Globaliseringen er negativ for de fleste i Tanzania, konkluderer en undersøgelse. Kun nogle få uddannede tanzanianere med penge nyder godt af globaliseringen, mens “den globale landsby” er et fjernt fantasifoster for det store flertal.
Det viser en undersøgelse, som Mellemfolkeligt Samvirkes partner, “Legal and Human Rights Centre”, har begået om globaliseringens indvirkning på dagliglivet i det store østafrikanske land, hedder det i organisationens seneste nyhedsbrev.
Overordnet konkluderes det, at globaliseringen har øget kløften mellem rig og fattig og skabt grobund for flere økonomiske, politiske og sociale brud på menneskerettighederne.
Her artiklen i sin helhed fra MS-Tanzanias nyhedsmagasin.
By Tina Løvbom Petersen
How does globalisation affect workers and human rights in Tanzania? This question was the main focus of the research conducted in September 2003 in eight regions of Tanzania.
A total of 235 people from different sectors of society were interviewed; individual workers, business owners, NGOs, government officials and people representing the trade unions. The results of the research will soon be launched in a publication.
A large percentage of people, even people holding important government positions, did not really know what globalisation is. Several respondents have trouble explaining the impact of globalisation, such as how the evolution of the global society in the past 20 years has affected the welfare and rights of workers and human rights for all.
One clear result of the research is that many respondents see privatisation as the main reason for the rise in unemployment in the recent years. Privatisation is one of the biggest results of the globalisation process, and nearly half of the people interviewed do not think that it brings benefits for the country.
More than a third think that the welfare and the rights of workers was better before globalisation, and a great number of respondents felt that due to privatisation and globalisation workers don’t have the same job protection or fair salaries that they used to.
About 37 percent of individual respondents are unable to make decisions regarding their employment and they cannot discuss issues with their employer. Many of them did not receive an employment manual or contract of some sort, and many of the individual workers interviewed earned below minimum wage and worked more than 45 hours a week without any overtime benefits.
Are we communicating?
Globalisation claims to improve communication and interaction among people and countries. But most of the people interviewed by LHRC do not see this happening.
The Tanzanians living in the rural areas, are least likely to have access to information and education. Many people are ignorant of the laws and more than half of the respondents expressed that they do not feel well informed on the governments activities and decisions. There is a great need and desire for the government to prove that communication has improved and to become more transparent and responsible to the people.
The research proves that if anything, globalisation has increased the gap between the poor and the rich and has caused human rights abuses economically, politically and socially. It shows that many people in different parts of the society feel that currently globalization has too many negative consequences for Tanzania.
Many feel that Tanzania will never have a chance to compete fairly in a global world because the country started out in this game severely handicapped with lower economy, higher unemployment and lower education levels for its citizens compared to western countries.
Later this year LHRC will launch the publication of the entire research findings. The publication is called “Globalisation and its impact on workers and human rights in Tanzania”.
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