Is globalization good or bad?

I shall answer this question in an unoriginal way. It is either good or bad, depending on how it is used. If you come to think of it, most things and events have their own light and dark sides that we can take into consideration and emphasize if we choose to take a side. As to globalization, it is good if used for the betterment of the world. Betterment in the sense that the whole world will improve and rise in the same rate, no one nation will lead and conquer all the small others. Globalization can be seen as bad if used to discriminate developing countries and to gather power to monopolize the world.

A history of globalization is very similar to the history of the world but it has a very noticeable difference. The former happened exponentially faster than the latter. This can be overwhelming since there are adjustments to be done and preparations to take care of. It may have started off as an American phenomenon but now that everyone in the world and already know of it, it may not be long before the whole planet is under this phenomenon already. Some countries needed work but through time, and with help from the rest of the world, everyone will be “globalized”. When? We can not easily know but we can predict and look forward to it.

In my opinion, globalization is a new way of looking at the world. It may seem as if it is just another name for imperialism, colonialism, modernism or capitalism. It may be. But will we let it be? That is the question. Things happen if we let it happen. Globalization is the time to be smarter and more aware of the world so that we will not be taken advantage of.

How do religious beliefs affect politics?

Religion is one of the aspects of life that we were born with. It may not be necessarily the one we choose but it can already be considered as a kind of tradition passed down from one generation. Let’s say, the Philippines. It is very characteristic of our country to be a devout Catholic that people who separate from the faith were looked upon with awkwardness. The Church has very wide and powerful branches that its influence can pass through everything in the country. May it be legislature, family planning or prison laws, the Church have something to say about it. And with the people being very devout about their religion, they listen to whatever the Church is saying and they act upon it on a no gray area mentality. I am not saying it is wrong or bad to make and approve certain government decisions that way. I think it just affects how our country develops.

Religious beliefs affect politics in legislature. Law writing is crucial to a country’s future and development. Whatever laws the government officials approve of, it will dictate how things in the country will be processed. There’s a certain trace of politics in legislature in a way that lawmakers will study and pass laws which will be beneficial to them in a future campaign or a potential business deal. Religious beliefs enter the scene in this case. Politicians take into too much consideration and emphasis the certain religious beliefs in the laws they make in able to get the people’s attention on how religious or God-fearing they are. Laws are made to please people through the religion they believe in. Maybe it’s one of the reasons why our country is in such a slow progress. There’s too much B.S. going around.

Let’s say, the implementation of family planning. A lot of politicians are against this bill since they say it does not deliver the religious beliefs they uphold. The importance of life and the possibility of living beings that people stop and hinder when they do family planning are some points. I am personally in support of family planning. I think that it’s better to stop the “possibility” of a child to be conceived as soon as possible. I am not talking of abortion but of the use of contraceptives. I admire the politicians who stand up and support this bill because if you come to think of it, it is one good way to solve population growth. Since poverty is a result of overpopulation, having less mouths to feed might be helpful in decreasing poverty as well. But this is not about whether one law is good or not. It is about considering one law as right just because some religious belief tells it to be so. I think we people should be smarter than that. We should not just absorb whatever is being held out to us by religion. We are not sponges for information. We are given brains to help us think over what may be right to us.

Religion affects politics in a way that politicians become slaves of religious beliefs that they use it not for the sake of faith but for the influence it has on people.

What happens if we don't think on human terms?

In this information age, people tend to be more selfish and greedy that they want to do things for their own personal gain. Individuality is very much a trait. Interdependence seems to be lost because of everyone wanting to have a bigger share of what the world can offer. I realized that this can be seen everywhere now.

The environment and technology. Starting from about 50 years ago when the industrial revolution began taking place, fossil fuels are used in almost everything. A sense of the future was felt by mostly everyone but the nature and the environment took a hard blow from all the advancements in daily living. The people of the earth, formerly one with its habitat, began to use the nature as a main resource for their factories. The losses in the environment were not compensated nor consistently replaced. The fruits of such ignorance are only starting to be felt at this time when scarcity of resources is very much an issue in most countries. Now that the world is fighting back to us for everything we did to it, people want to “renovate” nature.

The huge powerful countries are in strict watch since they are the ones that have advance technologies and therefore, consuming most of the fossil fuels of the earth then emitting carbon. I believe that they are the ones that carry the most responsibility to be more “green” compared to smaller, developing countries. They don’t only use most of the organic good stuff on earth but they have the most ways to be more effective in the mission to save it. They have the technology and the specialists to think of clever, clean ways to be more earth friendly. But one question they must take into consideration is, how much are they willing to risk for the future of the earth? Their support of whatever organization can sabotage their businesses and industries. It is very risky for them.

We all live in one world that we have to take care of if we still want to live a few more million years. Everyone has a responsibility to the environment we all share. The space we stand in in this earth is ours and we should love it the same way we love ourselves.