LESSON 5

ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION AND PLURALISM

 LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, the
learners will be able to:
1. Define Globalization and
Pluralism
2. Identify and Discuss the
Ethical Challenges of
Globalization and Pluralism
GLOBALIZATION
WHAT IS IT?
 WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?

• There so many definitions of Globalization.

• Describes how world became more connected and interdependent through trade and technology
• Captures economic and social changes due to interconnectedness

Reference: National Geographic

 • Think of it like a spider web: its threads formed
over the years and is continuously growing –
connecting people, goods, problems, and even
diseases in a much greater pace as years
progressed

Reference: National Geographic

 • Globalization is a process:
• Of interaction and integration among the
people, companies, and governments of
different nations
• Driven by international trade and investment, and
aided by information technology

• Such process affects/has effects on:

• Environment,
• Culture,
• Political Systems,
• Economic development, and
• Well-being.

Reference: http://www.globalization101.org
 • Globalization may also refer to as:
• An open flow of information, technology,
and goods among countries and
consumers which is made possible through
various relationships (business, geopolitics,
culture, media, and others).

Reference: http://www.velocityglobal.com
 Thanks to Globalization, the world is getting smaller and smaller.
Connecting and reaching out to someone at the other side of the globe
has become more convenient. Indeed, the shrinking of the world has, in
turn, brought people together for common – or competitive – goals.

Reference: http://www.globalization-partners.com
GLOBALIZATION
ETHICAL ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
 • Foreign Worker Exploitation
• Child Labor
• Immigration Challenges and Local Job Loss

ETHICAL ISSUES • Loss of Cultural Identity

• Transmitted Diseases
AND
• Pollution and Climate Change
CHALLENGES OF • Human Rights
GLOBALIZATION • Corruption
• Media Imperialism
• Military Spending and Arms Trade
 FOREIGN WORKER EXPLOITATION

• Lower costs create tough competition that leads

some companies to search for cheap labor sources.

• Some western companies ship their production

overseas to countries like China and Malaysia,
where lax regulations make it easier to exploit
workers.

• This violates justice, duty and human right because

the company offers lower pay and working conditions
to employees in the host country for the same kind
of work

Reference: http://www.velocityglobal.com
 CHILD LABOR

• In some emerging economies, child labor is common and

even essential for the subsistence of the child.

• Does this make hiring children morally acceptable?

Reference: http://www.intechopen.com
 IMMIGRATION CHALLENGES AND LOCAL JOB
LOSS

• Many countries around the globe are tightening their

immigration rules, and it is harder for immigrants to
find jobs in new countries.
• This rise in nationalism is mainly due to anger from
the perception that foreigners fill domestic jobs or at
companies moving their operations abroad to save
money on labor costs.
• This leads to discrimination, racism, and human
trafficking.

Reference: http://www.velocityglobal.com
 LOSS OF CULTURAL IDENTITY

• While globalization has made foreign countries easier to

access, it has also begun to meld unique societies
together.

• The success of certain cultures throughout the world

caused other countries to emulate them.

• But when cultures begin to lose their distinctive

features, we lose our global diversity.

• This often leads to clash of cultures and ethnicity wars

Reference: http://www.velocityglobal.com
 TRANSMITTED DISEASES

• The downside to globalization can be seen in the

increased risk for the transmission of diseases like ebola
or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and NCOV,
or in the kind of environmental harm (scientist Paul R.
Furumo)

Reference: National Geographic

POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE
• Forests burned for the palm oil plantation
causes not only deforestation but pollution as
well, increasing green houses gases that cause
climate change

• The increasing demand of production and

trade has produced more garbage that
polluted the land, sea, oceans, and air that led
to the death of species of both flora and fauna
that affected biodiversity and life in general.

• Dilemmas about the use of natural resources

in societies with poor environmental
regulations can lead to toxic wastes (factory
wastes).

Reference: National Geographic; http://www.intechopen.com

 HUMAN RIGHTS

• Corporations sometimes face dilemmas linked to operations

in countries with governments accused of violating human
rights.

• In the 1970s, Polaroid stopped selling equipment to the

government in apartheid South Africa when it learned that
cameras were used to make IDs for the surveillance of
dissidents.

• In 1993, Levi Strauss and Co. canceled contracts in China due

to the systematic violation of human rights perpetrated by the
government.

Reference: http://www.intechopen.com
 CORRUPTION

• Corruption is a concept that agglomerates practices

ranging from multi-million dollar payments to high
government officials to a few dollars bribe to a low-
level bureaucrat.

• It is estimated that over $1 trillion are paid in bribes

annually, which squanders public resources and
deprives millions of food, education, and other
government services to which they are entitled

Reference: http://www.intechopen.com
 MEDIA IMPERIALISM

• Aside form its good contribution, media is also feeding the

world materialistic and consumeristic values that influence
mentality of people to buy accumulate beyond their needs
and measure life based on possessions.

• Media is also feeding sex and violence in a faster and wider

scale that has a negative impact on the mentality of young
people towards the same sex and the opposites sex.

• Through the internet, fake news, deceptions, untruth,

hacking, cybercrimes and cyberwar have become rampant.

Reference: http://www.intechopen.com
 MILITARY SPENDING AND ARMS TRADE
• Without a doubt, military spending represents the single
most significant perversion of worldwide priorities known
today.
• One key component of this task will be controlling the
reckless distribution of weapons throughout the world. The
sale of arms is big business.
• Weapons contractors in these countries have continued to
produce billions of dollars worth of armaments, and in fact
have increased their weapons sales abroad.
• Their new clients are the impoverished countries of the
developing world, places where the majority of conflicts
now take place.
• Often these weapons fall into the wrong hands especially to
belligerent governments, terrorist organizations, and the
like

Reference: http://www.ploughshares.ca