CONTEMPORARY WORLD

UNIT 1: STRUCTURE OF GLOBALIZATION that Malaysian food was readily available in Sydney. Having
noticed this, Latif explained to his Filipino friend that, over the
years, as more and more Malaysian students moved to Sydney
Lesson 1: What is Globalization to study, Malaysian restaurants followed suit. Soon after, they
● Global Experience were catering not only to these students, but to Australia-born
● Globalization: A working definition "Sydneysiders as well, whose culinary tastes were becoming
more and more diverse.
INTRODUCTION
Gio finally had his first taste of laksa-a rice noodle soup in a
spicy coconut curry sauce. He found the flavors intense since,
A Story: Gio, Latif, and the Laksa
like most Filipinos, he was not used to spicy food. However, in
deference to his friend, he persisted and eventually found
When Gio was a second-year international affairs student in a himself enjoying the hot dish.
university in Cebu City, he obtained funding to join the school
team participating in an international Model UN competition in After the meal, Gio and Latif went to a nearby café and ordered
Sydney, Australia. At the height of the competition, Gio made "flat whites"-an espresso drink similar to latte, which is usually
plenty of new friends and became particularly close to Latif served in cafés in Australia and New Zealand. Both knew what
from the Malaysian team. The two first started talking when flat whites were since there were Australian-inspired cafés in
Latif asked Gio where he was from. Upon discovering that the both Kuala Lumpur and Cebu.
Gio was from the Philippines, Latif lit up and declared that he
was a big fan of Filipino actors Jericho Rosales and Kristine
The new friends promised to stay in touch after the
Hermosa. Gio was pleasantly surprised to learn that Latif had
competition, and added each other on Facebook and
seen every episode of the ABS-CBN telenovela Pangako sa
Instagram. Over the next two years, they exchanged e-mails
'Yo ("The Promise"). The show had aired on Malaysian TV a
and posts, congratulated each other for their achievements,
few years back, and its two stars had developed a modest
and commented on and liked each other's photos. Latif sent his
following.
mother's recipe to Gio and the latter began cooking Malaysian
food in his home.
Ashamed that he did not know as much about Malaysia as
Latif knew about the Philippines, Gio asked Latif what his
A few years after graduation, Gio moved to Singapore, joining
country was like. Latif, he discovered, was from a Muslim
many other overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the city-state.
university in Kuala Lumpur. Gio asked him what he liked best
The culture was new to him, but one thing was familiar: the
about living in "KL," and Latif immediately mentioned the food.
food served in Singapore was no different from the Malaysian
Latif explained that in Kuala Lumpur, one can find Chinese,
food he had discovered through Latif. He would later learn from
Indian, and Malay cuisines. He told Gio that this assortment of
Singaporean colleagues that the island country was once part
food ways was the result of how the British reorganized
of the British colony of Malay and the postwar independent
Malaysian society during the colonial times. The British did little
Federation of Malaysia. Singapore, however, separated from
to change the way of life of the Malays who were the original
the Federation in August 1965 and became a nation-state.
residents, but brought in Chinese laborers to work in the rubber
Today, they may be two distinct countries in this part of the
plantations and tin mines, and Indians to help manage the
world, but Singapore and Malaysia still share the same cuisine.
bureaucracy and serve as the initial professional core of a
After he settled down in his apartment, Gio sought out and
potential middle class. One of the ways that these ethnic
found a favorite laksa stall in Newton Hawker Center. He would
groups were identified was through their food ways.
spend his weekends there with friends eating laksa and other
dishes.
According to Latif, Malaysia eventually became famous for
these cuisines which can be found in the various "hawker
One Saturday, while Gio was checking his Facebook feed
centers" across the nation's cities and towns. These food
along the very busy Orchard Road-Singapore's main
stands are located in outdoor food parks where locals and
commercial road-he noticed that Latif had just posted
tourists taste the best of Malaysia, from nasi lemak to laksa.
something 5 minutes earlier. It was a picture from Orchard
Road. Surprised but also excited, Gio sent Latif a private
Gio interrupted Latif and asked, "What is laksa?" He felt more
message. Latif replied immediately saying that he too had
ashamed at his lack of knowledge. "Ahh...let me show you
moved to Singapore and was, at that moment, standing in front
what it is and how it is prepared!" replied Latif.
a department store just a few blocks away from where Gio
was. The two friends met up, and after a long hug and quick
The next day, Latif took Gio to a Malaysian restaurant a few
questions as to what each was up to, they ducked into a café
blocks away from the university. Gio was surprised to discover

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and renewed their international friendship...by ordering a pair
of flat whites.
GLOBAL EXPERIENCE
Gio and Latif's story is fictional but very plausible since it is, in
fact, based on the real-life experience of one of the authors. It
was through such friendships that one was able to appreciate
the meaning and impact of globalization.
We begin our definition of globalization with this narrative to
illustrate how concrete the phenomenon is. The story shows
how globalization operates at multiple, intersecting levels. The
spread of Filipino TV into Malaysia suggests how fast this
popular culture has proliferated and criss-crossed all over Asia.
The Model UN activity that Gio and Latif participated in is an
international competition about international politics. Gio met
Latif (a Malaysian involved in the model UN) in Sydney, a
global city that derives its wealth and influence from the global
capital that flows through it. Sydney is also a metropolis of
families of international immigrants or foreigners working in the
industries that also sell their products abroad. After the two had
gone back to their home countries, Gio and Latif kept in touch
through Facebook, a global social networking site that provides
instantaneous communication across countries and continents.
They preserved their friendship online and then rekindled this
face-to-face in Singapore, another hub for global commerce,
with 40 percent of the population being classified as "foreign
talents."
What other hints of globalization did you find in the story?
Some Description
Our discussion should begin with this intuitive sense that
something is happening, and it is not affecting everyone in the
same way. Gio's story is a very privileged way of experiencing
global flows, but for other people, the shrinking of the world
may not be as exciting and edifying. For example, it is very
common for young women in developing countries to be
recruited in the internet as "mail-order brides" for foreign men
living in other countries. After being promised a good life once
married to a kind husband in a rich city, they end up becoming
sexual and domestic servants in foreign lands. Some were
even sold off by their "husbands" to gangs which run prostitute
rings in these cities. Like Gio, they too have experienced the
shrinking of the world, albeit negatively.
Governments that decide to welcome the foreign investments
on the belief that they provide jobs and capital for the country
offer public lands as factory or industrial sites. In the process,
poor people living in these lands, also called "urban poor
communities," are being evicted by the government. The irony
is that these people forcibly removed from their "slums" are
also the labor force sought by foreign companies. They had to
be kicked out of their homes. And then told that they could take
an hour or two of bus travel from their relocated communities
back to the "old home" for minimum wage work.
Because different people encounter globalization in a variety of
ways, it is deemed useful to ask simple questions like: "Is
globalization good or bad? Is it beneficial or detrimental?" The
discussion begins with two premises. First, globalization is a
complex phenomenon that occurs at multiple levels. Second, it
is an uneven process that affects people differently.
GLOBALIZATION: A WORKING DEFINITION
Most accounts view globalization as primarily an economic
process. When a newspaper reports that nationalists are
resisting "globalization," it usually refers to the integration of
the national markets to a wider global market signified by the
increased free trade. When activists refer to the "anti-
globalization" movement of the 1990s, they mean resisting the
trade deals among countries facilitated and promoted by global
organizations like the World Trade Organization.
Globalization scholars do not necessarily disagree with people
who criticize unfair international trade deals or global economic
organizations. In fact, many are sympathetic to the critique of
economic globalization. Academics differ from journalists and
political activists, however, because they see globalization in
much broader terms. They view the process through various
lenses that consider multiple theories and perspectives.
Academics call this an interdisciplinary approach, and it is this
approach used by the general education (GE) courses that you
will be taking alongside this one.
The best scholarly description of globalization is provided by
Manfred Steger who described the process as "the expansion
and intensification of social relations and consciousness
across world-time and across world-space." Expansion refers
to "both the creation of new social networks and the
multiplication of existing connections that cut across traditional
political, economic, cultural, and geographic boundaries."
These various connections occur at different levels. Social
media, for example, establish new global connections between
people, while international groups of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) are networks that connect a more
specific group-social workers and activists- from different
corners of the globe. In the story, Gio was able to join a Model
UN competition because his university was part of an
international network.
Intensification refers to the expansion, stretching, and
acceleration of these networks. Not only are global
connections multiplying, but they are also becoming more
closely-knit and expanding their reach. For example, there has
always been a strong financial market connecting London and
New York. With the advent of electronic trading, however, the
volume of that trade increases exponentially, since traders can
now trade more at higher speeds. The connection is thus
accelerating. Apart from this acceleration, however, as the
world becomes more financially integrated, the intensified
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trading network between London and New York may expand
and stretch to cover more and more cities. After China
committed itself to the global economy in the 1980s, for
example, Shanghai steadily returned to its old role as a major
trading post.
It is not only in financial matters that you can find these
connections. In 2012, when the monsoon rains flooded much
of Bangkok, the Honda plant making some of the critical car
parts temporarily ceased production. This had a strong
negative effect on Honda-USA which relied heavily on the
parts being imported from Thailand. Not only was it unable to
reach the sales targets. it laid out, but the ability of the service
centers nationwide to assist Honda owners also suffered. As a
result, the Japanese car company's global profits also fell.
The final attribute of this definition relates to the way people
perceive time and space. Steger notes that "globalization
processes do not occur merely at an objective, material level
but they also involve the subjective plane of human
consciousness." In other words, people begin to feel that the
world has become a smaller place and distance has collapsed
from thousands of miles to just a mouse-click away. One can
now e-mail a friend in another country and get a reply
instantaneously, and as a result, begins to perceive their
distance as less consequential. Cable TV and the internet has
also exposed one to news from across the globe, so now,
he/she has this greater sense of what is happening in other
places.
Steger posits that his definition of globalization must be
differentiated with an ideology he calls globalism. If
globalization represents the many processes that allow for the
expansion and intensification of global connections, globalism
is a widespread belief among powerful people that the global
integration of economic markets is beneficial for everyone,
since it spreads. Freedom and democracy across the world. It
is a common belief forwarded in media and policy circles. In
the next lesson, you will realize why it is problematic.
For now, what is crucial to note is that when activists and
journalists criticize "globalization," they are, more often than
not, criticizing some manifestations of globalism. Often, these
criticisms are warranted. Nevertheless, it is crucial to insist that
"globalization" as a process refers to a larger phenomenon that
cannot simply be reduced to the ways in which global markets
have been integrated.
Conclusion: Globalization from the Ground Up
All this talk of large, intersecting processes may be confusing.
Indeed, it may be hard to assess globalization or comment on
it because it is so diffuse and almost fleeting. Some scholars
have, therefore, found it simpler to avoid talking about
globalization as a whole. Instead, they want to discuss
"multiple globalizations," instead of just one process.
For anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, different kinds of
globalization occur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of
integration that he calls "scapes." An "ethnoscape," for
example, refers to the global movement of people, while a
"mediascape" is about the flow of culture. A "technoscape"
refers to the circulation of mechanical goods and software; a
"financescape" denotes the global circulation of money; and an
"ideoscape" is the realm where political ideas move around.
Although they intersect, these various scapes have differing
logics. They are thus distinct windows into the broader
phenomenon of globalization.
Appadurai's argument is simple: there are multiple
globalizations. Hence, even if one does not agree that
globalization can be divided into the five "scapes," it is hard to
deny Appadurai's central thrust of viewing globalization through
various lenses.
Depending on what is being globalized, a different dynamic (or
dynamics) may emerge. So while it is important to ask "What is
globalization?" it is likewise important to ask "What is/are being
globalized?" Depending on what is being globalized, the vista
and conclusions change.
The structure of the lessons that follow will reflect this
multidimensional understanding of globalization. Each of the
lessons will focus on a particular kind of globalization. Every
one of them will be about different networks and connections
that are expanding and intensifying in the contemporary world.
Treat each lesson not as an end in itself but as window to the
broader phenomenon of globalization.
Lesson 2: Globalization of World Economics
● International Trading System
● Neoliberalism and its discontent
● Global Financial Crisis and the challenges to
Neoliberalism
● Economic Globalization Today
INTRODUCTION
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regards "economic
globalization" as a historical process representing the result of
human innovation and technological progress. It is
characterized by the increasing integration of economies
around the world through the movement of goods, services,
and capital across borders. These changes are the products of
people, organizations, institutions, and technologies.' As with
all other processes of globalization, there is a qualitative and
subjective element to this definition. How does one define
"increasing integration"? When is it considered that trade has
increased? Is there a particular threshold?
Even while the IMF and ordinary people grapple with the
difficulty of arriving at precise definitions of globalization, they
usually agree that a drastic economic change is occurring
throughout the world. According to the IMF, the value of trade
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(goods and services) as a percentage of world GDP increased
from 42.1 percent in 1980 to 62.1 percent in 2007. Increased
trade also means that investments are moving all over the
world at faster speeds. According to the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the
amount of foreign direct investments flowing across the world
was US$ 57 billion in 1982. By 2015, that number was $1.76
trillion. These figures represent a dramatic increase in global
trade in the span of just a few decades. It has happened not
even after one human lifespan!
Apart from the sheer magnitude of commerce, we should also
note the increased speed and frequency of trading. These
days, supercomputers can execute millions of stock purchases
and sales between different cities in a matter of seconds
through a process called high-frequency trading. Even the
items being sold and traded are changing drastically. Ten
years ago, buying books or music indicates acquiring physical
items. Today, however, a "book" can be digitally downloaded
to be read with an e-reader, and a music "album" refers to the
15 songs on mp3 format you can purchase and download from
iTunes.
This lesson aims to trace how economic globalization came
about. It will also assess this globalization system, and
examine who benefits from it and who is left out.
INTERNATIONAL TRADING SYSTEM
International trading systems are not new. The oldest known
international trade route was the Silk Road-a network of
pathways in the ancient world that spanned from China to what
is now the Middle East and to Europe. It was called as such
because one of the most profitable products traded through
this network was silk, which was highly prized especially in the
area that is now the Middle East as well as in the West (today's
Europe). Traders used the Silk Road regularly from 130 BCE
when the Chinese Han dynasty opened trade to the West until
1453 BCE when the Ottoman Empire closed it.
However, while the Silk Road was international, it was not truly
"global" because it had no ocean routes that could reach the
American continent. So when did full economic globalization
begin? According to historians Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo
Giraldez, the age of globalization began when "all important
populated continents began to exchange products
continuously- both with each other directly and indirectly via
other continents- and in values sufficient to generate crucial
impacts on all trading partners." Flynn and Giraldez trace this
back to 1571 with the establishment of the galleon trade that
connected Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco in Mexico."
This was the first time that the Americas were directly
connected to Asian trading routes. For Filipinos, it is crucial to
note that economic globalization began on the country's
shores.
The galleon trade was part of the age of mercantilism. From
the 16th century to the 18th century, countries, primarily in
Europe, competed with one another to sell more goods as a
means to boost their country's income (called monetary
reserves later on). To defend their products from competitors
who sold goods more cheaply, these regimes (mainly
monarchies) imposed high tariffs, forbade colonies to trade
with other nations, restricted trade routes, and subsidized its
exports. Mercantilism was thus also a system of global trade
with multiple restrictions.
A more open trade system emerged in 1867 when, following
the lead of the United Kingdom, the United States and other
European nations adopted the gold standard at an international
monetary conference in Paris. Broadly, its goal was to create a
common system that would allow for more efficient trade and
prevent the isolationism of the mercantilist era. The countries
thus established a common basis for currency prices and a
fixed exchange rate system--all based on the value of gold.
Despite facilitating simpler trade, the gold standard was still a
very restrictive system, as it compelled countries to back their
currencies with fixed gold reserves. During World War I. when
countries depleted their gold reserves to fund their armies,
many were forced to abandon the gold standard. Since
European countries had low gold reserves, they adopted
floating currencies that were no longer redeemable in gold.
Returning to a pure standard became more difficult as the
global economic crisis called the Great Depression started
during the 1920s and extended up to the 1930s, further
emptying government coffers. This depression was the worst
and longest recession ever experienced by the Western world.
Some economists argued that it was largely caused by the
gold standard, since it limited the amount of circulating money
and, therefore, reduced demand and consumption. If
governments could only spend money that was equivalent to
gold, its capacity to print money and increase the money
supply was severely curtailed.
Economic historian Barry Eichengreen argues that the
recovery of the United States really began when, having
abandoned the gold standard, the US government was able to
free up money to spend on reviving the economy." At the
height of World War II, other major industrialized countries
followed suit.
Though more indirect versions of the gold standard were used
until as late as the 1970s, the world never returned to the gold
standard of the early 20th century. Today, the world economy
operates based on what are called fiat currencies-currencies
that are not backed by precious metals and whose value is
determined by their cost relative to other currencies. This
system allows governments to freely and actively manage their
economies by increasing or decreasing the amount of money
in circulation as they see fit.
NEOLIBERALISM & ITS DISCONTENT
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Pg. 18 - affected the Western economies that were reliant on Despite the initial success of neoliberal politicians like Thatcher
oil. To make matters worse, the stock markets crashed in and Reagan, the defects of the Washington Consensus
1973- 1974 after the United States stopped linking the dollar to became immediately palpable. A good early example is that of
gold, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system." The result post-communist Russia. After Communism had collapsed in
was a phenomenon that Keynesian economics could not have the 1990s, the IMF called for the immediate privatization of all
predicted-a phenomenon called stagflation, in which a decline government industries. The IMF assumed that such a move
in economic growth and employment (stagnation) takes place would free these industries from corrupt bureaucrats and pass
alongside a sharp increase in prices (inflation). them on to the more dynamic and independent private
investors. What happened, however, was that only individuals
Around this time, a new form of economic thinking was and groups who had accumulated wealth under the previous
beginning to challenge the Keynesian orthodoxy. Economists communist order had the money to purchase these industries.
such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman argued that the In some cases, the economic elites relied on easy access to
governments' practice of pouring money into their economies government funds to take over the industries. This practice has
had caused inflation by increasing demand for goods without entrenched an oligarchy that still dominates the Russian
necessarily increasing supply. More profoundly, they argued economy to this very day.
that government intervention in economies distort the proper
functioning of the market. GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE
CHALLENGES TO NEOLIBERALISM
Economists like Friedman used the economic turmoil to
challenge the consensus around Keynes's ideas. What
Russia's case was just one example of how the "shock
emerged was a new form of economic thinking that critics
therapy" of neoliberalism did not lead to the ideal outcomes
labeled neoliberalism. From the 1980s onward, neoliberalism
predicted by economists who believed in perfectly free
became the codified strategy of the United States Treasury
markets. The greatest recent repudiation of this thinking was
Department, the World Bank, the IMF, and eventually the
the recent global financial crisis of 2008-2009.
