Globalisation The Prospects And Challenges Politics Essay

Globalisation The Prospects And Challenges Politics Essay Without an iota of doubt it can be said that one of the metanarratives of our time is globalisation. Indeed, the phrases like the world has become a global village have become clichà ©s. To quote Fred Halliday Globalization has become, over the past few years, the catchword of international economic and political analysis. [Halliday, 2000, pp. 238] David Held and Anthony Mcgrew have expressed this in a slightly different way Indeed, globalization is in danger of becoming, if it has not already become, the clichà © of our times: the big idea which encompasses everything from global financial markets to the Internet but which delivers little substantive insight into the contemporary human condition [Held, Mcgrew, et al. 1999, pp. 1] They then superinduce globalization reflects a widespread perception that the world is rapidly being moulded into a shared social space by economic and technological forces and that developments in one region of the world can have profound consequences f or the life chances of individuals or communities on the other side of the globe.[Ibid] Here in this paper, first we will deal with the definitional and conceptual aspects of globalization. Then we will focus on the prospects and challenges of globalization. Finally, we will try to arrive at a cogent conclusion. Globalization has been defined by different writers in different ways. Indeed, it has got different meanings to different people. According to Anthony Mcgrew, in simplest terms, globalization refers to widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness [Mcgrew in Smith and Baylis (ed), pp. 20]. Martin Griffiths and Terry O Callaghan have defined is as the acceleration and intensification of mechanisms, processes and activities that are allegedly promoting global interdependence and perhaps ultimately global political and economic integration. It is, therefore, a revolutionary concept, involving the deterritorialisation of social, political, economic, and cultural life. [Griffiths and OCollaghan, 2004, pp. 126-127]. According to Steve Smith and John Baylis, globalization is the process of increasing interconnectedness between societies such that events in one part of the world have more and more effects on peoples and societies for away. They have also conceptualized the global world as one in which political, economic, cultural and social events become more and more impact. [Smith and Baylis ed, 2005, pp. 8] It is to be viewed not as a mere series of reforms giving free rein to transnational companies but as a radical programme to reshape the entire, economic, political, legal and ideological landscape of capitalism [Zuege, Leys et al (ed), 2006, pp. 1]. Amiya Kumar Bagchi has provided a different interpretation of globalization in his paper Womans Employment and well-being in a Globalising world as a deliberate concatenation and control of processes of production, exchange, information and services by the rich in rich nations of the world in collusion with the rich of most countries so as to increase their own power and wealth at the cost of the poor and disadvantaged everywhere. [Bagchi in Kar (ed), 2005, pp. 276] We may cite a few more definitions of globalization In words of Giddens, globalization refers to the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. [Quoted in Smith and Baylis (ed), 2005, pp. 24] Gilpin calls it The integration of the world-economy. [Ibid]. Scholte conceptualizes it in terms of De-territorialisation or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the growth of supraterritorial relations between people. [Ibid] David Harvey defines globalization in terms of time space compression. [Ibid] Anthony Mcgrew defines globalisation as a historical process involving a fundamental shift or transformation in the spatial scale of human social organization that links distant communities and expands the reach of power relations across regions and continents. [Mcgrew in Smith and Baylis (ed), 2005, pp. 24] In his presidential address to the 78th Annual Conference of the Indian Economic Association (28-30 Dec, 1995), Deepak Nayyar defined globalization as the expansion of economic activities across political boundaries of the nation states. More important, perhaps, it refers to a process of increasing economic integration and growing economic inter-dependence between countries in the world economy. It is associated not only with an increasing cross-border movement of goods, services, capital, technology, information and people also with an organization of economic activities which straddles national boundaries. [Nayyar, 1996, pp. 1] Held and Mcgrew have written, A satisfactory definition of globalization must capture each of these elements : extensity (stretching), intensity, velocity and impact. And a satisfactory account of globalization must examine them thoroughlyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. By acknowledging these dimensions a mere precise definition of globalization can be offered. Accordingly, globalization can be thought of as: a process (or set of process) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and impact generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction, and the exercise of power. [Held and Mcgrew (ed), 1999, pp. 15-16]. According to C. Sheela Reddy, Globalisation is a complex, multidimensional, social, economic, cultural, technological and political process in which the mobility of capital, ideas, technology, organizations and people has acquired a growing global and transnational form. Advances in new technology (in particular information and communications technology), cheaper and quicker transport, trade, liberalization, increase in financial flows and growth in the size and power of corporations are its distinctive features. It is a blessing to people benefitting from the new opportunities. At the same time others are being left behind in poverty, effectively marginalized from the hopes that globalization holds out. [Reddy, 2008, pp. 84] Thus, from the above definitions, we may reiterate some important aspects of globalization like increasing interaction of