globalization scuppers ageing myth

Although individual prosperous countries may be looking at an ageing population ahead, Donata points out that on a global scale there is a massive surfeit of young people desperate for jobs and with a globalized workforce there are not even enough jobs for them, let alone the old people that western governments now expect to work until they drop.

“The reasons given to increase the pension age are disingenuous; merely a ploy to stop paying people their rightful pensions and force them to use up their savings,” says Donata. “Worldwide there is no ageing population. On the contrary, people over 65 are vastly outnumbered by people under 15.”

“There is absolutely no basis to the myth that 60 is the new 40, and that most elderly people want to work longer,” says Donata. “My last years in the workforce were soul destroying, and upcoming 50 plus workers are going to have a harder time than I had.”

“With globalization, it is not just our children we are in competition with for jobs but the children of people all around the world,” says Donata, “and the situation I was in will become more difficult than ever with each passing year.”

“Increasing the age of retirement would be a disaster for the well-being of older workers who, unlike younger people facing sudden unemployment, have a very slim chance of finding any sort of job, let alone another permanent job.”

“For every contract, casual or part-time position I applied for I was up against a bevy of highly educated bright young things, eager to get onto the bottom rung of the working ladder,” says Donata, “and mostly these young things were not home grown kids – they were from India, Pakistan and all of the Asian countries.”

“That I managed to get a fairly steady stream of contract employment during the last years of my working life is a bit of a miracle – as is the fact that I never had to resort to unskilled labor,” says Donata, “but the time will come when the level of education in the global workforce is so high that home grown people will only be suitable for unskilled jobs, no matter what their age is.”

“So, for governments to go on about our ageing population in the face of a global surfeit of young people is a terrible lie,” says Donata. “If anything, we should be lowering the pension age and freeing up a lot of jobs for young people everywhere.”

Read more of Donata's story:

don't increase pension age!

katholikos is Greek for global

Katholikos may be Greek for universal or global, but Poppy believes that it's an ethos by no means exclusive to the Catholic faith.

“They all do it,” says Poppy. “Religions, corporations and all manner of political, social and philanthropic organizations are fired by the katholikos ethos – wanting to spread their tentacles throughout the world.”

“Mostly the globalization of ideas, technologies and products is beneficial, or at least benign,” says Poppy, “but some things just shouldn’t be allowed to spread beyond their country of origin.”

“Like a bacterium or virus that may be harmless to one host but fatal to another,” says Poppy, “the global spread of some things can be fatal to some indigenous populations.”

“Not just fatal in terms of being wiped out physically by a disease or a substance – as invading westerners wiped out natives with their foreign diseases and alcoholic beverages,” says Poppy, “but also fatal in terms of indigenous customs, language and traditions.”

“Today, we’re seeing not just people and their traditions threatened by globalization, but iconic local products, too,” says Poppy. “The big corporations come in, take-over small producers and people who’ve grown up being proud of a local product suddenly find it no longer belongs to ‘them’ – it belongs to the world – and it no longer provides employment for them – it is cheaper to produce overseas.”

“Alexander the Great of Macedon, near Greece, was the first and most well-known global influencer – spreading his brand of civilization from Egypt to India,” says Poppy, “and the Greek colonists founded the Roman Empire which, in turn, ‘civilized’ most of the known world at that time by conquest.”

“And then the Greeks were instrumental in spreading Christianity,” says Poppy. “Those Greeks sure know how to do the world!”

Read more by Poppy on this issue:

engineered demographics

the fate of indigenous populations

demographic engineering

religiously motivated wars

the curse of the katholikos ethos

racism and the religious balance

the enemy within

globalization of the net

Cybil and her husband Darren have a great website advertising their talents as web designers and IT specialists but they both still have day jobs and  regret that they started up at the tail end of the boom and since then have been overwhelmed by the Asian tigers in the globalization of the net.

"We started the website at the tail end of the boom," sighs Cybil, "and we haven't had any luck whatsoever. Our website is our 'baby' and we'll keep it running whether or not we get a 'bite' but it's a real shame that things haven't worked out for us."

"I think the novelty of the Internet is dying off in most of the western world - users are getting a life," laughs Cybil, "but it is taking off incredibly fast in Asia."

"I would imagine that there's a huge market for translators right now," says Cybil, "and an even bigger market for lawyers once people realize that their website is being pirated, translated and sold on the Asian market!"

"Our problem is that just about every new kid on the Net knows how to set up a fabulous webpage and some of them are more on the cutting edge of technology than we are," says Cybil. "And they do it all for free because it's fun."

"Darren and I are, in effect, working for 'free' on the Net, but we are not having as much fun as the new kids as we truly hoped that our business would take off and allow us to become financially independent."

"We are hoping that the 'free' webpage designs we put on our site will attract someone willing to pay for a specialist project," says Cybil, "but by placing samples of our work on the Internet for free, I fear we're merely exposing ourselves to getting ripped off."

"Despite copyright on designs and content, whatever you put on the Net is more or less deemed up for grabs. People who are either too lazy or too lacking in talent to do it themselves thieve source-coding, graphics and content every day."

"We can force the thieves to remove pirated stuff by reporting them to their service providers," says Cybil, "but prosecuting them is not worth the time, money nor effort."

"If the thieves use our work on English sites it's easy to find them, but if they use any other language we can't locate them," says Cybil. "We don't mind if people use our stuff on a personal web page - with our consent - but the thought of some business operator pirating our work in order to save himself the cost of paying for it really upsets us."

"The trouble with the Internet," says Cybil, "is that it started off in its infancy as a venue for the free dissemination of knowledge and despite the juggernaut of the business world taking over the Net - and its search engines - there still exists a hard core of users who feel that people should not have to pay for anything in cyberspace. If it's online - it's deemed free and to hell with copyright."

For any woman thinking of starting a small Internet business - either in tandem with a shop-front in real life, or strictly virtual - Cybil advises against following her lead.

"IT and web design skills may have been premium prior to 2000," says Cybil, "but they're not so marketable now - especially in western countries where workers expect premium wages. Jobs requiring these skills go offshore - we can't compete with Asian wages. "

"Go for something that's highly marketable off the Internet," says Cybil, "especially something that would appeal to the Asian market. Asia is the ultimate future of the Internet - so wrack your brains to sell something that would appeal to the Asian market and translate the website yourself before someone pirates it!"

"If you want to sell a product or a service that's not marketable off the Internet," says Cybil, "there's no harm in setting up a webpage to attract the one in a zillion buyer just as long as you are not wasting time, money and effort and you get a kick out of having a website - like we do."

"A niche product or service, if priced highly enough, could do well in the long run. As for everything else, forget it if you're not a highly competitive and dog eat dog sort of person."

"It's well to remember, too," adds Cybil, "that even with a highly marketable product you'll need to play the search engine game, and that is costly. Finally, there's no guarantee that even a highly marketable product will make you a living let alone a fortune on the Internet. In the future, maybe - who knows?"

global financial disasters

Maureen and her husband, Tom, took early retirement in their mid-50s to enjoy life after raising four children and building up considerable assets. Globalization had never affected their lives before, but when their idyllic retirement was cut short by financial disaster they began to realize how insidious the whole concept of globalization was – how it affects everyone.

"Tom had benefited from a long career with the same employer; he had never been out of work in his life and together with my part-time wages as a shop assistant we had built up considerable assets by the time we were in our mid-50s," explains Maureen. "When the children left home, it was time for Tom and I to start a new life."

"We had enough money invested to keep us in reasonable luxury for the rest of our lives," explains Maureen, "and, after 35 years of marriage, raising four children and working hard, we really deserved to start enjoying ourselves while they were still young enough to get the maximum benefit out of life."

