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Globalisation from a UK standpoint
Back to Britain as Angharad Evans blogs about Globalisation from a UK standpointI remember first learning about globalisation in a GCSE lesson of some sort, and how it was this wonderful thing where everyone could have access to products, prices would fall, living standards would increase and the world would just be fluffy and happy. Sadly This just isn’t what has happened. The world and its MNCs have decided that because people can be selfish, that they should be.
We now live in a world where we are losing biodiversity, access to drinking water, increasing childhood mortality, but don’t worry you can nip down to Primarni and get an outfit to wear Friday night, and throw it away on Saturday and not care about anyone else. In fact, it’s probably best that you don’t otherwise their profits will drop. And well, that wouldn’t be very nice would it?
Now you’re probably assuming from that, and yes you will have judged me for the above, that I’m some crazy unwashed hippy, perhaps a freegan who wants everyone to sit down in a circle and sing kumbaya. Actually I was public school educated, drive a German Car and like . So just run with me on this, and I promise to hopefully tell you a little bit more about why I think globablisation isn’t some horrible beast, as long as it chooses not to.
It’s my opinion that we’ve gone from being a reasonably family centred society, to only caring about ourselves and where the next mobile/gadget/piece of pretend chocolate is going to come from. Apparently the new generation care more, but they’ll just text you instead. The point however, is that this global marketplace can allow us to do wonderful things, like donate money to Haiti by an App, or find out what the cinema time is. These are great, but does anyone choose to think about the harms,
Many say that globalisation will help others in developing nations have the living standards that we have. It simply just won’t happen like that due to the hold MNCs have, their governments and the environmental problems already caused. I believe in free trade, keeping poor farmers poor isn’t the answer even if the chocolate tastes nice. The point, however, is that the big companies can make a difference. If they take responsibility, they have the power to make sure their enterprises worldwide conform to labour standards, equality, not using child labour and not destroying the habitat. You and I can make that happen. The next time you end up in a supermarket, maybe you should think about where that food has come from, if you’re buying branded good I’m quite sure you can afford free range eggs. Do you need to buy so much? At this moment in time there is physically enough food to feed the world, but the West throws 30% of it away a week. There’s a long road ahead, and it certainly isn’t paved, but the consumer can make sure that Every little helps, not ‘every product of ours hinders.....