Globalization in Sub-Saharan Africa Essay

ABSTRACTIt is concomitantual that globalization began before the industrial vicissitude was existent in the colonial period and continues to be a instruction influence on how governments worldwide operate. When analyzing the effects of globalization, a universal polemic debate is whether globalization has maimed the society or has brought signifi natest benefit. The Afri hobo society is utilisationd several(prenominal)(prenominal)ly by anti-globalists to defend their views. This makeup explores the ban dynamics of globalization in Sub-saharan Africa e.g. undermining of distinguish sovereignty and hastening of environmental degradation of the continent. However, it does not suggest that globalization is entirely bad nor does it govern that globalization is the solo cause of Africas problems. It proposes rough measures that can be considered when globalizing the African merchandise so that this negative effects can be minimized.INTRODUCTIONThe races of the world have syn chronized their trading goods and services, financial markets, Ideologies, innovations and cultures with globalization. The clean-handed flow market policy adopted by well-nigh countries has conduct to significantly positive outcomes in the broader African region for example, creating young job ventures and advancements in technology. However, globalization has also cast a ominous shadow on some sectors of the African delivery , an issue that this paper ordain put into perspective with a particular case study on the Democratic commonwealth of congou. nearly proposed consequences of globalization addressed here(predicate) include change magnitude conflicts in the bea, erosion of state sovereignty, imbalance in the ecosystem and income inequality. Sub-Saharan Africa is a term used to refer to all of Africa that the Northern region.Most of their economies are agricultural based and are not as stable as those in the Western world. The average income in sub-Saharan Afric a is below the poverty line level. Nevertheless, this region enjoys a freehanded comparative advantage on raw resources in the extractive industries for example minerals and oil. The affect for these minerals can perhaps explain why immediately before the bully recession in 2008,there was the 27% increase in FDI the highest ever seen(Jaja3). conflicting companies can obtain these minerals at a very low cost in some African countries and reap huge marginal benefits. Some of the avenues they use to get them are scrupleable as is the case with the Democratic nation of congou tea.The Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Congo Zaire) is a central African nation that borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its neighbouring countries include Central African Republic Southern Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola and Tanzania (the two are separated by Lake Tanganyika).It is the second largest nation by area with over 65 million slew. It was a Belgian colony and gained independence in June 1960. DRCongo has the most variety in biodiversity in Africa and enviable amounts of rare natural resources such as diamond, copper, gold, cobalt, timber and coltan.With its resources 1 would expect that such a country would be awash with aboriginal economic developments, projects to exploit all agricultural potential and high standards of living(a). On the contrary, most of the civilians in DRC live in poverty and have not benefited from the rich well of resources they have. They are victims of years of civil war, propel guide by power- hungry, connive national leaders and part of the supranational community. A sneak efflorescence into the colonial history of DRCongo reveals that the exploitation of the minerals for self-intrests is not a recent phenomena. governmental BACKGROUND OF THE DRCIn the tardily 1800s, King Leopold of Belgium acquired honorable rights of ownership of the Congo territory at the Conference of Berlin. He governed it like private spot and the area experienced some developments. However, this came at the expense of the local people because they were treated as slaves and could not reap any fruits from their labour. Intense coerce from the international community on the Belgian parliament led to the reclaiming of the Congo region from the kings hands. It was renamed The Belgian Congo state from 1908.thither was significant economic growth at the cadence but the endemic people were on the losing end again, exploited and enslaved. The fight for independence was win on June 1960 with Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister and Joseph Kasavubu as president. Lumumba would later be fired and Joseph Mobutu, chief of staff of the new army, aimed to restore the relationship betwixt the two leaders with the help of the USA and Belgium governments. In January 1961, Katanga forces and Belgian soldiery executed Patrice. The Katanga succession ended in 1963 with the help of UN forces. There were several governments afterwards the most notabl e one being that of Mobutu Sese Seko.His career as president began in 1971. He was largely dictatorial for example he revoked the powers of the legislature, fired the prime minister and conducted an election where he was the only candidate. cash were mismanaged, state cooperations collapsed and the country was in debt. He renamed the country several generation but ordainedly used Congo-Zaire. Note that he had several billions of US dollars in a Swiss Bank account and still had prefer with the USA government. It is believed that he even had a world bank