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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| November, 10 2004 |
Moving towards sustainable globalization – Tomoko Sakuma |
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| Tomoko Sakuma |
Taking time out from her hectic schedule in Tokyo at the Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society, Tomoko Sakuma came onboard to discuss globalization and international free trade agreements. This former glass blower and antique art dealer told of the turning point in her life when she realised that she could no longer turn a blind eye to the blatant exploitation of developing countries.
While working for a translation company in Japan, she received daily press releases from the Republican Office in the US, and became aware of the unfair treatment and discrimination in US free trade policies. She quit her job and became a devoted activist, presiding over a Japanese NGO working to communicate and educate about the impact globalization has on the environment and human rights the world over. |
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Globalization, which literally means a global exchange of activities, is originally based on a wonderful concept of internationalism and has been going on for centuries, she explained. However in the mid 1980s, as the pressure to pay back ‘third world debt’ on developing nations became more and more strained, the developed nations began to seek cheap labour and natural resources in return. This gave way to a new concept of globalization: unequal distribution of wealth on a global scale and a feverish urbanization in the cities of the global south. Over time this has resulted in a dependency from the poorer countries on cheap exports to and large scale investments from the world’s richer nations. This uses up the world’s limited natural resources and reduces human beings to work like slaves for a world labour market that they are made to feel they can’t live without. While globalization may increase productivity and enhance technological capability, it still only distributes created wealth in favour of the richer countries at the expense of the developing world.
Globalization, which literally means a global exchange of activities, is originally based on a wonderful concept of internationalism and has been going on for centuries, she explained. However in the mid 1980s, as the pressure to pay back ‘third world debt’ on developing nations became more and more strained, the developed nations began to seek cheap labour and natural resources in return. This gave way to a new concept of globalization: unequal distribution of wealth on a global scale and a feverish urbanization in the cities of the global south. Over time this has resulted in a dependency from the poorer countries on cheap exports to and large scale investments from the world’s richer nations. This uses up the world’s limited natural resources and reduces human beings to work like slaves for a world labour market that they are made to feel they can’t live without. While globalization may increase productivity and enhance technological capability, it still only distributes created wealth in favour of the richer countries at the expense of the developing world.
Sakuma talked about farmers across the global south, who have been pushed out of a sustainable agricultural lifestyle into factory slavery, with no power to decline long hours and little pay because of their new dependency on the global consumer market. As developed countries have the means to heavily subsidize their agricultural sector, they are able to undercut goods and produce from developing countries. But Sakuma’s point is that we can all, on an individual level, separate ourselves from the system and take steps towards self-empowerment and to develop the skills we need to negotiate with those ‘in control’ of our world. In order to bring about concrete change, we no longer need to oppose but we need to gain strength to approach governments for reform, claims Sakuma. She says that rural landowners know that a world food shortage will happen someday and that they will be ready when it does.
Sakuma also questioned the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank’s motives for offering “financial assistance” to developing countries. She argued that money is invested in developing countries, disguised as aid relief, when really such projects are set up to bring profit back to the developed nation through cheap labour and/or natural resources. “We need to have a solid structure which offers another way of living in order for people to see that [an alternative form of globalization] is really possible. We still need global trade and exchange but we desperately need to fight for reform to produce a sustainable global economy” said Sakuma. It is such realities behind modern globalization that Sakuma hopes can be discussed widely by the Japanese public. |
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