India knows gloablization...and someone has figured out why not to like it

Here's a pretty succinct, eloquent lament from India on what globalization will ultimately mean for that country (not to mention all the rest of us):

Globalization - Plunder Fueled by Greed?
by Aarcee

March 30, 2007




Globalization is touted by some as a win-win arrangement for every country that participates in it and opens it markets. A sweet poison tastes sweet first and kills you later. So, the first taste of Globalization that India had was incredibly sweet. When everyone was so inebriated by the sudden glut of consumer items that had been forbidden in a closed economy, any hint that this glut was going to be harbinger of economic shackles was unwelcome. However, reality has now begun to sink in. I was very delighted to read an article by a reader lamenting the erosion of India’s manufacturing capability by under-priced Chinese imports. I see him as an individual who is among the first few to open his eyes and realize that this sweet potion of Globalization actually does considerable harm!

Yes, now apples from New Zealand, America, Australia and China are available in India. Everyone has a Korean cell phone now. That is the visible carrot. Let’s see where the looming invisible stick is. With the Corporations invading India, the small entrepreneurs is becoming history. Small retailers can not compete with Wal Marts and Reliance Marts. You will see them going out of business one by one. They are screaming, but their cries are being drowned by the cheers of those who are still gloating on the carrots of globalization. Now the fruit seller and vegetable seller goes door to door selling his ware. The huge Marts will in near future buy the produce straight from the farms. So now, the hundreds of small business owners will be replaced by one obscenely wealthy individual who will employ the small farmers as farm workers and pay them ridiculously low wages.

Globalization brings in its wake a perverted kind of capitalism. Capitalism is good when it encourages small entrepreneurs to set up shop and earn a buck. In this 21st century perverted kind of Capitalism, the wealth gets siphoned off to a few ridiculously rich individuals who use privileged accounts in market trading, IPO grabbing and, at worst, Enroning the savings of the middle class.