Entries
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
impact of globalization on politicsFrom all my posts, one should be able to see that globalization has a great impact on politics as it not only changes the way people live, it also changes the way people think. It is pervasive; everybody around the world is affected in one way or another. Globalization makes it harder for us to distinguish between ‘us’ and ‘them’, which I mentioned in my first post. There are few problems now that do not involve more than one country. Trans-border diseases like haze, SARS, bird flu involve more than one country. International organizations are set up to provide a platform for countries to discuss their problems. Technology is an important aspect of globalization. It renders borders meaningless and governments cannot control what goes on in cyberspace. People can exchange information without crossing state lines. People can get information at a click of their mouse and they can discover whether what someone said was true. With the help of technology, people are empowered, they can make their own choices about things, and they can reject the government’s thinking. They are also exposed to different thinking which could influence them into doing certain things. For example, terrorists set up website recruiting budding terrorists, brainwashing them so that they think what they know is right. The terrorists also try to influence people’s thinking through the internet. Globalization supposedly can help poor countries get richer so that less people need to suffer although I doubt it as man is greedy and always want more, they would not try to hoard their wealth not give it away like Santa Claus. Globalization has a great impact on the world but since I am the political expert, I shall sum up all my argument about the impact of globalization on politics and add a few more in.
Globalization marks the end of ‘us’ and ‘them’ as I mentioned in my first post. Your problems does not only involve you, many other people are also indirectly or directly involved unlike in the past where you could do whatever you want with nobody interfering with them. Now, states are encumbered by MNC, international organization when they need to make major decisions and they could no longer do what they want as someone in one way or another would interfere. There is not much privacy in the world left. Governments need to deal with this problem of MNC and international organization, either they make a compromise or they do not which would be disastrous for their economy.
Globalization renders borders meaningless with the introduction of technology like the internet.
Governments can no longer dictate and control what is going about within their borders and they cannot monitor the internet fully. Governments have to deal with the problem of piracy, of the stealing of intellectual property by creating new laws. Citizens can find information that was previously hidden from them by the government, for example, they could download books forbidden by the government. Citizens will not be brainwashed that easily, they could search for the truth online. Articles on the internet may influence people’s thinking, for example, there could be and there are websites promoting neo-Nazism, communism, waging a jihad (holy war) etc. and this could change people’s thinking making them rebel against the government thus government need to find a way to stop “harmful” information from reaching their citizens. A suggestion from me is that they raise awareness among the public about the potential abuse of internet for the spreading of radical ideas mentioned above.
Globalization creates more problems for governments to deal with. Harmful rumors about the government could be spread throughout cyberspace leading to distrust among the citizens in the government. Governments need to maintain a fine balance between boosting their economy and losing their uniqueness. Politicians need to know how to get an edge over the others in the dog-eat-dog jungle. It is, after all, a game of the survival of the fittest where only those equipped and know how to manage globalization and not be devoured by it can survive.
Xiu Yu signing off
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
10:00:00 pm
Importance of inter-country relationships in the globalized world todayThe world is globalizing in every way, in terms of politics, economy, social, cultural and more. Countries have less state sovereignty due to the presence of international organization, MNC and other factors. The world is becoming a homogenous place with the spread of mass culture like fast food restaurants, t-shirt and jeans attire, Hollywood celebrities. You can find MacDonald’s in Singapore, Malaysia and even China. Countries are losing their unique cultural identity, for example, Beijing is demolishing their hutongs in order to make way for road, and a Ming theatre is destroyed to make way for a modernized, better theatre. Dialects are lost as people do not use it anymore because they find it useless learning such languages. On the other hand, trade around the world is increasing, with many countries signing free trade agreements with each other and the advance in transportation. So how important are inter-countries relationships in the world today?
They are very important. Good inter-countries relationships need to be maintained in order for
trading between countries to start or continue. A case study would be Singapore. Trade is very important especially to a small island country like Singapore which has a lack of land, resources and labor. Singapore aims to be an economic hub and links countries with countries, acting as a bridge between them. She aims to act as a bridge between the Middle East and other countries. The Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) is one of the most important ports in the world. Everyday, 60% of the goods that are transported there are to be exported to other countries. She maintains a good relationship with almost every country in the world thus ensuring that her goods can be successfully transported from Singapore to that particular country.