social, economic, and political activity, relative deterritorialisation and de-nationalisation of the state, increasing movements of good and services, deregulation of national economy and so on. Anthony Mcgrew observes that globalization is characterized by a stretching of social, political and economic activities across political frontiers. the intensification, or the growing magnitude of interconnectedness in almost every sphere of social existence. the accelerating pace of global interactions and processes as the evolution of world wide systems of transport and communication. the growing extensity, intensity and velocity of global interactions. [Mcgrew in Steve and Baylis (ed), 2005, pp. 22] PERIODISATION OF GLOBALISATION: The periodisation of the process of globalization has been a matter of intense debate. Some regard it as a new phenomenon, while others regard it as the new phase of an old phenomenon and thus old wine in a new bottle. Chandan Sengupta has written One opinion is that the concept of globalization dates back to the voyage of discovery in the 15th century. According to Immanuel Wallerstein, the capitalist economic foundation of globalization was laid as early as in the16th century. Ronald Roberstson traced the historical temporal path of globalization to the present complex structure of global system through five phases: (i) the germinal (1400-1750) phase of dissolution of christendom an emergence of nationalism in Europe, (ii) the incipient (1750-1875) phase of nation state and the initial phase of internationalism and universalism in Europe, (iii) the take off (1875-1925) phase of conceptualization of the world as a single international society, global calendar, first world war, mass international migration and inclusion of non-Europeans in the international club of nation states; (iv) the struggle for hegemony (1925-1969) phase of cold war, the emergence of legue of Nations and the UN, and the emergence of third world, and (v ) the uncertainty (1969-1992) phase of space exploration, recognition of global environmental problem and global mass media, via space technology [ ] The roots of newly emerging forces of globalization have been traced in specific economic and political developments in the late 1980s or early 1990s. [Sengupta, 2001, pp. 3137] TWO PERSPECTIVES OF THE CONCEPTUAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF GLOBALISATION: According to Chandan Sengupta, there are two broad contexts in which globalization has been defined. These two contexts are not very far from one another. One is the economic context, the other that of non-economic which broadly includes socio-cultural, historical and political dimensions of globalization. Such a division of however, the author admits, in reality appear to be false because it is difficult to observe cultural dimensions of globalization totally independent of its material aspects. Scholars like Immanuel Wallerstein have resorted to the first perspective. While, Giddens, Robertson and Waters et. al, have tried to look globalization through the prism of socio-cultural perspective. [Ibid, pp. 3138]. THE GLOBALISATION DEBATE AND THE THREE SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT: Anthony, Mcgrew, David Held et. al have pointed out three broad schools of thought in relation to the globalization debate namely the hyperglobalizers, the sceptics, and the transformationalists. In essence each of these schools may be said to represent a distinctive account. We will highlight briefly what these theses are: For the hyperglobalisers, such as Ohmae, contemporary globalization defines a new era in which peoples everywhere are increasingly subject to the disciplines of the global marketplace. By contrast the sceptics, such as Hirst and Thompson, argue that globalization is essentially a myth which conceals the reality of an international economy increasingly segmented into three major regional blocs in which national governments remain very powerful. Finally, for the transformationalists, chief among them being Rosenau and Giddens, contemporary patterns of globalization are conceived as historically unprecedented such that states and societies across the globe are experiencing a process of profound change as they try to adapt to a more interconnected but highly uncertain world. Interestingly more of these three schools map directly on to traditional ideology positions or worldviews. [Held and Mcgrew, et. al, 1999, pp. 2] Held and others have also summarized the three dominant tendencies of globalization debate in a tabular form as follows. Conceptualizing globalization: three tendency Hyperglobalists Sceptics Transformationalists Whats new? A global age Trading blocs, weaker geogoverance than in earlier periods Historically unprecedented levels of global interconnectedness Dominant features Global capitalism, global governance, global civil society World less interdependent than in 1890s Thick'(intensive and extensive) globalization Power of national governments Declining or eroding Reinforced or enhanced Reconstituted restructured Driving forces of globalization Capitalism and technology States and markets Combined forces of modernity Pattern of stratification Erosion of old hierarchies Increased marginalization of south New architecture of world orders Dominant motif McDonalds, Madonna etc. National interest Transformation of political community Conceptualization of globalization As a reordering of the framework of human action As internationalization in regionalisation As reordering of interregional relations and actions at a distance Historical trajectory Global civilization Regional blocs / clash of civilizations Indeterminate global integration and fragmentation Summery argument The end of the nation-state Internationalisation depends on state acquiescence and support Globalization transformation state power and world politics [Ibid, pp. 10] It is noteworthy that when it comes to the sources of contention in the globalization debate, Held and others have mentioned five principal sources namely conceptualization causation periodisation impacts and the trajectories of globalization. [Held and Mcgrew et al.,1999,p10 ] It is not the purpose of this paper to explore them all at length. So, we