Introduction
The present research paper synthesizes a number of legitimate sources in order to focus on globalization and its effects on Peru with special relation to environmental issues, crime, and disease in the country. The paper critically informs the reader of all these issues and their causes. The last section of the paper concludes the research by shedding light on the present-day situation of the country and what should be done to fight challenges in the country.
Globalization and Peru
Today, more than ever before, effects of globalization, its challenges, opportunities and other relevant debates have caught more attention from politicians, policymakers, business personnel, researchers, and so on. Because of its extreme diversity and its effects on the world that globalization is the buzzword today. Peru is no different. The effects of globalization on Peru have been felt on as varied areas as its economy and political changes, issues in environmental safety, education, and other important areas like crime rate and overall health profile of the country. Although Peru is considered as the leftist country to explicitly record its opposition to the changes of globalization such as free market, anti-Americanism, and economic development, since 2002, especially, the country has been noted to support free markets and other related benefits of globalization such as communication across countries for economic, social, and trade ties. Peru is among the four noted Latin American countries (the other three being Argentina, Mexico, Brazil) which have recently shown more bent toward acceptance of globalization and its relevant merits for their economy. Although the country seems to be taking more productive strides by welcoming globalization, there are strong concerns shown by its people regarding negative impacts of globalization on the country. According to a recent poll (Pew’s 2007 poll) it was found that Latin American countries’ people see environmental pollution as “one of the top two dangers facing the world” which have risen sharply in recent years (Kohut & Wike, 2008, p. 70). The major issue present in Peru is the use of Amazonian land for oil and giving its contract to foreign companies which have recently resulted in countrywide riots, violence, and political scandals. This has also been linked to massively increasing urbanization, pollution, depletion of natural resources, and so on. It has not only caused huge budgets allocation for environmental safety, the government faces the challenges to absorb globalization in the middle of these challenges (World Bank, 2006, pp. 6-18).
Globalization and Crime in Peru
If globalization has opened Peru for development, there are grave social evils which have taken to heights because of the same opportunity. One such nightmarish issue is human trafficking (women and children) for sexual industry, child labor, and so on. According to a report on Human Trafficking.Org, it is only recently that some efforts have been initiated to monitor issues of human trafficking in Latin America. One such effort is development of a database by an NGO (Human Trafficking, 2006, p.1). It’s not just human trafficking in Peru. It is a long series of crimes that link it to the international crime networks. For instance, in large cities like Lima, commonly reported crimes can be as diverse as car-theft, sexual assault, and so on which create problems for visitors, business executives and so on. However, more critical is the situation which links Peru with international crime networks. According to Jimenez (2006), Peru initially got networked with international criminal organization in order to smuggle women, young girls, and children out of the country to a number of destination. Yet, by the close of the twentieth century, these organizations became very powerful and established their proper network. And now due to increased global interaction, Peru is engaged in a number of global crimes like money laundering, smuggling of weapons, drugs; these areas are said to be more critical in relation to Peru and global crime. The strength of these networks can be estimated by the fact that, Jimenez reports, the organizations in Peru work in close association with organized crime networks in Japan and South Korea for the reason noted above and others. Although the organized crime from Peru has its reach in a number of other countries, the author reports that the government of Peru does not seem to place high priority to curb this increasing evil (pp. 1-3).
Globalization and disease in Peru
In terms of globalization and its effects on Peruvian state of health and disease, it is important to note that globalization and climate change do have an impact of the disease status and its changing state in Peru. According to a report, Peru has shown critical impact taking place because of global warming as its Pastoruri glacier is reported to recede into two parts merely from February 2001 to October 2007. The criticality of the situation is that the mountains (Cordillera Blanca mountain range) in which the glacier is situation are the “largest and highest tropical glacier chain in the world”. This is seen to impact Peru in a number of areas from lack of water resources, hydro-power generation, growth of fruits and vegetables to its adverse impact of human health by resulting into quite a few diseases related to increase in temperature, climate change, desertification, saliniszation, and so on. In fact, the report mentions that due to climate change in the present day Peru, El Niño and other related factors, in turn, have been observed to have “some dermatological diseases, related to an increase in summer temperature, hyperthermia. Moreover, heatwaves, and temperature over the sea surface has been observed to cause the Carrion’s disease. This is not the end of the situation as it goes on and on. According to the same report, the climate change and its impacts on Peruvian health are reported to give rise to vector borne disease like dengue. As the level of the sea waters rises in Peru, and of course elsewhere in the world, this is more likely to cause disturbance to sea food availability specially in Peru and Chile (Peruvian Times, 2008).
Another source informs us that climate change in Peru, global warming, and related issues have given birth to a number of serious questions which range from present day disease spread such as dengue, bartonellosis, malaria, etc. to water shortage which is already causing social upheaval like increased urbanization, drying up of cultivatable land, and so on. Thus, it is at the very present moment that health experts from around the world are keeping a very close eye to see what impacts the climate change in Peru is coming up with. The situation is seen as even getting more serious because Peru does not have sufficient funds to fight disease. For instance, Carrion’s disease, which can be treated with antibiotics (must be dealt with at early stage to prevent it from being seriously fatal and infectious) has spread from valleys to areas along mountains (Fraser, 2009).
Conclusion
Peru has received both positive and negative impacts from the challenges and opportunities of globalization. On the one hand, the country is enjoying free trade, increased global participation, and other benefits from globalization; on the other hand, Peru has been noted to fall victim of serious issues just because of globalization. It is increased communication and channeling across countries that have helped organized crime to proper rapidly and strongly in Peru and elsewhere. Human trafficking, drug deals, weapon smuggling has affected not only Peru but the rest of the world because criminal organizations have joined hands together due to increased globalization. Moreover, globalization seems to impact Peru badly both in curbing natural resources and order in the country and in its negative impact on life in general and on human in particular. The situation gets worse for apparently two chief reasons: (i) the government’s non-seriousness and (ii) its not-so-strong financial state. It is in the wake of these children of globalization and the helplessness of the Peruvian government that the entire world, especially the technologically advanced nations, should join hands together with Peru to fight these evils which are equally epidemic for the rest of the world.
References
Fraser, B. J. (2009). Climate change impacts revealed: Disease in Peru. Scientific American. Web.
Human Trafficking, (2006). Announcing a new organization in Latin America. Human Trafficking Organization. Web.
Jimenez, L. (2006). Human trafficking and borders: Web.
Kohut, A., & Wike, R. (2008). Assessing globalization: Benefits and drawbacks of trade and integration. Harvard International Review 30 (1), pp. 70+.
Peruvian Times (2008). Global warming impact: Peru’s pastoruri glacier recedes into two patches of ice. Peruvian Times. Web.
World Bank (2006). Republic of Peru. Environmental sustainability: A key to poverty reduction in Peru. World Bank Annual Report. Web.