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From: "Free Arab Voice" <•••@••.•••>
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Subject: Special Issue on Globalization
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2000 15:41:57 PST
Mime-Version: 1.0
January 8, 2000
The *FREE ARAB VOICE* (http://www.fav.net)
(Your Voice in a World where Money, Steel, and Fire Have
Turned Justice Mute)
In this issue of the Free Arab Voice (FAV) We Present:
1) 'Globalization: the New Invasion of the Third World', A
critical analysis by Ali Baghdadi, the editor of Arab
Journal, Chicago
2) 'On the Mis-use of Economic Theory to Justify
Globalization: A Note on the Margin', by Ibrahim Alloush
3) 'The Lessons of the Statement of the Twenty', an
evaluation of the statement and the aftermath by one of the
signatories, Adel Samara
########################################
1) 'Globalization: the New Invasion of the Third World', A
critical analysis by Ali Baghdadi
[This article was translated from Arabic by Maha Abu Ghosh,
and edited by Fadia Rafeedie and Ibrahim Alloush]
Globalization is Reality:
-------------------------
In a different world, that rested on the principles of
justice, peace, and equality, abided by the United Nations
Charter and International Law, and in which cultures
coexisted and interacted, globalization would have had an
important role in the fight against poverty, disease,
pollution, drug-addiction, terrorism, and so forth. The
mighty revolution of science and the awesome structure of
technology would have made all of that possible.
But, in the world we live in today, the uni-polar world, the
picture is totally the opposite. After the mode of
production has gone global, 'Globalization' has turned into
an inescapable reality, as the biggest challenge faced by
humans anywhere, and as a phenomenon with especially grave
consequences for the peoples of the Third World. This era
was ushered in by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
occupation of Arab oil wells, the disintegration of
Yugoslavia, and the imposition of the American will on most
of the peoples and rulers of the world. Globalization,
then, is a particular capitalist system led by America. It
might as well be termed 'Americanization'.
What is Globalization?
----------------------
Globalization is a clear and specific economic strategy that
is formulated and dictated on the world by rich industrial
states to serve the interests of large corporations that are
called 'Trans-national' or 'Multi-national' corporations
(TNC's or MNC's). The objective of this strategy is to
open up the markets of the countries of the world, and to
put the natural resources and wealth of those countries
under the disposal of these corporations, without any
restrictions, barriers, or conditions.
Globalization is the coordination across oceans and
continents between the multiple production, design,
marketing, and management sites with the purpose of
monopolizing the international market. This is done for the
benefit of overseas capitalists who possess resources and
capabilities far exceeding those of many governments and
central banks, and who produce to satisfy global, not local
or regional markets, as was the case with Multinational
Corporations (MNC's).
[Multinational corporations might manufacture a whole
product in a given country. Transnational corporations, on
the other hand, introduced a new international division of
labor with certain countries manufacturing parts or
components for products that are assembled elsewhere.]
Globalization implies that independent states worldwide
gradually give up to such corporations their right to manage
their economic affairs and the right to develop their
resources. It also means that economic policy, food
security, and food safety should become the precinct of
businessmen and financiers in the rich states. Neither
governments nor international institutions -- not even the
United Nations -- should dare to question their activities
or power.
Globalization, then, means meddling in the internal affairs
of Third World states, and doing away with any legislation
which impedes or limits free trade as TNC's see fit, without
giving any consideration to social stability in or the
sovereignty of these states.
Potential Economic Depression in the Third World
------------------------------------------------
In addition to serving the interests of large corporations
that control politicians and the polls in the industrial
states, globalization assists in solving the problem of
economic slowdown in these states, as they seek new markets
and monopoly power in Third World countries. Thus assuring
continuous growth in their national income to appease their
citizens, at the expense of the Third World.
Methods of Implementation
-------------------------
The United States employs the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund, and the so-called foreign aid, in addition to
the dirtiest and most barbaric of methods to propagate
globalization. These methods include civil wars, sectarian
and ethnic feuds, terrorism, assassinations, economic
sanctions, starvation, subjugation, fleets, warplanes and
intercontinental ballistics. Moreover, America poisons and
burns the crops and spreads insects, genetically developed
in labs, to exterminate livestock, destroy the economy, and
starve the peoples of the states demanding independence and
preservation of their wealth.
