Research Paper Example on Globalization

Question 1: Meaning Of the Term Globalization

Globalization refers to the act of integration and interaction of various peoples, companies, businesses and governments of different countries. It is fueled by investments and international trades assisted by advancement in technology. The process has impacts on the environment, culture, economic aspects and development, political systems as well as on the physical well-being of human beings across the globe. Globalization is not a new aspect. For thousands of years, human beings have always traded with each other and also invested in various avenues; however, advancement in technology pushed globalization to a greater height (Wolf, 2014).

Question 2: Berlin Conference

Berlin Conference was held in 1884-1885 in Congo, West Africa. It was used to direct and control European colonization policies as well as trade in Africa during colonization era at a time when Germany was emerging as an Imperial power. Germany was the organizer of the conference under the leadership of the First German Chancellor called Otto von Bismarck. Britain was represented in the conference by Sir Edward Malet. The main focus of the conference was characterized by the scramble for Africa with each country aiming at getting the lion share (Craven, 2015).Effects of globalization had taken effects with an aim to increase wealth through exploitation of Africa and changing their governance.

During the conference, a consensus was reached on how to divide Africa. Other aspects such as ending slave trade were also discussed. Most nations were of the view that a colony could only take regions where they had a strong presence. This notion was opposed by Germany which had less presence in Africa; however, Germany was the most powerful at the time (Craven, 2015). If I was Sir Edward Malet, my political perspective could have been to concentrate on convincing other nations to oppose Germans idea. This could have immensely benefited Britain which had the highest presence in Africa. All countries against Germany could easily overcome German resistance. There was also need to end the slave trade in order to win the support of the locals who could eventually welcome Britain in their country. This would easily increase British presence in various African nations and reduce rebellion.

The results of the conference were partition of Africa to various states that remained even after independence. Globalization took place with enhanced trade and effects on African culture and political systems. The conflict between the European nations increased as each nation wanted to have a piece of Africa. Other nations including Russia and Japan began to show interest in Africa (Craven, 2015).

Question 3: Components of the Human Development Index (HDI)

The key components in HDI are health shown by level of life expectancy in a country, Education based on the mean number of years spent at school and the standard of living depending on the Gross National Income per capita of a country (Yakunina & Bychkov, 2015). If I was hired by United Nations to critique the value of the HDI in assessing the development of countries, I would focus on various factors that have been ignored in the current system of HDI.

Standard of living- different countries may show divergence in HDI depending on the region. While some regions may score high, others will be ranked lowest. For example, North China is poor compared to North East region. There is a need to assess specific regions instead of countries as a whole. The strength of assessing development based on countries is that most countries have a central source of development mainly based on the budget allocation as well as policies to influence development. The weakness is due to the fact that all regions cannot be equal.

Life expectancy- HDI assess long-term changes and ignore short-term changes, for example, life expectancy is a long-term factor that is calculated depending on long-term changes such as chronic illness yet short-term changes such as natural calamities also influences life expectancy. The strength of this factor is that an average is taken to determine the life expectancy in a particular country; however, variation exists since other numerous factors such as security, natural disasters, and human rights also influence life expectancy.

Education- high HDI does not necessarily mean people are knowledgeable. Some countries such as Saudi Arabia have high HDI score yet the score low in education than some countries in Africa which have low HDI. The strength of this issue is seen in the aspects that it is calculated based on the mean number of years in school which may translate to the level of education acquired. More years mean more education acquired. The weakness of this factor is due to the fact that countries with high GNI per capita are thought to be more educated. Few educated people behind a nations development do not translate to a higher education level of the other peoples in the country.

Question 4: Sally Jones Case

Based on Sallys case, the best model to apply in decision making is CAGE. The CAGE framework utilizes economic, administrative, cultural and geographic variations or distances between nations that a company should consider when drafting international strategies. CAGE decisions are highly influenced by globalization (Stober, 2014). The most appealing strategy to deal with the threat was to oppose the strategy of other companies to introduce hummus in the US based on sensitization of the negative effects of globalization.

The geographic distance between Ethiopia that is interested in producing the chickpeas means so many things could go wrong during production and transportation. One of the negative effects is that contaminated products could be imported to America leading to an outbreak of disease. Ethiopia is known to have highly resistant food poison bacteria (Eromo et al, 2016). These bacteria can be found in chickpeas as a result of unhygienic handling by the food handlers or use of contaminated water. Ethiopia is a hilly country with drinking water problems. This means irrigation water might not be available leading to use of contaminated water. They also lack the capacity to recycle water. Environmental degradation may also occur as a result of improper use of water resources in the rivers as well as deforestation to cultivate chickpeas. Activists will easily work against the idea of farming chickpeas in Ethiopia to transport to the US.

Introduction of hummus by the companies could lead to more economic harm than the benefit. Farmers in the US are likely to face a stiff competition from cheap import from Ethiopia. This will easily push them from the business. This means that importation will only benefit a few people who own the company while the majority of the farmers will be languishing. Such an idea will easily convince the government to control importation of the product to protect the majority of the citizens who are farmers. The funding by the US companies towards Ethiopia project might not benefit the Ethiopian farmers who are poor and will rely on the companies to provide all the necessary facilities including farm equipment. In turn, the companies will pay themselves by taking the produce only to leave little profit for the farmer. Ideally, due to poverty levels, Ethiopian farmers will only be providing their land and labor.

Importation will also lead to losses, especially in the tobacco sector. Government and some financial institutions that have heavily funded the sector will stand to lose as some farmers are still paying financial loans. The country will also lose as a whole agricultural unit will be jeopardized.

With the points above, we would easily convince other stakeholders including the local farmers, activists and the government to join in the fight. TAG will only mobilize and fund initial efforts towards resisting marketing effort to drive demand for hummus in the United States and other players including the government and activists will take over. This means little resources will be used by TAG.

Question 5: Social Stratification

Social stratification refers to inequality between various groups in the society. It uses a system in the society to group people in several categories based on their social class according to economic status, race, ethnicity, birth, occupation, race, income and education among other numerous factors (Mason, K. (2013). The picture above shows social stratification based on economic status and wealth owned by various individuals. The economic strength is used to stratify people as either wealth or poor. In the picture, 62 people are classified as wealth owing to the accumulation of wealth that is equivalent to 3.6 billion people who have little wealth hence classified as poor. The wealthy have better life indicated by an airplane that is associated with luxury life while the poor are marked with the poor living condition including lack of basic needs such as food and shelter as well as possibility of getting diseases as a result of poor living environment.

References

Craven, M. (2015). Between law and history: the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 and the logic of free trade. London Review of International Law, 3(1), 31-59.

Eromo, T., Tassew, H., Daka, D., & Kibru, G. (2016). Bacteriological Quality of Street Foods and Antimicrobial Resistance of Isolates in Hawassa, Ethiopia. Ethiopian Journal of Health Sciences, 26(6), 533542.

Mason, K. (2013). Social Stratification and the Body: Gender, Race, and Class. Sociology Compass, 7(8), 686-698.

Stober, E.O. (2014). CAGE Analysis of Chinas Trade Globalization. European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 6 (1), 39-54.

Wolf, M. (2014). "Shaping Globalization" (PDF). Finance & Development. 51 (3): 2225

Yakunina, R., & Bychkov, G. (2015). Correlation Analysis of the Components of the Human Development Index Across Countries. Procedia Economics and Finance, 24, 766-771.