Globalization and Development

My studies are in international relations and so globalization, development, and its impact on the world is imperative to discuss. Class was very engaging today  as we came to the conclusion that as a consumer based economy the world would crumble to its own demise as we selfishly use up our fossil fuels and financially collapse as the wants and needs continue to take over like an earth shattering earth quake that lasts infinitely until everything falls apart.

I am reading a story today on Wall Street Journal about Europe doing a massive overseeing of their financial situation and basically auditing all their banks. Inflation continues and borrowing is not a thing of the past. I too have some credit card debt I am chipping away at. After being unemployed for a few months, I quickly went through my savings and found the only way I could pay my bills was with my credit cards. Agoff. What a scary thing that was to get those bills in the mail and realize I had no idea how I was going to pay them.

Again I thank God for the jobs I do have now, though taxing and taking some of my energy from my studies, I see a means to an end. But my credit took a hit and that is traumatizing. Are there others out there trying to dig themselves out of a hole? Bit by bit I see hope. But it is our government and their terrible investment practices that have pretty much left themselves with no other choice but to go bankrupt. Why does the U.S. government weigh so heavily on the top 500 money making corporations? Perhaps they should not get so involved in big business.

So that is where the plot thickens and inside trading, false reports of earning, and lobbying can be negative things. Can we turn it around as journalists, investigators, and social sciences looking to implement policy? Yes I definitely think  we can and we absolutely must or we will all be in the unemployment line looking for tidbits to survive off of. I laugh when I hear Obama say he has another "Stimulus Plan" . Or remember when Bush sent us checks in the mail for a few hundred bucks that was supposed to help the Trickle Down economy ideal. Yeah I spent that check alright and so did everyone else, which left us with more stuff and an even bigger disappointment. I can't even remember what I spent it on. Isn't that sad?

Capitalism is not dead it just needs a few EKG jolts and a reality check. We need to understand why we were downgraded from a AAA to a AA and what we need to do to avoid the impeding recession barking at our heals. We can't send everyone to college to learn a new skill and we can't afford not to outsource. So what is the solution? With these Occupy Boston pleas for less stratification. I stand tall and say "Why can't we have a flat tax?" Perhaps of say 10% of everyone's income. I don't care if it is a Republican, Democrat, or Social Nazi that proposes such a thing, but it really makes sense. Ten percent of what you make, whatever the number is would go towards social reforms.

I am not totally against Socialized medicine. I have VA and I think it wouldn't be much different. I am lucky to have VA health insurance. It has its downfalls like it won't cover ambulances or dental (only for the few), but I am getting free healthcare. I think we need some kind of hybrid of socialized medicine and privatization. We will see how Obama Care swims or sinks. If all else fails there is medical tourism, so once again an outsourcing , comes close to home. Or does it? Many organ recipients wait until they die in America before they have the chance to try on another organ. But if they got on the short waiting list in India they could pay half the price and survive. And in America if you don't have health insurance and you get cancer or something else serious, likely you will have to go bankrupt, because the hospital costs are ridiculous.

So as a solution, we need a flat tax and a health reform that an average Joe can afford. Companies should be held liable for not providing health care for their workers, a hospital or doctor visit should not cost that much, and yes banks like Bank of America should be audited by a huge oversight committees. I got 18 overdraft fees totaling $800 with Bank of America, because they would not freeze or close my account. They just keep resubmitting a check that I apparently had insufficient funds for.

I camped out in their office and demanded they close the account and give me a chance to pay the check. They wouldn't do it for almost two weeks this seize to my finances went on. Shame on them. Paying off the check was easy. I got paid a few days later, but those over draft fees chased me for 5 years. They are just evil. I feel taken advantage of. Banks like that have no right to operate. That was stealing as far as I am concerned. They were so big they thought they could get away with anything. Things have changed now Credit Unions are the big craze.

What are your solutions? I would like to hear, because I think Washington needs to as well.

Occupy U.S.A.

As Occupy Boston, New York, and D.C. kick off the day with drizzling rain and a forecast of sporatic collectivism, I wonder if the effort is mute or I should hop on the Red Line and look for it. My feet hurt already thinking about standing for 12 hours at a warehouse supermarket tomorrow pushing cheesecakes. It is not exactly what I had in mind laboring over a bachelor's degree that took me eight years and various deployment interruptions to finish. As the student loans rack up as much as a managerial position's yearly income, I dred putting on my suit tomorrow and "sucking it up" to cheerfully sell my hard work, hopes, and dreams. But as the unemployment line thickens I count my lucky stars to at least have some income coming in.

