The *FREE ARAB VOICE*
January 08, 2000

In this issue of the Free Arab Voice (FAV) We Present:

1) 'Globalization: the New Invasion of the Third World', A critical
   analysis by Ali Baghdadi, the editor of Arab Journal, Chicago

2) 'On the Mis-use of Economic Theory to Justify Globalization:
   A Note on the Margin', by Ibrahim Alloush

3) 'The Lessons of the Statement of the Twenty', an evaluation of
   the statement and the aftermath by one of the signatories,
   Adel Samara

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1) 'Globalization: the New Invasion of the Third World', A critical
   analysis by Ali Baghdadi

[This article was translated from Arabic by Maha Abu Ghosh, and edited
by Fadia Rafeedie and Ibrahim Alloush]

Globalization is Reality:
-------------------------
In a different world, that rested on the principles of justice, peace,
and equality, abided by the United Nations Charter and International
Law, and in which cultures coexisted and interacted, globalization would
have had an important role in the fight against poverty, disease, pollution,
drug-addiction, terrorism, and so forth.  The mighty revolution of science
and the awesome structure of technology would have made all of that
possible.

But, in the world we live in today, the uni-polar world, the picture is
totally the opposite.   After the mode of production has gone global,
'Globalization' has turned into an inescapable reality, as the biggest
challenge faced by humans anywhere, and as a phenomenon with especially
grave consequences for the peoples of the Third World. This era was ushered
in by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the occupation of Arab oil wells,
the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the imposition of the American will on
most of the peoples and rulers of the world.  Globalization, then, is a
particular capitalist system led by America.  It might as well be termed
'Americanization'.

What is Globalization?
----------------------
Globalization is a clear and specific economic strategy that is formulated
and dictated on the world by rich industrial states to serve the interests
of large corporations that are called 'Trans-national' or 'Multi-national'
corporations (TNC's or MNC's).   The objective of this strategy is to open
up the markets of the countries of the world, and to put the natural
resources and wealth of those countries under the disposal of these
corporations, without any restrictions, barriers, or conditions.

Globalization is the coordination across oceans and continents between the
multiple production, design, marketing, and management sites with the
purpose of monopolizing the international market.  This is done for the
benefit of overseas capitalists who possess resources and capabilities far
exceeding those of many governments and central banks, and who produce to
satisfy global, not local or regional markets, as was the case with
Multinational Corporations (MNC's).

[Multinational corporations might manufacture a whole product in a given
country.  Transnational corporations, on the other hand, introduced a new
international division of labor with certain countries manufacturing parts
or components for products that are assembled elsewhere.]

Globalization implies that independent states worldwide gradually give up to
such corporations their right to manage their economic affairs and the right
to develop their resources.  It also means that economic policy, food
security, and food safety should become the precinct of businessmen and
financiers in the rich states.  Neither governments nor international
institutions -- not even the United Nations -- should dare to question their
activities or power.

Globalization, then, means meddling in the internal affairs of Third World
states, and doing away with any legislation which impedes or limits free
trade as TNC's see fit, without giving any consideration to social stability
in or the sovereignty of these states.

Potential Economic Depression in the Third World
------------------------------------------------
In addition to serving the interests of large corporations that control
politicians and the polls in the industrial states, globalization assists in
solving the problem of economic slowdown in these states, as they seek new
markets and monopoly power in Third World countries.  Thus assuring
continuous growth in their national income to appease their citizens, at the
expense of the Third World.

Methods of Implementation
-------------------------
The United States employs the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund,
and the so-called foreign aid, in addition to the dirtiest and
most barbaric of methods to propagate globalization.   These methods include
civil wars, sectarian and ethnic feuds, terrorism, assassinations, economic
sanctions, starvation, subjugation, fleets, warplanes and intercontinental
ballistics.  Moreover, America poisons and burns the crops and spreads
insects, genetically developed in labs, to exterminate livestock, destroy
the economy, and starve the peoples of the states demanding independence and
preservation of their wealth.

America also conspires against its (friends) after their role has
finished, supporting opposition groups and preparing them as an
alternative when needed, or else as the bugaboo that will ensure the
allegiance of its agents.

