Effects of Globalization on Zimbabwe

Effects of Globalization on Zimbabwe Introduction Globalization is as much a part of the modern world as the air we breathe. Especially in the United States, it seems that everywhere you look you can find products made from China, India, Japan, or Taiwan. From our electronics to our silverware, and even the very food we consume, Americans participate in the global market on an everyday basis. What is not so obvious to the average American might be the way in which this global market operates. One important function of the global market is to give countries access to resources that cant be found domestically. However, at a national level America, has a set of rules for fair trade between companies, states, and individuals. There is a high amount of interest in promoting the welfare of each domestic party. Historically, international affairs have been handled much differently. Colonization and the exploitation of other countrys resources have been a common trait of the past few centuries. In addition to accessing resources in other countries, globalization has also been used to circumvent the established fair trade and labor laws in developed countries. If a manufacturer were to pay ten dollars an hour to a factory worker here in the United States, they might be able to find labor in a less-developed country, where there are more relaxed or no labor laws, for a tenth of that amount. This cheap labor might take the form of a poor farmer, a single mother, or even a young child (Elsbeth 2004). This also means that globalization isnt only affecting those who work for low wages in less-developed countries, but it is also affecting domestic labor in the United States by outsourcing available jobs. This paper will focus on Zimbabwe and how globalization has contributed to its poor current situation. Ultimately, globalization in Zimbabwe has been a means to funnel more wealth to already developed nations while sacrificing local economies and living conditions. It has put Zimbabwe into large amounts of debt, threatening its existence as a truly independent nation, and thrown the countrys infrastructure into a tailspin that it has yet to recover from. Development of Capitalism in Zimbabwe The modern history of the territory that would come to be called Zimbabwe begins with one of the earliest forms of globalization; colonization. In the late 19th century, Zimbabwe was colonized by the British because of their interest in mining the territory for precious metals (Alexander 2006). This was the beginning of globalization in Zimbabwe, and as with most instances of globalization, its motives were not pure. The British had no interest in spreading wealth to the area, but instead this was an instance of a developed country looking at the un-utilized resources of a lesser-developed country and wanting to utilize them for their own gain. The colony would remain as such for over seventy years. Policy and housing settlements over this period of time would favor Europeans over the indigenous African population, further proving British motives as not being about whats best for the Zimbabweans (Alexander 2006). In the mid 1960s, the situation in Zimbabwe would deteriorate between the British, who were becoming less prevalent in the area, and rival African factions seeking to gain their independence. The end result would be a civil war between a white-minority government (which declared its own independence from the United Kingdoms) and African-majority factions that lasted for over a decade, along with political turmoil in the region that still exists even today (Alexander, 2006). All of this happened while the British were able to get up and leave, leaving the country to deal with its newfound internal problems by itself. Without deviating too far from the purpose of this paper by delving into specific historical events, a summary of the modern history of Zimbabwe paints an accurate picture of what capitalism, and by extension globalization, has done to the country. A developed country entered a less-developed country in order to make a profit, upset the existing power structure, exploited the lands and its indigenous people, and then left the mess for others to try to pick up when it became no longer worth it to be there. This is a recurring theme in globalization and the world market. Poverty in Zimbabwe Zimbabwe is a country that lives ridden with poverty and disease. Despite having natural resources like gold, copper, iron and lithium, 68% of the population lives under the poverty line. 80% of the people in Zimbabwe are unemployed, and even those that are employed are seeing the money they earn diminished because of hyperinflation caused by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe printing excessive amounts of money to fund their budget deficit (CIA World Factbook). The International Money Fund (IMF) has also cut off their support of Zimbabwe due to Zimbabwes inability to pay back past loans and refusal to enact IMF reforms (CIA World Factbook). However, there have also been claims that IMF and World Bank reforms in the past have hurt Zimbabwe and only made the poverty there worse. Programs that were aimed at globalizing Zimbabwe by funding urban businesses have only succeeded in raising the private incomes of a select few, pushing further class distinction between the rich and poor and doing little to settle Zimbabwes national debt. Some experts claim that the focus must be on promoting the interests of the majorities, like putting price-controls on staples like maize, in order to promote the type of growth that raises the standard of living and can endure as something more than a get rich quick scheme for the already wealthy (Kawewe Dibie 2000). A possible motive for providing these developed companies in less-developed countries with incentives and funds is that they are able to get involved with the global market and provide products at cheap prices to the developed world. There have been many accusations that the IMF and the World Bank favor developed countries when they restructure less-developed countries economies. The World Bank itself claims that their proposals to Zimbabwe have been aimed at supporting social welfare, assisting the fight against AIDS and assisting Zimbabwe in