How are you doing Occupy Boston? Tuesday over 100 people were arrested as a line of opposition Veterans for Peace protected the crowd from the police. Things are already starting to escalate. This nationwide movement inspires revolt and a desperate attempt to pull lobbyists, Senators, and law makers to get off their high horses and join the rest of us. The stratification is daunting and scares the shit out of me.

I got a packet in the mail from a debt consolidation firm. On one side of the packet it states "Welcome to your debt consolidation!" On the other side it gleefully says "Welcome to your bankruptcy".  Oh gawd. I tuck myself in at night swallowing sleeping pills and pulling the blanket in tightly hoping the creditors don't rip the bed out from under me. So far, I am able to pay rent, but after I graduate, then what? I can't drug deal cakes forever. I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up. Now I am an overweight Army veteran living paycheck to paycheck. Occupy Boston, things have got to be better than this!

I think I'll forget the too-toos and point shoes and put on that business suit and Dr. Scholls shoes and pray that someone in Capital Hill gets the message. Until then, reality has a bitter taste and the world needs more cheesecakes.

What's Going on in Somalia

Felicia Whatley

Somalia

Development and Globalization

Intro

            Somalia is thought to be a stateless region known for its lawlessness and lack of government control of the region. Somalia is ranked as the number 1 in the 2010 Failed State Index, for their inability to provide public goods and services, instability in the government, and the violence, insurgency, and piracy that continues. It perplexes social scientists with its chaos, hunger, anarchy and yet a “free wheeling stateless capitalism” according to Peter D. Little’s Somalia: Economy Without State. The economic trends are difficult to track because the nation is very archaic and backwards, and yet it still surprises many because there is some agricultural economic growth and its desire to survive. Historians remember Somalia for the modern genocide that was overlooked for too long by the international communities. How did this happen and what were the ramifications for development and globalization?  “Many observers hoped that the rescue of Somalia could be an example of a new type of internationalism with the collapse of old cold-war animosities. While the multilateral efforts of UNOSOM and the U.S. led Operation Restore Hope started with such spectacular optimism and helped to reduce the famine  in Somalia, they bore few tangible outcomes in long run…Somalia did so much to shatter the hopes of the new world order,” (Little, 162).

Politics, Government and Background

Somalia is hot and arid in temperature where droughts are frequent. The country is thought to be geographically significant, because of its strategic location on the horn of Africa. The country is poor and has been through a coup. They have their own Somali language and modern education began to be offered free for all levels in the 1970s. By 1976 there was a 60 percent literacy level, but now Somalia is known as one of the poorest of nations with the lowest literacy levels (http://www.mapsofworld.com/somalia/information/facts.html). It is a war torn underdeveloped country that is in need of aid, development, and infrastructure. Only 2% of the population can afford a TV or a radio.

Islam is the national religion and the country is on a terrorist watch. Economic and cultural globalization is the defining characteristic in the 21^st century. The Global economic and cultural dimensions of self-determination are far more important than previously recognized and cannot be reduced to greed, stated FitzGerald, Stewart and Venugopal, 1. Globalization and war has had a profound impact on Somalia. Often on the news there are Somalia pirates that attack foreign ships that are in international water. National Geographic writes “Mogadishu is ground zero for the failed state of Somalia, a place where pirates and terrorists rule. Yet to the north, the breakaway region of Somaliland is stable and at peace. What happened?”(Drapier, 2009.)

If you walk around the capital you can see the remains of the former American Embassy, the al Uruba Hotel, and the Shangaani district, which once teamed with life but is now blown away. And the homes are more of the same. This article is a case study of one 18-year-old who is forced to be a fisherman to bring some money to his family. His father was killed by mortar fire and if he is lucky he will get 3 or 4 dollars for his catch, so his family can eat that day.  Most of his school friends have joined the Islamic extremist militia called al Shabaab. The al Shabaab is a militia that is backed by the United Nations and the Transitional Federal Governance. “For young males like Mohammed, al Shabaab is a tempting exit strategy from powerlessness. Then again, many of his former playmates are now dead,” (Drapier).

            On Somalia's northern coastline one can see the Gulf of Aden into the Indian Ocean. This is where pirates prey on sea traffic between Europe and the East. Even though that is the most publicized lately, often the inner part of the country can be seen as more violent and scary because the insurgents and the government troops continue to fight there. The Ethiopian troops had invaded Somalia late in 2006 to oust a short-lived Islamic government and prop up the TFG, and then they pulled out in January 2009.” The chaos has invited a fresh flow of foreign fighters to Somalia, which has become a haven for terrorists who see themselves engaged in a global jihad. The Fund for Peace has ranked Somalia number one on its index of failed states for the past two years,” (Drapier).

