Globalization and Matters Arising

Abstract

Globalization refers to the rapid global linkages and arrangements of social and economic
activities, and the growth of global consciousness that is accelerating the amalgamation of wrorld
markets. The trend toward closer associations among social communities, dating back to antiquity,
has quickened in recent times resulting in jet airplanes, telephone services, e-mail, computers,
huge ocean-going vessels and instant capital flows, that have made the world more intardependent
than over (Friedman 2005).
Multinational corporations manufacture products in many countries and sell to consumers around
the world. Money, technology and raw materials move more swiftly across national borders.
Products, finances, ideas and cultures circulate more freely. Consequently, laws, economies, and
social movements are forming at the international level at a dizzying speed. Many people see these
trends as both inevitable and mostly welcome. For many of the world's population, business-driven
globalization has brought unexpected and sometimes unjustified prosperity. For others, it has
meant uprooting old ways of life and threatened livelihood and cultures (Reinsdorf and Slaughter
2009). This paper examines the positive impacts of globalization on the economy of nations, and the
unintended negative effects it is having on poor nations. The hope is to inspire a search for
alternative paradigms of globalization that can alleviate the plight of poor nations.