SEQ Test

Has globalisation brought more benefits or ills to countries around the world? Explain your answer.

LORMS 1

• L3: Explains one perspective, benefit OR ill with clear link to issue. [5-7]

• L4: L3 + Explains other perspective. BOTH perspective, with clear link to issue. [8-11]

• L5: Reaches a balanced conclusion based on the relative significance of the factors. [12-13]

LORMS 2

• Thematic:

If both perspectives are present:

L4: 5-11

Social max. 2 marks (5-6)

Economic max. 3 marks (7-9)

Environment max. 2 marks (10-11)

Analysis for benefits

• Economic: • Example: Improvement in standard of

living → Analysis: Benefits people because they can have greater educational opportunities to equip themselves with useful skills and have access to better healthcare facilities which can enhance their physical well-being and quality of life.

Analysis for benefits• Economic:• Example: Mobility of talent → Analysis developed

countries benefit as they are able to source for overseas talents, to make up for shortfall of local talents in specific areas. Developing countries can also benefit as MNCs open branches in these developing countries and send their multi-national talent team there, which facilitates a transfer of technology and skills, thus helping local workers and local economy to develop further, and in turn to become more attractive to investors. As the country develops, its people also benefit from it as the infrastructure is improved and there is greater convenience and higher standard of living.

• Partly explains Singapore’s rags to riches story.

Analysis for benefits

• Social

• Example: Increase awareness of foreign culture → Analysis: Globalisation promotes greater cultural understanding and reduces xenophobia and minimises discrimination of the ‘other.’ In turn promotes greater harmony between different cultural groups.

Analysis for benefits• Environment• Example: Environmental management →

Analysis: Globalisation facilitates transfer of green technology from developed to developing countries, which helps to reduces pollution, as developing countries no longer have to follow the same environmentally destructive path to becoming a modern industrialised nation, as the current industrialised nations did, during the industrial revolution (19th century). Transfer of green technology makes sustainable development possible. Reduction of pollution removes the detrimental effect that pollution has on people’s health. Improves quality of air which in turn improves quality of life.

Analysis for ills

• Economic:

• Example: Increase competition among nations → Analysis: May lead to developing countries driving down labour cost in order to attract MNCs. This results in sweatshop labour, where production workers work long hours, often under terrible work conditions, and for very little pay. Detrimental to their physical and mental well-being.

Analysis for ills• Economic:• Example: Widening income gap between rich

and poor → Analysis: May cause feelings of jealousy and injustice to arise, which may take the form of demonstrations, such as those seen in rural China and the current situation in Thailand, where the rural poor ‘the Red shirts’ have pitted themselves against the elites whom they accuse of fattening themselves at the expense of the rural poor. This results in political instability, which would definitely affect the investor confidence in the country, thus leading to a possible economic decline in the country, which affects the population adversely, as their livelihoods are threatened.

Analysis for ills

• Social• Example: Loss of local culture → Analysis: Loss

of local culture and the creation of a homogenous culture may lead to a sense of rootlessness, among the younger generation. Some of whom may be attracted to radical ideologies such as radical Islam which gives them a greater sense of belonging and purpose in life, and have committed atrocities in the name of brotherhood and ‘holy war’ on American cultural imperialism.

Analysis for ills

• Environmental: • Example: Environmental degradation →

Analysis: Globalisation has led to permanent damage to the environment, as seen from the extinction of animals due to deforestation and the clearing of their habitats for economic use. Air pollution is also detrimental to people’s health and may mean that increasing number of people may suffer from respiratory related problems.

Conclusion: Ills > benefits

• Need an argument: E.g. long term environmental cost, short term economic gains?

• Need to illustrate: Although air travel has facilitated greater convenience as TNCs use it to transport goods and personnel, thus bringing economic benefits in the form of increased profits, this has resulted in long term environmental cost of global warming, as air travel releases carbon into the air, hence trapping heat and causing the ice caps to melt. The corresponding rise in sea levels threaten the survival of low lying land such as Singapore, Venice and the Maldives. Huge long term environmental cost as global warming is irreversible. Currently we can only hope to manage it, but cannot completely eradicate the problem.

Conclusion: Ills > benefits• Another argument: Globalisation has benefitted all, but some

benefit more than others, and what matters in people’s minds is the relative, rather than absolute, comparison.

• Need to illustrate: Although people as a whole have benefitted economically from globalisation, through the transfer of technology and the creation of jobs, what matters is their relative advancement vis a vis their counterparts in other countries. The advancement in mass media and the high ownership of television all around the world has made the disparity in wealth even clearer and has made the people who perceive of themselves as having the shorter end of the stick feeling very discontented with their social betters. This latent discontentment is potentially highly potentially subversive and governments must step in to prevent it from breaking out in mass demonstrations and lashing out at MNCs and the rich who are perceived to be exploiting the people.

Conclusion: Benefits > Ills • Argument: Globalisation has brought about more ills in

the short run, but has the potential to bring benefits in the long term.

• Illlustration: Initial phrase is very costly, but it requires time for economic benefits to trickle down to the other classes. With time, governments will be better able to deal with the ills of globalisation and to come up with laws to regulate it, such that it will benefit the people. I.e. Put in place fines to prevent factory owners from polluting rivers (by depositing their waste there), or to come up with more equitable laws to reduce wealth gap. Globalisation has the potential to bring both benefits and ills, and its ultimate impact on the people is very reliant on the quality of government. Good governance will ensure that their countries are better able to benefit from globalisation and to mitigate the ills that globalisation has brought about.

Conclusion: Benefits > Ills• Argument: Globalisation has brought more benefits than ills.

Disadvantages are relative rather than absolute. Brought progress to people, and nothing comes without a price. Disadvantages in the initial phase, but as countries become more attuned to globalisation they are better able to leverage its benefits and minimise on its ills.

• Illustration: Making efforts to solve the initial problems that it created. Globalisation enables connectivity among countries through international organisations and conferences e.g. Kyoto Protocol and recent Copenhagen Summit, shows increasing commitment to mitigate global warming. Moreover, due to mobilisation of talent, talented scientists from around the world have been able to work together to find alternative sources of power, such as solar, hydro-electric power which are less harmful to the environment. Moreover, the invention of cars that run on electricity rather than on fuel may become more popular in years to come, and help to mitigate the problem of air pollution resulting from greater affluence.

Economic terms • Trade unions + Union workers• Productivity (Economic)• Trade Imbalance• Gross Domestic Product• Gross National Product• Recession + Depression • Inflation + Deflation • Shrinking economy• Economic indicators (e.g. Growth, Balance of

Payments, Unemployment rate)• Revaluation/devaluation of currency• Economic sustainability • Flexible workforce