project topic

1:food crisis, 2:hi5/facebook, 3:financial crisis

American Elections

Already, the fact that the American Elections is watched world wide proves and shows the extent of globalization today. It shows just how much countries are interelated and what happens in one often affects another. I have not been really watching the elections continuously. It will affect me in some ways for sure, but to what degree? If the future president chooses to regulate immigration to the US even more or enforce further regulations on immigrants in the US then I'll be affected, if I choose to go to the US (Canada is not bad). Their new foreign policy will affect the world, so me as well. I think discussion between the candidates is beneficial for the public. They will defend their opinion and voters as well as just viewers will be able to have a better idea of each candidates ideas and plans compared to the other. It will also give an idea of how each candidate is able to defend his opinion and if president, the interests of the country. It gives an idea of the candidates political capability in some way. Topics I'd like to hear during the debate are : each countries foreign policy, approach towards immigration, opinion on Iraq and Guantanamo and what changes each candidate plans to install or not and why.

McCain & Obama

Next November will stand the US presidential elections. All the world is turned to this event because many things are about to change. Also it is the first time for America to see a black man candidate to the presidential which is giving again more importance to the event. Last Saturday, there was the first political debate between the two candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. I guess lot of things will change in the world after the elections, but I am not optimist concerning Africa.
As a matter of facts the US has lot of problems currently not solved. First we have the war in Iraq which is very problematic and that both candidates do not forget to mention in their first concerns although they do not have the same way to see things. Barack Obama for example, if is the next president, intend to repatriate all the American soldiers, while McCain would like America to win first before coming back. They also want to solve the economical problem in America which is starting to touch the whole world. Another issue which is often mentioned in debates and that I think was part of last Saturday debate is the immigration problem.
This problem is subdivided in two. First, there is the problem of the immigrants who are already inside the country as illegal residents who cannot work, or do it illegally. This is really problematic when we know that there are families in the US which are there without paper since a very long time. Then, the second problem is those who still try to get inside the US illegally by every means possible. This issue is to be taken seriously and I think that both candidates understood that such as the others.
Regarding these, I cannot believe that Africa’s condition will change so quickly after the elections. The next American president will have to solve their inside problems first before thinking of the rest of the world. However, because in a certain way what America does affects the whole world we will somehow feel some little changes like maybe the way people will now get into the US for example.

Ecology and Deforestation?

Through John Robinson’s text “Sustainability” the ecological imperative can be defined as the imperative “to stay within the biophysical carrying capacity of our planet.” Other words, to keep a balance and preserve the different ecosystems on our planet in order to sustain a proper natural balance. As it seems most all ecosystems are linked somewhere, so by destroying one you affect another and the chain moves on. Deforestation is becoming an important ecological issue to our world. Forests are responsible for converting a major part of carbon-dioxide in the air into oxygen. It inhabits millions of species of animals and plants but is know being cleared for farming or construction in South America or being cut to make toothpicks for luxurious Japanese dinners as Benjamin Barber says it. Development is progressing at the expense of forests, which could in the future have serious ecological effects on our world, animals and temperature.

Ecological Imperative: GLOBAL WARMING

Barber in his paper “Jihad vs. McWorld” talked about four imperatives when speaking of the McWorld. Between these four, he mentioned an ecological imperative. When discussing in class about the paper, we said that global warming was an example of an ecological imperative.
An ecological imperative would be for the McWorld a consequence touching the whole globe inexorably. In the paper, Barber gave some examples to illustrate this like the planet possibly being asphyxiated because the Brazilians are cutting trees in the tropical forest in order to get land for growing crops. So how is global warming relevant as an example of ecological imperative?
The issue with global warming is that it is menacing the whole planet and not just a part of the earth. The whole planet is getting hotter. To me there is not even more relevant example as this one because everywhere on the planet if you attempt for example to the ozone layer, the consequences would be worldwide. Therefore, because factories all over the world pollute the air and alter the ozone layer, the ices are melting at both hemispheres. As a matter of facts in both expressions “globalization” and “global warming” there is the same idea of something global which means that it is occurring everywhere.