It is such a travesty that America who flaunts democracy, defends human
rights, and calls for religious tolerance, employs all sorts of immoral and
inhuman methods against any state rejecting the hegemony of globalization,
all the while sponsoring a special version of Islam of its own design.

Examples of the Power of Globalization
--------------------------------------
We can generally observe the pressures and crimes resulting from
globalization as we watch TV or leaf through a newspaper.  For example:

1. Globalization forced the government of Guatemala to repeal a law that
protected infants and prohibited the American company for children's food,
Gerber, from falsely claiming, through its commercials, that its food is
better and more nutritious for infants than a mother's milk.

2. Thailand was forced to annul its production of low-cost medications that
treated AIDS patients out of fear of the United States' opposition.

3. Shell Oil Company has annual sales of 68 billion sterling pounds,
which equals two and a half times the total income of the peoples of
Nigeria, that has a population of 110 million people.

4. 60% of the banana trade is controlled by only 3 companies.

5. MNC's and TNC's, numbering 51 today, control about two-thirds of
world trade.  [Depending on one's definition, there is a total 250 to 750 of
these corporations, about half of which are based in the United States].

Globalization and Human Civilizations
-------------------------------------
One of the consequences of globalization shall be the end of cultural
diversity, and the triumph of the uni-polar culture propagandized by
companies monopolizing the media over the cultures of other nations,
leading to the extinction of ancient cultures inherited from over
thousands of years ago.

Today, the world watches American movies, listens to American music,
speaks with an American accent, dances to American tunes, wears American
jeans and perfumes, drinks Coca Cola, Pepsi, and American coffee, and eats
American junk food, after having learned to distinguish, through the
globalized media, the trademarks of American name brands.

At the same time, Zionists sell falafel, hummos, baqlawah, and other
Arabic foods to the world as Jewish food.

Globalization Advocates Promote an Attractive Façade
----------------------------------------------------
The American government and media, and "friends" of America worldwide,
working together for the benefit of MNC's and TNC's, all tell us that the
fruits of globalization - with its invisible magical fingertips - shall be
reaped by all countries. They claim that globalization will provide food,
medicine, and education to all nations, especially to the peoples of the
Third World, spreading welfare, democracy, and social justice among all
human beings. They even say it shall enhance human rights and push the
wheels of development forward, as well as preserve the environment and solve
the problems of pollution!

The horns of globalization trumpet a tomorrow that shall witness neither
winner nor loser, as all will be winners, prospering under the umbrella of
globalization!

The Prerequisites of Globalization
----------------------------------
To achieve these alleged benefits, advocates of globalization demand of the
Third World what they call economic reforms: to open up their markets, adopt
free trade, privatize public sectors, and repeal laws and legislation that
protect the environment and local production, as well as reduce taxes on
rich investors.

Even the Suez Canal- in whose pits many Arab forced laborers died, and many
wars and revolutions were fought to regain and protect it, and which was
finally freed by Abdul Naser to serve all Arabs - we are now losing without
a hassle, all for the benefit of globalization!

The True Face of Globalization
------------------------------
Mouthpieces try, with all their might, through the media and all the
other tools at their disposal, to mystify the truth and logic of
globalization. They try not to talk about the gap that continues to grow
between the rich and the poor, amongst the citizens of one nation or between
the citizens of nations.  They try to not talk about the big calamities that
shall result from globalization: poverty, pollution, disease, migration,
depletion of natural resources, crime, violence, the eradication of
indigenous cultures and the extinction of thousands of biological species.

Genetic Engineering and Small Farmers
-------------------------------------
Seeds produced by large corporations in their labs and factories, and
whose export and sale they control, are unaffordable to small farmers
who provide daily food for their personal consumption and that of their
co-citizens with skills acquired over thousands of years. These seeds,
developed by altering their properties and features, and by tampering with
their genes, do not produce new seeds for the farmers to use in the coming
years. The newly produced potato, for example, carries genes taken from the
silkworm, chicken, viruses and bacteria. Tomato is also invented from genes
taken from the flounders. There are other kinds of seeds whose genes were
taken from mice.

