Globalization is Detrimental to the Developing World

Often when globalization is brought up in our society today, we are constantly reminded of the beneficial factors of it, such as trade, or the importing and exporting of raw materials and goods. But behind the glamour lies a not so promising truth. Yes, globalization is detrimental to the developing world. It exploits, corrupts and destroys all that should be valued in our society today. It has single-handedly shaped the way the world produces its goods in ways horrifying and inhumane. Imagine, all across the world, children from every single developing nation is being exploited in the face of globalization. Generations after generation, hundreds, thousands, even millions of children from faraway countries, slave away at goods we not only do not need, but are only there, for the sole purpose of our enjoyment. Something has to be done to stop what is happening.

Ever since globalization has set its foot upon this world, countries everywhere have been trying to catch up to those who "own" the economy, in other words, the western countries who are the most powerful. Most of the countries being exploited are located around central and southern Asia. Take China for example. If you were a high school student working at an American fast food restaurant, such as McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, or Pizza Hut, you would probably depend on the money you earn to pay for your education. What if I told you, that you would only get paid 5 yuan an hour? That, by the way, is only equivalent to about 68 cents U.S Dollars. If you say that's not too bad, because you would get all those raises they tell you about when you first apply, you're wrong. If you work at McDonalds for a year, you would only get a 0.1 yuan raise. That's not even another cent increase in U.S Dollars! In many cases, part-time workers are forced into working the same hours as any full-time worker, but still with the same wage as a part-time worker. According to mainland laws, anyone who works more than 5 hours a day and over 30 hours a week is considered full-time. Still, students are still deprived of their hard-earned money, often having large and unreasonable amounts deducted if they make a work-related mistake. On the other hand, according to a status report in 2005 called "Small Hands", 1000 children in Shanxi and Henan province were sold to kilns to face brutal and inhumane conditions. Even in summer, students are being exploited. Every summer, students are enrolled by their teachers in what they call "summer work" where a school turns into a factory. Students are required to work 11 to 14 hours a day with no weekends in filthy conditions with little food. Diseases are common and deaths often occur. If a child was sick or unable to work, they would be beaten, or sexually abused. These students have little or no protection against these assaults. This is because the mainland Bureau of Labor considers the students as part of the education officials' responsibility, while the education committees agree that it is the labor official's business to take care of the children. Now you might ask, if it's so bad, why not just leave? Well, they can't. The factories they are employed at are often hundreds of miles away from their homes, and with little communication and lack of money at home, the students usually have no way of returning until the summer is over, if they can last that long. In 2005, a raisin factory in southern China employed about 200 junior high students as grape-peelers for the summer. The packaged raisins, in turn, were packaged and shipped out to western countries like Canada and the United States to be sold. Unfortunately, the students were not yet old enough to be employed legally so the factory handed out fake IDs, registering them with the government as 18 year olds. Now if you think that's bad, it gets worse as you move further down. India so far, has the highest illiteracy and child labor rate in the world. Children all across India start work when they are as little as 4 or 5 years old, often having to work 12 to 14 hours a day in unhygienic and dangerous environments with minimal staples to survive. In India alone, over 120 million children are employed illegally in industries such as mining, agriculture, brick-kilns, construction sites, fishing industry, carpet-weaving, firework manufacturing, glass-blowing, cigarette and tobacco, and gem-cutting. Most of the products made are then shipped to countries like the United States or Canada. Just in the carpet-weaving industry alone, 300 000 children under the age of 15 are employed illegally, but that only makes up about 2% of the total child labor in India. Most of these children make less than 100 rupees a month, equivalent to an estimated 2.5 U.S Dollars. As these children gradually grow into adulthood, most of them will be mentally, physically and emotionally scarred, to die an early death in their early and late 40's.

In order to meet the enormous demands of western countries, labor and cruelty are what children and adults alike have to face in many countries like China and India as a result of globalization. Globalization can benefit, but only those with power. Even those with power, the beneficial factors of globalization are still strangely limited. As the years go by, globalization will continue to corrupt the world and its economy, slowly wasting away the future generations. Next time you decide to decorate your living room with elaborate foreign carpets, stop for a second and think about how 300 000 children in India were once slaving away over the thousands of knots found on that carpet, only to be next to blind for the rest of their lives, and how those children only makes up about 2% of the child labor in India. With globalization, all it will do is corrupt and spoil us, slowly destroying all that is valued, our race, our children, and the generations yet to come. With its increasing demands, it will continue to destroy our future. Unless we stop it, abuse, exploitation and disaster will continue and eventually make the world so corrupt that we cannot save it any longer. We should all make an effort to save our planet from this horrific abuse.