"Having never gambled in our lives before, we decided we had reached a time in our lives when it was safe to risk part of our retirement funds on the stock market," says Maureen, "and we did so well that we both quit our jobs and took early retirement."

"Because we're not particularly astute people financially," explains Maureen,"we trusted our accountant and lawyer to take care of the business of managing our money, and we paid them well to do so."

"Also, we didn't want to spend our retirement watching every rise and fall in the stock market," explains Maureen. "All we wanted to do was enjoy ourselves, and in trusting our accountant and lawyer to invest our money in new global wealth schemes we ended up losing most of our retirement funds.”

"Incidentally, the accountant and lawyer had major losses, too," says Maureen, "but because they ran businesses where losses can be written-off - and they had ongoing work - they could pay their bills. We couldn't".

"Our major regrets it that we did not put our money into real estate - at least our money would have stayed in this country rather than disappearing into Nigerian scams or something," says Maureen, "but at the time we considered this option and chose ease of liquidity and quick gains instead. Serves us right!"

"We had no recourse but to get back to work," sighs Maureen, "but after five years of leisure we had lost touch with everything."

Read more of Maureen's story:

early retirement dangers

globalized money

After 9/11, when President Bush urged Americans to do the patriotic thing, help the economy by going out and spending up big, it irked Lanie that most of the spending Americans did was enriching China and all the other places that our manufacturers had offshored to and she couldn’t see how this was helping us.

"We were told that all the dollars China gained from selling us stuff we didn't really need to buy -- but bought anyway because that's what we were told to -- were coming back to us in investments," says Lanie, "and while it was nice to know, sort of, that the Chinese were investing in our country, it isn't so nice now, in an economic meltdown, to realize that we now longer own our own country.”

"I'm upset that the rest of the world sees Americans as greedy monsters who deserve to suffer an economic meltdown," says Lanie. "The housing bubble and the bailout may not have occurred if Bush hadn't urged shocked Americans after 9/11 to spend up big and incur debt in order to save the economy and the free world."

"It wasn't greed that fuelled the debt, it was patriotism."

"Back in 2001 we were already in an economic slump due to the dotcom bust," explains Lanie. "Hundreds of thousands of people had done their dough investing in dotcoms or had lost their jobs, and if nothing else 9/11 mobilized the country into patriotic action."

"Massive military recruitment drives sopped up the patriotic unemployed, and the rest of us did our bit for Uncle Sam by doing as Bush urged us to do -- go out and spend up big!"

"Had 9/11 not happened, I think Bush and his neocon cronies would have trumped up some other fearful event to whip us into shape," explains Lanie, "because the economy at the time was heading south big time."

"What really irked me was that, apart from housing, all the spending we did enriched China and all the other places that our manufacturers had offshored to -- and I just couldn't see how this was helping us."

"We were told that all the dollars China gained from selling us stuff we didn't really need to buy -- but bought anyway because that's what we were told to -- were coming back to us in investments," says Lanie, "and while it was nice to know, sort of, that the Chinese were investing in our country, it wasn't so nice to imagine that these investments were also being used by Bush and his cronies to fund the invasion of Iraq, line their pockets and do other nasty stuff."

"Anyway, it was the housing spending spree which really did us in," sighs Lanie. "After we had maxed out on our credit cards buying plasmas, electronics and whitegoods we were encouraged to take out equity in our homes to buy more stuff -- in our case a new kitchen and bathroom – and then the sub-prime balloon mortgage industry popped up to encourage poor folk to buy houses they had no hope in hell of ever owning and we started to become worried."

"We were happy to use equity in our home to improve its value -- it was our home, after all, and we intend to live in it forever -- but when the speculators moved in, churning sales for a quick profit, taking advantage of poor folk, and causing house prices to spiral way beyond their true value it was the end of the line."

"Houses are like food -- basic necessities -- you don't mess with them, and if you don't have a job and can't afford them, they should be provided gratis by the state. Isn't that what all enlightened democratic countries do for their poor citizens?"

"Sure, some Americans are greedy monsters just like some people are in other countries, and because we have a bigger population than most countries there are, unfortunately, proportionally more greedy monsters here," says Lanie, "but the vast majority of Americans, like elsewhere, are decent people who are appalled at the financial mismanagement of this country since 9/11."

"When Bush told us to go out and spend, we naively believed that it was the patriotic thing to do," sighs Lanie. "We were all in a state of shock after 9/11 and if getting into debt was what we had to do in order to save our country from terrorists bent on breaking our economy and world trade, then that's what we had to do."

"Greed didn't motivate us to spend up big and get into debt, patriotism did," says Lanie, "and as much as most of us disliked Bush, we trusted that his administration knew what it was doing."

"I blame the Bush administration and weak regulation for the mess that we are in right now," says Lanie. "By encouraging us to spend, and get into debt, the perfect conditions for exploitation were set up."

"Unfortunately, not all Americans are patriotic and, in encouraging a spending spree, the Bush administration created a lot more greedy monsters to crawl out of the woodwork and prey on us," explains Lanie. "And, in a global economy, greedy monsters everywhere were also sucking the dollars out of us."

"If we had been told to save and invest in our country ourselves, like the Europeans do, China wouldn't now just about own us," says Lanie. "Our national debt is mind-boggling and I fail to see how printing more money to bail out the banks is going to help."

"On a personal level, I am angry that money that we could have used to pay off our mortgage was spent, instead, on increasing our debt via equity release," says Lanie. "Sure, we have a nicer home now but a bigger slice of it belongs to a bank which, for all I know, may be controlled by some guy in Asia who is just waiting for us to lose our jobs in an economic meltdown and default on our mortgage payments before foreclosing on us.”

“Has anyone ever wondered who is going to buy up all the foreclosed houses at fire sale prices?” asks Lanie. “Immigrants, that’s who’ll buy them. And most of them will be wealthy, cashed up Asians who grew rich on our so-called patriotic spending.”

“That’s globalization for you!”

globalization promotes starvation

Initially, globalization was encouraged to support the developing countries, but forty years after it was promoted by the New World Order Jerri maintains that the generous and sustainable nations that took it onboard are now sinking into potential starvation status themselves

“Globalization became a loud and insistent mantra since the 1970s simply because without co-operation, millions of people would have starved,” says Jerri, “and, right now, with an global excess population of over 2 billion people, half of which live in Europe, it is not just little black, brown or yellow people that are at risk but big, fat white people as well (who may as well eat up while the food lasts!)”

“Seventy-two nations are sustainable, reasonably food secure, capable of feeding their own populations, but 91 nations – including, incredibly, the generous European nations that opened their borders to immigration – are now unsustainable and rely totally upon the sustainable nations to feed them.”

“Rather than staving off starvation, globalization promotes starvation and a multitude of other problems,” says Jerri. “And it is particularly useless if the globalists pushing it refuse to address the underlying causes of poverty and starvation out of fear of upsetting the major religions.”

“These are the same causes that brought my Irish ancestors unstuck – too many people depending on not enough arable land – and are easily addressed by contraceptives, delaying marriage, saving money and stocking up on emergency food.”

“Rather than admitting that the policy naively devised to promote global harmony will ultimately lead to global food wars -- and immediately doing something to avert widespread starvation – the globalists are either incompetent idiots, or they are totally evil and fully intend to wipe out half of the world’s population by withholding food when it suits them to do so.”

See also:

• emigrate to a food secure nation!
  
• Echoes of Ireland’s Starvation
  
• time to stock up on food?
  
• one child is enough
  
• go forth, multipy and starve
  
• are we a plague on the earth?
  
