GLOBALIZATION HAS LED THE WORLD TO BECOME A GLOBAL VILLAGE

Globalization has led the world to become a global village. But, what are the different aspects of this process?

According to Thomas L. Friedman globalization can be defined as “the inexorable integration of markets, nations-states and technology to a degree never witnessed before … in a way that is enabling individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before, and in a way that is enabling the world to reach into individuals, corporations, and nation-states farther, faster, deeper than ever before.”

Moreover, globalization has allowed people to be in contact with people from all over the world in a matter of seconds due to the use of the Internet, cellphones and computers. They have also allowed people to connect to each other and learn about every aspect of every culture around the globe. In this way, we have access to other´s countries ideas, costumes, habits, happenings, etc. For instance, we can buy food from other countries or regions. For example, we can buy sushi in whatever restaurant in Montevideo.  

Furthermore, globalization has unified the world through the English language. It has affected education around the world because in many countries students have to learn English since elementary school. This is the case of China where English is one of the most important courses and has to be learnt since elementary school. It has also affected education because we have to learn about other cultures and being informed of what is happening around the world.

However, globalization has negative aspects too. Globalization kills culture. The number of language has steadily decreased since the early 16^th century. The biggest decline occurred in the late 1990s as it dropped about 200% (Francis, 2004).

In addition, transnational companies such as McDonald’s, Google, WAL*MART, Nike, Microsoft have a great impact on our lives. Some of them are becoming more powerful than democratelly-elected governments. Today, there are more than 70.000 transnational companies. For example, McDonald´s is now available in over 100 countries and it disrupts the local eating habits, especially among the younger generations, increasing obesity rates. People argue that they buy fast food because it is cheap, easy and fast.  Nike shoes, pants, shirts are made by workers in countries such as in Saipan, Vietnam and Indonesia where the owners make their workers work more than 24 hours straight and only pay them less than 2 dollars. Many of the people who work in this kind of sweatshops cannot even work enough to support themselves and in some cases women are forced to have abortion. We can all try to stop these sweatshops by buying fair trade products from that assure that the people work in good living conditions.

Thus, globalization has also spread forced labor, human trafficking in a massive scale, exploitation, etc. For example, it was discovered some months ago that the multinational Nike had offered jobs to people from Malaysia. They were forced to sign a three year contract in a language they could not read and their passports were confiscated. They were trapped. For this reason, in order to buy their passports back, they had to live and work in unhealthy conditions. Many of the people who work in this kind of sweatshops cannot even work enough to support themselves and in some cases women are forced to have abortion. We can all try to stop these sweatshops by buying fair trade products from that assure that the people work in good living conditions.

Taking everything into account, globalization is a process in which the people of the world have been unified in a single society. But, as every process, it has positive and negative aspects.