will limit our discussion to the prospects and challenges of globalization only. PROSPECTS OF GLOBALISATION: Globalisation is a double edged phenomenon. It has got prospects as well as challenges. As regards the prospects or post dimensions of globalization, Smith and Baylis have written: The pace of economic transformation is so great that it has created a new world politics. States are no longer closed units and they cannot control their economies. The world economy is more interdependent than ever, wit trade and finances ever expanding. Communications have fundamentally revolutionized the way we deal with the rest of the world. We now live in a world where events in one location can be immediately observed in the other side of the world. Other side of the world. Electronic communications alter our notions of the social groups we work and live in. There is now, more than ever before, a global culture, so that most urban areas resemble one another. The world shares a common culture, much of it emanating from Hollywood. The world is becoming more homogeneous. Differences between peoples are diminishing. Time and space seem to be collapsing. Our old ideas of geographical space and of chronological time are undermined by the speed of modern communications and media. There is emerging a global polity, with transnational social and political movements and the beginnings of a transfer of allegiance from the state to sub-state, transnational, and international bodies. A cosmopolitan culture is developing. People are beginning to think globally and act locally. A risk culture is emerging with people realizing both that the main risks that face them are global (pollution and AIDS) and that states are unable to deal with the problems. [Smith and Baylis, 2005, pp. 10-11] C. Sheela Reddy wrote about the positive dimensions of globalizations as follows Increasing economic opportunities for countries to find markets in which their labour forces can compete effectively. Opportunities for countries with institutional and technical infrastructure to attract investments. Increasing consumer choice and falling prices for individuals around the world. Increasing protection of vulnerable groups, as communications technology facilitates global awareness and actions by international solidarity and human rights movements. Better protection of the right to seek, receive and impact information through new communication tools including cellular phones, satellite television and the internet. The right of freedom of association or freedom of assembly for which physical presence is no longer required due to new communication tools. Facilitating exchange of information on social policies and services, access to educational information and multicultural link with people of other cultures. [Reddy, 2008, pp. 86] Certain writers argue that now national boundaries do not stand in way of process of an individual or a community thanks to globalization. Men (and women) have gained access to the treasure of knowledge and culture which is the product of genius all over the world. Now local communities have the opportunity to benefit from technology information, services, and markets available anywhere in the world. Finally, globalization has created an awareness regarding the global environment all over the world, and different nations have come to recognize global problems as a matter of their individual and collective responsibility [Gauba, 2005, pp. 173] Another section of writers who strike a balance between the merits and demerits of globalization have noted that globalisation has raised per capita income in the world to three times since 1945; it has created awareness regarding environment, and congenial conditions for disarmament. It has brought the condition of subordinate groups to limelight and inspired them to form their global organizations for their emancipation. It has also liberated them from the ideological domination of their local communities and enabled them to fight for their legitimate rights. [Ibid] As regard the impact of globalization on women, Lene Sjorup has written: women are ( ) involved in globalization at a number of interlocking, diverse and sometimes even contradictory levels. They may very well be the victims of one aspect of globalization, while they remain central actors in other aspects. Why, I ask myself, paint a picture of an overwhelming enemy confronting women, when a more detailed socio-religio-political analysis shows that women participate in complicated ways in global developments? Women surely are confronted with a number of obstacles at many levels. But, why use a mega-term like globalisation for describing the arch-enemy, instead of analyzing the many forms of oppression women face within the process of globalization, and including those from which we also benefit. [Sjorup, 1997, pp. 97] Thus, it would be wrong to treat globalization as a total anathema. As regards the future of globalization, Stanley Fischer (the first Deputy Managing Director of IMF) commented to Closing Panel Discussion of IMF on Aug 26, 2000: What about the future (of globalization)? Two cheering observations to begin with: First, most developing countries continue to liberalize trade despite their complaints about the global trading system. We calculate an index of trade barriers for individual IMF member countries. Almost uniformly, it shows that barriers to trade have been declining in the developing countries. They understand that unilateral trade liberalization is in their own interest, they are arguing for the advanced countries to open up not for themselves to close down and that is good news. Second, despite the recent crisis, capital accounts in almost all emerging market countries have remained open. And the two largest economies with relatively closed capital accounts. They understand that is the best way to go. They understand that is the best way to go. They are doing it cautiously and gradually and they are right to do it that way. But the direction in which they are moving is clear. Policy-makers in almost all developing countries have no intention of reversing the process of capital account opening, despite their complaints over much of what is going on in the world, and