THE GLOBALIZATION

Globalization is an omnipresent phenomenon in the contemporary world after removal of barriers that hold many countries protected from exterior influences. People in different parts of the world can freely interact, and statistics can flow rapidly. Hrynyshyn, (2002, 83) highlights that technology has performed an essential element in the extend of social interactions among people in distinct regions of the world. A few decades ago, solidity existed in quite a number states that ensured protection, for example, The Great Wall of China and the wall that separated Israel from West Banks were all barriers that restrained entrance and penetration to the countries.

Currently, the forces of globalization have been so strong that most of these obstacles have been eliminated creating a global village. These forces of globalization have led to losers and winners among various groups in the world. Among the groups affected significantly by globalization are the medical professionals, terrorists and other criminals like drug peddlers, African culture, human rights activists globally and scholars and researchers in all circles of life. This essay will seek to critically analyze to globalization has negatively and positively affected the transnational criminal networks, players in the education sector, the health sector stakeholders and the agricultural sector players in both developing and developed nations.

Globalization has played a central role in health care across the globe in both developing and developed countries. Unlike a few centuries ago when in developing countries the infectious diseases were causing massive deaths because of isolated healthcare services, currently such deaths have reduced considerably. Nonetheless, the disparity between third world countries and developing countries is still high in dealing with communicable diseases given that at times such diseases cause deaths up to 19% as Katsuno et al. (2015, 751) notes. Doctors and nurses from developed countries can easily impact the provision of quality healthcare services in developing countries. While the increased possibility of movement of health experts from one region to another is a remarkable thing, globalization has also increased the prevalence and movement of various disease-causing germs from one nation to another. For instance, the emergence and rise of Ebola posed a serious health risk globally given that by the time its discovery was made, it has been spread to various countries (Gostin, Lucey, and Phelan 2014, 1095). As such, the management and control of it became challenging necessitating the health professionals devise new and fast strategies of dealing with the epidemic. The Ebola emergency meant that the health professionals had to establish new methods of dealing with the challenge as they work globally which was not easy given that countries have different policies and ways of dealing with epidemics.

Additionally, because of globalization, nations are working together and creating forums to address global health challenges like HIV/AIDS. There is now a global goal of reducing the transmission of this virus through various means like prevention of new infections, reducing mother to child transmission and managing the existing infections. As such, countries are coming together and using their resources to attain this goal. As health professionals aim at minimizing infections, new infections are also coming up because of globalization. For instance, Dengue and yellow fever are prevalent mosquito-borne diseases which are on the rise because of various factors like increased population, urbanization, vector resistance to insecticide and reduced environmental hygiene (Reiter 2014, 481). These infections require particular attention with approaches that deal with current globalization trends. Reducing these infections will mean healthier people, higher life expectancy, and improved economy.

Globalization is linked closely to science and research as it affected the nature and scoping of research and almost every aspect of education. Scholars and researchers have been affected significantly by globalization particularly because of the rise in the use of technology and the growth and prevalence of World Wide Web where scientists can interact and gather information. Information about technological advances and research materials are readily available on the internet from any part of the world. Research work on progress can be published online giving the researcher an opportunity to receive feedback from other scientists. This feedback and helpful criticism can improve competency and create a high-quality piece of writing. Most scientific articles and journals are available online. These sources of information are updated continuously, and people can remain up-to-date with current scientific advances. Medicine and health are highly globalized as diseases affect people from different regions. The primary challenge in this is that it is hard to detect the origin of an epidemic affecting people since a virus can be carried from a region to another in less than a day thus posing a challenge for health care researchers.

