AFRICANEWS

Africa

For a just globalization

Globalization

There is a grave concern over the global economic system. Facts about the concept of globalization have proved that the current economic order is unjust.

Globalization as the domination of the world increasingly by one economic system continues to be a cause of grave concern to many peple everywhere, but especially to the people of the economic South who suffer much more from it. The so-called free movement of capital and trade that is the backbone of globalization is today seen to be neither free nor fair. The poor South is increasingly forced into a system of unequal trade relations, where its natural and human resources are used thus made dependent to the dominant economies of the North, or are indeed threatened to the point of non-existence.

Politically, the system works against democratic government in th south: because economic decisions are made in the North, the South tends to tailor its policies to fit the demands of the economic decision makers, and is less and less inclined to listen and attend to the concerns of its people.

The social effects of globalization are equally painfully, but perhaps more long lasting. Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) called for by such agents of globalization as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund simply widen the gap between the rich and the poor, also within the south. SAPs are now seen to be a major contributing factor, if not indeed a direct cause, of the deaths in the south of children, pregnant women and the old due to malnutrion. The consumer culture promoted by the mass media leads to extreme individualism. The rich form the hhabit of acquiring more and more consumer goods to the total disregard of the needs of the poor. The poor, on the other hand, slowly develop a sense of worthlessness expressed in despair, drug abuse, sexual promiscuity leading to HIV and AIDS, or resentment and violence.

At an international consultation on globalization sponsored by Vidyajyoti Collegge of Theology, Delhi, India and the Institute of Missiology, Aachen, Germany, held on January 18-22, 1998 in Delhi, about 30 concerned people from both the North and South sought ways of responding to the situation caused by globalization.

According to the consultation, some of the ways to counter the destructive economic effects of globalization involve the solidarity of its victims in forming concrete trategies of self-protection and survival. The victims of globalization can, for example, establish national and international movements. "for the abolition of international debt, while making sure that the remissioon of debt is not tied to conditions harmful to the people." Individuals and groups should be encourage to take account of the situation of the other. People can also form associations to promote environment-friendly economic development development, as well as national and international policies against the inhuman and unjust exploitation of women's and children's labour.

The meeting decided the best way to deal with the power of globalization on the political level is through streangthening democratic processes at all levels. The people must be empowered to have a say in local as well as in national decision making processes. At the international level, the sovereignty of every nation, regardless, of the economic status must be respected. Likewise, the voice of every nation, in international fora must be accorded due consideration. In this regard, the consultation concluded that the UN Security Council needs to be urgently reformed and expanded to include representatives of and from other regions of the world not currently represented there. On the social and cultural levels the consultation saw it ass necessary that the victims of globalization be helped to regain a sense of self-worth and lgitimate pride of which globalization tends to deprive them. In this regard, it is of utmost importance that indegenous people everywhere be helped to redisvore the wisdom ,of their customs and traditions and their liberative potential. Institutions such as the schools, universities and the mass media could be reformed and be made to aid in this process of rediscovery and re-evaluation, which must be ongoing. In concrete programmes to uplift the marginalized, whom the meeting listed as farmers, workers, women, youth, tribes, migrants, the diplaced and oppressed in general, must be given priority.

Religions and religious organisations were seen by the meeting to have an indispensable role in the struggle against what mit called "the power of Satan and Mammon," That is, the prevailing personal and social structures of injustice. Here too solidarity among religions and faiths is crucial. Instead of fighting each other, religions must form networks, of prophetic movements world-wide against all forms of death maintained by the globalization movement, and in favour of life for all. The meeting saw the role of the christian churches in particular to include the "focus on God in the other rather than on the merely human (anthropocentrism), the self (egoism) and the material (materialism)." They must struggle to keep alive the eschatological vision of the kingdom as a global community of freedom, solidarity and justice, whose existential pillars are "selflessness, sharing and simplicity of life."

The consultation ened on a note of optimism. It asserted that powerful though globalization might be, it is still not too late in the day for concerned people in both the Northern and Southern economic hemisphere to develop the will to say "no" to all of its oppressive and alienating processes.

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