despite their concerns over the recent crises. [http: // www.imf.org/external / np/ speeches/2000/082600.htm. visited on 21/03/10 at 8.30 p.m] He has also mentioned two forecasts.The first is conditional : if we, and this means policy makers of the advanced countries and the international institutions, manage the processes well and bring the developing countries into the process of globalization, it will continue, to the potential benefit of all and to the likely benefit of almost all. And, second, there will be surprises along the way. [Ibid] CHALLENGES OF GLOBALISATION: The rewards of globalization has not been uniform and equitable. It has benefitted only a certain category of states and people. M.A. Ommen has even called it a contrived phenomenon. He cites three reasons why globalization is not the culmination of a natural process: Firstly, the world today is virtually governed by the G-7 countries (the USA, the UK, Japan, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy). The IMF, World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO), the avatar of GATT, are neatly co-opted into the process of the economic management of the world. Second, science and technology are not a free pursuit. They are in captivity, so to say. The military powers (this includes the former Soviet Union) and transnational corporations (TNCS) have manipulated science technology for power and profit. This trend continues. The end of cold war has not materially altered the situation. Third, the United States of America as Prof. Vernon points out, has been trying to create an international system in its own image has pioneered the so-called development ideology to counter communism. [Ommen, 1995, pp.75] GLOBALISATION : THE NEW AVATAR OF IMPERIALISM Some scholars are viewing globalization as the new face of imperialism. They are of the view that imperialist globalization is gradually spreading its wings to cast an abysmally dark shadow world over. Thinkers like Ranen sen are very much critical of this contretemps. He writes Globalisation is paving the way for the US imperialism which is out to exploit the unipolar geopolitics. Militarization and more aggressive programmes are designed within framework of hegemenistic objectives of the CIS authorities à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Washington has a long-term plan to destabilize the south and central Asian countries which have untapped hydrocarbon resource. Afghanistan has a massive resource of natural gas and Iraq has a developed oil industry. The US scheme of subversion in Afghanistan, Iraq and adjacent countries in nothing new. After becoming the hegemonistic ruler of world capitalist order, following the collapse of the USSR, Wash ington pressed Pentagon more vigorously into service to dominate the oil and natural gas sectors in those countries.[Sen in Kar (ed) 2005, pp. 93-94] It is often claimed that globalization has led to the increasing interdependence. Now, the basic questions concern. Interdependence among and who are the beneficiaries? Samit Kar writes in the preface of GLOBALISATION : ONE WORLD MANY VOICES [pp. 12] Is this interdependence of world society real or tilted in favour of the richer nations? Neo-Marxists are also apprehensive of the lopsided development brought by globalization Robert Cox and other neo-Marxists à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ stress the uneven hierarchical nature of economic globalization. The global economic power is increasingly concentrated in the leading industrialised countries, including the United States, Japan, and the States of Western Europe. That means the economic globalization will not benefit the impoverished masses of the Third World. Nor will it improve the living standards of the poor in the highly industralised countries. [Jackson and Sorensen, 2003, pp. 217] Mahuya Chakrabarty writes in the same vein in the article Free Market Globalisation: Oil conflict and US aggression-This so-called free market globalization does not actually mean the spread of productive capital in the world but the accelerated accumulation and concentration of capital in the few imperialist countries, chiefly the US. Liberalization, p rivatization and deregulationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the key factors attached with free market globalization à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. have accelerated the outflow of social weather created by the people from the neo-colonies to the neo-imperialist countries. Here, the principal actor is the MNCs à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the multinational agencies like the IMF, World Bank and WTO. [Chakrabarty in Kar (ed), 2005, pp. 108] Ranen Sen has written Globalisation is a bid to restructure the power and politics of developed capitalist countries under the US hegemony. It is in a way to recolonization through the trinity of World Bank, IMF and WTO. [Sen in Kar (ed), 2005, pp. 94] In the same tune Petras and Polychroniou, have pointed out the real nature and motives of these financial institutions These institutions were controlled by appointees of the respective imperial states and their function was to displace national markets and local producers and undermine popular social legislation in order to facilitate the entry of multinationals and the primacy of domestic export elites producing for the markets of the imperial counties. [Petras and Polychroniou, 1997, pp. 2251] GLOBALISATION AND UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT: The process of globalization is highly uneven. Deepak Nayyar observes There are less than a dozen developing countries which are an integral part of globalization in the late twentieth century. Argentina, Brazil and Mexico in Latin America and Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in Asia. These eleven countries accounted for about 30 percent of total exports from developing countries during the period 1970-1980. This share rose to 59 per cent in 1990 and 66 per cent in 1992. The same countries, excluding Korea, were also the main recipients of direct investment in the developing world accounting for 66 per cent of the average annual inflows during the period 1981-1991à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ this evidence suggests that globalization is most uneven in its spread and there is an exclusion in the process. Sub-Saharan Africa, West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia are simply not in the picture, apart from many co untries in Latin America, Asia and the Pacific which are left out altogether. [Nayyar, 1996, pp. 15] Nayyar also notes that the benefits of integration with the world economy, through globalization, would accrue only to those countries which have laid the requisite foundations for industrialization and development. This means investing in the development of human resources and the creation of a physical infrastructure. This means the acquisition of technological and managerial capabilities at a micro-level. This means the creation of institutions that would regulate, govern and facilitate the functioning of markets. In each of these pursuits, strategic forms of state intervention are essential. The countries which have not created these pre-conditions could end up globalizing prices without globalizing incomes. In the process, a narrow segment of their population may be integrated with the world economy, in terms of consumption patterns or living styles, but a large proportion of their population may be marginalized even further. [Ibid, pp. 16] According to C. Sheela Reddy, the benefits of economic globalization have not accrued to the majority due to certain adverse consequences like: The increase of inequalities among regions and nations, within nations and among individuals The continued growth of poverty. The increase of peoples vulnerability due to social risks such as unemployment and crime. The decrease in opportunities for regions, nations, communities and individuals to enjoy the benefits and advantages provided by globalization. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Thus the benefits of globalization are not uniformly enjoyed at present as many people still live in poverty and the result of alleviation efforts are uneven within and between the regions of the world. [Reddy, 2008, pp. 87-88] Hirst and Thompson have made a very harsh criticism of globalization. According to them, the most extreme versions of globalizations are a myth. In support of this claim, they have offered five arguments. First, the present internationalized economy is not unique in history. In some respects they say it is less open than the international economy between 1870 and 1914. Second, they find that genuinely transnational companies are relatively rare, most are national companies trading internationally. There is no trend towards the development of international companies. Third, there is no shift of finance and capital from the developed to the underdeveloped worlds. Direct investment is highly concentrated amongst the countries of the developed world. Fourth, the world-economy is not global, rather trade, investment, and financial flows are concentrated in and between three blocs Europe, North America, and Japan. Finally, they argue this group of three blocs could, if they co-ordinated p olicies, regulate global economic markets and forces [quoted in Smith , Baylis, 2005, p. 11] We will highlight here some other challenges of globalization First it must be borne in mind that competitive markets may be the best guarantee of efficiency, but not of equity. And markets are neither the first not the last word in human development. There was a time when many activities and goods that are crucial to human development were provided outside the market à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ but these are now being squeezed by the pressure of global competition. The policy of structural adjustment which was forced on most of the third world countries has reduced the amount of government expenses in health, employment as well as in education sector, subsequently making the people of the third world the victim of globalization. Second, unequal distribution: When the market goes too far in dominating social and political outcome, the opportunities and reward of globalization spread unequally and inequitably à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. concentrating power and values in a select group of people, nations and corporations, marginalizing the others. When the market goes our of hand, the instability grows up, as in the financial crisis in East Asia and its worldwide implications cutting global output by estimated 2 trillion dollar in 1998-2000. Since 1980s many countries have captured the opportunities of economic and technological globalization. Other than the industrial countries, the countries like India, Poland, Turkey, Chile are attracting foreign investment and taking advantage of technological progress. At the other extreme there any many countries, not all benefited from expanding markets and advancing technology Madagascar, sub-Saharan countries among others. Third, Inequality within and between countries: Jayati Gosh has written in her article Imperialist Globalisation and the political economy of South Asia à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The recent process of imperialist globalization has been marked by greatly increased disparities, both within countries and between countries. [Ghosh in Kar (ed.), 2005, pp. 260.] Inequality has been rising in many countries since the early 1980s In China, disparities are widening between the export oriented region of the coast and the interior. The human poverty index is just under 20% in coastal provinces, but more than 50% inland Guijhou. Inequality between the countries has also been increasing. Noteworthy that the income gap between the richest and the poorest fifth in the world was just 3:1 in 1820. Today, the gap in one word is gargantuan. Let us look at the following statistics included in UNDP 1999 Report: Year Income Gap Ratio 1820 3:1 1870 7:1 1913 11:1 1960 30:1 1990 60:1 1997 74:1 Again at the turn of the 21 century, the richest 20% of the worlds population had: > 86% of world GDPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. The bottom fifth had 1% > 82% of world export markets à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the bottom fifth had 1% <

Moi…Yeah What About It?

