Globalization, whether considered beneficial or harmful, is often considered the major driving force of the modern global economy. From clothing to computers, most of the products we use have components from many countries and are produced far from where they are sold. This system of utilizing multiple sources for components is due in part to the low cost of transportation. However, will this always be the case?

In an article by ABC News (Click Here), the consequences of higher transportation costs are described. In the summer of 2008, the cost of a barrel oil surpassed $100 for the first time in history. These massive oil costs led to an even larger increase in shipping costs. Due to these increased shipping costs, some companies found that it was more profitable to produce goods in the country in which they were selling in rather than using lower manufacturing costs somewhere else. This change is described as reverse globalization.

Although oil prices are not as high as they once were, reverse globalization is still occurring. The automotive industry provides an example of this. In the United States, Korean car company Hyundai built their first plant in 2002 to reduce their overall costs. Since transportation costs are proportional to the volume of goods being transported, Hyundai chose to manufacture their top selling U.S. vehicles at this plant to minimize these costs. Despite being only a single plant, this decision has been very successful in that it has helped Hyundai garner a stronger presence in the United States.

This might lead one to think that countries like India will suffer from this reverse globalization in America. However, similar occurrences are happening in India as well. Most high-end automakers who could afford to have their vehicles shipped into India since they already command a price premium are now being built in India for Indians. These include vehicles like the Audi A4, BMW 5 Series, and Mercedes C-Class. Although I do not remember the original page with the information pertaining to the particular vehicles produced, Wikipedia also contains this list: (Click Here)

Coca-Cola, which used to be imported into India, is now being produced in plants once used by a local cola producer.

Given the gains experienced world-wide from reverse globalization, does this mean the end of globalization? Or is this simply a false term, and merely an evolution of globalization?

-Mathew Perez

Alms…….to give or not to give? That is the question.

Visitors to India each year are most certainly bombarded by children in the streets begging for money, all day, every day. Often, these kind-hearted visitors will feel such sympathy; they will give to one child, then another, and then another. But the children just keep coming and coming and coming. The poor children of India’s slums and suburbs number in the thousands and too often, the money given to them is never seen by these needy children again, but rather placed in the hands of the…mafia? Yes, the “begging mafia” as it is referred to in India.

It is common to find that in the states of Kerala, Bihar and New Delhi, where the children are not begging for themselves. They are begging for a kingpin who exploits them daily to make a quick profit. Police statistics, which are presumably well understated, report the number of missing Indian children per year at 44,000. These number are staggering but even more than the numbers is the sad truth that hundreds if not thousands of children are not “missing” at all, but kidnapped, drugged, and used in the begging-trade. Run much like a drug trade, there are numerous levels of organization; from the children, ranging in age from infants to teenagers, to the women posed as social workers, to gang masters who will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing to hit their daily “targets.”

…criminals are so violent and amoral that they are prepared to hack the limbs off children, as well as steal new-born babies from hospitals…They use the children as begging ‘props’ to maximize their earnings from sympathetic passers-by. For in Mumbai, as well as in other major Indian cities, hundreds of young children have had their arms and legs chopped off; scores of others have been blinded. The gangs also pour acid on to the children’s bodies, leaving them with suppurating wounds…By no means all are mutilated by the beggar mafia, but those with the worst injuries do make the most money — up to £10 a day for deformed children, a fortune in a country where millions survive on just a tenth of that…

It is no wonder that the begging trade is so pervasive and ruthless. Almost as lucrative as the drug trade, the beggar mafia brings in over $30 million a year and that’s only in Mumbai. With over 300,000 children begging on the streets of India, there is plenty of money to go around. Plenty of money to keep corrupt local law enforcement at bay, and commonly turn a blind eye and ear to the parents of ‘missing’ children. What’s worse is the way in which these criminals enforce their rules and manage to keep these children under their control and exploit them day in and day out.

