A lot of the antipathy to economic globalisation is related to the power of multinational companies, which in some cases have a budget greater than some smaller countries.

jeremiah – thanks. like I said I am not anti-globalization. it just needs to be done well and ethically.

sonja – you're right. and I was responding in knee jerk style to some of the extreme i encounter these days. these extremes exist and I think the complexities need to be made known alongside them. but its hard to use their language and not just be assumed to be just like them

I need to apologize too for posting when not properly caffeinated and letting my own rant get the best of me.

It is possible to support small (even women owned cooperatives) that are in other countries with our shopping dollars and prevent xenophobic tendencies. There are great websites for this such as Ten Thousand Villages, Amani Ya Juu, or Global Goods Partners (where you can shop by producer as well as product). There are dozens of places on the web now … simply refusing to support the industrial complex (here or there) does not necessarily mean that one is xenophobic or even only wants to support white Americans. It may just mean they haven't figured anything else out yet.

Thanks. I think everybody has knee jerk reactions on this issue (including me).

As being someone actually living in and dealing with a third world economy, I agree that its not at all easy to figure out what is going on.

I should note that I did include the word hero in quotation marks for the very reason you are giving. They aren't intending to be anybody's hero — they just want to make money. I should have rather stated it that way than use quotations marks.

On the other hand, I do see instances where globalization does result in good things.

In a fallen world you can always point out where things did not go as they could or should have.

I wonder sometimes though if a first world person has any sufficient perspective to judge dealings with third world nations without having had to deal with those third world people.

Having lived in both worlds, I find that carefully (and fairly) managed foreign investment and business could be a real relief to locals. On the other hand, when combined with the real motive (greed) on both local and international sides, there are occasions where the poor guy at the bottom of the ladder doesn't feel much better.

I suppose I could go on and on about this from both sides but I shall shut up!

I think there's a kind of innate biological part of us that is suspicious of food that comes from unknown sources – it's a self protection mechanism. Culturally our consumption practices have grown up in situations where we know and trust the middlemen, the farmers, bakers, merchants, etc we interact with.

Advertising tries to create a false sense of the known and trustworthy merchant – we can relax with Ronald McDonald or the jolly Green Giant or Nike footwear, they become a stand in for the local shopkeeper.

And what's going on, I think, is a small trend in reaction to this – when our trust is betrayed by lead in Barbies (Barbie, didn't we know you??) or Nike exploiting it's workers, the facade begins to crumble. And people awaken to the discomfort of feeling a real lack of control in not knowing in a personal way, the people who have made what they buy.

I agree that an ugly strain in all of this is to frame it in an anti-foreign labor fashion. Using people's discomfort or even fear to try to promote a rah-rah American-made ideal is grotesque. Reminds me of the Big 3 auto companies trying to keep you buying American – when Toyota has plants in the US and GM has plants in Mexico.

Ultimately though we can't forget that our money is power. Who we choose to give it to matters.

Apparently it's not that easy.

One family found it very difficult to intentionally NOT buy goods from China – example – virtually all children's sneakers/shoes are made in China…! They found this to be true in other areas as well, areas that shocked me.

Good read if you haven't read it.