Good or at least cordial relationships are needed for countries to be able to trade with one another. As the economies of every country gets more and more integrated into one big global country, the international relationships get more and more important. A country that has a lousy relationship with another country will lose out to one that has. Opportunities are everywhere for countries to exploit, it is just a matter whether countries are fully able exploiting it.
If a country wants to prosper along with globalization, inter-countries relationships are important; as such relationships allow countries to swim along with globalization. If a country does otherwise, it may be engulfed by the globalization wave.
Xiu Yu signing off
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
9:00:00 pm
How globalization affects state sovereigntyIn this globalized world, countries cannot shut the world out; isolating themselves as there is no country that is self-sufficient maybe except the United States. Countries have to depend on each other for resources like water (in the case of Singapore), oil (in the case of many, many countries). State sovereignty is the right of a state to be in control of the planning of its own country, in terms of economy, politics etc. Other countries should not intervene with another state but globalization has lessened state sovereignty, countries can no longer make decisions on their own, they need to consider other factors like international organizations, multi-national cooperation in making decisions. States no longer have absolute sovereignty, in some circumstances; other countries are even able to intervene with another state’s internal affairs.
One factor affecting state sovereignty is international organizations like
United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund (IMF),
and World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations.
Different international organizations affect state sovereignty in different ways. United Nations, for example, do not have any real political power but its voice is heard throughout the world. For example, when UN criticizes a country for its contempt of human rights, it would be published in newspapers around the world, people would thus also start criticizing the country, the country involved would be seen in a bad light by the people of the world and in order not to anger the people, the country would have to do something about human rights so, in a certain way, international organizations have power. Another way international organization affect state sovereignty is the international laws and agreements the country signed in order to join the international organization. For example, IMF members have to sign the Articles of agreement when they join IMF agreeing to restrictions involving trade to non-IMF members, fulfilling the general obligations stated in the agreement. If a country breaks the rule in an international organization, there are consequences that the country has to face such as being criticized by the people of the world, withdrawal of benefits only member countries have and the prestige and honor in being a member of the international organizations. UN can put a sanction on a certain country, barring its member countries from buying and selling goods to it if it thinks it must. An example of a sanction that is still present now is the sanction on Iran.
Multi-National Cooperation is another factor affecting state sovereignty.
MNC provide jobs for
many people. If a
MNC move out of a country, hundreds or even thousands would lose their jobs thus increasing the unemployment rate and harming the economy of that country. In order to have a strong economy, countries need to be able to attract investors to come and invest in the country so if the laws regarding companies are too strict, the cost of labor is too high etc, investors would not invest in the country thus countries have to ensure that they make laws that protect the citizens in the country yet are able to attract investors to invest in the country. Singapore is a successful example. We not only have a strong economy, the people here do not really suffer poverty and hunger as the Singapore government is always there to give a helping hand to those who are lagging behind in the globalization race.
Globalization has indeed affected state sovereignty. The idea of nation and state is also somewhat diminished due to technology like the
Internet as governments cannot control what goes on in the cyberspace. International organizations and
MNC has also contributed to the lessening of state sovereignty as countries have to take them into account in making major decisions.
Xiu Yu signing off
the technology post 5 by Qilong:
The world is the only home for human beings. And all we need for survive we can get from the earth. However, as the world is developing rapidly, the requirement of people is becoming more and more. From ancient time, we only need the water and food, and then we know how to use the wood to make fire. Till today, we have all the technologies, we need petrol for the cars and planes, and we need coal for the industries and so on. Although the world is big compare to every single man, and there is a very large amount of resources, it is still limited as the resources are not renewable and the amount of require of the resources are increasing.
This leads to the new technology of using the alternative resources like wind, water, solar and nuclear. This is not used just in one country; they are used all over the world. Because we all live in one world, we share all the resources in the world together, when there is lace of resources, it is not just a problem for one country, it is the problem of the whole world. So the technology of the new resources is a part of globalization. All the countries from the world must discuss and cooperate with each other; they all need energy for the modern life. And also, the international organization like United Nations need to take part in this area as this is a global problem that affects all the countries all over the world.
