Globalization, not Americanization

Many people believe that globalization, the breaking down of barriers between countries economically, politically and through global communication outlets such as the internet, is all about America imposing its will on less developed countries. It is understandable that certain people have this distorted view of the globalization, and of course America must protect is own interests while helping developing nations. Historically America was more concerned with expanding its own powers through concepts such as manifest destiny, and exploiting countries for its own economic gains. However, this new wave of globalization is more transparent and aimed at helping develop under-developed countries through international organizations such as the WTO, IMF, and WB. Sometimes the goals of these global economic entities fail, and since America has so much power in these organizations people see it as America's greed destroying a countries ability to grow. This is an unfair assessment, failure of development loans is usually at least partially because of bad economic policies in the developing country . Anthony Giddens said it best when he explained this new wave of transparent globalization as "shited[ed] from the modernization or exploitation of developing societies to a view of globalization as a universal phenomenon that is transforming the entire world." (Curran, pg 7).

Another problem arises from globalization, and this problem is the technology gap between rich and poor nations. In America, for example, we have high speed wireless internet, digital high defintion cable, 3d TVs, ipods and laptops. In poorer countries they have none of these things. However, this is not the fault of developed countries, although admittedly the IMF has historically attached economic policy mandates along with its development loans which have been detrimental to development, this trend has been shown to be ineffective and is being phased for a more hands off approach with development aid. Governments in developing countries must invest in human capital development and infrastructure if they want to close the technology gap and end "information poverty" (Norris, 1). The internet can be used as a tool for global communication and global trade; the later would benefit developing countries by allowing them to sell their products globally at much lower prices than developed nations. If developing countries invested in the internet, they would also have a global media outlet to get their stories out and make them global news. Every year, America and other developed nations give billions of dollars to bridge the gap between "rich" and "poor" countries. Ultimately the responsibility falls on the governments of developing nations to use this money in responsible and efficient ways to develop their countries. If they think the internet is such a powerful tool and they are so far behind, they should invest money into developing internet services for their citizens. Historically, globalization has been about protecting America's interests, however today this is an outdated argument and an excuse for the failed economic policies of developing nations.