World Trade Organization (WTO) a new organization founded
in 1995 to continue the tariff reduction under the GATT. The
Neoliberalism came under significant strain during the global
policies they forwarded came to be called the Washington
financial crisis of 2007-2008 when the world experienced the
Consensus.
greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. The
crisis can be traced back to the 1980s when the United States
The Washington Consensus dominated global economic
systematically removed various banking and investment
policies from the 1980s until the early 2000s. Its advocates
restrictions.
pushed for minimal government spending to reduce
government debt. They also called for the privatization of
The scaling back of regulations continued until the 2000s,
government-controlled services like water, power,
paving the way for a brewing crisis. In their attempt to promote
communications, and 'transport, believing that the free market
the free market, government authorities failed to regulate bad
can produce the best results. Finally, they pressured
investments occurring in the US housing market. Taking
governments, particularly in the developing world, to reduce
advantage of "cheap housing loans," Americans began
tariffs and open up their economies, arguing that it is the
building houses that were beyond their financial capacities.
quickest way to progress. Advocates of the Washington
Consensus conceded that, along the way, certain industries
To mitigate the risk of these loans, banks that were lending
would be affected and die, but they considered this "shock
house-owners' money pooled these mortgage payments and
therapy" necessary for long-term economic growth.
sold them as "mortgage-backed securities" (MBSs). One MBS
would be a combination of multiple mortgages that they
The appeal of neoliberalism was in its simplicity. Its advocates
assumed would pay a steady rate.
like US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher justified their reduction in government
Since there was so much surplus money circulating, the
spending by comparing national economies to households.
demand for MBSs increased as investors clamored for more
Thatcher, in particular, promoted an image of herself as a
investment opportunities. In their haste to issue these loans,
mother, who reined in overspending to reduce the national
however, the banks became less discriminating. They began
debt.
extending loans to families and individuals with dubious credit
records-people who were unlikely to pay their loans back.
The problem with the household analogy is that governments
These high-risk mortgages became known as sub-prime
are not households. For one, governments can print money,
mortgages.
while households cannot. Moreover, the constant taxation
systems of governments provide them a steady flow of income
Financial experts wrongly assumed that, even if many of the
that allows them to pay and refinance debts steadily.
borrowers were individuals and families who would struggle to
pay, a majority would not default. Moreover, banks thought that

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since there were so many mortgages in just one MBS, a few
failures would not ruin the entirety of the investment.
Banks also assumed that housing prices would continue to
increase. Therefore, even if homeowners defaulted on their
loans, these banks could simply reacquire the homes and sell
them at a higher price, turning a profit.
Sometime in 2007, however, home prices stopped increasing
as supply caught up with demand. Moreover, it slowly became
apparent that families could not pay off their loans. This
realization triggered the rapid reselling of MBSS, as banks and
investors tried to get rid of their bad investments. This
dangerous cycle reached a tipping point in September 2008,
when major investment banks like Lehman Brothers collapsed,
thereby depleting major investments.
The crisis spread beyond the United States since many
investors were foreign governments, corporations, and
individuals. The loss of their money spread like wildfire back to
their countries.
These series of interconnections allowed for a global multiplier
effect that sent ripples across the world. For example, Iceland's
banks heavily depended on foreign capital, so when the crisis
hit them, they failed to refinance their loans. As a result of this
credit crunch, three of Iceland's top commercial banks
defaulted. From 2007 to 2008, Iceland's debt increased more
than seven-fold.
Until now, countries like Spain and Greece are heavily
indebted (almost like Third World countries), and debt relief
has come at a high price. Greece, in particular, has been
forced by Germany and the IMF to cut back on its social and
public spending. Affecting services like pensions, health care,
and various forms of social security, these cuts have been felt
most acutely by the poor. Moreover, the reduction in
government spending has slowed down growth and ensured
high levels of unemployment.
The United States recovered relatively quickly thanks to a large
Keynesian-style stimulus package that President Barack
Obama pushed for in his first months in office. The same
cannot be said for many other countries. In Europe, the
continuing economic crisis has sparked a political upheaval.
Recently, far- right parties like Marine Le Pen's Front National
in France have risen to prominence by unfairly blaming
immigrants for their woes, claiming that they steal jobs and
leech off welfare. These movements blend popular resentment
with utter hatred and racism. We will discuss their rise further
in the final lesson.
ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION TODAY
The global financial crisis will take decades to resolve. The
solutions proposed by certain nationalist and leftist groups of
closing national economies to world trade, however, will no
longer work. The world has become too integrated. Whatever
one's opinion about the Washington Consensus is, it is
undeniable that some form of international trade remains
essential for countries to develop in the contemporary world.
Exports, not just the local selling of goods and services, make
national economies grow at present. In the past, those that
benefited the most from free trade were the advanced nations
that were producing and selling industrial and agricultural
goods. The United States, Japan, and the member-countries of
the European Union were responsible for 65 percent of global
exports, while the developing countries only accounted for 29
percent. When more countries opened up their economies to
take advantage of increased free trade, the shares of the
percentage began to change. By 2011, developing countries
like the Philippines, India, China, Argentina, and Brazil
accounted for 51 percent of global exports while the share of
advanced nations- including the United States-had gone down
to 45 percent." The WTO-led reduction of trade barriers, known
as trade liberalization, has profoundly altered the dynamics of
the global economy.
In the recent decades, partly as a result of these increased
exports, economic globalization has ushered in an
unprecedented spike in global growth rates. According to the
IMF, the global per capita GDP rose over five-fold in the
second half of the 20th century. It was this growth that created
the large Asian economies like Japan, China, Korea, Hong
Kong, and Singapore.
And yet, economic globalization remains an uneven process,
with some countries, corporations, and individuals benefiting a
lot more than others. The series of trade talks under the WTO
have led to unprecedented reductions in tariffs and other trade
barriers, but these processes have often been unfair.
First, developed countries are often protectionists, as they
repeatedly refuse to lift policies that safeguard their primary
products that could otherwise be overwhelmed by imports from
the developing world. The best example of this double
standard is Japan's determined refusal to allow rice imports
into the country to protect its farming sector. Japan's
justification is that rice is "sacred." Ultimately, it is its economic
muscle as the third largest economy that allows it to resist
pressures to open its agricultural sector.
The United States likewise fiercely protects its sugar industry,
forcing consumers and sugar-dependent businesses to pay
higher prices instead of getting cheaper sugar from plantations
of Central America.
Faced with these blatantly protectionist measures from
powerful countries and blocs, poorer countries can do very little
to make economic globalization more just. Trade imbalances,
therefore, characterize economic relations between developed
and developing countries.
The beneficiaries of global commerce have been mainly
transnational corporations (TNCs) and not governments. And
like any other business, these TNCs are concerned more with
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profits than with assisting the social programs of the
governments hosting them. Host countries, in turn, loosen tax
laws, which prevents wages from rising, while sacrificing social
and environmental programs that protect the underprivileged
members of their societies. The term "race to the bottom"
refers to countries' lowering their labor standards, including the
protection of workers' interests, to lure in foreign investors
seeking high profit margins at the lowest cost possible.
Governments weaken environmental laws to attract investors,
creating fatal consequences on their ecological balance and
depleting them of their finite resources (like oil, coal, and
minerals).
LOCALIZING THE MATERIAL
Many Philippine industries were devastated by unfair trade
deals under the GATT and eventually the WTO. One sector
that was particularly affected was Philippine agriculture.
According to Walden Bello and a team of researchers at Focus
on the Global South, the US used its power under the GATT
system to prevent Philippine importers from purchasing
Philippine poultry and pork-even as it sold meat to the
Philippines.
Although the Philippines expected to make up losses in sectors
like meat with gains in areas such as coconut products, no
significant change was realized. In 1993, coconut exports
amounted to $1.9 billion, and after a slight increase to $2.3
billion in 1997, it returned to $1.9 billion in 2000.
Most strikingly, Bello and company noted that the Philippines
became a net food importer under the GATT. In 1993, the
country had an agricultural trade surplus of $292 million. It had
a deficit of $764 million in 1997 and $794 million in 2002.
-Bello, Walden, Herbert Docena, Marissa de Guzman, and
Mary Lou Malig The Anti-Development State: The Political
Economy of Permanent Crisis in the Philippines. London and
New York: Zed Books, 2006, 140-142
CONCLUSION
International economic integration is a central tenet of
globalization. In fact, it is so crucial to the process that many
writers and commentators confuse this integration for the
entirety of globalization. As a reminder, economics is just one
window into the phenomenon of globalization; it is not the
entire thing.
Nevertheless, much of globalization is anchored on changes in
the economy. Global culture, for example, is facilitated by
trade. Filipinos would not be as aware of American culture if
not for the trade that allows locals to watch American movies,
listen to American music, and consume American products.
The globalization of politics is likewise largely contingent on
trade relations. These days, many events of foreign affairs are
conducted to cement trading relations between and among
states.
Given the stakes involved in economic globalization, it is
perennially important to ask how this system can be made
more just. Although some elements of global free trade can be
scaled back, policies cannot do away with it as a whole.
International policymakers, therefore, should strive to think of
ways to make trading deals fairer. Government must also
continue to devise ways of cushioning the most damaging
effects of economic globalization, while ensuring that its
benefits accrue for everyone.
Lesson 3: A History of Global Politics: Creating an
International Order
● The attribute of Today’s Global System
● The Interstate System
● Internationalism
● Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
The world is composed of many countries or states, all of them
having different forms of government. Some scholars of politics
are interested in individual states and examine the internal
politics of these countries. For example, a scholar studying the
politics of Japan may write about the history of its bureaucracy.
Other scholars are more interested in the interactions between
states rather than their internal politics. These scholars look at
trade deals between states. They also study political, military,
and other diplomatic engagements between two or more
countries. These scholars are studying international relations.
Moreover, when they explore the deepening of interactions
between states, they refer to the phenomenon of
internationalization.
Internationalization does not equal globalization, although it is
a major part of globalization. As we explained in Lesson 1,
globalization encompasses a multitude of connections and
interactions that cannot be reduced to the ties between
governments. Nevertheless, it is important to study
international relations as a facet of globalization, because
states/governments are key drivers of global processes. In this
lesson, we will examine internationalization as one window to
view the globalization of politics. Although this course is about
the contemporary world, we cannot avoid history. What
international relations are today is largely defined by events
that occurred as far back as 400 years ago. Don't worry; we
will eventually discuss contemporary world politics. But to do
that, we need first to work backward. This lesson will begin
with identifying the major attributes of contemporary global
politics and then proceed to ask: How did this system emerge?
In doing so, you will have a solid foundation to understand the
major issues of global governance in the next lesson.
THE ATTRIBUTE OF TODAY’S GLOBAL SYSTEM
World politics today has four key attributes. First, there are
countries or states that are independent and govern
themselves. Second, these countries interact with each other
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through diplomacy. Third, there are international organizations,
like the United Nations (UN), that facilitate these interactions.
Fourth, beyond simply facilitating meetings between states,
international organizations also take on lives of their own. The
UN, for example, apart from being a meeting ground for
presidents and other heads of state, also has task-specific
agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the
International Labour Organization (ILO).
What are the origins of this system? A good start is by
unpacking what one means when he/she says a "country," or
what academics also call the nation-state. This concept is not
as simple as it seems. The nation-state is a relatively modern
phenomenon in human history, and people did not always
organize themselves as countries. At different parts in the
history of humanity, people in various regions of the world have
identified exclusively with units as small as their village or their
tribe, and at other times, they see themselves as members of
larger political categories like "Christendom" (the entire
Christian world).
The nation-state is composed of two non-interchangeable
terms. Not all states are nations and not all nations are states.
The nation of Scotland, for example, has its own flag and
national culture, but still belongs to a state called the United
Kingdom. Closer to home, many commentators believe that the
Bangsamoro is a separate nation existing within the Philippines
but, through their elites, recognizes the authority of the
Philippine state. Meanwhile, if there are states with multiple
nations, there are also single nations with multiple states. The
nation of Korea is divided into North and South Korea, whereas
the "Chinese nation" may refer to both the People's Republic of
China (the mainland) and Taiwan.
What then is the difference between nation and state?
In layman's terms, state refers to a country and its government,
i.e., the government of the Philippines. A state has four
attributes. First, it exercises authority over a specific
population, called its citizens. Second, it governs a specific
territory. Third, a state has a structure of government that
crafts various rules that people (society) follow. Fourth and the
most crucial, the state has sovereignty over its territory.
Sovereignty here refers to internal and external authority.
Internally, no individuals or groups can operate in a given
national territory by ignoring the state. This means that groups
like churches, civil society organizations, corporations, and
other entities have to follow the laws of the state where they
establish their parishes, offices, or headquarters. Externally,
sovereignty means that a state's policies and procedures are
independent of the interventions of other states. Russia or
China, for example, cannot pass laws for the Philippines and
vice versa.
On the other hand, the nation, according to Benedict
Anderson, is an "imagined community." It is limited because it
does not go beyond a given "official boundary," and because
rights and responsibilities are mainly the privilege and concern
of the citizens of that nation." Being limited means that the
nation has its boundaries. This characteristic is in stark
contrast to many religious imagined communities. Anyone, for
example, can become a Catholic if one chooses to. In fact,
Catholics want more people to join their community; they refer
to it as the call to discipleship. But not everyone can simply
become a Filipino. An American cannot simply go to the
Philippine Embassy and "convert" into a Philippine citizen.
Nations often limit themselves to people who have imbibed a
particular culture, speak a common language, and live in a
specific territory.
Calling it "imagined" does not mean that the nation is made-
up. Rather, the nation allows one to feel a connection with a
community of people even if he/she will never meet all of them
in his/her lifetime. When you cheer for a Filipino athlete in the
Olympics, for example, it is not because you personally know
that athlete. Rather, you imagine your connection as both
members of the same Filipino community. In a given national
territory like the Philippine archipelago, you rest in the comfort
that the majority of people living in it are also Fillipinos. Finally,
most nations strive to become states. Nation-builders can only
feel a sense of fulfillment when that national ideal assumes an
organizational form whose authority and power are recognized
and accepted by "the people." Moreover, if there are
communities that are not states, they often seek some form of
autonomy within their "mother states." This is why, for
example, the nation of Quebec, though belonging to the state
of Canada, has different laws about language (they are
French-speaking and require French language competencies
for their citizens). It is also for this reason that Scotland, though
part of the United Kingdom, has a strong independence
movement led by the Scottish Nationalist Party.
Nation and state are closely related because it is nationalism
that facilitates state formation. In the modern and
contemporary era, it has been the nationalist movements that
have allowed for the creation of nation-states. States become
independent and sovereign because of nationalist sentiment
that clamors for this independence.
Sovereignty is, thus, one of the fundamental principles of
modern state politics. Understanding how this became the
case entails going back as far as 400 years ago.
THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM
The origins of the present-day concept of sovereignty can be
traced back to the Treaty of Westphalia, which was a set of
agreements signed in 1648 to end the Thirty Years' War
between the major continental powers of Europe. After a brutal
religious war between Catholics and Protestants, the Holy
Roman Empire, Spain, France, Sweden, and the Dutch
Republic designed a system that would avert wars in the future
by recognizing that the treaty signers exercise complete control
over their domestic affairs and swear not to meddle in each
other's affairs.
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The Westphalian system provided stability for the nations of
Europe, until it faced its first major challenge by Napoleon
Bonaparte. Bonaparte believed in spreading the principles of
the French Revolution-liberty, equality, and fraternity-to the rest
of Europe and thus challenged the power of kings, nobility, and
religion in Europe. The Napoleonic Wars lasted from 1803-
1815 with Napoleon and his armies marching all over much of
Europe. In every country they conquered, the French
implemented the Napoleonic Code that forbade birth privileges,
encouraged freedom or religion, and promoted meritocracy in
government service. This system shocked the monarchies and
the hereditary elites (dukes, duchesses, etc.) of Europe, and
they mustered their armies to push back against the French
emperor.
Anglo and Prussian armies finally defeated Napoleon in the
Battle of Waterloo in 1815, ending the latter's mission to
spread his liberal code across Europe. To prevent another war
and to keep their systems of privilege, the royal powers
created a new system that, in effect, restored the Westphalian
system. The Concert of Europe was an alliance of "great
powers"-the United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, and Prussia-that
sought to restore the world of monarchical, hereditary, and
religious privileges of the time before the French Revolution
and the Napoleonic Wars. More importantly, it was an alliance
that sought to restore the sovereignty of states. Under this
Metternich system (named after the Austrian diplomat,
Klemens von Metternich, who was the system's main
architect), the Concert's power and authority lasted from 1815
to 1914, at the dawn of World War I.
Despite the challenge of Napoleon to the Westphalian system
and the eventual collapse of the Concert of Europe after World
War I, present-day international system still has traces of this
history. Until now, states are considered sovereign, and
Napoleonic attempts to violently impose systems of
government in other countries are frowned upon. Moreover,
like the Concert system, "great powers" still hold significant
influence over world politics. For example, the most powerful
grouping in the UN, the Security Council, has a core of five
permanent members, all having veto powers over the council's
decision-making process.
INTERNATIONALISM
The Westphalian and Concert systems divided the world into
separate, sovereign entities. Since the existence of this
interstate system, there have been attempts to transcend it.
Some like Bonaparte, directly challenged the system by
infringing on other states' sovereignty, while others sought to
imagine other systems of governance that go beyond, but do
not necessarily challenge, sovereignty. Still, others imagine a
system of heightened interaction between various sovereign
states, particularly the desire for greater cooperation and unity
among states and peoples. This desire is called
internationalism.
Internationalism comes in different forms, but the principle may
be divided into two broad categories: liberal internationalism
and socialist internationalism.
The first major thinker of liberal internationalism was the late
18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant likened
states in a global system to people living in a given territory. If
people living together require a government to prevent
lawlessness, shouldn't that same principle be applied to
states? Without a form of world government, he argued, the
international system would be chaotic. Therefore, states, like
citizens of countries, must give up some freedoms and
"establish a continuously growing state consisting of various
nations which will ultimately include the nations of the world."
In short, Kant imagined a form of global government.
Writing in the late 18th century as well, British philosopher
Jeremy Bentham (who coined the word "international" in 1780),
advocated the creation of "international law" that would govern
the inter-state relations. Bentham believed that objective global
legislators should aim to propose legislation that would create
"the greatest happiness of all nations taken together."
To many, these proposals for global government and
international law seemed to represent challenges to states.