America also conspires against its (friends) after their
role has finished, supporting opposition groups and
preparing them as an alternative when needed, or else as the
bugaboo that will ensure the allegiance of its agents.
It is such a travesty that America who flaunts democracy,
defends human rights, and calls for religious tolerance,
employs all sorts of immoral and inhuman methods against any
state rejecting the hegemony of globalization, all the while
sponsoring a special version of Islam of its own design.
Examples of the Power of Globalization
--------------------------------------
We can generally observe the pressures and crimes resulting
from globalization as we watch TV or leaf through a
newspaper. For example:
1. Globalization forced the government of Guatemala to
repeal a law that protected infants and prohibited the
American company for children's food, Gerber, from falsely
claiming, through its commercials, that its food is better
and more nutritious for infants than a mother's milk.
2. Thailand was forced to annul its production of low-cost
medications that treated AIDS patients out of fear of the
United States' opposition.
3. Shell Oil Company has annual sales of 68 billion sterling
pounds, which equals two and a half times the total income
of the peoples of Nigeria, that has a population of 110
million people.
4. 60% of the banana trade is controlled by only 3
companies.
5. MNC's and TNC's, numbering 51 today, control about
two-thirds of world trade. [Depending on one's definition,
there is a total 250 to 750 of these corporations, about
half of which are based in the United States].
Globalization and Human Civilizations
-------------------------------------
One of the consequences of globalization shall be the end of
cultural diversity, and the triumph of the uni-polar culture
propagandized by companies monopolizing the media over the
cultures of other nations, leading to the extinction of
ancient cultures inherited from over thousands of years ago.
Today, the world watches American movies, listens to
American music, speaks with an American accent, dances to
American tunes, wears American jeans and perfumes, drinks
Coca Cola, Pepsi, and American coffee, and eats American
junk food, after having learned to distinguish, through the
globalized media, the trademarks of American name brands.
At the same time, Zionists sell falafel, hummos, baqlawah,
and other Arabic foods to the world as Jewish food.
Globalization Advocates Promote an Attractive Façade
----------------------------------------------------
The American government and media, and "friends" of America
worldwide, working together for the benefit of MNC's and
TNC's, all tell us that the fruits of globalization - with
its invisible magical fingertips - shall be reaped by all
countries. They claim that globalization will provide food,
medicine, and education to all nations, especially to the
peoples of the Third World, spreading welfare, democracy,
and social justice among all human beings. They even say it
shall enhance human rights and push the wheels of
development forward, as well as preserve the environment and
solve the problems of pollution!
The horns of globalization trumpet a tomorrow that shall
witness neither winner nor loser, as all will be winners,
prospering under the umbrella of globalization!
The Prerequisites of Globalization
----------------------------------
To achieve these alleged benefits, advocates of
globalization demand of the Third World what they call
economic reforms: to open up their markets, adopt free
trade, privatize public sectors, and repeal laws and
legislation that protect the environment and local
production, as well as reduce taxes on rich investors.
Even the Suez Canal- in whose pits many Arab forced laborers
died, and many wars and revolutions were fought to regain
and protect it, and which was finally freed by Abdul Naser
to serve all Arabs - we are now losing without a hassle, all
for the benefit of globalization!
The True Face of Globalization
------------------------------
Mouthpieces try, with all their might, through the media and
all the other tools at their disposal, to mystify the truth
and logic of globalization. They try not to talk about the
gap that continues to grow between the rich and the poor,
amongst the citizens of one nation or between the citizens
of nations. They try to not talk about the big calamities
that shall result from globalization: poverty, pollution,
disease, migration, depletion of natural resources, crime,
violence, the eradication of indigenous cultures and the
extinction of thousands of biological species.
Genetic Engineering and Small Farmers
-------------------------------------
Seeds produced by large corporations in their labs and
factories, and whose export and sale they control, are
unaffordable to small farmers who provide daily food for
their personal consumption and that of their co-citizens
with skills acquired over thousands of years. These seeds,
developed by altering their properties and features, and by
tampering with their genes, do not produce new seeds for the
farmers to use in the coming years. The newly produced
potato, for example, carries genes taken from the silkworm,
chicken, viruses and bacteria. Tomato is also invented from
genes taken from the flounders. There are other kinds of
seeds whose genes were taken from mice.