• Europe Risks Starvation?

global oil demand ends easy life

Now that peak oil is coinciding with peak demand from the new global giants of China and India, Kitty is glad that she sold her car and relocated to a cheaper home near public transport years ago but she fears that what remains of her good life is about to come to an abrupt end due to an upcoming global battle for the last barrel of oil (that the West won’t win).

"We've been warned for decades that we're heading for a fuel crisis but nobody believed the boffins or did anything about it -- least of all the government -- we were all so hooked on oil and the easy life,” says Kitty. "Global Big Oil and Auto lobbies must have paid an awful lot of money to stop the government from putting laws into place encouraging alternative fuel sources and modes of transport. Either that, or these lobbies are secretly run by foreign powers who deliberately engineered our demise so that they can take over.”

"I learned the hard way (tech bust job loss before 9/11) that driving my own vehicle is a luxury, not a right or a necessity, and I think a lot of people -- not just low income earners -- are now going to have to face that fact, too."

"With the suburban sprawl spawned by car ownership and cheap fuel, heaps of people are now in trouble because they live too far from public transport."

"Suburban house prices are already rock-bottom thanks to the subprime fiasco, so anyone wanting to sell up and move closer to their workplaces will either have to take a huge loss or rot forever in a place that nobody wants to buy," sighs Kitty. “If people cannot afford to run their cars -- or if the fuel supply is restricted -- how are people going to get to work? And how many businesses will go bust, laying off millions of workers, because of rising fuel costs?”

"I suppose I'm lucky that I sold up and bought in the city seven years ago -- before the massive house price increases,” says Kitty, “and while I’m okay, sort of, I don’t feel too happy about rising food prices -- everything depends on oil, not just transportation but fertilizer, too -- and if I don’t get a pay rise I will be right back where I started seven years ago, having to give up something else as a luxury that I’ve always thought a necessity. What I don’t know, but probably health insurance because it’s my biggest expense right now.”

“Globalization has raised the rest of the world up -- mostly at our expense (in terms of offshored jobs, free trade and overseas development aid which we are still paying to China believe it or not!) -- and now most of us are little better off than the average Chinese or Indian worker, and in many cases a lot worse off judging by the astronomical number of Chinese and Indian tourists flying around the world.”

“With India and China powering up to match if not surpass our fuel needs -- and the rest of the developing nations not far behind -- it stands to reason that with oil supplies already depleted the price of oil will skyrocket (and with it everything else).”

“Everyone concedes, now, that the Iraq invasion was about securing our oil supply and had nothing to do with spreading democracy and, as oil extraction dwindles, there is going to be worse social-political tension around the world than there is already with everyone vying for the last barrel.”

“Honestly, I see massive trouble ahead and it’s all because we bought a dream of an easy life fuelled by cheap oil and infected the Third World with this dream, too, via globalization,” sighs Kitty. “The western world is in debt up to its eyes and China leads the world, followed by India, in purchasing power. There’s no way we can convert to new technologies in time to avert our demise and the shift in world power. We’re finished.”

“Those of us who live in colder climates are going to have to revert to coal or wood to keep us warm in the winter and that’s not going to sit well with the PC climate change crowd, is it?” laughs Kitty. “But when the crunch comes all that climate change propaganda will evaporate – we’ll be fighting for survival, won’t we?”

“All of this reminds me of what happened on Easter Island -- a whole nation died out because nobody had the nous to work out that when the last tree was chopped down they had no means of survival.”

“I guess fifty years ago the world leaders never imagined that China and India with their massive populations would emerge from poverty and grasp the good life with as much if not more greed than we did,” laughs Kitty, “but that’s what globalization is all about, isn’t it?”

“Were our leaders stupid then, or didn’t they care, knowing that they wouldn’t be around to see the good times end?” asks Kitty. “And, to believe that a show of force in oil rich countries is enough to scare them into giving us, rather than other countries, the lion’s share of a scarce commodity is more stupidity.”

“Using superior brute force may have worked centuries ago, but now that we’ve embraced globalization and given away everything, including the secrets of nuclear armaments, we’re no longer superior.”

“Start learning Chinese, guys, you’re going to need it.”

the curse of the katholikos ethos

Despite the legal separation of the church from government, Poppy believes that the katholikos ethos is very much alive and kicking in our governing bodies and that it holds as much sway in determining policies as it ever did, and is cursing us as much as it ever did.

“The Soviet Union was ostensibly atheist,” says Poppy, “but the Orthodox Church of Russia never died out, and indeed continued to pull strings.”

“It’s the same in even the most socialist of our governments,” says Poppy. “Politicians pretend to be freethinkers or even atheist, but none of them rose to prominence without the power of an almighty organization behind them.”

“The policies of our elected governments are mostly in synch with Church edicts,” says Poppy, “and when conflicts of interests arise the politicians always have the men in frocks to whisper into their ears and absolve them of their sins."

“Most parliamentary sessions start and end with prayer,” says Poppy, “and most officials swear on a Bible. Why is this done if there was, indeed, true separation?”

“If the Pope in Rome is the head of the universal Catholic Church, which is higher than any government and upholds the original Greek katholikos ethos,” says Poppy, “then the God Bods in government are not representing us, or our wishes, but that of their true masters and the end result will be a world government.”

out of sight, out of mind

The recent Internet publication of old books and articles relating to the settlement of the American colonies has shocked many people, especially retirees, in their new found hobby of ancestry. Looking for ancestral pilgrims and martyrs in accordance with the story of America's glorious past they were taught, they found instead -- as Mikki did -- a convicted felon who evaded execution in the Old Country by transportation – a form of global offshoring of people - and worked as a slave alongside kidnapped Negroes on the tobacco plantations of Virginia.

“He survived, but many didn't, and while our times may be different the social issues are the same,” says Mikki. “Lies, felons, slave-drivers and profiteers (especially in far away places).”

"Reading the truth about our early colonists, even the so-called pilgrims and martyrs had blood on their hands and greed in their eyes so being related to any of the early Americans is nothing to be proud of," says Mikki. "The whole period of colonization from 1607 to 1775 was far from a glorious beginning -- it was tainted by convict transportation, white and black slavery, indigenous massacres, human misery, biblical greed and massive profiteering that makes our current global CEOs look tame."

"It's the curse of globalization, isn't it," sighs Mikki, "out of sight, out of mind. Evils happening in far away places tend not to bother us, and that's why offshoring is as popular now as it was in 1607 when white slavery to the colonies commenced.”

"By the 1800s, after two hundred years of profiting from slavery, the newly rich American bucks and debutantes descended upon Europe to make advantageous marriages and it was at this time, I think, that ancestry necessarily became a hushed affair."

"Neither the rich Americans nor the impoverished European nobility wanted the dirty facts of the American colonial period to become public knowledge and spoil their marriages of convenience -- tainted American money buying titles of distinction, bucks for baronets and that sort of stuff."

"It was, however, well known among the British gentleman's clubs in the 1800s that a lot of prominent Americans were tainted by convict ancestry and ill-gotten gains," says Mikki, "but these facts, along with others relating to the dissolute nature of some European aristocrats, just didn't become common knowledge."

"It was important in those days to keep up social appearances and maintain an absolute divide between the upper and lower classes," explains Mikki, "and if that meant allowing into gentile society some fabulously rich Americans of dubious birth then so be it."

‘Today, fabulously rich people of all cultures have arrived at that status by the same means – enslaving their own and others in the most heinous global trade of all.”

Read more by Mikki on this issue:

a nation built on white slavery

globalized slavery

whitewashing slavery

Britons never will be slaves?

so you think you’re a slave?

Tobacco and America's Convict Past

digging up your ancestors

is slavery the human condition?

the ghosts of slavery

kidnapped children

black v white slavery

slave migrations

Anglo Slavery

lies, felons, slave-drivers and profiteers

a global chinese curse!