                   The history of the country was shown in how Britain withdrew from their colony part of Somaliland in 1960 and this chance at sovereignty spurred the breakdown of the nation. The British intended to allow that area to join with Italian Somaliland and to form the new nation of Somalia. Then in 1969, a coup headed by Mr. Mohamed Siad Barre brought in an authoritarian socialist rule. There was some stability for Somalia, but when the regime collapsed in 1991, the country spun into turmoil. There was fighting and anarchy among factions.  In May 1991, northern clans declared an independent Republic of Somaliland which included Awdal, Woqooyi Galbeed, Togdheer, Sanaag, and Sool areas. Although not recognized by any government, this entity has maintained a stable existence and continues efforts to establish a constitutional democracy, including holding municipal, parliamentary, and presidential elections,      

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/so-somalia. 

Although Somalia was without a single central government throughout the 1990s,

politics, economics and development still existed despite the statelessness. In the early 1990s state fragmentation and a localization of political authority existed. Within the violence a variety of governance and authority emerged at community, district, and regional levels to create a makeshift centralized government. Then in 1998, the state came together in a way that was less violent with a broader base of political alliances than before.  “Together they built polities—state like authorities –outside the old framework of decolonization and have done so amidst all of the international economic forces…in order to create places like Somalia,” (FitzGerald, Stewart, and Venugopal 148). There was differing political governance in Somaliland verses Puntland. The Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) then established an administration in the two southern regions of

Bay and Bakol; both been very insecure for most of the past decade. The Transitional National Government (TNG) in the capital of Mogadishu was the most profound political development of the decade. “Some of the politics ...especially the distribution of social control over violence and markets, unintentionally left some northern leaders with more social  raw material to reconstruct a single polity after 1991—to self determine –compared with southern counterparts,” (FitzGerald, 148). Though, the lengthy peace process has the TNG crimpling southern Somalia for over a decade, The TNG’s acceptance in the UN General Assembly, the Arab League, and the former Organization of African Unity has given Somalia formal representation in these international bodies for the first time in a decade.

            The political and economic decentralization that has taken place in Somalia over the last decade is unlikely to be totally reversed and the political entities are still fragile and evolving. Nevertheless, there are economic and social needs in Somalia that appear to demand more regulation and order like the cities of Hargeisa, Garowe, Bosasso, and Baidoa, that beg for a process of consolidation. The decrease in humanitarian needs since 1999 has shown a good level of growth because of improved security conditions and shows a positive change in Somalia.

The regions of Bari, Nugaal, and northern Mudug create of Puntland, which has been self-governing since 1998, but does not want independence.  A two-year UN humanitarian effort in 1993 helped to sooth famine conditions in the southern tip of Somalia, but when the UN withdrew in 1995 after suffering many casualties, the Somalia’s government was still in shambles. After a two-year peace process, led by the Government of Kenya and the help of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) ending in October 2004, the Somalis had elected Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia. This interim government was the Somalia Transitional Federal Institutions (TFI) s. Somalia’s government had a 275-member parliamentary body, a transitional Prime Minister, and a 90-member cabinet.  “He [Siad Barre] destroyed the civil and social structures—in fact laid the basis for what’s happening now—and according to Africa Watch probably killed fifty or sixty thousand people.,” (Chomsky, 31).  We must not forget that the troops of Somalia committed genocide ordered by the President to annihilate their own, and it was more than just thousands of people who were systematically murdered. The world was criticized for not acting quick enough to intervene.

Globalization and Economy

           

Somalia has dealt with a long period of statelessness, perhaps longer than any other society in the world. Globalization is not just something that brings together nations but it can also be a divider. “Globalization creates differences. The unevenness of the process is creating inequalities within nations, regions, and communities; disparity and insecurity of incomes; rapid transmission of financial and political crises between different areas of the planet; the spread of crime, health threats and environmental degradation on a previously unknown scale,” (Marchal, R., Mubarak, J.A., Del Buono, M., Manzolillo, D.L.) The collapse of Somali and its civil war can be said to have impacts that are a consequence of globalization. In this country the global “interactions” were limited in the 20^th century but then globalization became a dominate force with technology more so in the 21^st century.

            Globalization made a divide between the East and West in Somalia, but the competition between the two sides helped the economy. But the President Siad Barre was not aware of the changing international situation and the possibility that the country could miss out on strategic importance on the Horn of Africa and that they would soon lose some military aid. Many Somali leaders still today believe that if they Somalia have international recognition or a profound political structure then they can expound on international funding will increase. “The IMF (International Monetary Fund) could not ignore the existence of unemployment...Though some of the these models might provide some amusement within academia, they seemed particularly ill suited to understanding the problems of a country like South Africa, which has been plagued with unemployment rates in excess of 25 percent,” (Stiglitz, 35).

