Globalisation is not as beneficial as we are led to believe it is. While the rich keep getting richer, the poor still struggle to access the basic necessities needed to survive.
Globalisation is not as beneficial as we are led to believe it is. While the rich keep getting richer, the poor still struggle to access the basic necessities needed to survive.
This is according to Prof Peter Vale, the Nelson Mandela Chair of Politics at Rhodes University.
Speaking at the third annual Neil Aggett Memorial Lecture at Kingswood College on Wednesday, Vale said economic globalisation was one of the greatest ideas of our time. However, although the word personifies the idea of human progress, it has created a picture of a world that doesn’t really exist.
Vale said that in a world of economic globalisation there is no room for social justice, despite arguments to the contrary. He said that people who support economic globalisation claim that it benefits everyone but that they only say this "because it makes them feel good about themselves".
According to Vale, "the richest 1% of people in the world receive as much [money]as the bottom 57% [put together]." He said that while rich families earn more money and their quality of life has improved, poor people find it difficult to access the drugs and technology that could improve the quality of their lives. Furthermore, not only has the income gap between rich and poor people grown as a result of economic globalisation, it has also grown between countries.
Vale also said that although people often claim that globalisation was not controlled by any person, institution or government, it is. He said that institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation set up rules that govern international economic relations.
"These rules have all sought to incorporate countries into codes of ‘good’ practice," he said. "All states have to behave in a certain economic way or be left out."
He says globalisation has favoured the spread of a certain kind of democracy in which the citizens of a country are permitted only "limited participation in the decisions that affect their lives," said Vale.
"Democracy, in the sense of people speaking in order to settle their differences and promote social justice, is not promoted by globalisation."
Vale said that economic globalisation has not made the world a more secure place because the widening gap between the rich and poor poses a danger for social justice for al people and has increased the possibility of conflict between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.
Vale said that according to Amnesty International, there are more than two million prisoners in the United States.
"Put differently, more than one in every 100 adults in the US is in jail," he said. He said this was a result of high levels of inequality and was a problem faced by many of the world’s welathiest countries.
Neil Aggett, an Old Kingswoodian, was a doctor and trade unionist. After organising a mass action campaign for workers in Langa, Cape Town in 1981, he was detained by the South African security police. He died in detention on 5 February 1982 after 70 days of detention without trial. No prosecution was ever made in connection with his death.
