Globalization: What’s At Stake? – by Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth
As Mala walks home with slumped shoulders and weary body, she is deeply troubled about what lies ahead for her family; they are in for hard times.
Mala and Collin have four children, ages: seven, ten, thirteen and fifteen. They are coconut farmers and depend on their farm for a livelihood. They sell their coconuts to Feroze, a market vendor who also purchases coconuts and coffee beans from other village farmers, which he supplies to small factories in the district. Two months ago Feroze shared with Mala, Collin and their neighbors his worry that the factories will soon go out of business because the demand for their coconut and coffee bean products had dropped significantly. This was due to the importation of foreign canned coconut milk and coffee powder, which have begun to flood the market. This would result in factory workers losing their jobs and many people in their community will suffer. Feroze was puzzled about the cheap prices of the products. They were cheaper than the local products. How can this be?
Mala is filled with despair. Their farm is doomed and so is her family. All her life she had worked hard with nothing to show for it, so she was happy and hopeful when she and Collin first leased this piece of land from her uncle. That was before the bottom fell out of the market for coconuts. Her home-grown coconuts can’t compete with the cheap canned coconut milk that is pouring into her country from abroad.
Her mind drifted to the “yester-years” of her parents’ village and the function of the local cooperative society, which supported small farmers like herself. But the cooperative societies were long gone and replaced by the “modern market system”, which significantly changed things. “To each his/her own.” People in her village said that’s the new way of the world and everyone has to work hard to keep up with the new system. “Its either you’re in the race or you’re dead.”
Mala, Collin and her community are victims of the global economic system. The brutal blow dealt by economic globalization is not only death dealing in hunger and poverty but also in terms of culture and the social fabric of society. Globalization has significant influence in shaping the lives of individuals and communities and has affected major shifts in the way of life of the people. The competitive push has resulted in family and community disintegration, lack of social safety net, destruction of communal systems, which provided key support for families and also a dwindling of community systems of care and support.
Globalization is a convergence of economic, political, cultural, and social systems, controlled by global power centers, which order the systems to work in ways that keep them in tight control. Discussions on globalization became more prominent in the anti-globalization debate, where globalization is viewed as a complex reality with contradictory implications, generating marked division and yet closer connection and interaction, fragmentation of communities and yet possibilities for coming together. A key instrument of globalization is information and communications technology, which has grown significantly and is connecting people at incredibly means and rates. Its phenomenal speed and accessibility has certainly generated exciting possibilities. However, one needs to weigh the complexities and to evaluate what’s at stake for people, especially those who have been disenfranchised and disposed of by the global system.
How has globalization affected the economy of communities and nations? Who are the beneficiaries and who are the losers? How has it affected racism, xenophobia and sexism? What is the impact of globalization on culture, identities of people, their history, values, traditions and what makes them a community? How has the shift in power, from national to multinational and transnational corporations, increased vulnerability of poor countries? What is the impact of globalization on churches and the ecumenical movement? How do we live our faith in the context of globalization?
In the last two decades churches have been engaged with the issue from a faith perspective, with critical analysis and reflection on the domination of economic and cultural globalization. The World Council of Churches 8th Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe, 1998, called on churches to address globalization with a theological approach. In his report to the 1997 Central Committee (preceding the assembly), former WCC general secretary, Konrad Raiser said:
While the WCC and the ecumenical movement cannot but resist globalization as an ideological and political project, we cannot easily opt out of the historical dynamic and the ambiguity of global interdependence. The ecumenical movement must accept the challenge to articulate and embody an alternative understanding and vision of globalization.
Challenged by the cry of people who suffer and by the groaning of creation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches embarked on a journey of faith and economic justice following their declaration of status confessionis against apartheid in 1982. In 1995 African churches held a Consultation on Reformed Faith and Economic Justice and studied the impact of globalization and the systematic exclusion of Africa and the African people from the world economic order. They said:
All the signs of the times lead us to conclude that Africans live on a crucified continent as people to be sacrificed… The sacrifice of humanity on the altar of the global economy is intertwined with the sacrifice of the nature.
In 2004 WARC issued the Accra Confession: Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth, in which they declared a faith imperative to respond in profound ways to the challenges of globalization. They spoke of the threats to life resulting from the consequences of globalization for the most vulnerable and for the earth community and critically examined a new turn that globalization has taken in “the convergence of economic, political, cultural and military interests that constitute a system of domination in which benefits flow primarily to the powerful. This system of empire is the face of globalization today. It “crosses all boundaries, reconstructs identities, subverts cultures, overcomes nation states and challenges religious communities.
Many churches bear witness to the death dealing impact of globalization. In recent decades the ecumenical movement has issued a challenge to the logic of globalization and addressed key justice issues in the era of globalization. However, in the last five years there seems to be a draw back from these issues as a priority for the ecumenical movement today. There is a struggle between justice and unity and the role of the ecumenical movement in the world today. For Mala’s family and millions of poor people worldwide there isn’t time for this. People are dying every day. Churches need to draw attention to this horror and influence the movement to let go of tensions, which thwart its mission and witness and to focus on what is necessary for life and its prophetic vision and voice in the world today. Distinction needs to be drawn between Christian mission and the forces of domination, patriarchy, racism and institutional injustice that are associated with empire. Churches also need to confess their own complicity with empire and globalization.
Jesus lived in times of empire and his ministry was one of counter-imperial movement against the oppressive regime of the Roman Empire. He confronted his adversaries and addressed injustice, at the same time showing love, concern and bringing hope, thus weaving justice and love in a powerful way. His presence, witness and mission among people gave new impetus in life, healing bodies and souls wounded by empire, proclaiming peace on earth, and restoring the wholeness of creation. “To follow Jesus means many things but it surely means nothing less than resisting empire and creating new communities of life amidst it.” (An Ecumenical Faith Stance Against Global Empire, WARC, 2006.)