Would not a world government, in effect, become supreme?
And would not its laws overwhelm the sovereignty of individual
states?
The first thinker to reconcile nationalism with liberal
internationalism was the 19th century Italian patriot Giuseppe
Mazzini. Mazzini was both an advocate of the unification of the
various Italian-speaking mini-states and a major critic of the
Metternich system. He believed in a Republican government
(without kings, queens, and hereditary succession) and
proposed a system of free nations that cooperated with each
other to create an international system. For Mazzini, free,
independent states would be the basis of an equally free,
cooperative international system. He argued that if the various
Italian mini-states could unify, one could scale up the system to
create, for example, a United States of Europe. Mazzini was a
nationalist internationalist, who believes that free, unified
nation-states should be the basis of global cooperation.
Mazzini influenced the thinking of United States president
(1913-1921) Woodrow Wilson, who became one of the 20th
century's most prominent internationalist. Like Mazzini, Wilson
saw nationalism as a prerequisite for internationalism. Because
of his faith in nationalism, he forwarded the principle of self-
determination-the belief that the world's nations had a right to a
free, and sovereign government. He hoped that these free
nations would become democracies, because only by being
such would they be able to build a free system of international
relations based on international law and cooperation. Wilson,
in short, became the most notable advocate for the creation of
the League of Nations. At the end of World War I in 1918, he
pushed to transform the League into a venue for conciliation
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and arbitration to prevent another war. For his efforts, Wilson
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.
The League came into being that same year. Ironically and
unfortunately for Wilson, the United States was not able to join
the organization due to strong opposition from the Senate. The
League was also unable to hinder another war from breaking
out. It was practically helpless to prevent the onset and
intensification of World War II. On one side of the war were the
Axis Powers- Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and Hirohito's
Japan- who were ultra-nationalists that had an instinctive
disdain for internationalism and preferred to violently impose
their dominance over other nations. It was in the midst of this
war between the Axis Powers and the Allied Powers
(composed of the United States, United Kingdom, France,
Holland, and Belgium) that internationalism would be eclipsed.
Despite its failure, the League gave birth to some of the more
task-specific international organizations that are still around
until today, the most popular of which are the World Health
Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization
(ILO). More importantly, it would serve as the blueprint for
future forms of international cooperation. In this respect,
despite its organizational dissolution, the League of Nations'
principles survived World War II.
The League was the concretization of the concepts of liberal
internationalism. From Kant, it emphasized the need to form
common international principles. From Mazzini, it enshrined
the principles of cooperation and respect among nation-states.
From Wilson, it called for democracy and self-determination.
These ideas would re-assert themselves in the creation of the
United Nations in 1946 (see next lesson).
One of Mazzini's biggest critics was German socialist
philosopher Karl Marx who was also an internationalist, but
who differed from the former because he did not believe in
nationalism. He believed that any true form of internationalism
should deliberately reject nationalism, which rooted people in
domestic concerns instead of global ones. Instead, Marx
placed a premium on economic equality; he did not divide the
world into countries, but into classes. The capitalist class
referred to the owners of factories, companies, and other
"means of production." In contrast, the proletariat class
included those who did not own the means of production, but
instead, worked for the capitalists.
Marx and his co-author, Friedrich Engels, believed that in a
socialist revoltution seeking to overthrow the state and alter the
economy, the proletariat "had no nation." Hence, their now-
famous battle cry. "Workers of the world, unite! You have
nothing to lose but your chains." They opposed nationalism
because they believed it prevented the unification of the
world's workers. Instead of identifying with other workers,
nationalism could make workers in individual countries identify
with the capitalists of their countries.
Marx died in 1883, but his followers soon sought to make his
vision concrete by establishing their international organization.
The Socialist International (SI) was a union of European
socialist and labor parties established in Paris in 1889.
Although short- lived, the SI's achievements included the
declaration of May I as Labor Day and the creation of an
International Women's Day. Most importantly, it initiated the
successful campaign for an 8-hour workday.
The SI collapsed during World War I as the member parties
refused or were unable to join the internationalist efforts to fight
for the war. Many of these sister parties even ended up fighting
each other. It was a confirmation of Marx's warning: when
workers and their organizations take the side of their countries
instead of each other, their long-term interests are
compromised.
As the SI collapsed, a more radical version emerged. In the so-
called Russian Revolution of 1917, Czar Nicholas II was
overthrown and replaced by a revolutionary government led by
the Bolshevik Party and its leader, Vladimir Lenin. This new
state was called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or
USSR. Unlike the majority of the member parties of the SI, the
Bolsheviks did not believe in obtaining power for the working
class through elections. Rather, they exhorted the
revolutionary "vanguard" parties to lead the revolutions across
the world, using methods of terror if necessary. Today, parties
like this are referred to as Communist parties.
To encourage these socialist revolutions across the world,
Lenin established the Communist International (Comintern) in
1919. The Comintern served as the central body for directing
Communist parties all over the world. This International was
not only more radical than the Socialist International, it was
also less democratic because it followed closely the top-down
governance of the Bolsheviks.
Many of the world's states feared the Comintern, believing that
it was working in secret to stir up revolutions in their countries
(which was true). A problem arose during World War II when
the Soviet Union joined the Allied Powers in 1941. The United
States and the United Kingdom would, of course, not trust the
Soviet Union in their fight against Hitler's Germany. These
countries wondered if the Soviet Union was trying to promote
revolutions in their backyards. To appease his allies, Lenin's
successor, Joseph Stalin, dissolved the Comintern in 1943.
After the war, however, Stalin re-established the Comintern as
the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform). The Soviet
Union took over the countries in Eastern Europe when the
United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain divided the
war-torn Europe into their respective spheres of influence. The
Cominform, like the Comintern before it, helped direct the
various communist parties that had taken power in Eastern
Europe.
With the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
whatever existing thoughts about communist internationalism
also practically disappeared. The SI managed to re-establish
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itself in 1951, but its influence remained primarily confined to
Europe, and has never been considered a major player in
international relations to this very day.
For the postwar period, however, liberal internationalism would
once again be ascendant. And the best evidence of this is the
rise of the United Nations as the center of global governance.
CONCLUSION
This lesson examined the roots of the international system. In
tracing these roots, a short history of internationalism was
provided. Moreover, internationalism is but one window into the
broader phenomenon of globalization. Nevertheless, it is a very
crucial aspect of globalization since global interactions are
heightened by the increased interdependence of states. This
increased interdependence manifests itself not just through
state-to-state relations. Increasingly, international relations are
also facilitated by international organizations that promote
global norms and policies. The most prominent example of this
organization, of course, is the United Nations.
Lesson 4: The United Nations and Contemporary
Global Governance
● What is an International Organization
● The United Nations
● Challenges of the United Nations
● Conclusions
INTRODUCTION
Although many internationalists like Bentham and Kant
imagined the possibility of a global government, nothing of the
sort exists today. There is no one organization that various
states are accountable to. Moreover, no organization can
militarily compel a state to obey predetermined global rules.
There is, however, some regularity in the general behavior of
states. For example, they more or less follow global navigation
routes and, more often than not, respect each other's territorial
boundaries. Moreover, when they do not-like when Russia
invaded Crimea in 2014-it becomes a cause for global concern
and debate. The fact that states in an international order
continue to adhere to certain global norms means that there is
a semblance of world order despite the lack of a single world
government. Global governance refers to the various
intersecting processes that create this order.
There are many sources of global governance. States sign
treaties and form organizations, in the process legislating
public international law (international rules that govern
interactions between states as opposed to, say, private
companies). International non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), though not having formal state power, can lobby
individual states to behave in a certain way (for example, an
international animal protection NGO can pressure
governments to pass animal cruelty laws). Powerful
transnational corporations can likewise have tremendous
effects on global labor laws, environmental legislation, trade
policy, etc. Even ideas such as the need for "global
democracy" or the clamor for "good governance" can influence
the ways international actors behave.
One lesson will not be able to cover the various ways global
governance occurs. As such, this lesson will only examine how
global governance is articulated by intergovernmental
organizations. It will focus primarily on the United Nations (UN)
as the most prominent intergovernmental organization today.
WHAT IS AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION
When scholars refer to groups like the UN or institutions like
the IMF and the World Bank (see Lesson 2), they usually call
them international organizations (IOs). Although international
NGOs are sometimes considered as IOs, the term is
commonly used to refer to international intergovernmental
organizations or groups that are primarily made up of member-
states.
One major fallacy about international organizations is that they
are merely amalgamations of various state interests. In the
1960s and 1970s, many scholars believed that IOs were just
venues where the contradicting, but sometimes intersecting,
agendas of countries were discussed-no more than talk shops.
What has become more evident in recent years, however, is
that IOs can take on lives of their own. For example, as seen in
Lesson 2, the IMF was able to promote a particular form of
economic orthodoxy that stemmed mainly from the beliefs of its
professional economists. IOs can thus become influential as
independent organizations. International relations scholars
Michael N. Barnett and Martha Finnemore listed the following
powers of IOs.
First, IOs have the power of classification. Because 10s can
invent and apply categories, they create powerful global
standards." For example, it is the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) that defines what a refugee is (see Lesson
10 for more). And since states are required to accept refugees
entering their borders, this power to establish identity has
concrete effects.
Second, IOs have the power to fix meanings. This is a broader
function related to the first. Various terms like "security" or
"development" need to be well-defined. States, organizations,
and individuals view IOs as legitimate sources of information.
As such, the meanings they create have effects on various
policies. For example, recently, the United Nations has started
to define security as not just safety from military violence, but
also safety from environmental harm."
Finally, IOs have the power to diffuse norms. Norms are
accepted codes of conduct that may not be strict law, but
nevertheless produce regularity in behavior. IOs do not only
classify and fix meanings; they also spread their ideas across
the world, thereby establishing global standards. Their
MKA | 11
members are, as Barnett and Finnemore emphasized, the
"missionaries" of our time. Their power to diffuse norms stems
from the fact that IOs are staffed with independent
bureaucracies, who are considered experts in various fields.
For example, World Bank economists come to be regarded as
experts in development and thus carry some form of authority.
They can, therefore, create norms regarding the
implementation and conceptualization of development projects.
Because of these immense powers, IOs can be sources of
great good and great harm. They can promote relevant norms
like environmental protection and human rights. But, like other
entrenched bureaucracies, they can become sealed-off
communities that fail to challenge their beliefs. For example,
the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz famously
criticized the IMF for using a "one-size-fits-all" approach when
its economists made recommendations to developing
countries."
THE UNITED NATIONS
Having examined the powers, limitations, and weaknesses of
IOs, the spotlight will now fall on the most prominent IO in the
contemporary world, the United Nations (UN). After the
collapse of the League of Nations at the end of World War II,
countries that worried about another global war began to push
for the formation of a more lasting international league. The
result was the creation of the UN. Although the organization is
far from perfect, it should be emphasized that it has so far
achieved its primary goal of averting another global war. For
this reason alone, the UN should be considered a success.
The UN is divided into five active organs. The General
Assembly (GA) is UN's "main deliberative policymaking and
representative organ." According to the UN charter: "Decisions
on important questions, such as those on peace and security,
admission of new members, and budgetary matters, require a
two-thirds majority of the General Assembly. Decisions on
other questions are done by simple majority. Annually, the
General Assembly elects a GA President to serve a one-year
term of office."" All member states (currently at 193) have
seats in the GA. The Philippines played a prominent role in the
GA's early years when Filipino diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was
elected GA president from 1949-1950.
Although the GA is the most representative organization in the
UN, many commentators consider the Security Council (SC) to
be the most powerful. According to the UN, this body consists
of 15 member states. The GA elects ten of these 15 to two-
year terms. The other five-sometimes referred to as the
Permanent 5 (P5)-are China, France, Russia, the United
Kingdom, and the United States. These states have been
permanent members since the founding of the UN, and cannot
be replaced through election. The SC takes the lead in
determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of
aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle the
act by peaceful means and recommends methods of
adjustment or terms of settlement. In some cases, it can resort
to imposing sanctions or even authorizing the use of force to
maintain or restore international peace and security. Because
of these powers, states that seek to intervene militarily in
another state need to obtain the approval of the SC. With the
SC's approval, a military intervention may be deemed legal.
This is an immense power.
Much attention has been placed on the SC's P5 due to their
permanent seats and because each country holds veto power
over the council's decisions. It only takes one veto vote from a
P5 member to stop an SC action dead in its tracks. In this
sense, the SC is heir to the tradition of "great power"
diplomacy that began with the Metternich/Concert of Europe
system (see the previous lesson). It is especially telling that the
P5 consists of the major to veto any action, rendering the UN
incapable of addressing the crisis. In response, NATO decided
to intervene on its own. Though the NATO intervention was
largely a success, it, nevertheless, left the UN ineffectual.
Today, a similar dynamic is evident in Syria, which is
undergoing a civil war. Russia has threatened to veto any SC
resolution against Syria; thus, the UN has done very little to
stop state-sanctioned violence against opponents of the
government. Since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an ally
of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, the latter has shied away
from any policy that could weaken the legitimacy of the former.
As a result, the UN is again ineffectual amid a conflict that has
led to over 220,000 people dead and 11 million displaced."
Despite these problems, it remains important for the SC to
place a high bar on military intervention. The UN Security
Council has been wrong on issues of intervention, but it has
also made right decisions. When the United States sought to
invade Iraq in 2001, it claimed that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that threatened the
world. However, UN members Russia, China, and France were
unconvinced and vetoed the UN resolution for intervention,
forcing the United States to lead a small "coalition of the
willing" with its allies. It has since been discovered that there
were no weapons of mass destruction, and the invasion of Iraq
has caused problems for the country and the region that last
until today.
CHALLENGES OF THE UNITED NATIONS
CONCLUSION
Global governance is such a complex issue that one can
actually teach an entire course in itself. This lesson has
focused on the IOs and the United Nations in particular.
International organizations are highlighted because they are
the most visible symbols of global governance. The UN, in
particular, is the closest to a world government. What is
important to remember is that international institutions like the
UN are always in a precarious position.
MKA | 12
On the one hand, they are groups of sovereign states. On the
other, they are organizations with their own rationalities and
agendas. It is this tension that will continue to inform the
evolution of these organizations.
However, note that there are many institutions, groups, and
ideas that hold international and global politics together. In
your own time, you may want to explore these topics on your
own.
Lesson 5: A World of Regions
● Countries, Regions, and Globalization
● Non- State Regionalism
● Contemporary Challenges to Regionalism
● Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
Governments, associations, societies, and groups form
regional organizations and/or networks as a way of coping with
the challenges of globalization. Globalization has made people
aware of the world in general, but it has also made Filipinos
more cognizant of specific areas such as Southeast Asia. How,
for instance, did the Philippines come to identify itself with the
Southeast Asian region? Why is it part of a regional grouping
known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN)?
While regionalism is often seen as a political and economic
phenomenon, the term actually encompasses a broader area.
It can be examined in relation to identities, ethics, religion,
ecological sustainability, and health." Regionalism is also a
process, and must be treated as an "emergent, socially
constituted phenomenon."" It means that regions are not
natural or given; rather, they are constructed and defined by
policymakers, economic actors, and even social movements.
This lesson will look at regions as political entities and examine
what brings them together as they interlock with globalization.
The other facets of regionalism will then be explored,
especially those that pertain to identities, ethics, religion,
ecological sustainability, and health. The lesson will conclude
by asking where all these regionalisms are bringing us as
members of a nation and as citizens of the world.
COUNTRIES, REGIONS, AND GLOBALIZATION
Edward D. Mansfield and Helen V. Milner state that economic
and political definitions of regions vary, but there are certain
basic features that everyone can agree on. First, regions are "a
group of countries located in the same geographically specified
area" or are "an amalgamation of two regions [or] a
combination of more than two regions" organized to regulate
and "oversee flows and policy choices." Second, the words
regionalization and regionalism should not be interchanged, as
the former refers to the "regional concentration of economic
flows" while the latter is "a political process characterized by
economic policy cooperation and coordination among
countries."
Countries respond economically and politically to globalization
in various ways. Some are large enough and have a lot of
resources to dictate how they participate in processes of global
integration. China, for example, offers its cheap and huge
workforce to attract foreign businesses and expand trade with
countries it once considered its enemies but now sees as
markets for its goods (e.g., the United States and Japan).
Other countries make up for their small size by taking
advantage of their strategic location. Singapore and
Switzerland compensate for their lack of resources by turning
themselves into financial and banking hubs. Singapore
developed its harbor facilities and made them a first- class
transit port for ships carrying different commodities from Africa,
Europe, the Middle East, and mainland Southeast Asia to
countries in the Asia-Pacific. In most cases, however, countries
form a regional alliance for-as the saying goes- there is
strength in numbers.
Countries form regional associations for several reasons. One
is for military defense. The most widely known defense
grouping is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
formed during the Cold War when several Western European
countries plus the United States agreed to protect Europe
against the threat of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union
responded by creating its regional alliance, the Warsaw Pact,
consisting of the Eastern European countries under Soviet
domination. The Soviet Union imploded in December 1991, but
NATO remains in place.
Countries also form regional organizations to pool their
resources, get better returns for their exports, as well as
expand their leverage against trading partners. The
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
was established in 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,
and Venezuela to regulate the production and sale of oil. This
regional alliance flexed its muscles in the 1970s when its
member countries took over domestic production and dictated
crude oil prices in the world market. In a world highly
dependent on oil, this integration became a source of immense
power. OPEC's success convinced nine other oil- producing
countries to join it."
Moreover, there are countries that form regional blocs to
protect their independence from the pressures of superpower
politics. The presidents of Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, and
Yugoslavia created the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961
to pursue world peace and international cooperation, human
rights, national sovereignty, racial and national equality, non-
intervention, and peaceful conflict resolution. It called itself
non- aligned because the association refused to side with
either the First World capitalist democracies in Western Europe
and North America or the communist states in Eastern Europe.
At its peak, the NAM had 120 member countries. The
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movement, however, was never formalized and continues to
exist up to the present, although it lacks the same fervor that it
had in the past.
Finally, economic crisis compels countries to come together.
The Thai economy collapsed in 1996 after foreign currency
speculators and troubled international banks demanded that
the Thai government pay back its loans. A rapid withdrawal of
foreign investments bankrupted the economy. This crisis
began to spread to other Asian countries as their currencies
were also devalued and foreign investments left in a hurry. The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) tried to reverse the crisis,
but it was only after the ASEAN countries along with China,
Japan, and South Korea agreed to establish an emergency
fund to anticipate a crisis that the Asian economies stabilized.
