In recent decades, globalization has transformed economic and cultural interactions worldwide. While critics view globalization as an attack on traditional values, local cultures, national sovereignty, workers’ rights, and the environment, supporters applaud it for fostering democracy, market economics, and individualism. Whatever one’s opinion, globalization is an inescapable part of daily life. The Internet, cellular phones, Nike, McDonald’s, CNN, Disney, satellite television, and cheap air travel are only a few symbols of the globalized world. While it seems unlikely that globalization will supplant nation-states or create a homogenized world culture, it is clear that it raises important questions about international business practices, labor relations, environmental protection, and technology.In November 1999, anti-globalization protests at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle, Washington drew international attention. Established by the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the WTO is an international organization charged with supervising and liberalizing global trade. Because many opponents of globalization criticize it on economic grounds, protestors target the WTO, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. Ironically, anti-globalization groups use the Internet, itself a tool of globalization, to mobilize demonstrations. Approximately 50,000 people gathered in Seattle to stage a variety of mostly peaceful protests. But violent factions clashed with police who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. By the time the WTO meeting ended, Seattle sustained more than three million dollars in property damage. Similar demonstrations engulfed meetings of the World Bank and IMF held in Washington, D.C. and Genoa, Italy. When IMF and World Bank delegates met in 2002, they congregated in an isolated Canadian resort in order to avoid additional protests.
In the document I would like you to read, a feature from Salon.com (you can read it by clicking here), David Moberg examines the WTO protests in Seattle. After reading the article, I would like you to consider and discuss the following: How does Moberg describe the atmosphere in Seattle? Who is demonstrating? What are their major criticisms of globalization? What is your opinion of globalization? How do you think that it will change the world during your lifetime? Your thoughts…
21 comments:
The people such as Goodman protesting are afraid saying that the third world countries are being exploited. I think that the world that i live in has changed from my parents to my generation. I found the part where people dressed up as a dolphin entertaining. This demonstration reminded me of the protest that took place in Russia and they were killed, but this was not as violent.
The picture shown is priceless. What happened to peaceful protest?
Um I have never heard of "The Battle of Seattle" but the protest was very necessary. I hope the demonstrations showed people what globalization can do after a while Hopefully it opened peoples eyes and offered them a new perspective on globalization and cultural indoctrination....
or at least thats what these lectures/blogposts from late season 5 have done for me.
Question. Are WAPPY AWARDS GOING TO BE UP FOR POSTING TOMORROW?
What is your opinion of globalization? How do you think that it will change the world during your lifetime?
The atmosphere in Seattle is described as at first very peaceful, but as the days went by the protests become increasingly tense, but never amassed to anything more than firing tear gas. The demonstrators were a varity of people, including many worker unions that were all working towards the same cause. Some of the main criticisms were that the world trade was being kept secret from the people and that globalization is happening without representation of different cultures and areas. I believe that globalization is the exchange of different cultures, politics and economics and mix of them to make a new mixed society.
I am surprised that i have never heard of the battle of seatle before. Our government says peaceful protest is okay but the obviously went against that in the situation.
THe atmosphere of Seattle seems relatively peaceful except for the occasional vandalism. There are those who take a lighter approach to it, as the performers show, but there are also those taking it very harshly. As moberg said: protests before this had been made up of one group of people working toward a common goal but globalization brought many different kinds of people together to work for several goals. In general, the people wanted the WTO to stop giving benefits to big business while the majority suffers and to stop harming the environment.
I had not heard of he battle of seattle either until you mentioned it in class Mr Prill. But this protest reminds me very much of two things: Bloody Sunday in Russia, where the government fires on its own people (and although we used tear gas and they used firearms, the message is the same) and The march in China during the cultural revolution, where young adults, highschoolers and older students cae together as one to spread out one message and do somthing about what they believed in.
To answer your questions, the atmosphere in seattle began as a light, meaningful protest that turned ugly. By nightfall, people were being injured, which I'm sure raised anger levels and tension. And I agree with the messages that said "No Globalization without representation". Though this is an American-led movement, other countries should get ahead in the pop culture area too. There entertainment and businesses are jsut as important as ours.
