Global Economy and the Third World

This is one of the best articles so far this year albeit having a negative tone. I like that Khor made us realize that, yes most third world countries were not well off before colonization and globalization, but at least they were self sufficient. Through indigenous techniques, they were able to keep themselves and most of the community fed. With globalization, companies brought in harsh working conditions, dangerous chemicals which come into contact with those people, and strip their land of resources.

Khor is the president of the Third World Network, in which he is the leading voice behind the opposition of the current pattern of globalization. I TOTALLY agree with that!!! There is a definite need to globalize and modernize the planet, but the way we are going about it for the most part is totally wrong. Khor seems to have the right idea here.

Back to my previous point. Khor points out that so much harm has been inflicted upon third world countries by cash hungry corporations such as the Bhopal disaster in India where so many died. And these companies pinned communities against each other to compete in agricultural production. The ones that didn't use expensive fertilizers had to bite the dust. All the companies care about is to tear the land clean of resources.

A perfect example is fishing boats having to go out further and further into the sea to catch fish because of so much overfishing. People in the third world won't have access to fish supply because they don't have boats that can go out to sea.

There are so many examples of misuse of resources or mistreatment of people, and Khor outlines these methods. What he is calling for is a new methodology. We cannot repeat the same things we did in the past and expect different results. That will never happen.

He has a nice call to action in the end. Not only does he want us to stop tearing at the earth for luxury resources, he also says to stop undertaking massive projects like the Three Gorges Dam or nuclear power plants