The crisis made ASEAN more "unified and coordinated." The
Association has come a long way since it was formed as a
coalition of countries which were pro-American and supportive
of the United States intervention in Vietnam. After the Vietnam
War, ASEAN continued to act as a military alliance to isolate
Vietnam after it invaded Cambodia, but there were also the
beginnings of economic cooperation."
NON-STATE REGIONALISM
It is not only states that agree to work together in the name of a
single cause (or causes). Communities also engage in regional
organizing. This "new regionalism" varies in form; they can be
"tiny associations that include no more than a few actors and
focus on a single issue, or huge continental unions that
address a multitude of common problems from territorial
defense to food security."" Organizations representing this
"new regionalism" likewise rely on the power of individuals,
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and associations to
link up with one another in pursuit of a particular goal (or
goals). Finally, "new regionalism" is identified with reformists
who share the same "values, norms, institutions, and system
that exist outside of the traditional, established mainstream
institutions and systems."
Their strategies and tactics likewise vary. Some organizations
partner with governments to initiate social change. Those who
work with governments ("legitimizers") participate in
"institutional mechanisms that afford some civil society groups
voice and influence [in] technocratic policy-making
processes."" For example, the ASEAN issued its Human
Rights Declaration in 2009, but the regional body left it to
member countries to apply .the declaration's principles as they
see fit. Aware that democratic rights are limited in many
ASEAN countries, "new regionalism" organizations used this
official declaration to pressure these governments to pass laws
and regulations that protect and promote human rights.
In South America, left-wing governments support the
Hemispheric Social Alliance's opposition to the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), while members of the Mesa
de Articulación de Asociaciones Nacionales y Redes de ONGs
de América Latina y El Caribe (Roundtable of National
Associations and Networks and NGOs in Latin America and
the Caribbean) participate in "forums, summits, and dialogues
with presidents and ministers." Likewise, a group called the
Citizen Diplomacy Forum tries to influence the policies and
programs of the Organization of American States." In
Southeast Asia, the organization of an ASEAN
Parliamentarians for Human Rights was in part the result of
non-government organizations and civil society groups pushing
to "prevent discrimination, uphold political freedom, and
promote democracy and human rights throughout the region."
Other regional organizations dedicate themselves to
specialized causes. Activists across Central and South
America established the Rainforest Foundation to protect
indigenous peoples and the rainforests in Brazil, Guyana,
Panama, and Peru." Young Christians across Asia, Africa, the
Middle East, the Americas, and the Caribbean formed
Regional Interfaith Youth Networks to promote "conflict
prevention, resolution, peace education, and sustainable
development." The Migrant Forum in Asia is another regional
network of NGOs and trade unions committed to protect[ing]
and promot[ing] the rights and welfare of migrant workers."
These organizations' primary power lies in their moral standing
and their ability to combine lobbying with pressure politics.
Unfortunately, most of them are poorly financed, which places
them at a disadvantage when dealing with their official
counterparts who have large state funds. Their impact in global
politics is, therefore, limited.
New regionalism differs significantly from traditional state- to-
state regionalism when it comes to identifying problems. For
example, states treat poverty or environmental degradation as
technical or economic issues that can be resolved by refining
existing programs of state agencies, making minor changes in
economic policies, and creating new offices that address these
issues. However, new regionalism advocates such as the NGO
Global Forum see these issues as reflections of flawed
economic development and environmental models. By
"flawed," they mean economic development plans that are
market-based, profit-driven, and hardly concerned with social
welfare, especially among the poor.
Another challenge for new regionalists is the discord that may
emerge among them. For example, disagreements surface
over issues like gender and religion, with pro-choice NGOs
breaking from religious civil society groups that side with the
Church, Muslim imams, or governments opposed to
reproductive rights and other pro-women policies." Moreover,
while civil society groups are able to dialogue with
governments, the latter may not be welcoming to this new
trend and set up one obstacle after another. Migrant Forum
Asia and its ally, the Coordination of Action Research on AIDS
(CARAM), lobbied ASEAN governments to defend migrant
labor rights. Their program of action, however, slowed down
once countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand refused
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to recognize the rights of undocumented migrant workers and
the rights of the families of migrants."
CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES TO REGIONALISM
Contemporary Challenges to Regionalism
Today, regionalism faces multiple challenges, the most serious
of which is the resurgence of militant nationalism and
populism. The refusal to dismantle NATO after the collapse of
the Soviet Union, for example, has become the basis of the
anti-NATO rhetoric of Vladimir Putin in Russia. Now, even the
relationship of the United States-the alliance's core member-
with NATO has become problematic after Donald Trump
demonized the organization as simply leeching off American
military power without giving anything in return.
Perhaps the most crisis-ridden regional organization of today is
the European Union. The continuing financial crisis of the
region is forcing countries like Greece to consider leaving the
Union to gain more flexibility in their economic policy. Anti-
immigrant sentiment and a populist campaign against Europe
have already led to the United Kingdom voting to leave the
European Union in a move the media has termed the "Brexit."
ASEAN members continue to disagree over the extent to which
member countries should sacrifice their sovereignty for the
sake of regional stability." The Association's link with East Asia
has also been problematic. Recently, ASEAN countries also
disagreed over how to relate to China, with the Philippines
unable to get the other countries to support its condemnation
of China's occupation of the West Philippine Sea." Cambodia
and Laos led the opposition favoring diplomacy over
confrontation, but the real reason was the dramatic increase of
Chinese investments and economic aid to these countries.
Moreover, when some formerly authoritarian countries
democratized, this "participatory regionalism" clashed with
ASEAN's policy of non-interference, as civil society groups in
Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand demanded that the
other countries democratized adopt a more open attitude
towards foreign criticism."
A final challenge pertains to differing visions of what
regionalism should be for. Western governments may see
regional organizations not simply as economic formations but
also as instruments of political democratization. Non-Western
and developing societies, however, may have a different view
regarding globalization, development, and democracy.
Singapore, China, and Russia see democracy as an obstacle
to the implementation and deepening of economic globalization
because constant public inquiry about economic projects and
lengthy debate slow down implementation or lead to unclear
outcomes. Democracy's tedious procedures must, therefore,
give way to efficiency.
CONCLUSION
Official regional associations now cover vast swaths of the
world. The population of the countries that joined the Asia-
Pacific Economic Council (APEC) alone comprised 37 percent
of the world's population in 2007. These countries are also part
of "smaller" organizations that include the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the
Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, and the Union of South
American Nations. Even "isolationist" North Korea is part of the
Regional Forum, which discusses security issues in the region.
In the same way the countries will find it difficult to reject all
forms of global economic integration, it will also be hard for
them to turn their backs on their regions. Even if the UK leaves
the EU, it must continue to trade with its immediate neighbors
and will, therefore, be forced to implement many EU rules.
None of this is to say that regional organizations will remain
unaltered. The history of regionalism shows that regional
associations emerge as new global concerns arise. The future
of regionalism will be contingent on the immense changes in
global politics that will emerge in the 21" century.
UNIT 2: A WORLD OF IDEAS: CULTURES OF
GLOBALIZATION
Lesson 6: The Globalization of Religion
● Realities
● Religion for and against Globalization
● Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
Religion, much more than culture, has the most difficult
relationship with globalism (remember the distinction between
"globalization" and "globalism" in Lesson 1). First, the two are
entirely contrasting belief systems. Religion is concerned with
the sacred, while globalism places value on material wealth.
Religion follows divine commandments, while globalism abides
by human-made laws. Religion assumes that there is "the
possibility of communication between humans and the
transcendent." This link between the human and the divine
confers some social power on the latter. Furthermore, "God,"
"Allah," or "Yahweh" defines and judges human action in moral
terms (good vs. bad). Globalism's yardstick, however, is how
much of human action can lead to the highest material
satisfaction and subsequent wisdom that this new status
produces.
Religious people are less concerned with wealth and all that
comes along with it (higher social status, a standard of living
similar with that of the rest of the community, exposure to
"culture," top-of-the-line education for the children). They are
ascetics precisely because they shun anything material for
complete simplicity-from their domain to the clothes they wear,
to the food they eat, and even to the manner in which they talk
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(lots of parables and allegories that are supposedly the
language of the divine).
A religious person's main duty is to live a virtuous, sin-less life
such that when he/she dies, he/she is assured of a place in the
other world (ie, heaven).
On the other hand, globalists are less worried about whether
they will end up in heaven or hell. Their skills are more
pedestrian as they aim to seal trade deals, raise the profits of
private enterprises, improve government revenue collections,
protect the elites from being excessively taxed by the state,
and, naturally, enrich themselves. If he/she has a strong social
conscience, the globalist sees his/her work as contributing to
the general progress of the community, the nation, and the
global economic system. Put another way, the religious aspires
to become a saint; the globalist trains to be a shrewd
businessperson. The religious detests politics and the quest for
power for they are evidence of humanity's weakness; the
globalist values them as both means and ends to open up
further the economies of the world.
Finally, religion and globalism clash over the fact that religious
evangelization is in itself a form of globalization. The globalist
ideal, on the other hand, is largely focused on the realm of
markets. The religious is concerned with spreading holy ideas
globally, while the globalist wishes to spread goods and
services.
The "missions" being sent by American Born-Again Christian
churches, Sufi and Shiite Muslim orders, as well as institutions,
like Buddhist monasteries and Catholic, Protestant, and
Mormon churches are efforts at "spreading the word of God"
and gaining adherents abroad. Religions regard identities
associated with globalism (citizenship, language, and race) as
inferior and narrow because they are earthly categories. In
contrast, membership to a religious group, organization, or cult
represents a superior affiliation that connects humans directly
to the divine and the supernatural. Being a Christian, a Muslim,
or a Buddhist places one in a higher plane than just being a
Filipino, a Spanish speaker, or an Anglo-Saxon.
These philosophical differences explain why certain groups
"flee" their communities and create impenetrable sanctuaries
where they can practice their religions without the meddling
and control of state authorities. The followers of the Dalai
Lama established Tibet for this purpose, and certain Buddhist
monasteries are located away from civilization so that hermits
can devote themselves to prayer and contemplation. These
isolationist justifications are also used by the Rizalistas of
Mount Banahaw, the Essenes during Roman-controlled Judea
(now Israel), and for a certain period, the Mormons of Utah.
These groups believe that living among "non-believers" will
distract them from their mission or tempt them to abandon their
faith and become sinners like everyone else.
Communities justify their opposition to government authority on
religious grounds. Priestesses and monks led the first revolts
against colonialism in Asia and Africa, warning that these
outsiders were out to destroy their people's gods and ways of
life. Similar arguments are being invoked by contemporary
versions of these millenarian movements that wish to break
away from the hold of the state or vow to overthrow the latter in
the name of God. To their "prophets," the state seeks to either
destroy their people's sacred beliefs or distort religion to serve
non-religious goals.
REALITIES
In actuality, the relationship between religion and globalism is
much more complicated. Peter Berger argues that far from
being secularized, the "contemporary world is...furiously
religious. In most of the world, there are veritable explosions of
religious fervor, occurring in one form of another in all the
major religious traditions-Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Confucianism (if one wants to
call it a religion)-and in many places in imaginative syntheses
of one or more world religions with indigenous faiths."
Religions are the foundations of modern republics. The
Malaysian government places religion at the center of the
political system. Its constitution explicitly states that "Islam is
the religion of the Federation," and the rulers of each state was
also the "Head of the religion of Islam." The late Iranian
religious leader, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, bragged about
the superiority of Islamic rule over its secular counterparts and
pointed out that "there is no fundamental distinction among
constitutional, despotic, dictatorial, democratic, and
communistic regimes." To Khomeini, all secular ideologies
were the same-they were flawed-and Islamic rule was the
superior form of government because it was spiritual. Yet, Iran
calls itself a republic, a term that is associated with the secular.
Moreover, religious movements do not hesitate to appropriate
secular themes and practices. The moderate Muslim
association Nahdlatul Ulama in Indonesia has Islamic schools
(pesantren) where students are taught not only about Islam but
also about modern science, the social sciences, modern
banking, civil education, rights of women, pluralism, and
democracy." In other cases, religion was the result of a shift in
state policy. The Church of England, for example, was "shaped
by the rationality of modern democratic (and bureaucratic)
culture." King Henry VIII broke away from Roman Catholicism
and established his own Church to bolster his own power. In
the United States, religion and law were fused together to help
build this "modern secular society." It was observed in the early
1800s by French historian and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville
who wrote, "not only do the Americans practice their religion
out of self-interest but they often even place in this world the
interest which they have in practicing it."" Jose Casanova
confirms this statement by noting that "historically, religion has
always been at the very center of all great political conflicts and
movements of social reform. From independence to abolition,
from nativism to women's suffrage, from prohibition to the civil
rights movement, religion had always been at the center of
these conflicts, but also on both sides of the political
MKA | 16
barricades." It remains the case until today with the power the
Christian Right has on the Republican Party
RELIGION FOR AND AGAINST GLOBALIZATION
There is hardly a religious movement today that does not use
religion to oppose "profane" globalization. Yet, two of the so-
called "old world religions"-Christianity and Islam-see
globalization less as an obstacle and more as an opportunity to
expand their reach all over the world. Globalization has "freed"
communities from the "constraints of the nation-state," but in
the process, also threatened to destroy the cultural system that
bind them together. Religion seeks to take the place of these
broken "traditional ties" to either help communities cope with
their new situation or organize them to oppose this major
transformation of their lives." It can provide the groups "moral
codes" that answer problems ranging from people's health to
social conflict to even "personal happiness." Religion is thus
not the "regressive force" that stops or slows down
globalization; it is a "pro-active force" that gives communities a
new and powerful basis of identity. It is an instrument with
which religious people can put their mark in the reshaping of
this globalizing world, although in its own terms.
Religious fundamentalism may dislike globalization's
materialism, but it continues to use "the full range of modern
means of communication and organization" that is associated
with this economic transformation." It has tapped "fast long-
distance transport and communications, the availability of
English as a global vernacular of unparalleled power, the
know-how of modern management and marketing" which
enabled the spread of "almost promiscuous propagation of
religious forms across the globe in all sorts of directions." It is,
therefore, not entirely correct to assume that the proliferation of
"Born-Again" groups, or in the case of Islam, the rise of
movements like Daesh (more popularly known as ISIS, or
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) signals religion's defense
against the materialism of globalization." It is, in fact, the
opposite. These fundamentalist organizations are the result of
the spread of globalization and both find ways to benefit or
take advantage of each other.
While religions may benefit from the processes of globalization,
this does not mean that its tensions with globalist ideology will
subside. Some Muslims view "globalization" as at Trojan horse
hiding supporters of Western values like secularism, liberalism,
or even communism ready to spread these ideas in their areas
to eventually displace Islam." The World Council of Churches-
an association of different Protestant congregations- has
criticized economic globalization's negative effects. It vowed
that "we as churches make ourselves accountable to the
victims of the project of economic globalization," by becoming
the latter's advocates inside and outside "the centers of
power."
The Catholic Church and its dynamic leader, Pope Francis,
likewise condemned globalization's "throw-away culture" that is
"fatally destined to suffocate hope and increase risks and
threats." The Lutheran World Federation 10th Assembly's 292-
page declaration message included economic and feminist
critiques of globalization, sharing the voices of members of the
Church who were affected by globalization, and
contemplations on the different "pastoral and ethical
reflections" that members could use to guide their opposition."
It warns that as a result of globalization: "Our world is split
asunder by forces we often do not understand, but that result
in stark contrasts between those who benefit and those who
are harmed, especially under forces of globalization. Today,
there is also a desperate need for healing from 'terrorism,” its
causes, and fearful reactions to it. Relationships in this world
continue to be ruptured due to greed, injustices, and various
forms of violence."
These advocacies to reverse or mitigate economic
globalization eventually gained the attention of globalist
institutions. In 1998, the World Bank brought in religious
leaders in its discussions about global poverty, leading
eventually to a "cautious, muted, and qualified" collaboration in
2000." Although it only yielded insignificant results (the World
Bank agreed to support some faith-based anti-poverty projects
in Kenya and Ethiopia), it was evident enough that institutional
advocates of globalization could be responsive to the
"liberationist, moral critiques of economic globalization"
(including many writings on "social justice") coming from the
religious."
With the exception of militant Islam, religious forces are well
aware that they are in no position to fight for a comprehensive
alternative to the globalizing status quo. What Catholics call
"the preferential option for the poor" is a powerful message of
mobilization but lacks substance when it comes to working out
a replacement system that can change the poor's condition in
concrete ways." And, of course, the traditionalism of
fundamentalist political Islam is no alternative either. The
terrorism of ISIS is unlikely to create a "Caliphate" governed by
justice and stability. In Iran, the unchallenged superiority of a
religious autocracy has stifled all freedom of expressions,
distorted democratic rituals like elections, and tainted the
opposition."
CONCLUSION
For a phenomenon that "is about everything," it is odd that
globalization is seen to have very little to do with religion. As
Peter Bayer and Lori Beaman observed, "Religion, it seems, is
somehow 'outside' looking at globalization as problem or
potential."" One reason for this perspective is the association
of globalization with modernization, which is a concept of
progress that is based on science, technology, reason, and the
law. With reason, one will have "to look elsewhere than to
moral discourse for fruitful thinking about economic
globalization and religion." Religion, being a belief system that
cannot be empirically proven is, therefore, anathema to
modernization." The thesis that modernization will erode
religious practice is often called secularization theory.
MKA | 17
Historians, political scientists, and philosophers have now
debunked much of secularization theory. Samuel Huntington,
one of the strongest defenders of globalization, admits in his
book, The Clash of Civilizations, that civilizations can be held
together by religious worldviews. This belief is hardly new. As
far back as the 15th century, Jesuits and Dominicans used
religion as an "ideological armature" to legitimize the Spanish
empire." Finally, one of the greatest sociologists of all time,
Max Weber, also observed the correlation between religion
and capitalism as an economic system. Calvinism, a branch of
Protestantism, believed that God had already decided who
would and would not be saved. Calvinists, therefore, made it
their mission to search for clues as to their fate, and in their
pursuit, they redefined the meaning of profit and its acquisition.
This "inner-worldly asceticism"-as Weber referred to this
Protestant ethic-contributed to the rise of modern capitalism."
It was because of "moral" arguments that religious people were
able to justify their political involvement. When the Spaniards
occupied lands in the Americas and the Philippines, it was
done in the name of the Spanish King and of God, "for empire
comes from God alone."" Then over 300 years later, American
President William McKinley claimed "that after a night of prayer
and soul-searching, he had concluded that it was the duty of
the United States 'to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and
civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very
best we could by them. Finally, as explained earlier, religious
leaders have used religion to wield influence in the political
arena, either as outsiders criticizing the pitfalls of pro-
globalization regimes, or as integral members of coalitions who
play key roles in policy decision- makings and the
implementation of government projects.