This means that farmers who formerly produced their own seeds shall have to
depend in the future on the mercy of these corporations that have no care
for anything except profit. Consequently, land ownership, inherited over
thousands of years, shall pass to large foreign corporations, which own and
control these new seeds. This will result in more poverty, famine, unrest
and revolts, the likes of which the world has never seen before.

This also means that 400 million people working in agriculture in India
alone, are threatened because of a seed produced from one single genetic
operation if their government succumbs to the intense pressures practiced by
these companies.

Globalization and Local Production
----------------------------------
Globalization and free trade policy lead to shipping goods thousands of
miles unnecessarily and to killing local industries in the Third World. They
decimate the resources of the poor who are unable to compete in the face of
foreign goods generally supported, directly or indirectly, through tax
reductions, export incentives, cheap energy, and government spending on
research and development.

Consequently, globalization will not even solve the problem of nutrition or
hunger, but shall instead destroy local agriculture or turn it into cash
crops for export purposes.

The Gap between the Rich and The Poor Increasing
------------------------------------------------
The pretense that the tide induced by globalization will raise all boats is
totally unfounded; the truth is that this tide shall raise the yachts of the
rich and swallow the boats of the poor.

The misery of the poor, even in America, is increasing! And the wealth of
the rich, while remaining a minority, is also increasing!

According to conservative figures published by the United Nations, the
average income of 1.3 billion people, a quarter of the world's population,
is less than a dollar a day and they have no potable water. Hundreds of
millions of people are on their way to falling below the line of abject
poverty, while a third of the children suffer from malnutrition and half of
the world population is deprived from necessary medications.  Moreover, 30%
of the labor force is unemployed while millions of others shall soon follow
those due to fierce competition, as rich states continue to control an
ever-increasing portion of technology and production. There are over 80
countries in the South, where an individual's income is today less than what
used to be ten years ago!

On the other hand, the number of billionaires of the world has reached 358,
with a combined wealth exceeding that of 2.5 billion poor.  Today, 20% of
the world's population owns more than 70% of the world's wealth and enjoys
86% of the world's consumption, while 20% of the people consume only 1.3%.

The United States
-----------------
Even in the United States, the leader and enforcer of globalization,
economic policy drawn in fact by large corporation officials, continued to
widen the gap between the poor and the rich. Large American corporations aim
only for profit; they do not care for the victims of their policies, be they
citizens or foreigners.  During the time between 1980 and 1993, the number
of employees who lost their jobs in 500 companies were 4 million; at the
same time the wages of the directors and executive of these companies
increased more than 6 times.

As is the case of Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom, there are 20% of
American youth between the age of 20 and 24 without work and without
education.

The American family today is falling apart as the heads of households slave
away to pay for the house, the car, utility bills and the many other
necessities that are introduced into the markets everyday, and replaced
frequently.  These have become, due to the continuous brainwashing practiced
on the Americans and others through TV, a necessity.

The gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow as 95% of the
national wealth lies in the hands of 5% of the people, while the income of
the poorest 20% of the American people has been steadily decreasing since
1970. The situation of the Afro-Americans continues to get worse, as
American society is now divided into two separate, and unequal communities,
one black and one white.

The World Lacks Justice Not Food
--------------------------------
Leaders and advocates of globalization use hunger as a fig leaf to conceal
their faults and imperfections, claiming that globalization is the cure for
this condition that continues to pursue and humiliate humans.  Statistics
show that 800 million people throughout the world sleep in hunger because
they are too poor with nothing to protect them from the rich.  Many have no
land to plant and harvest, while small farmers are unable to buy new
machinery, so they end up losing their lands.  Eight out of ten children
living in Third World countries suffer from malnutrition despite being
surrounded by abundant quantities of food.

In Brazil, a country that exports food, one hundred thousand children
die annually from hunger.

What is both laughable and lamentable is that while the world was watching
hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian men, women and children die from the
horrible famine that invaded their country back in 1984, their best arable
lands were and are still being used to grow forage. This forage is exported
to Britain and other European countries, which is a fact that the West is
trying to hide.

Even India, one of the biggest democracies of the world, exported during
1995, five million tons of rice, and 625 million dollars of wheat and flour,
while 20% of India's population remains hungry.

In Mangolia, the country that lived on its own local dairy products for
thousands of years, and has now over 25 million dairy-producing animals,
German dairy products are the prevalent ones.

