Expansion, control, and rule have persistently remained the goals of any organization. From Alexander the Great of Greece, to Apple’s market domination, we see that power always seeks to spread. While most parts of the modern world have prospered because of this, it may not be the solution for every location.
Western neoliberal politics have pushed the institution of worldwide globalization, where economies, resources, and companies are all conjoined under one global market. Globalization has earned its merit in nations such as China, but for developing nations in Africa, it has not come without consequences. The integration of trade allows international corporations to monopolize domestic resources, leading to a lack of access of basic needs, such as water and health in African countries.
Open trade has allowed private sewage companies to flood into africa and dominate the water market. Motivated by profit, these corporations are quick to privatize water supplies, putting a price on the most basic human need, and then raising it. Following water privatization by foreign investors in Ghana, “water charges increased by 95 per cent [and] one third of Ghana’s population had no access to clean water,” according to social justice activist Sokari Ekine (Ekine). This does not only occur in a single part of Africa. Tanzania, Niger, South Africa, and Mali have been affected (Ekine, Anup). Not only that, World Bank itself finds that there was “a 34 percent failure rate for all private water and sewerage contracts between 2000 and 2010,” meaning that over a third of all implemented private water projects failed, leaving African nations without water infrastructure or supplies (Lappe). As neoliberal policies find their way into African governments, water is monopolized, and then distributed on a for profit basis, leaving the poor without proper access because of astronomical pricing. However, water is the only deprivation people are facing.
Globalization has placed Africa under the jurisdiction of patent policies, and with it, corporate control of vaccination. The World Trade Organization, a union founded on the promotion of globalization, administers patent laws that set global standards for intellectual property. Justice Nwobike of the University of Essex find that, “Granting exclusive rights on medicines to patent holders enables them limit or reduce the possibility for governments to allow compulsory licensing and parallel imports of pharmaceuticals”(Nwobike). This threat has been realized in South Africa, where the government tried to respond to the AIDS epidemic by investing in generic drugs and “making medicines affordable for its people. However, because of global patent laws “41 multinational pharmaceutical corporations went to court to challenge it on the basis that it violated” international agreements (Nwobike). The delivery of cheap vaccines has been hampered by globalization, causing the cost of vaccinating a child to climb 68 times higher than the cost in 2001 according to the international charity Doctors Without Borders, making it impossible for African people to get the inexpensive medical technology that they need (Culp-Ressler).
Globalization has impacted the African continent in ways that were unexpected to many. From farming to banking, globalization is radicalizing the traditional African system in a way that has never been done before, leaving us wondering if these issues are simply growing pains or long term problems for the continent.
Works Cited
Culp-Ressler, Tara. "Doctors Blame Pharma Giants For Making Vaccines Too Expensive For Kids In Poor Countries." ThinkProgress RSS. Think Progress, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
Ekine, Sokari. "Africa: Trapped in Water Privatization." New Internationalist, 20 June 2011. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
Lappe, Anna. "World Bank Wants Water Privatized, despite Risks | Al Jazeera America." Aljazeera English. American Aljazeera, 17 Apr. 2014. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
Nwobike, Justice C. "Pharmaceutical Corporations and Access to Drugs Indeveloping Countries: The Way Forward." SUR Journal - International Journal on Human RIghts, June 2006. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
Shah, Anup. "Water and Development." Global Issues, 06 June 2010. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
My favorite aspect of this article is its organization. It makes the topic understandable to those who are not familiar with it and enjoyable to those who are not typically interested in it. It connects to the United States because Africa's situation contrasts America's greatly. What do you think America should do about this?
ReplyDeleteThe main thing I got from this is that Africa is basically being capitalistly exploited, driving up prices of basic needs like medicine and water.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a certain argument concerning the impacts of globalization on countries like China on a certain debate topic.
What good has globalization done for Africa?
The main thing I got from this is that globalization leads to the reduction of access to basic human needs like water, which is extremely necessary in a continent like Africa.
ReplyDeleteAre any outside countries trying to do anything about these problems?
I like how your article talks about something very basic that we can all relate to instead of something that just happens to a small percentage of people in the US.
ReplyDeleteThe loss of water could connect to the fact that privatization of the water in Detroit and other cities hit hard by the recession.
Could you have talked about how the globalization of these resources affect the global trade?