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Is there a way to expand the debate on globalisation in such manner that it would include all the concerns and issues of the third world people? Is it not possible for the poor to define the shape of globalisastion? How can we include the voices of the poor in the debate? How could we encourage them towards a greater participation?
Is globalisation intrinsically and genetically capable of generating justice, equality and interracial harmony or does it by its very nature promote and sanction injustice, exploitation, oppression, sexploitation and inequality?
Is globalisation at the service of humanity or is it a curse for the future of humanity? Is it genuinely promoting life, health, wholeness and prosperity or is it bringing about gradual and slow death to the human beings and the whole of eco-system?
Does globalisation create more victims than beneficiaries in the long run? Is it a form of neo-colonialism? Is it a subtle continuation of Western imperialism? Is it also giving birth to an Indian Imperialism or a Chinese imperialism?
Is globalisation intrinsically and genetically evil, seductive and destructive? Who defines globalisation? Whose definition and whose rationality is it? Can globalisation be promoted without oppression, exploitation, injustice and sexism?
What is the place of God in globalisation? Where is God in it? If we genuinely and deeply believe in God, why do we have to put our complete trust in profit-maximising? Will globalisation globally destroy the globe? Is globalisation the end of the globe? What are the limits to the carrying capacity of the globe? Is globalisation at the service of the reign of God? Is there salvation outside globalisation? Can one critique globalisation without necessarily participating in and benefiting from it? Does globalisation create magnanimous and authentic human beings or global-scale greedy consumers, fed by processed food?
Globalisation is globally growing, and claims to universality in an absolute manner. So what is globalisation? One very simplified version is that “when all the people in the world will wear Levi’s jeans and Reebok shoes, eat McDonald burgers and drink Coca Cola.”
Now let us listen to T.K.Oommen, “ Globalization as a historical process is at least five centuries old and structural adjustment is only the latest dimension of the ongoing process of globalization …the first phase ( of globalization ) started with the geographical exploration of the 16th century which was the precursor of colonalisation. Vasco de Gama, Columbus and Captain Cook were the founding fathers of the New World, which was a cultural transplant of the Old World…The second phase of globalization was marked by the emergence of the two worlds - Capitalist democracies and Socialist one party system…the third state of globalization started with the fall of the Command Economies and consequent weakening of the welfare state, featured by the emerging hegemony of the market.” And he continues, “the new phase labelled as the new economic policy or structural adjustment programme, is essentially a search for the market by the first world (a) to sustain its lifestyle and (b) two impose this lifestyle on the bulging middle classes in the third world.”
There is a growing need for a globalisation that is defined and shaped by the poor and the marginalised.It is a globalisation that has the widest possible outlook on its service to whole humanity, and not just a rich minority, a global mechanism that is in the process of overcoming its injustices, biases, prejudices, crimes and negligences. Globalisation must be intrinsically purified to serve whole humanity not just some rich nations and social classes.
As Ziauddin Sardar has convincingly argued, “The greatest event of the 20th century, outstripping even its horrors - two world wars, mass, mechanised slaughter, the imminence of Armageddon, holocaust and ethnic cleansing - was the invention of the mass market for consumer goods; the apotheosis of the Industrial Revolution. Desiring the accoutrements of a lavish lifestyle is probably a primordial urge, but only in the 20th century did it become a practical proposition for large parts of a whole society….The economic disparities of our world are grosser now than ever before in history. Never, since the day the original homo sapiens first stood on two legs, have so few consumed and controlled so much. The richest 20 per cent of the world’s people, that’s us and our like, now consume 86 per cent of all goods and services, 45 per cent of all the meat and fish, 58 per cent of all the energy, 84 per cent of all the paper and 87 per cent of all the vehicles.”
by Professor Anton Meemana