In short, despite their inflexible features-the warnings of
perdition ("Hell is a real place prepared by Allah for those who
do not believe in Him, rebel against His laws, and reject His
messengers"), the promises of salvation ("But our citizenship is
in Heaven"), and their obligatory pilgrimages (the visits to
Bethlehem or Mecca)-religions are actually quite malleable.
Their resilience has been extraordinary that they have
outlasted secular ideologies (e.g., communism). Globalists,
therefore, have no choice but to accept this reality that religion
is here to stay.
Lesson 7: Media and Globalization
● Media and Its Function
● The Global Village and Cultural Imperialism
● Critiques of Cultural Imperialism
● Social Media and the Creation of Cyber
Ghettoes
● Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
Globalization entails the spread of various cultures. When a
film is made in Hollywood, it is shown not only in the United
States, but also in other cities across the globe. South Korean
rapper Psy's song "Gangnam Style" may have been about a
wealthy suburb in Seoul, but its listeners included millions who
have never been or may never go to Gangnam. Some of them
may not even know what Gangnam is. Globalization also
involves the spread of ideas. For example, the notion of the
rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)
communities is spreading across the world and becoming more
widely accepted. Similarly, the conservative Christian Church
that opposes these rights moves from places like South
America to Korea and to Burundi in Africa.
People who travel the globe teaching and preaching their
beliefs in universities, churches, public forums, classrooms, or
even as guests of a family play a major role in the spread of
culture and ideas. But today, television programs, social media
groups, books, movies, magazines, and the like have made it
easier for advocates to reach larger audiences. Globalization
relies on media as its main conduit for the spread of global
culture and ideas. Jack Lule was then right to ask, "Could
global trade have evolved without a flow of information on
markets, prices, commodities, and more? Could empires have
stretched across the world without communication throughout
their borders? Could religion, music, poetry, film, fiction,
cuisine, and fashion develop as they have without the
intermingling of media and cultures?"
There is an intimate relationship between globalization and
media which must be unraveled to further understand the
contemporary world.
MEDIA AND ITS FUNCTION
Lule describes media as "a means of conveying something
such as a channel of communication."" Technically speaking, a
person's voice is a medium. However, when commentators
refer to "media" (the plural of medium), they mean the
technologies of mass communication. Print media include
books, magazines, and newspapers. Broadcast media involve
radio, film, and television. Finally, digital media cover the
internet and mobile mass communication. Within the category
of internet media, there are the e-mail, internet sites, social
media, and internet-based video and audio.
While it is relatively easy to define the term "media," it is more
difficult to determine what media do and how they affect
societies. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan once declared that
"the medium is the message." He did not mean that ideas
("messages") are useless and do not affect people. Rather, his
statement was an attempt to draw attention to how media, as a
form of technology, reshape societies. Thus, television is not a
simple bearer of messages, it also shapes the social behavior
of users and reorient family behavior. Since it was introduced
in the 1960s, television has steered people from the dining
table where they eat and tell stories to each other, to the living
room where they silently munch on their food while watching
primetime shows. Television has also drawn people away from
other meaningful activities such as playing games or reading
books. Today, the smart phone allows users to keep in touch
MKA | 18
instantly with multiple people at the same time. Consider the
effect of the internet on relationships. Prior to the cellphone,
there was no way for couples to keep constantly in touch, or to
be updated on what the other does all the time. The technology
(medium), and not the message, makes for this social change
possible.
McLuhan added that different media simultaneously extend
and amputate human senses. New media may expand the
reach of communication, but they also dull the users'
communicative capacities. Think about the medium of writing.
Before people wrote things down on parchment, exchanging
stories was mainly done orally. To be able pass stories verbally
from one person to another, storytellers had to have retentive
memories. However, papyrus started becoming more common
in Egypt after the fourth century BCE, which increasingly
meant that more people could write down their stories. As a
result, storytellers no longer had to rely completely on their
memories. This development, according to some philosophers
at the time, dulled the people's capacity to remember.
Something similar can be said about cellphones. On the one
hand, they expand people's senses because they provide the
capability to talk to more people instantaneously and
simultaneously. On the other hand, they also limit the senses
because they make users easily distractible and more prone to
multitasking. This is not necessarily a bad thing; it is merely
change with a trade-off.
The question of what new media enhance and what they
amputate was not a moral or ethical one, according to
McLuhan. New media are neither inherently good nor bad. The
famous writer was merely drawing attention to the historically
and technologically specific attributes of various media.
THE GLOBAL VILLAGE AND CULTURAL
IMPERIALISM
McLuhan used his analysis of technology to examine the
impact of electronic media. Since he was writing around the
1960s, he mainly analyzed the social changes brought about
by television. McLuhan declared that television was turning the
world into a "global village." By this, he meant that, as more
and more people sat down in front of their television sets and
listened to the same stories, their perception of the world would
contract. If tribal villages once sat in front of fires to listen to
collective stories, the members of the new global village would
sit in front of bright boxes in their living rooms.
In the years after McLuhan, media scholars further grappled
with the challenges of a global media culture. A lot of these
early thinkers assumed that global media had a tendency to
homogenize culture. They argued that as global media spread,
people from all over the world would begin to watch, listen to,
and read the same things. This thinking arose at a time when
America's power had turned it into the world's cultural
heavyweight. Commentators, therefore, believed that media
globalization coupled with American hegemony would create a
form of cultural imperialism whereby American values and
culture would overwhelm all others. In 1976, media critic
Herbert Schiller argued that not only was the world being
Americanized, but that this process also led to the spread of
"American" capitalist values like consumerism. "Similarly, for
John Tomlinson, cultural globalization is simply a euphemism
for "Western cultural imperialism" since it promotes
“homogenized, Westernized, consumer culture."
These scholars who decry cultural imperialism, however, have
top-down view of the media, since they are more concerned
with the broad structures that determine media content.
Moreover, their focus on America has led them to neglect other
global flows of information that the media can enable. This
media/cultural imperialism theory has, therefore, been subject
to significant critique.
LOCALIZING THE MATERIAL
If cultural globalization merely entails the spread of a Western
monoculture, what explains the prevalence of regional cultural
trends? For example, the regionalization of culture was a boon
to Filipino telenovelas. From 2000 to 2002, ABS-CBN aired
Pangako sayo starring Jericho Rosales and Kristine Hermosa.
The show soon became a hit in Singapore and Malaysia, and
its two stars became household names. In 2013, Cambodian
TV even purchased the rights to produce its own version of the
show. Until now, Filipino telenovelas like Be Careful with My
Heart find audiences across Southeast Asia.
CRITIQUES OF CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
Proponents of the idea of cultural imperialism fact that media
messages are not just made by producers, they are also
consumed by audiences. In the 1980s, media scholars began
to pay attention to the ways in which audiences understood
and interpreted media messages. The field of audience studies
emphasizes that media consumers are active participants in
the meaning-making process, who view media "texts" (in
media studies, a "text" simply refers to the content of any
medium) through their own cultural lenses. In 1985, Indonesian
cultural critic Ien Ang studied the ways in which different
viewers in the Netherlands experienced watching the American
soap opera Dallas. Through letters from 42 viewers, she
presented a detailed analysis of audience-viewing
experiences. Rather than simply receiving American culture in
a "passive and resigned way," she noted that viewers put "a lot
of emotional energy" into the process and they experienced
pleasure based on how the program resonated with them."
In 1990, Elihu Katz and Tamar Liebes decided to push Ang's
analysis further by examining how viewers from distinct cultural
communities interpreted Dallas. They argued that texts are
received differently by varied interpretive communities because
they derived different meanings and pleasures from these
texts." Thus, people from diverse cultural backgrounds had
their own ways of understanding the show. Russians were
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suspicious of the show's content, believing not only that it was
primarily about America, but that it contained American
propaganda. American viewers believed that the show, though
set in America, was primarily about the lives of the rich.
Apart from the challenge of audience studies, the cultural
imperialism thesis has been belied by the renewed strength of
regional trends in the globalization process. Asian culture, for
example, has proliferated worldwide through the globalization
of media. Japanese brands-from Hello Kitty to the Mario
Brothers to Pokémon-are now an indelible part of global
popular culture. The same can be said for Korean pop (K-pop)
and Korean telenovelas, which are widely successful regionally
and globally. The observation even applies to culinary tastes.
The most obvious case of globalized Asian cuisine is sushi.
And while it is true that McDonald's has continued to spread
across Asia, it is also the case that Asian brands have
provided stiff competition. The Philippines' Jollibee claims to be
the number one choice for fast food in Brunei.
Given these patterns, it is no longer tenable to insist that
globalization is a unidirectional process of foreign cultures
overwhelming local ones. Globalization, as noted in Lesson 1,
will remain an uneven process, and it will produce inequalities.
Nevertheless, it leaves room for dynamism and cultural
change. This is not a contradiction; it is merely a testament to
the phenomenon's complexity.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CREATION OF CYBER
GHETTOES
By now, very few media scholars argue that the world is
becoming culturally homogenous. Apart from the nature of
diverse audiences and regional trends in cultural production,
the internet and social media are proving that the globalization
of culture and ideas can move in different directions. While
Western culture remains powerful and media production is still
controlled by a handful of powerful Western corporations, the
internet, particularly the social media, is challenging previous
ideas about media and globalization.
As with all new media, social media have both beneficial and
negative effects. On the one hand, these forms of
communication have democratized access. Anyone with an
internet connection or smart phone can use Facebook and
Twitter for free. These media have enabled users to be
consumers and producers of information simultaneously. The
democratic potential of social media was most evident in 2011
during the wave of uprisings known as the Arab Spring.
Without access to traditional broadcast media like TV. Activists
opposing authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya
used Twitter to organize and to disseminate information. Their
efforts toppled their respective governments. More recently,
the "women's march" against newly installed US President
Donald Trump began with a tweet from a Hawaii lawyer and
became a national, even global, movement.
The massive protests of the Arab Spring were largely enabled
by social media However, social media also have their dark
side. In the early 2000s, commentators began referring to the
emergence of a "splinternet" and the phenomenon of
"cyberbalkanization" to refer to the various bubbles people
place themselves in when they are online. In the United States,
voters of the Democratic Party largely read liberal websites,
and voters of the Republican Party largely read conservative
websites. This segmentation, notes an article in the journal
Science, has been exacerbated by the nature of social media
feeds, which leads users to read articles, memes, and videos
shared by like-minded friends." As such, being on Facebook
can resemble living in an echo chamber, which reinforces
one's existing beliefs and opinions. This echo chamber
precludes users from listening to or reading opinions and
information that challenge their viewpoints, thus, making them
more partisan and closed-minded.
This segmentation has been used by people in power who are
aware that the social media bubbles can produce a herd
mentality. It can be exploited by politicians with less than
democratic intentions and demagogues wanting to whip up
popular anger. The same inexpensiveness that allows social
media to be a democratic force likewise makes it a cheap tool
of government propaganda. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin
has hired armies of social media "trolls" (paid users who
harass political opponents) to manipulate public opinion
through intimidation and the spreading of fake news." Most
recently, American intelligence agencies established that Putin
used trolls and online misinformation to help Donald Trump win
the presidency-a tactic the Russian autocrat is likely to repeat
in European elections he seeks to influence."
In places across the world, Putin imitators replicate his strategy
of online trolling and disinformation to clamp down on dissent
and delegitimize critical media. Critics of the increasingly
dictatorial regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
are threatened by online mobs of pro-government trolls, who
hack accounts and threaten violence. Some of their responses
have included threats of sexual violence against women."
As the preceding cases show, fake information can spread
easily on social media since they have few content filters.
Unlike newspapers, Facebook does not have a team of editors
who are trained to sift through and filter information. If a news
article, even a fake one, gets a lot of shares, it will reach many
people with Facebook accounts.
This dark side of social media shows that even a seemingly
open and democratic media may be co-opted towards
undemocratic means. Global online propaganda will be the
biggest threat to face as the globalization of media deepens.
Internet media have made the world so interconnected that a
Russian dictator can, for example, influence American
elections on the cheap.
As consumers of media, users must remain vigilant and learn
how to distinguish fact from falsehood in a global media
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landscape that allows politicians to peddle what President
Trump's senior advisers now call "alternative facts." Though
people must remain critical of mainstream media and
traditional journalism that may also operate based on vested
interest, we must also insist that some sources are more
credible than others. A newspaper story that is written by a
professional journalist and vetted by professional editors is still
likely to be more credible than a viral video produced by
someone in his/her bedroom, even if both will have their
biases. People must be able to tell the difference.
CONCLUSION
This lesson showed that different media have diverse effects
on globalization processes. At one point, it seemed that global
television was creating a global monoculture. Now, it seems
more likely that social media will splinter cultures and ideas
into bubbles of people who do not interact. Societies can never
be completely prepared for the rapid changes in the systems of
communication. Every technological change, after all, creates
multiple unintended consequences. Consumers and users of
media will have a hard time turning back the clock. Though
people may individually try to keep out of Facebook or Twitter,
for example, these media will continue to engender social
changes. Instead of fearing these changes or entering a state
of moral panic, everyone must collectively discover ways of
dealing with them responsibly and ethically.
Lesson 8: Global City
● Why Study Global Cities?
● Defining the Global City
● Indicators for Globality
● The challenges of Global Cities
● The Global City and the Poor
● Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
If you had the chance, would you move to New York? Tokyo?
How about Sydney? Chances are many of you would like to
move to these major cities. And if not, you would probably like
to visit them anyway. Some of you might have already traveled
to these cities as tourists or temporary residents. Or maybe
you have heard stories about them. You may have relatives
living there who have described buzzing metropolises, with
forests of skyscrapers and train lines that zigzag on top of each
other. You may likewise have an idea of what these cities look
like based on what you have seen in movies or TV. Do you
remember when downtown Manhattan in New York was
destroyed in a confrontation between the Avengers (Iron Man,
Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, etc.) and aliens?
Not all people have been to global cities, but most know about
them. Their influence extends even to one's imagination. What
are these places? Why are they important? And how are they
relevant to you?
WHY STUDY GLOBAL CITIES?
So far, much of the analysis of globalization in the previous
lessons has looked at how ideas of internationalism shaped
modern world politics. We also examined cultural movements
like K-pop, and how they spread through media like the
internet. What this lesson will emphasize, however, is that
globalization is spatial. This statement means two things.
First, globalization is spatial because it occurs in physical
spaces. You can see it when foreign investments and capital
move through a city, and when companies build skyscrapers.
People who are working in these businesses-or Filipinos
working abroad- start to purchase or rent high-rise
condominium units and better homes. As all these events
happen, more poor people are driven out of city centers to
make way for the new developments.
Second, globalization is spatial because what makes it move is
the fact that it is based in places. Los Angeles, the home of
Hollywood, is where movies are made for global consumption.
The main headquarters of Sony is in Tokyo, and from there,
the company coordinates the sale of its various electronics
goods to branches across the world. In other words, cities act
on globalization and globalization acts on cities. They are the
sites as well as the mediums of globalization. Just as the
internet enables and shapes global forces, so too do cities.
In the years to come, more and more people will experience
globalization through cities. In 1950, only 30 percent of the
world lived in urban areas. By 2014, that number increased to
54 percent. And by 2050, it is expected to reach 66 percent.
This lesson studies globalization through the living
environment of a rapidly increasing number of people.
DEFINING THE GLOBAL CITY
Sociologist Saskia Sassen popularized the term "global city" in
the 1990s. Her criteria for what constitutes a global city were
primarily economic. In her work, she initially identified three
global cities: New York, London, and Tokyo, all of which are
hubs of global finance and capitalism." They are the homes, for
instance, of the world's top stock exchanges where investors
buy and sell shares in major corporations. New York has the
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), London has the Financial
Times Stock Exchange (FTSE), and Tokyo has the Nikkei. The
amount of money traded in these markets is staggering. The
value of shares traded in the NYSE, for example, is $19,300
billion, while that of the shares in the Philippine Stock
Exchange is only $231.3 billion.
Limiting the discussion of global cities to these three
metropolises, however, is proving more and more restrictive.
The global economy has changed significantly since Sassen
wrote her book, and any account of the economic power of
cities today must take note of the latest developments. Recent
commentators have expanded the criteria that Sassen used to
MKA | 21
determine what constitutes a global city. Though it is not as
wealthy as New York, movie-making mecca Los Angeles can
now rival the Big Apple's cultural influence. San Francisco
must now factor in as another global city because it is the
home of the most powerful internet companies-Facebook,
Twitter, and Google. Finally, the growth of the Chinese
economy has turned cities like Shanghai, Beijing. and
Guangzhou into centers of trade and finance. The Chinese
government reopened the Shanghai Stock Exchange in late
1990, and since then, it has grown to become the fifth largest
stock market in the world.
Others consider some cities "global" simply because they are
great places to live in. In Australia, Sydney commands the
greatest proportion of capital. However, Melbourne is
described as Sydney's rival "global city" because many
magazines and lists have now referred to it as the world's
"most livable city"-a place with good public transportation, a
thriving cultural scene, and a relatively easy pace of life.
Defining a global city can thus be difficult. One way of solving
this dilemma is to go beyond the simple dichotomy of global
and non-global. Instead of asking whether or not one city is a
global city (a yes or no question), it is better to ask: In what
ways are cities global and to what extent are they global?
INDICATORS FOR GLOBALITY
So what are the multiple attributes of the global city? The
foremost characteristic is economic power. Sassen remains
correct in saying that economic power largely determines
which cities are global. New York may have the largest stock
market in the world but Tokyo houses the most number of
corporate headquarters (613 company headquarters as
against 217 in New York, its closest competitor)." Shanghai
may have a smaller stock market compared to New York and
Tokyo, but plays a critical role in the global economic supply
chain ever since China has become the manufacturing center
of the world. Shanghai has the world's busiest container port,
moving over 33 million container units in 2013.
Economic opportunities in a global city make it attractive to
talents from across the world. Since the 1970s, many of the top
IT programmers and engineers from Asia have moved to the
San Francisco Bay Area to become some of the key figures in
Silicon Valley's technology boom. London remains a preferred
destination for many Filipinos with nursing degrees.
To measure the economic competitiveness of a city. The
Economist Intelligence Unit has added other criteria like market
size, purchasing power of citizens, size of the middle class,
and potential for growth." Based on these criteria, "tiny"
Singapore is considered Asia's most competitive city because
of its strong market, efficient and incorruptible government, and
livability." It also houses the regional offices of many major
global corporations.
