Is gobalisation good or bad?

What is globalisation, what are its causes, what are some of its consequences, and how has it affected the way we think about mind, knowledge,truth and morality today? Do you think that globalisation is something to be celebrated or something to be feared? Explain your answer.

Is globalisaton good or bad ?
Globalisation means economic resources and factors of production(including commodity, labours, capital and information), breaking the national border, flowing freely within the area of the earth, making each country’s finanical market open to the world, and conneting tightly with each other.

Globalisation refers to the fact that countries in the world are continually expanding their connections with one another in the economic, political, cultural and other aspects. The high degree of interaction and interdependence has caused various aspects of human life to adopt a global perspective(Ho et al., 2012).

Globalisation as a concept refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole...its main focus empirical is in line with the increasing acceleration in both concrete global interdependence and consciousness of the global whole in the twentieth century(Robertson R., 1992, p.8).

'The rapid development of transportation and information technology foster globalisation. In the past, distance is determined by travelling time. However, since 1840, the invention of telegram has shortened geographical distance. Later, electronic media appeared, providing instant information. People can receive the latest information from the outside world quickly . Our world has become smaller and it is easier to circulate information. Geographical barrier cannot block the process of communication and the world seems to become a village. The distance between people in different places is shortened and we seem like neighbours(Ho, K. L., Ho, W. K., Kwok, T.L., Lam, H. K., & Yiu C.L., 2012). '

The factors of globalisations in terms of economic, transport and communication technology aspects are as follows:

In terms of the economic aspect, the number of multinational entererprise are rapidly increasing and are setting up their headquarters in global cities. Multinational entererprises do not only concentrate on operating one main business------International trade, but they are also developing a great variety of businesses. Multinational entererprises take political stability, sufficiency of resources, production cost and technology into consideration when they choose to expand productivity lines in developing counteries, in order to earn the miximum amount of profit.
In terms of transport, it has developed into a mass system, it is convenient for people to travel to many places by different types of transport. The modern transport has a high capacity for carrying a stream of people and logistics, helping to lower the cost and save time to deliever product. Therefore, International trade develops and brings wealth to the world. The mass transport network is formed with highways and railways, so it connects cities with rural areas, it is easier for people to go to every corner of the world.

In terms of communication technology transmits information with high efficiency and accuracy, the news comes from an area and soon become an International affair, people get an easy access from the mass media and the Internet and increase interaction with others. The Internet breaks the spatial limitation which restricts the storage and transmission of information, since the Internet connects all computers to form a system that has a high capacity of data.

To the society, globalisation helps exchange different culture and advance reforms. 'Earlier, it would not have been possible to have an in-depth knowledge about other countries and their cultures. But due to important tools of globalization, like the Internet, it becomes possible to know everything that is happening around the world. It is possible to know about the different cultures of the world, varied food habits, the kind of education systems that exist, world news and other current events. Globalization is not merely limited to ' the material aspect, ' but runs deeper in the way of bringing about a change in the attitude and thoughts of people.

It makes people tolerant of varied world views and practices and thereby promotes progressive thinking. This, more than anything else, helps to bring about social reforms in society. For example, leaning how a particular country improved the quality of education or the steps that were taken to enhance security for women, or the different policies of world governments and education systems that were passed will set an example to other countries and bring about reforms. '(Borkar, 2012)

In spite of the positive impacts of globalisation, to the world, it is something to be feared as it poses a threat to the environment and does not achieve sustainable development.

Developing countries’ environment will probable be severely damaged by developed countries through globalisation. In terms of economic globalisation, multinational entererprises from developed countries will go to developing countries and build factories there. Those factories burn fossil fuels like coals which will emit air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Therefore, the air quality of developing countries will probably deteroriate. What is more, those multinational entererprises will exploit almost all developing countries’ resources in order to churn out different types of products. However, this destructive act will lead to many different types of pollution, such as land pollution, water pollution and visual pollution.

The Hong Kong government has set guidelines to promote sustainable development : finding ways to enhance prosperity and improve the quality of life while reducing overall pollution and waste; meeting our own needs and aspirations without causing damage to the prospects of future generations; and reducing the environmental burden we put on our neighbours and helping to preserve common resources ("1999 Policy Address")
(http://www.susdev.gov.hk/html/b5/sd/index.htm).

