Global Development In Colonial Times

I believe one of the reasons for the high corruption rate leads back to days of colonialism.  With colonialism, colonies were governed by other nations, not themselves.  This is the beginning of destabilization.  A little while after during the decolonization period, colonies were divided up therein dividing villages and land the natives had lived on for many years.  With this division came the implementation of government officials put in place to run the new nations.  These new leaders were often from opposing villages that were now living as one because of the division of colonies.

Constant warring has been going on for years and years between villages for role as presidential leader.  This leads to the corruption and genocide.  If decolonization had gone smoother with education and the like, I doubt we would see this level of corruption.

Another factor arisen out of globalization would be the foreign oil companies.  The results of many oil spills that are ten fold of that as the Exxon Valdiz stem from deregulation and lack of environmental laws.  The implications of such are so extreme that villagers who subsided off fishing and crops, are unable to do so from all of the pollution.  It is said that it could take 10-15 years to clean up the environment there.  Only if action is taken in the near future.  Just another reason how the processes of globalization are decimating the world and its people.

We as a people need to change what we perceive as a priority.  With oil spills like that off the coast of Louisiana, our supposed dependence on oil is hurting those in other countries.  As you can see from these pictures, in Nigeria it is hurting the economy, the people, and the land.  What needs to happen is to ween ourselves off of oil dependence.  President Obama has ceased off-shore oil drilling in response to the recent spill.  This is a small step in the right direction.  Another step we could take is that of offshore windmills like the Netherlands has done.

The World Trade Organization’s home page.  This is helpful in the event of learning more thoroughly how they work and their current laws and policies.

2.     http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm

The International Monetary Fund’s personal webpage.  Helpful in the event of learning more thoroughly how they work and their current laws and practices.

3.     http://www.worldbank.org/

The World Bank’s webpage.  Helpful in the event of learning more thoroughly how they work and their current laws and practices.

4.     http://www.ilo.org/global/lang–en/index.htm

This website is about the International Labor Organization that was started as a checks and balances for the IMF and WB.

5.     http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/north-american-free-trade-agreement-nafta

The North American Free Trade Agreement information page and history.

6.     http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/cafta/

A good source for understanding the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which is similar to NAFTA.

7.     http://www.aseansec.org/index2008.html

This page is about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.  Another similar pact to that of NAFTA.

8.     http://www.fpif.org/reports/structural_adjustment_programs

Good information on structural adjustment programs used by the IMF and WTO.

9.     http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/themes/epz.htm

Good information on export processing zones that the WTO sets up for “free trade”.

10.     http://books.google.com/books?id=BPLVrqjFZmMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=us+globalization&ei=WeLcS4PvH6XkkQTjnpDtBQ&cd=5#v=onepage&q=us%20globalization&f=false

This book looks at how globalization has ultimately changed the outlook on American’s goals and political interests.

11.     http://books.google.com/books?id=V2hPqE2v7lUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=water+privatization&lr=&ei=UuXcS9P8J4XylQTov4HCCA&cd=2#v=onepage&q=water%20privatization&f=false

This book is about the effects of water privatization across the globe.  It chronicles how two multinational corporations have come to dominate the private market on access to clean water.

12.     http://books.google.com/books?id=iQzwwzBYGDkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Vandana+Shiva%22&lr=&ei=MObcS6roHqXkkQTjnpDtBQ&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

This book written by Vandana Shiva is about how multinational corporations and globalization have impacted mainly the farms and farmers in poorer countries negatively through genetic food engineering, cultural theft, and natural resource privatization.

13.     http://books.google.com/books?id=8Kw5rVFCOUMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Vandana+Shiva%22&lr=&ei=MObcS6roHqXkkQTjnpDtBQ&cd=7#v=onepage&q&f=false

This is a great book on how the corporate “North” is profiting off the genetic “shuffling” of plant, animal, and human DNA as well as indigenous peoples knowledge.

14.     http://books.google.com/books?id=plTcVDph_SQC&pg=PA21&dq=monocultures+in+farms&lr=&ei=IejcS6rzJoSukASuvYSXCA&cd=1#v=onepage&q=monocultures in farms&f=false

This book shows how globalization has affected farm’s abilities to produce multicultured crops for greater sustainability instead producing monoculture crops, aka cash crops.

15.     http://books.google.com/books?id=075MS-ZBsswC&printsec=frontcover&dq=policies+of+globalization&lr=&ei=TOncS6zBKKiKkATq98DGCA&cd=2#v=onepage&q=policies%20of%20globalization&f=false

This book is about Joseph Stieglitz’s accounts from the IMF and how the US’s interests were put ahead of poorer countries.

Ok,  I’m going to back pedal a little and tell you about how the WTO works.  Delegates are not elected, but the director general is.  Policies are made by “industry sector advisory comittees” and “councils for trade”.  One vote is permitted for each member nation, but get this, NO VOTES HAVE EVER OCCURRED!  Instead, decisions are made by a consensus;  corporate heads and lawyers of the rich countries “coerce” the smaller countries into agreeing with them.  This means there is no paper trail.  If there are no formal votes there is no record of accountability.  Everyone except those involved are left out of the loop so no one knows how any of the member nations voted; transparency is nonexistent.

With the WTO strong-headed by the rich countries, trade provisions are in favor for their multinational corporations.  This said, trade provisions are given for corporate protection, investor protection, and the ability for a more liquid movement of capital.  Trade provisions against are labeled as “barriers” of trade, which goes against the WTO’s mission statement.  These are tariffs (which have been denied therein setting up poor countries to get screwed), environmental laws (which are trumped in favor of multinational corporations [MNC's] obtaining loose dumping laws), and “production and processing” laws (again in favor of MNC’s to bypass child labor laws).

To give you an idea of how many people are against the laws and practices of the WTO, I would like you to watch a short clip of the documentary 30 Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle.

I chose these cartoon pictures for this post because I feel that they convey the real impact of what actually happens because of the laws and practices governed by globalization.

The two cartoons that I feel portray the effects the best are the first and last ones.  It shows how multinational corporations are the real “winners” and that they do not care about anything but their profits and how the earth/workers can best serve them.

The World Bank was set up as a lending institution that could only lend to war torn countries and/or developing countries.  The three main goals of the World Bank are: reduce poverty, promote long-term economic growth, and foster relationships between given countries. (WB)  The International Monetary Fund was set up to monitor the world’s currency.  It was only supposed to give out short term help when absolutely needed as well as insure the stability of the world economy.  The International Monetary Fund’s goals are: “to promote international monetary cooperation; to facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade; to promote exchange stability; to assist in the establishment of multilateral system of payments; to make its general resources available to its members experiencing balance and payments difficulties; and to shorten and lessen the degree of disequilibrium in the international balances and payments”. (IMF)

Now Flash forward to 1995 and we have the creation of the World Trade Organization.  The World Trade Organization’s purpose is: “to help trade flow smoothly, freely, fairly, and predictably.  It does this by administrating trade agreements.  Acting as a forum for trade negations. Assisting developing countries through technical assistance and trading programs cooperating with international organizations”. (WTO)

All of these institutions were created to help developing countries establish themselves in the international trading ring of the developed countries, therein furthering their economic growth.  We have all seen how that has worked out so far… Argentina, Mexico, etc.