At the beginning of the 21st century, globalization is an inevitable trend and is bound to develop as time goes by. Globalization is a double edged sword. On the one hand, it improves the communication and interaction between countries through technology, economic and politics. On the other, it assaults national sovereignty and diminishes local tradition. The daunting question is whether we can make the best out of it or it will come to control us.
People often regard the latest 100 years as the globalization era which witnesses a great expansion in population and economic growth. In fact, globalization is a trendy word for an old process. Different cultures met dating from the Greece time and during the Mongol time, there was greater integration along the silk road… However, it is in the past 100 years that the process accelerated.
Supporters of globalization claim that the economic prosperity benefits the rich and the poor alike and leads to a more efficient allocating of resource. Jeffery D. Sachs, the current professor and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, pointed out in his book The End of Poverty, “One of the ironies of the recent success of India and China is the fear that... success in these two countries comes at the expense of the United States. These fears are fundamentally wrong and, even worse, dangerous. They are wrong because the world is not a zero-sum struggle... but rather is a positive-sum opportunity in which improving technologies and skills can raise living standards around the world.” In this perspective, the world market is a cake and globalization not only make the everyone has a piece, but also makes the cake bigger and bigger. Therefore, it is a bless to all of the world. According to World Bank figures, the percentage of people living on less than $2 a day has decreased greatly in areas effected by globalization, while poverty rates in other areas have remained largely stagnant. For example, in East-Asia, the percentage decreased was 50.1% compared to a 2.2% increase in Africa. Countries who are involved in globalization do benefit from the reduction or elimination of the tariffs and capital controls.
Accept from the economic benefit, globalization has made communication and everyday life easier and more exiting with the development of technology. Information flows smoothly between geographically remote areas. Satellite, submarine cable, internet and wireless cell phone, all these make an important part of our life. In the process, people from different areas get to understand each other better. The world-wide sport event such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games removes the language barrie between nations.People get plenty of opportunities to experience the exotic culture, which makes life more colorful. According to a 2003 survey of teenagers from New York, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, and the Philippines, teenagers both in the United States and elsewhere are largely in favor of globalization. The concrete statistic give us the hint that globalization is popular because of the convenience and wild choice that it offers.
----to be continued