Overall Reflection of Globalization - Coursework Example

Reflection on Globalization Name Course Instructor Reflection on Globalization I cannot quite recollect the very first time I encountered or even heard of ‘globalization.’ Maybe it was when I was almost completing my high school or maybe I just read it online a couple of months ago. To me, if this aspect of globalization were not reintroduced to me in my class and through further reading, then I would forever have had a very shallow understanding of this important concept. If someone just bumped to me and asked me what globalization was, I would just answer them that it is the way the world has become interconnected. In what aspects is what I do not know as well as how the future looks like regarding globalization. Thanks to this year of schooling, and more so, Friedman’s book, ‘The World is Flat,’ I have a reshaped my understanding of globalization and how the my surrounding world functions. This reflective piece of work will evaluate overall reflection of globalization and how it relates with my life and my career. I now appreciate the fact that we are currently living in a rather exciting time where our world has been interestingly interconnected globally. In its broad sense of understanding, globalization refers to the processes or mechanisms which enhance the movement of information, people, ideologies, technology, and culture across the globe. This is evident in the technology that we use, the songs that can be heard from the radios, and the movies we watch from across the world, the fashion that we witness, and even the way people can easily migrate from one country to the other and obtain citizenship in their new country. All of this stuff has been connected to globalization in one way or the other which continues spreading its impact all across the entire world. Friedman, in his book ‘The World is Flat’ has openly discussed the constant changes which have been witnessed for the last decade or so; changes which have more or less levelled the playing field of every person and country in the world (Friedman, 2012). These changes or events are what he refers to as the ‘world’s flatteners’ which have enabled different people in the world to connect on a global scale in a very comfortable and convenient manner. Examples of these events that Friedman documents include the Netscape, the collapse of Berlin Wall, outsourcing, uploading, and offshoring among others (Friedman, 2012). I think what is interesting about this globalization is that in the same rate at which the world is undergoing an enhanced rate of change so does it get battered by the same enhanced turbulence of the same change that globalization brings. For example, I did some research on how globalization impacts businesses and one thing that stood out was the amount of pressure which it has bestowed on the businesses and necessitating them to change as the world changes for them to thrive in their respective sectors. It is everyone’s dream, including mine, to be associated with countries that perform well. I always aspired to be posted or transferred to countries that did well, and like most of my colleagues, everyone dreaded to be posted in countries or regions that were not performing quite well and had fewer resources. This is regarding infrastructure, technology, living and working conditions among other factors. However, my perception of all this is gradually changing. I feel almost comfortable working anywhere in this world; in whichever country. As Friedman explains, in about thirty-five years back, one would prefer being born as a bright student in Brooklyn as compared to being born as a genius student in Bangalore simply because of the variations of opportunities in these two places (Friedman, 2012). Currently, thanks to globalization, things have changed. Since the ‘world is flat,’ then one would prefer being born as a genius in Bangalore because they could easily connect and collaborate just as if they were born in Brooklyn (Friedman, 2012). This is intriguing to me. Just knowing that I have equal life opportunities and life chances as someone who is born in any other part of the world is refreshing. I am so appreciative of having the opportunity given to me by God to live in the 21st century because, at the current rate of globalization, it would be interesting to experience how the history of this century will unfold and even more interesting that Friedman has undertaken to stimulate us to start thinking through how this will unfold. I am willing to learn new things and adapt to the changing environment in positive ways especially now that I understand more stuff to do with globalization. As a person who follows politics closely, I have observed a significant shift in how politicians conduct their politics presently and how they did in the past. Often I would be offended with the decisions that they made especially those that did not seem to take into consideration the less fortunate in the society. Also, there have been cases of political violence in some countries where whoever suffer the most are those who do not have a strong voice for themselves. In African nations, some leaders have ruled for over twenty years and still counting. Some of these issues have become a challenge for a while now, and it depressed me when such things happen. Following this, one of the positive things that I would say globalization has achieved is breaking these political barriers and changing the political perspectives. Many governments are now aware that the world is watching their moves and any wrong turn that they take could impact their relations with the other countries in the world. Additionally, countries relate and collaborate in various levels and therefore, in one way or the other, they countries in the world need each other. This has significantly changed the field of politics. Most governments have had to think through what approaches they use to resolve issues even if it is just so they please the world. Democracy has been the order of the day in politics where decisions are not just dependent on one person but a team. This is one way that globalization is making the world desirable to be in. The same thing has happened with technology and socioeconomic factors. Before I understood globalization quite clearly, I assumed that for a business to thrive economically in the international market, they had to go through America because it was my assumption that the US was the only country that had a significant input into economic growth. It was also my assumption that most of the technological advancements could only be made in China and a technology business would thrive best in that country. My assumptions in these aspects have changed. I have learned that globalization has broken almost all of the existing socioeconomic and technological barriers. Nowadays, with proper business management skills, it is easy to make it grow on a global scale. Communication channels have been opened up, technology is readily available, and people seem to also accept the aspect of globalization through embracing new stuff from foreign countries. As Friedman points out in his book as one of the flatteners which is ‘informing,’ people can find a lot of information regarding a ton of things and so many individuals through the use of search engines (Friedman, 2012). This makes it easy to grow both on a personal and professional level. For example, in my personal life, I would say the search engines have helped me to grow tremendously through reading about the world’s most influential and successful people. Additionally, I would not have known much about globalization if it were not for these ‘informing’ tools. I can just, therefore, imagine if it has helped me this much, what about those people who run businesses? What about our leaders? It must have done so much in reshaping how people think and relate to each other on a global scale. One of my future explorations would be the role that globalization plays in education and how it has assisted people in being more educated. Personally, I am exhilarated in what globalization means to me and more so what Friedman has written means to me. I, therefore, believe that the power of making great strides in what is availed to us is in our hands. However, in my perspective, I think that the way to take advantage of what we have and use it in the educational setting would be a little bit challenging. Despite this, I still think that we need to evaluate the way we could also make our education system ‘flat.’ In conclusion, I can say that, together with my colleagues and my instructors, we will seek to evaluate this aspect as soon as possible; probably in the course of the semester. In doing this, we will engage our lecturers, our fellow students, as well as the teachers and students in the lower levels of education like in High schools. We will try to evaluate what they think about globalization and how they think will impact the education system in the years to come. It is my hope that in a few years’ time, the education system could also be made ‘flat’ through globalization. Reference Friedman, T. (2012). The world is flat. 1st ed. Retrieved 20th March 2017 from http://www.labeee.ufsc.br/~luis/egcec/livros/globaliz/TheWorldIsFlat.pdf Read More