assessing their land use and agricultural exports. However, as of September 13, 2007, Zimbabwe still owed the World Bank 521 million U.S. dollars and the IMF 134 million U.S. dollars (World Bank 2008). A debt like this gives the World Bank and the IMF, a part of the developed world, a large amount of power over Zimbabwe. Whether that power is or has been abused or not, it is important that Zimbabwe recover so that it can begin asserting its own economic structures to support its own people. Only then will Zimbabwe enjoy the benefits of the developed world. Effects on the Population Zimbabwe, like most nations dealing with globalization, has seen an increase in city life in recent history. When globalization affects a nation, subsistence farming that feeds that nations people often becomes more modernized. This means that land owners attempt to have less people working their lands, because if they can replace paid labor with cheaper technology then they pay less to produce equal, or sometimes greater, yields. Then these can be sold into the international market where they make a select few in the developing nation money and drain the food supply for many others. This model of globalization has particularly affected women and children in Zimbabwe. With the increase in city life has come a need for those in poverty to send their children to work in order to support their families. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that HIV/AIDS runs rampant through Zimbabwe, often breaking up family structures when a mother or father become too ill and can no longer work. For many, there just isnt any choice. Robson Elsbeth, the author of several articles focusing on the sociology of Zimbabwe, argues that child labor is a necessary evil for developing countries right now. Elsbeth calls the western idea that children should grow up happy and playing, with little to no responsibility, a myth for much of the developing world. There is simply no way to support these families otherwise. Perhaps the best thing we can do for these children at this point is to simply recognize the work that they do. If western nations stop fooling themselves, they can put pressure on Zimbabwean leaders to help improve the lives and working conditions for those children that have to work by recognizing them as a legitimate work force, rather than standing around in denial and doing nothing to help the situation (Elsbeth 2004). To the west, it may be somewhat tragic, but this is part of the reality of life faced by less-developed nations struggling to make money for their countries in the international market. A good model for the type of progress that Elsbeth argues for can be found by looking at Zimbabwean women since the end of colonial rule in Zimbabwe. They were recognized as a legitimate work force, and as such they have been receiving higher average incomes, better healthcare and greater amounts of education. From this involvement in education and the work force, they have been able to secure public official jobs and have more and more political influence (McFadden 2005). If children can follow the model of progress that Zimbabwean women have already created, they would be able to have a larger voice. However, even for women, the recent political strife in Zimbabwe has threatened to diminish their status once again, with several woman (among other men, though) have been ejected from their spots as public officials (McFadden 2005). Disease and Healthcare As has been mentioned, HIV/AIDS is a national epidemic in Zimbabwe. In 2001, there was an estimated 1.8 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, which represented 24.6% of the total adult population (CIA World Factbook 2008). That essentially means that one out of every 4 adults had HIV/AIDS, and since then Zimbabwe has shown little signs of progressing. If you combine this problem with the financial problems and national debt that Zimbabwe is in discussed earlier in this paper, it is not hard to predict that there would be many people living with HIV/AIDS and without sufficient healthcare. Distributing methods of safe sex is something that gets very little, if any, funding, and once an average person does become affected it is very hard for them to find the sorts of treatment that can prolong their lives and help them deal with it (Zimbabwe Benefit Foundation 2008). As tragic as this is in its own right, it also has a cyclical effect on some of the things previously mentioned in this paper. As has been discussed, often HIV/AIDS has renders people too sick to work, or left families with a dead mother or father. This means more people living in poverty, and more families having to send their kids to work rather than to get an education. This, generally speaking, will relegate them to poverty in their adult lives as well. HIV/AIDS, and their health care systems inability to deal with it, is a huge contributor to the cycle of poverty in Zimbabwe (AVERT 2008). Indigenous Religions With globalization comes the spread of ideals. Western religion has gained a huge foothold in Zimbabwe. Throughout the colonial period and even up until now, Christian missions have flooded Zimbabwe converting indigenous populations into westernized Christians. Current estimates show that only 24% of the Zimbabwean population remains strictly adhered to indigenous beliefs. The rest of the population is made up of 25% Christians, 1% Muslim and 50% syncretic (a mix of Christian and indigenous beliefs) (CIA World Factbook 2008). Environmental Problems in Zimbabwe Many of the environmental problems being experienced in Zimbabwe are things we have seen before; air pollution from industrial compounds, deforestation to make room for building or agriculture and a decline in certain wildlife populations. However, Zimbabwe is faced with a major crisis regarding one important natural resource, and that is water. Polluted water is a huge problem in many rural parts of Zimbabwe. The water is flowing down from developing areas, polluted by many different sorts of industrial and agricultural wastes or compounds, and infecting the rural water supply. The problem is that there is no great infrastructure to help bring these people safe water. For the most part, the only existing infrastructure for water exists in the cities (Derman