Author: shoover4

To compliment Halperin’s discussion of the role of destabalization of African countries with the large import of cheap weapons during the Cold War in her chapter “The Globalization Redux,” there is another aspect of the fall of the USSR that greatly impacted the stability of African governments: the withdrawal of Soviet troops. This is an intriguing article because it discusses the impact of the loss of Soviet military support for the constrcution of modern day African countries, namely Angola. The article states: “In other countries, like Ethiopia, when the Soviet Union stopped backing the government, rulers were quickly ousted. Other Soviet-backed leaders, such as Benin’s Mathieu Kerekou, renounced Marxism and then lost multi-party elections.” Thus this period of the rise of new movements is also impacted by the loss of Soviet-supported regimes. This withdrawal of troops and funding is just one of many impacts of the collapse of the USSR.

In Desmarais’ discussion of La Via Campesina, African farmers were not as represented as farmers from other continents. She remarked that this is because African leaders wanted to establish a stronger regional identity and presence as small farmers before joining in the global movement. While this is not necessarily an article, I wanted to take this opportunity to draw attention to the African regional effort to establish food sovereignty and small farmer rights against land grabs and seed patents (exactly in line with La Via Campesina, just on a regional rather than global scale). The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa is a platform for mutliple organizations fighting for the rights of small farmer and African indigenous peoples. One of the most intersting concepts they focus on is “seed sovereignty.” I think this is a crucial terminology to include in the discussion of peasant and small farmer rights. Desmarais also discusses this concept (big business is controlling seed patents, making farmers dependent on the market for means of production – seed sovereignty thus is the right of small farmers to control their own seeds rather than relying on the market), but the phrase is crucial I think so that this discussion can be more widely known.

Polanyi’s discussion of anti-globalization movements mentions the various different ways that globalization is changing interactions, one of which is the changing social relations. ISIL, according to Polanyi’s definition, is very much an instance of an anti-globalization movement, going against the loss of community and non-Western identity (in this case, Muslim identity). In this context, the creation of ISIL, and the draw of foriengers to join the cause of creating a united Islamic State with a strong identity (very contrary to the loss of cultural identity and community of the globalized world) is understandable. This article from Aljazeera explains how the loss of meaningful social connections and the denial of differences of identity caused by the globalization project allows the creation and draw of ISIL. By examining a Belgian recruit’s experience, it is evident that the ramifications of globalization is present across the globale, not just the Global South. It supports the notion of what positive efforts to “combat extremism” can look like:

“Finding the right mix of punitive and preventive measures has proved challenging for the authorities. But social workers and policymakers in the town of Vilvoorde, near Brussels, believe they have found an effective balance. Although 28 people from the town have gone to fight in Syria, not one has left since May 2014, according to Mayor Hans Bonte. As a result, the mayor receives invitations from as far away as Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio, to share the town’s recipe for combating extremism.

“Vilvoorde’s formula? Bringing parents, friends, mentors and security personnel together to map possible recruits’ emotional well-being and devise a plan to reintegrate them into the community. This “injection of warmth” is paired with theological guidance provided by experts in Islam who can help alter people’s extremist outlook, Bonte said. There is no cookie-cutter profile of foreign fighters, he added. Those who have left Belgium for Syria include men and women from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, and their ages have ranged from 15 to 35. “What they all have in common is a feeling of rootlessness, of not belonging.”

“Alienation and indoctrination are recurring themes in the stories of those lured to Syria, according to Vrije Universiteit Brussel researcher Bilal Benyaich. Sharia4Belgium encouraged its members to stop talking to their parents, quit school, grow a beard and wear traditional Islamic clothing, according to court documents, and it offered them a place in an alternative community.”

This article from Aljazeera conveys how American big business is hampering the ability for new businesses to emerge. While there is a concept that the US economy is condusive to small business creation, this article argues that this is not possible in the current situation of the power nature of these huge corporations. Thus, business is getting older, as there is no room for new business to develop. This has huge implications on the creation of new jobs and sources of employment: “First, a 2001 study by economists Charles Brown of the University of Michigan and James L. Medoff of Harvard challenged the widely held belief that mature businesses pay higher wages. On the contrary, while mature firms offered better fringe benefits and greater job stability, older firms actually paid workers less than newer firms once the experience, education, skill and age of workers were taken into account. How could the older firms get away with paying less? Risk aversion: Workers who have a stable job with a firm that seems likely to endure are likely willing to tolerate less pay rather than take a gig for better pay at a new firm that may fail.”

In other words, the power these large firms hold is greatly impacting the creation of the Precatariat, and the subsequent lack of job security, low wages, and high turnover rates. A concerning trend indeed.

McMichael’s discussion of the International Division of the Environment is the concept that the extraction of resources, consumption and the dumping of these consumer goods are all divided amongst the power structures of the global economy. This National Geographic article discusses the impacts of e-waste “recycling” being dumped in Ghana, leaving environmental burden of consumption far away from Western consumers. The power structures at play in this disposal also depict the prevalence of how the exportation of environmental destruction is also an industry in itself, and dictated by the global elite. This portion of the article discusses the complex issue of who is responsible for the disposal, further emphasizing the prevalence of power imbalances dictating this division:

“Many governments, conscious that electronic waste wrongly handled damages the environment and human health, have tried to weave an international regulatory net. The 1989 Basel Convention, a 170-nation accord, requires that developed nations notify developing nations of incoming hazardous waste shipments. Environmental groups and many undeveloped nations called the terms too weak, and in 1995 protests led to an amendment known as the Basel Ban, which forbids hazardous waste shipments to poor countries. Though the ban has yet to take effect, the European Union has written the requirements into its laws.

The EU also requires manufacturers to shoulder the burden of safe disposal. Recently a new EU directive encourages “green design” of electronics, setting limits for allowable levels of lead, mercury, fire retardants, and other substances. Another directive requires manufacturers to set up infrastructure to collect e-waste and ensure responsible recycling—a strategy called take-back. In spite of these safeguards, untold tons of e-waste still slip out of European ports, on their way to the developing world.”

 

This article by “The Economist” analyzes China’s growth patterns. As China has been hailed as one of the fastest growing and most powerful economies globally, the very recent slow is an interesting point of examination. This ties in with our class discussions of what constitutes development, and how the globalizing effects of inclusion in the global economy impacts country growth. Interestingly, the article names the closed off nature of China’s financial system as both an asset in resilience to the recent crisis, allowing China’s economic growth to soar above other countries, but now this same resilience is harming China’s ability to pay back debt. This also raises questions about the concept of continuous growth.

The article discusses how the very factors that were able to keep the country afloat during the 2008 financial crisis (namely debt and the usage of credit) is now slowing and reversing growth trends, as financial system is relatively closed. As interesting piece of the article:

“The single most important development has been its credit binge. Total debt (including government, household and corporate) has climbed to about 250% of GDP, up 100 percentage points since 2008. This debt allowed China to power its economy through the global financial crisis but also saddled it with a heavy repayment burden. Most worrying, much of the credit flowed to property developers. China’s inventory of unsold homes sits at a record high. The real-estate sector, which previously accounted for some 15% of economic growth, could face outright contraction. New property starts fell by nearly a fifth in the first two months of 2015, compared with the same period a year earlier. From this vantage point, the abruptness of China’s current slowdown looks more cyclical than structural. A period of overheated economic growth tends to be followed by a correction. Not all cycles are created equal, however. Working off a credit overhang can take years. Given that China’s financial system is mostly closed, it has little risk of an acute crisis, but the other side of the coin is that it might need even longer to clean up its bad debts.”