Globalisation: Jihad and McWorld

Benjamin Barber explains the occurrence of two contradictory phenomena. He names them “Jihad” and “McWorld”. He explains “McWorld” like globalization we understand today with “a market imperative, a resource imperative, an information-technology imperative, and an ecological imperative” but beyond simple interpretation, it describes a moving away from democracy. Barber claims “McWorld” promises a lot (as for globalization), however “at the cost of independence, community and identity.” To the correct running of “Mcworld”, is needed freedom, tranquility and a no war state. The author sites Saddam Hussein as in example, explaining, if not for thriving war with neighboring countries, no intervention would have been likely on the bases of his many crimes. Through Barber, McWorld is thriving for peasable undisturbed economic activity at the expense of other values. Governments are also omitting certain powers to international institutions in which Barber explains “International law ceases to be vision of justice and becomes a workday framework.”
“Jihad” expresses a strong will for nationalism. “More than thirty wars in progress last year, most of them ethnic, racial, tribal, or religious in character” explained Benjamin Barber. He furthers his argument with Soviet Georgia haven gained independence and now facing demands of independence by Ossetians and Abkhasians (minorities in the state). These claims hold true when observing the many ethnic and religious conflicts that have arisen this past decade. It is possible that in the midst of being open to and now connected to the millions across the world, individuals search for their own identity and belonging and attempt to figure out what is right amongst all the bads that flow through nations. Maybe as a reaction to the visible negative aspects of globalization, groups feel a need to isolate and regroup themselves for their own benefit. Some say the problems are deep rooted and have just been surfacing more these past years. It visibly clear that “Jihad” is happening but I am not completely convinced that it is in big part due to globalization or to be associated to globalization. I believe it has been mediated more now a days, but has been around since and just plainly reflects certain people’s true wants without needing to go into globalization.
I do not agree however to the claim that democracy and globalization cannot move together. I think people and governments are realizing even more now the drawbacks to globalization and are securing for safer advance towards further advancement. Each country and government searches for their own interest in globalization, so the final outcome will be whatever the people choose benefits them best. I think most people rather obey and listen to their own government then some foreign institution, so local governments won’t lose power nor agree to give up all authority and control.

Jihad vs. Mcworld

The « Jihad vs. Mcworld » paper describes two tendencies occurring currently and going against each other. On one hand, we have the Jihad which is defined as the whole of conflicts of ethnicities, religion or the problem of nationalism that divide the world. On the other hand, we have the Mcworld which is the flow of information, people and capitals in another word, the system of connection existing between countries and reducing boundaries. Then, it is said in the paper that neither Jihad nor Mcworld is promoting democracy and that democracy wouldn’t survive with them.
After reading the paper, I found it very sensible when it comes to define the two tendencies. As a matter of facts, with new technologies that allow us to communicate all over the world to trade online, food travelling everywhere and computers, the Mcworld is very visible. Also when the paper talks about Jihad, I agree with it because by following world’s event you hear a lot about civil wars, religious conflicts and also conflicts of ethnicities. And it is obvious that the two of them are contradictory when one is trying to unify the world and the second one to divide it.
However, when it comes to say that both tendencies Jihad and Mcworld do not need democracy and do not promote it I remain a little bit skeptical. I might not have got it but I think that democracy can survive with the Mcworld. Let us first define democracy. Wikipedia defines it as a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system. I think that although people with the Mcworld will care a lot about their business and the markets, they will still need to live in a society where their rights are respected and where they have a freedom of decision. However with the Jihad I do believe in democracy no longer because I think that there is no democracy in a place where there is war. To me war imposes its own system of regulation and therefore, we cannot speak of democracy anymore.

Awaiting Comments

Part 1 : Response Assigned readings 1/2 (Cooper Fred)

Cooper Fred makes an analysis of globalization through significant events of the past decades. He explores often avoided topics/sides to globalization. In his work he looks into three principal historic events, that of the slave trade, colonization and the current diamond trade going on in war torn areas Sierra Leone and Angola.
Slave trade as an example of globalization? Some feel globalization should be centered on today’s happenings only or a clear separation between past and present globalization should be established. Which ever, let us first study the case of the slave trade.
The slave trade to begin was a clear exchange between peoples and regions. In Africa it brought western technology, weapons and ideas. In the Americas it brought labor and new people which supplied the sugar industry and to Europe it brought sugar, which is not native to the continent nor can be grown there. So as it seems there should be no reason to not include the slave trade when talking about globalization, what it is and it’s history. Looking closer into the picture, a race of people were enslaved, forcefully relocated, placed into forced labor and their rights taken away.

Africa in Globalization

Frederick Cooper is dealing with the Globalization from the eye of an African historian. For him in the term globalization, we must notice two ideas. The first one is the idea of “global” and the second, of “ization”. His point is that the “global” evokes the flows of information, capitals, commodities, while the “ization” indicates an on-going process meaning that globalization is a continuing phenomena. Therefore, speaking of an on-going process, we should first make a rappel on the history of Africa in globalization. This is why he mentions farther in his document the slavery trade, the colonization and the history of sugar, trying to find a connection with the globalization.
As a matter of facts, under all these, there was a structure, a connection, all a system established between nation-states to operate well. This was already a kind of globalization where Africa took part. Today, Africa no more has the same connection with the rest of the world. In fact, Frederick Cooper’s point is how connections change between nation-states and continents. Studying the role of Africa in the process of globalization, how are made the connections between continents and which are they, which are the limits and their changes are the matters of globalization.

What is globalization

Globalization was defined on Wikipedia as "the process or transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones."