AFRO-NETS> Is globalisation dangerous to our health?(2)

["reinhard huss" <Reinhard.Huss@urz.uni-heidelberg.de>]

Is globalisation dangerous to our health?(2)
--------------------------------------------

Dear colleagues,

Find below my comments regarding globalisation and the article 
by Feachem.

Best regards
Reinhard Huss

Lecturer/Department of Tropical Hygiene and Public Health
University of Heidelberg
Department of Tropical Hygiene and Public Health
EVAPLAN
Ringstr. 19D
69115 Heidelberg
Germany
Tel: +49-6221-1382-314
Fax: +49-6221-1382-320

Globalism versus Globalisation

The remarkable facts about the article of RGA Feachem "Globalisation 
is good for your health, mostly" are that neither the question of 
power and its distribution in world society nor the question of hu-
man dignity and how we want to live has been raised. Nobody, includ-
ing the protesters against the G8 summit in Genoa, is against global- 
isation as a process of social integration, which the protesters have 
demonstrated by their demonstration. Social including economic inte-
gration is an ongoing process since human beings have appeared on 
the stage of earth. Instead the critique of many people is raised 
against another universal scientific ideology applicable to all 
countries and all aspects of human life which they had hoped to leave 
behind in the last century. This I prefer to call globalism instead 
of globalisation.

In this ideology economic growth becomes an axiom which is not ques-
tioned as in above article. The discussion of power and its distri-
bution becomes a taboo and is therefore not even mentioned as in the 
fore-mentioned article. According to Feachem the protests against 
globalisation can be summarised in the phrase: "Increasing global 
economic and social integration is a conspiracy by the rich and pow-
erful to exploit the poor and underprivileged".

I prefer to rephrase the central theme of the protest against global-
ism: "Increasing global social and ecological exploitation is an 
economic game by the rich to satisfy their addiction to power with 
destructive consequences for our common global heritage which is of 
concern to poor and rich alike".


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