[Opinion] TATA

The generation that enjoyed the soap opera called “What on Earth Love Is” knows the song titled “Tatata,” which was inserted into that drama. The song is like an enlightened monk’s Nirvana song: I was born bare but I now have a pair of clothes. Life is a business that makes ends meet.

TATA, which deletes one “ta” from the song title, is the slogan of the World Social Forum (WSF), which is being held in Mombai, India. The slogan is an abbreviation of the phrase “There Are Thousands of Alternatives.” Groups that are against the world economic forum (Davos Forum) will have a feast; the groups include non-governmental organizations (NGOs), labor and environmental representatives, and people who are against globalization.

In Mombai, people prefer Linux to Microsoft, and sweetened water to Coca-Cola. This is an alternative to globalization. However, here in Mombai, an “I” who is against globalization doesn’t consider the lives that have brought pairs of clothes to him or her as businesses that make both ends meet. It is because the “yous” in powerful countries have monopolized the wealth. Globalization has been receiving strong criticism for its stiff competition and capitalism, inequality, role in the war initiated by the U.S. president George W. Bush, and its role in causing many other modern problems.

However, a senior economist with the International Labor Organization, Ajit Ghose, stroke a blow against the points made by anti-globalization groups in his recent book “Jobs and Incomes in a Globalizing World.” He revealed in his book that the wealth gap between wealthy countries and poor countries has reduced and that the overall standard of living around the globe has increased because of globalization. This is quite different from the expectation that the wealth gap between the two groups would be rising. The Chinese and Indian economies have showed drastic growth due to foreign investment and free trade. Although people say the labor environment of multinational corporations is bad, they do provide higher wages than domestic ones. Moreover, it is much better to have job openings than nothing at all. Also, there has been research that has proved that active globalization advances the termination of corruption and autocracy.

You cannot act contrarily to the globalizing trend. If you do, you damage yourself, just as if you break your own computer. It is clever to seek solutions in globalization that truly work. In reality, being different from corporations, the government doesn’t compete with other rivals in the world, but is protected within the nation. Then if the government, which is lower in quality than the corporations, obstructs businesses from work, social contradictions will inevitably become deeper. The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who participated in both the WSF and Davos Forum last year, drew applause by announcing that he would build a well-off society, which the WSF pursues and the Davos Forum approves of. It is time to find a genuine alternative, not one used to oppose the opposition.

Editorial Writer Kim Soon-duk, yuri@donga.com