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8/6/2019 As101 Final Paper
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Made in China. Most labels nowadays carry these three immortal words. With
The Peoples Republic of China being the threat to the United States of America as the
new world super power, they seem to enter every industry deemed possible.China has
transformed itself from the worlds greatest opponent of globalization, and greatest
disrupter of the global institutions we created, into a committed member of those
institutions and advocate of globalization. It is now a far more open economy than Japan
and it is globalizing its institutions to a degree not seen in a big country since Meiji
Japan. Adoption of the rule of law, of commitment to competition, of widespread use of
English, of foreign education, and of many foreign laws and institutions are not just
updating Chinese institutions but transforming Chinese civilization. (Overholt, 2005)
And also with a billion people in China, labor shortage will surely be the last problem
that they will be encountering. But nowadays as well, people from all over the world fear
anything coming from the old civilization. There have been a lot of threats to the health
of consumers regarding Chinese products and the threats are not going to end any time
soon. Quality control has always been a problem because of the mass production of
Chinese products and they seem to be lenient when it comes to quality of the products
they produce. The sad part is, globalization has finally taken its toll on the people of
China. Maybe because of negligence? Or of poverty? We may never know for sure what
exactly the reason is.
Recently there have been news reports worldwide about another Made in China
Scandal but this time it has affected most the people within its ranks. So far, four children
have died and 60,000 are taken ill by tainted milk. The milk products that have been
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tested positive for the presence of melamine have been taken off the shelves but the
damage has been done. According to The Economist, private testing laboratories have
sprung up like mushrooms all over China to test these products. Because of this Milk
Scandal, countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America have banned imports of the
contaminated milk from China. This is not the first time this has happened. Years back, a
well-loved confectionary from China, White Rabbit was also banned from most countries
because of the presence of Formaldehyde in the candies. Not only was the White Rabbit
banned but several other products as well such as noodles, chips, other candies and all
other food products from China. Now, for a big country like China, isnt there supposed
to be a good quality control system that should monitor the production of these products?
According to The Economist, some multinational companies have taken full control of
their factories based in China. Unilever dumped its joint ventures years ago, to ensure it
had full control of all domestic Chinese operations. McDonalds has created its own
closed supply chain, spanning beef, fries, bread and pickles. Coca-Cola imposes stringent
rules on suppliers of sugar, water and carbon dioxide. Because of this, more multinational
companies are losing confidence with what has been happening to China. For some,
China may have been holding the solution to labor shortages or cheaper labor and though
it may have solved problems about labor, another problem of a different and much more
serious degree came to our attention in the form of low quality control which leads to
health-related problems.
This paper which answers the question How does the failure of Globalization
contribute to the formation (or reassertion) of cultural identity as exemplified by local
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responses? This paper will answer the question using some key concepts used or
discussed in Area Studies 101: An Introduction to Area Studies. The definition of the
following concepts will be discussed: Globalization (in China, the Philippines, and
globalization in general), failure of globalization, cultural identity and internalization of
labor. Aside from the definition, examples of the different concepts will be discussed as
well.
First: What is Globalization? Globalization is understood as the increasing
interconnectedness of individuals, groups, companies and countries. (Green and Griffith,
2002) This has been going on for centuries, but in the past twenty years, there has been a
rapid change in visibility, scope and intensity. According to Duncan Green and Matthew
Griffith (2002), While increasing integration through trade and investment has been a
feature of the global since the Second World War, several pivotal events in recent
decades have led to a sudden acceleration in its social and political prominence. They
wrote that a shift in power away from the state driven increasingly by global economic
trends (such as global financial markets) that eroded governments' ability to manage their
economies and the rise of the New Right. By the early I98os the market was seen to have
won a definitive triumph over the state, leading to the resurgence of free market
ideology. (Green and Griffith, 2002) In economics, those developments helped dither
rapid expansion of trade and investment flows as large parts of Latin America and Asia
adopted export-led growth strategies, and the countries of the former Soviet empire were
rapidly, if partially, absorbed into an increasingly integrated global economy.
'Globalization' quickly became the shorthand for this model of expansion-a heady and
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complex mix of technological, economic, political and cultural change. (Green and
Griffith, 2002)
Another definition says that Globalization allows the dogged pursuit of free and
open trade, where nation boundaries do not stand in the pathway of Capitalism but where,
through freer and less rigidly controlled capital and goods traffic, unwanted trades such
as illegal drugs are also allowed to prosper freely. (Planet Papers.Com) This however,
states the downside of Globalization. Although Globalization has made our lives easier,
trade laws have become lenient as time passes by.
