08 July 2006

SHIT HAPPENS!
BUT THIS TIME WE PROVOKED IT………..


"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln



Globalization aggravated the development of transnational corporations, which are enterprises that manage production in different parts of the world at the same time. Given their international operating system; these corporations have massive revenues that allow them to influence the decision making of a country and inflict political lobbying to secure policies for simplicity of operation in the host country. What is more pathetic is that , developing countries try to present incentives to these transnational corporations (TNCs) like decreasing taxes, or providing less restrictive policies to attract foreign investment in the country, this is so devastating and self destructive. The sewage of developed countries is indirectly poured into the market of poor developing countries who are craving for economic development by allocating investment and labor in their countries.

A little bit of history about transnational Corporations: they sprouted out during 19th century, with the launch of industrial capitalism. They internationalized investment and trade which accelerated their market share. Most of these corporations were established in industrialized countries, and they had control over the general export worldwide. However, during 1980 TNCs targeted their investment in the developing countries because of lower wages, cheap natural resources, and less restrictions by the government; therefore, they had easy access to operate without strict regulations controlling their actions.

The world's largest economic establishments are considered to be transnational corporations. One quarter of the world's productive assets are controlled by them. Their yearly cumulative sales are even greater than annual GDP of countries. For example combined sales of Mitsui and General Motors are even more than the GDPs of the following three countries Denmark, Portugal and turkey. Mostly due to the size and economic influence they are able to dominate the market share and become a part of the global market.

These corporations exert leverage in the host country in various forms; they allow government officials to be shareholders in the enterprise, or act as national activists in policy committees by providing financial contributions to political parties. TNCs lobby governments and interfere in the political affairs by exerting economic pressure to promote their own convictions. Having access to free trade they are able to penetrate in the government and maximize their revenues. Thus, encouraging free trade will eliminate national boundaries and further increase power of TNCs.

These creeping disease-like corporations, once they reconcile in the developing country, they don't contribute positively in it, and their operating strategy exploits ecosystems, inflicts hazards to the environment and perishes natural habitats. This in turn erodes the natural resources creating factors which are hazardous for human life and health. This overexploitation of land and resources leads to pollution, global warming and increase in production of toxic material; which in turn affect the health of humans and cause environmental threats. Imagine your kids growing in a polluted world being condemned by ill-health the minute that they are born.

TNCs use modern technology to produce their products that fabricate lethal material causing a threat to harm the earth at a global level. The existing toxic material can pollute the global environment on a larger scale. Thus, transnational scheme of trade opens free borders to the shipment of waste from industrialized areas to contaminate the whole globe, human health, animal population and plants. So it's not just us who reside in third world countries that bear the burden, but my problem is becoming your problem since the earth is growing into a global village, devoid of boundaries to protect its own skin. Thus, global pollution is creating global effects not only because it's intrinsically global but due to universal trade and industrialization.

As stated in the USA constitution 1868, fourteenth amendment, corporations are granted the same rights as individuals of the country. So they can easily influence the government for their own interest; all through history this allowed corporations freedom to use their wealth to dominate the public opinion. In fact, the profit quest is the main driving force of all TNCs even the humanitarian corporations like pharmaceutical companies are aiming at increasing their revenues. Nowadays health is perceived as a commodity that is driven by the law of the market to speculate whose health is beneficial to invest on and whose health is not. To what extent these pharmaceutical companies provide humanitarian practices is questionable…

To ensure greater efficiency pharmaceutical companies are trying to cut down research on nonprofitable supplies and invest on goods with high rate of return such as Viagra that have less health implications than drugs to cure tropical diseases . One sixth of the world's population suffer from neglected tropical diseases, such as cholera, Buruli ulcer, soil-transmitted helminthiasis. Most vulnerable to these diseases are the poor underprivileged people residing in the tropical region of the world. Actually some of these diseases cause physical disability and have fatal outcomes which increase the burden of disease. People in tropical countries die of preventable diseases, because the medications are ineffective or unavailable in the market of third world countries. Thus, pharmaceutical companies ship generic medications that are cheap but pose biohazard on humans since they are not tested by FDA. Health inequalities still exist between rich and poor countries which violate the trickle down effect, equal right of equals.

The market is flooded with medications that are called "lifestyle drugs" they are merely cures for baldness, impotence, face wrinkles. Billions of dollars are invested in this industry line, which is not a matter of life and death issue but merely a privilege. On the other hand, the expensive medications to treat AIDS are not available in developing countries in spite that AIDS is higher in third world countries. And when the developing countries try to develop a cheap brand of that medication; Pharmaceutical corporations raise law suits against them; this was the case in South Africa because of the generic production of cheap AIDS medications. Can you believe people EUALITY only exists in theory books and fairytales……………

Some of the pharmaceutical companies conduct unethical operations when they test new drugs on humans in developing countries. Which have negative implications on their health due to the side effects of the drug (Marcia, 2004). Thus, the underprivileged are being abused by the pharmaceutical companies and are used as subjects for their trials. These companies violate the human rights yet are not held accountable for their actions, because they have an international boarding pass to cross the governmental arena and mold the policies for their own welfare. Can we fight them? With what? We are just a small fish in a big ocean, where big fish engulf the little ones without remorse…..

With the escalating force of the development of transnational corporations and their vast scope of global market, they are widening the discrepancy in health around different parts of the globe. These corporations are creating hazards to the ecosystem by threatening lives of people Thus , globalization affects health as it affects economy and commerce of nations. Creates health challenges and poses risks that are shared by different parts of the world. And there still exist people who go pro globalization? You just have to weigh the pros and cons and draw a line where to stop and look back………

The global view of the problem of developing countries is indirectly affecting the neighboring developed countries who try to direct the claws of pollution to poor developing countries but the toxic claws of the contamination are too strong to be constrained by their power; since the fire of globalization has ignited and the wind is blowing it to invade the whole planet. Globalization recognizes no boundaries to stop it from penetrating and spreading the pollution to all parts of the globe.

1 Comments:

Blogger healthcare.consultant said...

daniel sorry to hear about your diabetes, it must have been terrible for you, somebody has to stop these people from exploiting us......

9:18 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home