This means that farmers who formerly produced their own
seeds shall have to depend in the future on the mercy of
these corporations that have no care for anything except
profit. Consequently, land ownership, inherited over
thousands of years, shall pass to large foreign
corporations, which own and control these new seeds. This
will result in more poverty, famine, unrest and revolts, the
likes of which the world has never seen before.
This also means that 400 million people working in
agriculture in India alone, are threatened because of a seed
produced from one single genetic operation if their
government succumbs to the intense pressures practiced by
these companies.
Globalization and Local Production
----------------------------------
Globalization and free trade policy lead to shipping goods
thousands of miles unnecessarily and to killing local
industries in the Third World. They decimate the resources
of the poor who are unable to compete in the face of foreign
goods generally supported, directly or indirectly, through
tax reductions, export incentives, cheap energy, and
government spending on research and development.
Consequently, globalization will not even solve the problem
of nutrition or hunger, but shall instead destroy local
agriculture or turn it into cash crops for export purposes.
The Gap between the Rich and The Poor Increasing
------------------------------------------------
The pretense that the tide induced by globalization will
raise all boats is totally unfounded; the truth is that this
tide shall raise the yachts of the rich and swallow the
boats of the poor.
The misery of the poor, even in America, is increasing! And
the wealth of the rich, while remaining a minority, is also
increasing!
According to conservative figures published by the United
Nations, the average income of 1.3 billion people, a quarter
of the world's population, is less than a dollar a day and
they have no potable water. Hundreds of millions of people
are on their way to falling below the line of abject
poverty, while a third of the children suffer from
malnutrition and half of the world population is deprived
from necessary medications. Moreover, 30% of the labor
force is unemployed while millions of others shall soon
follow those due to fierce competition, as rich states
continue to control an ever-increasing portion of technology
and production. There are over 80 countries in the South,
where an individual's income is today less than what used to
be ten years ago!
On the other hand, the number of billionaires of the world
has reached 358, with a combined wealth exceeding that of
2.5 billion poor. Today, 20% of the world's population owns
more than 70% of the world's wealth and enjoys 86% of the
world's consumption, while 20% of the people consume only
1.3%.
The United States
-----------------
Even in the United States, the leader and enforcer of
globalization, economic policy drawn in fact by large
corporation officials, continued to widen the gap between
the poor and the rich. Large American corporations aim only
for profit; they do not care for the victims of their
policies, be they citizens or foreigners. During the time
between 1980 and 1993, the number of employees who lost
their jobs in 500 companies were 4 million; at the same time
the wages of the directors and executive of these companies
increased more than 6 times.
As is the case of Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom,
there are 20% of American youth between the age of 20 and 24
without work and without education.
The American family today is falling apart as the heads of
households slave away to pay for the house, the car, utility
bills and the many other necessities that are introduced
into the markets everyday, and replaced frequently. These
have become, due to the continuous brainwashing practiced on
the Americans and others through TV, a necessity.
The gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow as
95% of the national wealth lies in the hands of 5% of the
people, while the income of the poorest 20% of the American
people has been steadily decreasing since 1970. The
situation of the Afro-Americans continues to get worse, as
American society is now divided into two separate, and
unequal communities, one black and one white.
The World Lacks Justice Not Food
--------------------------------
Leaders and advocates of globalization use hunger as a fig
leaf to conceal their faults and imperfections, claiming
that globalization is the cure for this condition that
continues to pursue and humiliate humans. Statistics show
that 800 million people throughout the world sleep in hunger
because they are too poor with nothing to protect them from
the rich. Many have no land to plant and harvest, while
small farmers are unable to buy new machinery, so they end
up losing their lands. Eight out of ten children living in
Third World countries suffer from malnutrition despite being
surrounded by abundant quantities of food.
In Brazil, a country that exports food, one hundred thousand
children die annually from hunger.
What is both laughable and lamentable is that while the
world was watching hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian men,
women and children die from the horrible famine that invaded
their country back in 1984, their best arable lands were and
are still being used to grow forage. This forage is exported
to Britain and other European countries, which is a fact
that the West is trying to hide.
Even India, one of the biggest democracies of the world,
exported during 1995, five million tons of rice, and 625
million dollars of wheat and flour, while 20% of India's
population remains hungry.
