by Irogbe, Kema
Another factor to the resentment of globalization is the role played by the Western media, one of the agents of political socialization. Many "information-poor" states consider the problem of global information imbalance as not simply one of technology but of cultural autonomy. The media/information technology namely the newspapers, television and radio stations as well as the internet or world wide web are thoroughly dominated by the U.S. and Europe, and they are used to assimilate the people in the peripheral countries into a homogenized economic, social, and political world order. Led by the United States, the world's richest countries have acted on the assumption that people everywhere want to live as they do. As a result, they have failed to recognize the deadly mixture of emotions - cultural resentment, a sense of injustice and a genuine rejection of Western modernity. The ideal of a universal civilization or monoculture is a recipe for unending conflicts and it is time for it to be halted. The unease about global sameness, and the political and cultural consequences of international communication, reaches deeply. In some of the states in the underdeveloped countries where "Western values" are unwelcome invaders, governing elites and custodians of national culture ponder how - and if - they can make territorial boundaries more impregnable. States in which political change along 'Western' lines is feared show particular anxiety about foreign-media intrusion, lest they catalyze local democracy movements and human rights activism thereby causing political instability.16 But it is not just conservative regimes, eager to secure their own longevity, that fear the cultural consequences of globalization. In fact, ordinary citizens, too, consider themselves victims of cultural imperialism or as some observers call it 'Americanization'. For example, a few years ago this writer traveled to his country of origin, Nigeria. One day, while relaxing on a cool evening,17 he decided to play one of his favorite records by an intentionally known Nigerian artist, Sunny Ade. His sister who came by with two of her friends was ashamed to see her brother playing a local record, though of international acclaim. She could not hide her feelings. She approached her unsuspecting brother and expressed her dismay that after many years in the United States he still was not Americanized. She wondered why he did not bring some modern records from the U.S. The point is that the preference of goods from the United States and other metropolitan countries by, perhaps, a large number of people in the peripheral world leads to the acceptance of Western values and ultimately the endorsement of the very ideological foundations of capitalist democracy. And that is the end sought by the developed countries and the Western media that play the missionary role for their governments and the multinational corporations. While globalization has some audience in the periphery, it is generally unwelcome by many people around the world. Jay Dubashi summarizes the sentiment of the many opponents of globalization:
We simply do not wish to go the way of the United States. What is good for them is not necessarily good for us. We have our own way of doing things, our own culture, our own way of life, which we think is appropriate for us. We simply cannot afford the American way of life and have no intention of imitating it blindly. And we resent it being imposed on us.18
Let us examine another example to demonstrate that advocates of globalization, in their belief in a universal civilization, have failed to realize that what produces a desired result in one political setting may be totally inappropriate in another environment. The Chinese government has been thoroughly condemned for its one child policy, viewed in the United States and other Western 'democracies' as a gross violation of human rights and thus a tyranny of the 'totalitarian' regime. However, from the perspective of the Chinese government, without such a policy to control population explosion, the social consequences of allowing the more than 1.2 billion people to have as many children as they please would be unmanageable. Why then would anyone not be sensitive to the concerns of the Chinese government? The answer is that only people of ill-will are likely to see anything wrong with a government that is trying to deal with the problem of overpopulation.
Yet, despite worldwide pervasiveness of globalization, local and international resistance manifests itself. Some American products often fail to find receptive markets in some parts of the world. In Latin America, for example, Brazil and Mexico serve as a major regional provider of television soap operas. The Indian firm industry similarly enjoys an expansive market beyond India's boundaries in the vast diasporic Indian community worldwide.19 Even though both Brazilian soaps and 'Bollywood' films may owe something to the modes of American popular culture, they remain distinctive rather than merely derivative. What we observe, then, is a process of'creolization', whereby cultures exposed to powerful outside influences are not simply swept away but include appropriate certain 'foreign' elements, transmitting them in ways which mesh or blend with local traditions and preferences.20 After all, 'pure' cultures rooted in one particular geography are as mythical a conception just as pure races undiluted by miscegenation.21 Therefore, throughout history, cultures, along with people, have constantly diffused and re-fused in new settings and forms. Despite the diffusion of cultures, there are still discernible cultural differences among peoples of different nations. A country's cultural heritage reflects its history, faith, and value system. The poorer the country, the more the people cling to their cultural heritage. In less-wealthy nations, cultural treasures are part of the citizens' identity. When people's dignity is shattered we have to help them to restore their faith and values. We can assist them in achieving stability and security by honoring their traditions and identity. And that is consistent with internationalization and multiculturalism rather than the pursuit of globalization or homogenization.
