The Negative Effects Of Globalization And Poverty

In spite of all the benefits globalization has brought to the world, no one can deny its negative consequences. One of its negative effects is the issue of poverty that is the major reason why the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have not been achieved yet.

Many people say there is no link between globalization and poverty, claiming that if globalization had caused the poverty, why the rich countries would not have become poor. It is true that there is no direct link between them, but they are linked. When there is a phantom, tied aid, which benefits the rich countries and makes the poor carry the expenses, that means there is a link. According to STWR, due to many factors like the imbalanced trade and inappropriate measures imposed upon

Shiva said the Nitrogen fertilizers, sold to Africa with high prices, are doubly criminal because they force the poor into a debt and the humanity into an ecological one. (Null, 2008) Hence, that debt made the poor poorer due to the free trade by globalization.

According to the United Nations, poverty is not the lack of money only, but it is the lack of accessing to the most basic needs of humans like the food, health, education, clean water. Also, the number of people living in extreme poverty is 836 million while there are around 20% of the world’s population living on less than 1.25 dollars a day.

Although it was a target to halve the number of people living in hunger by 2015, the rates of poverty are raising. (STWR, n.d)

Poverty itself is a catastrophe as it affects all the aspects of life negatively. Since the rates of poverty are increasing, the rates of dead people are increasing at the same time. The same thing is happening with the rates of children out of schools and the spread of the

“Based on enrollment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005.” (United Nations, 2007, p.7) This is not only a crime against their childhood, but it is a crime against the advancement of their future and countries as it prevents them from dreaming of having a respectable certificate and a job. Also, it makes the countries lack of the qualified humans, who contribute to building their country and make it one of the developed ones.

Furthermore, because of the malnutrition, the unclean water and the adequate sanitation due to poverty, illnesses, like cholera and malaria, are spread among the poor people. There is a child dies every 45 seconds in Africa because of Malaria and 100- 200 thousands of people dying every year because of Cholera. (The Levin Institute, n.d.) Those people are seeing their children and families are dying every day without being able to do anything to save them as they can’t afford the high cost of