|
Travel
Impact Newswire by Imtiaz Muqbil - Distinction in
Travel Journalism
THE OTHER FACE OF GLOBALISATION (3,785 words)
Summary: In 1998, the top 10 corporations controlled 86% of the global
telecommunications market and 35% of pharmaceuticals. Industrialised
countries today hold 97% of all patents world-wide. These inequalities
and imbalances of globalisation are raising the risk of conflict. That
warning, in the UN Human Development Report 1999 (HDR), is part of a
growing debate about who is dictating the terms of globalisation and
in turn benefitting from it. The Travel & Tourism industry, very much
in the throes of globalisation, still has time to debate and think it
through. A four-part excerpt:
-
PART II (continued
from Part I) -
A HUMAN FACE FOR GLOBALISATION
The HDR makes a powerful plea for a re-writing of the rules of
globalisation -- to make it work for people and not just for profits.
Globalisation, it says, is more than the flow of money and commodities
-- it is the growing interdependence of the world's people through
"shrinking space, shrinking time and disappearing borders." This
offers great opportunities for enriching people's lives and creating a
global community based on shared values. But markets, it argues, have
been allowed to dominate the process, and the benefits and
opportunities have not been shared equitably.
The result is a "grotesque" and dangerous polarisation between people
and countries benefiting from the system and those that are merely
passive recipients of its effects. The Report argues that the
inequitable effects of globalisation driven by markets and profit
touch all aspects of human life.
Care, "the invisible heart of human development," is threatened
because today's competitive global market is putting pressures on the
time, resources and incentives for caring labour, without which
individuals do not flourish and social cohesion can break down.
"Even as communications, transportation and technology are driving
global economic expansion, headway on poverty is not keeping pace,"
says CNN mogul Ted Turner in a special contribution to the Report. "It
is as if globalisation is in fast-forward, and the world's ability to
understand and react to it is in slow motion."
The "breakneck" speed of globalisation is also making people's lives
less secure, as the spread of global threats to well-being outpaces
action to tackle them.
The report warns that the East Asian financial crisis, which put
millions of people out of work and prompted cutbacks in social
services world-wide, was not an isolated accident because financial
volatility is an inherent feature of globally integrated financial
markets.
Job insecurity is also increasing in both industrialised and
developing countries, in the wake of economic and corporate
restructuring and the dismantling of social protection measures.
Culturally, many people feel threatened by the predominantly one-way
flow. The single largest export industry for the United States is not
aircraft or cars, but entertainment, in films and television
programmes.
Criminals -- "among the most enterprising and imaginative
opportunists" -- are beneficiaries of globalisation, with the six
major international syndicates believed to gross $1.5 trillion a year.
And the illicit trade in narcotics, weapons, labour, goods and money
contributes to crime and violence that threaten neighbourhoods around
the world.
These human elements have been left out of the narrow,
financially-based view of globalisation that has prevailed so far --
an omission which the HDR 1999 challenges head-on: "Competitive
markets may be the best guarantee of efficient production but not of
human development."
"As long as globalisation is dominated by economic aspects and by the
spread of markets, it will put a squeeze on human development," says
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, director of the Human Development Report Office.
"We need a new approach to governance, one that preserves the
advantages offered by global markets and competition while allowing
for human, community and environmental resources that will ensure
globalisation works for people and not just for profits."
"The world is rushing headlong into greater integration, driven mostly
by a philosophy of market profitability and economic efficiency. We
must bring human development and social protection into the equation,"
says Dr. Richard Jolly, co-ordinator of the Report.
"Globalisation needs a human face."
An important contention of the Report: is that countries do not need
unlimited income to achieve respectable levels of human development.
Socially sensitive policymaking is a key factor. Thus, Qatar has a
gross national product (GDP) per head of US$20,987 far ahead of
Slovakia's at $7,910. Yet in terms of human development they are at an
almost equal ranking.
A WOMAN'S LOT IS STILL NOT A HAPPY ONE
Among those for whom life IS getting better, men are better off than
women.
The HDR's Human Development Index (HDI) ranks 174 countries in terms
of life expectancy, education and income. It shows that the most
widespread discrepancy in these areas is between the sexes -
universally. The statistics indicate "gender inequality in every
society" and show that only a few countries have made "substantial
progress" in this area.
Countries credited with better conditions for women include the
Bahamas, the Czech Republic, Norway, Singapore, Slovenia and Sweden.
The diversity of these countries "shows that greater gender equality
in human development can be achieved at different income levels and
stages of development. It also shows that it can be achieved across a
range of cultures."
High income, in other words, is not necessary for the creation of
opportunities for women: Costa Rica is ahead of France in terms of
gender equality in political, economic and professional activities,
and Israel outperforms Japan.
The report says that women occupy more than 30% of parliamentary seats
in only five countries; in 31 they occupy fewer than five per cent.
Moreover, it adds, ''the expansion of markets tends to penalise
altruism and care. Both individuals and institutions have been
free-riding on the caring labour that mainly women provide. Whether
women will continue to provide such labour without fair remuneration
is another matter.''
THE WAY AHEAD
The negative effects of globalisation are not inevitable. "With
political commitment in the global community, they can all be
reversed. With stronger governance-local, national, regional and
global -- the benefits of competitive markets can be preserved with
clear rules and boundaries, and stronger action can be put in place to
meet the needs of human development," the Report states.