Ferguson 2003). At the risk of sounding like a parrot, it must be mentioned again that Zimbabwes current financial crisis affects yet another part of life in Zimbabwe. How does a country find the money to bring safe water to its own citizens if it has none to do so with? Unfortunately, with the amount of money Zimbabwe owes, the welfare of their citizens gets pushed off the table as the main priority of the Zimbabwean government. Theres only so much they can do. Relief Measures Relief measures are being taken by some international organizations in order to try to better the lives of citizens in Zimbabwe. Organizations like the Zimbabwe Benefit Foundation attempt to raise money to support programs that help those with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, as well as providing funds to help educate children and the less fortunate in Zimbabwe. Their efforts are there for help empower citizens, which will hopefully produce a bottom-up effect and make them active leaders in their country (ZBF 2008). Yet developed nations themselves are seeing the unstable situation in Zimbabwe are placing things like sanctions on them. Citing human rights violations in which Zimbabwe has conducted a concerted campaign of violence, repression, and intimidation on their citizens, the United States put a sanction on Zimbabwe in 2004. These sorts of responses arent uncommon, but it remains to be seen if they actually help the citizens in trouble. Can keeping the government of a poor society poor help the financial crisis and thereby help Zimbabwean citizens? Conclusion Poverty in Zimbabwe has been a cyclical effect, often perpetuated by the financial crisis in which the Zimbabwean government is in severe debt. The funds borrowed have been used to fight wars for control of the government ever since British colonial forces moved out of Zimbabwe, leaving behind an upset power structure with no system of rebuilding in place. This has all lead to the suffering of Zimbabwean citizens through poverty, disease and death. Globalization in Zimbabwe has only been successful in funneling more wealth to already developed nations through the use of colonies and exploitation of natural resources, while sacrificing Zimbabwe itself. It has put Zimbabwe into large amounts of debt, leaving its citizens to suffer and to try to pick up the pieces. Reference Page McFadden, Patricia (2005). Becoming Postcolonial: African Women Changing the Meaning of Citizenship. Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism. 6(1), 1-22. Elsbeth, Robson (2004). Hidden Child Workers: Young Carers in Zimbabwe.Antipode, 36(2), 227-248. Derman, Bill Ferguson, Anne (2003). Value of Water: Political Ecology and Water Reform in Southern Africa. Human Organization, 62(3), 277-288. Kawewe, Saliwe M. Dibie, Robert (2000). The Impact of Economic Structural Adjustment Programs on Women and Children: Implications for Social Welfare in Zimbabwe. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 27(4), 79-107. Central Intelligence Agency (2008). CIA World Factbook. Retrieved July 26, 2008 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html Zimbabwe Benefit Foundation (2008). Empowering Zimbabweans. Retrieved July 26, 2008 from http://www.zbf.org.uk/ Boucher, R. (2004). Zimbabwe: Sanctions Enhancement. U.S. Dept. of State. Retrieved July 27, 2008 from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2004/30091.htm AVERT (2008). HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe. Retrieved July 26, 2008 from http://www.avert.org/aids-zimbabwe.htm The World Bank (2008). Zimbabwe. Retrieved July 27, 2008 from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/ZIMBABWEEXTN/0,,menuPK:375744~pagePK:141132~piPK:141121~theSitePK:375736,00.html Alexander, Jocelyn (2006). The Unsettled Land: State-making the Politics of land in Zimbabwe. Ohio: Ohio University Press.

No Taxation Essay

The demand of No Taxation without Representation was the primary force in motivating the American revolutionary movement. It was also a symbol for democracy and freedom to the American people. The slogan described how Americans weren’t represented in British Parliament. Americans said that they did not vote for someone to represent them in Parliament and therefore, cannot be taxed. Justice is what the people wanted.In the mid-1700’s, due to the high debt created by the British after the French and Indian War, parliament created a series of new taxes used on only the American colonies to gain revenue. One of the most unpopular taxes, called the Stamp Act, required a stamp to be put on all legal documents for a certain fee. This upset many people in the colonies including the Virginia House of Burgesses, which was the legislature in Williamsburg, Virginia, at the time. The committee there created a resolution to ask the same rights as Britons, who had representatives in P arliament to defend themselves against taxation without representation (Document A). As Daniel Dulany says in Document C, â€Å"A right to impose tax on the colonies, without their consent for the single purpose of revenue, is denied†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Dulany and many others agreed that taxing the colonists for revenue, or to make money, should not be allowed without the colonists agreement. Dulany also says that regulating the trade of the American Colonies is within the rights of the British to do so without American consent. The Americans took this to heart, and by 1765, the phrase of no taxation without representation was a common thought supported by Dulany’s idea. The British then came up with Virtual Representation. Virtual Representation is the idea that every member of the British Empire is represented by every Member of Parliament. The colonists disagreed with Virtual Representation, still displaying their anger or unconstitutional taxes through No Taxation without Repr esentation. In Document F, the Second Continental Congress explains why they believe in the idea of independence and the explanation of taxation without representation is the first thing the address. In his pamphlet, Common Sense, Thomas Paine explains the absurdity of an island, England, ruling a continent, America. Common Sense begins to stir thoughts of revolution and independence in the minds of Americans.

