France promotes globalisation to kids
December 14, 2006 04:03am
ZOE is a French 10-year-old. She is learning the red socks she wears to school have travelled a long way before making it to her feet. They began as cotton grown in Mali in west Africa before going to Morocco in north Africa to be woven into fabric and travelling to France by boat to be delivered to shops by trucks. She plays a video game manufactured in China but designed in France and Japan, and when she is sick her medicine was created in France but uses plants from a rainforest in Brazil.
From politicians to farmers, the French are known for their firm opposition to globalisation.
Fears about it contributed to the French rejection of the European Union constitution last year and France's refusal to open its agricultural markets to competition was one of the reasons behind the collapse of a development round of trade talks earlier this year.
The government has decided it is time for education and Zoe features in a colourful brochure that is part of an effort to try and explain the benefits of globalisation to the French, particularly children. The brochures were unveiled by Trade Minister Christine Lagarde today and are being distributed to schools as part of this campaign.
"There is a lot more fear about globalisation than there is comprehension," she told reporters. She said the lack of understanding posed a risk that France will "become poorer and marginalised ... turn in on itself" and so "we thought it was imperative that we think about how we can turn the fear into understanding". She quotes from a poll by European pollster Eurobarometre which found that 72 per cent of French people felt threatened by globalisation while only 21 per cent see it as an opportunity. The challenges raised by globalisation, such as job losses as companies relocate to find cheaper labour, will also be a major issue in the campaign for the 2007 presidential election.
Ms Lagarde, an antitrust lawyer who worked for an international law firm, hopes to explain that globalisation does not lead to high unemployment. "Imports are not necessarily synonymous with job destruction if you take the examples of countries that are very open to imports," she said, pointing to low unemployment rates in the United States and Britain. France exported more than €350 billion ($592.32 billion) of goods in 2005 and one in seven workers is employed by a subsidiary of a foreign company.
Ms Lagarde will unveil a set of recommendations for coping with globalisation in April, just ahead of the presidential vote. Among the ideas she is considering is setting up a fund to help retrain workers affected by globalisation, goods labelling with social and environmental details, and a strengthening of the fight against counterfeiting and piracy.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20925563-5005962,00.html
accessed May 6, 2007
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Reflections:
Despite the growing popularity of globalization, there are still several countries that try to resist it. France would be one of these countries. Globalisation in France has become a hot topic especially with the French election going on.
There are a few reasons why the French do not want to embrace globalization. The French government provides many welfare benefits to its citizens, such as free schooling, short working hours and a lot of paid leave (5 weeks). Fortune magazine suggests that many reject globalization because they believe that globalization will cause them to lose their benefits. Globalisation encourages competition and the people believe that in order for companies to compete for business, they will have to cut labour costs and social benefits and workers will have to work harder for the same amount of money. Reluctant to change their work system and afraid of being exploited by globalization, the French are trying as hard as they possibly can to leave globalization out of their country, although this decision could prove to be financially threatening.
However this is only one group of people’s feelings. There is another group that wants and campaigns for globalization. This group of people feels that the French system restricts them and if they escape the French system, they can do much better for themselves. They want to work longer than France’s 35 hour week to earn overtime wages and since they cannot do this in France, they go to other countries to do so. Stephane Hamelin describes France as ‘the last communist country of the world’ because of all the benefits provided by the government. However there are people who disagree on the ‘communist system’ and want to become stronger through meritocracy. These people also believe that the current system will not be beneficially economically in the long run and there has been evidence to support this argument.
France’s aversion to globalization has led to serious repercussions. As a result of not wanting to globalize, France has lost hundreds of thousands of their workers. Many Frenchmen have gone to other countries within the European Union because of the lack of employment borders in search of a better life where they can perform better with restrictions from the government. Many of them are unwilling to return to France. When polled, 93% of French emigrants say that they are happy working and living in other countries while a quarter of them said that they would never return to France. This leads to a decrease in the population and it doesn’t aid the country’s economy either. In addition, France’s refusal to globalize and their insistence on maintaining a system whereby the governments provides everything has led to a economy that is having difficulty competing with other economies and has caused a high unemployment rate in the country. France has also incurred a national debt of 1.3 trillion which becoming more difficult to repay with their disdain of globalization.
France is now trying to educate the public about globalization (as seen from the article) and is encouraging it so as to be as competitive as the other European countries and economies. However if the more significant changes are to arise, the person that must be up for the task would be the next president of France and the government in general. The polling of the next president is taking place as I write (6th May 6 2007).
It is in the future president’s hands as to whether he/she implements policies that will help the economy of the country and it is up to that person to decide to steer the country on the road to globalization. France is now at a crossroads where is not accepting globalization will have no advantage for the country and its economy and accepting globalization will lead to the people’s dissent. Although globalization does bring about several disadvantages (see earlier posts), there is no other solution (at least none that I can think of) that can help France to develop into a stronger nation. France is at a point in time where major decisions need to be made and a capable leader is required to lead the people of France. However, whether its citizens want it or not, globalization is the only way the France can progress and be on par with other economies.
From the example of France, it is seen that although some countries are resistant to globalization, they will feel the effects of globalization, or the effects of not globalizing. In the end, it will be in their best interest to globalize.
-Joanne, political expert
References:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/04/02/8403449/index.htm (accessed May 6, 2007)
The Straits Times (Singapore) Saturday May 5, 2007, The Europeans who will not go home
Future Perfect; Political Expert
2:41 AM
