Alternatives to Globalization in
the Mediterranean
International meetings often highlight, but eventually fail to address in concrete terms, the problems they set out to tackle. This is probably because they are often almost "chance" meetings between people who have a great deal of competence and experience in their respective fields but who do not form part of a real process of collaboration and partnership building. In a sense, the international workshop held in Malta to discuss "Building Partnership for a Sustainable Future in the Mediterranean" faced this problem squarely. Workshop mentor Eric van Monckhoven made it clear that the success of the meeting could only be gauged when the participants returned home and started to forge real partnerships and to work on real projects that go beyond globalization towards local regeneration in the Mediterranean. One of the objectives of this international workshop was to link the experience of NGOs, fair trade networks, local authorities, environmental groups, and international agencies through concrete working partnership for the local regeneration of the environment in the Mediterranean. The participants highlighted the need to promote local social and environmental regeneration and to reduce people dependency on transnational corporate powers. More specifically, the participants decided to strengthen their cooperation along the lines of Agenda 21 and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). They agreed that their initiatives should include crosscultural understanding, primary environmental care, fair trade and ethical funding. The participants stressed that "priority should be given to the most vulnerable groups who depend directly on natural resources, like land, water and biodiversity for their survival." These groups are increasingly threatened by problems such as war, drought, water scarcity, land degradation, and urbanization. Combating Globalization and the Myth
of Irreversibility
According to the “blunt” definition of globalization quoted by Colin Hines in his excellent, no-nonsense book, Localization – A Global Manifesto (Earthscan, 2000), globalization is “the process by which governments sign away the rights of their citizens in favour of speculative investors and transnational corporations.” It is also “the erosion of wages, social welfare standards and environmental regulations for the sake of international trade” and the “imposition world-wide of a consumer monoculture. Widely but falsely believed to be irreversible”. Despite the scepticism of armchair critics about the existence of globalization on the one hand, and the condescending attitude towards globalization by politicians like Prime Minister Fenech Adami (speech at UN Millennium Summit) and opposition spokesperson Leo Brincat (The Sunday Times, 3.9.2000) on the other hand, in the era of globalization, more and more people are being marginalized. The gap between the "haves" and "have not" is widening. Many of the “contradictions, threats and tensions of our age are concentrated in the limited space of the Mediterranean, with large-scale pollution and erosion of the environment, civil wars and armed conflicts, extreme nationalism, racism, religious fundamentalism, the denial of identity, ethnocentricity, arms dealing and nuclear proliferation, exclusion, economic dependence, the poverty trap, the destitution of street children, demography and migratory flows that are out of control.” In reality, despite its rich cultural identity/ies, the Mediterranean is still “marginalized in comparison with the large regional groups which are officially recognized by States and Intergovernamental Organizations” (Paola Antolini, Unesco Water Programme). The civil society actors participating in the Malta workshop reflected on two interconnected themes: the widening gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-not' and the issue of environmental degradation in the region. By focusing on this double challenge in synergy the participants discussed ways and shared ideas on how to help create a counterveiling force to the processes that exploit and exclude people while respecting the resource base on which their livelihood depends. Opportunities for civic action arising from this double challenge were explored and concrete proposals were put forward. Form and Content The various experiences shared during the workshop prove that it is still possible to create a society which is more just and liveable, which respects the dignity of human beings and the value of nature. The economy of solidarity, fraught with difficulties and contradictions, is nonetheless alive and kicking, bringing together those who have been excluded from development and those who have suffered from over-development, all victims, in different measure, of the process of "merchandization" on a world scale (Tonino Perna, CRIC, Italy). The credibility of such an international workshop lies in its ability to reflect in its mechanisms and internal dynamic the same values which it attempts to promote. Thus if such an workshop attempts to promote an alternative economy built on human dignity and relations as opposed to market forces and anonymity its mechanisms and internal dynamic ought to reflect the same values. The size of the workshop itself, with 20 full-time participants, permitted a human scale dimension to the proceedings. Participants not only discussed sustainability issues but also got to know each other and enjoyed each other’s friendship. If one of the negative impacts of globalization is the shifting of the balance of power from public to private interests a response at a local level requires a totally different approach to power. Not least this approach requires the constant exercise of cooperative values and the use of power to facilitate the self-development of all. Fair Trade in Malta and the Mediterranean This workshop, which was the first act of the Mediterranean 2000 project for a sustainable future in the Mediterranean, set itself the task of promoting fair trade in the region and of providing the necessary financial facilities for small-scale, disadvantaged producers and workers to work their way out of poverty and social exclusion. This is not to say that fair trade is the answer to all ailments. In his book about "the ethical challenge to the world market" (Fair Trade, Bollati Boringhieri, 1998), Tonino Perna, who was one of the speakers at the workshop and a driving force in the EU-supported Mediterranean 2000 project promoted by CRIC and other Mediterranean NGOs, highlights some of the weaknesses and limits of the fair trade movement: some fair trade organizations depend too heavily on sometimes “unreliable” voluntary work while others have become too bureaucratic. Another problem is the strong competition offered by “normal” businesses marketing crafts and and other ethnic goods. There is also, unfortunately, a tendency towards internal divisions, a problem not faced by hierarchically structured businesses. But because of its holistic approach and its ability to provide answers to economic, environmental and cultural problems, fair trade is one way to ensure a sustainable future in any region. Unlike the market economy, in which people and relationships are considered less important than the work they do and what they produce, in fair trade and in traditional Mediterranean societies, people and relationships are more important than functions and products. The workshop emphasized the need for the individual partners in the region to promote “real” initiatives in favour of what Elisabetta Bottaro (Etimos, Italy) called “a social and economic development which is sustainable and balanced, aimed at the attainment of a basic objective: to create a zone of shared prosperity that respects human and material resources”. L-Arka One of the actors in this particular part of the Mediterranean 2000 project will be the Third World Group which introduced fair trade in Malta in 1996 by founding Koperattiva Kummerc Gust (Fair Trade Cooperative), Malta's first social cooperative, run by volunteers, that buys products from over 33 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Koperattiva Kummerc Gust imports directly from producers in the majority world and from established international organisations that market fair trade products. The Italian NGO CRIC (Centro Regionale d'Intervento per la Cooperazione) and Banca Etica supported the Maltese cooperative in the opening of the only world shop in Malta called L-Arka in 1997. Relations with these and other international partners, have been strengthened, not least by the Cooperative's participation in the April Malta workshop. In 1999, KKG joined IFAT and is now associated with CTM, Italy’s largest fair trade organization. The world shop L-Arka is situated just off the main streets of Valletta (306, St. Paul’s Street, tel. 244865) but the cooperative also regularly takes its fair-traded products to different cities and villages on the island to promote fair trade and to sell its products. L-Arka is run on a "non-profit" basis and the Maltese cooperative has bound itself legally to reinvest profits in projects that help to alleviate poverty. The members themselves to do benefit financially. The international workshop "Mediterranean
2000: Building Partnership for a Sustainable Future in the Mediterranean"
was organized by the leading Italian NGO CRIC (Centro regionale d’intervento
per la cooperazione) and the local Third World Group with the support of
the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and within the framework of a Development
education project coordinated by COSPE (Italy) and supported by the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs (Italy). The Mediterranean 2000 website is at www.mediterranean2000.cjb.net.
The group’s email is webgtd@email.com
Vince Caruana and Adrian Grima
|