That is weird that this ha definately violent protest happened in Seattle and we didn't even know that. That sorta shows how little we know or pay attention to our own news!!! It is pretty bad. But this protest shows us the intense contraversy of globalization because i didn't knoew that the people protested about so much...like i don't really understand how biologically altered food is protested at WTO?? But in contrast i guess i can understand how the power is to the government and the large corperations rather than the people, i do understand the need for the protest but the violence i don't really.
THis really shows how little we actually hear. It's a peaceful protest getting busted up. Its redicuous. Globalization is wild.
I don't think that it's fair for the police to come in and use tear gas on peaceful protesters. I would understand why they did it if it was rwody and violent but these people weren't doing anything remotely violent when they were attacked with tear gas. I can see why the people prostested; they didn't think that some of the things people were doing and sponsoring were humane and safe, and they had a justified reason to protest but I think that it could have been handled better.
I think golbaliazation is good and bad. Good because people are instantly connected just about anywhere they go and we can know anything about anyone at any time. But it is also cutting down the level of nationalism in countries. Japan for example, they know about American celeberties but we know nothing about their culture. With technology the spread of information about Ameican culture and life is rapid and people in other countries know what it's like to live in America. They eat modified versions of our food (McDonald's) and watch the same entertainment we do (MTV).
what started very peacefully ended up getting gradually more and more intense (thankfully nothing more than tear gas was ever used.) There was a vast grouping of people although alot were unions who supported the cause. Globalization is a mix of all the different styles of life from around the world mixing into one that can coexist peacefully.
I love how this is such a massive event, yet the government did a good job in keeping this quiet, i myself have never even heard of the event until today...
How does Moberg describe the atmosphere in Seattle?Moberg describes the atmosphere as a peaceful organization of combined protests from different sectors of Seattle's culturally diverse community. The joining of different people for a single cause of non-violent protest. All forms of people attend the protest, from teenagers to the old, from punks to union workers...Everyone came to voice a conjoined opinion that change in global affairs, economically speaking, was entirely necessary, and the WTO needed not only to REALIZE this, but to DO something about it.
The major concerns of the protestors is rights of children, women, and discriminated peoples being oppressed in foreign countries. Not only people, but animals as well, they mention dolphins and sea turtles as a major issue here, and of course, Genetically Altered Man represented protest against bioengineered food. So as you can see, not only a wide range of people, but also a diverse form of protest...
My personal opinion on globalization is that it's difficult to draw a single solidary opinion. On one hand you provide to opportunities for people to be exposed, to a certain extent, of other societies and make their own choices as to what kind of government they want, it also creates a problem because most of what people are exposed to is American Cultural Imperialism, Democracy, and Free Trade Organizations. Maybe that is what people want, maybe it's not, but America is the main influence. That's one issue I see, because I don't believe in showing people Democracy so they can say "I want that," I want them to look at all different forms of government and say "I want that type of government for my country." Another issue I hold is the exact problems that people protested against, and that's the rights of foreign peoples. If we truly are globalizing in world economy, our standards of living for workers should not change for another country. We need to ensure that people are not getting treated differently than if they were to work in America. We should stop exploiting countries. We should continue to think about our environment as a whole too.
I IMPLORE YOU ALL TO WATCH DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE!!! It is an amazing movie, whether you watch in on the internet(globalize), or watch it with Mr.Prill on April 30th, or even buy/rent the movie, watch it, one major thing you see is how business can kill a lake, which leads to the death of an environment in a country. It's an amazing film, please sign up, or please find a way to watch it in your spare time.
