World Trade Organization

What is the World Trade Organization? Good question… From what I have gathered from the great “world wide web”, the WTO is the only global organization that sets and discusses the rules that govern trading between nations around the world.  Doesn’t that sound like a fun job?  Well, since 1995 this organization has helped to liberalize international trade.  On their website they describe themselves as “a rules-based, member-driven organization” and that all decisions are made by members of the governments – basically, when people cannot agree on a vote, the WTO steps in and makes up their mind.  

Now, is this organization good or bad?  From what I can tell, it isn’t a bad thing.  On the ever-so-popular Wikipedia, organization usually have a tab that lists out controversies that follow close behind the majority of these organizations, but the WTO doesn’t!  I guess it is up to us to make decide if we like them or not…

 

The person who made this cartoon doesn’t seem to like them very much.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a document that was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and sets out all of the rights that humans have throughout the world.  Of course, like any other document set out by the government, it has had some criticism.  I don’t see why people make such a fuss about these documents that give us our rights and freedom.  We do enough on our own to stop people from living their lives how they want and criticize them when they stray from “the norm”.  Why are we bothering to combat these original documents that only tried to help us to be free when we should, instead, be looking at ourselves and at our own actions?  We should be changing the way we see things.  Until we allow ourselves to believe that “all men are created equal”, refuting documents such as the UDHR will not make the world a better place, it is actually making it worse.

Bollywood

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think “Bollywood”?  For me, I think ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. You know, the movie about the boy who grew up in the slums of Mumbai and ends up winning ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’ – the Indian version.  That is not a wrong way of thinking of Bollywood because the movie is a combination of what Bollywood really is.  It is more well known as part of the Indian film industry.  However, the film industry isn’t always what people are interested in.  It is also very well known for the clothes and accessories, as well as the style of dance.  With the eye-catching, bright colored dresses and the intricate beading – both on the dresses and used as head pieces – it is hard to not pay attention to this growing theme.  As for the dancing, I can’t name one person that I know who has seen ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and doesn’t know the ending choreography.

See for yourself.

Pussy Riots

First of all, I had no idea what “Pussy Riot” was before I received the assignment to write a blog about it.  I had no idea what to expect when I began to research this topic but what I found were some very strong Russian women that are openly against anything Putin related.  Many know of Vladimir Putin, if not from studying politics around the world, then from watching the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.  One of the main things I watched when researching the Pussy Riot was their interview on the Colbert Report.  Not only are they hilarious, they voice the opinion of most people who are afraid to speak up.  I admire these women for staying strong, sticking “to their guns”, and fighting for what is right.  They talk about how they were first put in jail for “singing fun songs in church”, one of their favorites being “Putin Piss Off”.  Also, they say they were released from jail because the prison guards got fed up with having to report all of their indiscretions to Putin.  The two videos, Part 1 and Part 2, of their interview on the Colbert Report are a must watch, especially if you want to learn the “secret” behind the name “Pussy Riot”.

Pussy Riot on Colbert Report – Part 1

Pussy Riot on Colbert Report – Part 2

G20

Are the G20 summits doing more harm than good for our country? For our world?  These meetings are supposedly set up to discuss and fix some of the major issues that are occurring throughout the world at that time.  However, to me, it seems as though they create even more issues.  One of the main examples that I came across is when protesters in Toronto, Canada started to speak out at the G20 Summit meeting in 2010.  First of all, the amount of security that is set out for these meetings is one sign that, obviously, something is not right.  Secondly, one video that I watched showed peaceful protesters – yes, I am aware that that can sometimes be an oxymoron, but in this case it is not – were singing ‘Oh Canada’ and began to sit in front of the police officers set out for security (as seen in the picture above).  In the middle of the song, with what seemed like no provocation from the crowd, the officers swarmed and attacked.  This should not be happening, especially when the G20 should be focused on fixing “bigger” problems.  Before we can fix those bigger problems, we need to find a way to fix the problems we are having in our own backyard.

‘Oh Canada’ Protest [Disclaimer: This video is a little unsettling.]

Short clip on the story of one of the protest leaders at the G20 Toronto Summit.

Jihadist Globalism

The third of the three areas of globalization, with justice and market globalism as the other two, is jihadist globalism.  Jihadist globalism basically plays off of the fact that America, after 9/11, always feels like we are “under attack” or that the people who caused 9/11 need to pay for what they did.  In another of his books, The Rise of Global Imaginary, Steger says that jihadist globalism is based off of the beliefs or principles of the populists and four characteristics.

The first characteristic pinpoints exactly what happened following the attacks on 9/11 – pitting good versus evil.  Of course, America was the ‘good’ and the terrorists were ‘evil’.  This still comes into play in our country today; Muslims cannot not freely practice their faith in America, not because the government says they can’t, but because the American people tend to view all Muslims as associated with the terrorists or Al Qaeda.  To me, this is getting a little ridiculous.  We, as Americans, should have developed enough after the Civil Rights movement and learned that we are ALL created EQUAL and not to judge people based on just their faith or skin color.

