Reinventing globalization

The Jakarta Post, Year-end Edition, 30 December 2002

by Yanuar Nugroho

If there is one word that has been the most frequently mentioned by people around the world over the past three to five years, it has been globalization. Leaders would have less confidence if they did not include or address globalization in any of their speeches. Newspapers and magazines would have less pride if they did not denote globalization in their articles.
Most people are more than willing to be regarded as global people rather than as locals, and that they are forcing themselves to deal with globalization’s hallmarks; i.e., a global lifestyle.

Challenges in public services delivery

The Jakarta Post, Year-end Edition, 30 December 2002

by Yanuar Nugroho

Clean water, health care and access to energy are the three most essential of basic human needs, with education perhaps the fourth. All people are entitled to these things. Yet the reality is completely different, with people around the world having less and less access to what are basic human needs.

According to the UN, there are 1.2 billion people worldwide who live on less than US$1 a day, 113 million children who do not attend school, 11 million young children who die every year and more than one billion people who still lack access to safe drinking water (UNDP, 2002).

Essential services in 2003

The Jakarta Post, Year-end Edition, 30 December 2002

by Yanuar Nugroho

Life is a game of power. The powerful rulers have their power not because others want it, but because the former use the latter for their own benefit.

Despite its bright side, globalization, in one or many ways, has been creating the imbalances between the powerful, who benefit from the increasing share of our world economy, and the powerless, who suffer from it. Will the year 2003 become known as the year when these imbalances start to be become more equitable, or get worse?

Techno-ethics: Dealing with ambivalence of advancements

The Jakarta Post, Year-end Edition, 30 December 2002

by Yanuar Nugroho

In the field of science and technology, globalization will contribute significantly to mark 2003 as the year when technological advancements would explicitly bring about ethical problems regarding most aspects of humanity. The whole history of human beings might be rerouted to new paths that we never would have imagined before.

Year-end reflection: An urgency for paradigm shift

The Jakarta Post, 27 Dec 2002 : Opinion & Editorial

by Yanuar Nugroho

Humanity involves a pilgrimage across space and time. Panta rei, everything is in flux, Heraclitus would say, meaning that since everything flows and continues to flow, you can never step into the same river twice. Life indeed is a river of time, a river in which we have seen many important things over the past year.

The power of corporations towards good governance

The Jakarta Post, Wednesday, 18-12-02

by Yanuar Nugroho,

For those who are aware of what globalization is really all about, the case of Sony, which decided to abandon Indonesia and lay off more than one thousand people several weeks ago, will be very easy to understand. Indeed, capital is free to move anywhere for it does not comprehend such concepts as “nationalism” and “patriotism”.