Global Systems: Critiques Of Globalisation Flashcards
What was the ‘Rhode must fall” movement?
After the colonialism of the 1500s - 1800s, the ‘Rhodes must fall’ movement began in 2015 South Africa: Students at University of Oxford called for a statue of Rhodes to e removed from Oriel college for his actions in the Boer Wars
Provide an example of an IGO encouraging a government to adopt neoliberal ideas, thus creating injustices from interventions in development
- Early 2000s - attempt to improve the water supplies in Tanzania
- World Bank Approach: deal suggested of Tz privatised it’s water services in return for $143 million loan
- Sold to British led consortium called City Water»_space;> water bills issued for first time: those who couldn’t pay Werner disconnected»_space;> poorest families revered to use of unsafe water / girls couldn’t go to school
- Since 2005, contract cancelled, water services run locally»_space;> support from China and India
What is the primary division of labour?
Commercial agriculture is dominant, run by TNCs
- Thailand: 12 hour shifts, 38 degrees Celsius, $2 per day: prawn agriculture workers»_space;> long hours on inhospitable tidal mud flats
What is the secondary division of labour?
- Every year 1990s - 2000s, avg. of 2500 metal workers in Yongkang lost a limb or a finger: ‘dismemberment capital’. Factories in Bangladesh and Vietnam: busy for Christmas and Easter then no work: Lack of bargaining power + woman sacked in Nicaragua for unionising
What is the tertiary division of labour?
I.e call centre workers. Long shifts six days a week to accommodate time differences. Introduction of an artificial western identity
What is the quaternary division of labour?
I.e medical research increasingly conducted overseas especially in African countries. Many of these countries cannot even afford the drugs
What is meant by the term ‘capitol flight’?
A TNC leaves as the economy starts to develop, others follow: similar to flying geese
What was the Rana Plaza factory collapse
- Caused 1133 deaths in 2013
- Workers sent in to work despite structural flaws and cracks
- Used by Walmart, Matalan and other major TNCs
- An accord on Fire and Building Safety has been signed
- Many TNCs have signed but not all - it adds $0.02 to the cost of a T-shirt
How can refugee camps cause injustice?
There is no opportunity to make a living (United Nations Declaration of Human Rights- UDHR): everyone has a right to an education»_space;> it is thought that around half of all refugees are 17 or under and as many as 90% do not receive any education
How can the movement of people cause injustice for the host country?
There is a disproportionate burden placed on nearby countries e.g Turkey and Lebanon in regards to Syria. Inequalities in how many Syrian refugees have been taken in by EU countries despite all signing up to UDHR. Germany accepted 600,000 + between 2010 - 2016
Human trafficking statistics
- US Dept. of state estimates 12 million + victims of trafficking
- ‘Interpol’ states human trafficking is the 3rd largest transnational crime flow behind drugs and arms
- Female victims in the USA come from 66 countries (including China, Mexico…)
Social Media plays a large role in stimulating trafficking
What housing injustices are created by Globalisation?
- Between 2010 - 2017: house prices rose on avg. by 30% - 50% in London (and other global hubs)»_space;> Shanghai - 150%
- Property seen as a safe investment after 2008 crisis but millennials can’t get a foot on the property ladder
What injustices does over-tourism create?
- Excessive visitor growth and interest can price out locals (houses and goods)
- Declining liveability of home place due to a loss of local culture
- Global and local flows of money»_space;> TNC profit leakage, property speculators benefitting from AirBnB rentals
- UN World Tourism Organisation»_space;> Tourist numbers 40 x higher than 60 years ago
- Venice gets 60,000 daily visitors
What are the environmental injustices created by globalisation?
- Land grabs: early 2000s, China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea embarked on programmes of land acquisition in poorer countries including Cuba and Kazakhstan for food security
- Saudi star company: $200m acquiring an area equivalent to 20,000 sports pitches in Ethiopia in early 2010s - ‘Gambella’ - grows wheat, rice, vegetables and flowers for Saudi market (some Ethiopian farmers belonging to Anuak ethnic groups, relocated with no compensation)
- Amazonian tribes also lose land to logging companies
What are some examples of a ‘resource curse’?
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
- Savagely colonised by Belgium in late 1800s
- Rich in copper, cobalt, diamonds
- 5 million lives lost to conflict and invasion between 1998 - 2007
- 2017, ranked 176th in HDI»_space;> life expectancy: 49
Niger Delta
- 7000 oil spills in 1980s-1990s
- Ogoni nine»_space;> peaceful protesters dealt with violently
- 2015 compensation of $70m»_space;> 15,600 farmers
- Nigerian government»_space;> $10bn annually in oil revenues
What are some injustices that climate change refugees face?
- Many scientists now view a 2 degree rise in avg. world temperature as inevitable
- Desertification and extension of arid conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa»_space;> food industry
- UN agencies estimate that nearly 10 million people from Africa, South Asia and elsewhere have been displaced by environmental degradation, weather-related disasters and desertification since 2000»_space;> further 150m more in the next 50 years
- 28 countries»_space;> extreme risk from climate change, of which 22 are in Africa
- Dozens of islands in the Indian Sunderbans region: regularly flooded
- Bangladesh»_space;> 60% of land less than 5m above sea level
‘We are all internationalists now…
…whether we like it or not.’ - Tony Blair, 1999
The Anthropocene (human era) has caused irreversible change
