1.2: Are You One of a Kind?


To what extent does globalization enrich your identity?

To what extent does globalization threaten your identity?

Perspective on Globalization and Identity


Is there any one "right way" to look at globalization? With some background knowledge, we can recognize that other people have different ways of looking at the world and that perspective has a basis in reality and values. For example, many people who live in Canada have benefited from globalization. They can buy goods from around the world relatively cheaply; they have access to food, clothing, and music from all parts of the world; and their labour is valued so that they receive reasonable salaries for the work they do. People from developing nations may feel that globalization has harmed them because they have lost their traditional way of life to the dominant culture. First Nations people may feel that they lost not only their way of life but also their ancestral lands through colonization. Environmentalists may feel that globalization is damaging the planet and is, therefore, largely a negative force. Each of these perspectives has a basis in reality, which must be considered.

Are You One of a Kind?



You are not normal! If you are reading these pages, you belong to the minority of the world's population that goes to school, has access to health care and social security, and enjoys many freedoms. You no doubt live on more than $2 a day, and, unlike 14% of the world's adults, you can read. (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2017) Very few people have all these attributes.

You do not live the way most people live. About 10% the people in the world live on less than $2 per day. The average income worldwide is just over $10 000 annually, less than 1/4 the average income in Canada. 23% of children worldwide are malnourished. (World Bank Key Development Data) One hundred and nine of the world's 195 nations are either not free or partially free, meaning that the liberties and basic political rights of their citizens are limited or severely curtailed. About 4.5 billion people, well over 50% of the world, live in such countries. (Freedom House)

Most people in the world are poor and oppressed. Statistically, a normal human being in today's world is poor, lives in oppressive physical, social, and political conditions, and is ruled by an unresponsive and/or non-democratic government. But being normal is not only defined by statistics. Normal implies something that is usual, typical, or expected. Therefore, normal is not only what is most frequent, but also what others expect. The expectations of the minority override the realities of the majority. An enormous gap occurs between what average citizens in advanced Western democracies think is normal and the reality faced by the overwhelming majority of people.

What is normal? We assume that normal is eating at least three meals a day, walking the streets without fear, and having access to water, electricity, phones, and public transportation. That might be what we expect, but it is not reality for most people.

  • 795 million people do not get enough to eat on a regular basis. (worldhunger.org, 2016)
  • Almost 1 billion people, or 13% of the world's population, lack electricity. (World Bank, 2016)
  • 2.5 billion people rely on wood and/or animal dung for cooking and heating. (World Energy Council, 2015)
  • It is estimated that there are more mobile devices (e.g. cellphones) in the world than people. However, in some countries in the world, fewer than 10% of people have a cell phone. (World Bank, 2016)
  • 73 million children under the age of 12 work to stay alive. (International Labour Office, 2016)
  • Maternal mortality in low income countries is 1 per 202 children born, while in Canada that figure drops to about 1 in 14 000 children born. (World Bank, 2015)

Can we use our values to judge others? Many of us believe the way we live should be a target for all nations. Certainly, access to health care, food, clean water, education, and fair government are worthy goals. However, we all have different ideas about what is important. If we assume every culture wants the same thing, and if we assume every government can help its citizens achieve those objectives, we are using our own values to judge others.

We need to remember the realities others face. We want people to have a better life, but we cannot assume that our definition of normal is the same as what most people in the world see as normal. We need to keep this in mind when we think about who we are and what kind of world we want.