"Globalization : an only abstract controversy ?"
By Jorge Vera Castillo. Scientific councilor and of Cooperation in the Embassy of Chile in France.
Former Consultant of the UNO (UNCTAD and CEPAL) and the Ministry of Defense of
Chile. Doctorate in Political sciences from the University Institute of High
International Studies (IUHEI) of Geneva ; Master in International Studies,
University of Chile ; Diploma of Specialization in International Relations,
Papal Catholic University of Chile.
From middle of the nineties, the usual usage of the word
"globalization" is much known in the language of the analysis of
international relations, world economy and foreign policy. Now, it is especially
a question of "the use of words broadcasting which must be considered as a
fashion. Now, in the same direction, one supported that : "who possesses
word for a thing does not possess for all the concept which contains the meaning
of the word" (1). We do not have to forget that from the end of the sixties
of 20-th century, it was frequent to say and to use, in a usual way, term
"interdependence" for connections between nations. Already in 1949,
Emmanuel Mounier wrote, in his book "Le Personnalisme" ("The
Characterism") : "However, world becomes international in fact more
and more. There are not any more independent nations in the former sense of the
word" (2).
Now, apparently the "globalization" drives every phenomenon or process
of international insertion of each individual and every country at the same
moment and opened a whole debate, about the true sense.
On one hand, the president of the Observatory of Globalization, Susan George -
who published in 2000 "The Lugano Report" -, asserts that : "The
globalization is a deluding. It is not a concept, it is a slogan. That wants to
give the feeling of the inevitable, as the tide. Now it is a process impulsed by
multinationals" (3). On the other hand, in 1996, the Economic Commission
for the Latin America and the Caribbean islands (CEPAL) of the UNO,
characterized the "globalization" as "an imperfect concept, in a
new international context in process of being formed". The CEPAL develops
this assertion of synthesis in the following way : "Term 'globalization'
was used to name the vast process of technological, institutional transformation
and orientation which develops in the international economy. However, it did not
yet change in a category of analysis, taking into account that phenomenon, and
the constituent elements are not clearly bounded, and that
"globalization" is so much a process, as a force propulsive, as a
result. In spite of this wave, generalized adoption and common use of the term
reflect the clarity, so it describes the extraordinary increase of the space for
the economic deals which one observes today. The meaning is to be more rigorous
when it appears altogether with the other terms, as in expressions
"globalization of markets", "globalization of the
production" or "globalization of the competition" (4).
Beyond the abstract aspect, according to the perception citizen and public
opinion, Jean Viard, director of searches in the National Center For Scientific
Research, is of the opinion that : "in front of the globalization, there
are three positions. There are those that are "for", very in broad
outline the big shareholders. There are the "outcasts" of the process,
a patchwork of all what suffer directly from it : poor men, workers, immigrants
without papers, farmers on a market at the end of road, etc. But, there is
especially a central group, middle class, at the same moment fascinated with the
globalization or the Internet, but which are afraid of losing what bases them as
individual identities : an aesthetics, a certain idea of the culture and the
solidarity. When gets free a position, which takes into account these two
aspects of the problem, it is excellently nice to this group" (5).
Certainly, in this respect controversy is not concluded. Nevertheless, one has
to take into account that there are the other urgencies and the daily human
necessities. In addition, another question : To what serves science, search, and
technology if we have no development, dignity and happiness ? About the durable
development and the cooperation, on one hand, of the globalization and
humanization on the other hand, subjects all in the center of the current
international debate, our point of view, is bounded to the sphere of activity of
our diplomatic task, but also as researcher, is the following one :
The Chilean State asks a question, for 21-th century, through the program and
the politics of its government, led by the President Ricardo Lagos, in the
domain that draws our attention :
"In what serves science, research and technology if we have no development,
dignity and happiness ?"
Our government, our society and our people work based on three answers in this
respect :
A) Science has for objective to reach development ; but it is not about any
development. First of all, it is about the durable said development "human
development", according to the Program of United Nations for the
Development (PNUD).
B) Research must be made to protect on one hand, the dignity of the human person
and the human rights, and on the other hand, without striking a blow against the
dignity of a people or the national dignity of sovereign Etat-nation, including
the less advanced countries, the developing countries or the countries called
emergent, particularly in this period of the so-called
"globalization".
C) Technology, at the same time as its applications, its transfers and the
common investments, must be thought and be connected by reaching a single
purpose, which is the happiness of the human being.
If we agree in this frame of principles which have to express themselves not
only through the political will of the governments ; or in the national projects
of development but at the same time, in the bilateral reports and the
international relations, but also in the ethics and the fundamental orientations
of the scientists, researchers and technologists, in their efforts and their
works, we can advance on a humanization of the life.