In Mangolia, the country that lived on its own local dairy
products for thousands of years, and has now over 25 million
dairy-producing animals, German dairy products are the
prevalent ones.
In Kenya, the prices of Dutch butter is half that of the
price of local butter.
Normalization and the Zionist Entity
------------------------------------
In addition to other political motives, normalization
between Arab states and the Zionist Entity is one of the
most important objectives of globalization.
The Jordanian female worker at "Israeli" factories spread in
Al Hassan industrial city near Irbid, north of Jordan, gets
a monthly pay that is less than the daily pay of the
"Israeli" female worker on the other side of the Jordan
River.
Although the balance of trade between America and Egypt
favors the United States, Washington demands from Egypt that
Tel Aviv be dominant, through common projects, over the
economy of the so-called Middle East. This is the price that
has to be paid to raise the ceiling of the quota of Egyptian
textile exports to the United States. Concurrently, America
refuses Egypt's demands that economic normalization with the
Zionist Entity be accompanied by parallel progress in the
so-called peace process.
Arab Money Finances Globalization
---------------------------------
Despite the decline of oil prices and the plundering of Arab
wealth on corrupt weaponry, false projects and other means
of fraud, Arab investment money -- which finances western
economies, especially the American and British economy -- is
estimated at about four to six hundred billion dollars. At
the same time, most Arab states, including most Arab Gulf
states, borrow money from the west to finance their economic
projects and to cover the deficits in their budgets. These
states borrow Arab money from foreign banks at very steep
interest rates.
For example:
1. Saudi Arabia's savings ten years ago exceeded 170 billion
dollars. Nowadays the Kingdom borrows money and has
accumulated debts estimated at 170 billion dollars. Its
debts from local banks exceed 140 billion dollars.
2. Riyadh borrowed a few days ago two billion dollars from
foreign banks to finance the purchase of civil airplanes.
This was part of a deal signed back in 1995 with Boeing and
MacDonnell Douglas for Aviation for 7.5 billion dollars to
renovate its civil airplanes, considered one of the best in
the world without a need for more renovation, and with too
many vacant seats on most flights.
Globalization and Islamic Banks
-------------------------------
Globalization uses everything it can to its benefit. It
provides banking and investment services - allegedly based
on Islamic Doctrine - for every Muslim, without
differentiating between fundamentalist and
non-fundamentalist, nor caring whether the customer is a
terrorist or not. The total profits of the CitiBank Group
alone last year was 5.9 billion dollars, a lot of which came
from people who insist on dealing with Halal (legitimate)
money and who testify that "there is no God but God and
Mohammed is the messenger of God."
An Unavoidable Truth
--------------------
Whether we accept it or not, globalization is a reality
occurring before our very eyes. Investors in rich states
spent billions of dollars in poor countries during the
nineties building roads and airports, establishing
transportation and controlling the mines. They intend to
use them.
What Choice Do the Arabs and Third World Peoples Have?
------------------------------------------------------
It is sad to say that because of the backwardness and the
many restraints stifling the abilities of the peoples of
Third World, there is no quick and easy remedy to help in
resisting the evils of globalization. Radical internal and
external developments and drastic changes need to occur
regarding the conceptions these nations hold about the
modern state and its requirements. Furthermore, these states
should unite and join forces in alliances that could give
them the power to say "NO" and to control their destinies.
Otherwise, these nations and states, including the Arabs,
shall lose under globalization.
As Arabs living in a world described today as an
international village or a small world, we can no longer
afford to live in isolation and suffocation. We cannot live
as an Arab or Islamic nation, and face the challenges of
globalization, while singing the praises of small and frail
emirates, sultanates, and kingdoms created by imperialism
with no real chance of survival.
To preserve our existence as Arabs and Muslims in the face
of the economic, political, ideological and cultural
invasion of globalization, we should get rid of the current
concept of the our state, which is based on fanaticism,
tribalism, dictatorship, and fragmentation. Instead, we
should build a united state based on an integral, solid and
democratic basis that gives the right of rule to the people.
Moreover, in order to develop our immunity and our ability
to resist those who seek to keep our lands an open market
for their products, and a mine for raw materials, we should
utilize all the capabilities, genius and skills that our
people possess. We should create a state led by competent
men and women with the knowledge and expertise necessary to
liberate Arabs from intellectual ossification and the
belittling of the mind, and respect the citizen's right to
give criticism and advice. Inventors and innovators should
be encouraged and rewarded, and given every assistance to do
research and development.
