How Globalization Effects The Third World – Economics Essay
If one sets the analysis of the effects of globalization on the Third World, taking into consideration the economic indicators and figures together with the ones concerning peoples health, education, calories per day, one should
easily notice the inequal distribution of wealth, education and expectations of life throughout the world.
The relationship between GNP and welfare, however, is not linear (fig), delineating cultural differences and peculiarities of each particular socio-political and economic region (Fig about family distribution ).
Once GNP per capita reaches about US$ 4000 increments of basic human welfare tend to be marginal .
Whilst very high deviations (over the line with a long gap ) are recorded mainly by socialist countries ( China, Cuba, Vietnam) and the “Western” countries ( North America, Europe and Australasia) , the most notable negative deviations (below the line with the highest gap)are recorded by two different groups of countries: oil rich Middle Eastern countries (Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia,..) and many African countries (including Nigeria, Angola, Namibia and Niger).
If we focus our attention on the last group and we look at the figures concerning the inequality index and the real gross domestic product and the food consuption, one could see low levels of real GDP (fig) associated with a highly inequal redistribution of wealth with low levels of nutrition.
All the figures above risk, however, to lose meaning, unless we define some key concepts shall be used in the present essay.
It is particularly difficult to exactly define the concepts to analyse the effects of globalization on the Third World, as the enormous quantity of data, from GDP (gross domestic product) (Fig ) the level of education and a definition of development (time is relative and a society, as Islam, developed 600 years after Christianity show not only the resemblance to our Middle Ages structural society, which reports to a similar mode of production ).
The quality of the territory also plays a role in influencing the geo-political structure of a particular area.
In addition to that, the peculiarity of main third world countries depends on the quality and the quantity of exports as well as imports with the will be later defined “core”, the relationship of exploitation of the main Western Empires (formerly Spain, UK, France, Portugal, lately, USA) and the damages colonisers did to the African soil, which brings now, with the increasing of the population doubling in the Sub-Saharan area with a rate of 25 years fig, a black horizon in front of them.
The spread of HIV is increasing in the Sub-Saharan area and this would imply a deeper research in order to define the causes of it.
The Third World entered into the Cold War mainly exploited under the dominion of the Western powers.
In the last 50 years the World Bank and the United Nations, together with the IMF and GATT have been created, politically, for the allignment of strategic areas of the globe1960s economically for the need of the American companies to expand towards new markets, with the consequent emergence of new industrialised countries in South America, but mostly in Asia.
In Africa, the situation is rather different: Soil erosion, HIV, famine and civil wars, direct effect of the inappropriate policies carried by the colonisers, brought now to an alarming future.
Is globalisation responsible for it ?
Which effects will have on them ?
I personally think that globalisation as an economic process is nothing new and this process, in my opinion, can be read as a key through which International actors (Nation States MNEs, ex.) interact with each other.
However, maps show how the world is divided into three main areas: a core opposed to a semi-periphery and a periphery (amongst others: Africa) with an high concentration of poverty, inequalities and endemic viruses. The exploitation of Africa has been so dramatic to bring to a territorial damages, decreasing fertility of the ground and specialised on export of raw materials, primary commodities and food but lacking on technological and human resource investments.
the World after 1946 witnessed an advance in several fields: modern aircraft industries and thus new forms of airtransport, electronic industries, which produced not only TVs and radio equipments, but also devices for measurement, signals and telecommunications, as well as computers, base of the modern automation and cybernetic techniques.
TV and, generally, expanded Medias played a role in influencing the perception of the World, from a relatively small national unity and reality, into a global market and international concerns, thus more institutional participation ( civil society, Labour Unions, Humanitarian non-gov. Org, etc.)
Modern plastics, sysntetic resins and composites fibres, based on the petro-chemical emprovements, ( that is the new Hydrocarbon chemistry ), brought a dramatic change in the industrail trend and so did also the growth of the steel industry, the production of titanium and the civilian use of the atomic power, which by the end of the 1950s represent a considerable volume of investement in the U.K and France .
However, Africa, according to figures , does not enjoy the economic growth and emprovement of technology, nor has the economical capacity to stand the MNEs, showing, oppositely, the drainage of the wealth from the periphery to the core countries.
Popper believes that four broad attributes shape the environment, in which firms compete and promoting or impeding the creation of competitive advantage.