroleum. "Securing" the pipeline is estimated to represent a $3.70 per barrel corporate subsidy paid by US taxpayers.
The importance of oil in foreign policy is also highlighted in UK government papers released this year under the 30 year rule, showing that the US considered using force to seize oil fields in the Middle East during the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo which had thrown the global economy into crisis. According to the British Government, US defence secretary James Schlesinger said that "it was no longer obvious that the United States could not use force," to bring the oil crisis to an end.
The role of International institutions in globalisation (colonisation)
The fate of many poorer or “developing” nations lies in the hands of the International Monetary Fund' (IMF), "the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation', (WTO) Claims that ''Structural Adjustment Programs' (SAPs) are in the best interest of those poorer nations, and not simply for the benefit of the wealthy creditors of these International Financial Institutions' (IFIs), are dubious at best. The liberalisation of trade by the WTO has meant a removal of tariffs. Now only governments which can afford to pay subsidies can protect their producers. The complexity of international trade often makes it difficult to understand how huge disparities come about. Some excellent examples are given in a Christian Aid video called “Nuts”.
more.......
Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs)
Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) were, until recently, the standard International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank policy package for developing countries. They combined loans with forced economic policy reform. Key measures included: privatising government-owned enterprises and government-provided services, cutting government spending, orienting economies to promote exports, trade liberalisation, higher interest rates, removing subsidies on consumer items such as foods, fuel and medicines and tax increases. SAPs were heavily criticised for deepening rather than reducing poverty. In the two regions with the most experience of SAPs, per capita income has stagnated (Latin America) or plummeted (Africa). Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) replaced SAPs in 1999, but PRSPs still come under attack from critics who argue that they need to be more flexible to fit the needs of different countries as they are all at different stages of development, have different capacities and also different political and administrative systems.
more.......
The World Bank Group makes loans or guarantees credit to its 177 member countries. As well as financing public projects such as roads, power plants and schools, the Bank also makes loans to reorganise a country's economic system by funding economic and social programs. These conditions to loans were originally known as Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), but after much criticism are now packaged (critics say re-branded) as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). The Bank is governed by a board with voting power decided by the level of a nation's financial contribution. Therefore, the United States has roughly 17% of the vote (and, traditionally, the President is American), with the seven largest industrialised countries (G-7) holding a total of 45%. Meanwhile, the developing countries whose economies and societies are most impacted upon by Bank programmes and policies have relatively little influence.
more................
'The World Trade Organisation' (WTO) is an international organisation that oversees a large number of agreements defining the & quot; rules of trade & quot; between its 148 member states. It is committed to reducing or abolishing international trade barriers, thus liberalising trade. The Act that established the WTO created a number of agreements on goods, agriculture, intellectual property (TRIPS) and services (GATS). In the late 1990s, the WTO became a major target of protests by the anti-globalisation movement. Protestors argue that the WTO is unfairly structured (with voting power biased towards the richer, more developed countries) and that while its policies affect the entire world, it is not democratically elected or accountable. Also, the WTO contains no minimum standards to protect labour, human rights, social or environmental standards.
more.........
International Financial Institutions
There are two kinds of International Financial Institutions (IFIs); multilateral development banks (including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund [IMF], Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank) and Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). IFIs invest large amounts of public money in developing countries, thereby gaining a level of control over the development agenda. IFIs have been heavily criticised for forcing a neoliberal development model upon communities all over the world, originally through Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and now via Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), often with negative social and environmental consequences.
more..........
Summary
Economic globalisation is a new term for an age old activity.
For centuries, countries with greater economic and military power have sought access to the resources and markets of weaker countries and many people have died in the process. The powerful countries claim that 'trade' benefits both the stronger and the weaker economies but the historical record suggests otherwise.
In his trenchant economic history of Latin America, the Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano explains how his continent's transportation infrastructure was developed to drain its wealth into the ports and then out to the colonial economy. Whether the Asian Highway Network will have a similar effect remains to be seen but the injury control community can no longer overlook the consequences of macro-economic policies that are shaping our world.
| See Also: | Import quota | Structural adjustment programme | WTO blamed | What is globalisation? | Globalisation | World Trade Organisation | IMF| World Bank| International Financial Institutions| |
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Created by: |
Salauddine Mohammed Faruque on July 25,2007, last updated on 07.08.2008 |