We are in dire need for a state able to resist a dangerous
and destructive phenomenon to which we pay very little
attention: that of the immigration of intellectuals and
scientists whom we lose every day. Because of our policies,
the West was able to attract these creative minds and
provide for their needs. We should therefore produce the
right ambience that encourages and welcomes these minds
contributing to the development and construction of a
powerful state that is able to overcome any deficiency or
weakness.
There is hardly a college or university in the West without
an Arab professor, and hardly a hospital without an Arab
doctor, or a large corporation without Arab managers,
lawyers, engineers or experts.
Many of the writers, poets and artists, whose works we take
pride in, also had to leave their homelands, running from
oppression and looking for freedom of expression elsewhere.
They also want to provide a better future for their
families, even as they cry out with pain and suffering:
My country, though unjust to me, is dear
My people, though grudging with me, are gracious.
########################################
2) On the Mis-use of Economic Theory to Justify
Globalization: A Note on the Margin for Economists Only, by
Ibrahim Alloush
1 - The claim that globalization will promote economic
efficiency and welfare is based on standard microeconomic
arguments in favor of the model of perfect competition, with
many buyers and sellers lacking individually any market
power. Yet the monolithic Transnational Corporations are
not about competition, but monopoly.
2 - The claim that removing all obstacles to free trade will
promote economic efficiency and welfare is based on
Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage, where countries
specializing in and exporting what they do best generates
international levels of output higher than what might be
obtained if each country attempted self-sufficiency. Yet
the Theory of Comparative Advantage is based on the implicit
assumption that economic resources such as labor, capital,
and natural resources are immobile. But the mobility of
capital is exactly what makes Multinational Corporations
possible. Capital is more mobile than ever. Thus a crucial
assumption beneath the Theory of Comparative Advantage is
undermined.
3 - Those in the West clamoring for the free flow of goods
and services, and capital, across international borders
disregard intentionally or unintentionally that true
laissez-faire, as the phrase literally signifies in French,
necessitates that labor be also allowed to sell its services
anywhere in the world. This means that if TNC's should be
allowed to invest and sell freely in the Third World,
workers and professionals from the Third World should be
allowed to freely travel to work in North America, Europe,
and Japan. In fact, while capital has become increasingly
mobile, and while goods, services, and information are
exchanged across international borders at higher rates than
ever, restrictions on the migration of labor have increased.
4 - Calls for removing all obstacles to free trade in the
Third World frequently disregard two crucial aspects of the
system of international trade today. The first is the fact
that tariffs on Third World exports, like agricultural
products and textiles, remain high (see the Economist,
November 27, 1999, p. 13). The second is the fact that
demand for oil and many other natural resources from the
Third World is relatively inelastic. This implies that
decreases in price will decrease, rather than increase,
export revenues. Consequently, it is in the best interest
of Third World producers to restrict (not expand) the supply
of these resources in international markets in order to
induce price and revenue increases. Environmentalists in the
West may take solace in the knowledge that increases in the
price of these natural resources will decrease quantity
demanded a bit, thus slowing down their rate of depletion,
and alleviating pollution : )
5 - International specialization may increase productivity,
but it does not necessarily increase revenue, and hence the
standard of living. Cairo might produce falfel better than
Southern California, and Southern California might design
microprocessor chips better than Cairo, but it might take
several pyramids of falfel to buy the rights for one new
advanced chip. As the exports of the West become more
technology-intensive, removing all protection for
infant-industry in the Third World might condemn it to
perennial backwardness and poverty, as the terms of trade
get worse for inelastic goods from the primary sector in the
Third World. This means Third World countries must venture
into and establish footholds in industries in which they do
NOT currently have a comparative advantage, to compete
successfully in the global economy.
########################################
3) 'The Lessons of the Statement of the Twenty', an evaluation of the
statement and its aftermath by one of the signatories, Adel Samara
http://fav.net/lessons_drawn_from_bayan_El3eshreen.htm
########################################
Read the In Response to Defeatist Thought at:
http://www.fav.net/InResponseToDefeatistThought0.htm
For other FAV issues, please visit:
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