Besides the lack of resources that all the countries facing, the other problem of the origin resources is the pollution and the greenhouse gases. This is also a global problem that affects the entire world. So to solve this problem, the technologies of using the alternative resources seem to be more important. Some of them like the solar energy and wind energy can actually help the world to solve this kind of problem. So I think that this technology also speed up the globalization.
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
7:26:00 pm
The technology post 4 by Qilong:
The satellite as the new technology today, also leads the world to globalization. Nowadays, there are about two hundred countries all over the world, every country has their own citizens and their own culture, and of course they have their own technology. Everything from two countries can be separate. And the most important part is the boundary. People from other countries can not cross the boundary between two countries. This makes the world a separate world. However, for the satellite, it links the separate world together. There is no limit for the satellite, because there is no limit for the signals. The satellites in the space can go everywhere they want, there is no boundary, and they always flow around the world.
The first person that went to the space and stepped on the moon was an American. He was the first person who left the world in the history, at that point of time, he was not just the proud of America, it is the proud of the world, the human beings. And also, after the first satellite was sent to the space, we have known how big is the universe, and how small is our earth. The image of world in people’s minds became smaller.
The first satellite was first developed during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is the communications satellite; it became the essential instrument of the globalization. And for this new technology, it is not just used by one country but the whole world. The satellite shrinks the world by many ways. Like the hand phone, through the satellite, people can call anyone from all over the world, because the satellite can transfer the information and signals to the whole world. Besides the hand phone, the television is also an example. Like the satellite TV, we can get the Indian channels from China; we also can watch the Hollywood movies immediately form America. All these are the contribution of the satellite. So the popular media theorist Marshall McLuhan articulated his concept of the "global village" to describe the use of this new technology.
And another area of the use of the satellite is the weather. It can help us to predict the whole world’s weather. So sometimes we can do some preparation before the disasters come.
Previously, we can only see the news in the newspaper after something happened. And we can only see the picture on the newspaper if there is a war or disaster in other countries. But nowadays, because of the satellite, it actually brings all of us closer, so that we can immediately see what is happening from other countries. It can bring all the information directly to our homes. Although we are in China, we also can see the explosion in Iraq, and hear the large sound of the explosion.
Inclusion, the new technology satellite really makes our world smaller like a village just as Marshall McLuhan said. As there are more and more new technologies nowadays, the world is no longer big as we think. And the globalization must be the result of this.
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
5:17:00 pm
The third technology post by Qilong
My own opinion:
The modern transportation like the cars and planes also lead to the globalization. Although they are not the new inventions, they are the parts of technology that make the world smaller. In the ancient time, if we want to travel from one city to another city, the fastest tool we could use is the horse, because they were considered the most feasible transportation at that time. However, it must take a long time to travel from one city to another since the horses are not fast enough. It may take one day or two days to travel. After the cars were invented, they become the most popular transport in the world. It seems like all the countries use the cars as the main transportation. The cars are used all over the world; it can run faster, so that it saves us a lot of time. It does make the world smaller as instead of spending one day to travel from one city to another, now we just take 2 hours.
The same as the car, the planes, it also makes the world smaller. With the plane, we can travel around the world in one day, which we need spend more than one year in the ancient time. People can go anywhere they want within one day. Because the speed of the plane is so fast, some of them even faster than the sound. So actually, the transportations like planes make the world smaller like a city, people can reach anywhere in a short period.
And not only the speed of the cars and the planes, with all the fast transportations, people are no longer just stay in a small area, they can go all over the world. So they can learn from each other like the cultures, the languages. This makes the whole world become more united. So with the transportations, people can come together or travel to other countries conveniently.
Moreover, duo to the transportations, they also linked the worlds’ markets together. People can import the good from overseas. People from China can eat the fresh fruits from America immediately.
We know that the transportations make the world smaller and lead to the globalization. There are still some disadvantages of the globalization, for example, the world war. The countries no longer have wars just with their neighbor countries; they can hold war with countries from all over the world by using the ships and planes. The world war is a very typical example of this disadvantage.
No matter what are the effects and result of this technology, one thing we can make sure is that the world is really smaller in the modern days.