When people think about welfare they think about the unemployed,single mothers, the disabled and the aged but Ellissa points out that by far the biggest slice of taxpayer funds is spent on corporate welfare, and with the Global New World Order coming into existence these hidden welfare recipients are going to be shaken out of their comfort zones and forced to compete on the open market.

"In its free trade agreements, the USA seeks to remove all barriers to government purchasing markets," says Ellissa, "and what this means is that corporations which have enjoyed a crony relationship with governments are going to lose their preferential treatment (their corporate welfare payments) and their God-given right to be baled out of occasional financial difficulties."

"Look at it this way," explains Ellissa. "Single mothers receive an allowance for raising children that one day will become productive members of society, and unemployed people receive an allowance to assist them to find productive work."

"Nobody who works and pays tax likes the idea of their money going into supporting these so-called parasites," says Ellissa, "but if they knew how much of their tax money was going towards supporting the corporate parasites there would be a revolution."

"Corporate welfare is money paid to individuals who run companies that organize the provision of goods and services to governments," says Ellissa. "It is welfare because these individuals are middle-men. The government could just as easily deal directly with the primary producer of goods and services but because the middle-man is a crony, part of the Old Boys' Network,he gets the contract and is kept off the unemployment queues."

"Anyone can set up one of these corporations," says Ellissa, "but without a close relationship with someone in government you won't get anywhere. Even if government purchasing projects are sent to Tender, they always go to the Old Boys. The whole system is rigged."

"I know all this because I worked for a guy who ran one of these corporations,"confides Ellissa. "He and I worked out of a poky little downtown office and you'd never believe the dodgy deals he did, the fat government checks he received and the thin tax he paid. When I worked out that I was paying more in tax from my wage than he was paying in total, I moved on in disgust. It gives me great pleasure to know that he, and guys like him, will soon lose their preferential status."

"In the new world order, this preferential treatment in government purchasing deals is going to be abolished," says Ellissa. "A free trade agreement means the abolition of all corporate welfare, and no signatory nation to a free trade agreement can ban competition on any grounds."

"As Canada is already discovering in its legal battles with Ethyl (a US chemical company) and United Parcel Service (UPS, a US corporation) even publicly owned services are under fire," says Ellissa, "and if a national postal service can be seen as a violating monopoly because it uses its public infrastructure to cross-subsidize services then it's not just the small welfare corporations that are at risk but the whole public infrastructure of education, health, electricity, roads and water."

"Free trade guarantees competition and, flowing on from this, more efficient and cheaper goods and services," says Ellissa. "The cosy partnerships governments have traditionally had with their preferred corporations -- the ones receiving welfare -- are being eroded, and this is a very good thing."

"Perhaps what is not good about free trade is that it will lead to the privatisation of essential services, such as health and water, that most of us believe are better managed by us (the government) than by a private company,"says Ellissa. "However, in that we have elected some very strange people to lead us and there is no guarantee that our electoral system is 100%foolproof, perhaps privatization will prove to be far better in the long run -- as long as it comes with plenty of competition."

"All of these changes mean that we will be paying less tax -- at least I hope so!" laughs Ellissa, "but paying more for services that will be provided directly by private companies in competition with each other rather than subsidized by taxpayer money as they are now."

"So, along with the corporate welfare guys, like the one I once worked for, all of our public servants now in lifelong taxpayer provided jobs, will soon be seeking work in the private sector," says Ellissa. "It's going to be interesting times ahead we'll be living in!"

"And that, if you didn't know already, is a Chinese curse!"


Ellissa's story first appeared as hello free trade, goodbye corporate welfare and is reprinted with permission.

globalized murder

Like most Christians, if not most people of any faith, Adrienne -- a working wife and mom -- was raised to negotiate her way through conflict, to turn the other cheek if necessary and to focus her charity at home. She is totally against war of any kind and believes globalization -- other than spreading Christianity -- is evil.

"Life's too short to make enemies," says Adrienne, "but the conduct of this war against terror has overturned everything I was raised to believe."

"Either I have been lied to all of my life -- in which case I have been a victim of pacifist propaganda," says Adrienne, "or our government is run by evil people and in not protesting this war and stopping it we are all accessories to a terrible crime."

"As I see it, the weapons inspectors were doing their job in Iraq, the regime was complying with UN requirements and no 'smoking gun' was found that indicated Iraq was producing weapons of mass destruction."

"By refusing to allow the weapons inspectors the time they needed to complete their task and prove to all concerned that Iraq was, indeed, no threat to anyone," explains Adrienne, "Bush proved that he wanted a violent conflict and had no intention of allowing peaceful negotiations to work."

"Just imagine how this scenario plays out in our private lives," says Adrienne. "If we had a dispute with a neighbor, for instance, and we took the matter to court and were told to give the neighbors six months to remove whatever offensive material they had on their property, do we have a right to ignore what the court says -- claiming six months is too long to wait -- and go in there and murder them all?"

"Don't tell me that we have one law for individuals, and another for governments," says Adrienne.

"Civilization is built upon civility or it isn't, and if it isn't then I need to reassess everything I was brought up to believe."

"No matter how much I may despise my neighbors because they are brutal people, had a religion that differed from mine and stored material offensive to me on their property," says Adrienne, "I have no desire to invade their property and murder them. I trust in legal negotiations to work the problem out, and if it doesn't pan out to my satisfaction then I would be prepared to move rather than kill them."

"Does this mindset make me a fool?" asks Adrienne.

"Apparently so," she answers, "because my government wasn't even prepared to let legal negotiations run their course!"

"Instead, my government got fed up waiting for the weapons inspectors to do their work and took the law into its own hands."

"I don't believe Iraq ever had any weapons of mass destruction, and if it did then it certainly wasn't planning on using them on us in a country half a world away with more weapons of mass destruction than the rest of the world put together."

"All of which means," sighs Adrienne, "that my government invaded Iraq because it didn't like Saddam and his regime and wants to overthrow the regime and set up a puppet government it can manipulate."

"If my government can do this," reasons Adrienne, "then my neighbor can invade my property because it doesn't like me and my family, and it can murder us, too, for the same reasons."

"And if my government can do this," adds Adrienne, "then other governments can do this, too. North Korea can march into South Korea, China can invade countries to the south and west and all of the Arab nations can do the same."

"My government has set a precedent and because so few nations and individuals protested there is going to be no end to war and the sanitized murder that invading nations commit."

"I was brought up to believe that murder is murder when you know what you are doing, when you're aware of the consequences of your actions," says Adrienne, "and my government planned this war and whatever it says about collateral damage and other sanitized terms it's still murder to me."

"I can't be the only person perplexed by what my government has done," sighs Adrienne. "I can't be only person feeling ashamed to be part of a nation that is seen by most of the rest of the world as a nation of bullies and evil monsters."

"And yet I am aware that to think the way I do I am essentially expressing traitorous thoughts," muses Adrienne, "and this perplexes me even more because I love my country."

"Of course I am as concerned about the death of our troops in this war as I am about the Iraqi civilians that get killed," adds Adrienne, "and of course now that the war has gone on for long I want it to end as quickly as possible in our favor so that we don't end up being called losers as well as murderers, yet I will always regret that we didn't take the peaceful course set down by the United Nations."

"The weapons inspectors should have been given all the time they needed to find the weapons of mass destruction that Bush claimed Iraq was producing and stockpiling," says Adrienne. "And if such weapons were found then the war needed to be a UN mission, not a unilateral strike by the USA."

"What is a few months or even a few years when we are talking about human lives -- not just those of innocent civilians but also military personnel?" asks Adrienne.

"My kids are asking questions and I feel useless at explaining what is happening," sighs Adrienne. "This war goes against everything my husband and I have taught them."

