Just because the sun is shining - don't think you're not living in Blade Runner!
Why is it that I have to purchase American designed toys distributed 12,000kms from me, made in Indonesia 2,000 kilometres from me, from United Kingdom retailers 17,000 kms from me, because they're more expensive to purchase from the Australian Distributor 1000km from me?
Is this what globalisation has done for us? I have a conscience – I think of the fuel and money being wasted trucking this stuff around the globe – and how much must it really be worth if the parent company can afford for this to happen and still make bank (and I’m talking about a company that makes BANK!)
This isn’t globalisation – it’s global exploitation by major companies, based mainly in one Pacific Nation and milking the rest of the world dry one penny at a time. The Australian Consumer Competition Commission has recently brought down a ruling against California tech giants Microsoft and Apple because Australians have to pay more for tech items than any other nation in the developed world! 22 million of us – barely the size of an American state – subsidising the tech purchases of the rest of the world.
And what about the changes to copyright in the last decade and a half – individuals’ family can hold it for a maximum of 70 years after the creator’s death but thanks to the late, not so great Sonny Bono and his wife Mary, when individual copyright was extended from 50-70 years a rider was passed that Corporations can hold it for up to 120 years! An agreement devised by Corporations, colluded with by US Congress and foisted up the rest of the world's butt. And worse, if a Corporation restores an item (such as digital restoration of a film) and then destroys the original copies so no-one else can get hold of them - the copyright resets!
In Australia we were sold the Free Trade Agreement with a promise of easier, cheaper access to import and export worldwide. Since then the standard of living has decreased, unemployment has increased as companies move production offshore and Sydney is now the most expensive city to live in outside Hong Kong. Why? Who would sign an agreement like that? Our Government did – your Government did and now countries like Greece rue the day as they go under.
As Corporations are more and more free to move between nations to maximise profits and minimise tax, human movement is increasingly restricted.
At the micro-level - for us it means we have to be careful when we make a costume that it’s not too close to something that already exists – or might! To have a costume that looks like the original in a film, the theatre or on TV we’re forced to pay top whack for crap licensed commercial copies and remake many elements of them; instead of being able to take the time and creat a handmade, perfect replica (unless we can afford to buy the original and even then there are restrictions on how we can display it!) We have to buy product from the other side of the world while local businesses are failing.
What did globalisation bring us? Glasgow – a city full overflowing with heroin addicted, unemployed murderous people. Half the world is on Antidepressants and the other half is shooting each other.
Don’t look to a dystopian future – it's here already. Just because the sun is shining – don’t think you’re not living in Blade Runner.
However – it’s not all doom and gloom – as Frank Herbert said in the Dune books – no human being will obey an unjust law. The copyright blowout is already breaking down, even without stealing, all it takes is making derivative works freely available. As global pricing blows out on entertainment products, while the cost of basic appliances drops, hopefully people will once again turn to quality, artisan, handmade products and spend their money locally.
andulkaphoto
yousharknotpass
2087
prguitarman