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
5:11:00 pm
The technology post 2 by QilongThe resource from the website:
http://www.copacgva.org/fora/geneva2000/kabuga-ifap/sld009.htm
Globalization and the InternetThe arrival of the Internet has speeded up globalization. In this dotcom economy, everything can be produced anywhere and sold anywhere. The range of goods and services to choose from has increased remarkably. Prices have become competitive. It is this scenario that makes cynics wonder as to whether cooperatives will survive under such conditions.Globalization and the Internet notwithstanding, it will certainly be in the interests of farmers, for example, to stay with their cooperatives. It must be remembered that the benefits brought about by globalization through investments by transnational corporations in a country can also be temporary. They can relocate elsewhere any time and no government can stop them. A country that will have destroyed its local social and economic systems like cooperatives will be thrown into the cold.It also needs to be understood that the dotcom business is far from removing cooperatives from the scene. Cooperatives will still be needed to provide the logistics of delivering inputs, for example, to individual farmers even when such inputs have been purchased through the Internet. Furthermore, it will take a long time before individual producers can own computers and get connected to the Internet. Much more importantly, it will be in the interests of the individual farmers to keep with their cooperatives because cooperatives will also use the Internet as a tool to help them work together nationally, regionally and globally and to overcome social exclusion. For example, in the area of credit, instead of an individual negotiating a loan for $ 100,000 , a cooperative can consult its members via the Internet and instantly put together loan requirements for many individuals and then go for a loan of say $1 million with better financial conditions.My personal comments:
When we talk about the technology and the globalisation, it is always linked with the bussiness. This is the report on globalisation and the internet; it talks about the farmers that make use of the internet, so it is more convenient for them to sell their productions. And also, because of the internet, it leads to the globalization, because for the farmers who use the internet, they must to compete with each other from all over the world. So the prices of the productions are no longer set by the farmers or the governments, they are set by the international market. They have to compete with each other and follow the trend of the whole world. Thus it is no longer individual, they always refer to the international, and every little change will affect the whole world’s market.
Besides the competition, the farmers also can communicate with each other through the internet. So whenever there is a new technology, they can share with each other and cooperate with each other to make more benefits. Then they sell their products together through the internet. Although they are in different city or different country they also can talk to each other. So it is the internet links them together. It shrinks the world, so people who are far away from each other, but through the internet, they are like face to face.
Not only the farmers, the internet has effect in many areas. As long as you are not living in a so isolated place, you will affected by the internet. And it is the internet likes us together. We can travel all over the world in one day with the internet, so the internet makes the world smaller, it makes us closer.
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
4:32:00 pm
As the world gets more globalized, there is a need for international organizations to deal with problems that involve more than one country. International organizations have no overall governing authority, for example United Nations has a security council that consists of five permanent members ( China, France, Russian Federation , the United Kingdom and the United States) and ten non-permanent members. International organizations act as a platform for countries to discuss matters and it has international laws to regulate the members.
There are many international organizations present in the world today, examples are World Trade Organization(WTO), United Nations (UN), Greenpeace, FIFA, World Health Organization which are some of the more famous ones around.
Some international organizations have similar functions like the WWF and Greenpeace, both of them seeks to conserve nature but they have different ways of doing it. Greenpeace seeks to conserve nature through the use of the media exposure of deliberately orchestrated and highly publicized actions . For example, to stop whaling, Greenpeace activists stood between the whale and the harpoon to saves the whale from Soviet whalers. WWF, however, has a much lower profile compared to Greenpeace, it funds projects which conserves nature.
International organizations help in trying to solve global problems. For example, World Health Organization(WHO) helped to control the spread of SARS ( severe acute respiratory syndrome), it advised countries how to deal with SARS, how to contain the spread etc.
Other different purposes that international organizations include regulating world trade (WTO), providing a forum for countries to discuss problems (UN, ASEAN).
International organizations came about because of globalization to help to solve inter-countries and even global problems and different international organizations deal with different problems.
Xiu Yu signing off
- because there's really no need to, anymore...
