Understanding the Difference: Developed vs. Developing Countries

1. Population Developed Developing Developed What is the difference between developed and developing countries? Developing

2. What is a Multinational Corporation? What is outsourcing?

3. Free trade means that the producer (farmers, small business owners, manufacturers, etc.) who harvested the coffee beans sold them without the interference of the government's tax or monetary gifts - tariffs, subsidies, price controls or pork-barrel politics. Sounds pretty good, right? For some, it is. Free trade proponents believe that leveling the playing field among producers from all nations is the best way of matching global supply to demand while making all people involved more prosperous. Though by some accounts, free trade leaves producers in developing countries at a disadvantage. In those countries, producers lack social security and other safety nets that would help them hold out on selling their wares during times when prices are low. While producers in more prosperous nations can wait to sell at times like these, their counterparts in developing nations must sell immediately. As a result, they lose a lot of money. Fair trade means you believe there are some rules in trade that must be placed in order to provide for producers who have disadvantages in a free market. If you buy a fair trade cup of coffee, it means that the farmer who harvested the beans in a developing nation had some help getting his specific product to you. Fair trade aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and gives an extra boost to those producers who promote sustainability (that is, eco-friendly agriculture). Rather than leaving environmental standards and wages up to the market, fair trade actively pushes for higher price for producers as well as social and environmental standards. Which is better, free trade or fair trade?

4. What does the term “flattening of the world” mean? Friedman (Author of “The World is Flat”) speaks about drastic changes that have occurred in the last fifteen years or so -- events that have leveled the global playing field. He refers to ten "flatteners": things that have enabled us to connect with the rest of the world much more easily than ever before. Events such as the fall of the Berlin wall, Netscape going public, and the new world of "technologies on steroids" -- cell phones, wireless devices, always being connected, and so on -- have made our world a new place. Key players, thanks to new tools, can play new roles in new ways. A leveled playing field has been created. Employees from one organization are no longer working side-by-side inside the same building. Individuals from anywhere can compete with others from around the world. This convergence gives a new feel to how successful twenty-first-century businesses operate and how twenty-first-century learners can learn. Friedman has some interesting points I think are worthy of consideration. For example, he states that thirty-five years ago, if you had the choice between being born a B+ student in Brooklyn or a genius in Bangalore, India, you'd rather be born the B+ student in Brooklyn, because your life opportunities would be so much greater in Brooklyn, even as a B+ student. Today, you'd much rather be born a genius in Bangalore, because when the world is flat, and you can plug and play, collaborate and connect, just like you can from Brooklyn, your life chances and opportunities hold more potential than ever before.

5. William Rees, an urban planner at the University of British Columbia, estimated that it requires four to six hectares of land to maintain the consumption level of the average person from a high-consumption country. The problem is that in 1990, worldwide there were only 1.7 hectares of ecologically productive land for each person. He concluded that the deficit is made up in core countries by drawing down the natural resources of their own countries and expropriating the resources, through trade, of peripheral countries. In other words, someone has to pay for our consumption levels. What does gross consumption mean for developing countries? Developed?

6. How does global warming affect developed and developing nations? Developing countries have the most to lose should global warming occur. Many developing countries have neither the resources nor the technology to defend against rising sea levels, increased incidence and ferocity of tropical storms, and expansion of tropical diseases. As developing countries build their economies, frequently heavily dependent on manufacturing and energy-costly industries, they increase the risk that they will be ill-affected by global climate changes.

7. Reducing your carbon footprint What is the Green Movement?

8. What are the effects of deforestation and desertification on the world?

9. What are some problems facing the world because of globalization?

10. What is happening to markets/businesses?

11. Name:______________________________ Date:_________________ Period__________ Globalization Gallery # What I learned....in ONE amazing sentence! What is globalization? How does this affect various places in the world?