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Globalisation

Whither Free Movement of People?

by Syed Muhammad Hussain
***We need to note the moral reaffirmation of the oft-repeated claim that we all now live in a global village! The recent trend towards globalisation of economy, of technology ought to be a shared, participatory process for the common good.***
SINCE ancient times, the poor, the weak and the unsuspecting have been exploited in the name of religion, the king and the country, for power, wealth, trade and sheer pathological freed. The Pyramids. Babylon, ajmahal. Great Wall and so on were built with the tears and toll, blood and sweat of the poor and much to the misery of the common men and women. Even to this day such a process of dehumanisation goes on unabated in the name of development, prosperity and happiness. But for whom. when, and where? 1 dare ask.
We all know about the key elements that enabled the West or the North to reach the current high level of developments — the Third World, the South paid for it mostly, though unwillingly. unwittingly and unknowingly. If one ponders a little. one is struck by the sheer audacity, cruelty, manipulation. corruption, dishonesty, Immorality, savagery with which the entire process of global exploitation had been perpetrated during the last couple of hundred years. Such callous exploitation and transfer of resources still continue in new forms, in different ways.
Socialism was an expression of protest against such a system. Unfortunately, it became a part of the same system and failed to deliver and itself fell along the way.
It is interesting to note that the North talks about globalisation of economy while being totally silent on global movement of labour of the unskilled and semiskilled variety. In Dhaka, and I gather, in many other capitals of the Third World, a movement is gaining momentum — for a world of visa free travel. Their demands
Include let farmers move where land tor cultivation Is available'; let workers move where mills and factories are located'. With this, while the Western countries' standard of living will be marginally affected, the welfare of the developing countries will be raised to a higher level. The total global effect in terms of net benefit will indeed be astounding to the people who move, but also due to the incremental gains flowing back to theii home countries.
In this context, one could recall a serious initiative to transfer a sizeable number of Bangladeshi farmers and their dependent families to Mall to assist in expanding acreage under rice cultivation and under other crops and fruits like papayas. mangoes etc. familiar to our cultivators, in that country. There was an expressed political will at the highest level with President Alpha Oumar Konare’s positive assurance during his state visit to Dhaka some years ago. Ue had also attended the Bangladesh co-sponsored micro credit summit in Washington expressing his admiration for the Bangladesh model. Despite a lot of followup discussions, this initiative was allowed to fade out. Even Senegal, another rice-eating West African country, plans to increase its rice cultivation to reduce dependence on rice imports from Thailand. India and so on. Senegalese expressed their desire to have rice cultivation skills from Bangladesh as well. In any novel idea or initiative, spadework and focused pursuit of a goal are essential ingredients and unfortunately suffer from acute shortage of such virtues. Possibilities in, say. 15/20 years hence, for our farmers to bring their dedicated
labour, skill, know-how to the vast arable lands of West Africa and elsewhere appear to be enormous. We still may have time to get our acts together and take up this great challenge to design an inter-country farm labour transfer on permanent basis Our attempts could very well be a pioneering model lor a global movement of people, which Is bound to come about in not too distant a future.
Above all, lest we forget, we need to note the moral reaffirmation of the oft-repeated claim that we all now live in a global village! The recent trend towards globalisation of economy. of technologs' ought to be a shared, participatory process for the common good.
Otherwise, history not only repeats Itself: it has demonstrated its capacity to avenge the wrongs done to people If the people of the Third World seek to establish their rights to pay return visits to their colonising, metropolitan countries, the morality of the move can hardly be questioned. And to enforce their right, they could very well resort to seek extreme measures. International laws, diplomatic practices, other global conventions etc can no longer go on protecting the interest of the 'original sinners'. Turning the other cheek has gone on for too long and time perhaps is running out. curiously and precisely, because of the globalisation process Itself, for the historic wrong to be set right. For far too long, far too few have enjoyed far too much. Let that end and let the global party begin!
Let the movement for visa free travel gain all support to make this planet truly a common heritage of mankind.