After being abducted, the children are taught begging techniques. “They are taught the ways and nuances of begging such as the most appropriate place to beg, the kind of people one should approach, the kind of dialogues and mannerisms that would make everyone sympathize,” said Mufti Imran, a researcher with the non-governmental organisation Save the Children. “The more a person is tortured or tormented, the more unfortunate he looks – all this will invoke more sympathy among the people who will then give them alms, and religious places are the perfect places to extract more,” said Mr Imran, explaining why the beggars seek out places of worship.…Perhaps unsurprisingly, almost all of these child beggars, whether mutilated or not, are addicted to solvents, alcohol and charras (powerful Afghan hashish, often laced with opium), which are supplied by the gang masters to keep the children under control. ‘It helps us forget where we are,’ says Tufhaar, nine, a child beggar who had his left arm removed and constantly sucks on a bag filled with glue. Right across this chaotic city, amputees line the streets, operating in aggressive gangs at every intersection and tourist attraction. Many maimed children are terrified of speaking out, saying their limbs ‘just disappeared’ or blaming unspecified ‘accidents’. This code of silence is understandable. ‘The gang masters hold you down and cut out your tongue if they think you have informed,’ says Flintoff, 18, a ‘reformed’ local Indian gangster and former child beggar who wears a T-shirt with a picture of the rapper Eminem. ‘I still steal now and again, and sell drugs — but I keep away from the beggar mafia. These men are not human.’

The Indian government has banned begging and even placed fines to those seen giving handouts to children on the streets, but enforcement is almost nonexistent. The government itself will not admit that many of its countries children are forced into this type of life-long slavery. What are the poor children of India to do when their government has seemed to give up on them? Run away? Run away to what? To where?

How can India’s government get a handle on this type of corruption? How does India’s government combat a society “born to beg?”

The following video brought tears to my eyes…what can be done?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ_dH9KX4XQ

I’m certain when we embark for India, we all will encounter many of these poor children begging for anything they can get. Certainly some of these poor will really be in desperate need and your money may actually go to their good cause but how can you be sure? Does offering a bit of hope with a handout also mean you are supporting the beggar mafia?

When we visit India this summer, will you give?

-Leslie Mann

Works Cited:

http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/bhiksha/begging.htmhttp://sacredcows.typepad.com/weblog/2008/05/begging-mafia.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Indias-Missing-Children—Kidnapped,-Forced-into-Prostitution-or-in-Mafia-run-Begging-Gangs&id=477615

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1127056/The-real-Slumdog-Millionaires-Behind-cinema-fantasy-mafia-gangs-deliberately-crippling-children-profit.html

Related Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmpON5eT1uY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejFI6JcVsLA

Helpful Travel Hints: http://goindia.about.com/od/annoyancesinconveniences/p/indiabegging.htm

For centuries, India has taken pride in its ability to assimilate foreigners that immigrate to its territory. The videshi (foreigner), allured by the many charms of India becomes a deshi, someone native to the desh (country). A historical example of this comes in the legendary story of the arrival to India of the Parsi people, of Zoroastrian faith, who were fleeing forced conversion to Islam in Persia sometime between the eighth and the tenth century. When they first asked for the local ruler’s permission to settle on his land, they received a negative response. They were told: “India is a glass of milk filled to the brim” and that there was no room. The Parsis’ response was equally poetic and so spiritual that the king, delighted, reconsidered and ultimately welcomed them to his land. The Parsis’ replied that they would be “like a spoonful of sugar in milk”, and their presence would make life in the kingdom even more pleasant for all its inhabitants.

During India’s struggle for independence, Gandhi insisted that a clear distinction be made between two imperatives: driving out the British civilization, with its imperialist, capitalist and militaristic tenets and getting rid of the English. For Gandhi, an Englishman who was ready to live in India as an Indian was welcome as an equal. But all were not of that opinion… Today, the concept of homeland is very strong among Indians. Even when they migrate to America, Europe or elsewhere, they remain deshi.

Many Indians today benefit from relocation as they can easily find work by offering a more affordable work force. In India however, some are uncomfortable with the large influx in Chinese workers which are there for the same reason: they offer businesses a competitive edge. Although the Chinese are more expensive, they have a reputation of being able to complete projects in record times. Simultaneously, millions of Indians are jobless, but India needs to progress and develop fast. New Delhi has made it a priority that the new airport and public transport network be ready for the Commonwealth Games in October 2010. The image, visitors should take away is that of a modern desh, even if this image is shaped by the work of foreigners.

Source: http://www.courrierinternational.com/breve/2010/03/15/new-delhi-demande-a-la-france-un-geste-envers-les-sikhs

-Michael Harroch