Education is now scoped globally but scholars are required to study and act on a local set up such that it becomes challenging to merge the two. In this era, education is considered as a tool of trade such that students are prepared to have an international outlook on matters. However, such strong emphasis has reduced higher education students as commodities of trade like coffee in the World Trade Organization as Altbach (2015)argues. Such a plan denies the students an attachment and interaction with what is local and available. Further, it emphasizes outcome over the process for competence such that students may lack necessary skills that they can apply once they are through with high education. Apparently, because globalization incorporates different players, the students are required to study widely such that it is tedious and may even lack an opportunity to go in-depth on a study. As such, students in this generation have lost the local feel of education as their tutors encourage them to act globally. Despite the growth and expansion of the interconnectedness, students in different have a limit to the extent that they can interact. Purani, Sahadev, and Kumar (2014, 93)note that as academic get more global, with research topics being globally relevant, fewer materials are research that relates to locality and sustainability given that at times the vastness of globalization may hinder sustainability issues of a particular area.

It is noteworthy as the globalization has continued to impact the lives of several groups, one of the principal beneficiaries are terrorist groups and other crime-related groups in different parts of the world. As the border walls have become more porous and financial and information flow instant in nay parts of the world, then global terrorism and criminal activities have increased in the same magnitude. Political globalization goes beyond international relations. The effect of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda in Iraq consists of terrorists who operate in worldwide criminal networks and their criminal activities affect countries other than those in which the criminals reside. The drug smugglers are participants in the illegal deals take advantage of the global village since more and more goods are shipped from one region to another. As this happens, it becomes difficult for the law enforcers to inspect every good shipped or find out the credibility of the senders or receivers. As such, the current transportation and communication networks become key drivers of organized transnational crime (Aas, 2013). The over $70 trillion goods and services across nations annually make it possible for criminals to smuggle in goods or contraband, steal valuables from innocent people among other illegal activities. In fact, it is estimated that organized transnational crime is a booming enterprise that gives its owners about $900 billion per year (Andreas 2002, 38). The illegal trade of wild animals’ parts like ivory, knockoff goods, child pornography, drugs continue to thrive as the forces of demand and supply seek to attain equilibrium. Warchol (2004, 58)argues that the demand for illegal animal products from African countries causes more and more people to form networks to avail the goods when they are needed. And since the payoff is high, more people are willing to take the risk especially in third world countries where unemployment is high.

As criminal groups continue to increase their strength and penetration in more countries because of financial endowments, other losers are created in different parts of the world. For instance, human traffickers endanger the lives of their victims and those of their families as issues like modern slavery prevails. Additionally, the sale of ivory from African countries and the death of wildlife in time reduces the government revenue as with time fewer tourist attractions will be available. The outcome will be reduced economic development as well as unemployment issues. Loss of morals continues to happen as child pornography growth, and the use of drugs especially among adolescents ruin not only their academic life but also their health. With these negative implications, parents, governments, employees and innocent people continue to pay the price of globalization as criminal networks and returns increase.

Globalization has created economic inequality between the developing and developed countries particularly from the international trade and agreements thereof. Citizens of developed countries and their governments continue to thrive and grow economically at the expense of the government and people of developing countries in particular through the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that are biased and work against the third world countries. The policymakers and key decision makers in the WTO hail from developed nations such that they are biased against developed countries especially on matters related to food security, nutrition, and agriculture. For instance, one of the policies that is in place is that governments are not allowed to offer their farmers subsidies as that will have negative implications on trade. However, the US government has continued to provide massive subsidies to the farmers, alleviating poverty and increasing the economic well-being of the farmers. Unfortunately, farmers in developing nations are languishing in poverty as the extent of government support is limited by the WTO requirements and rules. Collier and Dercon (2014, 93)states that despite the growth and development in many nations economic status, developing countries have remained in poverty and agricultural markets thin. Vertical integration and penetration of private players in the agricultural sector are limited such that exploitation of farmers has continued to prevail.

