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GLOBALISATION=COLONISATION?
Md. Parvez Sultan
We
are moving towards a world where the entire economic system,
cultural values, heritage and beliefs are changing rapidly
to keep pace with the West. Rabindranath Tagore had identified
globalisation in the early decade of 1900 and reflected
this in his novel “ The Home and The World.” Tagore believed
that nationalism in the West had produced an extreme hankering
after material wealth and political power. Furthermore,
he said that the East was dominated by the imperialist West.
Nevertheless, these philosophies led the west primarily
to push the concept of globalisation. The two most important
aspects of the west that caught Tagore's attention were
(i) the independence of woman and (ii) the Western education
system, which he found to be based on the principles of
free thought and action. Both these issues became major
themes in the above-mentioned novel. In this millennium,
his ideas have become even more relevant. Globalisation
takes place of traditional colonialism. Both these terms
are interchangeable.
Globalisation
from the perspective of marketing basically focuses on three
main points: the changes in the market structure as a whole;
changes in technology; and changes in behavior.
Globalisation
of markets is moving away from a socio-economic system in
which home markets had distinct entities, isolated by trade,
tariff, and non-tariff barriers, obstruction of time, distance,
culture and towards a system in which these home markets
enter a barrier free market called the global market. Pure
competition exists in the global market and only the competitive
will only survive. Competitiveness, in turn, can be achieved
in three main ways -- through product's quality and differentiation,
cost leadership and quick response (service). These tools
of achieving competitiveness are primarily in the hands
of the developed countries; therefore globalisation of markets
and production are only for them and aim at colonising the
LLDCs and LDCs. This Tagore understood decades ago although
we in the East, are not aware of it even at the present
time. Cultural Aggression, Independence of Women, Free Education,
Assistance and Grants in the development sectors and others
are the pre-stages of colonisation. As a strong cultural
personality, Ali Zaker in his article “On the Question of
Globalization” in SWM (15th August 2003) has rightly underscored
the cultural aggression being waged by the first world countries.
Cultural factors shape social norms, values, consumption
patterns and behavior in the course of time. It is the westerners
who push strategically their culture to the LLDCs and LDCs.
It is high time to push back the same from LLDCs and LDCs.
This might be a lofty plan but it is the first step to standing
on our feet. The formation and implementation of WTO's rules
and developments to change the market structure are another
tricky game of chess where the third world nations have
slim chances of getting any significant benefit.
A
boom of technological change is essential in globalisation.
Technologies regarding media, production, service, and others
are polarised among a group of nations. Many of these nations
were the ones that colonised us and robbed our resources
using them to further develop their own technologies, infrastructure
and socio-economic conditions. We had to pay for these and
we are still paying. These technologically advanced countries
can even pressurize a country like Bangladesh to export
Gas or they can even ignore international organisations
like the UN. A balanced development of technology among
nations can bring about healthy competition and thus lead
to globalisation in its real sense. At present, the so-called
globalisation and implementation of WTO's rules are the
other side of the coin of colonisation.
The
changes in the behavior of a nation are also vital to globalisation.
It is people's aspirations, desires, fashion, activities,
philosophies are the main forces that bring a change in
behavior. Such changes occurred just a few years ago in
Malaysia, China, India, Vietnam, Srilanka, and the Maldives
in the South and Southeast Asia. We, the people of Bangladesh,
have to be globalised in order to import Malaysian Rooti
and Parata packed in polythene! Meanwhile, we are banning
the use and manufacture of polythene and are ready to export
gas to developed countries ignoring the national interest.
We
must therefore develop “total marketing”. First of all we
need to develop our language skills (English) for creating
a market in our culture and making culture transcend geographical
boundaries while at the same time being sensitive to our
culture. We have to develop our infrastructure and technology
ensuring the maximum use of our home resources with minimum
waste. Our natural resources like gas might be a good trump
card for us not to be at all empty handed.
The
writer is a lecturer at the Department of Business Administration,
Southeast University, Dhaka.
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