Back to the topic at hand, I sort of digressed, I think the world will change drastically for the better and the worst, hopefully some of us in this class will work to changing it for the better. I know I'm going to. The world will need to make major changes in world-wide economics as far as how other countries are involved in our corporate businesses. I don't know for a fact if that will change in my lifetime, but hopefully it will, and if I can at least live to be 66, maybe 50 years will be a good enough time. A lot of things will happen by 2059, we need to help Africa, because as trends continue Africa will be out of reach, we won't be able to do anything in our power by then. We need to make corrections in how businesses employ people overseas, or over our own borders, and continue to make progression world-wide to build up together. Like Europe did, we need to quit the violence and focus on building ourselves together economically. I think we will see major advancements during our generation, and we will see major opposition, but hopefully we'll be able to peacefully work through these oppositions and work towards, not a world empire, but a world identity. We need to stop looking at the fact that people have different flags and different religions and look to the fact that people in China, though they may look different, and they may think different, share the same humanity that we all have. We need to stop looking to the Middle East and thinking of harsh words, fightin' words, and we need to recognize their ability to be our allies, and to be someone who we can work with to make our world a better place, and I'm sure we will see these things occur in our generation, and if I am wrong, let us at least set the foundation for another generation to make these changes, and not sit around and hope someone else will do it, or even worse do something, but do something AGAINST the people who are working to help the world.
It is amazing how people blew up over something that we take for granted now. In a few years I dont think that the average American person will even know what globalization means. It's sad when we need a common enemy to come together, but that's how it has been for much of recent history.
Personally, I had not heard of the Battle of Seattle until this class, and I'm willing to bet that many other people were not aware of it either and many still are not. By all means the overall protest was extremely peaceful in nature, except the few more radical acts such as breaking the windows of local globalized stores. However, despite the general peace from the protest, the reaction to the protest was one of violence. Supposedly peaceful protests are allowed, so why did the police fire upon the protesters with teargas and rubber bullets? Even though the teargas and rubber bullets [most likely] did not kill anyone, the fact that the police resorted to violence shows a disapproval by higher up officials, in my opinion.
Globalization is truly astounding, and I'm not sure whether I should be fearful or excited for how it will continue in the future. However, I do believe that globalization should not be centered around America as much as it is. Just because we have the ability to spread our culture at an extremely fast rate does not mean that American culture is the most important culture out there. As I've begun to realize over the year, many people are extremely narrow-minded and believe in the superiority of their own culture, and I admit, I was like that myself although not to an extreme extent. Perhaps if more people become aware of other cultures, globalization will truly be global. Idealistically, more people would become aware of the rest of the world.
I was going to put more, but I forgot. If I remember, I'll add another post.
It seems to me like most or all of the opposition is based only on environmentalist ideals. After reading the WTO's mission statement(below(part of it anyway)) the opposition of globalization, at least of the protesters in Seattle, seems a little silly. This organization's mistakes would not be enough to convince me that globalization in general is a bad thing.
"The WTO provides a forum for negotiating agreements aimed at reducing obstacles to international trade and ensuring a level playing field for all, thus contributing to economic growth and development."
It sounds like a good plan to me...
Wow, I've never heard of this either, how cool. I like the green condoms idea, that's good advertising for support. It doesn't sound very peaceful that parts, with breaking windows at McDonalds, etc., and then the police reaction to it. At least only tear gas and rubber bullets were shot. It could have been so much worse. I guess this really does show what workers of the new age want for their changing world. (not harm animals, help environment, etc.)
It seems there were two types of the protest. one is very peaceful with no violence. and the other one is vandalism and rots and police firing tear gas
I don't understand why the government sprayed these poor protesters. It is part of our right to speak for what we believe in but obviously thats not how it rolls in Seattle. I believe that their reasons for protesting is very reasonable. Why should the goventment only allow the richer to get rich and the poor to become more poor?
I think the irony is in the fact that the police have been turned into the bad guys. We have seen this happen through out the entire class, those in power or with guns to protect the people don’t listen and end up hurting their own, but it still strikes me as ironic. The fact that mothers would bring their children seemingly proves that this was supposed to be entirely peaceful. The heavily armed police sorta put a damper on the mood. I think that there is no way to stop globalization, or at least no easy/politically doable way. With telephones, internet, etc… there is already massive communication. People will not stop talking to their loved ones just to put a stop to globalization. I know that my life has been affected by the results and the act of globalization. From having FB friends in Norway, to my British small group leader in church, I (as is the rest of the world) am constantly surrounded by the effects of globalization.
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