Since food consumption is continuous and progressive with the increasing population, globalization should have occurred such that the price of agricultural price increase accordingly. However, the farmers who do most work and farm against so many odds in the era of climate change and global warming live sometimes unpredictable lives even below the global poverty levels. Cheru (2016, 1268-1283) argues out how WTO policies under capitalism state that production is for trade and not consumption. As such, nations should allow importation of goods in their countries even if the climate allows such production. Such has led to dumping that occurs in countries like Kenya which can produce its own sugar but is forced to import from other nations. The outcome is that the local farmers face low prices of locally produced sugar limiting their ability to grow and expand or even to adopt the new technology for better production. The case of tea and coffee in Kenya is at stake given that farmers are paid peanuts after harvesting and selling their unprocessed products. However, they are exported to UK where they are processed, packaged and exported back to Kenya and sold at high prices under WTO’s watch. The beneficiaries are the developed nations at the expense of farmers in Kenya. Additionally, areas like Korea, because of the dumping and availability of cheaply imported goods, farmers are unable to get reasonable income such that most of them are deserting countryside for the urban areas where they can attain even casual employment (Lele 2017, 458). If globalization were not absent, nations would only form trade unions amongst their neighbors where power disparities are non-existent such that things like economic situations like comparative advantage would be utilized.

In conclusion, globalization has improved the health status of individuals even in developing countries since professionals can offer assistance in any part of the world. However, it has created new problems given that viruses can easily move from one region to another within a short stint of time. Also, globalization has affected research and education significantly given one literature review can be easily done as there is a lot of available information online. One can easily access research materials. Nonetheless, globalization has caused students to strive to have a global outlook as they remain in a local setup. That sometimes has been challenging given that some studies seem utopian, abstract and one that students cannot relate to. As such, there is need for more research on how education can be merged with globalization without losing the local feel. Organized transnational criminal networks have benefitted from globalization since they can smuggle drugs, wild animal products and engage in human trafficking without being noticed. As the number of goods and services shipped increase, it becomes difficult to inspect and deal with all those loopholes. Also, they can recruit members from different parts of the world or offer financial support and transmit information real time, making it hard to control such vices. Finally, globalization has worked in favor of farmers from developed nations and against farmers in developing countries since the WTO policies favor the developed countries. As such, farmers in developing countries remain in poverty as the limit of government subsidies cannot be exceeded.

Bibliography

Aas, Katja Franko. Globalization and crime. SAGE Publications Limited, 2013.

Andreas, P., 2002. Transnational crime and economic globalization. Transnational organized crime and international security: Business as usual, pp.37-52.

Altbach, Philip. "Higher education and the WTO: Globalization runs amok." International Higher Education 23 (2015).

Cheru, Fantu. "Developing countries and the right to development: a retrospective and prospective African view." Third World Quarterly 37, no. 7 (2016): 1268-1283.

Collier, Paul, and Stefan Dercon. "African Agriculture in 50Years: Smallholders in a Rapidly Changing World?." World development 63 (2014): 92-101.

Gostin, Lawrence O., Daniel Lucey, and Alexandra Phelan. "The Ebola epidemic: a global health emergency." Jama 312, no. 11 (2014): 1095-1096.

Hrynyshyn, Derek. "Technology and globalization." Studies in Political Economy 67, no. 1 (2002): 83-106.

Katsuno, Kei, Jeremy N. Burrows, Ken Duncan, Rob Hooft Van Huijsduijnen, Takushi Kaneko, Kiyoshi Kita, Charles E. Mowbray, Dennis Schmatz, Peter Warner, and B. T. Slingsby. "Hit and lead criteria in drug discovery for infectious diseases of the developing world." Nature reviews. Drug discovery 14, no. 11 (2015): 751.

Lele, Uma. "Doubling Farmers’ Income under Climate Change." Agriculture under Climate Change: Threats, Strategies, and Policies 1 (2017): 458.

Purani, Keyoor, Sunil Sahadev, and Deepak S. Kumar. "Globalization and Academic Research: The Case of Sustainability Marketing." IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review3, no. 1 (2014): 93-99.

Reiter, Paul. "25 Surveillance and Control of Urban Dengue Vectors." Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever(2014): 481.

Warchol, Greg L. "The transnational illegal wildlife trade." Criminal justice studies17, no. 1 (2004): 57-73.