"I'd like to know what sort of Christianity Mr Bush follows because it sure as hell isn't the same one we use to guide our lives," says Adrienne. "All that old testament stuff -- eye for an eye, stoning to death and other acts of brutality in the name of God -- isn't in our good book."

Adrienne's story first appeared as war is sanitized murder! and is reprinted with permission.

the global war for oil

Mercedes is an 19 year old student living at home and all she wants to talk about is the war on terror and the conflict in Iraq which, to her parents' dismay, is not helping her get good grades and get ahead in life.

The first question Mercedes asked everyone after 9/11 was 'why?' and although it was not given directly to her the answer ultimately came from Osama bin Laden himself.

"He once said that all terrorist acts would stop once America pulled out of the middle east and minded its own business," explains Mercedes.

"Clearly, by pushing into parts of the world where they are not wanted," adds Mercedes, "American business interests, and the military might that supports them, are inciting more hatred and exposing more and more innocent people to acts of terror."

"When neighbors get together to protest against an industrial development in their area," explains Mercedes, "they are often successful in thwarting the development, or having a say in modifying how the development takes place."

"If they are unsuccessful, they have the option to sell up and move on."

"What say do people in poor countries have when wealthy American business interests move into their area?"

"None, I'd imagine," says Mercedes, "and that's why these people have to resort to terrorist attacks. They don't have the option to sell up and move on like we do."

"It's like the situation in Northern Ireland and Israel, isn't it?" muses Mercedes.

"Faced with the might of the British armed forces the Irish wanting a united Ireland have no option but to resort to terror to get the Brits out of Northern Ireland."

"And having lost most of their country when Israel was created as a homeland for displaced Jews following WWII the Palestinians are in a similar situation," explains Mercedes.

"It seems to me that terrorist attacks are nothing more than acts of desperation made by people who are denied justice." says Mercedes, "and old style wars where one country openly fought another over a disputed territory or belief are just that -- old style."

"Terrorism seems to be the new style of warfare these days," remarks Mercedes, "and it's no longer nation against nation but little people fighting huge nations or corporations."

"I guess we've got far too many business interests in other parts of the world to pull out and become, once again, an isolationist nation, minding our own business," says Mercedes, "but I truly believe that ultimately we are going to be forced by unrelenting terrorist attacks to face the fact that we are responsible for what happens to us."

"I don't believe that terrorist acts committed by desperate people who rightly or wrongly believe that their rights have been trodden on by a big nation or corporate interests can be stamped out."

"Just think about it -- we use more oil than the rest of the world put together," sighs Mercedes. "The only reason we're interfering in the middle east and fighting in god-forsaken deserts is because that's where the oil is."

"If there were no oil in Iraq," says Mercedes, "we wouldn't be there."

"And if gazillions could not be made from reconstructing a country we have bombed to pieces we wouldn't have done it."

"I am deeply concerned that at soon as we invaded Iraq we headed straight for the oil fields and as soon as the bombing of cities started the tenders went out for rebuilding them," sighs Mercedes. "Doesn't that indicate quite clearly what the war is all about?"

"The war in Afghanistan was a just war for just reasons," adds Mercedes. "There was no money to be made from it and I suppose that's why we didn't go after Osama and the al-Qaeda network when we had routed them."

"There was no money to be made from pursuing Osama and the al-Qaeda, right?"

"But there's plenty of money to be made from invading Iraq, isn't there?"

"I've come to the conclusion that the axis of evil rhetoric was just a smokescreen for the real target, which was always going to be Iraq," says Mercedes.

"We stood to gain nothing but trouble by invading Iran or North Korea," adds Mercedes. "Both of these countries might be construed as enemies of the USA and potential threats to our security, but they have no great commercial value to us."

"I was thinking of doing some travel after finishing my studies," sighs Mercedes, "but now I wouldn't dream of getting on a plane or traveling through countries that hate us."

"I don't particularly feel safe at home, either," adds Mercedes. "You never know who is plotting against us -- more particularly American business interests, and the military might that supports them."

"If this is the price we must pay for being a rich and powerful nation then is it worth it?" asks Mercedes. "What am I studying for if we are going to be hit at home with more terrible acts of terror against our illegal involvement in the affairs of other nations?"

"Why can't we be like Sweden or Switzerland and mind our own business?"

(Mercedes' story first appeared as it's all about oil and money and is reprinted with permission.)

going global on climate change

After spending an entire century or more feeding, educating and Christianizing the Third World, it strikes Jinny as very odd that the globalists now want to impose severe restraints on these emerging economies -- could it be that the West is using global warming scaremongering to keep its economic advantage?

"Just think about it," says Jinny. "The West became rich after a filthy dirty industrial revolution and it was hundreds of years later -- in the 1960s -- that pollution became such a problem that measures were finally taken to stem it."

"The Third World cannot possibly catch up with the West without experiencing a similar industrial revolution," says Jinny, "and there is something immoral about imposing on emerging economies the same pollution measures that the West now uses and scaring these people into submission with dire climate change predictions."

"How dare the globalists beat up on China's economic miracle and expect Africa to forgo the use of electricity,"says Jinny. "The more I think about it the more I believe that global warming is nothing more than a political agenda pushed by the same people pushing globalization for the same reason -- economic advantage".

"I know there are a lot of conspiracy theories about global warming and some may be crazy," says Jinny, "but there's a little bit of truth in all of them."

"When one race imposes its will on another, especially when the imposing race once considered itself as having a 'white man's burden' to look after the other," explains Jinny, "I see shades of eugenics and Neo-Nazi race science emerging."

"When think tanks come up with studies showing that if couples had two kids instead of three, they could reduce their carbon dioxide output by the equivalent of 620 return flights pa between, say, London and New York," says Jinny, "you get to understand that the globalists are not just talking about global warming, but population control."

"Actually, believe it or not, the concept of 'global warming' was invented by Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in support of nuclear power after a fight with both coal suppliers and coal unions," laughs Jinny. "She poured money into the venture and gained the support of most of the scientific establishment."

"I think the only point on which the pro and anti global warming protagonists agree is the fact that a Medieval Warm Period occurred and was definitely warmer than today,"laughs Jinny. "That, to me, is enough evidence that man-made global warming is bunkum, and it's downright criminal that the globalists continue to push their propaganda not just on us, but on the rest of the world, too."

"Sure, man is responsible for adding to naturally occurring CO2, but in total this makes up just a tiny fraction of a percent of the Earth's atmosphere," says Jinny, "and rather than pointing their fingers at the Third World the globalists should be cleaning up their own act. How many of them, for instance, practise what they preach? How would they like to live for a year, let alone a lifetime, without electricity and vehicles and the other polluting necessities of modern life?"

"And, another oddity in this equation is the Live Earth concerts," says Jinny. "Following on from so many concerts aimed at feeding the Third World masses -- allowing more and more so-called superfluous people to live and breed and make ever more carbon footprints -- now the globalists are using music to push the green message onto them!"

"Tell me, why would the masses in the Third World be interested in taking a pledge to cut global warming pollution and return to stone-age living so that Al Gore and his fellow-globalists in the West can continue to live like carbon hogging kings?"

"How dare the globalists blame the emerging Third Word economies for spoiling the planet," says Jinny, "and how dare they make up lies about man-made climate catastrophes and how dare our governments give these people millions of our taxpayer funds to spread such drivel."

"Man-made pollution is a real problem and needs to be addressed, but climate change is a natural event and has nothing to do with us," says Jinny. "If the globalists think that their climate change scaremongering will stop the emerging economies from steaming ahead and overtaking the West, then they need a reality check."