How does China respond to Globalization? Surely, a large country like theirs with
a billion people at hand can certainly handle it. But first, how do the Chinese see
Globalization? Firstly, the majority of the Chinese elite seem to believe that the trends of
globalization are inevitable. They believe strongly there is no alternative to globalization.
Secondly, most Chinese scholars believe that globalization is not only an economic, but
also a political and social process. Thirdly, most Chinese scholars agree that globalization
definitively confirmed the failure of Stalins assumption on two parallel world markets.
For them, globalization is a complete triumph of the free market economy over other
economic models including those of the former Soviet Union and those of the so-called
Third World countries. The market with its power allocating the resources effectively is
seen as the key factor leading to this historical triumph. However, most Chinese scholars
do not entirely agree with the assumption that the globalization was only generated by
synergies of market economy. As we know, it is quite popular in America and Europe to
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trace globalization to a powerful combination of market economy and technology. For
the International Monetary Fund, for instance, the driving forces of globalization are
threefold: first, improvements in technology, especially in transportation and
communication; second, a desire by people to take advantage of the opportunities
provided by interactions with other societies; and third, the lowering of barriers to
international trade and capital flows resulting from the liberalization of policies (China
and its Reaction to Globalization by Xuewu Gu)
Next, how does globalization affect us Filipinos? For example, we Filipinos now
have access to McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and others. We wear internationally
acclaimed brands of clothing or perfume such as Ralph Lauren, DKNY, Nike, Adidas,
Topshop and scents by Issey Miyake, Lacoste, Burberry, etc. These are a few examples
of what we call Colonial Mentality. Colonial mentality is a very obvious effect of
Globalization. Yes, it appears that we have been plagued by this kind of mentality ever
since the Americans (Even the Spanish and Japanese as well) came to the Philippines.
But for some reason, Globalization seems to intensify out colonial mentality. Colonial
mentality is the attitude of some Filipinos that makes them prefer foreign ideas and goods
over local ones. (Andres, 1994) Moreover, it has a great effect on our identity as a
Filipino.
Filipino identity refers to the distinct and salient features of the Filipino as regards
to language, customs, values, culture, arts, music and dances, drama, literature, food,
dwelling and transportation. There is the sapin-sapin or patong patong theory which
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describes that the Filipino identity consists of Malay, Indonesian, Chinese and Negrito.;
then eventually, Spanish; and finally; American. There is also the halo-halo theory
which states that the Filipino has no identity at all. (Andres, 1994) Whichever theory
there is that deconstructs how our image as a Filipino was made, it is still very important
that we know that we have and identity as a people. Now, this identity we have is in
danger of being changed. However, although some might say that our national identity is
lost to Globalization, it is really an event that is inevitable. Some believe that we have to
face the fact that the world is at a constant change and we could do nothing about it. But
even without globalization, national identity would always be changing. The effect of
globalization in the context of national identity would lead to better identity as a Filipino
people.
As for the failure of Globalization, this simply means that forces of Globalization
are not always permanent. They are vulnerable as well to other factors. Growing alarm in
the developed nations stems from the emergence of powerful competitors in the
developing world, especially China and India. Workers in wealthy nations worry about
open markets and competition from workers in countries with low wages; industry
leaders worry about more competition for non-renewable resources, including oil, and a
new economic world order; and environmentalists and a growing segment of the public at
large worry that emerging economies and rapid growth will quicken the pace of climate
change. These factors are likely to cause the failure of globalization because these factors
are beyond our control. As these factors become threatening to globalization, the process
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itself becomes more complex because solutions to these factors are being made thus
making these non-threatening.
According to Bernard Elbaum (May, 1983), many jobs apparently require skills
that are entirely or partially industry-specific. Production job skills seem especially liable
to be industry-specific, as illustrated by the examples of coal miner, steel roller, and
airline pilot. When rigidly maintained throughout an industry, internal promotion
practices insulate the wages of such jobs from competitive market constraints. Relative
occupational wages may then be substantially affected by bargaining, managerial
policies, and custom without causing shifts in occupational employment patterns, as
firms, like prospective employees, mainly concern themselves with expected career wage
offers, and the implied average establishment wage. As a result, occupational wage rates
may be very different from marginal products. This is how internalization of labor works
nowadays. Some think this is unfair but this is how it works in order to cater to everyone.
