The Big Picture: Major Influences - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 22

ANTI-GLOBALIZATION MOVEMENT
Wallerstein supports the growing worldwide anti-
globalization movement, which argues that corporations
seek to maximize profits at the expense of fair compensa-
tion, work-safety conditions and standards, environmen-
tal conservation, and the integrity of governments'
independence and sovereignty . Protestors stress that
globalization will accentuate inequality not only between
rich and poor countries but also within individual coun-
tries. Poor farmers and other powerless people see glob-
alization as a vehicle to keep them in a position of poverty
and subservience. Although it is generally true that global
economic integration allows economies of poor countries
to expand, national incomes to rise, and new middle
classes to emerge, this wealth is unevenly distributed. Sig-
nificant monetary gains are enjoyed primarily by the up-
per echelons of society while millions remain destitute.
T To some, Walmart personifies the wonders of a
global marketplace that delivers low-cost goods to grate-
ful consumers. But to many champions of the poor, Wal-
mart is an arrogant, union-busting employer that denies
its employees decent wages and benefits such as health
insurance. Critics accuse the company of exploiting hun-
dreds of thousands of anonymous poor workers who
slave for long hours in “sweatshops,” especially in Asian
countries like China, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. T To
some of the cyber-critics who inhabit the “blogosphere,”
Walmart is a “hated capitalistic Satan.”
Another target of the anti-globalization movement is
the World Trade Organization (WTO . The WTO, with
more than 150 member states, sets rules for economic ac-
tivities such as foreign investment and trade. Member
countries are expected to reduce or eliminate barriers to
trade. Poor countries are supposed to benefit from this
new order. However, this is not always the case.
When the Philippines joined the WTO, its government
assumed that world markets would be open to cheaper
Filipino farm produce. When demand increased, more
farm jobs would be created and wages would rise. However,
this did not happen. Filipino farmers found themselves
competing against American and European farmers whose
governments subsidize their costs of production and
export. Simultaneously , subsidized U.S. corn appeared in
Filipino markets with prices cheaper than for corn grown
in the Philippines. Consequently , several hundreds of thou-
sands of agricultural jobs were lost and wages declined.
Obviously , the WTO is not popular in the Philippines.
But globalization is only part of the picture. A counter-
movement is regionalism. Regional organizations, which
include diverse nonprofit organizations, human-rights

groups, political groups, and even governments, are con-
cerned with such things as social, cultural, environmental,
and economic issues. Although globalism and regionalism
appear contradictory , they are integrated phenomena oper-
ating at varying spatial scales and settings. Regionalism is a
response to loss of self-determination through incorpora-
tion into multinational behemoths.
Regional trading blocks, such as the European
Union (EU) or the North American Free T Trade Associa-
tion (NAFT A), regulate economic interchange in the in-
terests of reducing foreign competition and to maintain
the flexibility of extensive markets. The Asia Pacific Eco-
nomic Cooperation (APEC) is a similar organization.
APEC was organized in 1989 by then Australian
Prime Minister Bob Hawke. This organization relies on
ad hoctask forces and groups of business people, econo-
mists, and government officials to chart and achieve its
goals. APEC' is main goal is to achieve free trade in the
Asia-Pacific region by 2020. The original membership of
12 has increased to 21, including East and Southeast
Asian nations along with six non-Asian nations such as
Canada, Mexico, the United States, and Australia. In
other words, APEC is a Pacific Rim phenomenon.
The Pacific Rim is an economic concept of the late
twentieth century . It refers to all the countries situated
around the Pacific Ocean including those of North and
South America, East and Southeast Asia, and Australia
and New Zealand. Asia-Pacific is another, broader
term. These countries' primary trading partners are
one another.
While regional organizations set new paradigms for
international negotiations, they are frequently criticized
as being insensitive to concerns such as air pollution,
toxic waste, environmental health, labor exploitation,
and cultural survival.

THE DUAL IMPACT OF “AMERICANIZATION”
As I enjoyed a Coke on a beach in Vietnam, I was struck
by the size of the canvas sign being used to block out the
hot rays of the sun. There was the Marlboro Man riding
into the sunset, lasso in hand. A tin Coca-Cola sign hung
crookedly on the wooden, drink and snack serving bar.
There are Coca-Cola museums in China, Japan, and the
Philippines, and Taiwan boasts the world' s largest inflat-
able Coke bottle.
Wahaha is China' is largest beverage producer because
it markets its products in rural areas where most Chinese
still live. It has recently come up with a bottled drink for
rural consumers who cannot afford real Coca-Cola. This
spinoff is called “Future Cola.”