11:40:00 am
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Health Post: Women's healthFrom
http://www.cmf.org.uk/literature/content.asp?context=article&id=146:
Globalisation is based on the idea of free trade between nations. It has crept into our language just as rapidly as it has affected our lives. Just look at what we wear, eat and use. Fashion clothing comes from countries like Mauritius or Pakistan; tea from Kenya or Sri Lanka; bananas from the Windward Islands. Your watch could have been made in Japan or Hong Kong. Phone a call-centre help-line and it is increasingly likely to be answered in India.
The world is effectively right on our doorstep. You can travel by train from London to Paris in less than three hours, or take a plane and be in Australia within 24 hours. You can write a document and have it on a colleague's desk anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds.
This choice and ease of access, however, is only available if you can afford it. Those who are rich stand to reap the benefits of globalisation and gain more wealth, while the poor just fall further behind. Indeed, poorer people in rich countries are starting to suffer as unskilled and semi-skilled jobs are moved to countries where people work in bad conditions for poverty wages.
Indeed. As the above abstract has mentioned, globalization seem to be everywhere and it has already been part of our present life, having great impact on each and every of us. We can get to different countries easily through the various transportation options provided to us, and we can get into contact with people who are living in different parts of the world. This has been made possible due to the advancement in technology and science in the world since long ago.
One of the examples which have also been improving along due to the effects of globalization is women’s health. Globalization has promoted women’s development. Hence, along with the global progression, mankind started to take in women as part of the human population, instead of discriminating them like how the whites used to discriminate the blacks. We have our own name, and identity, and not like the past where we used to be pointed out as someone’s belonging. No more daughter of man, or wife of a man, or the mother of boy, as it used to be in the Elizabethan Age.
Woman today has gained a certain amount/extent of freedom which they have never ever had in the past. We get to study, get to communicate, get to wear what we like and choose the jobs that we want to be in. We get to fight back and argue with the males and were seen as having equal status as man today. We have now gained more than what we called a human basic right; we have also gain respect and gender equality.
Organizations:
http://www.4women.gov/http://wch.dhhs.state.nc.us/http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/womenshealth.htmlhttp://www.womens-health.co.uk/http://www.obgyn.net/http://www.spiritofwomen.org/Products:
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/Resources:
http://www.healthywomen.org/http://www.harthosp.org/womens/research.htmhttp://mchb.hrsa.gov/whusa04/http://womenshealth.about.com/http://www.polisci.wisc.edu/~sapiro/ws102/gendertech.htmThe websites above are different organizations which have been established and products created and produced for the welfare of women as globalization occurs. Resources have also been put in the internet for easy access to women of different countries.
As we can see, the world has paid more attention on women nowadays as compared to the past, and solutions to several health and mental problems such as abortion, unwanted pregnancy, infertility, obesity, sexual health and several female-related diseases which we used to suffer in the past have been solved, and different solutions with products now available for us as and when we need them to solve our problems.
Forums:
http://www.womens-health.com/Courses:
http://www.son.washington.edu/cne/secure/IS/display3NEW.asp?SKU=04118-CD-IS&accountID=
From the websites, we can see different females getting together to discuss about their own personal problems, and also sharing tips in lifestyles. This has brought all the women together, and we get to improve our own lifestyle and change the way we handle problems.
There have also been magazines specilized for females, to built both their mental and physical health and appearances.:
From
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16512333&dopt=Abstract:
There is growing concern about the feminization of poverty, and the impact globalization is having on this important social problem. Gender inequality persists in all regions, and women and girls continue to be over-represented among the world's poor. This suggests that women are not consistently benefitting from the economic, political and social gains globalization can offer. Instead, it appears that poor women and girls, particularly those living in developing countries, are disproportionately burdened by the costs of these swift changes to the detriment of their personal health and well-being. Immediate action is needed to correct these disparities and ensure that globalization supports both national and international commitments to poverty reduction, and the, promotion of women's health and human rights.
However, it was brought about that the poor people are neglected in this case. But I do not agree to it. I feel that they are still affected by globalization, and things are also improving in the poorer countries. As we can see from the pictures above, women for the poorer countries are also trying to gain respect in the society, and some of them has already been able to use computers, which are one of the modern technologies today. Hence, I feel that globalization has indeed improved women’s health.
RONG QI Signing Off
