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Journalism of Courage
Globalisation is an emotive issue, as evidenced by the street protests in Seattle, Prague, Nice, Gothenburg and Genoa. It has become one of the most hotly debated issues on political agendas, and views on the subject are often polarised along political or geographic lines.
It is clear that while globalisation can work for some 8212; whether it be through raising incomes, reducing poverty, improving infrastructure, ushering in new technology, lowering rates of disease or reducing vulnerability among sections of society 8212; it has clearly failed to reach many others.
Critics also say globalisation fails to address issues such as stagnation in demand for traditional products, while avoiding greater investment or improving technology in these areas. They also argue that it has failed to have a significant positive effect in terms of halting chronic or new diseases, and that it can make people more, not less, vulnerable.
Globalisation could be described as being a fickle phenomenon, and nowhere more so than in this region. While it was credited for its role in fuelling southeast Asia8217;s economic miracle during the eighties and a good part of the nineties, it was then attributed with the region8217;s economic malaise following the 1997 crisis.
Worse still, some would say, is that the Asian economies hit by the 1997 crisis were just beginning to accept the argument that globalisation was less to blame for the crisis than their own exchange and capital regimes. Many were implementing policy reforms and were beginning to recover from the 1997 crisis when a global recession hit the region.
The benefits of globalisation 8212; removal of barriers to free trade and closer integration of national economies 8212; have gone disproportionately to the better off, it would seem, pauperising those at the bottom of society worldwide. With the promise of heralding an age of prosperity, globalisation 8212; it could be argued 8212; has actually ushered in unprecedented poverty in some cases. Much of the blame is attributed to the lack of a level playing field. The Uruguay Round was seen to have benefited the more developed countries.
Between 1990 and 1998, the actual number of people living in poverty worldwide increased by 100 million, even though world income rose by 2.5 per cent per annum. This clearly highlights the challenges facing globalisation. Although the task of identifying solutions is not an altogether easy or straightforward one, it is a vital one, and one that must be carried out diligently and comprehensively.