official as a personal assistant.This in turn gave him confidential reading about granting aid to Zaire. (Reno 1998152) In 1994, the DRC was a refuge for the some(prenominal) Rwandese Hutus fleeing the Rwandan genocide. Refugee camps a few kilometers from the border with Rwanda were planning zones for attacks into Rwanda. Mobutu cheered them on. However in 1996, Rwandan led forces backed by Uganda and the The Alliance of Democra tic Forces for the firing of Congo-Zaire, led by Laurent Kabila, advanced into Kinshasa to close down Hutu camps in Eastern DRC.As a government issue, Mobutus government was overthrown when he was away and Laurent Desire Kabila was declared president.Kabilas lead was no different from his predecessors. Conflict between his government and insurrectionist groups ensued in August 1998 because Kabila saw the Rwandese rebels as threat to his government. The Ugandan group, led by Congolese warlord John Pierre Bemba, formed the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, joined the Rwandese and together they terrorized the citizens and the government .Kabila requested for military assistance from the international community but they hesitantly supported him since they did not know him copious to depone him. In 1999, the rebels and the government signed a peace accord and six opposite countries were witnesses. A new constitution was promulgated in May 2005 and in 2006 the world-class fre e and fair elections were held. Tension increased just before elections and the government, backed by the UN, disarmed all non- governmental factions to mention the nation stable. The trail of this civil war commonly equated to Africas first world war has left a trail of death, despair and trouble oneself amongst the people with over 5 million dead, several displaced, and thousands of women and children raped. It is interesting to question the ability of the rebel groups to oust governments sequentially.Could someone be funding them? ar there some hidden interests? The minerals in the DRC, and coltan in particular, are treasured gems in the technological era. When raw, coltan, which is composed of columbium and tantalum, looks like black get stuck or sand. It is used to produce capacitors. Capacitors are used to conduct galvanizing charge in high tech equipment for example cellular phones, computers and some jet engines. The DRC has the worlds largest reserves of the mineral. F our fifths of the worlds supply of coltan is in Africa and DRC has eighty percent of it. In the late 1900s,the sales of tantalum increased by three hundred percent. This time period coincided with the times of civil war in the DRC.As Dena Montague states in her oblige, Stolen Goods columbite-tantalite and Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, international cooperations such as Banro-resources cooperation, Finconcorde and Raremet imported DRC coltan via Rwanda for use in Asia, Europe and USA.In response to UN accusations of involvement in illegal trading H.C Stark, one of the largest producers of capacitors commented that they only purchase raw materials from established companies. However, established companies were indeed involved in illegally obtaining goods from DRC. Investors restructured deals in support of Desire Kabila instead of Mobutu in 1996.This was a violation of the constitution which stated The soil and subsoil belong to the state-prospecting, geographic expe dition and exploitation requires permits from Ministry of Mines and Energy. Local reserves backed by Ugandan and Rwandese forces got supplies in form of food, money and military equipment in exchange for smuggled goods. The militia men took stronghold of areas with huge deposits of gold and coltan e.g. Bukavu, Lubumbashi and Mayi. Gold was exported through Uganda and into United Arab Emirates. It was difficult to trace from there.It is worth noting that between 1995 and 2006,gold was one of Ugandas main exports. Additionally, Uganda had GDP growth rate of 6% per annum in 1999 unless the average GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa was about 2.5%in the comparable time. These spate revenues undermined the power of the central Congolese government because the Ugandan scrimping gained more from D.R. Congos resources more than the DRCs economy did. The fact that the international community was in one way or other involved in increasing conflict in the DRC is undeniable. If the corporate invest ors were real trading with DRC to improve the state of the country, they would have questioned the legitimacy of the DRC based enterprises and suppliers. other simultaneous consequence of the years of instability was an imbalance in the ecosystem. Wildlife products such as elephant tusks and animal skin were and are still very merchantable globally.They were sold or bartered in exchange of food, ammunition and other goods. With a nation in strife, this meant that there were neither environmental regulations nor expensive wildlife products. In the 1990s, there were increased rates of elephant poaching and habitat encroachment in the forest areas of Kahuzi Beiga National Park. Statistics by the UN reveal that in the area of Garamba Park, northern eastern DRC, 4000 out of 12000 elephants were killed between 1995 and 1999.61The area was controlled by Ugandan array and Sudanese rebels. This created a adult male-animal conflict. The militia fed on wild pith when on their missions. Wild meat was also the only easily acquirable food source for the displaced persons. Rebel leaders disarmed the guards in national parks, thereof they were unable to patrol