The United Nations intervention in 1992 through 1995 brought in many foreigners with their values, money, and a new type of globalization. For many who felt contempt for Westerners, soon found there were now jobs that weren’t there before. Another way that the UN tried to aid Somalia was to create local authorities and districts to bring order.  This current trend of globalization shifted the political culture. “One symptom of globalization is a retreat of sovereignty in a market-driven global environment. Sovereignty operates in the context of political solutions to problems, but the market imposes economic realities that often assume primacy over national laws and wishes of the citizens,” (Marchal, R., Mubarak, J.A., Del Buono, M., Manzolillo, D.L.) UN tried to create order in a stateless state.

            The main source of economy in Somalia is livestock and agriculture: cattle, sheep, goats, bananas, sorghum, corn, coconuts, rice, sugarcane, mangoes, sesame seeds, beans; fish.  Regardless of the fact that the government is thought to be a failed state, Somalia has maintained a healthy informal economy most driven by agriculture, with money transfer companies, and telecommunications. Agriculture was the biggest sector, with livestock normally accounting for about 40% of GDP and about 65% of export earnings. The GDP or purchasing power parity in 2009 is estimated to be $5.665 billion, in 2008 to be $5.524 billion, and in 2007 to be $5.387--showing an upward trend.

This is the gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. A nation's GDP at purchasing power parity is meant to be the (PPP) exchange rates of the sum value of all goods and services products per-capita welfare and when comparing living conditions and use of resources around the world. Whereas the PPP estimates for some countries can be based on a different set of goods and services. For many developing countries like Somalia, PPP-based GDP measures are multiples of the official exchange rate (OER) measure. The difference between the OER- and PPP-denominated GDP values for most of the wealthy industrialized countries were generally much smaller and should be considered differently than GDP.

The Stock Market Woes

The stock market woes as I grab for the handle bars on this scary roller coaster. When the stock market plummets, the job market and economy takes a dump. It scares me. In three months I will be out of school and dumped into that job market. As it is now, I work two part time jobs and am working with a debt consolidation law firm to keep from going into bankruptcy. As a graduate student, I am so much student loan debt as well. I turned the big 3-0 this summer and when the stock market is hurting I feel wounded as well.

I grew up with the mentality that if you work hard, good things will happen. But in the real world, I have to make it happen. UMass  Boston's career center is a joke. I had to reach out and find my own internship. I did an internship with the Coast Guard and I loved it, but now that I am out of the military the only military job I think I would want is as a civilian contractor. Those positions are so competitive and difficult to get. I apply on usajobs.gov over and over hoping to get a bite. No interviews yet!

I have recently taken on a marketing job. I only make money on commission. I had to do some training on walking away when they say "no" twice. I am very attentive and am willing to keep trying to sell the product, but they are right--at some point you need to walk away or you are wasting valuable time on people who are happy to sample the product but have no plan to buy it. I have a B.S. in journalism and for all the effort I put into getting that degree, I kick myself for not being able to make a career out of it. Most newspaper jobs pay $25,000- $30,000 a year. That's it. I have way more in student loan debt than that.

I think the job market in Boston is ridiculous anyways, because of the 70 colleges in Massachusetts and quarter of a million college students in the Boston area--I have a state school education. It's a snob market out there. But true enough, a master's degree at a state school still trumps a bachelors' degree from Harvard. But in all reality, I need to take my degree and move south, where it won't matter as much that I went to UMass Boston not Boston University. I think this school is great and I have loved every minute of it, but I'm being realistic.

As for the military, I miss it sometimes. I thought I would be a Soldier forever. My car is loaded up with Army National Guard stickers. The medical discharge shocked me. I put in 11 years. If I had four more years I would have gotten a medical retirement. Instead, I have no retirement, no 401 K, no life insurance plan, and now no dental insurance. All of that ended when I was pushed out. I also miss the Student Loan Repayment plan. Every year for six years the Army would pay back 15% of $20,000 of my student loans. I was three years into that program, when they pulled the plug. Sigh. Are you stressed out just reading this?

Well I just had my Jewish New Year. I think this year will be the beginning of many new things. My favorite Quincy psychic Pauline said she had not seen as good cards on anyone. She thought I would go from nothing to everything. She has been accurate so far. That sounds like a good plan to me. But like I said, I have to make it happen. I certainly cannot rely on the quagmatic stock market. It starts and ends with me.