32. Chernobyl disaster

Twenty five years ago, on the 26^th of April in 1986 the terrible news of Chernobyl disaster spread all the planet announced about the biggest accident of the 20^th century – the explosion on the forth power block of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the Ukraine which took away lifes of tens thousand people. That day we realized that atom can be not only peaceful. Due to this explosion there was a highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere which covered thousands of square kilometers of land.

The first official information was made on television of 27^th of April. In rather dry report it was told about the fact of accident and two victims. They began to inform about real scale of accident much later.

People of nearby territories were evacuated and the district infected with radiation became an alienation zone.

There is also such striking fact that while foreign mass media told about threat for people’s lifes in Europe and even Asia, in Kiev and other cities of the Ukraine and Belarus were spent the celebratory demonstrations devoted to the 1^st of May.

Thousand of Soviet people like engineers, builders, soldiers took part in liquidation on the Nuclear Power Station sacrificing their lifes. It was heroi manual labour in very hard and dangerous conditions.

Nobody warned ther about terrible risk. Some of the participants of the liquidation of Chernobyl catastrophe consequences have already died or have serious problems with their health.

The health of the whole population in nearby regions was seriously damaged which resulted in increas of infantile mortality and in increas of the amount of children born with leukemia, tumors and other illnesses.

Eventually it seemes that bitterness and keenness of perception of this tragedy lost, the name of the herous have forgotten. But today after the destructive earthquake in Japen when the nuclear phobia has spread all the world, the events happened in Chernobyl are taking on special significance. Chernobyl accident is also a stern lesson and remembrance that it is impossible to treat environment thoughtlessly and use it’s riches wastefuly.

33. Cultural aspects of Globalisation

Nowadays millions of people from all over the world feel themselves how our world is becoming global. And they see how globalization interferes with economics, societies, goods and cultures. And thus it is so it, of course, has it’s own advantages and disadvantages.

Some people think that globalization is very good for them and for their country. It means that there are several major factors of good affect of it. Firstly, the Internet has become spread around the world and that is why it is possible nowadays to talk to an American, Italian or Japanese friend. Besides the Internet saves time, energy and helps to study. For example, with the help of computers you can get a lot of knowledge because computers are connected to libraries, universities and major research institutions. Secondly, now it is easier to make different operations with money because in today’s world there is a universal currency called Euro. You can easily use it in any European country and every bank or shops will take it. And finally, globalization makes it easier to communicate with each other, because everybody learn one international language. I think it is very important because it makes our life easier, for example you can speak English in every country and everybody understand you, it means that you shouldn't learn a lot of other languages.

Other people believe, that in today’s world there is enormous pressure on culture and traditions. It is impossible to say that traditions can be global. But speaking about people’s values nowadays, I can say that they are humanistic. It is very difficult to persuade nations to live together in peace. And though it is so, there are organizations which try to solve such problems because they don’t need the Third World War.

As for some other problems of globolization there are, of course,  problems with education, diseases and politics, but the most important ,of course, is economic one. Anti-globalisation protestors are protesting about the dominance in the world economy of large multi-national companies. They consider that these companies spread their own western culture at the expense of other cultures, and that they exploit developing countries and the enviroment in general.

Protestors can show their protest by different ways, but usually it is,of course, demonstarion. For example in 1999, a collection of 50,000 environmentalists, students, anarchists and ordinary members of the public gathered in Seattle to protest against a meeting there of the World Trade Organisation. The demonstration began peacefully, but by the end of the day, protestors had smashed shop windows and destroyed property, the police had fired plastic bullets and gat into the crowd.  The “Battle of Seattle” is now seen as the start of a world-wild anti-globalisation movement. The next demonstarion was in Genoa in 2001. It was the largest protest, where 300,000 demonstrators clashed with police in violent conflict, at which one person died and hundreds were injured.

So, globalisation plays an important role in my life and in life of everybody in this world not only because that it helps to make a global language but also because it simply unites people from all over the world.

"Globalization" is the sort of word where everyone is expected to know what it means, but where few people could offer a clear definition. Globalization is a controversial issue for business and governments throughout the world. We recognize globalization mainly through its effects. It's a bit like electricity - we can not see it, but we certainly observe what it does. Globalization can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. It's a movement of people, goods, capital and ideas due to increased economic integration. Globalization is a controversial issue mainly because different groups interpret it in different ways. For its opponents globalization is a threatening word. It prompts visions of large multinationals dominating the world in pursuit of ever-higher profits. Many pressure groups fear that globalization threatens the environment as well as national cultures - they predict that it will make the rich nations richer and the developing countries even poorer than they are. But its supporters have another point of view. They believe that increasing and freer trade between nations will offer prosperity and economic growth for all countries and businesses. So globalization is likely to be a hot potato for the twenty-first century. 

I personally think that globalization is an extremely complex web of many things and like any other process it has its positive and negative sights. As far as the benefits are concerned there it's possible to name next statements:" An opportunity to get acquainted with cultures of different nations; " A variety of choice for consumers: when they can buy in their local stores and supermarkets not only home-produced goods but also foreign ones; " Transnational corporations create additional work places for local people, at the same it' convenient for these large corporations as well: they may locate the labour-intensive part of their production process in countries with a relative abundance of labour in order to minimize their costs; " Another point is risk-sharing. It's more reasonable to invest money not in one company but to create an international company with great amount of subsidiaries in various countries, so it won't have so serious consequences if one of them will not stand cut-throat competition; " This cut-throat competition in the local markets between domestic and foreign producers leads to production of high-quality goods.

And we turn to the disadvantages of globalization, they are:

• " Pollution of the environment (and there one peculiarity should be admitted - developed countries try to locate their harmful for the environment factories and works hot in their own countries but in developing countries);

• " Globalization destroys cultural identity, for example Europeans usually try to impose their customs and traditions on Asian people;

• " Multinational corporations prefer to use cheap labour-force of developing countries for instance in Asia. And at the same time they provide their workers with bad and sometimes even awful working conditions;

• " It's difficult for domestic producers to compete with multinational corporations especially if it's an infant industry; to cut a long story short globalization causes inconveniences for local companies;

• " And last but not least is that we don't actually know to what globalization can lead, we don't realize its consequences.

And it's necessary to say that globalization causes antiglobalization. Anti-globalists are protesting against the dominance in the world economy of large (usually American) multinational companies. They consider that these companies spread their own western culture on the other cultures and that they exploit developing countries and the environment in general.

As a result anti-globalists try to struggle against globalization in forms of demonstrations and rallies.

For example in November 1999 a collection of 50,000 environmentalists, students, anarchists and ordinary people gathered in Seattle, USA, to protest against a meeting there of the WTO. The demonstration began peacefully, but by the end of the day protestors had smashed shop windows and destroyed property; as a result the police had fired plastic bullets and gas into the crowd.

It should be said that American companies, such as McDonald's, GAP and Starbucks, are often become targets for violence and vandalism. In 1999 Jose Bove, a French farmer, became a national hero when he demolished a new McDonald's as a protest against the standardization of food, the impact of McDonald's on local business and the high level of US taxes on imported European food. And in the end I'd like to say that globalization is still a controversial issue for businesses and governments throughout the world and nobody knows when a compromise will be found.