At this darkness blocked my blurry vision, and a warm coppery taste was my only comfort, it had been my comfort for so long now. It was only a friend and I'm nearly dead. But when you get accused of going with your cousin you'd expect it of a friend. I was fourteen when it started, just over a year, you'd think I'd be all cried out, but I've learnt, gradually, save them, save them for the nights when you close your eyes and he's giving you what you want, and what you need†¦ love. Corny you might think, but the good things make you cry more than the bad. Every time he's not smoked bit too much skunk, sput, or what ever else he does, we'll cuddle and he whispers those three little words every girl longs to hear from a tall dark and handsome older guy. ‘I love you' But where's the truth in it. Most guys of sixteen think those three word can bed a girl. Well if they're vulnerable enough it's a definite thing. That's where trouble starts. Sex its just another word for hurt, blood, committing yourself and signing freedom and friends away. And all to some guy that thinks you want to spend the rest of your life with cos they popped your cherry. Its not reality, not to me and it shouldn't be to you. Loves a trap, an evil thing. It makes me feel sick, even just thinking about the hell I was put through in as shorter amount of time as a year. I thought I was being brave every time I was alone and my cloudy green eyes cried. I was surprised myself, as every moment we spent in each other's arms was a good time. I thought I'd never have to be alone. But now I know the sparkles all gone, and the stitches are here. He wasn't scared to show anyone the hate and anguish he felt inside for me, not even my mother, the first time, he hurt me was in front of both our families we sat down to a meal, in my house, a time we all thought was good. But I was dragged by my hair into the kitchen viewable from the dinning table. I knew what was coming I had seen his eyes when he had fought previously with lads, those eyes looked straight at me. I began to run to the side door, which was positioned at the side of his masculine, strong aftershave smelling body; my head was spinning as I was thrown back towards the sink. My head in the bowl with the dishes from the pervious course, and he kicked me right in the spine. My father was no longer around he had left us when my brother and I were just three years old. My brother and I thought the same; people said it was just telepathic, I screamed as the broken dishes cut into my made-up face. The phone rang. I heard it, I heard it through the screams and shouts, of my mother and the warnings of that bastards family. My mother ran to the phone hoping and praying it was someone with power that could help, she wasn't let down, my brother, he said he felt something and Wiz was driving him down to the house, my mother yelled down the phone hoping Wiz would hear, I'll never forget the words she said it was the first time I had ever heard her swear, I heard them words over and over in my confused and unsure head, â€Å"GET YOUR BLOODY FOOT DOWN and HURRY THE FUCK UP† I'd had enough my body couldn't take any more of his beating, I lay collapsed on the cold tiled floor coated in warm blood clotted in little ball, coughed out of my tooth missing mouth. I heard the screeching of tyres out front, as my brother ran in followed by four sets of other heavy footsteps. Screams and shouts were all I heard nothing I could make sense of. I was kicked one last time in my stomach before everything went dead. I was alone. I was alone in a bed, with tubes pumping all kinds of shit into me, I tried to move but my body refused, to leave me only lying still. I was there for a few days unable to move my bruised limbs, my brother and his mates came in every so often and comforted me, I didn't feel safe around guys though and refused to speak to them. The one person that made me feel safe was a younger lad I had met on a holiday that year, my mother had paid for him to fly from his home near Stoke to be with me for a few days. My brother had told me I had called out his name numerous occasions. I was unable to remember. I still thought about him though, when visiting times were over, I still loved him. I thought that nothing could change that, not even a hospital bed. My mother had told me a million times that he was bad news for me. I knew she was right but I always had the last word. I always blamed it on my dad leaving though; I made my mum feel bad because I never had a man to tell me how really men were. But really I should take it out on him he's the one who couldn't keep his pants up, well his ankles always were cold, my mum said anyway. I kind of understand now though why my mother never got with another, she could have had any one. She was the most beautiful woman who graced the earth. My brother always use to boost my confidence when I was younger saying I was like her, but no one ever could be as pretty, so perfect. I loved her more than anyone could love anything in the universe. But my love for her was too deep I was told, he told me. I believed him too. I