Global cities are also centers of authority. Washington D.C.
may not be as wealthy as New York, but it is the seat of
American state power. People around the world know its major
landmarks: the White House, the Capitol Building (Congress),
the Supreme Court, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington
Monument. Similarly, compared with Sydney and Melbourne,
Canberra is a sleepy town and thus is not as attractive to
tourists. But as Australia's political capital, it is home to the
country's top politicians, bureaucrats, and policy advisors.
The cities that house major international organizations may
also be considered centers of political influence. The
headquarters of the United Nations is in New York, and that of
the European Union is in Brussels. An influential political city
near the Philippines is Jakarta, which is not just the capital of
Indonesia, but also the location of the main headquarters of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Powerful
political hubs exert influence on their own countries as well as
on international affairs. The European Central Bank, which
oversees the Euro (the European Union's currency), is based
in Frankfurt. A decision made in that city can, therefore, affect
the political economy of an entire continent and beyond.
Finally, global cities are centers of higher learning and culture.
A city's intellectual influence is seen through the influence of its
publishing industry. Many of the books that people read are
published in places like New York, London, or Paris. The New
York Times carries the name of New York City, but it is far from
being a local newspaper. People read it not just across
America, but also all over the world. One of the reasons for the
many tourists visiting Boston is because they want to see
Harvard University-the world's top university. Many Asian
teenagers are moving to cities in Australia because of the
leading English-language universities there. Education is
currently Australia's third largest export, just behind coal and
iron ore, and significantly ahead of tourism. In 2015, the
Australian government reported that it made as much as 19.2
billion Australian dollars (roughly 14 billion US dollars) from
education alone.”
We have already explained why Los Angeles, the center of the
American film industry, may be considered a global city. A less
obvious example, however, is Copenhagen, the capital of
Denmark. It is so small that one can tour the entire city by
bicycle in thirty minutes. It is not the home of a major stock
market, and its population is rather homogenous. However,
Copenhagen is now considered one of the culinary capitals of
the world, with its top restaurants incommensurate with its size.
As the birthplace of "New Nordic" cuisine, Copenhagen has set
into motion various culinary trends like foraging the forests for
local ingredients. Similarly, Manchester, England in the 1980s
was a dreary, industrial city. But many prominent post-punk
and New Wave bands-Joy Division, the Smiths, the Happy
Mondays-hailed from this city, making it a global household
name. In Southeast Asia, Singapore (again) is slowly
becoming a cultural hub for the region. It now houses some of
the region's top television stations and news organizations
(MTV Southeast Asia and Channel News Asia). Its various art
MKA | 22
galleries and cinemas also show paintings from artists and
filmmakers, respectively, from the Philippines and Thailand. It
is, in fact, sometimes easier to watch the movie of a Filipino
indie filmmaker in Singapore than it is in Manila!
It is the cultural power of global cities that ties them to the
imagination. Think about how many songs have been written
about New York (Jay Z and Alicia Keys's "Empire State of
Mind," Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York," and numerous
songs by Simon and Garfunkel) and how these references
conjure up images of a place where anything is possible-"a
concrete jungle where dreams are made of," according to
Alicia Keys.
Today, global cities become culturally diverse. In a global city,
one can try cuisines from different parts of the world. Because
of their large Turkish populations, for example, Berlin and
Tokyo offer some of the best Turkish food one can find outside
of Turkey. Manila is not very global because of the dearth of
foreign residents (despite the massive domestic migration), but
Singapore is, because it has a foreign population of 38%,
THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITIES
Global cities conjure up images of fast-paced, exciting,
cosmopolitan lifestyles. But such descriptions are lacking.
Global cities also have their undersides. They can be sites of
great inequality and poverty as well as tremendous violence.
Like the broader processes of globalization, global cities create
winners and losers.
In this section, we list some "pathologies" of the global city,
based on the research of the Chicago Council on Global
Affairs.
Cities can be sustainable because of their density. As Richard
Florida notes: "Ecologists have found that by concentrating
their populations in smaller areas, cities and metros decrease
human encroachment on natural habitats. Denser settlement
patterns yield energy savings; apartment buildings, for
example, are more efficient to heat and cool than detached
suburban houses." Moreover, in cities with extensive public
transportation systems, people tend to drive less and thereby
cut carbon emissions. It is no surprise to learn that, largely
because of the city's extensive train system, New Yorkers have
the lowest per capita carbon footprint in the United States. In
Asia, dense global cities like Singapore and Tokyo also have
relatively low per capita carbon footprints.
Not all cities, however, are as dense as New York or Tokyo.
Some cities like Los Angeles are urban sprawls, with massive
freeways that force residents to spend money on cars and gas.
And while cities like Manila, Bangkok, and Mumbai are dense,
their lack of public transportation and their governments'
inability to regulate their car industries have made them
extremely polluted.
More importantly, because of the sheer size of city populations
across the world, it is not surprising that urban areas consume
most of the world's energy. Cities only cover 2 percent of the
world's landmass, but they consume 78 percent of global
energy, therefore, if carbon emissions must be cut to prevent
global warming, this massive energy consumption in cities
must be curbed. This action will require a lot of creativity. For
example, many food products travel many miles before they
get to major city centers. Shipping this food through trains,
buses, and even planes increases carbon emissions. Will it be
possible to grow more food in cities instead? Solutions like so-
called "vertical farms" built in abandoned buildings (as is
increasingly being done in New York) may lead the way
towards more environmentally sustainable cities. If more food
can be grown with less water in denser spaces, cities will begin
to be greener.
The major terror attacks of recent years have also targeted
cities. Cities, especially those with global influence, are
obvious targets for terrorists due to their high populations and
their role as symbols of globalization that many terrorists
despise. The same attributes that make them attractive to
workers and migrants make them sites of potential terrorist
violence. Only by looking from this perspective will we be able
to understand the 9/11 attacks that brought down the twin
towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and the
November 2015 coordinated attacks in Paris by zealots of the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Now that real estate
magnate Donald Trump is the president of the United States,
security experts believe that properties around the world that
carry his name may be targets of terror attacks. There are
Trump Towers, for example, in places like Istanbul and Manila.
THE GLOBAL CITY AND THE POOR
We have consistently noted that economic globalization has
paved the way for massive inequality. This phenomenon is
thus very pronounced in cities. Some large cities, particularly
those in Scandinavia, have found ways to mitigate inequality
through state- led social redistribution programs. Yet many
cities, particularly those in the developing countries, are sites
of contradiction. In places like Mumbai, Jakarta, and Manila, it
is common to find gleaming buildings alongside massive
shantytowns. This duality may even be seen in rich, urban
cities.
In the outskirts of New York and San Francisco are poor urban
enclaves occupied by African-Americans and immigrant
families who are often denied opportunities at a better life.
Slowly, they are being forced to move farther away from the
economic centers of their cities. As a city attracts more capital
and richer residents, real estate prices go up and poor
residents are forced to relocate to far away but cheaper areas.
This phenomenon of driving out the poor in favor of newer,
wealthier residents is called gentrification.
In Australian cities, poor aboriginal Australians have been most
acutely affected by this process. Once living in public urban
MKA | 23
housing, they were forced to move farther away from city
centers that offer more jobs, more government services, and
better transportation due to gentrification. In France, poor
Muslim migrants are forced out of Paris and have clustered
around ethnic enclaves known as banlieue.
In most of the world's global cities, the middle class is also
thinning out. Globalization creates high-income jobs that are
concentrated in global cities. These high earners, in turn,
generate demand for an unskilled labor force (hotel cleaners,
nannies, maids, waitresses, etc.) that will attend to their
increasing needs. Meanwhile, many middle-income jobs in
manufacturing and business process outsourcing (call centers,
for example) are moving to other countries. This hollowing out
of the middle class in global cities has heightened the
inequality within them. In places like New York, there are high-
rolling American investment bankers whose children are raised
by Filipina maids. A large global city may thus be a paradise
for some, but a purgatory for others.
CONCLUSION
Global cities, as noted in this lesson, are sites and mediums of
globalization. They are, therefore, material representations of
the phenomenon. Through them, we see the best of
globalization; they are places that create exciting fusions of
culture and ideas. They are also places that generate
tremendous wealth. However, they remain sites of great
inequality, where global servants serve global entrepreneurs.
The question of how globalization can be made more just is
partly a question of how people make their cities more just.
UNIT 3: MOVEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY
Lesson 9: Global Demography
● The “Perils” of Overpopulation
● It’s the economy, Not the Babies!
● Women and Reproductive Rights
● The Feminist Perspective
● Population Growth and Food Security
● Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
When couples are asked why they have children, their answers
are almost always about their feelings. For most, having a child
is the symbol of a successful union. It also ensures that the
family will have a successor generation that will continue its
name. The kinship is preserved, and the family's story
continues. A few, however, worry how much strain a child can
bring to the household as he/she "competes" for the parents'
attention, and, in reverse, how much energy the family needs
to shower its love to an additional member. Viewed from
above, however, having or not having children is mainly driven
by economics. Behind the laughter or the tears lies the
question: Will the child be an economic asset or a burden to
the family?
Rural communities often welcome an extra hand to help in crop
cultivation, particularly during the planting and harvesting
seasons. The poorer districts of urban centers also tend to
have families with more children because the success of their
"small family business" depends on how many of their
members can be hawking their wares on the streets. Hence,
the more children, the better it will be for the farm or the small
by-the-street corner enterprises.
Urbanized, educated, and professional families with two
incomes, however, desire just one or two progenies. With each
partner tied down, or committed to his/her respective
professions, neither has the time to devote to having a kid,
much more to parenting. These families also have their sights
on long-term savings plans. They set aside significant parts of
their incomes for their retirement, health care, and the future
education of their child/children.
Rural families view multiple children and large kinship networks
as critical investments. Children, for example, can take over
the agricultural work. Their houses can also become the
"retirement homes" of their parents, who will then proceed to
take care of their grandchildren. Urban families, however, may
not have the same kinship network anymore because couples
live on their own, or because they move out of the farmlands.
Thus, it is usually the basic family unit that is left to deal with
life's challenges on its own.
These differing versions of family life determine the economic
and social policies that countries craft regarding their
respective populations. Countries in the "less developed
regions of the world" that rely on agriculture tend to maintain
high levels of population growth. The 1980 United Nations
report on urban and rural population growth states that "[t]hese
areas contained 85 percent of the world rural population in
1975 and are projected to contain 90 percent by the end of the
[20th) century,"
Since then, global agricultural population has declined. In
2011, it accounted for over 37 percent of the total world
population, compared to the statistics in 1980 in which rural
and urban population percentages were more or less the
same. The blog site "Nourishing the Planet," however, noted
that even as "the agricultural population shrunk as a share of
total population between 1980 and 2011, it grew numerically
from 2.2 billion to 2.6 billion people during this period."
Urban populations have grown, but not necessarily because
families are having more children. It is rather the combination
of the natural outcome of significant migration to the cities by
people seeking work in the "more modern" sectors of society.
This movement of people is especially manifest in the
developing countries where industries and businesses in the
cities are attracting people from the rural areas. This trend has
been noticeable since the 1950s, with the pace accelerating in
MKA | 24
the next half-a-century. By the start of the 21st century, the
world had become "44 percent urban, while the corresponding
figures for developed countries are 52 percent to 75 percent."
International migration also plays a part. Today, 191 million
people live in countries other than their own, and the United
Nations projects that over 2.2 million will move from the
developing world to the First World countries (more on this in
Lesson 11).Countries welcome immigrants as they offset the
debilitating effects of an aging population, but they are also
perceived as threats to the job market because they compete
against citizens for jobs and often have the edge because they
are open to receiving lower wages. Voters' pressure has often
constrained their governments to institute stricter immigration
policies.
THE “PERILS” OF OVERPOPULATION
Development planners see urbanization and industrialization
as indicators of a developing society, but disagree on the role
of population growth or decline in modernization. This lengthy
discussion brings back ideas of British scholar Thomas
Malthus who warned in his 1798 "An Essay on the Principle of
Population" that population growth will inevitably exhaust world
food supply by the middle of the 19th century. Malthus'
prediction was off base, but it was revived in the late 1960s
when American biologist Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne,
wrote The Population Bomb, which argued that overpopulation
in the 1970s and the 1980s will bring about global
environmental disasters that would, in turn, lead to food
shortage and mass starvation." They proposed that countries
like the United States take the lead in the promotion of global
population control in order to reduce the growth rate to zero.
Their recommendations ranged from the bizarre (chemical
castration) to the policy-oriented (taxing an additional child and
luxury taxes on child-related products) to monetary incentives
(paying off men who would agree to be sterilized after two
children) to institution-building (a powerful Department of
Population and Environment).
There was some reason for this fear to persist. The rate of
global population increase was at its highest between 1955
and 1975 when nations were finally able to return to normalcy
after the devastations wrought by World War II. The growth
rate rose from 1.8 percent per year from 1955 to 1975, peaking
at 2.06 percent annual growth rate between 1965 and 1970,
By limiting the population, vital resources could be used for
economic progress and not be "diverted" and "wasted" to
feeding more mouths. This argument became the basis for
government "population control" programs worldwide. In the
mid-20th century, the Philippines, China, and India sought to
lower birth rates on the belief that unless controlled, the free
expansion of family members would lead to a crisis in
resources, which in turn may result in widespread poverty,
mass hunger, and political instability. As early as 1958, the
American policy journal, Foreign Affairs, had already
advocated "contraception and sterilization" as the practical
solutions to global economic, social, and political problems.
While there have been criticisms that challenged this argument
(see the next section), it persists even to this very day. In May
2009, a group of American billionaires warned of how a
"nightmarish" explosion of people was "a potentially disastrous
environmental, social, and industrial threat" to the world.
This worry is likewise at the core of the economist argument for
the promotion of reproductive health. Advocates of population
control contend for universal access to reproductive
technologies (such as condoms, the pill, abortion, and
vasectomy) and, more importantly, giving women the right to
choose whether to have children or not. They see these tools
as crucial to their nation's development. Thus, in Puerto Rico,
reproductive health supporters regard their work as the task of
transforming their "poor country" into a "modern nation."
Finally, politics determine these "birth control" programs.
Developed countries justify their support for population control
in developing countries by depicting the latter as conservative
societies. For instance, population experts blamed the
"irresponsible fecundity" of Egyptians for that nation's run-on
population growth, and the Iranian peasant's "natural" libidinal
tendencies for the same rise in population. From 1920
onwards, the Indian government "marked lower castes,
working poor, and Muslims as hypersexual and hyper-fecund
and hence a drain on national resources." These policy
formulations lead to extreme policies like the forced
sterilization of twenty million "violators" of the Chinese
government's one-child policy. Vietnam and Mexico also
conducted coercive mass sterilization.
IT’S THE ECONOMY, NOT THE BABIES!
The use of population control to prevent economic crisis has its
critics. For example, Betsy Hartmann disagrees with the
advocates of neo-Malthusian theory and accused governments
of using population control as a "substitute for social justice
and much-needed reforms-such land distribution, employment
creation, provision of mass education and health care, and
emancipation." Others pointed out that the population did grow
fast in many countries in the 1960s, and this growth "aided
economic development by spurring technological and
institutional innovation and increasing the supply of human
ingenuity." They acknowledged the shift in population from the
rural to the urban areas (52 percent to 75 percent in the
developing world since the 1950s). They likewise noted that
while these "megacities" are now clusters in which income
disparities along with "transportation, housing, air pollution and,
waste management" are major problems, they also have
become, and continue to be, "centers of economic growth and
activity"
The median of 29.4 years for females and 30.9 for males in the
cities means a young working population. With this median
age, states are assured that they have a robust military force.
According to two population experts:
MKA | 25
"As a country's baby-boom generation gets older, for a time it
constitutes a large cohort group of working-age individuals
and, later a large cohort of elderly people...In all
circumstances, there are reasons to think that this very
dynamic age structure will have economic consequences. A
historically high proportion of working-age individuals in a
population means that, potentially, there are more workers per
dependent than previously. Production can therefore increase
relative to consumption, and GDP capita can receive a boost."
The productive capacities of this generation are especially high
in regions like East Asia as "Asia's remarkable growth in the
past half century coincided closely with demographic change in
the region. As infant mortality fell from 181 to 34 per 1,000
births between 1950 and 2000, fertility fell from six to two
children per woman. The lag between falls in mortality and
fertility created a baby-boom generation: between 1965 and
1990, the region's working-age population grew nearly four
times faster than the dependent population. Several studies
have estimated that this demographic shift was responsible for
one-third of East Asia's economic growth during the period (a
welcome demographic dividend),"
Population growth has, in fact, spurred "technological and
institutional innovation" and increased "the supply of human
ingenuity." Advances in agricultural production have shown
that the Malthusian nightmare can be prevented. The "Green
Revolution" created high-yielding varieties of rice and other
cereals and, along with the development of new methods of
cultivation, increased yields globally, but more particularly in
the developing world. The global famine that neo-Malthusians
predicted did not happen. Instead, between 1950 and 1984
global grain production increased by over 250 percent,
allowing agriculture to keep pace with population growth,
thereby keeping global famine under control.
Lately, a middle ground emerged between these two extremes.
Scholars and policymakers agree with the neo-Malthusians but
suggest that if governments pursue population control
programs, they must include "more inclusive growth" and
"greener economic growth,"
WOMEN AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
The character in the middle of these debates-women-is often
the subject of these population measures. Reproductive rights
supporters argue that if population control and economic
development were to reach their goals, women must have
control over whether they will have children or not and when
they will have their progenies, if any. By giving women this
power, they will be able to pursue their vocations-be they
economic, social, or political-and contribute to economic
growth.
This serial correlation between fertility, family, and fortune has
motivated countries with growing economies to introduce or
strengthen their reproductive health laws, including abortion."
High-income First World nations and fast-developing countries
were able to sustain growth in part because women were given
the power of choice and easy access to reproductive
technologies. In North America and Europe, 73 percent of
governments allow abortion upon a mother's request.
Moreover, the more educated a woman is, the better are her
prospects of improving her economic position. Women can
spend most of the time pursuing either their higher education
or their careers, instead of forcibly reducing this time to take
care of their children.
Most countries implement reproductive health laws because
they worry about the health of the mother. In 1960, Bolivia's
average total fertility rate (TFR) was 6.7 children. In 1978, the
Bolivian government put into effect a family planning program
that included the legalization of abortion (after noticing a spike
in unsafe abortion and maternal deaths). By 1985, the TFR
rate went down to 5.13 and further declined to 3.46 in 2008, a
similar pattern occurred in Ghana after the government
expanded reproductive health laws out of the same concern as
that of the Bolivian government. As a result. "Fertility declined
steeply...and continued to decline [after] 1994. Such examples
seemed to draw the attention of other countries. Thus, in 2014,
the United Nations report noted that the proportion of countries
allowing abortion to preserve the physical health of a woman
increased from 63 percent to 67 percent, and those to preserve
the mental health of a woman increased from 52 percent to 64
percent.