"When you go global, you either uplift others to your level or downgrade yourself to theirs," adds Jinny, "and I'd prefer the former, wouldn't you?"

silent majorities and protection rackets

According to Melody, the trouble with democracy is that it works on the principle of majority rule but majorities are always silent and sheep-like and the only people who gain from the system are rich minority groups with politicians in their pockets.

"In all governments -- democratic or not -- the deal is this," explains Melody. "We'll take care of you, we'll handle all the tough stuff, trust us. Give us your money and all you have to do is go about your daily life and abide by the laws we make for your good."

"It sounds like a reasonable deal -- a neat social contract -- doesn't it?" laughs Melody. "But it's nothing more than a massive protection racket."

"Very few of the laws governments pass are for our good," says Melody, "and very few of the baddies they are protecting us from are out to get us."

"On the contrary, most of the laws governments pass are for the good of vested interests, not us" says Melody, "and most of the baddies they are protecting us from are out to get these vested interests, not us."

"You only have to look at the situation in Iraq to see the truth of this," says Melody. "Saddam Hussein's regime may have been brutal in comparison to ours, but he kept law and order in a country that doesn't have a silent majority of sheep like ours does."

"The invasion of Iraq was nothing more than a bully boy tactic -- one gang leader moving in on the lucrative turf of another gang leader," says Melody. "On the pretext of weapons of mass destruction -- and then the democratic rights of Iraqi people -- our government fooled our silent majority sheep that Iraq was a danger to us."

"The vested interests like Halliburton and Big Oil have made a killing out of the Iraq invasion," sighs Melody, "and the silent majority sheep still send their children to be slaughtered in a war which never was, and never will be, for our good."

"Our government, led by whatever party and whatever vested interest, has a bloody history of using the silent majority sheep to line the pockets of the rich and powerful," says Melody. "Even the American Revolution was started by the rich tea merchants of Boston. It was easy to whip up hatred for the king and the Westminster parliament among the rag-taggle refugees from mother England, but essentially they just changed one political master for another."

"In 1915, during WWI, a terrible influenza epidemic -- Spanish Flu -- swept around the world and millions dropped dead like flies and yet the war went on regardless," says Melody. "The real enemy -- the real focus of our government -- should have been this bug, but it wasn't. Why? Because governments have always been more concerned about the economic interests of a vested minorities than the health interests of the majority sheep."

"It's tragic that the only system of government -- communism -- that held out any hope for a people rather than a money focused economy was also usurped by the racketeers," sighs Melody. "In it's pure form, a communist community would be living in heaven, not the hell their greedy leaders dumped them in."

"What's happening right now in China, for instance, is scary," says Melody. "In their efforts to catch up with the West, the new economic masters are turning China into a polluted and disease-prone wasteland."

"With globalization, more of our food is coming from parts of the world that have no health regulations," says Melody, "and more of our immigrants are coming -- and going -- from these places, too."

"I'm concerned about our government cutting back on health measures in order to fund its vested interest wars and vested interest causes," says Melody. "I believe another pandemic is coming and our government -- paid by the silent majority to protect it -- is deliberately playing down this threat while stocking up the bunkers that are going to save them, not us."

"I look at all the anti-terror laws the government is passing and wonder whether their real purpose is to erode our freedoms and make us incapable of acting to save ourselves when the crunch comes," says Melody. "Are the security cameras, phone taps, strip searches, background checks and incredible delays in getting anything done or going anywhere really to protect us from terrorists?"

"Terrorists, or freedom-fighters, have been with us since our freedoms were first threatened," says Melody. "No great cause -- be it Christianity, democracy, slavery or whatever -- was achieved without terrorism and bloodshed."

"I don't want to focus my argument entirely on Iraq," says Melody, "because the whole war over there is being used as a smokescreen to hide what's happening here."

"One by one our freedoms are being demolished and the silent sheep like majority are not only being fleeced but led over a precipice," warns Melody. "Right now, apart from the big vested interests, certain minority vested interests are also driving the government. Some things once unacceptable are now acceptable -- such as homosexuality -- and some things once acceptable are now unacceptable -- such as smoking."

"The silent majority go along with whatever the government does because that's the deal, that's the social contract," says Melody. "They hug the homosexuals they once despised, and despise the smokers they once hugged."

"With a change in government, who knows what minority vested interests will next drive the country?" asks Melody. "Will we be hugging Arabs and despising Jews? Kissing paedophiles and spitting at SUV owners or gun owners?"

"The point to be made is that we are being socially engineered -- even genetically modified like Monsanto's food," says Melody, "and if we must be subject to a government run protection racket then why should we remain silent about what we want to be protected from?"

"I believe we have more chance of being killed by a simple flu virus than by trans fat, SUV pollution, global warning, cigarette smoke, a terrorist's bomb or a crazed gun owner," says Melody, "and we should all demand that our taxpayer dollars go into measures designed to stop these bugs getting into our country."

an offshoring victim

Roxy was doing very well as a single working mother until she lost her job due to an Indian offshoring restructure and with it she lost her dignity and faith in her government's abiity to do the right thing by its citizens.

"While being home to give more attention to my three children is a blessing we all enjoy," says Roxy, "it does not detract from the fact that my little family is heading for a financial crisis if I can't find work soon."

"I have a very strong work ethic but globalization confuses me," says Roxy. "I believe that everyone has a right to a job, but unfortunately no such right appears to be enshrined in any constitution, anywhere. Why? And why is providing an Indian with a job more important than providing me with one?"

"I am worried not just for myself, but also for my children when they reach working age," says Roxy. "If the world's population is increasing and the number of jobs is decreasing due to globalization, then the job market will become more dog eat dog than it is already."

"Globalization means that some of us are competing for jobs that receive applicants from around the world," says Roxy. "To make matters worse, people are living longer and staying longer in jobs, and they are doing so not just for personal satisfaction but also because of the necessity to provide financially for a lengthy retirement."

"And, because so many people are unemployed, the job selection process has become a ruthless exercise that treats job seekers - particularly single mothers - worse than cattle."

Roxy takes great pains over every job application. Her application presentations are top class, yet she maintains that at the resume cull - the first stage of the selection process - most of the resumes just don’t get read because there are too many of them.

"I believe that getting in first - applying for jobs immediately they become vacant - probably gives me the edge," explains Roxy, "but when employers look at my age, education, experience and out-of-town location I've more or less accepted that my application will get trashed."

Unfortunately for Roxy, she’s not only a single mother - something she doesn’t divulge at the start - but she’s also a bit older than most job seekers and although she has working experience her lack of education and out-of-town location do leave much to be desired for employers.

"There are hundreds of younger, better educated and better located applicants out there applying for the same job I am," sighs Roxy. "I don’t stand a chance."

"No," laughs Roxy, "I'm not being defeatist. I'm adopting a very realistic attitude towards the job market and I'm trusting in luck. Tons of it!"

Unless she is applying for a position specifically requiring maturity, Roxy believes that her chances of getting an interview decrease with every year her age exceeds 35. And it is a similar story for those under 21, which bodes badly for her children who will be leaving school soon.

"If you are too young," says Roxy, "it is almost as bad as being too old. Forget about age discrimination laws. Employers are going to find something about people other than their age to reject them outright for the position."

Roxy is smart enough not to lie about her age. Even if she looks twenty years younger than her 45 chronological years, she risks being fired for fraud if she gets hired.

"And yes, it does happen," says Roxy. "Better to omit your age, than lie about it, but even omitting my age on my resume definitely goes against me, too. They might think I am a lot older than I am!"

Roxy’s main strength is her solid working experience. Her working experience isn’t always specific to the position applied for, but she sees no harm in bluffing her way into an interview by saying that her experience is indirectly related to the position.

"Basically, though, if I cannot provide concrete evidence that I have experience in 50% of the required duties of the job," says Roxy, "I don’t waste my time applying for the job. There's only so much rejection any human being should have to face."