Sustainable development put the emphasis on ' the interplay between the local and global, the developing and developed countries ,and the need for cooperation within and between sectors(Yuen, 2006). ' Globalisation has brought wealth to the world through the trade development and flow of capital. However, globalisation involves power and self-interests, hence more developed countries use globalisation as a tool to put their self-interest on the first priority. Gobalisation is out of control as there is no even distribution of resources and wealth between International relations.

Projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that if globalisation is successful, the world economy will increase six to eight times between 1990 and 2100 (Houghton et al. 1992) ', developing countries with economic growth will develop faster than currently industrialized countries. 'This growth will require inputs from the environment for food,energy, wood and minerals. That means more mining, drilling, farming, gazing, urban activities and land conversion will put pressure on renewable resources such as lands, water, and fishers and nonrenewable resources such as fossil fuels. ' 'A six-to-eight-increase in GDP also implies increases in local, national, and global pollution(Mendelsohn, 2008).

The U.S.A. has produced a great deal of corns, most of corns are dumped in order to remain the price of corns at an unchanged level and keep the competitive edge in the global market. Every input like manpower ,the use of technology and resources is wasted. Since resources are limited, developed counteries are short-sighted as they do not treasure resources and pass down to the future generations. Although corns are developed into biofuel, it is not effective enough if the productivity of corn is not under control.

Developed countries are selfish as they shift the blame to developing counteries. Investors are encouraged to invest and establish factories in developing counteries, one of the consideration is that they want to pass on the pollution and environmental destruction of land to weaker counteries. Hence, developed counteries make the good use of cheap labours, land, facilities to gain wealth. It is not fair that developed countries do not need to bear the reasponsibility of reducing pollution. For example, McDonald comes from the U.S.A., as it has branches all over the world. Every product which is repackaged can 'add value ' and is sold for more profit, this process is known as commodification. However, commodification requires heavy exploitation of the land use and cheap labours, virgin forests providing land to raise cattle to supply McDonald 's. Cheap labours work under poor condition and overtime, earn little money, and miss the basic right of proctected by wealfare and the labour union, they produce toys but ironically McDonald’s can open up a market that mainly targets children.

Globalisation makes every nation realise that they are interdependent and interexist, every bad thing will also adversely affect the others, so nations try to reach an agreement by multilateral negotiation.
For example, until 2009, 183 nations have signed , however ,developed countries such as the U.S.A. did not sign and claimed that it has not had the obligation to assist developing countries with capital to implement the environmental proctection policy and has asked them to take the responsibility themselves. Even China has compromised the index of reducing emissions before the climate change conference. This implies that under globalisation, developed nations exert greater influence on the affairs and policy, developed nations only could give way to more powerful ,wealthier nations and bear the harmful effects caused by globalisation.

To conclude, globalisation is out of control because developed nations do not set a good model to developing nations, what they concern the most is self-interest. Developed nations always warn developing countries not to do something that threatens the world, however ,they cause the more threat to the world in every aspect than developing counteries. If every nation is voluntary to put efforts into improving the adverse effects of globalisation, the world makes great progress.

References Borkar, R.(2012). Is Globalization Good or Bad?. Retrieved , November 29, 2012from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/is-globalization-good-or-bad.html

Ho, K. L., Ho, W. K., Kwok, T.L., Lam, H. K., & Yiu C.L. (2012). Global socio-political system: 'global city '. Ling Kee Publishing Co., LTD, p.3, 71

Mendelsohn, R. (2008).The future of globalisation: Globalisation and the environment. Routledge. p.384

Robertson R. (1992). Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. Sage Publications Ltd. p.8

The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. (2008) What is Sustainable Development? Retrieved from October 22, 2010 http://www.susdev.gov.hk/html/b5/sd/index.htm

Yuen L. (2006) Environment and Sustainable Development. Manhattan Press. p.35

References: Borkar, R.(2012). Is Globalization Good or Bad?. Retrieved , November 29, 2012from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/is-globalization-good-or-bad.html Ho, K. L., Ho, W. K., Kwok, T.L., Lam, H. K., & Yiu C.L. (2012). Global socio-political system: 'global city '. Ling Kee Publishing Co., LTD, p.3, 71 Mendelsohn, R. (2008).The future of globalisation: Globalisation and the environment. Routledge. p.384 Robertson R. (1992). Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. Sage Publications Ltd. p.8 The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. (2008) What is Sustainable Development? Retrieved from October 22, 2010 http://www.susdev.gov.hk/html/b5/sd/index.htm Yuen L. (2006) Environment and Sustainable Development. Manhattan Press. p.35