Opponents regard reproductive rights as nothing but a false
front for abortion. They contend that this method of preventing
conception endangers the life of the mother and must be
banned. The religious wing of the anti-reproductive rights flank
goes further and describes abortion as a debauchery that
sullies the name of God; it will send the mother to hell and
prevents a new soul, the baby, to become human. This
position was a politically powerful one partly because various
parts of the developing world remain very conservative.
Unfailing pressure by Christian groups compelled the
governments of Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and
even Russia to impose restrictive reproductive health
programs, including making access to condoms and other
technologies difficult. Muslim countries do not condone
abortion and limit wives to domestic chores and delivering
babies. Senegal only allows abortion when the mother's life is
threatened. The Philippines, with a Catholic majority, now has
a reproductive health law in place, but conservative politicians
have enfeebled it through budget cuts and stalled its
implementation by filing a case against the law in the Supreme
Court.
A country being industrialized and developed, however, does
not automatically assure pro-women reproductive regulations.
In the United States, the women's movement of the 1960s was
responsible for the passage and judicial endorsement of a pro-
choice law, but conservatives controlling state legislatures
have also slowly undermined this law by imposing a restriction
on women's access to abortion. While pro-choice advocates
argue that abortion is necessary to protect the health of the
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mother, their conservative rivals shift the focus on the death of
the fetus in the mother's womb as the reason for reversing the
law. This battle continues to be played out in all the political
arenas in the United States.
THE FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE
Feminists approach the issue of reproductive rights from
another angle. They are, foremost, against any form of
population control because they are compulsory by nature,
resorting to a carrot-and-stick approach (punitive mechanisms
co-exist alongside benefits) that actually does not empower
women. They believe that government assumptions that
poverty and environmental degradation are caused by
overpopulation are wrong. These factors ignore other equally
important causes like the unequal distribution of wealth, the
lack of public safety nets like universal health care, education,
and gender equality programs. Feminists also point out that
there is very little evidence that point to overpopulation as the
culprit behind poverty and ecological devastation.
Governments have not directly responded to these criticisms,
but one of the goals of 1994 United Nations International
Conference on Population and Development suggests
recognition of this issue. Country representatives to that
conference agreed that women should receive family planning
counseling on abortion, the dangers of sexually transmitted
diseases, the nature of human sexuality, and the main
elements of responsible parenthood. However, the conference
also left it to the individual countries to determine how these
recommendations can be turned into programs. Hence,
globally, women's and feminist arguments on reproductive
rights and overpopulation are acknowledged, but the struggle
to turn them into policy is still fought at the national level. It is
the dilemma that women and feminist movements face today.
POPULATION GROWTH AND FOOD SECURITY
Today's global population has reached 7.4 billion, and it is
estimated to increase to 9.5 billion in 2050, then 11.2 billion by
2100. The median age of this population is 30.1, with the male
median age at 29.4 years and female, 30.9 years.
Ninety-five percent of this population growth will happen in the
developing countries, with demographers predicting that by the
middle of this century, several countries will have tripled their
population. The opposite is happening in the developed world
where populations remain steady in general, but declining in
some of the most advanced countries (Japan and Singapore).
However, this scenario is not a run-off that could get out of
control. Demographers predict that the world population will
stabilize by 2050 to 9 billion, although they warn that feeding
this population will be an immense challenge.
The decline in fertility and the existence of a young productive
population, however, may not be enough to offset this concern
over food security. The Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) warns that in order for countries to mitigate the impact of
population growth, food production must increase by 70
percent; annual cereal production must rise to 3 billion tons
from the current 2.1 billion; and yearly meat production must
go up to 200 million tons to reach 470 million. The problem
here is that the global rate of growth of cereals had declined
considerably --from 3.2 percent in 1960 to just 1.5 percent in
2000.
The FAO recommends that countries increase their
investments in agriculture, craft long-term policies aimed at
fighting poverty, and invest in research and development. The
UN body also suggests that countries develop a
comprehensive social service program that includes food
assistance, consistent delivery of health services, and
education especially for the poor. If domestic production is not
enough, it becomes essential for nations to import. The FAO,
therefore, enjoins governments to keep their markets open,
and to eventually "move towards a global trading system that is
fair and competitive, and that contributes to a dependable
market for food."
The aforementioned are worthy recommendations but nation-
states shall need the political will to push through these
sweeping changes in population growth and food security. This
will take some time to happen given that good governance is
also a goal that many nations, especially in the developing
world, have yet to attain.
CONCLUSION
Demography is a complex discipline that requires the
integration of various social scientific data. As you have seen,
demographic changes and policies have impacts on the
environment, politics, resources, and others. Yet, at its core,
demography accounts for the growth and decline of the human
species. It may be about large numbers and massive effects,
but it is ultimately about people. Thus, no interdisciplinary
account of globalization is complete without an accounting of
people. The next lesson will continue on this theme of
examining people, and will focus particularly on their global
movement.
Lesson 10: Global Migration
● What is Migration?
● Benefits and Detriments for the sending
Countries
● The Problem of Human Trafficking
● Integration
INTRODUCTION
This lesson will look at global migration and its impact on both
the sending and receiving countries. Although we will cite
numerous challenges relating to migration, migration should
not be considered a "problem." There is nothing moral or
immoral about moving from one country to another. Human
MKA | 27
beings have always been migratory. It is the result of their
movements that areas get populated, communities experience
diversity, and economies prosper. Thus, rather than looking at
migration in terms of a simplistic good vs. bad lens, treat it as a
complex social phenomenon that even predates contemporary
globalization.
WHAT IS MIGRATION
There are two types of migration: internal migration, which
refers to people moving from one area to another within one
country; and international migration, in which people cross
borders of one country to another. The latter can be further
broken down into five groups. First are those who move
permanently to another country (immigrants). The second
refers to workers who stay in another country for a fixed period
(at least 6 months in a year), 152 Illegal migrants comprise the
third group, while the fourth are migrants whose families have
"petitioned" them to move to the destination county. The fifth
group are refugees (also known as asylum-seekers), i.e., those
"unable or unwilling to return because of a well-founded fear of
persecution on account of race, religion, nationality,
membership in a particular social group, or political opinion."
Demographers estimate that 247 million people are currently
living outside the countries of their birth. Ninety percent of them
moved for economic reasons while the remaining 10 percent
were refugees and asylum-seekers. The top three regions of
origin are Latin America (18 percent of global total), followed
by Eastern Europe and Central Asia (16 percent), and the
Middle East and North Africa (14 percent). On a per country
basis, India, Mexico, and China are leading, with the
Philippines, together with Afghanistan, only ranking 6th in the
world. The top 10 country destinations of these migrants are
mainly in the West and the Middle East, with the United States
topping the list.
Fifty percent of global migrants have moved from the
developing countries to the developed zones of the world and
contribute anywhere from 40 to 80 percent of their labor force.
Their growth has outstripped the population growth in the
developed countries (3 percent versus only 0.6 percent), such
that today, according to the think-tank McKinsey Global
Institute, "first-generation immigrants constitute 13 percent of
the population in Western Europe, 15 percent in North
America, and 48 percent in the GCC countries." The majority of
migrants remain in the cities. The percentages of migrants in
cities are 92 percent in the United States, 95 percent in the
United Kingdom, and 99 percent in Australia. Once settled,
they contribute enormously to raising the productivity of their
host countries (Table 1).
Table 1. Migrant Contribution to Destination Country in dollars
and as percentage of national GDP, 2015
COUNTRY CONTRIBUTION % OF GDP
United States $ 2 Trillion 11 percent
Germany $ 550 Billion 17 percent
United Kingdom $ 390 Billion 14 percent
Australia $ 330 Billion 25 percent
Canada $ 320 Billion 21 percent
The migrant influx has led to a debate in destination countries
over the issue of whether migrants are assets or liabilities to
national development. Anti-immigrant groups and nationalists
argue that governments must control legal immigration and put
a stop to illegal entry of foreigners. Many of these anti-
immigrant groups are gaining influence through political
leaders who share their beliefs. Examples include US
President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May,
who have been reversing the existing pro-immigration and
refugee-sympathetic policies of their states. Most recently,
Trump attempted to ban travel into the United States of people
from majority-Muslim countries, even those with proper
documentation. He also continues to speak about his election
promise of building a wall between the United States and
Mexico.
The wisdom of these government actions has been
consistently belied by the data. A 2011 Harvard Business
School survey on the impact of immigration concluded that the
"likelihood and magnitude of adverse labor market effects for
native from immigration are substantially weaker than often
perceived." The fiscal impact of immigration on social welfare
was noted to be "very small." Furthermore, the 2013 report on
government welfare spending by Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) clearly shows that
native-born citizens still receive higher support compared to
immigrants.
The massive inflow of refugees from Syria and Iraq has raised
alarm bells once again, but has not proved to be as damaging
as expected. The International Monetary Fund predicted that
the flow of refugees fleeing the war in Syria and Iraq would
actually grow Europe's GDP, albeit "modestly." In Germany,
the inflow of refugees from the Middle East has not affected
social welfare programs, and had very little impact on wages
and employment. In fact, they have brought much-needed
labor to the economy instead.
BENEFITS AND DETRIMENTS FOR THE SENDING
COUNTRIES
Even if 90 percent of the value generated by migrant workers
remains in their host countries, they have sent billions back to
their home countries (in 2014, their remittances totaled $580
billion). In 2014, India held the highest recorded remittance
($70 billion), followed by China ($62 billion), the Philippines
($28 billion), and Mexico ($25 billion). These remittances make
significant contributions to the development of small- and
MKA | 28
medium-term industries that help generate jobs. Remittances
likewise change the economic and social standing of migrants,
as shown by new or renovated homes and their relatives'
access to new consumer goods. The purchasing power of a
migrant's family doubles and makes it possible for children to
start or continue their schooling,
Yet, there remain serious concerns about the economic
sustainability of those reliant on migrant monies. The Asian
Development Bank (ADB) observes that in countries like the
Philippines, remittances "do not have a significant influence on
other key items of consumption or investment such as
spending on education and health care." Remittances,
therefore, may help in lifting "households out of poverty...but
not in rebalancing growth, especially in the long run."
More importantly, global migration is "siphoning... qualified
personnel, [and] removing dynamic young workers."
This process has often been referred to as "brain drain."
According again to the McKinsey Global Institute, countries in
sub-Saharan Africa and Asia have lost one-third of their
college graduates. Sixty percent of those who moved to OECD
destinations were college graduates, compared to just 9
percent of the overall population in the country. Fifty-two
percent of Filipinos who leave for work in the developed world
have tertiary education, which is more than double the 23
percent of the overall Filipino population.
Furthermore, the loss of professionals in certain key roles,
such as doctors, has been detrimental to the migrants' home
countries. In 2006, some 15 percent of locally trained doctors
from 21 sub-Saharan African countries had emigrated to the
United States or Canada; the losses were particularly steep in
Liberia (where 43 percent of doctors left), Ghana (30 percent),
and Uganda (20 percent).
Governments are aware of this long-term handicap, but have
no choice but to continue promoting migrant work as part of
state policy because of the remittances' impact on GDP. They
are equally "concerned with generating jobs for an under-
utilized workforce and in getting the maximum possible inflow
of worker remittances." Governments are thus actively involved
in the recruitment and deployment of works, some of them
setting up special departments like the Bureau of Manpower,
Employment and Training in Bangladesh; the Office of the
Protector of Emigrants within the Indian Labor Ministry; and the
Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA). The
sustainability of migrant-dependent economies will partially
depend on the strength of these institutions.
THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
On top of the issue of brain drain, sending states must likewise
protect migrant workers. The United States Federal Bureau of
Investigation lists human trafficking as the third largest criminal
activity worldwide. In 2012, the International Labour
Organization (ILO) identified 21 million men, women, and
children as victims of "forced labor," an appalling three out
every 1,000 persons worldwide. Ninety percent of the victims
(18.7 million) are exploited by private enterprises and
entrepreneurs: 22 percent (4.5 million) are sexually abused;
and 68 percent (14.2 million) work under compulsion in
agricultural, manufacturing, infrastructure, and domestic
activities. Human trafficking has been very profitable, earning
syndicates, smugglers, and corrupt state officials profits of as
high as $150 billion a year in 2014. Governments, the private
sector, and civil society groups have worked together to
combat human trafficking, yet the results remain uneven.
INTEGRATION
A final issue relates to how migrants interact with their new
home countries. They may contribute significantly to a host
nation's GDP, but their access to housing, health care, and
education is not easy. There is, of course, considerable
variation in the economic integration of migrants. Migrants from
China, India, and Western Europe often have more success,
while those from the Middle East, North Africa, and sub-
Saharan Africa face greater challenges in securing jobs. In the
United States and Singapore, there are blue-collar as well as
white-collar Filipino workers (doctors, engineers, even
corporate executives), and it is the professional, white-collar
workers that have oftentimes been easier to integrate.
Democratic states assimilate immigrants and their children by
granting them citizenship and the rights that go with it
(especially public education). However, without a solid support
from their citizens, switching citizenship may just be a
formality. Linguistic difficulties, customs from the "old country,"
and, of late, differing religions may create cleavages between
migrants and citizens of receiving countries, particularly in the
West. The latter accuse migrants of bringing in the culture from
their home countries and amplifying differences in linguistic
and ethnic customs. Crucially, the lack of integration gives
xenophobic and anti-immigrant groups more ammunition to
argue that these "new citizens are often not nationals (in the
sense of sharing the dominant culture),
Migrants unwittingly reinforce the tension by "keeping among
themselves." The first-time migrant's anxiety at coming into a
new and often "strange" place is mitigated by "local networks
of fellow citizens" that serve as the migrant's safety net from
the dislocation of uprooting oneself. For instance, the Chinese
Consolidated Benevolent Association of California provides
initial support for new Chinese migrants, guiding them in
finding work or in setting up their small businesses (restaurants
and laundromats) in the state and elsewhere. The drawback of
these networks is that instead of facilitating integration, they
exacerbate differences and discrimination.
Governments and private businesses have made policy
changes to address integration problems, like using multiple
languages in state documents (in the case of the United
States, Spanish and English). Training programs
complemented with counseling have also helped migrant
MKA | 29
integration in Hamburg, Germany, while retail merchants in
Barcelona have brought in migrant shopkeepers to break down
language barriers while introducing Chinese culture to citizens.
Whether these initiatives will succeed or not remains an open
question.
CONCLUSION
Global migration entails the globalization of people. And like
the broader globalization process, it is uneven. Some migrants
experience their movement as a liberating process. A highly
educated professional may find moving to another country
financially rewarding. At the other end, a victim of sex
trafficking may view the process of migration as dislocating and
disempowering.
Like globalization, moreover, migration produces different and
often contradictory responses. On the one hand, many richer
states know that migrant labor will be beneficial for their
economies. With their aging populations, Japan and Germany
will need workers from demographically young countries like
the Philippines. Similarly, as working populations in countries
like the United States move to more skilled careers, their
economies will require migrants to work jobs that their local
workers are beginning to reject. And yet, despite these
benefits, developed countries continue to excessively limit and
restrict migrant labor. They do so for numerous factors already
mentioned. Some want to preserve what they perceive as local
culture by shielding it from newcomers. Other states use
migrants as scapegoats, blaming them for economic woes that
are, in reality, caused by government policy and not by
foreigners.
Yet, despite these various contradictions, it is clear that
different forms of global interdependence will ensure that
global migration will continue to be one of the major issues in
the contemporary world. Countries whose economies have
become entirely dependent on globalization and rely on foreign
labor to continue growing (e.g. Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and
even protectionist Japan) will actively court foreign workers.
Likewise, countries like the Philippines with an abundance of
labor and a need for remittances will continue to send these
workers.
Hence, it is inevitable that countries will have to open up again
to prevent their economies from stagnating or even collapsing.
The various responses to these movements-xenophobia and
extreme nationalism in the receiving countries; dependency in
the sending countries will continue to be pressing issues.
Lesson 11: Environmental Crisis and Sustainable
Development
● The World’s Leading Environmental Problems
● Man-Made Pollution
● “Catching Up”
● Climate Change
● Combating Global Warming
● Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
If you live in Metropolitan Manila and travel to school (or to
work) every day, the moment you step out of your home, you
are already exposed to the most serious problem humanity
faces today: the deteriorating state of the environment. As you
walk out of the gate, the fetid smell of uncollected garbage hits
you and you go near the trash bin, curious about what is
causing the smell. You see rotting vegetables, a dead rat, and
a bunch of whatnot packed in plastic. These three "wastes" are
already indicative of some environmental problems-the
vegetables ought to be added to a compost pile; the rat either
buried or burned (to also get rid of the lice that might jump into
the hair of the children playing nearby); and the plastics
washed and recycled because, unlike the other two wastes, it
cannot decompose.
You hop on the first bus and as it approaches Epifanio de los
Santos Avenue (EDSA), the traffic slows down considerably. It
is the normal Manila morning traffic where, as the joke goes,
the turtle can outpace even the fastest of motor vehicles. You
look out of the window and see the smoke coming out of diesel
vehicles, and as you lift your head up to the sky, you see
nothing but smog courtesy of the cars and buses, as well as
the coal plant and several industrial sites located alongside the
Pasig River. You notice the oil spots on the river, not to
mention the tons of effluents (human) and non-human wastes)
floating alongside each other. In the city you live in, there is a
dying river, an increasingly poisonous sky, an enormous
amount of waste, and a declining quality of life.
It is at this point that you recognize the ecological crisis
happening around you, and how the deterioration of the
environment has destabilized populations and species, raising
the specter of extinction for some and a lesser quality of life for
the survivors and their offspring.
THE WORLD’S LEADING ENVIROMENTAL
PROBLEMS
The Conserve Energy Future website lists the following
environmental challenges that the world faces today,
1. The depredation caused by industrial and transportation
toxins and plastic in the ground; the defiling of the sea, rivers,
and water beds by oil spills and acid rain; the dumping of urban
waste.
