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Ugly faces of Economic Development in India

Ugly faces of economic development in India_part 2

Ugly faces of economic development in India_part 2

Summary 

The documentary named “Ugly faces of economic development in India” is about the negative impacts of a large scale mining industry on the livelihood of the local villagers. It shows that economic growth in India is not inclusive. The documentary shows the situation and social issues related to the mining sector in eastern part of India. Similar situations and conditions are present in different parts of India as mining company is operating and extracting coal in different parts of the country in order to fuel the country’s economic growth. The documentary also shows the unequal distribution of the benefit from the coal mining; for example, the CEO's and top executives of these major mining companies are being paid more than $40,000 per month while the local families who are displaced from their farm land back in mining region are hardly able to earn $1 per day. These people were originally farmers doing agriculture in their community. However, after the large scale coal mining project took place, these people’s lands were taken away from them, their environment was destroyed and, worse of all, they had to adjust their lives to coal extracting, which actually took away their livelihoods, themselves in order to survive in the environment. The compensation for displacement was so less that it was not even enough to rent a room for 3 days in a very low standard.

Commentary

The documentary video was a great piece of work. It gives us good insights to better standard the conditions and the enormous costs the coal mining industries, or in other word the economic development projects, have inflected on the poor local people in the mining zones in different parts of India. I am always aware that any large scale development projects have both negative impacts and drawbacks in any countries including India. However, it comes as a shock to me to see how bad the negative consequences could be for the local families in some parts of India. So, the documentary video conveys its message well to its audience or viewers.

The documentary explores quite into daily activities of the poor villagers and their conditions. It also looks at different actors relating the coal mining and interviews different people who are affected by the mining as well as the people who work for the mining companies. So, the documentary looks professional and gives us different perspectives from different people about the same issues.

The video also demonstrates the huge gap of unequal distribution of wealth between the top people who operate the mining industries and the local villagers. This aspect of reality can contribute to our understanding of uneven development and power relation between the rich – the business operators and the poor – the powerless and the exploited. Some of the families were living with less than $1 a day, which is below the standard of what is so-called “extreme poverty” or “ultra poverty” as defined by the World Bank and IMF. The documentary clearly shows that the main stream so-called “development” or “economic growth” is not for everyone. In fact, it often takes away people’s livelihoods, their dreams and their future and could marginalize a large group of people in the process.

To solve this kind of problem, the India government has better laws and regulations to protect its own citizens or minimize the impacts large scale mining activities on its own people. The country should also try to minimize the huge gap of unequal distribution of wealth and exploitation of natural resources by demanding mining companies to do impact assignment and to play enough compensation to the people who lose their home, land, and livelihood to make a living elsewhere where they could have the same standard of living, at least. Moreover, the company should take responsibility of the pollution they produce from mining area by providing some kind of health care system for the displaced of the region and people who are affected due to pollution because those villagers were badly affected in term of health as they are living above and within the burning zones of coal. 

Min Zaw Min Tun (540415503)

GEO 154443: Space, Society and Development

Globalization

Summary

This documentary video named “Globalization” is realized by Jorn Barkemeyer and Jan Kunzl for educational purpose. It closely gives a look on the globalization processes and its potential consequences to the different sectors- particularly politics, economy, ecology and society- in the different global spaces such as different nations. It talks about three areas of globalization: the economic globalization, political globalization, and cultural globalization. Whether globalization is a new opportunity or threat to the people - is brought into a question by this documentary. 

Commentary

This video presents about the term of Globalization and the ramifications. In brief, of course, as everybody may know, globalization has its good and bad sides.

First of all, it talks about the opportunity gained from globalization such as better convenience in technology and transportation. For instance, when we compared to the past, the phone call from New York to London has decreased by 90% since 1930. The freight charges for a ton of coffee delivered from Asia to Europe only accounts for 1% of its price. These are the results of technology advancement created by one nation and spread to the other nations to apply it. Of course, it is undeniable that some processes of globalization do create positive advantages to the global residents.

In the aspect of political globalization, individual nation’s politics is being compromised and interconnected to the world as many of today’s world problems are shared by many countries. So, these countries need to come together to solve such global problems as terrorism and financial crisis. However, it is still debatable whether individual nation losing its sovereignty and working with other nations is a positive or negative consequence of globalization.

Meanwhile, there are also negative impacts of globalization. I believe that globalization can sometimes destroy the cultural diversity of some locals. In this documentary, it also talks about the cultural globalization, in the process of which the local and regional culture in many spaces are diminishing and influenced by the global culture or dominating western culture such as British music, some products, and American Hollywood movie, etc. This is one of the drawbacks of globalization.