In synthesis, dialectically, there will not be either, development, dignity and
happiness without the science, the search and the technology, which have to be
in the service of the life and of its daily improvement for every citizen. It is
so, that the Globalization should lead to an united humanization of the planet.
Given that "wild capitalism" shows itself completely against this
humanization, appeal is urgent : it is necessary to reconsider the models that
inspire the choices of the development. The humanity is still dramatically
divided into two by the poverty. At the beginning of 21-th century, more than a
billion four hundred million persons live in a situation of extreme poverty.
Including almost three million Chileans, on a population of 15 millions ! We can
not either let us to forget, or put under silence this reality.
From the point of view of contemporary international relations, we should better
harmonize the justifiable requirements of the economic efficiency with those of
political participation, and social justice, without falling again into
ideological errors appointed to the 20-th century. It means placing under the
sign of the solidarity the reports of economic, political and social
interdependencies, which the processes of current globalization tend to increase
without break. Therefore, the realities of this globalization order us to
rethink international cooperation, in terms of new culture of the solidarity.
That is, cooperation can not be reduced to the aid and to the assistance,
especially when we intend in return to benefit from put at the disposal
resources. In Latin America, we knew "the aid of the United States"
the sixties and seventy, with the political and social consequences. In our
opinion, international cooperation has to express a concrete and tangible
commitment of solidarity which aim to make poor men, the actors of their
development, and which allows the biggest possible number of persons to
practice, in concrete economic and political circumstances in which they live,
appropriate creativity for the human person, where depends also the wealth of
nations. In this respect, we shall support a Globalization which will be in
search of a humanization and of an international cooperation in the solidarity,
which should find definitive solutions of the old problems of the international
debt of the poor countries, by guaranteeing at the same time the financial
support necessary to fight against the famine, the malnutrition, the diseases,
the illiteracy, the deterioration of the environment and the despair of spirit
of the youth in front of unemployment, of the underemployment or the use of jobs
of bad quality. Foreign Secretary of Chile, Maria Soledad Alvear Valenzuela
wrote, rightly, that : "Today, it is not easy to find a country developed
with a foreign policy which is against the solidarity and against the
cooperation. In future, it will be every time more difficult to be able to
distinguish the classic elements of a foreign policy thought as in the 20-th
century, because the Globalization will be more and more difficult to
conceptualize : from practical point of view, nothing will be more inappropriate
to a modern country. In this direction, the rigor of the governments will be
necessary in economic and political subjects, but also cooperation, the one that
will give an ethical sense to foreign policy" (6). On the other hand, the
official point of view of the Chilean government was expressed by the Minister
Alvear Valenzuela in its speech in the 55-th session of the General assembly of
United Nations, in September, 2000. She supported the following assertion:
"The globalization pulls impoverishment, and this way, it can stress the
injustices, which characterized international system. United Nations has a lot
to make prevent a globalization, which excluded, to avoid that the advantages of
the modernity limit themselves to someone" (7). More recently, the
President of the Republic, Ricardo Lagos Escobar, underlined that : "Chile
bets for an active and deep insertion in the process of globalization. However,
we believe in the necessity to draw a global insertion with a Latin American
accent, particularly in the field of the political dialogue" (8). In
stronger reason, it is the Pope Jean Paul II who clarifies to us that :
"fast running towards the globalization of economic and financial systems
makes clear the urgency to clarify which has to guarantee the world common good,
and the application of the business and social laws. The free market can not
make it by itself only, because there are really numerous human necessities,
which can not be satisfied, by the market. "Before even the logic of
exchanges with parity and forms of the justice which govern them, there is
certain due to the man, because of the eminent dignity" (9).
By way of conclusion :
Finally, peace on the earth is a very pressing objective, as well as the respect
for human rights. The development of a system of universal justice, through the
establishment of an international penal Court, must be supported and be
encouraged by the democratic States, the international organizations, the
political parties, the centers and the institutes of higher and detailed
education, the specialized reviews, the public opinion and all the means of the
new economy and the information society.
Science, search and technology have so a task of excellence : to democratize
access to the knowledge, to the training and to the information, at all the
levels, and by all the geographic places of the world, without exclusion from
any sort, and in narrow connection with the "human safety", the
concept not restricted to States, which incorporates a number of the other
subjects bound to society, but which does not replace conventional security. As
a matter of fact, as noticed by the Pope, in his celebration message of the
33-th World Day of the Peace, at the beginning of 2000 : " We can not
certainly foresee the future. But we can establish a requiring principle : there
will be a peace as far as all the humanity will know how to discover its
original vocation to be an unique family, where dignity and rights of the
persons - whatever their state, their race or their religion - are asserted as
previous and pre-eminent with regard to any differentiation and to any
specification" (10).
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