Globalization

Before I dive in to some of the tentative subjects of my paper I think that it is important to give a brief explanation of what globalization is. The growth of huge multinational corporations has created a situation where businesses from developed countries have the opportunity to set up shop in developing countries in order to control the large markets that reside in the developing nations around the world. What this does is drain away capital from the poorer members of developing nations and put it in the hands of huge corporations. As Roger Burbach puts it, "...the continued draining of financial resources to the First World has caused the Third World countries to remain stuck in the early stages of industrialization."[Burbach, 1997:18].

When I choose this topic the first affect of globalization that came to mind was that the people of developing nations must see through consumerism, television, and advertisements the culture of the developed nations.

Vandana Shiva in Johannesburg, 2002

Jihad vs. McWorld

English: Benjamin R. Barber during a Talk in Bonn.

This could have the affect of heightening people's awareness of the fact that their current system does not provide them with the best benefits. This is very consistent with the theory of "progressive depravation" outlined by Ted Gurr that we discussed in class. The cultural glimpses can have a very powerful effect on the populace. An excellent example of this is the movie industry that spreads pictures of western culture to the entire world. A French film director described the situation perfectly, "Sound and pictures have always been used for propaganda, and the real battle at the moment is over who is going to be allowed to control the world's images, and so sell a certain lifestyle."[Barber, 1995:82]. It seems very plausible that members of developing nations would choose to strive for a life more like "It's a Wonderful Life" than the one...