Anti Globalization - Essay Example

The popular verdict on globalization has been one of a malevolent evil. In fact, it has received much flak as supposedly being the cause of a lot of social ills. Seen as a threat to children, labor standards, culture, environment, women, and even to democracy, most people believe that it must be controlled and crushed.
Bhagwati, however, points out that most people have a simplistic understanding of globalization.1 For one thing, most people refer to globalization as if there was only one aspect of it when there are other aspects such as cultural and communications. Most people, however, are under the impression that they are all one and the same. This is why Bhagwarti makes it clear that for his book, he will only be focusing on economic globalization, which he defines as:
"[constituting the] integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, direct foreign investment (by corporations and multinationals), short-term capital flows, international flow of workers and humanity generally, and flows of technology."2
While it can be argued that there shouldn't be much fuss about globalization because it has been happening from the time of the East India Company, one should be aware the globalization has already evolved, far from the kind of globalization one had when the Dutch East Indies company was trading with Indonesia.3
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