The world today is more dangerous and less orderly than it was supposed to be. The world has more international terrorism and more nuclear proliferation. The threats of pandemic diseases and climate change are stronger. Cleavages of religious and cultural ideology are more intense. The global financial system is more balanced and precarious.
Globalization was supposed to make global politics and economics easier to manage not harder. So then what went wrong? The bad news is that globalization has a dark side for example, the container ships that carry manufactured goods from one country to another, also carry drugs. The airplanes that carry passengers also transport infectious diseases; a good example is the much publicized H1N1. The internet has also proved adept at spreading deadly, extremist ideologies as it has e-commerce.
The world has grown smaller and countries have begun to work with other countries to accelerate economic growth. The vast majority of the world has been affected by it in some way. Take for example, china town in the USA full of Chinese or in the middle of the Amazon where u can find an Indian tribe, in which there are Indians using Nike shoes, Lacoste shirts and driving imported cars. These are all results of globalization, the positive outcomes that is.
So is globalization good or bad? Well, it has both advantages and disadvantages so to take one side would be biased. A better question would be “is globalization doing more good than bad?” If we look at the good it does such as the transportation of medicine, the creation of jobs it is crystal clear that globalization is essential. On the other hand, the ills of globalization are many, but these can be dealt with, controlled or even made to disappear.
So what is globalization if its ills can be controlled? I think globalization is a tool and the outcomes depend on its application. When used well, it can yield very good results, but if used wrongly, it will reveal its dark side. For example, the internet is a very good educative tool, when used well, a student can get pleasing results, but when used wrongly i.e. to access pornographic sites, and it will only corrupt the mind. It should be used wisely.
Comments