Importantly, globalization creates uneven benefits to many nations. Economic sphere is the most affected area. I believe international trades and markets are more open and productive for many countries in this globalization era. On one hand, according to this documentary, the newly industrialized countries such as Taiwan, South Korea, India, and China profit from the process of globalization by having access to cheap labors and selling their products in the open global markets.  On the other hand, some countries, such as sub sahara African countries, do not profit from globalized market since new cheap products produced by newly industrialized countries replace their local market.  This is just giving the example of unevenness in economic sector for some countries because of the global market. In fact, there is more than one sector which faces with disadvantages in the globalization process.

In today’s world, economic, ecologic, social or political issues and problems are not longer limited to a national level because the world has become strongly interdependent. The term ‘Globalization’ does not mean for one spatial place. As its meaning covers for the whole world, it sometimes marginalizes some groups at either local, national or regional levels. So, it is not surprising that some local places lose in global world and some countries benefit from globalization process.  This documentary recalls my thoughts to consider that some nations profit in the process of globalization while others don’t.  It also gives me some insights to realize who get favors and who get threats in the phenomena of globalization when I see such situations.

Submitted by : Myint Myat Thu
Submitted to  : Dr. Mukdawan Sakboon
Course          : Geo 154443 ( Space, Society and Development )
Student          : 540415504

The New Rulers of the World, a documentary by John Pilger

Link to the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfrL2DUtmXY 

Summary

The New Rulers of the World is a documentary film about investigating the realities of globalization by taking a close look at Indonesia. It was written and presented by John Pilger and it was directed by Alan Lowery. It released on 18 July 2001 and won Special Award, Gran Prix Leonardo and Silver Hugo, Chicago International Television Competition in 2003.

John Pilger started the film by raising questions of social movement against the new economic order called ‘globalization’ and the economic inequality between the rich and poor, and highlighting how powerful of giant corporations which dominate the world’s economic activity. To portray the realities of the globalization, he investigated Indonesia where the high-street brands such as Nike, Adidas, Gap and Reebok were massively produced by cheap labor in sweatshops and sold for up to 250 times that amount received by workers. He filmed secretly in one of the biggest sweatshops revealing bad working conditions. He also tracked back the previously untold story of how globalization in Asia bad begun in Indonesia and how Western politicians and businessmen sponsored the dictator General Suharto into power in 1967. Indonesia’s economy was redesigned in America and it gave the West access to vast mineral wealth, markets and cheap labor. Pilger said, “The greatest sweatshops and banks and luxury hotels in Indonesia were built on the mass murder of as many as one million people, and episode the West would prefer to forget”. The film suggested the great multinational Corporations and the financial institutions were the new rulers of the world in the globalization and they were backed by the governments of rich countries and institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization. The film also included the popular movements against the globalization.

Commentary

In the film, John Pilger raised the question of whether the global village was our future or the new form of an empire which was run by the divine right of multinational corporations, the financial institutions, and the governments of rich countries. This question reminders me of “imperial globality”, the term that Arturo Escobar used to argue that the process of globalization is the process of American imperialism. In the film, Pramoedaya Ananta Toer, author and former political prisoner, said “for hundreds of years Indonesia was sucked dry by the rich countries of the West. It was not just Indonesia, but all the countries of the colored peoples. In this way, the West became strong and prosperous controlling finance and commerce. Now, we are dictated to by the IMF and The World Bank.” Literally, the countries controlling the IMF and The World Bank are dictating Indonesia. The United States of America has the most voting power in both IMF and the World Bank. It seems that the US is trying to control developing countries through the international financial institutions.

The Asia global economy was imposed by the West. The US helped General Suharto in seizure of power in the 1960s was part of a western design to impose a ‘global economy’ on Asia. A million Indonesians died as the price for being the World Bank’s ‘model pupil’. These killing incidents were reported as not crime against humanity, but in term of their economic advantages to the West. The seed of globalization in Asia was planted in a conference called Indonesian Investment Conference in Switzerland in 1967. Many American giant companies attended and planned the corporate takeover of Indonesia. They invested mainly in mineral mining and oil. This showed the true nature of the West interfering in one country’s affairs for its economic interests. The 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq also illustrated similar intention. Loss of lives in other countries do not matter at all.

