What is Globophobe?

Nobody has yet asked us this question but we'll answer it anyway. No, it's not a fear of spheres. We are talking about the fear of globalization and its impact. The globalization wave we are experiencing today is so intense and the pressures so heavy that the effects are felt not just at the macro level but also at the micro level - by small and medium-sized companies, by entrepreneurs, by cities, towns, and villages, and by households and individuals. Whether you are a big fish or a small fry, you have to deal with the sometimes jarring effects of the greater interconnectedness of regions and economies and the swifter flow of information, data and capital. The forces of globalization are relentless; they can offer great advantages and they can tear you down without prejudice.

In Asia, the turbulence is particularly strong because in many we ways we are at globalization ground zero. The emergence of China and India, as well as other large emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia, is driving many of the structural changes happening in the world today, in particular, the rise in competition on the cost and quality of both goods and services - and not just at the low end. China and India are both threat and opportunity to everybody from their immediate Asian neighbors to small commodities producers in faraway Africa.

Whether you are a wheat farmer in Kansas or a street sweeper in Bamako, you are not immune to the pressures of globalization or the impact of the rise of China and India. And it is not so much that the world is getting flat; on the contrary, it is getting more uneven and inequitable. Globalization is creating peaks of excellence, where an economy, company, group or individual masters a particular niche, that connect somewhow or interact with other peaks of excellence, leaving the valleys to the laggards, the uneducated, the impoverished, the uncompetitive, the recalcitrant, the elderly, those untouched by modern communications, the uninsured, the illegal, the discriminated, the sick, the infected, the refugee, and others who are not somehow able to avail of the advantages of globalization. We should all work to somehow help those in the valleys move up to the peaks or at least higher up the competitiveness slope.

We feel that there is altogether too much optimism about globalization and not enough healthy skepticism. Everybody - from your elderly aunt to the newest infant born today - will have to learn about what is going on, about the impact of the rise of China and India, about the consequences of shifting competitive advantages. It may be trite to say, but it really boils down to education. And that is what Globophobe hopes to do - to educate ourselves and others by observing our world, particularly Asia, and writing about what works and what doesn't. We have no answers. Like everybody else, we have a lot to learn.