In Kenya, the prices of Dutch butter is half that of the price of local
butter.

Normalization and the Zionist Entity
------------------------------------
In addition to other political motives, normalization between Arab states
and the Zionist Entity is one of the most important objectives of
globalization.

The Jordanian female worker at "Israeli" factories spread in Al Hassan
industrial city near Irbid, north of Jordan, gets a monthly pay that is less
than the daily pay of the "Israeli" female worker on the other side of the
Jordan River.

Although the balance of trade between America and Egypt favors the United
States, Washington demands from Egypt that Tel Aviv be dominant, through
common projects, over the economy of the so-called Middle East. This is the
price that has to be paid to raise the ceiling of the quota of Egyptian
textile exports to the United States. Concurrently, America refuses Egypt's
demands that economic normalization with the Zionist Entity be accompanied
by parallel progress in the so-called peace process.

Arab Money Finances Globalization
---------------------------------
Despite the decline of oil prices and the plundering of Arab wealth on
corrupt weaponry, false projects and other means of fraud, Arab
investment money -- which finances western economies, especially the
American and British economy -- is estimated at about four to six hundred
billion dollars.  At the same time, most Arab states, including most Arab
Gulf states, borrow money from the west to finance their economic projects
and to cover the deficits in their budgets. These states borrow Arab money
from foreign banks at very steep interest rates.

For example:

1. Saudi Arabia's savings ten years ago exceeded 170 billion dollars.
Nowadays the Kingdom borrows money and has accumulated debts estimated at
170 billion dollars. Its debts from local banks exceed 140 billion dollars.

2. Riyadh borrowed a few days ago two billion dollars from foreign banks to
finance the purchase of civil airplanes. This was part of a deal signed back
in 1995 with Boeing and MacDonnell Douglas for Aviation for 7.5 billion
dollars to renovate its civil airplanes, considered one of the best in the
world without a need for more renovation, and with too many vacant seats on
most flights.

Globalization and Islamic Banks
-------------------------------
Globalization uses everything it can to its benefit. It provides banking and
investment services - allegedly based on Islamic Doctrine - for every
Muslim, without differentiating between fundamentalist and non-fundamentalist,
nor caring whether the customer is a terrorist or not. The total profits of
the CitiBank Group alone last year was 5.9 billion dollars, a lot of which
came from people who insist on dealing with Halal (legitimate) money and who
testify that "there is no God but God and Mohammed is the messenger of God."

An Unavoidable Truth
--------------------
Whether we accept it or not, globalization is a reality occurring before our
very eyes. Investors in rich states spent billions of dollars in poor
countries during the nineties building roads and airports, establishing
transportation and controlling the mines.  They intend to use them.

What Choice Do the Arabs and Third World Peoples Have?
------------------------------------------------------
It is sad to say that because of the backwardness and the many restraints
stifling the abilities of the peoples of Third World, there is no quick and
easy remedy to help in resisting the evils of globalization.  Radical
internal and external developments and drastic changes need to occur
regarding the conceptions these nations hold about the modern state and its
requirements. Furthermore, these states should unite and join forces in
alliances that could give them the power to say "NO" and to control their
destinies. Otherwise, these nations and states, including the Arabs, shall
lose under globalization.

As Arabs living in a world described today as an international village or a
small world, we can no longer afford to live in isolation and suffocation.
We cannot live as an Arab or Islamic nation, and face the challenges of
globalization, while singing the praises of small and frail emirates,
sultanates, and kingdoms created by imperialism with no real chance of
survival.

To preserve our existence as Arabs and Muslims in the face of the economic,
political, ideological and cultural invasion of globalization, we should get
rid of the current concept of the our state, which is based on fanaticism,
tribalism, dictatorship, and fragmentation.  Instead, we should build a
united state based on an integral, solid and democratic basis that gives the
right of rule to the people.

Moreover, in order to develop our immunity and our ability to resist those
who seek to keep our lands an open market for their products, and a mine for
raw materials, we should utilize all the capabilities, genius and skills
that our people possess. We should create a state led by competent men and
women with the knowledge and expertise necessary to liberate Arabs from
intellectual ossification and the belittling of the mind, and respect the
citizen's right to give criticism and advice. Inventors and innovators
should be encouraged and rewarded, and given every assistance to do research
and development.