hofstede cultural dimensional theory - 3848 Words

Hofstede 1 Running Head: HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS: THE BASICS AND THE CRITICISMS ra oi M Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions: E. The Basics and the Criticisms Moira E. Hanna H Clemson University na an Hofstede 2 Abstract Hofstede’s model (1980) has been used widely in research in the past two decades. The culture-based model consists of four dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism, and masculinity-femininity. Each of these dimensions was identified through the use of group-level data collected from IBM branches in 40 different countries. Despite the contributions of the model to cultural research, it has faced many criticisms over the years. Some in-principle†¦show more content†¦H Power distance, which is typically measured at a national or collective level, must also be an measured at an individual level. The reasoning behind this clarification is that a country na as a whole may exhibit high power distance, but the distribution of individuals within the country typically follows a normal curve. Primarily, some people will be extremely high or low on power distance, but the majority center around the intermediate levels of power distance. Despite the difference between national and individual levels of power distance, the individual does influence the national level. In a study done by Maznevski, DiStefano, Gomez, Noorderhaven, and Wu (2002), it was found that when cultural data was first gathered at the individual level then aggregated to the national level, there was a Hofstede 5 difference in means between countries. This indicates that, the average individual level of power distance will be higher in a country that is ranked high on power distance. So what exactly influences the individual level of power distance? Such aspects as age, where you grew up, and if you moved away from the country help to determine each individual’s level of power distance (Triandis, 2004; Yamada Singelis, 1999). The idea of individual and national levels of analysis presented for power distance also holds true for the remaining three cultural dimensions. M The second dimension is uncertainty avoidance.Show MoreRelatedCultural Constraints in Management by G. Hofstede904 Words   |  4 PagesA Critical Review of Hofstede, G. 1993, Cultural Constraints in Management Theories, The Executive, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 81-94. There have been many research and studies on the national cultures and its consequences on management theories by numerous researchers. Of those many, ‘Cultural constraints on management theories,’ by Hofstede (1993) is one that has been talked about by most scholars. 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Case Study Harassment at Brademore Electric - 1732 Words

Running head: CASE STUDY: HARASSMENT AT BRADEMORE ELECTRIC Harassment at Brademore Electric Albert Balogun California Baptist University BUS 520A: Managerial Ethics Jim Bishop, PhD June 16, 2010 Harassment at Brademore Electric The purpose of this paper is to analyze briefly key issues involved in sexual harassment in workplaces using a case study titled ‘Harassment at Bradmore Electric’ as the basis of the analysis. Prior to analyzing the case study, a brief definition and description of sexual harassment is deemed necessary. Cases and reported incidence of sexual harassments have become rampant and escalating in workplaces and in educational settings. This†¦show more content†¦A behavior that is acceptable or even seen as positive to one might be viewed as sexual harassment by another. It would appear that it is responses to and outcomes of the behavior rather than the actual behavior that would result in perception of sexual harassment (Terpstra Baker, 1986). To prove a case of sexual harassment, the courts system was of the opinion that there ought to the presence of five elements. These elements are; a sexu al advance, made by a person who happens to be in a powerful or higher position or authority, to a person who is junior or in less powerful position, against the will of the person to whom the advance was made, and which ultimately may have adverse effects on the recipient’s ability to retain her job, to be fairly and objectively evaluated or promoted (Beauchamp et al, 2008). This is based on the intimidation model of sexual harassment. In later years, other bases for sexual harassment were established by the courts such as in 1993 when the United States Supreme Court gave its blessings in support of doctrine of hostile environments (Beauchamp et al, 2008). Synopsis of â€Å"Harassment† at Brademore Electric This case concerns a person in higher authority (Keith) who hired a junior worker (Maura) to work under his direct supervision. With a sense of entitlement to gratification for hiring Maura, Keith invited Maura to an outing which has no bearing to her job responsib ilities.Show MoreRelatedCase Study : Harassment At Brademore Electric1129 Words   |  5 PagesCase Study: â€Å"Harassment† at Brademore Electric Question 1 Keith’s case is an engagement that does not violate or involve unethical behavior at the workplace. By definition, sexual harassment involves the unlawful coercion or badgering of a person based on one’s gender or includes unwarranted sexual advances (â€Å"Facts about sexual harassment†). It may include sexual favors as well as physical or verbal provocation based on a sexual infliction. Keith may be infatuated with Maura but he has not made