"Because I live in a semi-rural area on the outskirts of town I know that this works against me," says Roxy. "In an employee’s job market, when employers are desperate for workers, nobody cares where you live, but in today's highly competitive job market, employers are going to favor applicants residing close to the location of the company."

"Even though I state on my application that I am willing to relocate," says Roxy, "I don't think it makes any difference when there are younger and better educated and located applicants than me."

"Actually, I hate the prospect of having to relocate because it would mean uprooting my children," explains Roxy, "and I don't think I should have to destabilize my children in this manner just to get a lousy job when I am quite happy to commute up to 100 miles a day if I had to."

"Most of the industries around here have either closed down, cut back production or offshored their back-office jobs," sighs Roxy. "It's happening all over the country, isn't it?"

"What is our government doing about it or don't they care?"

"Being a single mother is a big barrier to employment," says Roxy. "You just can't pack up and leave when a factory closes down. In the past my status hasn’t been much of a barrier but it definitely is right now because a lot of employers are cutting costs by opting for casual or part-time workers rather than full-time staff - and this favors married women who work for pocket change rather than survival."

"I always saved for a rainy day," laughs Roxy, "but I never thought it would rain for this long. My savings are just about depleted and when that happens I guess it's off to the welfare office."

"It's a stange economic system that's willing to throw me and my kids on the streets by giving my job to someone in India to get them off the streets."

the social costs of globalization

Greta lost a full-time permanent job to offshoring and like thousands of other people since globalization took off, she is now casually employed -- having been unable to find another full-time job with the pay, conditions and security she once enjoyed. Initially, she was forced to apply for social security payments and while grateful for the pittance she received she is still very angry.

"Not all countries," she says, "have a safety net for its citizens. Families are still expected to take care of their own in many places in the world. In this respect I consider myself very lucky. However, I have been a taxpayer all of my life and I object to being forced onto welfare when I am fit and able to work."

"Having and holding a job is often a health risk, but not having a job poses a far greater risk to our mental and physical health," says Greta. "Once the shock of job loss eased, the future looked very grim for those of us who no longer had a job. Some sunk into deep depression, some succumbed to illness due to stress lowering their immunity and some just decided to say ‘goodbye cruel world’."

Greta believes that the cost of taking care of increasing numbers of unemployed, underemployed and depressed people is going to overtax our already woeful health-care systems.

"The first thing most sensible unemployed people do," says Greta, "is cut back expenses. Yet, I found that it doesn't take long for a nest-egg to be depleted just by basic expenses such as rent and food."

"If more jobs go offshore and the economy crashes, can we afford to pay for the health-care and living expenses of another mass of laid-off workers on top of the welfare people we already help?" she asks. "Take it one step further, should we when there are corporate cowboys now living in the lap of luxury who caused these catastrophes?"

Greta is part of a grass-roots movement gaining momentum that believes the companies that cause mass layoffs by offshoring should be footing the bill, not taxpayers.

"Why should the people who run these companies be allowed to maximize their profits by firing staff, and expect taxpayers to take care of the fired workers through whose labor these companies and their shareholders became rich?" she asks.

"If more tax dollars are necessarily going to be diverted to health-care and social security rather than to education and government incentives to create jobs," says Greta, "then the social implication of these mass layoffs has the potential to affect everybody."

"When people lose jobs to India or China, morale isn't high among those who retain their jobs," explains Greta. "Some worked shorter hours and took home less pay. Others accepted a pay cut and worked longer hours. A lot more took mandatory unpaid holidays. But the global corporation chiefs and their government stooges were riding it high!"

"I don't know anybody who feels rich any more," says Greta, "and I don't know anyone who feels secure in their jobs any more."

"If governments are going to divert funds or increase taxes to help pay for the health-care and social security of masses of unemployed and depressed people in the new global economy -- while allowing the corporate cowboys to get fatter and richer -- then something is very, very wrong with the way this country is governed and it needs to be put right."

"Globalization may bring the world together as one big happy family, though I doubt it," says Greta, "because when the big players get too greedy the domino effect on the rest of the world -- and on ordinary people everywhere -- is disastrous."

"Mostly, we left behind slave labor, soup kitchens and workhouses for the poor when we entered the 20th century," says Greta. "If global corporate greed is going to cause the welfare systems around the world to crash again and again, then God help all of us."

"When people are hungry and desperate they break the law and get put in jail," says Greta. "The people who really need to be put in jail are the filthy rich and their stooges in the government who are causing all this misery ."

---

See also:

• global gnomes


• katholikos is Greek for global


• global corporation divide and rule


• start a global war, get rich


• globalization of the net


• disabled fear globalization


• global welfare heaven


• global financial disasters


• globalized money


• globalization promotes starvation


• globalized slavery


• global oil demand ends easy life


• a lower quality of life for all


• global horror stories


• global terrorism and scapegoats


• greedy grubby globalists


• global warmongering


• out of sight, out of mind


• a global chinese curse!


• globalized murder


• subprime winners and losers


• supporting the world is madness!


• the global war for oil


• going global on climate change


• the social costs of globalization


• an offshoring victim


• globalization and peanut wages


• globalization and cannon fodder


• the globalization buzz


• globalization creates refugees


• globalization threatens western civilization

globalization and peanut wages

Grace is 19 and says it's great to work for a global company but she fears that globalization -- the offshoring of jobs and importing of foreign workers -- is exacerbating rather than ameliorating interracial relations and jeopardizing the future of everyone in western nations.

"Every day I communicate with people from all over the world," says Grace, "and it's like we're all the same, but we're not!"

"Mostly, we all eat the same food, wear the same clothes and watch the same television programs by virtue of globalization," says Grace, "and yet when I see job auctions on the Net, and more and more workers in affluent countries being replaced by outsourced workers in less-affluent countries, I get to wonder. What's going on here? Is my job safe?"

On one hand, it seems reasonable to Grace that those who are willing and able to work for less money should be given preference by employers. And it should not matter where in the world you reside if the work is to be outsourced.

"Let's face it," says Grace, "when I go shopping for a particular item, I don’t head directly for the most expensive store in town. I shop around until I find exactly what I’m looking for at a price I can afford. If I get a bargain, I’m pleased. Most of us shop like this. Right?"

Using this argument, Grace felt that she had no right to chastise employers for applying the same bargaining principle to workers.

"But hang on," adds Grace, "there’s a huge difference between things and people."

Grace is mindful that the things we buy at bargain prices have undoubtedly been produced by people in Third World countries working at bargain rates of pay.

Grace is not so patriotic (but maybe she should be?) that she only buys goods produced by her fellow countrymen and women. To do so may ensure that her people retain their jobs and receive high wages, but it also means that she pays higher prices.

"We’re all familiar with the phenomenon of child slaves in Third World countries being paid peanuts by global companies for producing luxury goods sold to people in affluent countries," says Grace, "and it really pains me that the spiffy runners I’m wearing may have been produced by such a child and that he or she received a miniscule amount of the total dollars I paid for the footwear."

"The reality of the situation," explains Grace, "is that a handful of peanuts to us is like a handful of gold to people in Third World countries. Without the work that the global companies outsource, these people would starve. And this upsets me."

Bearing in mind that these countries are poor largely because their populations are not controlled - resulting in an astronomical ratio between available jobs and workers - the logical extension of globalization, according to Grace, is to outsource all work to Third World, or less affluent, countries.

"Already, call centers, IT work and manufacturing are going offshore," she says, "and there is very little that unions can do about it."

"So, where does that leave us?" asks Grace. "What sort of future do we have?"

