The globalization of indifference

For example in Nigeria accident victims are far more likely to be rescued by Good Samaritans than by any government sponsored rescue team. The increasing spread of apathy, unconcern and lack of sympathy was highlighted during the recent migrant boat disasters in Italy. Hundreds perished when boats sank as they were trying to enter Europe […]

For example in Nigeria accident victims are far more likely to be rescued by Good Samaritans than by any government sponsored rescue team. The increasing spread of apathy, unconcern and lack of sympathy was highlighted during the recent migrant boat disasters in Italy. Hundreds perished when boats sank as they were trying to enter Europe illegally and confirmed reports stated that some private vessels passed illegal migrants drowning in the water and did nothing to help.  The head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Francis said the reports had been like “a thorn in the heart” and he thanked rescuers profusely for taking in the survivors and setting an example of solidarity to a selfish society which he correctly diagnosed as sliding into “the globalization of indifference”. Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture. Advances in the areas of transportation and telecommunications infrastructure including the Internet are major factors in enhancing glo-balization. In 2000 the International Monetary Fund identified the basic ingredients of globalization as trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of peoples and the dissemination of knowledge. Supporters of globalization claim it is good because anyone can now buy shoes from Japan, T-shirts from Malaysia, and jeans from Pakistan rather than relying only on whatever is produced locally. They claim that instead of having 100 different people re-inventing the wheel without contacting each other globalization allows the brainpower of the world to converge on a certain problem.  Nothing in economics is exclusively good or bad and there are arguments both for and against globalization. Monetary economists claim it is good because it increases efficiency and the profit potential of big business by making specialization in labor global, and passing on low labor costs in one country to another where the costs of the same factor are higher. It spreads investment globally so that the profits of the investors in maximized thereby encouraging techni-cal innovation worldwide. However socio-economists say that globalization is bad because it has turned the world into a consumer culture to the extent that world culture has become that of the biggest corporations (Levi’s Jeans, Kentucky Fried Chicken, IPod etc) instead of nurturing the particular quirks of a certain region. Globalization goes for the biggest, the best, and the easiest to transport and deprives the poor of their livelihood. The human being is relegated to being only a factor of production to be used to the maximum and workers in poorer countries suffer because they only benefit through low paid jobs, and are denied the benefits that workers in developed countries consider to be their rights. It’s clear that globalization has failed to rid the world of poverty and rather than being an unstoppable force for development now appears to be an illusion promising riches to everyone but only delivering to the few.  Many developing countries have done exactly what global free market evangelists such as Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told them and have failed to reap any benefits. The truth is that no industrialized economy developed through such policies and the success stories of America, Japan and Asian economies were achieved through protectionist mea-sures. Globalization has many unwanted effects such as the power of global financial markets to adversely affect the sovereignty of countries by limiting government’s ability to set taxes and exchange rates.  Organizations such as the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organization were not elected by anybody and really have no right to say how countries should run their affairs. These organizations only serve the interests of the US and to a lesser extent the other rich countries. Their only role is to peddle the neo-liberal orthodoxy – the Washington consensus – that only impoverishes the poor nations and maximizes profit of multinationals. In addition environmental challenges such as climate change, cross-boundary water, air-pollution, and over fishing of the oceans are also linked with globalization. The truth is globalization is destroying everything that does not originate from the US. It destroys not only other country’s economies but perhaps even worse it is destroying their cultures. Youth worldwide now dress in American street gangster attire. Young men commonly wear earrings and young girls get tattooed as in America. Experimentation with drugs, Hip-hop culture, gang crime, and inhumanity are all imported from the USA. The Pope hit the nail in the head. How can a world so full of compassionate cultures be dominated by a culture of indifference?  Are we so inundated with stories of tragedies that we no longer care? Have the self-first un-compassionate attitudes of western cultures taken over the whole world? How can anyone be so ungodly as to watch people dying without assisting? The revered Late Pope John Paul II warned Muslims, Christians and other believers in God to concentrate on the essential belief that unites us and stop accentuating our differences. He warned against “aggressive atheism”.  Caring for others is an essential part of all religions. In the old days those who didn’t believe in God kept it to themselves. Now with Church bombings, killings in Mosques, extremist religious terrorism and religious genocide atheists are having a field day. The only way mankind can prosper is to become more Godly, caring and compassionate. Globalization of US mili-tary control, American style economies, and of US Presidential systems may indeed be beneficial but the worst aspect of glo-balization is our adoption of an American culture of selfishness, racism, incon-sideration and apathy.