Educational Media Reviews Online

Life is a 30-part series on the effects of globalization in various countries around the world. The Story So Far is the first video in the series and serves as an overview, showing excerpts from subsequent titles and stating the basic arguments for and against globalization.

As the video points out, globalization has benefited some countries, such as those in Asia and several Latin American countries. Professor Francis Fukuyama says in the video that if countries accept the demands of globalization, they can be turned from losers into winners. Nevertheless, as MIT’s Lester Thurow points out, “Every country is on the globe, but every country is not in the global economy” because of a lack of education, infrastructure, and social organizations. Author Susan George says that in 2020, there will be 8 billion people on the globe, with 6 billion not included in the prosperity from globalization. The top three billionaires in the world now own more than the GNP of the 40 poorest countries. The danger of the new global economy is that it can “split the world as a society, making certain countries and certain populations within those countries extraordinarily wealthy, but subjecting other countries around the world to extraordinary poverty and insecurity,” according to former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.

This first episode of Life features scenes from other videos in the series that look at what globalization has wrought. In Brazil, an assembly line worker for Ford loses his job because the high interest rates in the country make it difficult for many people to buy cars. The Brazilian government had to raise rates in order to attract new capital from overseas after many foreign investors pulled money out of the country in a panic thinking that Brazil would follow many Asian countries in experiencing a sharp recession or depression. In Russia, the standard of living is worse than ever (except for the few who have become wealthy) and life expectancy has fallen. In Benin, the global economy has not arrived. A 13-year old girl has been selling food on the streets since she was five and most likely will never go to school.

Countries that are more prosperous are also discussed. The great economic growth Japan experienced has put so many women in the work force that the traditional role of women in caring for their elders has lessened at the very time more people are living longer. In the U.S., most of the jobs at Philadelphia Glass Bending have been moved overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor costs.

Bullfrog Films lists and briefly describes each of the videos on its web site: http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/ls1.html. Selecting a title in the list will take you to a more detailed description, as well as a link to the site of production company TVE. The TVE site includes a list of related links for each show, as well as the complete transcript of each episode. The site was apparently designed to coincide with the series’ airing on the BBC and has not been modified, so some of the references are outdated, but the links for episode one did work when I viewed them on July 13, 2001. They include articles by Robert Reich and Frances Fukuyama, Stuart Eizenstat’s commentary, “The U.S. Perspective on Globalization,” and sites for organizations such as the International Labor Organization, World Bank, and Panos Institute.

The series appears promising, judging from the online transcripts of the episodes I read. Although each episode is less than 30 minutes long, its topic gets a multifaceted exploration. As the introduction to the series, I would recommend this first installment. Considered on its own, it is less valuable because the excerpts from the individual stories are so brief. However, the speakers featured do make some interesting points.