Globalisation: the new world order

by Editor · Published July 25, 2001 · Updated March 6, 2012

Humanity is standing on the threshold of a new world order. The advent of technologies such as the Internet, satellites and cellphones, have altered communications to such an extent that actions in Beijing can be coordinated from a bedroom in Brakpan.

The world�s colonisation by the American model of culture�mainly through film and television�means that the arches of fast food merchants McDonald�s are now at least as prominent a symbol as the Christian cross. These are just two aspects to that development called globalisation.

As Fr George Majahana in his opinion article this week rightly points out, globalisation has the capacity to do good as well as bad.

The danger of globalisation�one that has provoked riotous behaviour from protesters and profound apprehension among more moderate observers�centres on the nature of multinational corporations, whose spread and influence, if unchecked, threatens to usurp even the authority of governments.

The corporate globalisation, an extension of the rampant, exploitative capitalism of the 19th century, could well lead us into an Orwellian world, where human dignity is of no value and where the God of Scriptures would be sidelined for the god of Mammon. We are on that road already, and political leaders appear impotent and, in some instances, resistant in implementing the requisite checks and balances.

However, Fr Majahana also points out that globalisation can be a force for the good. His provocative article suggests that resistance to unjust power by utilising the tools of globalisation can result in a better world. This was illustrated when people�s power, aided by the Church and largely organised through cellphones, resulted in the ousting of corrupt Phillippine President Estrada.

For the Church, too, the new world holds promises and challenges. Earlier this year, Cardinal Jozef Tomko, former prefect of the Congregation for Evangelisation, called for a “globalisation of solidarity”, while Pope John Paul has appealed for a “new evangelisation”. Rather than viewing the new realities with anxiety, Catholics might approach them as an opportunity for a re-energisation of faith.

The egocentrism that feeds the culture of consumerism is in discord with the Christian model of charity and solidarity. It may not be entirely accidental that the rise of corporate power has coincided with the Church�s declining influence on society.

It is up to civil society at all levels to ensure that the multi-national corporations do not succeed in turning us into consumers and commodities, lacking all human dignity. In this, the Church has a significant part to play.