Words: 1024
At the forefront of this global movement are multinational corporations who seem to benefit the most from an interconnected world. GIG obligation provides limitless opportunities for businesses to develop their trade, especially in dove eloping countries where labor and the cost of materials are cheap. While this investment benefit TTS developing countries by creating jobs, growth and foreign exchange, it is not without con sequence. In their quest for economic dominance, corporations often act without regard for the indigenous people who have lived there for centuries.
This sets off a chain reaction that begins w the the acquisition of land for development, which in turn leads to the exploitation of environment natal resources, detrimental effects to health and well being and loss of culture. In order to attain economic growth and development, multinational corporate ions often resort to exploiting land and natural resources without consideration of the environment natal impacts or the effect on the native people.
These foreign corporations see the land as a mea NSA to an end that end being money in their wallets, but for those who reside there and call it ho me, it has been heir source of food, clothing and shelter for past and present generations. The e land is just as much a part of them as they are part of the land but corporations fail to come rend this or blatantly choose not to. Nicholas Low, a professor at the University of Mellow erne addresses this issue in his book, ” Global Ethics and Environment. He states that, ‘the mantra a of globalization is ‘international competitiveness’… This translates into the largest corporation s competing for the natural resources that poor people in the Third World need for their survival” (55). In their mind, profit trumps environmental responsibility. Moreover, because these corporations are not operating in their own country sees, they are less likely to be concerned with the consequences caused by their actions, nor are they held accountable. It is the local population that suffers.
Hundreds, if not thousands of indigenous people are displaced from their homes and land, which they have inhabited f or generations, to make way for development. Where they once owned land as far as the eye co old see, today they inhabit only a meager portion of the region. But acquiring the land is not eon GHz, these multinationals also need their forests, minerals, Oil, energy and so on, and www rise still, in Mahoney 2 enormous quantities. The land is stripped of all its natural resources until there e is nothing left but a barren wasteland and even then the vicious cycle does not end.
All the waste e generated by these factories is then dumped back into the environment, polluting the land, air, rivers, ocean and atmosphere. Having used up everything, the multinationals then leave to repeat the process elsewhere, leaving those in their native homeland to clean up the mess and c unite fending for themselves. As a consequence of irresponsible multinational corporations, irreparably dad mage is done not only to the environment but also to the health and well being of indigenous p people.
The waste dumped into rivers has made the water supply undrinkable and if they are luck KY enough to find any forms of life at all, it is inedible. Before, they relied on the land for food b UT without it they cannot farm like they once did thus they must now travel to urban centers to buy food from supermarkets. But in order for them to do so they need money, which in turn eaves them with no alternative but to seek employment from the very corporations that have ma De their once us bioscience existence impossible.
These companies then take advantage Of the e people’s desperation by paying them minimum wage and making them work in less the an ideal and hazardous conditions. Annie Leonard, Executive Director of Greenback USA mentions in her short film, The Story of Stuff, that, “Globally 200,000 people a day are moving from environments that have sustained them for generations, into cities many to IL eve In slums, looking or work, no matter how toxic that work may be. ” People must put their health h and lives at risk to survive.
Consequently, globalization has led to the degradation of cultural identities. L and plays an important role in majority of indigenous cultures, not only as a source of lively hood but also as a link to their past. The land is filled with religious sites and sacred landmarks t hat denote significant historical events. Nature is a living history book and every mountain n, tree, stone and leaf is part of its story. In his book, “Consuming Culture: Globalization and Loc al Lives,” Jeremy Seabrook states, “Cultures are bound up with place… Dotted in a apart ocular space, in a particular environment. This usually means land…. Cultures are the consequence once of geography as well as of history. ” Their culture is rooted in the land and by destroying it a ND forcing them to move, these corporations are destroying their connections to centuries of cult rural practices and traditions. Further contributing to this loss of culture is the mentality of superiority held by foreign powers. Rather than making an effort to understand and assimilate themselves into the culture of that land, they hold onto their ethnocentric attitude.
And so they try to assert their way of thinking onto the people, under the banner of progress. In some cases they do so subs lay, by requiring workers to speak a foreign language or disallowing them from wearing tradition Anal clothes and in extreme cases by forbidding them to practice their traditions and observe the IR holidays. Over a period of time their culture gets watered down until their children can no long re speak the language of their grandparents. Cultural identity is an integral part of every so city, people’s ales, beliefs and traditions are what keeps them grounded makes them nun queue.