No obituaries for globalisation

In a recent television interview, the self-styled architect of the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, Nigel Farage, was at it again.

This time he had bigger targets in his sights – the demise of the European Union itself and with it the concept of globalisation.

The COVID-19 pandemic was doing it, he said. Flights were halted, national borders were being strengthened; international agencies were neutered and all over the world ultra-nationalist leaders – including his personal friend Donald Trump, were in the ascendancy.

A week is a long time in a pandemic, and since Farage made those gleeful predictions things have changed.

Populist Governments, including that of the UK, are proving the least capable of dealing with the crisis. There, and in Trump’s United States, the death tolls are still rising while other countries with more mainstream (dare I say competent) administrations are beginning to see lights at the end of their tunnels.

In Brazil, Populist President Jair Bolsonaro is running amok, claiming the pandemic is “just a little flu” and pointedly flaunting social distancing advice by shaking hands and hugging anyone who is daft enough to get near him.

The avidly pro-business leader had this comment to those who questioned his free-wheeling attitude to the crisis: “People are going to die, I’m sorry, but you can’t close a car factory because there are traffic accidents.”

This weekend he finally sacked his long-suffering Minister for Health who has desperately tried to promote traditional methods of stopping the virus’ spread, such as lockdowns and business closures, in defiance of his boss’ antics. 

Leaving aside the ideology, those commentators with a knowledge of history that goes beyond yesterday’s tweet on their smartphones, will know that far from being a modern phenomenon, globalisation is a resilient beast with a lengthy pedigree.

It can be argued that it existed from the days when Phoenician merchants set sail across the Mediterranean in search of profits, but certainly since the 19^th century as the European exploitation of its colonies around the world went into overdrive.

Since then globalisation has survived the disruptions of two world wars, a flu pandemic far worse than this one, the Great Depression, 9/11 and the Global Financial Crisis.

In recent times, technology has strengthened its growth. The text messages that anti-globalisation activists use to organise their demonstrations would not exist without globalisation.

Finally, in the midst of this pandemic, the fight against the virus is being carried on through the cooperation of medical researchers working in laboratories around the world – a truly international effort that will bear fruit years in advance of isolated national efforts in even the most advanced countries.

Globalisation has its dark sides. It has been a conduit for misery as well as prosperity. It has benefitted international crime as well as global economies. The pandemic has exposed its faults as well as its strengths.

However, if the billions of humanity have any real hope of surviving, let alone flourishing, on this small stressed planet there is simply no other way.