Grace wants to know how we can compete for outsourced work with people in Kahazzipalitti or some other country that we have never even heard of. For a job that they may bid $100 to do - against our bid of $5,000 - they might be able to retire in luxury for the rest of their lives. For $100, Grace couldn’t even buy her lunch for a week, and yes, she knows that’s a hefty price to pay for lunch but living at home allows her to be a bit extravagant.

Grace asks: "When you consider the hundreds of thousands of dollars that my parents forked out to raise me and my brothers and sisters and send us to good schools hoping to ensure us a good future, it doesn’t seem fair that our jobs are disappearing and our futures aren’t looking good."

Grace is absolutely delighted that people in Kahazzipalitti can retire on $100. Good for them! But if their good fortune is going to mean her destitution - or maybe her children’s when she gets around to finding a guy and having some - then she feels that something is very, very wrong.

"And when workers from third world countries are actually hired on cheap contracts and brought out here by our employers to work alongside us in teams the situation is even more scary," says Grace. "How can we be expected to accept these people into our team when they are taking away our jobs?"

"Already, some of my friends are beginning to hate these foreign workers," says Grace. "Not because of the color of their skin or the language they speak, but simply because they are taking our jobs."

"Of course," says Grace, "it would be ideal if everyone in the world had the same benefits and opportunities that we do. Globalization definitely has the potential to bring that about. What’s more likely, though, is that globalization will continue on its merry way without checks and balances and ultimately we’ll all be reduced to the lowest common denominator - we’ll all be working for peanuts!"

"OK," says Grace, "so where in the world is Kahazzipalitti? Right now it’s looking like a pretty good place for me to retire at 25 in luxury! But then, of course, the good people of Kahazzipalitti would start hating us for taking over their country!"

"I don't think I'll be marrying and having kids like my parents did because the world is not the same place it was in their time," says Grace, "and it looks like I'm going to be living at home forever like the Kahazzipalitti kids do!"

globalization and cannon fodder

Angela is 52, married with four young adult sons at home and the whole family, including her husband, is struggling to make ends meet doing casual, menial work as a result of globalization.

"Last year, I was the only one in the family who had a job," sighs Angela, "and it broke my heart to see my husband and boys unemployed on welfare having lost their jobs to someone in India or China."

"Men need a decent man's job," sighs Angela. "Serving customers, answering phones, washing dishes or pushing a broom aren't decent jobs for able-bodied men, and it breaks my heart to see my men-folk doing this type of work. It's no wonder that so many young people are being forced into the army -- but I refuse to let my boys go down that route. Defending global oil supplies is certainly not defending one's country."

"Service jobs are the only type of jobs you can around here these days," says Angela. "Most of the manufacturing and technical jobs have gone offshore, and we're competing for jobs with immigrants who are willing to work for less money, too."

"If you're an immigrant, just starting off in a new country, you do this type of work because you can't speak the language or you don't know any better," says Angela, "but our families have been here for generations -- we're not immigrants!"

"What's worse is that these jobs aren't even real jobs - they're casual jobs," explains Angela. "I've been working 'on-call' for two years now and it's the most stressful working situation for anyone to suffer. You don't know if you'll have enough money to put food on the table from day to day. You just survive in the job because you have to."

"Who would have thought that people like us would end up like this in the new millennium?" asks Angela. "It's disgraceful and our government is just as much to blame as the global corporations for this globalization madness -- bringing in more immigrants than our country can support and offshoring our jobs."

"If I had known twenty-five years ago that not enough jobs would be available for everyone in the new millennium," says Angela, "I would have thought twice about getting married and I most certainly wouldn't have had children."

She quickly explains that she loves her husband and boys dearly, but seeing them unemployed or working in casual, menial jobs is too depressing for words.

"I was the youngest in a family of five children," explains Angela, "and I grew up with a hatred of poverty and hand-me-downs. I couldn't understand why my parents kept on having kids when they were so poor and I vowed that I would never have kids if I couldn't afford them."

"Don't accuse me of contributing towards overpopulation and corporate exploitation by having four kids," says Angela. "Twenty-five years ago this country didn't have enough people to fill the jobs available and the government gave us generous tax incentives to have more kids. How was I to know that the government would double-cross us - and serve the greedy corporations - by opening the floodgates to foreign immigrants?"

"I'm not against immigration or capitalism - I'm not a racist or a communist," says Angela, "but I thought the days of the robber barons ended after the great depression of 1929-1933. I'm angry that our government has allowed the corporate cowboys to bring my family, and thousands like us - including the immigrant families - down to dirt poor status."

Like most people, Angela believed that jobs would always be available for people willing to work and she would never have to worry about where the next penny would come from.

"Since we lost our regular jobs," says Angela, "I toss and turn every night worrying about how we are going to pay our bills, where we are going to find work and whether we'll be forced to sell our lovely house."

"Everyone complains about ageism in the workplace," says Angela, "but when a factory closes down - like ours did - both the young and the old lose their regular jobs."

"My husband keeps on telling me that as long as we have each other we are okay," sighs Angela, "but I'm a practical woman prone to worry about material things. I just hate being short of money to buy the things I want."

What most concerns Angela, though, is that her boys are growing up without job security and are likely to become cannon fodder, too.

"There aren't any real jobs any more," sighs Angela. "There's just a vast army of casual workers who are employed and dismissed by big and small employers alike according to profit demands.

"Back in the dark ages," explains Angela, "the kids of the poor people were just cannon fodder. There was always a war on somewhere, life was cheap and replacements were plenty. So, what happens when the corporate cowboys cut and run, leaving thousands of us jobless? Our government solves the problem by starting a war, rallying the religious right, and turns corporate fodder into cannon fodder. We're regressing, not progressing!"

"I don't want my kids to have that type of future," says Angela. "I didn't bring them into the world and make sacrifices to educate them just to see them begging for jobs and being grateful for a few weeks worth of work at some department store. And I certainly don't want to see them losing their lives in some war designed to fatten those greedy global parasites."

Angela sees the increase in social evils such as drug addiction, petty crime, youth suicide and murder sprees as being reflective of a sick society that churns out children for government and corporations to chew up and spit out.

"What else do these children have to look forward to?" asks Angela. "If you're not ivy league and belonging to an old money family, you're white trash these days."

Angela is telling her children, and anyone willing to listen, that the writing is on the wall and things are going to get worse.

"Western civilization as we knew it is in its death throes," sighs Angela, "and if you can't afford to buy your kids a secure job then you've no business having kids. It's a terrible situation for those of us who already have kids, and I want to warn young people to think twice before bringing another superfluous human being into the world to be used and abused by the corporate parasites."

"What decent parent would deliberately bring kids into the world knowing that they're going to become white trash and corporate cannon fodder?"

"I feel guilty when I listen to my kids' worries about the state of the economy and the terrible war being fought over oil and corporate greed for new markets and cheap labor," sighs Angela. "I brought them into the world and I'm responsible for their misery."

"This is not the type of world I want for my children," says Angela, "and we're toying with the idea of moving to the country and learning self-sufficiency. It's not the type of life I want for myself or my boys, but I'd rather they till the earth than operate the till at a dime store or bear arms against poor, blighted souls like us in some other land."

"In the meantime, we're taking a grassroots approach - we're hitting back at where it hurts them," adds Angela. "We're doing our bit for the type of world we want by refusing to buy the goods of the corporate fodder companies."

"If enough little people like us take a stand then it must make a difference," says Angela. "But the issue I really worry about is who is running the country - is it the government we elected to serve us, or is it the global corporations?"

"If our government isn't serving us -- and I truly believe it isn't," says Angela. "then the whole notion of democracy is a farce and we may just as well hand the reins over to the global corporations and make them, not stooge politicians and bureaucrats, responsible for the chaos and misery they've created."