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Source: www.nationalpost.com/news/855714.bin?size=404x272
Local responses, in this issue of the Milk Scare in China pertain to what Filipino
consumers have been doing in order to address this issue. Filipino mothers, in response,
have avoided buying milk and other dairy products from China. As an added precaution,
they have avoided buying China products completely. Another added response is that
Filipino mothers have resorted to breastfeeding as a way of feeding their babies. Because
it has been proven that breastfeed is still best for babies, mothers had no choice but to
resort to that. Lets face it; breastfeeding is far safer than infant formula. Just a few years
back, there has been another scandal regarding infant formula cans being tainted with
rust. Aside from health-related reasons, we tend to be more selective with the products
we buy because it more affordable. In economics, not everything that is affordable is
really good in terms of quality.
All of these can be easily associated with the fast-paced lives we are leading. We
tend to use short-cuts in order to cope with our way of life nowadays. Because
breastfeeding takes more time rather than preparing infant formula, working mothers
resort to infant formula without thinking about the risk that comes with it. Globalization
has certainly sowed its great positive and negative effects to everyone in this world, most
especially affecting nations that are developing or the third world countries. The
government of The Peoples Republic of China has been doing its very best in order to
alleviate the situation. But because of the low quality control standards it is proven to be
very hard to monitor this problem because some of the manufacturers are said to be
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operating illegally or without legal papers saying that they are permitted to operate. They
are doing this in order to escape the inevitable collection of taxes from the Chinese
government. Because of this global trend, internalization of labor happens most
especially in China because of the high supply of labor and the cheap amount of labor
and raw materials.
Because of Globalization and the effects of the Milk Scare here in the Philippines,
the Filipinos dared embrace their cultural identity. Since almost everything in this world
is made in China, the Filipino people have finally resorted to that one factor that should
have been done ages ago: to buy Filipino-made products. With the effects of
Globalization, the people of the Philippines have been affected mainly because of what
we call Colonial Mentality. Now, because of these problems were facing and that are
far from being addressed, we diverted our attention to our own products. Globalizations
effect on our national identity is very evident but even without globalization, our identity
as Filipinos would constantly change because the effect of globalization in the context of
national identity would lead to better identity as a Filipino people.
Our responses as Filipinos to issues like these are very important because our
collective action can make a difference in the world. When Globalization hits it big (even
though it has been around for a long, long time) especially now that were experiencing a
big economic crisis, standards will become lower , quality control will not even be
considered and most of all, the safety of millions of consumers around the world will be
at stake. As a nation, we should be one in fighting crises like these. With the Filipino
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identity even more pronounced, maybe globalization can help in making the Filipino
people stronger as a united people. With our collective action as a Filipino people, we
stand out on our own as an independent unit without interference from bigger and
stronger nations.
We are coping with globalization pretty well despite the fact that we are in an
economic breakdown. Because of Globalization, companies resort to internalization of
labor in order to cater to the needs of the consumers, at the same time their employees or
laborers. China is becoming the leading country in terms of labor supply because of the
billions of people in the country. However, since China is a big country, almost
surpassing the United States in becoming the next world super power, there have been
problems regarding the quality of most products made from that country. An example of
which is the Milk Scare which originated in China and has a big impact on most countries
in Asia, including the Philippines. The response of the Filipino people was to return to
the traditional and ever-reliable breastfeeding. The Filipino mothers have been avoiding
dairy products from China ever since. Because of the response of the Filipino people to
this issue, it strengthened the bond of our national identity through this collective action.
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References:
Andres, Tomas D. (1994).Dictionary of Filipino Culture and Values. Quezon City:
Giraffe Books.
Elbaum, Bernard. (May, 1983). The Internalization of Labor Markets: Causes and
Consequences. The American Economic Review, Vol. 73, No. 2, Papers and
Proceedings of the Ninety- Fifth Annual Meeting of the American Economic
Association (May, 1983), pp. 260-265
Green, D. & Griffith, D. (January, 2002). Globalization and Its Discontents.
International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 78, No.
1 (Jan., 2002), pp. 49-68
Gu, Xuewu (2001). China and its Reactions to Globalization. Retrieved September 30,
2008 from www.bpb.de/files/E4SM4X.pdf
marcus_0413. (2006). Globalization in the Philippines.Planet Papers. Retrieved
September 30, 2008, from http://www.planetpapers.com/Assets/4587.php
Overholt, William H. (May, 2005). China and Globalization. Testimony presented to
the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on May 19, 2005.
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