GEC 8: Contemporary World Riddles

• GEC 8 is an introduction to the contemporary world.

Riddle Time

• The answer to "I soar through the skies without flapping a wing...what am I?" is airplane.
• The answer to "I hold the world in my palm...what am I?" is smartphone.
• The answer to "I sit in your room, both quiet and still...what am I?" is television.
• The answer to "I came in silence, a shadow unseen...what am I?" is The Black Death/Bubonic Plague.
• The answer to "I set sail with a crew, the horizon my guide...what am I?" is Magellan's Voyage.
• The answer to "I'm a web without a spider, a sea without a shore...what am I?" is the Internet.
• The answer to "I'm a mix of three, yet I'm not a stew...what am I?" is Gunpowder.
• The answer to "I was a time of turmoil, a clash of a nations...what am I?" is The World Wars.
• The answer to "I think, yet I'm not alive...what am I?" is Artificial Intelligence.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe the nature of globalization.
• Differentiate competing conceptions of globalization.

The Nature of Globalization

• Liberalization stands for entrepreneurs' freedom to establish any industry, trade, or business venture within their own countries of abroad.
• Free Trade refers to goods and services can be bought and sold across international borders with little or no government tariffs, quotas, subsidies, or prohibitions to inhibit exchange.
• Globalization of Economic Activity is when Economic activities are governed both by the domestic market and the world market.
• Globalization of Economic Activity also integrates the domestic economy with world economies.
• Privatization is keeping the state away from ownership of means of reproduction and distribution.
• Economic Reforms encourage fiscal and financial adjustments to give strength to free global trade, free enterprise, and market forces.
• Increased Collaborations encourage collaborations among entrepreneurs to secure rapid modernization, development, and technological advancement.

Views on Globalization

• Anti-globalization activists view globalization as the promotion of a corporatist agenda.
• Anti-globalists believe globalization intends constructing the freedoms of individuals in the name of profit.
• Claimed that the increasing autonomy and strength of corporate entities are increasingly shaping the political policy of nation-states.
• Globalization imposes credit-based economics, resulting in unsuitable growth of debt and debt crises.
• Pro-globalization points out that economic theories, such as comparative advantage, says free trade leads to a efficient allocation of resources.
• Pro-globalization theorists claim that globalization leads to lower prices and more employment.

Examples of Globalization

• Globalization is the spread of culture, customs, or ideas of a place or a people to the rest of the world.
• American fast food chains like McDonalds and Hollywood/Bollywood/Kdramas are examples of cultural globalization.
• The English language and Concept of Community Policing are examples of cultural globalization.
• Industrial Globalization is when every country specializes their services to the entire world.
• Singapore specializes in pharmaceutical and the U.S. specializes in military equipment.
• Many companies may design a product in one country, manufacture it in another, and sell it worldwide.
• Financial Globalization is the integration of financial markets and systems around the world
• Examples of Financial Globalization includes when money, investments, and financial services can flow easily across borders.
• A person in one country can invest in stocks or bonds from another country thanks to Financial Globalization.
• Businesses can borrow money from international banks. Ecological Globalization: is the worldwide impact of environmental issues with interconnected ecosystems across borders.
• Actions in one part of the world can have consequences elsewhere, requiring global cooperation.
• Environmental problems such as as climate change, pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity loss, affects the entire planet.
• Geographic Globalization is the shrinking of the world in terms of physical distance and the connectivity between places.
• Advancements in transportation, communication, and technology have made it easier for people, goods, and ideas to move across the globe quickly and efficiently.
• Geographic Globalization means the world feels "smaller" because distances are no longer as big a barrier as they once were.

Quiz

• People who are pro globalization claims that globalization leads to lower prices, and more employment (True).
• One nature of globalization is privatization which is keeping the state away from ownership of means of reproduction and distribution (True).
• Globalization of Economic Activity is the process of integrating the domestic economy with world economies (True).
• Free Trade means that goods and services can be bought and sold across international borders with little or no government tariffs (True).
• Increased Collaborations aims to secure rapid modernization, development and technological advancement
• The globalization of Bollywood/Kdramas is a globalization of different media that leads to cultural globalization.
• Japan made cars, and Thailand made tires are examples of industrial globalization.
• Stock Exchange shows how money, investments, and financial services can flow easily across borders during financial globalization.
• Connecting the whole world together shows geographic globalization.