Kafaoğlu 1
H. Erdem Kafaoğlu
Julia Doxsee
Communication 101
Second Draft of Synthesis about Globalism
10 December 2007
EFFECTS OF GLOBALISM ON DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Countries, nations, tribes, and people have been fighting each other since the
beginning of life on earth. According to the nature of humanity, people need basic necessities
for living better, but we always want more than basic necessities, so the main cause of most
fights and wars occurs with economical reasons. After World War 2, fighting for economical
reasons has started to change because of the deaths of fifty million people and the destruction
of cities. Both world wars damaged to the world economically very much. Countries spent
their money for military purposes, not for welfare of their citizens. As a result of this, a new
term, “globalism” was formed. The globalism started after World War 2, but it overspread
around 1980 in most of the parts of the world. David Dollar and Aaart Kraay’s essay,
“Spreading the Wealth”, and William Greider’s essay, “One World: Ready or Not,” examine
globalism and its effects on countries and people. “Spreading the Wealth” compares the
economic conditions of developed countries, developing countries and undeveloped countries
and uses numeric values and graphics. In “One World: Ready or Not,” the author tells the
condition of laborers in developing countries. The fact that William Greider goes to these
countries and interviews with laborers is really effective. After reading both essays, I asked
myself “Does globalism cause development or poverty of developing and undeveloped
countries?” Globalism creates many workers, unfortunately their condition is bad, and pays
are low. Boundaries between countries are getting lost, world is becoming a big village.
Kafaoğlu 2
Through globalism’s economic power, developed countries can easily intervene developing
and countries’ internal affairs.
The authors have different opinions about the effects of globalism on equality and
inequality. David Dollar and Aaart Kraay support globalism and think that global economy
promotes economic quality and reduces poverty. Opening foreign trade and investment, which
get higher growth rate and income, ensures more manufacturing plants, thus unemployment is
decreasing, and per capita income for each person is increasing in globalizing developing
countries. Transportation and communication technologies make the integration of developing
countries faster. By the contribution of the arguments of Dollar and Kraay, human life
standards are increasing. However, there is a big contrast between “Spreading the Wealth”
and “One World: Ready or Not”. According to Greider’s essay, people can find a job in
developing countries, but their conditions are very bad, and salaries are very low. A 24-year
old woman, Raziah says she changed jobs three times because at each one, the salary was less
than what she was promised. She says “Japanese-owned factory was not a happy place, and
my supervisors were very rude and pressured me….I want to better myself, but I have got no
money for classes.” Although laborers work many hours in a day, there are no holidays for
them. In addition, those laborers do not have social security rights that make their future
unclear. Moreover, children, who are at school age, have to go to work and some of them
even do not get primary education. All of these bad conditions are just the opposite in
developed countries. People doing the same job in developed countries, get much more salary,
laborers work less than ten hours in a day. Moreover they have holiday and social security
rights, and employing child laborer is forbidden by law. David Miller, president of the Toy
Manufacturers of America, summarizes everything. He told ABC News “The responsibility
for factories in developing countries is in the hands of those who are there and managing
Kafaoğlu 3
factories.” There are big differences between two essay, because “Spreading the Wealth”
essay’s authors explain the globalism with only numbers, however “One World: Ready or
Not” essay’s author explains the globalism with only observation and interviews. Dollar and
Kraay use logos in whole text, and Greider uses both pathos and ethos.
Although developed countries establish many factories and plants within developing
countries, a lot of people in developing or undeveloped countries migrate to developed
countries every year. However, big plants create some jobs in different countries. For
instance; the center of Boeing Company in Ireland, fuselage is made in Japan, the pieces are
barged from Tacoma, the wingtip assembly comes from Korea, rudders from Australia, dorsal
fins from Brazil, main landing gear from Canada and France. Also flight computers are made
in the United Kingdom. As a result of this method, companies expand their markets and
company workers work outside of his/her country. Moreover, migration from villages to big
cities, or from undeveloped countries to developed or developing countries rises and bolsters
the transnational trade and investment. Greider ask young Indonesian factory worker “Why
did you come here from your?” and he answers “To earn money…to be independent.” Dollar,
Kraay and Greider underline migration to developed countries, and say that immigrants who
migrate from undeveloped countries usually become unskilled workers, but immigrants who
migrate to developing countries usually become high-skilled workers. However, developing
technology of communication increases an interaction between people. Consequently,
globalism causes that boundaries are getting lost, people speak the same language “English”,
and we are all one nationality.
Globalism cause to change the cultures of societies and it has good and bad
consequences. Dollar and Kraay look at globalism as an opening of foreign trade and
Kafaoğlu 4
investment, and they called these globalizing developing countries as the open societies.
However, uncontrolled trade and investment make foreign investors and tradesmen very
powerful. Besides, one of the basic symbols of independent country is to have strong and
independent economy. If foreigners captured the economic power in a country, they would
manage a country easily. In Greider’s essay, this situation seems clearly. Roger Bertelson,
Motorola’s nation manager for Malaysia, said that “We had to change the culture.” In
appearance there is no problem. Nevertheless, if this sentence is read carefully, Roger
Bertelson, or other strong businessmen and managers can change the culture. Bertelson said
this sentence to promoting of women rights, and his aim is beneficial, but other strong
foreigners can use this power to gain advantages for themselves as intervening that country’s
internal affairs. In addition, many people pass the main hallway and see Norman Rockwell
paintings, which are about American life, in Motorola’s plants. Company affects Malay
people sneakily. There are two perspectives in both essays. Dollar and Kraay look the open
societies as well, but Greider thinks the opposite.
As a result, authors claim “globalization has actually promoted economic equality and
reduced poverty.” in “Spreading the Wealth”. They do not adequately defend this claim,
because the main argument of authors is increasing of per capita about reducing poverty.
Nevertheless, if rich people earned much more money, and poor people earned very little
money, per capita would be high again. Because of that, this essay is not persuasive. Dollar
and Kraay use many numbers and graphics, so “Spreading the Wealth” addresses professional
economists. On the other hand, Greider adequately argues for the rights of laborers in second
and third world countries affected by globalism. He uses effective and persuasive interviews
and observation. All of his arguments are consistent and logical. Greider answers my question
Kafaoğlu 5
and shows that damages of globalism are more than its benefits. Consequently, Greider has
done more successful job than Dollar and Kraay.
Kafaoğlu 6
Works Cited
Dollar, David and Aart Kraay. “Spreading the Wealth.” The Global Transformations Reader.
Eds. David Held and Anthony McGrew. Cambridge: Polity, 2003. 447-454.
Greider, William. “One World: Ready or Not.” Beyond Borders: A Cultural Reader. Eds.
Randall Bass and Joy Young. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 2003. 642-655.
Kafaoğlu 7