The growing worldwide integration has produced a whole series of consequences-economic, political, cultural and environmental. Unfortunately, some of these consequences can be negative.
The United Nations publication Human Development Report 1999 explained: people’s lives around the globe are linked more deeply, more immediately than ever before. This open many opportunities giving new power to good and bad. Like many human achievement, globalization has both an upside and downside.
Globalization “has enriched the world scientifically and culturally and benefited many people economically as well” claims Nobelprize winner in economics, Amartya Sen. The human development report 1999 likewise points out that globalization” offers enormous potential to eradicate poverty in the 21st century” the reason for this optimism is the dramatic increase in prosperity that globalization has brought in its wake. The average family in the world today has three times more income than it did 50years ago.
Some analyst see another advantage to economic integration, they feel it will make countries more reluctant to go to wars. Thomas l. Freidman, in his book The lexus and the olive tree, asserts that globalization” increases the incentives for not making war in more ways than in any previous era in modern history”.
Despite these positive results, many people still fear that the harmful effects of globalization outweigh its benefits. Probably the greatest concern about globalization is the way it has widened the gulf between the haves and have-nots. While goal wealth has undoubtedly increased, it has become concentrated in the hands of few and fewer countries. The net worth of the 200 richest people on earth now exceeds the combined income of 40 percent of the people who live on the planet—some 2.4billion people. And while wages continue to rise in wealthy countries, 80 impoverished countries have actually seen a decline in average income over the past ten years.
Another basic worry involves the environment. Economic globalization has been fueled by market forces that have much more interest in profits than in the protection of the planet. Agus Purnomo, head of the worldwide fund for nature in Indonesia, explains the dilemma we are in Constance race with development that in a decade, we’ll all be environmentally aware, but the will be nothing left to defend”.
People also fret about their jobs. Both jobs and income have become more precarious, as global mergers and intense competition pressure companies into streamlining their operations. Hiring and firing workers according to the current needs of the markets makes sense for a company concerned with increasing its profits, but it plays havoc wit6h people lives.
The globalization of money markets has introduced another destabilizing factor. International investors may sink huge sums of money into developing countries but later withdraw their sums suddenly when the economic outlook worsens. Such massive withdrawals can plunge one country after another into economic crisis.
The distribution of global wealth has never been fair, but economic globalization has widened the chasm between the rich and the poor. It appears that some developing countries have benefited from their integration into global economy. Experts claim that during the past ten years, the number of people below the poverty line in India has gone down from 39 percent to 26 percent.
In sub Saharan Africa and some other less developed regions, income has actually decreased in the past 30 years. The vast income divide between the rich and poor segregates people and even countries from one another. Not long ago the fortune of the richest man in the United States surpassed the combined net worth of more than 100 million of his fellow Americans.
Globalization has also favored the growth of rich multinational companies that have practically taken over the world markets for certain products. In 1998, just ten companies controlled 86 percent of the $262-billion telecommunications business.
Human rights organizations are worried about the concentration of the world’s wealth in the hands of a privileged few.
Another area of concern involves clashes of culture and the spread of materialistic values. The interchange of ideas is an important feature of globalization, and nothing symbolizes this phenomenon more than the Internet. Unfortunately, the Internet is not merely used to spread beneficial information, culture, and commerce. Some web sites promotes programs that are harmful to the growth and developments of children and youths.
Television and films also have an enormous influence on how youths think. The messages on the world’s screens that comes out of Hollywood, the world’s principal factory of make-believe. The values that this vast entertainment industry reflects often promotes materialism, violence, or immorality. Sometimes striving to match the consumption of other people and pursuing their life styles of the rich and famous makes the youths to be involved in criminal activities.
Free movement of people in the West African sub region has created an avenue for slave masters, drug traffickers to make profits in their illicit business. Nigerian children are being transported out from the country to other countries of West Africa as slaves. International mafia groups have also developed a lucrative business in prostitution. Every year not less than 5- 10,000 young girls from Africa are shipped to Western Europe for this purpose.
Diseases such as AIDS pandemic which is now killing not less than 1 million youths every year symbolizes the new global migration.
Technology may have made the world smaller, division remain entrenched, Television, mobile phones and the internet have proved useful connecting youths but not for uniting them. Rivalry still exist among countries, hatred and frustration continue to rise every day.
Kofi Anan UN secretary General said, that a truly successful globalization would improve the life of every inhabitant of the globe, but what we have been seeing in recent years falls short of this ideal. Human rights and equity have lagged far behind technical and material progress. So far, government has found it difficult to solve any global problems- whether it is global crime, global warming, or global poverty. Collective action is needed to safeguard global interest,” explains Annan” but in today’s globalized world, the mechanisms available for global action are hardly more than embryonic”.
Global mechanisms for handling global problems are not the only requirements. The commission on Global Governance argues that the world also needs ethical values.
The recommended that people should treat others, as they would themselves wish to be treated. A globalization hinged on that standard would undoubtedly be beneficial for everyone.
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