The Report calls for a re-writing of governance for the 21st century.
Its suggestions and recommendations range from the global (reform of
the United Nations and World Trade Organisation), through the regional
(collective approaches by groups of countries to international
negotiations in trade and other areas), to the national (social
protection against the effects of globalisation) and local (greater
gender balance in sharing the burden of providing care services).
The Report urges a new vision for national and international
policymaking to:
- Balance concern for profits with concern for people
disenfranchised by the turmoil of today's global marketplace;
-
Frame comprehensive approaches to
global threats to human security such as HIV/AIDS, international crime, human rights abuses by
multinationalcorporations and transborder pollution such as acid
rain;
- Build a more representative and coherent system of global
governance, to buffer the effects of a "boom and bust" economy and
address the needs of the 21st century.
New initiatives proposed by the Report include:
- A Global forum to include multinational corporations, trade unions
and non-government organisations in a dialogue that broadens global
governance and gives rich and poor people a louder voice in global
decision-making;
- An extended mandate for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to
include antitrust provisions and a code of conduct for multinational
corporations;
- Establishment of an Independent Legal Aid Centre and Ombudsman to
help poorer countries in their international negotiations at the
WTO. It notes that dispute settlement mechanisms can be fair only when rich
and poor countries alike have access to expert services of equal
calibre to argue their cases;
-
Establishment of high-level units in each developing country deal
with globalisation policy issues and better manage and co-ordinate
national responses to the diverse opportunities and challenges of
globalisation;
-
An international public programme to fund the development of
biotechnology, information and communications technologies to meet the
main technological needs of poor people. The Report cautions that if
the research agenda is left entirely to the market, the interests of
the poor will be neglected.
- Formulation of regional labour and environmental standards and
agreements to work within them. This would give developing nations
collective strength against the pressures of international
negotiations and some protection against the undermining influence of
global competition;
- Increased co-operation in the fight against global crime,
including a relaxation of restrictive bank secrecy laws and completion
of an-international convention against transnational organised crime.
- Faster debt relief and a redirection of aid in favour of poorer
countries and human development priorities;
-
Investigation of new sources of finance for the global technology
revolution, such as a "bit tax" on Internet messages, and an
international programme for the development of technology that serves
the needs of poor people.
GLOBAL SOUNDBITES
Direct quotes from the HDR 1999:
''Without strong governance, the dangers of global conflicts could be
a reality of the 21st century -- trade wars promoting national and
corporate interests, uncontrolled financial volatility setting off
civil conflicts, untamed global crime infecting safe neighbourhoods
and criminalising politics, business, and the police.''
''In the globalising world of shrinking time, shrinking space and
disappearing borders, people are confronting new threats to human
security -- sudden and hurtful disruptions in the pattern of daily
life.''
''Ultimately, people and nations will reject global integration and
global interdependence if they do not gain from it and if it increases
their vulnerability. Pressures will mount to retreat to isolationism
in economic policy culture and in political priorities.''
''The new rules of globalisation -- and the players writing them --
focus on integrating global markets, neglecting the needs of people
that markets cannot meet. The process is concentrating power and
marginalising the poor, both countries and people.''
''The market alone will make global citizens only of those who can
afford it.''
''Reinventing global governance is not an option -- it is an
imperative for the 21st century.''
'When the profit motives of market players get out of hand, they
challenge peoples' ethics -- and sacrifice respect for justice and
human rights.''
''Globalisation opens many opportunities for crime, and crime is
rapidly becoming global, outpacing international co-operation to fight
it.''
''The Internet is an easy vehicle for trafficking in drugs, arms and
women, through nearly untraceable networks.''
''The positive effects of social support and social relationships on
life expectancy are at least as significant as the negative effects of
cigarette smoking, hypertension and lack of physical exercise.''
''More progress has been made in norms, standards, policies and
institutions for open global markets than for people and their
rights.''
''Economic growth alone is not enough. It must be pro-poor growth,
expanding the capabilities, opportunities and life choices of poor
people.''
''In the post-cold war world, local culture has often replaced
ideology in politics, as the rise of fundamentalist movements
reflects.''
''Rejecting the tight control over software given by copyright, a
reverse movement has been launched -- 'copyleft' -- turning standard
practice on its head.''
''A country can speed the growth of GDP by encouraging a shift in
production from unpaid services such as care to market commodities....
But a deficit of care services not only destroys human development, it
also undermines economic growth.''
''Policies to foster more caring labour appear unproductive or costly
only to those who define them as narrowly contributing to GDP or
short-term profit. The erosion of family and community solidarity
imposes enormous costs reflected in inefficient and unsuccessful
education efforts, high crime rates and a social atmosphere of anxiety
and resentment.''
''New technologies promise many advances for human development, but
public institutions cannot afford them alone and private industry will
not develop them alone. Jointly they can.''
========================
Travel Impact Newswire is the Asia-Pacific's first email travel
industry news feature and analysis service. Mission Statement:
Dedicated to reporting with Integrity, Trust, Accuracy and Respect the
issues that impact on the Asia-Pacific Travel & Tourism industry.
Distributed every week to senior industry executives, consultants,
academics and media. Imtiaz Muqbil, Executive Editor.
Return
to Part I
|
Secure HOTEL RESERVATIONS