"The world has seen the globalisation
of capital and communications but not of justice, solidarity,
respect, and tolerance because the forces that unilaterally
drive globalisation have not permitted it. To the contrary,
they have opened up the markets of countries that produce
raw materials for their own products while blocking
these countries' access to many of their own markets.
They have used security as an excuse to create obstacles
to migration. They have made war their economic engine.
Popular demonstrations against a discredited international
system--like the protests in Seattle, Genoa, Prague,
and elsewhere-- and events like the World Social Forum,
represent the legitimate endeavour to give globalisation
a human face, to transform it into a process that takes
into account the interests of the people and not just
of giant transnational corporations."
Rigoberta Menchú is the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate.
(Excerpt from IPS Columnist Service)
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"How can globalisation
help the poor? By destroying the trade barriers to import
goods from developing countries into rich countries,
and to export technology and know-how to developing
countries. What we have now is not true globalisation.
Globalisation means "no barriers". The problem
is that there is too much protectionism, that the current
legal, trade, tax system, the agreements reached after
World War II are obsolete and are blocking the true
globalisation for political reasons."
Michel Ogrizek is the Communications
Director of the WEF, and author of several books on
environment and communication.
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