HSCI 3533 Science and Global Politics

The #FridaysForFuture is a global movement by young people to force policymakers to make changes to protect the planet from global warming. The movement unites young people from around the world. The event occurred during the week of March 15^th and their website states that at least 1.6 million strikers from 125 countries participated in over 2000 strikes.

For a second week, 300,000 German students are expected to skip class to protest about an inaction towards global warming. The movement started with 200 people in Berlin in December and has grown since then. Organizers and other activists reference a report from the United Nations in October on the severity of global warming.

I chose this photo for two reasons. First of all, the message on their hands is strong and rememberable. For most adults, especially those with children, the message would hit home strongly. Secondly, the use of putting the words on their hands stands out. Rather than typical posters at most rallies, putting it on their hands stands out, especially for the photo. The matching of the message and it being written on their hands makes the connection further.

Since this is a student protest, I think the attention in the media would be greater. Most adults think strongly that kids should be in school. Since these students skipped class to attend the protest, it sends a strong message.

Similar protests occurred across the world. This speaks to a universal message that young people are telling those in government that the current state of the planet is not how they want to take over. That the future of the world is in the hands of those in government and they have to make changes.

 
Sources:

https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-germany-worldwide-climate-change-20190328-story.html

https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture/2019/03/15/students-stage-global-protest-speak-out-climate-change-inaction/qhx7GixeAmfBIVSesoC7wK/story.html?p1=BP_Headline

Pharmaceuticals is one of the largest industries in the world. Big name companies like Pfizer, Roche, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis spend millions of dollars on research and development of new medications. Up for debate recently in the United States has been how pharmaceutical companies have been charging large amounts for live-saving medication. This makes the medication hard to reach for those without good insurance in the United States. For countries in the developing world, this makes the medications practically impossible to receive.

Critics of the pharmaceutical companies bring up the large amount of resources these companies direct for advertising and marketing. Much of this marketing being directed towards the patient rather than the doctors. Critics argue that the money could be spent to lower the cost of the medication, therefore making it accessible to more people. Many believe that the goal of medicine should be to help people, however the pharmaceutical industry is seen to be more focused on profits then people’s health.

Government regulations on the approvals of new drugs have also been up for debate. The protections were put in place to protect patients. The approval process includes lab tests, peer review, and clinical trials before a drug can be sold on the open market. An unintended effect of this is that it has slowed the speed for which people can get new prescriptions. This, in some cases, means that people cannot get a medicine that could potentially help them. It has also made it so that if a company launches a new medication, it will take time for a competitor to launch a competing product.

This is an example of how large corporations are able to influence government regulations. Similarly, telecom companies were able to lobby the FCC to remove net neutrality protections. These corporations argue that the regulations can be burdensome and should be removed. While consumers want the protections so that companies cannot abuse the power that they inherently have. The debate over where the line between free market capitalism and government regulation lies spans across industries and decades. I think it is interesting to see how people react to situations like this and if they are able to put enough pressure on companies and the government to make changes. Industries like pharmaceuticals are hard to protest because if you need the medication to survive, you don’t have a choice but to take the medicine or suffer the consequences which hardly affect the companies.

The status of what the internet is has been a debate since inception. Many of the early creators of the internet and other frequent users believe that the internet should be open and free for all to use. Just as the air that you use to speak is. But corporations, governments, and other entities try to make the internet a private space where access is given at their discretion and the content is subject to their filtering.

The documentary, “We are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists,” tells the story of groups like Anonymous who police the internet according to their beliefs of how it should be operated. Some of their actions were purely for entertainment purposes. Other times they expose corporate wrong doings and government corruption. Ultimately, those who identify as Anonymous believe that they are working for the common good to protect free speech and take down any threat to internet freedom. Through actions such as DDoS attacks, or distributed denial-of-service attacks, hacktivists are able to slow a websites service so much that it temporarily stops working.

Some have seen the actions of Anonymous and other groups as terrorist attacks. Many of those people are the people that Anonymous is trying to stop. While some of Anonymous’ actions are criminal, locating and prosecuting them can be difficult. There also comes the moral questions of if their actions are justified.

The film being released in 2012 talks about the early days of the internet “hacktivists.” Issues pertaining to the access of the internet are still debated today. The FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality was seen to be the end of the internet as we knew it, but many of the worst-case scenarios have not occurred. Advocates of a free and open internet continue to push for legal protections of the internet to keep it a place where people can share ideas and create communities. Groups like Anonymous will continue to work as a sort of vigilante to protect their idea of a free and open internet. Ultimately, the public will need to decide if they want the internet to be a free space for all or a space that is regulated by corporations.

In the Globalization book, the author, Manfred Steger, talks about three ideas of globalization; Market, Justice, and Religious Globalization. Steger defines market globalization as globalization based on free-market norms. This is dominant idea of globalization because it is based on a top down distribution of information from those in power to their followers. This makes this form of globalization hard to resist because there is inherent power in most of the creators of the message. Justice globalization as a unified global community that is equal. This primarily challenges market globalization because it wishes to put everyone on the same level and have a more even distribution of power and wealth. Consider the Occupy movements that wanted to completely change capitalism and the financial institutions to be more equal. Also in this category are groups like the World Social Forum (WSF) that Religious globalization as making the global community based off of religious values in a world threatened by consumerism. The most well known example of this is Jihadist Islamism and the attacks on New York City on September 11th, 2001.

Steger provides Donald Trump as an example of a powerful voice who is “anti-globalization.” Despite investments across the world, Trump’s political campaign opposed stronger relations with other countries for a theme of his view of national identity. In a speech to the United Nations, Trump focused on America’s “independence and cooperation over global governance, control, and domination,” and asked the world to respect and “to honor our sovereignty in return” (1)(2). Trump favors “the doctrine of patriotism” over “the ideology of globalism” (1)(2). Steger mentions that people like Donald Trump are tied to the idea of a national image. Therefore they react against all three of the globalization ideas without providing an accurate view of the changing global landscape.

The way different people grow up and are influenced affects what theory of globalization they might believe in or if they do not believe in any of them. Technology allows for the faster sharing of information around the world and while some may believe that globalization is not real or should not occur will struggle to take control as more people are able to share their ideas and access other people’s.

 

(1)  The White House, “Remarks by President Trump to the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly – New York, NY”, September 25, 2018 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-73rd-session-united-nations-general-assembly-new-york-ny/

(2) Aljazeera, “Why Trump Remains Anti-Globalist Even Inside the United Nations?”, October 1, 2018 http://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2018/10/trump-remains-anti-globalist-united-nations-181001102544114.html#a1