Radley Balko's latest Tech Central Station article, Views of a Changing World", is a thorough and decisive refutation of 20 years of anti-globalization rhetoric. It seems that the only people who think globalization is a bad thing are the bourgeois North Americans and Western Europeans; everyone else thinks it's a great idea.
I'll not quote the whole article, but there are a few highlights I'd like to point out.
When asked if "Growing trade and business ties are good for their country," the number of respondents answering "very good" or "somewhat good" totaled 95% in Nigeria, 96% in Ivory Coast, and 95% in Uganda. In fact, the lowest favorable response in any African country came from Tanzania, still at 82%. The numbers were similar in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
This alone is enough to refute the claims of the anbti-globos. Of course, they could argue that the respondents don't know what's good for them, but that line of reasoning is not likely to win them many converts.
Contrast that to world opinion of anti-globalization protesters. All ten African countries view the protesters who claim to speak for them with majority-negative opinions. In fact, in only two of ten African countries do positive views of them top 40%. In Asia, six of seven countries surveyed view them negatively, and only in the Philippines do positive views crack 25% (there, for some reason, they're liked by 54% of respondents). In Latin America, all eight countries have majority negative views of the anti-globalization movement, and in Eastern Europe, they don't crack 33% in any country. Anti-globalization protesters are viewed most positively in Western Europe and North America -- they very cultures they blame for the problems in the rest of the world.
Only one developing economy in the survey had a favorable view of anti-globalization protestors. Everywhere else, they are viewed with overwhelming skepticism and negativity.
There is a wealth of additional information in the article; read the whole thing.
posted on September 08, 2003 08:16 AM