the forested areas. Local conservationists also raised the apprehension on the decreasing numbers of the bonobo monkeys famed for language erudition abilities when in captivity and complex social behavior in the wild(Gretchen Vogel).Another result of the clash between man and animal as suggested in the article cause of War and Civil Strife on Wildlife and Wildlife Habitats, was the spread of human monkey pox and bubonic plague.The people were exposed to more diseases other than water- borne and tropical diseases. With lack of adequate healthcare and restricted movements, the peoples lives were at risk too. The flora and soil were not spared either. The people destroy the vegetation and cut trees to get timber and to create room for living and farming. Due to the uncertainty they were in, it is unlikely that their methods of farming were conservative e.g. overharvesting and thus lead-in to soil erosion. Timber, which is a fundamental raw material for the building industry, was stingily available to local and international traders thus they found the political space in the DRCongo very favourable to their activities. Globalization of trade and financial commodities in the world has a general pattern where most of the trade and investments are dominated by a few nations. They make policies that work to their advantage, a fact clearly outlined by Joseph E. Stilitzp in his article Globalism Discontents.Agriculture, which is the linchpin of galore(postnominal) African countries, is sometimes left out in some of the import tariff reliefs granted internationally on account of globalization. Some regional agreements also exercise some form of discriminatory trade towards agricultural products. Additionally, globalization has led to liquidity of funds due to free financial markets. This m eans that capital investments can quickly be born-again to cash. African states are become vulnerable to liquidity perhaps because of several sectors of the economy that need quick monetary solutions and overreliance on foreign loans as Stiglitzp highlights.One probable outcome from this phenomena in the period of conflict in the D.R.C would be that the rich political leaders in the country became richer and richer whereas the common people sunk deeper into poverty. It is likely that the agricultural sector was neglected(and this is where the people economy was/is based)and the mining industry prioritized. Middlemen from some countries traded weapons and money, with the rebel groups and some political elite, for coltan and other minerals. It is also likely that some foreign companies were given full ownership rights of some mines after giving the leaders of the time were given some money. The Congolese depart indeed find it hard to trust their leaders again. The harsh reality righ t now is that so many families are focused on the primary needs of fending for their families so the mind of demanding for their rights is would sound unpractical.The fragility of this state can be traced to the days of state formation and the nature of subsequent governments. If the leaders who came into power prioritized the formation of a strong army and building of the nation, then we would perhaps tell a different story. This region and several others in Sub-saharan Africa have face a humanitarian,environmental and political turmoil for too long. To avoid a geminate of the civil war situation and its consequent effects, specific codes of conduct that set ahead economic and political stability should be considered in the globalization aspect. Foreign investments into Africa require strict policies and an end of the bargain that considers the welfare of the people e. g a company that wants to invest must contribute directly or indirectly towards building a hospital, school or social hall.This will be effective in ensuring that the transition between a globalized market and the previous one involves the whole society in all dimensions of life. This can only happen with government system that is dedicated to building a brighter future for these great nations. The effective building of DRCongos economy will involve Congos immediate neighbors, the whole of Africa and the world. Conservationists should develop programs in war torn areas so that resource conflicts do not drum in the future. Global gatherings that address environmental issues should also prioritize the sarcastic environmental crisis the Democratic Republic of Congo and in other areas unnatural by similar or even worse conditions.REFERENCESGlobalization, Culture and the commodious Disruption An Assessment International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social sciences February 2012, Vol. 2, No. 2Dena Montague, Stolen Goods Coltan and Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, SAIS Review 22.1 (2002) 103-118Joseph P. Dudley1,*, Joshua R. Ginsberg2, Andrew J. Plumptre2, John A. Hart2, Liliana C. Campos3Conservation Biology Volume pages 319329, April 2002 Effects of War and Civil Strife on Wildlife and Wildlife HabitatsAlan Cowell, Letter from Britain Lack of African Dream Lets a Nightmare Prevail by The International omen Tribune, 2 August 2006Stiglitz Joseph.Globalism DiscontentsConflict in Congo Threatens Bonobos and Rare Gorillas* Gretchen VogelScience 31 March 2000 287 (5462), 2386-2387. DOI10.1126/science.287.5462.2386Report of the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal growth of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2002.Reno, William. 1998. Warlord governance and African States. Boulder, Colorado Lynne Rienner.(preface of the book)