FINAL CHALLENGES: GLOBALIZATION AND ETHICS

This part addresses the following questions:

What are the challenges to ethical behaviour in today’s world?
Is it still meaningful to search for universal values?
How do we respond to an increasingly pluralist and individualist globalized world?
The basic ethical concepts involved here are the following:
Globalization and Ethics
Filinials and Ethics
Religion and Ethics
Taxes and Ethics

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Develop sensitivity to the common good
Internalize ethical principles in the modern society at the level of the person, society,
and in interaction with the environment and other shared resources
Realize applicability of ethical principles in contemporary times

Simplified Points:
1. The last topic covers ethics in the context of globalization.
We know already what ethics is all about.
Globalization, on the other hand, is difficult to define; it may be described as a complex, fluid,
fast changing phenomenon that embraces all affairs of life (like social, political, science and
technology, religion, economics).
2. For our purposes, let us tackle only two key features of globalization, i.e.
Ø Globalization as New Colonization
--with focus on ethical issues on poverty and ecology
Ø Globalization as Greater Interaction of Plurality/Diversity
3. Globalization as New Colonization
To set the context, let us first tackle the old colonization:
--In the past, colonization was generally carried out through wars.
--the motive of colonization was to control and manipulate the resources of the colonized
country
--sinakop ng Espanya ang Pilipinas dahil sa kanyang mga kayamanan, e.g. gold,
spices and free labor
--Rock-bottom, a country colonizes a weaker country in order for the former to control and
take advantage of the richness of the latter (its natural and human resources, in particular)
--But war has always been costly (maraming mga buhay at mga ari arian ang nasasayang)
--Colonizers then realized the need to colonize without war
-- The new colonization is still about amassing of resources, only that now, they do not use war
--the new way of colonization is now called as globalization with its new ‘colonizing’ tool: the free
market…
--the free market appears to be for all, or fair, as everybody is invited to participate in global
business (take note: mukha lang siyang fair or just)
--but the catch or hidden agendum is the complexity and difficulty of competition in the global
free market—it is a game of ‘survival of the fittest, elimination of the unfit’… in reality, walang
equal opportunities kasi the game requires participants to have huge resources (wealth and
power).
--more likely, those who are wealthy and powerful enough win and get richer, while the weaker
ones end up as menial workers (“poor slaves”—i.e. nagpapakahirap magtrabaho more than 8
hours like most farmers and factory workers, but wages or incomes are not even sufficient to
meet the minimum of decent, humane living)….
--also, these “poor slaves” end up as the ‘milking cows’ of business tycoons as they constitute
the consuming majority (just imagine kung sino ang karamihang bumibili ng shampoo and
toothpaste sachets, 3in1 coffee, soft drinks and the like)
--so, “poor slaves” na nga, main buyers pa (imagine na isa kang factory worker sa pagawaan ng
sabon…kulang na kulang ang sahod mo kahit nagkakandakuba kang nagtratrabaho…at pag
kailangan mo ng sabon, ang bibilhin mo ay yung sabon na ginawa mo sa factory…at sa bawat
pagbili mo, may profit ang may-ari ng factory…yumayaman siya sa kita ng kanyang negosyo,
while ikaw na kanyang manggagawa at taga bili ng produkto niya ay mahirap at patuloy na mas
nagiging mahirap…
--then, pag nauhaw ka, bibili ka ng softdrinks na ginawa ng kapwa mo ‘poor slave’ sa
factory ng softdrinks, at may profit na naman ang may-ari ng softdrinks factory (bibili rin ang
manggagawa ng softdrinks sa sabon ng factory ninyo, at magbibigay din siya ng profit sa owner
ng soap factory)
--Bottomline, yumayaman ng yumayaman ang mga may-ari ng businesses (few elite) while
nanatiling ‘poor slaves’ ang karamihan.
--There is then a scandalous gap between the rich and the poor…one recent study (2014)
claims that nearly half of wealth in the world belongs to the elite 1 percent of the world’s
population, or 65 times greater than the accumulated wealth of half of the population’s poorest.
--Globalization as new colonization is also detrimental to ecology:
--because of cheap labor in poor countries like the Philippines, foreign mining companies
and other industries invest in the country, resulting in ecological problems…take note too that
dams were forbidden in rich countries as early as the 1970’s due to ecological concerns…but
rich countries want to continue the business of dam construction which is why they have been
selling the dam industry to poor countries (even bribing their governments to approve projects
on building dams)…
4. Globalization as Greater Interaction of Plurality/Diversity
--Globalization has also resulted in greater interaction of diverse peoples (take the internet and
social media, for instance) that involve ethical issues…
--One thing to note in here is the diversity of views, be it political, religious and other
matters…these groups engage in unhealthy, derogatory discourses at FB…
--the avenue of plural interaction like the social media is also infested with fake news
--in the social media alone, young generations (like millennials and gen Z) are already exposed
to the aforementioned ethical issues.