We are in dire need for a state able to resist a dangerous and destructive
phenomenon to which we pay very little attention: that of the immigration of
intellectuals and scientists whom we lose every day. Because of our policies,
the West was able to attract these creative minds and provide for their needs.
We should therefore produce the right ambience that encourages and welcomes
these minds contributing to the development and construction of a powerful
state that is able to overcome any deficiency or weakness.

There is hardly a college or university in the West without an Arab
professor, and hardly a hospital without an Arab doctor, or a large
corporation without Arab managers, lawyers, engineers or experts.

Many of the writers, poets and artists, whose works we take pride in, also
had to leave their homelands, running from oppression and looking for
freedom of expression elsewhere. They also want to provide a better future
for their families, even as they cry out with pain and suffering:

My country, though unjust to me, is dear
My people, though grudging with me, are gracious.

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2) On the Mis-use of Economic Theory to Justify Globalization:
A Note on the Margin for Economists Only, by Ibrahim Alloush

1 - The claim that globalization will promote economic efficiency and
welfare is based on standard microeconomic arguments in favor of the model
of perfect competition, with many buyers and sellers lacking individually
any market power.  Yet  the monolithic Transnational Corporations are not
about competition, but monopoly.

2 - The claim that removing all obstacles to free trade will promote
economic efficiency and welfare is based on Ricardo's theory of comparative
advantage, where countries specializing in and exporting what they do best
generates international levels of output higher than what might be obtained
if each country attempted self-sufficiency.  Yet the Theory of Comparative
Advantage is based on the implicit assumption that economic resources such
as labor, capital, and natural resources are immobile.  But the mobility of
capital is exactly what makes Multinational Corporations possible.  Capital
is more mobile than ever.  Thus a crucial assumption beneath the Theory of
Comparative Advantage is undermined.

3 - Those in the West clamoring for the free flow of goods and services, and
capital, across international borders disregard intentionally or
unintentionally that true laissez-faire, as the phrase literally signifies
in French, necessitates that labor be also allowed to sell its services
anywhere in the world.  This means that if TNC's should be allowed to invest
and sell freely in the Third World, workers and professionals from the Third
World should be allowed to freely travel to work in North America, Europe,
and Japan.  In fact, while capital has become increasingly mobile, and while
goods, services, and information are exchanged across international borders
at higher rates than ever, restrictions on the migration of labor have
increased.

4 - Calls for removing all obstacles to free trade in the Third World
frequently disregard two crucial aspects of the system of international
trade today.  The first is the fact that tariffs on Third World exports,
like agricultural products and textiles, remain high (see the Economist,
November 27, 1999, p. 13).  The second is the fact that demand for oil and
many other natural resources from the Third World is relatively inelastic.
This implies that decreases in price will decrease, rather than increase,
export revenues.  Consequently, it is in the best interest of Third World
producers to restrict (not expand) the supply of these resources in
international markets in order to induce price and revenue increases.
Environmentalists in the West may take solace in the knowledge that
increases in the price of these natural resources will decrease quantity
demanded a bit, thus slowing down their rate of depletion, and alleviating
pollution : )

5 - International specialization may increase productivity, but it does not
necessarily increase revenue, and hence the standard of living.  Cairo might
produce falfel better than Southern California, and Southern California
might design microprocessor chips better than Cairo, but it might take
several pyramids of falfel to buy the rights for one new advanced chip.  As
the exports of the West become more technology-intensive, removing all
protection for infant-industry in the Third World might condemn it to
perennial backwardness and poverty, as the terms of trade get worse for
inelastic goods from the primary sector in the Third World.   This means
Third World countries must venture into and establish footholds in
industries in which they do NOT currently have a comparative advantage, to
compete successfully in the global economy.

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3) 'The Lessons of the Statement of the Twenty', an evaluation of the
statement and its aftermath by one of the signatories, Adel Samara

http://freearabvoice.org/lessons_drawn_from_bayan_El3eshreen.htm

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http://www.freearabvoice.org/favPrevIssues.htm

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http://www.freearabvoice.org/arabCivilMain.htm

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