Globalization

Globalization

My first time to hear this word was in television interview in the Egyptian national TV held by Mofeed Fawzy in 1998 hosting famous actor Mohamed Henedy he was asking "do you know the definition of Globalization in the absence of content".

I thought it's a joke I never thought it's the future of the world but now we are living and practicing and maybe breathing globalization in our day life.

Definition of globalization:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines globalization as "the growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services, freer international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology".

The International Forum on Globalization defines it as "the present worldwide drive toward a globalized economic system dominated by supranational corporate trade and banking institutions that are not accountable to democratic processes or national governments."

and the normal person could define the globalization as "seeing goods from all over the world and using services from all the glob , the world is being connected "

Globalization is the spreading of an idea, product, or technology around the world, social, economic, industrial.

When it begins:

The three eras of globalization:

The first lasted from 1492-when Columbus set sail, opening trade between the Old World and the New World-until around 1800.I would call this era Globalization 1.0.It shrank the world from a size large to a size medium. Globalization 1.0 was about countries and muscles. That is, in Globalization 1.0 the key agent of change, the dynamic force driving the process of global integration was how much brawn-how much muscle, how much horsepower, wind power, or, later, steam power-your country had and how creatively you could deploy it. In this era, countries and governments (often inspired by religion or imperialism or a combination of both) led the way in breaking down walls and knitting the world together, driving global integration. In Globalization 1.0, the primary questions were: Where does my country fit into global competition and opportunities? How can I go global and collaborate with others through my country?

The second great era, Globalization 2.0 Lasted roughly from 1800 to 2000, interrupted by the Great Depression and World Wars I and II. This era shrank the world from a size medium to a size small. In Globalization 2.0, the key agent of change, the dynamic force driving global integration, was multinational companies. These multinationals went global for markets and labor, spearheaded first by the expansion of the Dutch and English joint-stock companies and the Industrial Revolution. In the first half of this era, global integration was powered by falling transportation costs, thanks to the steam engine and the railroad, and in the second half by falling telecommunication costs-thanks to the diffusion of the telegraph, telephones, the PC, satellites, fiber-optic cable, and the early version of the World Wide Web. It was during this era that we really saw the birth and maturation of a global economy, in the sense that there was enough movement of goods and information from continent to continent for there to be a global market, with global arbitrage in products and labor. The dynamic forces behind this era of globalization were breakthroughs in hardware-from steamships and railroads in the beginning to telephones and mainframe computers toward the end. And the big questions in this era were: Where does my company fit into the global economy? How does it take advantage of the opportunities? How can I go global and collaborate with others through my company?

Globalization 3.0 makes it possible for so many more people to plug and play, and you are going to see every color of the human rainbow take part. In this era we witnessed several agreements of free trade like:

* The European Union EU links 27 countries that agree to support mutual economic growth by removing barriers that previously limited cross border trade and business development .it common currency the Euro has had major world wide impact.

* NAFTA is the North American free trade agreement linking Canada, the United States and Mexico in an economic alliance this legally frees the flow of goods and services, workers and investments within the region.

* The MERCOSUR links Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina.

* The Andean Pact links Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

* CARICOM the Caribbean community is growing as an economic linkage.

* The Pacific Economic Forum is growing in stature and influence member countries talking about possibility of a regional currency along the line of euro.

* SADC The Southern Africa Development Community links 14 countries of southern Africa in trade and economic development efforts

Impact of Globalization on Developing Countries:

Globalization offers huge potential profits to companies and nations but has been complicated by widely differing expectations, standards of living, cultures and values, and legal systems as well as unexpected global cause-and-effect linkages.

The advantages and disadvantages of globalization have been heavily scrutinized and debated in recent years. Proponents of globalization say that it helps developing nations "catch up" to industrialized nations much faster through increased employment and technological advances. Critics of globalization say that it weakens national sovereignty and allows rich nations to ship domestic jobs overseas where labor is much cheaper.

Without a doubt, globalization has had a number of positive effects on nations and businesses around the world. Yet the concept--once regarded as almost universally positive--has undergone a bit of a reassessment in recent years. In fact, widespread protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) and consumer boycotts arising from the practices of multinational corporations in developing countries have raised public awareness of the hazards of globalization. "The plain truth is that market liberalization by itself does not lift all boats, and in some cases, it has caused severe damage to poor nations," the Business Week article admitted. "What's more, there's no point denying that multinationals have contributed to labor, environmental,