Globalisation refers to the growing relationships between
people and culture, and the growing economic independence of countries
worldwide. This economic growth could be through trade, technology,
communications and media.
When our teacher stood before us and proudly stated that he
was the fashion icon that we all should look to everybody was laughing. However
minutes later when he showed us the negative aspects to globalisation in the
fashion industry no-one was laughing. Behind every logo in the world there are
positives and negatives. Through this document I will be assessing the pros and
cons of globalisation.
If you take a pair of jeans and trace the manufacturing
pathway it really enforces how globalisation has affected most of the products
we buy today. The cotton for the jeans will have been made in Africa, the
polyester thread; Japan and the metal components; Europe. So when you buy a
pair of jeans from a high street stores the components will have been brought
from all over the globe and the product itself is an example of globalisation.
If you think back to the last time you bought something
special. The happiness felt when your new pair of tennis shoes arrives and the
excitement as you hold them in your hands. However what most people don’t
realise is that your hands are not the first to touch them. We do not think of
the little hands that have worked day and night to achieve the end product. By
little I do not mean minor parts I mean children. Child labour is in my opinion
the most severe negative that has been brought about by globalisation. Many
worldwide companies are fixated with profit. They do not consider the wellbeing
of their workers in other countries.
Companies employ children for many reasons. Children do not know the
rights and wrongs of the working world so can be exploited easily. With an
adult who might have had previous jobs it would be harder to exploit them with
long hours and minor pay. If you have a child working in a cotton factory from the
age of 5, living away from his parents then by the age of 6 or 7 the work which
they do will just be the norm. All of this means that the owners of these
factories can work these children for long hours and pay them very little in
order to gain as much turnover as possible when selling to companies. A few years ago UNICEF carried out research
in which they found that 250 million children were involved in child labour,
and being exploited by the factories in which they were working as a result in
globalisation. 32% of children in Africa are involved in child labour and 22%
of children in Asia.
Many children in Asia work spinning cotton into thread. They
first have to gather the cotton together. They carry huge masses of cotton and
spend there time working in sweltering conditions. However the temperature can quickly drop and
those who have worked throughout the day may be vulnerable to illnesses such as
pneumonia. The actual spinning occurs on
machines which have no guards or safety mechanisms which leave young children
open to severe injuries. The atmosphere
is full of just and dirt and many children leave work with sever lung
conditions which shortens their lives dramatically.
In my opinion globalisation has definitely moved our
technology and product range into the 21st century but it seems that
is has had no effect on the methods of work. If technology can evolve from the
Victorian era where there were no televisions or iPods to what we see before us
today than there should be no reason why we should not strive to stop the
children who are exploited daily, have no education and no hope in their lives
and try to give the children of the future a better chance in life where ever
they are in the world.
By looking at the diagram above we can see that the most
child labour occurs in Africa. Once again looking at the manufacturing pathway
of a pair of jeans we see that all the raw materials such as cotton come from
Africa. These are the jobs which require a lot of work but can be done by
children. As a result of Globalisation we can see that the demand for cotton
has increased and this has also pushed up the figures of child labour.
However there are positives to globalisation. The occurrence
of globalisation allows us to communicate faster via email, mobile messaging
and the internet. As a result we are all now connected to each other and able
to contact someone on the other side of the world which previously was never
possible. This increase in means and
accessibility of communication is one positive effect of globalisation. It is
now possible to order clothing from China and receive it within a week of
placing that order. Before globalisation this would not have been possible. The
world is shrinking and soon our Earth will just become a super computer. We all
are already linked into this computer and soon books and paper will not be
necessary. The amount of information
shared on the internet every hour in 2012 is more than the total amount shared
in the whole of 2003. This is evidence that our world is shrinking and everyone
is becoming closer and closer. This ability to learn more, share more and
connect more with people from all over the world is in effect the result of
globalisation. Globalisation will keep going until we all are touching. The
song “We’ve got the whole world in our hands” describes the future in my
opinion. Soon we will have the whole world at our fingertips. This is the
positive side to globalisation.
To conclude I think that Globalisation is an extremely
positive occurrence to anyone living in an MEDC. We feel the positive aspects
of this growth and development. We can now contact others, make a phone call to
Australia and order products from the U.S.A. However what we do not feel is the
knock on effect of this development. We do not feel the negative hard hitting
truths that the citizens and children of LEDC’s feel. I think that we should
take advantage of globalisation and learn to adapt to the future technology but
we should also see this global development as an opportunity to help and bring
the LEDC’s into the future as well. We do have the whole world in our hands. So
why don’t we lend that hand to the children of the LEDC’s.
Robert
Salvesen
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