Globalization is used by its supporters to suggest a coming together of people of all races, all countries. It will relieve poverty. It will distribute wealth. The IMF suggests that the people of developing countries are the one who needs the globalization the most to get opportunities that come with being part of the world economy. In the film, however, Pilger presented the stories of the other sides of the globalization very well. He filmed and interviewed sweatshop workers revealing how workers were ill-treated and the code of conduct set by companies were not fully enforced. He also interviewed the poor who affected by the Indonesia government’s policies in reducing the government spending on subsidize for food and health in order to save up money for repaying its debt to the IMF and the World Bank. “Everyday more than one hundred million dollars is transferred into debt repayments from the poorest countries on earth to the richest. It is the debt that can never be paid back”, Pilger said. IMF claimed that the value of trade (goods and services) of world GDP increased from 42.01 percent in 1980 to 62.1 percent in 2007 and the stock of international claims (primarily bank loans) of world GDP increased from 10 percent in 1980 to 48 percent in 2006. Do these indicators mean lesser poor in the world? Who have got the most share of the World’s GDP? Pilger highlighted that about 200 multinational corporations dominated a quarter of world’s economic activities. I doubt that the globalized economy will relieve and distribute equal wealth. Ironically, it produces massive displacement and ecological destruction which cause a deeper misery to the poor who are already vulnerable. In fact, in the globalized economy the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Chan Oung

540415502 

Space, Migration and Gender

Summary: Tan Le: My immigration story

This talk show film is about the immigrant story of a woman, named Tan Le, who tells us a very personal story which is the story of her family, including her mother, grandmother and sister. She recalls all about her story of immigration when she and her family fleeing Vietnam and building a new life in Australia. She compares her various stories as jigsaw that create the bonds of women over three generations. The story is that during the way of the escape their homeland to Australia, the women had faced with several hardships and dangers on their boat. The greatest fear was pirates, rape and death. 

Ethnicity and Identity_interviews on Foreign-born Chinese Students

**The video file is uploaded into four parts by the original uploader.**

A brief summary on the video

Today, globalization has made the world to be border-less within each country. Globalization impacts upon people in complex ways and forces them to constantly re-think and revise their sense of identity and place within society. In this interview-video, it presents how the Foreign-born Chinese students, whose parents are Chinese, identify themselves. They were studying in Beijing while they were interviewed for the video. All of them are ethnically Chinese who are born and raised in other countries. These 7 participants are from the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, and Russia.

Commentary Part

Most of them see themselves as dual-ethnic persons. Some say they don’t want to be identified under a category. And, the others regard themselves closer to the country they were born in, but, this does not mean that they are entirely considered or feel themselves as French, a Swedish or a Dutch, for example. Doreen Massey highlights the fact the identities are multiple, constructed in relation to multiple locations at a time when people move from place to place, and live in different social, economic, and cultural contexts(from Space and Identity PDF). It is possible for someone to experience having a strong sense on both identities at the same time. For example, Melissa claimed that she is becoming more Chinese when she can interact with Chinese people being around Chinese culture and language while studying in China. As well as she felt more Australian because the differences between her and the Chinese-Chinese in terms of value as she grew up in western society makes it more noticeable of her being an Australian.

Also, because a language develops according to the particular needs of the people who live in a certain location at a certain period of time, who share a way of life and culture, it is clear that language is strongly intertwined with culture and identity. On the other hand, knowing the language of one's ancestors provides a sense of grounding and belonging. As in the video, I think that there is a strong connection of the participants between the speaking Chinese language and describing their identity and culture. The sense of belonging to one's identity is somehow related to the language itself. The fact that they all speak Chinese learning through their parents creates a stronger sense to being Chinese. As Yvonne from France said, she felt more Chinese compared to her younger sister fro the reason she can speak Chinese more fluently. I can see, unlike the others, Melissa weighted more on the being Australian as she is still trying to improve her Chinese language skill. Thus, a certain richness of communication and connection is lost when a person is unable to speak the language of his or her ancestors. 

According to the interviews in this video, I think that the process of identifying ourselves involves determining of others are like us or not like us, or being the same or different. We identify ourselves and our identified by others according the ground work for similarity and difference within people. The way we understand ourselves and the way in which we are understood by others is our identity while this is  brought through the discourses we come in contact with throughout our lives. So as, these foreign-born Chinese students are marginalized by Chinese from China for a slight difference of culture and the weakness of the language, and at the same time they are somewhat  alienated by their born-in-societies for the outer appearance, especially, in European countries, people are more likely to see them as Asian-Americans than Asian-Europeans. For instance, Andrew said people didn't believe when he said he was a Swedish. Same to Yvonne who claims that people don't see her as 100% French although she was born in France because she is not white like the typical French what people imagine of being French with blue eyes and white skin. No matter how long they have been living there; their appearance of Asian-ness and skin color apparently differentiate them from those that of countries.
Basically, what I understand in this video is that the self is made up of many unfixed identities and it can change continuously through encounters with similarities and differences within other people, discourses, and places. And that our identity is relational and constructed. It is constructed from the circulated concepts from the culture into which you were born.

Wutyee Aung

(540415510)  

Links:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUbEznINbPY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2nXSvzwZGk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSKFPJ1iQX4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCu4UWeIMcg

P.S> Sorry for inconvenience! Although didn't want you to keep clicking one after one, the uploader didn't combine it into one. PEACE!