I had to write one of those essays. Globalisation is a broad term that encompasses so many individual issues that I either agree with, disagree with, or see different possibilities for, depending on factors that could possibly affect them. Because of that, I can't say I'm for or against globalisation. For example, if I'm trying to look at this through the eyes of a federal politician, I would be about making the most of the situation at hand and I might say "international trade agreements are necessary and in our best interests right now", however, if it was through the eyes of an idealist, I would imagine what would be happening in an ideal situation and say "international trade of physical goods is undesirable and mostly unnecessary". It's confusing like that. There are so many contingencies.
I am against sweatshop labour and poor use of resources through unnecessary trade. I say unnecessary in the sense that if it was the ideal world, everyone would be equal and there wouldn't be vulnerable groups of people around to exploit so privileged groups of people can enjoy the things they produce working overtime for barely anything. In the ideal world it would not be cheaper to ship food from the other side of the world when we're capable of producing it ourselves. I don't know if, in this flawed world with its selfish people, decreasing international trade at the moment would be a wise idea. Trade agreements can aid in establishing positive international relationships, but economic globalisation makes everyone more vulnerable, as we've seen in the recession.
As for homogenisation of cultural values, that either be good or bad. It depends on the type of cultural imports. TV could turn people living in a peaceful Buddhist country into consumer-whore thugs, and innocent little girls into Kesha wannabes (or something). Read about what happened to Bhutan when they introduced TV. I don't like corporate shit being smeared all over the world, where profit takes priority over ethical integrity. However, it might be politically incorrect to say this, but the traditional cultural values of a lot of places could do with a shaking up. I don't see the beauty in people getting stoned to death for something petty, or of people keeping baseless superstitions and religions. I don't like the idea of people being in their little cultural bubbles, witnessing nothing of the outside world, I'm for global education and the spreading of ideas. The value of something should be determined by whether it works for the good of everyone, not whether it's traditional or not. I agree with the spreading of information to create more open-minded and educated societies, but I don't like how cultures have been ruined by imported trash-media. Cultural globalisation can be good if people can learn from the positive aspects of other cultures.
To be continued.