The second characteristic is based on the fact that politics are one of the major downfalls in our economy.  One small disagreement about a political issue can be thrown out of proportion and be seen as an entire moral dispute between the parties involved.  The third characteristic is says that when the populist expects immediate solutions to crises that occur, which is unrealistic considering how many crises happen in just one day throughout the entire country.

The fourth characteristic ties along with the first one, the good versus evil, in that “we”, as in the populist community, always feel we are being threatened.  In my opinion, this all started with 9/11; America didn’t perpetually feel like we were under attack or had the potential to be attacked until after that horrible day.  Unfortunately, though some understand that this is not the case, there isn’t much we can do to change this outlook of the majority of the community.

Market Globalism

I talked about one side of the Global Justice Movement in my last blog, Justice Globalism, and now I will be give you the other side, Market Globalism.  Market globalism is the part of globalization that reflects the values of neoliberalism.  With those values, market globalist fight for political and economic growth that is self-regulated and equal.  In another one of his books, Globalism: The New Market Ideology, Manfred Steger says that globalism is “a sales pitch for free trade.”  It makes sense that globalism is happening so prominently at this point in time because of the rise of prosumerism.  With prosumerism, more and more people are getting involved in the design, development and marketing of new ideas and inventions around the world; so the idea of a fight for free trade and economic and political growth by people who want to do their part in changing the way the world thinks, is not so far fetched.  I believe, as a side effect of globalism, companies and brands are becoming more aware of how much they can grow if they involve the ideas and inventions of the people they are selling their products to.  If I had to chose a side, right this second, I would most likely choose the side of market globalism.  I want people to be more involved in how their own world is functioning, whether it be through the ideas for new products for P&G or how to strengthen our economy.

Justice Globalism

Justice globalism is one of the major political beliefs that have developed out of the Global Justice Movement (GJM) and has, like the name suggests, acquired a global following.  The main reason for justice globalism is to develop new ideas and alternatives for policies on large scale crises around the world in the 21st century.  In his book, Justice Globalism: Ideology, Crises, Policy, Manfred Steger describes the GJM as being split into two halves: those in the North that attend an annual meeting for the World Economic Forum (WEF) and those in the South that attend the annual meeting of the World Social Forum (WSF).  These annual meetings are held in order for justice globalist to collaborate and develop political ideologies and solutions to global crises.  The WEF is mainly based on market globalism while the WSF is focused on justice globalism, therefore, I will focus more on the WSF side of things.

The GJM and justice globalists are fighting to stop capitalism in the corporate world – regulating the political power of large multi-national corporations.  Justice globalists don’t want to see these multi-national corporations take advantage of people or disregard safety and other relevant conditions just so they can have a higher standing in the political world.  People around the world that are fighting for the GJM are concerned with staying true to and enhancing human rights, fairness, and development.  Locals want to be have the authority to make decisions, or at least be heard, instead of international agreements and global financial institutions having all of the authority.  Justice globalist are fighting against global financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and, you called it, the World Bank.

The United Nations

The end of World War II seemed to have jump started a new trend of global peace.  Only one year after the World Bank was established, in 1945, another organization was created in hopes to unite and bring peace to nations around the world.  This organization became known as the United Nations.  The United Nations, also referred to as the UN, consists of the cooperation of 51 countries and aims to promote the nations’ social development, poverty prevention, and human rights.  Just like with any other organization, the UN has its controversies.  There seem to be people that completely support them and those who criticize many of their actions.

Once again, I am a person that is on the fence between loving and hating the organization and what they do.  I believe that the United Nations was created with great intentions, to create a safer world – if that is at all possible.  However, there are certain aspects of the organization that I disagree with.  Of course, with social media nowadays, we hear about the horrible things that organizations are doing, if they are true or not is something we may never really know for sure.  One example is the accusations made about the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and, as a result, their shaky relationship with the U.S government.  For me, it is difficult to make a decision about an organization when we never know what really goes on behind those closed doors.

The World Bank

In an effort to put a stop to poverty around the world, the Bretton Woods Conference created the World Bank in 1944.  The World Bank is a financial system, run by a citizen of the United States, that provides loans to developing countries in order to decrease their poverty. It started out relatively small, in Washington D.C, until it was able to gain the confidence of other countries.  In recent years The World bank has been under scrutiny for the projects it supports, supposedly having great environmental and social impacts on those countries – and by ‘great’ I mean controversial.  Examples of this problem are a project in Brazil in 1981 that reportedly resulted in the destruction of the rainforest or the funding of a dam being built in India that resulted in the resettlement of people in the Narmada River Valley in 1978 and 1993.

Without knowing much about the World Bank, other than what I researched in order to write this blog, it is hard for me to form my own opinion on this controversy. However, I tend to see that pretty much anything in the world nowadays is put under scrutiny but it is up to individuals to decide if the benefits of institutions, like the World Bank, are enough to outweigh some of the repercussions.