2. Changes in global weather patterns (flash floods, extreme
snowstorms, and the spread of deserts) and the surge in
ocean and land temperatures leading to a rise in sea levels (as
the polar ice caps melt because of the weather), plus the
flooding of many lowland areas across the world
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3. Overpopulation (see Lesson 9)
4. The exhaustion of the world's natural non-renewable
resources from oil reserves to minerals to potable water
5. A waste disposal catastrophe due to the excessive amount
of waste (from plastic to food packages to electronic waste)
unloaded by communities in landfills as well as on the ocean;
and the dumping of nuclear waste
6. The destruction of million-year-old ecosystems and the loss
of biodiversity (destruction of the coral reefs and massive
deforestation) that have led to the extinction of particular
species and the decline in the number of others
7. The reduction of oxygen and the increase in carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere because of deforestation, resulting in the
rise in ocean acidity by as much as 150 percent in the last 250
years
8. The depletion of the ozone layer protecting the planet from
the sun's deadly ultraviolet rays due to chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) in the atmosphere
9. Deadly acid rain as a result of fossil fuel combustion, toxic
chemicals from erupting volcanoes, and the massive rotting
vegetables filling up garbage dumps or left on the streets
10. Water pollution arising from industrial and community
waste residues seeping into underground water tables, rivers,
and seas
11. Urban sprawls that continue to expand as a city turns into a
megalopolis, destroying farmlands, increasing traffic gridlock,
and making smog cloud a permanent urban fixture (see
Lesson 8)
12. Pandemics and other threats to public health arising from
wastes mixing with drinking water, polluted environments that
become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and disease carrying
rodents, and pollution
13. A radical alteration of food systems because of genetic
modifications in food production
Many of these problems are caused by natural changes.
Volcanic eruptions release toxins in the atmosphere and lower
the world's temperature. The US Geological Survey measured
the gas emissions from the active Kilauea volcano in Hawaii
and concluded "that Kilauea has been releasing more than
twice the amount of noxious sulfur dioxide gas (SO) as the
single dirtiest power plant on the United States mainland." The
15 million tons of sulfur dioxide that were released when Mount
Pinatubo erupted on June 15, 2001 created a "hazy layer of
aerosol particles composed primarily of sulfuric acid droplets"
that brought down the average global temperature by 0.6
degrees Celsius for the next 15 months. Volcanologists at the
University of Hawaii added that Pinatubo had released "15 to
20 megaton...of [sulfur dioxide] into the stratosphere...to offset
the present global warming trends and severely impact the
ozone budget."
MAN-MADE POLLUTION
Humans exacerbate other natural environmental problems. In
Saudi Arabia, sandstorms combined with combustion exhaust
from traffic and industrial waste has lead the World Health
Organization (WHO) to declare Riyadh as one of the most
polluted cities in the world. It is this "human contribution" that
has become an immediate cause of worry. Coal fumes coming
out of industries and settling down in surrounding areas
contaminated 20 percent of China's soil, with the rice lands in
Hunan and Zhuzhou found to have heavy metals from the
mines, threatening the food supply.
Greenpeace India reported that in 2015, air pollution in the
untry was at its worst, aggravated by the Indian government's
inadequate monitoring system (there are only 17 national air
quality networks covering 89 cities across the continent!),
Furthermore, 94 percent of Nigeria's population is exposed to
air pollution that the WHO warned as reaching dangerous
levels, while Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, is the 7 most
polluted city in the world. The emission of aerosols and other
gases from car exhaust, burning of wood or garbage, indoor-
cooking, and diesel-fueled electric generators, and
petrochemical plants are projected to quadruple by 2030,
Waste coming out of coal, copper, and gold mines flowing out
into the rivers and oceans is destroying sea life or permeating
the bodies of those which survived with poison (mercury in
tuna, prominently). The biggest copper mine in Malanjkhand in
India discharges high levels of toxic heavy metals into water
streams, while in China, the "tailings" from the operations of
the Shanxi Maanqiao Ecological Mining Ltd., producing 12,000
tons of gold per year, "have caused pollution and safety
problems." Conditions in China have become very critical as
the "toxic by- products of production processes...are being
produced much more rapidly than the Earth can absorb."
Meanwhile, for over a century, coal mines in West Virginia
have pumped "chemical- laden wastewater directly into the
ground, where it can leech into the water table and turn what
had been drinkable...water into a poisonous cocktail of
chemicals." The system "goes back generations and could
soon render much of the state's water undrinkable."
Pollution in West Africa has affected "the atmospheric
circulation system that controls everything from wind and
temperature to rainfall across huge swathes of the region." The
Asian monsoon, in turn, had become the transport of polluted
air into the stratosphere, and scientists are now linking Pacific
storms to the spread of pollution in Asia. Aerosol is tagged the
culprit in changing rainfall patterns in Asia and the Atlantic
Ocean. These climatic disruptions have similarly caused
drought all over Asia and Africa and accelerated the pace of
desertification in certain areas. Twenty years ago, there were
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over 50,000 rivers in China. In 2013, as a result of climate
change, uncontrolled urban growth, and rapid industrialization,
28,000 of these rivers had disappeared.
People's health has been severely compromised. An archived
article in the journal Scientific American blamed the pollution
for "contributing to more than half a million premature deaths
each year at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars." The
International Agency for Research on Cancer blamed air
pollution for 223,000 lung cancer deaths in 2010. In Indonesia
and Malaysia, the link between forest fires and mortality had
been well-established. The aforementioned coal mining in
West Virginia (mentioned above) has also made people sick,
some with "rare cancers, little kids with kidney stones [and]
premature deaths," and children born with congenital
disabilities and adults having shorter life expectancy.
It has been the poor who are most severely affected by these
environmental problems. Their low income and poverty already
put them at a disadvantage by not having the resources to
afford good health care, to live in unpolluted areas, to eat
healthy food, etc. In the United States, a Yale University
research team studying areas with high levels of pollution
observed that the "greater the concentration of Hispanics,
Asians, African-Americans, or poor residents in an area, the
more likely that dangerous compounds such as vanadium,
nitrates, and zinc are in the mix of fine particles they breathe."
In India, studies on adults health revealed that 46% in Delhi
and 56% of in Calcutta have "impaired lung function" due to air
pollution. In China, the toxicity of the soil has raised concerns
over food security and the health of the most vulnerable,
especially the peasant communities and those living in factory
cities. In 2006, 160 acres of land in Xinma, China was badly
poisoned by cadmium. Two people died and 150 were known
to be poisoned; the entire village was abandoned. Hong Kong
faces the same problem.20
In Metropolitan Manila, 37 percent (4 million people) of the
population live in slum communities, areas where "[t]he effects
of urban environmental problems and threats of climate
change are also most pronounced...due to their hazardous
location, poor air pollution and solid waste management, weak
disaster risk management, and limiting coping strategies of
households." Marife Ballesteros concludes that this unhealthy
environment "deepens poverty, increases the vulnerability of
both the poor and non-poor living in slums, and excludes the
slum poor from growth.
One of the major ironies of urban pollution is that the
necessities that the poor has access to be also the sources of
the problem. The main workhorse of the public transport
system is the bus. However, because it runs mainly on diesel
fuel, it is now considered "one of the largest contributors to
environmental pollution problems worldwide." This problem is
expected to worsen as the middle classes and the elites buy
more cars and as the road systems are improved to give
people more chance to travel.
The other mode of transportation that the poor can afford is the
motorbike (also called the two- and three-wheeled vehicles).
According to the Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi,
India, "two-wheelers form a staggering 75%-80% of the traffic
in most Asian cities." Motorbikes burn oil and gasoline and
"emit more smoke, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and
particulate matter than the gas-only four-stroke engines found
in newer motorcycles." Finally, adding to this predicament is
the proliferation of diesel-run cars. These vehicles usually
command a lower price because of their durability and low
operating cost, and hence affordable to the middle class.
However, they also release four times the toxic pollution as the
buses.
“CATCHING UP”
These massive environmental problems are difficult to resolve
because governments believe that for their countries to
become fully developed, they must be industrialized,
urbanized, and inhabited by a robust middle class with access
to the best of modern amenities. A developed society,
accordingly, must also have provisions for the poor-jobs in the
industrial sector, public transport system, and cheap food.
Food depends on a country's free trade with other food
producers. It also relies on a "modernized" agricultural sector
in which toxic technologies (such as fertilizers or pesticides)
and modified crops (e.g., high-yielding varieties of rice) ensure
maximized productivity.
The model of this ideal modern society is the United States
which, until the 1970s, was a global economic power, with a
middle class that was the envy of the world." The United
States, however, did not reach this high point without serious
environmental consequences. To this very day, it is "the worst
polluter in the history of the world," responsible for 27 percent
of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Sixty percent of the
carbon emission comes from cars and other vehicles plying
American highways and roads, the rest from smoke and soot
from coal factories, forest fires, as well as methane released by
farms and breakdown of organic matter, paint, aerosol, and
dust."
These ecological consequences, however, are far from the
mind of countries like China, India, and Indonesia, which are
now in the midst of a frenzied effort to achieve and sustain
economic growth to catch up with the West. In the "desire to
develop and improve the standard of living of their citizens,
these countries will opt for the goals of economic growth and
cheap energy," which, in turn, would "encourage energy over-
consumption, waste, and inefficiency and also fuel
environmental pollution." With their industrial sector still having
a small share of the national wealth, these countries will be
using first their natural resources like coal, oil, forest and
agricultural products, and minerals to generate a national kitty
that could be invested in industrialization.
These "extractive" economies, however, are "terminal"
economies. Their resources, which will be eventually depleted,
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are also sources of pollution. In Nigeria, Niger Delta oil
companies have "caused substantial land, water, and air
pollution." Nigeria is caught in a bind. If it wants "to maintain its
current economic growth path and sustain its drive for poverty
reduction, [the very polluting] oil exploration and production will
continue to be a dominant economic activity." If the United
States lets its environment suffer to achieve modernity and
improve the lives of its people, developing countries see no
reason, and therefore, why they could not sacrifice the
environment in the name of progress.
This issue begs the question: How is environmental
sustainability ensured while simultaneously addressing the
development needs of poor countries?
CLIMATE CHANGE
Governments have their own environmental problems to deal
with, but these states' ecological concerns become worldwide
due to global warming, which transcends national boundaries.
Global warming is the result of billions of tons of carbon dioxide
(coming from coal-burning power plants and transportation),
various air pollutants, and other gases accumulating in the
atmosphere. These pollutants trap the sun's radiation causing
the warming of the earth's surface. With the current amount of
carbon dioxide and other gases, this "greenhouse effect" has
sped up the rise in the world temperature. There is now a
consensus that the global temperature has risen at a faster
rate in the last 50 years and it continues to go up despite
efforts by climate change deniers that the world had cooled off
in and around 1998.”
The greenhouse effect is responsible for recurring heat waves
and long droughts in certain places, as well as for heavier
rainfall and devastating hurricanes and typhoons in others.
Until recently, California had experienced its worst water
shortage in 1,200 years due to global warming. This changed
recently when storms brought rain in the drought-stricken
areas. The result, however, is that the state is having some of
its worst flashfloods in the 21" century. In India and Southeast
Asia, global warming altered the summer monsoon patterns,
leading to intermittent flooding that seriously affected food
production and consumption as well as infrastructure networks.
Category 4 or 5 typhoons, like the Super Typhoon Haiyan that
hit the central Philippines in 2013, had "doubled and even
tripled in some areas of the (Southeast Asian) basin. Scientists
claim that there will be more [of such] typhoons in the coming
years." In the eastern United States, the number of storms had
also gone up, with Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Hurricane
Sandy (2012) being the worst.
Glaciers are melting every year since 2002, with Antarctica
losing 134 billion metric of ice. There is coastal flooding not
only in the United States eastern seaboard but also in the Gulf
of Mexico. Coral reefs in the Australian Great Barrier Reef are
dying and the production capacities of farms and fisheries have
been affected. Flooding has allowed more breeding grounds
for disease carriers like the Aedes aegypti mosquito and the
cholera bacteria.
Since human-made climate change threatens the entire world,
it is possibly the greatest present risk to humankind.
COMBATING GLOBAL WARMING
More countries are now recognizing the perils of global
warming. In 1997, 192 countries signed the Kyoto Protocol to
reduce greenhouse gases, following the 1992 United Nations
Earth Summit where a Framework Convention for Climate
Change was finalized. The protocol set targets but left it to the
individual countries to determine how best they would achieve
these goals. While some countries have made the necessary
move to reduce their contribution to global warming, the United
States-the biggest polluter in the world-is not joining the effort.
Developing countries lack the funds to implement the protocol's
guidelines as many of them need international aid to get things
moving. A 2010 World Bank report thus concluded that the
protocol only had a slight impact on reducing global emissions,
in part because of the non-binding nature of the agreement.
The follow-up treaty to the Kyoto Protocol is the Paris Accord,
negotiated by 195 countries in December of 2015. It seeks to
limit the increase in the global average temperature based on
targeted goals as recommended by scientists. Unlike the Kyoto
Protocol which has predetermined CO, emission limits per
country, the Paris Accord provides more leeway for countries
to decide on their national targets. It largely passed as
international legislation because it emphasizes consensus-
building, but it is not clear whether this agreement will have
any more success than the Kyoto Protocol.
Social movements, however, have had better success working
together, with some pressure on their governments to regulate
global warming. In South Africa, communities engage in
environmental activism to pressure industries to reduce
emissions and to lobby parliament for the passage of pro-
environment laws. Across the Atlantic, in El Salvador, local
officials and grassroots organizations from 1,000 communities
push for crop diversification, a reduction of industrial sugar
cane production, the protection of endangered sea species
from the devastating effects of commercial fishing, the
preservation of lowlands being eroded by deforestation up in
rivers and inconsistent release of water from a nearby dam.
Universities also partner with governments in producing
attainable programs of controlling pollution. The University of
Chicago's Energy Policy Institute sent teams to India to work
with government offices, businesses, and communities in
coming up with viable ground-level projects that "strike a
balance between urgently needed economic growth and
improved air quality,"
When these local alliances between the state, schools, and
communities are replicated at the national level, the success
becomes doubly significant. In Japan, population pressure
forced the government to work with civil society groups,
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academia, and political parties to get the parliament to pass "a
blizzard of laws- 14 passed at once-in what became known as
the Pollution Diet of 1970. These regulations did not eliminate
environmental problems, but today. Japan has some of the
least polluted cities in the world.227
The imperative now is for everyone to set up these kinds of
coalitions on a global scale. For at this point, when
governments still hesitate in fully committing themselves to
fight pollution and when international organizations still lack the
power to enforce anti-pollution policies, social coalitions that
bring in village associations, academics, the media, local and
national governments, and even international aid agencies
together may be the only way to reverse this worsening
situation.
CONCLUSION
Perhaps no issue forces people to think about their role as
citizens of the world than environmental degradation. Every
person, regardless of his/her race, nation, or creed, belongs to
the same world. When one looks at an image of the earth, he/
she will realize that, he/she belongs to one world-a world that
is increasingly vulnerable. In the fight against climate change,
one cannot afford to simply care about his/her own backyard.
The CO, emitted in one country may have severe effects on
the climate of another. There is no choice but to find global
solutions to this global problem.
CONCLUSION: THE GLOBAL FILIPINO
In this book, you have seen how your lives have always been
tied to global processes. These connections have become
more pronounced in recent years. Today, the Philippine
economy depends largely on incomes from jobs with global
connections. The first is migrant labor. In 2015, the Department
of Labor and Employment reported that the number of Filipinos
leaving the country to work overseas rose from 4,018 in 2010
to 6,092 in 2015, a 51-percent increase in the span of five
years. In 2016, there were 2.4 million Filipinos leaving and/or
working outside of the country. They sent back $25.8 billion in
2015, roughly 8.5 percent of the country's gross domestic
product. 20 The second is business process outsourcing
(BPO) that the Philippines provides for foreign clients. In 2015,
BPO operations yielded $24 billion. Combined, these two
economic activities have plowed over $51 billion into the
country's national coffers,
The third source of national income is comprised of exports.
The Philippines exports machinery, semiconductors, wood,
cars, export crops and fruits, minerals (gold and copper), ships,
and vehicles to other Asian countries, Europe, and North
America. In 2016, these exports earned $56.3 billion. The
fourth largest source of income is tourism, which reached
about $6.05 billion by the end of 2016. Added to the $51 billion
from OFW and BPO earnings, the total revenue of $113.35
billion makes the Philippines the 36th largest economy in the
world.
Again, if you take these export products from the equation,
only rice is left in the Philippines. While it is the 8th largest rice
producer in the world, the country is also one of the largest
importers of this basic staple.
Politically, there has never been a time in the long life of the
Philippines that it existed in isolation from the Asian region as
well as the world. Historians have shown that communities in
the islands of the archipelago were engaged in extensive trade
with China and maritime Southeast Asia in the pre-colonial
period. The Philippines became a colony of two empires-the
Spanish and then the American-existing in a region where
other Western powers and Japan had extended their reach.
When the Philippines became independent, it took sides in a
global Cold War between the capitalist United States and the
communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In the 1960s,
when the United States intervened in the civil war in Vietnam,
the Philippines helped form the anti-communist regional body,
the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), created by
the American hegemon to "contain" the alleged spread of
communism in the region. Even the informal economy of the
country survived because of its regional and global
connections. Guns, drugs, merchandise, and illegal immigrants
flowed between the Philippine south, Borneo, Sabah,
Singapore, and southern China. Colonial powers and postwar
republics tried to contain these illegal networks but failed.
These networks persist to this day.
Finally, despite passionate nationalist warnings about the
corrupting influence of Western culture, Filipinos continue to
hold the West in high regard. English is now the other largely
spoken lingua franca of the country, and American popular
culture-from basketball to fashion to hip-hop-remains the
model of modernity. The 2014 Pew Research Center survey,
for instance, showed that 92% of Filipinos are pro-American.
Yet, the cultures imported to the Philippine shores are not just
American. The country has adopted Japanese, Korean, and
even Mexican popular culture, notable in teenage boy/girl
bands as well as the now ubiquitous telenovelas. Returning
OFWs or migrant families also bring back some of the
practices and customs of the countries they have lived in.
Filipinas working in Japan alter their clothing styles to look and
act more like Japanese. Oddly, it is in the diaspora that there is
a greater attempt to "preserve".
Filipino culture. Filipino-American artists, for example, have
"revived" the use of the kalintang, an instrument associated
with the Moros of Mindanao. This peculiar "preservation" of
"tribal (sic) Pilipino arts" indicates a "reverse flow" in which the
local is now transposed overseas. Again, these are indicative
of global connections.
Filipinos really have very little choice but to accept this
globalized state as a country and a people. Globalization's
impact has, admittedly, been uneven and often does not
benefit most Filipinos. Yet, there is some movement; there is
MKA | 34
progress when the Philippines at the end of the 20th century is
analyzed. And part of that is because-right or wrong-Philippine
political leaders decided to open up the country to the world.
The next step now is to make sure that the imbalance from
globalization's benefits is corrected to allow more Filipinos to
live a better life.

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