was gullible and he was charming. I HATE HIM SO MUCH. He changed my mother's perspective in my live; my whole world, and left me behind. My life was complicated, it always had been. No person, how sophisticated, how intelligent could understand my head, the way I would think. I used to write stories and draw strange looking picture, all the teachers thought I was ill in the head from the first day I walked through the school gates Primary and High. They can all drop dead just as every other down looking snob in this world can. They don't understand anything, half of them don't even have kids of their own, and how can they stand in front of a teenager and tell them how they should treat people with respect when they have no respect for us. Teachers always said I had a foul mouth†¦ and. So have 70% of the rest of the pupils in this school. That old line they spoon feed you every time their on their periods are just in a bad mood, â€Å"Miss Potts' you have the most dramatic and over active imagination I have ever had enter this room, now leave† That's meant to be an education don't be daft. I admit to the charges with my hands up but I've had a bad life, as have others but I took the easy way out and became a little bitch, smoking, drinking etc. It was just what school life has lead me into. I think about life doing things right sometimes but that's not me it isn't possible for me now. Things when I got out of hospital weren't any different between him and me; I'll call him that because his name sends shivers and spikes down my spine. I carried on seeing him, yeah I know I was stupid, but he told me he'd change just to spend a few moments of his life with me in his arms. My family didn't find out for a while, but when my brother caught me and him upstairs in my room he disowned me, I tried to cover up what we were doing but I think clothes all up the stairs were a clear give away. No one was meant to come home, my mother in London and my brother meant to be at a friends', what's the chances ay? Low High well shit happens doesn't it? I convinced my brother it was the best thing to do keeping it a secret from my mother as she was suffering from severe depression, give you a guess who it all started with. Lol. Obvious don't you think? We didn't talk my brother and I until I assured him it was all over. He believed me. I had tried to brake it off with him but his dark eyes seduced my mind hypnotising me, they told a story of that day when I nearly died. My life's never been perfect, and never will be now. I had dreams, ambitions. I was going to be an artist, I wanted people to know who I was and what I had been through but how do you tell the story, of getting beat up by a demon, that lived around the corner from your humble warm loving home. I had ideas but I'd have to find him again to make my work publishable, to kill me obviously. No artist I've ever heard of got famous when they were alive so I'd need some help wouldn't I? After I told my brother I had stopped seeing him, it was around three months until we finish properly, I had been in hospital again, slipped a disk in my back this time, it happened over three days, it started over a cig, how sad, my best mate of a few years wouldn't spare her last fag for him and I got bollocked for it. I tried to run but I was never a sprinter, my legs weren't long enough, he caught up to me within a few moments of me dropping my bags out side the schools gates, he dragged me to the floor by my long brown ponytail, I lay there frozen scared to move as his three best mate screamed at him to leave me alone because I was a cheap tart after a shag. Later that night though he found me, came down to another of my mates looking for a shag off of me. Yeah you know the story, I did it, a shags a shag as my mates brother told me. The next time he threw a paddy was the next night; guess what this was over as well, a lil bit of lippy, apparently I looked like a whore, and his mates would find it as an offer. It was a repeat performance of the previous day although a man dressed in a dark suit came to my rescue; he told me he was always there for me if I ever needed him. I didn't even know the guy, it was the first time I'd seen him but I thought I could come to some kind of arrangement with him. He was sexy and I was feeling low and on the rebound. The next time, I find it hard to talk about It was thought I would never be able to have kids, that broke my heart, I really wanted kids in the future lil boy and girl Cona and Carmel. I thought that they were cute names for kids and different for when they grew up. My story with him ended when a couple of weeks I found my self sat in a doctors surgery with a urine sample on the desk, and a pregnancy test boxed up lay next to it, along with that protein tester thing. I'd put on weight and me and the doctor both knew exactly what was going on. I sobbed as I told the doctor my life story; he was touched and offered me a tissue over the long wooden desk I leant on with one hand on my stomach. I quit my sobbing and stood up to leave. No appointments were made, no nothings were said.

