G20 protesters clueless
Put down your bricks and get a job — globalization is not a bad thing
Last Updated: June 25, 2010 12:00am
If you’re an honest grunt looking for someone to blame for the bloated mess this weekend in Toronto, look no further. And if you’re a fellow traveller who thinks there’s cachet in running amid the teargas, think again. You’re full of it.
You have no credibility. You are not on the side of the great reformers of modern history — Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi. You are not striking a blow in defence of the poor. You are not helping women, blacks or aboriginals.
You are smashing stuff. If you like smashing stuff because doing so makes you feel good, then you’ve this count in your favour: You’re one of the honest ones.
It all started in Seattle in 1999. A group of international trade ministers and finance gnomes gathered at the Washington State Convention and Trade Centre. They were quickly joined by about 40,000 protesters, angry about a variety of things but focused mainly on the great evil of globalization.
And of course they were joined by a small but determined band of anarchists who love nothing more than to, as Alfred the butler says in the second Batman film, “watch the world burn.” The conference was a disaster. The anti-globalization movement, such as it is, was born.
Are the international finance gnomes evil? Not really. Mainly they’re boring. Anyone who bothers to crack an economics text will know that globalization and free trade have lifted more human beings out of poverty than any other idea in history.
The reason is that trade creates wealth and jobs. Jobs allow people to feed their families and buy extras, produced by other people, which in turn employs those people. And on it goes.
It’s not rocket science. It’s why the Chinese liberalized their economy a generation ago. It’s why the Soviet Union fell on its sword in 1989. It’s why Singapore, which was once a fetid swamp, is now one of the wealthiest places on the planet.
It’s why so many genuine humanitarians the world over are concerned with bringing more trade, investment and micro-business to sub-Saharan Africa and other terribly disadvantaged places, such as Haiti.
In truly poor countries, anarchy is just another word for fascism. The strongest warlord takes over and beats everyone else over the head. Or kills them.
But our good-hearted, anti-globalization protester doesn’t know any of this, nor does he care. His eye is fixed on the emblem of all that he loathes: A pinstriped banker carrying a briefcase filled with greenbacks, or perhaps blueprints for world domination by big business, the media and governments everywhere.
(Now, I’m a member of the media and I work for a corporation, which makes me by definition part of the conspiracy. So be sure to take everything I say with a big grain of salt.)
Are the leaders of these 20 nations worthy of such opprobrium? No. They’re just people who happened to get into politics. Some are competent, some not. Mainly they’re concerned with trying to keep their jobs. In order to do that they have to try to get living standards in their countries tracking up rather than down. Hence, trade.
You may have noticed, dear protester, that the word “jobs” has popped up several times here. This is not a coincidence. Rather than tossing bricks to feed your inchoate fury, you might think of getting one.
There are some available in Canada, last we looked. Thankfully for us.
michael.dentandt@sunmedia.ca
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