In highlighting the profit-driven logic of media globalization, Herman and McChesney have assailed the global media with this gloomy prognosis:
The stress on consumption as the primary end of life, and individual freedom to choose (especially among good) as the fundamental desired social condition....strengthens materialistic values, weakens sympathetic feelings towards others and tends to diminish the spirit of community and the strength of communal ties.22
The global media define the scope of international political discourse, channeling world attention in certain directions and determining -- in ways that are essentially supportive of the existing socioeconomic structure -- what is political reality. The notion that the United States is endowed with a free press is a fallacy. The control that the multinational corporations exert over the American and European media leaves the public and the world with a press that is far from "free" by any definition of the word. The primary function of the media is not to keep anybody informed, but like any business, to make profit for their owners, a goal seldom coinciding with the need for a vigilant, democratic press. The owners of the press determine who has something to say, which facts, which version of the facts, and which ideas shall reach the world at large. Thus, as agents of the globalization or neoliberal order, global media are complacent about inequalities in wealth distribution among nations and are hostile to organized labor and other oppositional forces.
THE WORLD BANK/IMF (THE BRETTON WOODS TWIN SISTERS)
Formally named the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations' associated agencies, were created in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference. Formed originally to provide long-term loans for the post-World War II reconstruction of Europe, the World Bank has become one of the primary international institutions that provides long-term loans to the underdeveloped countries. The IMF was established for the purpose of supporting international monetary stability as well as establishing stable exchange rates among nation-states. The IMF was to do this by establishing exchange rates between currencies under a fixed exchange rate system. It had at its disposal a fund of gold and currencies that it could use to credit accounts of countries that experienced chronic balance of payments deficits. Although fixed exchange rate system was eventually replaced by a floating system by former President Richard Nixon (unilaterally) to the advantage of the U.S., the IMF still uses its funds to credit the accounts of countries with chronic balance of payment problems. The developed countries fund both the two financial institutions. They operate on a weighted voting system, providing the most votes to the countries that contribute the most funds. The presidency of the World Bank has always been an American and the presidency of the IMF has always been a European.
That background serves as a backdrop to our understanding of why the underdeveloped countries distrust these institutions. The peripheral countries play no role in the institutions except as dependent recipients of repayable loans with outrageous interest rates. There is little surprise therefore that both the World Bank and the IMF have caused unbearable hardships on people around the world.
The IMF regularly imposes austerity measures including structural adjustments on borrowers. Even a neoliberalist and Columbia University Economist, Jeffrey Sachs, who had helped Russia dismantle its state-run economy, called the IMF the "Typhoid Mary of emerging markets, spreading recessions in country after country."23 When the Asian financial crisis erupted in 1997, the IMF imposed higher interest rates to supposedly shore up investor confidence in local currencies, cuts in government spending to reduce deficits, and privatization of state-owned enterprises.24 Similar measures were imposed on Mexico and other Latin American countries to overcome a serious debt crisis in the 198Os.25 Thus, the IMF does not just hand out loans on demand but requires the recipient governments to institute policy changes to improve its economy. In that way, the IMF can be rest-assured that the loan will be repaid. But the stringent spending cuts and high interest rates have driven troubled economies into further difficulties because businesses could no longer afford to borrow money, factories shut down and workers lost their jobs. Moreover, many of these peripheral countries already have weak social programs. So, the austerity measures have further exacerbated the falling standards of living. As shown in Table I - Regional Breakdown of Poverty in Developing Countries -- there is a widening economic gap between the developed and the underdeveloped countries in terms of the number of people living in poverty. In the study conducted by the World Bank, the number of people living on less than $1 per day in 1990, as the Table I indicates, was much lower in the developed countries than the underdeveloped countries. In East Asia and Pacific, it was 452,000,000; in South Asia, it was 495,000,000; in Latin America and the Caribbean, it was 74,000,000; and in Sub-Saharan Africa, it was 242,000,000. But in Europe and Central Asia it was only 7,000,000. Similarly, the Table I shows the same trend in the World Bank's study of the number of people living on less than $2 per day in 1990. In East Asia and Pacific, it was 1,084,000,000; in South Asia, it was 976,000,000; in Latin America and the Caribbean, it was 167,000,000; and in Sub-Saharan Africa, it was 388,000,000. Also, according to Table I, the projected number of people living on less than $2 per day in 2015 will decline in each region except in Sub-Saharan Africa. The projected number is 597,000,000. The continued population explosion and economic stagnation as well as lack of industrial base may have combined to forecast the gloomy picture of the region.
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