Definition and Examples of Sorites in Rhetoric

In logic, sorites is a  chain of categorical syllogisms or enthymemes in which the intermediate conclusions have been omitted. Plural: sorites. Adjective: soritical. Also known as  chain argument, climbing argument, little-by-little argument, and polysyllogism. In Shakespeares Use of the Arts of Language (1947), Sister Miriam Joseph notes that a sorites normally involves repetition of the last word of each sentence or clause at the beginning of the next, a figure which the rhetoricians called climax or gradation, because it marks the degrees or steps in the argument. Etymology:  From the Greek, heap​Pronunciation:  suh-RITE-eez Examples and Observations Here is an example [of sorites]: All bloodhounds are dogs.All dogs are mammals.No fish are mammals.Therefore, no fish are bloodhounds. The first two premises validly imply the intermediate conclusion All bloodhounds are mammals. If this intermediate conclusion is then treated as a premise and put together with the third premise, the final conclusion follows validly. The sorites is thus composed of two valid categorical syllogisms and is therefore valid. The rule in evaluating a sorites is based on the idea that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If any of the component syllogisms in a sorites is invalid, the entire sorites is invalid.(Patrick J. Hurley, A Concise Introduction to Logic, 11th ed. Wadsworth, 2012)   St. Paul uses a causal sorites in the form of a gradatio when he wants to show the interlocking consequences that follow from a falsification of Christs resurrection: Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead? But if there be no resurrection from the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our teaching vain, and [if our preaching is vain] your faith is also vain (I Cor. 15:12-14).We might unfold this sorites into the following syllogisms: 1. Christ was dead / The dead never rise / Therefore Christ did not rise; 2. That Christ did rise is not true / We preach that Christ is risen / Therefore we preach what is not true. 3. Preaching what is not true is preaching in vain / We preach what is not true / Therefore we preach in vain. 4. Our preaching is vain / Your faith comes from our preaching / Therefore your faith is vain. St. Paul, of course, made his premises hypothetical to show their disastrous consequences and then to contradict them firmly: But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead (I Cor. 15:20).(Jeanne Fahnestock, Rhetorical Figures in Science. Oxford University Press, 1999)   The Sorites Paradox While the sorites conundrum can be presented as a series of puzzling questions it can be, and was, presented as a paradoxical argument having logical structure. The following argument form of the sorites was common: 1 grain of wheat does not make a heap.If 1 grain of wheat does not make a heap then 2 grains of wheat do not.If 2 grains of wheat do not make a heap then 3 grains do not...._____∠´ 10,000 grains of wheat do not make a heap. The argument certainly seems to be valid, employing only modus ponens and cut (enabling the chaining together of each sub-argument involving a single modus ponens inference.) These rules of inference are endorsed by both Stoic logic and modern classical logic, amongst others.Moreover its premises appear true. . . .The difference of one grain would seem to be too small to make any difference to the application of the predicate; it is a difference so negligible as to make no apparent difference to the truth-values of the respective antecedents and consequents. Yet the conclusion seems false.(Dominic Hyde, The Sorites Paradox. Vagueness: A Guide, ed. by Giuseppina Ronzitti. Springer, 2011)​ The Sad Sorites, by Maid Marion The Sorites looked at the PremissWith a tear in his wistful eye,And softly whispered a Major TermTo a Fallacy standing by.O sweet it were to wanderAlong the sad sea sand,With a coyly blushing PredicateClasping thy willing hand!O happy are the Mood and Tense,If such indeed there be,Who thus Per Accidens may roamBeside the briny sea.Where never Connotation comes,Nor Denotation een.Where Enthymemes are things unknown,Dilemmas never seen.Or where the tree of PorphyryBears stately branches high,While far away we dimly seeA Paradox pass by.Perchance a Syllogism comes,In haste we see it flyHither, where peacefully it restsNor fears Dichotomy.Ah! would such joys were mine! AlasEmpiric they must be,Till hand in hand both Mood and TenseAre joined thus lovingly.(The Shotover Papers, Or, Echoes from Oxford, October 31, 1874)

Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes From an Early Feminist

Mary Wollstonecraft was a writer and philosopher, the mother of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, and one of the earliest feminist writers. Her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, is one of the most important documents in the history of womens rights. Selected Mary Wollstonecraft Quotations †¢ I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves. †¢ My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed—my dearest pleasure when free. †¢ I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists. I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings are only the objects of pity, and that kind of love which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt. †¢ Contending for the rights of women, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. †¢ Make women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives;—that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers. †¢ Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtuous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the injustice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of men will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he keeps under his feet. †¢ The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger. †¢ If women be educated for dependence; that is, to act according to the will of another fallible being, and submit, right or wrong, to power, where are we to stop? †¢ It is time to effect a revolution in female manners—time to restore to them their lost dignity—and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners. †¢ Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it, and given a family character, as it were, to the century. It may then fairly be inferred, that, till society be differently constituted, much cannot be expected from education. †¢ It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men. †¢ Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government. †¢ Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority. †¢ Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience. †¢ No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks. †¢ It appears to me impossible that I should cease to exist, or that this active, restless spirit, equally alive to joy and sorrow, should be only organized dust—ready to fly abroad the moment the spring snaps, or the spark goes out, which kept it together. Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable—and life is more than a dream. †¢ Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness. †¢ Taught from infancy that beauty is womans sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. †¢ I love man as my fellow; but his scepter, real, or usurped, extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my homage; and even then the submission is to reason, and not to man. †¢ ...if we revert to history, we shall find that the women who have distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex. †¢ Love from its very nature must be transitory. To seek for a secret that would render it constant would be as wild a search as for the philosopher’s stone or the grand panacea: and the discovery would be equally useless, or rather pernicious to mankind. The most holy band of society is friendship. †¢ Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable—and life is more than a dream. †¢ The beginning is always today. About These Quotes Quote collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis. Each quotation page in this collection and the entire collection of Jone Johnson Lewis. This is an informal collection assembled over many years. I regret that I am not be able to provide the original source if it is not listed with the quote.