On free trade.. (Answering Mohanned)
- By: Qwaider
- On:Wednesday, August 29, 2007 5:25:55 PM
- In:Thoughts
- Viewed: (5508) times
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I started writing a comment-response but it was starting to become so long that I decided to wrap it up in it's own article..
In the face of growing anti-globalization sentiments (just negative way to present people who place people first, not economy) there are huge supporters on both sides. There are heroes on both sides. There are also fools on both sides many that follow what ever new trend in the name of modernization sometimes and as an answer to their miserable economic position in the other.
I'm just one of those fools with tools, and the ability to think ... sometimes ...
Government should (MUST) protect it's local economy and products. Give their micro and start ups a chance to EXIST let alone compete. Baqqalet abul Abed needs to be able to provide for Abul Abed since Walmart, and 7-11 will only care about their bottom line and want to kill ALL competition First then jack up the prices.
So governments need to protect it's local economies not by opening the doors completely to the foreign investor while they sit on the side watching while their home grown economy goes extinct. Because once that happen, the foreign companies want to make up for their losses. In other words, milk that market after they transformed the micro-business-owners to employees (at best) and homeless people otherwise
The way countries protect their local economy is simple. They can free trade as they like but these HUGE mega corporations SHOULD pay taxes (to give the local a competing advantage) that's one. Second a STRONG executive local economy watch dog must investigate AND take action on ANY monopolistic actions by the mega corporations. (for example all the fortune 500 have special offices in the IRS for each one. And another IRS on sight to watch over their tax flaw) It would be the same but does, Customs and legal tradings
The same needs to apply to the Employees. If they're going to hire employees. They must at least match their homeland's employee rates and readjust for inflation. All the other safety, vacation, benefits, bonuses, compensation should also be provided. They need to provide equal opportunities in their new locals and make sure they abide by fairness. In other words, no exploitation, no forcing, no retribution and no child labor. Humans are not "cheaper" elsewhere. Labor might be, but not humans!
The environment must also be protected. Not because your own country has issued a ban on dealing with Lead in the industry you take that poison and dump it on some other poor nation because YOU CAN! and it's free trade. It's more like free "slave trade" than anything else
I might be waring an amiable hat, but this is how I feel on this matter. I am only with such cartels if they REALLY benefit local economies and themselves in the process. Not crush them
Free trade is in the eye of the beholder. It has been for thousands of yours the movement of goods from one side to the other. Taxes and customs have always been there also. The Nabatian created their whole economy on that. Pay 1/10 of what you're carrying for safe passage. So did the Mamluks, and present day Egypt in Suez canal. But the fees have been modified
Therefore I say, Trade to your heart's content. But don't invade the people's homes to do it. Benefiting from cheaper labor and foreign capital and experience to crush local merchants and industry must not be allowed
Local economy MUST be free and protected. Free and protected from evil mega-corporations that will never coexist.
Fadi: الله يرحمها و يجعل مثواها بعليين و يجمعك معها بالجنة بعد عمر طويل
بلوجر بالعربي: looks very good
Noura: Different home, but same longing and nostalgia .. it seems we are chasing a mirage , Beirut of my dreams does not exist nor the people i miss .. i don't know if my gains were worth the losses ? I 
price waves repeat: The other day, while I was at work, my sister stole my iphone and tested to see if it can survive a 25 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My iPad is now broken 
Sara: You can say that again!God Bless🕊
ياسمين حميد: كما هي طبيعتنا نحن العرب، عند الانتقال بين منصة وأخرى لا نحتفظ بالأولى بل نتركها ونهجرها. الأمور عندنا خاضعة ل
Qwaider: These possessions are meaningless as you said, but it's still painful to let go :( May Allah grant you all you wish for and unite you with your loved ones
Nicolas: The rapid increase in intelligence within this generation is responsible for completely unforeseen phenomena that academicians are not prepared for.Some of these classic TV shows remained 
Dareen-
Dave-
Deemco-
Roba-
Saned-
Budoor-
Isam-
Anasِ-
Fire-Faten-
globalorama-
hamede-
hatem abunimeh-
Maioush-
Mohanned-
أنونيموس-
Openmind-
Ordnoi 6agga mraarto-
rebdawi_asli-
Fadi:الله يرحمها و يجعل مثواها بعليين و يجمعك معها بالجنة بعد عم%
بلوجر بالعربي:looks very good
Noura:Different home, but same longing and nostalgia .. it seems we are chasing a mirage , Beirut of my dreams does not exist nor the people i miss .. i don't know if my gains were worth the losses ? I
price waves repeat:The other day, while I was at work, my sister stole my iphone and tested to see if it can survive a 25 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My iPad is now broken
Sara:You can say that again!God Bless🕊
ياسمين حميد:كما هي طبيعتنا نحن العرب، عند الانتقال بين منصة وأخرى لا نحت%
Qwaider:These possessions are meaningless as you said, but it's still painful to let go :( May Allah grant you all you wish for and unite you with your loved ones
Session=
Memories....
Now, social resposibility is something that we all agree on; what I mean by that is you have to balance between efficiency(which is what everone is looking for) and the society that you do business in. You can protect as much as you can, but protection means sleeping for the majority of people, you can say to abu el abed:"don't worry we got you man" but abu al abed will stay the same if he wasn't challenged, he must innovate and fight for his share, abu el abed has the advantage of social interaction where he can build relations that are not quantifiable by money, abu el abed provides me with a personalized service that mega corporations can't, abu el abed can also look beyond his cash register and think for ways to get more business..Of course abu el abed should be helped by the government to achieve this ans there is many examples in jordan where NGO helped small businesses..
That being said, also the society has its role in this, if you care that much about abu el abed you can buy from him and never buy for C-town or wal-mart. if we as a society are socially resposible we can protect the small businesses, right? IF americans want their car manufacturing companies to get back on track they can buy american cars, but they didn't and now those same companies are innovating to get back their share..
Balance is good, and protection only means laziness and bumness, unless you are challenged you will stay the same, and the last thing we want in jordan is staying the same; maybe it will be painful but thats the reality it is your choice to face it or scream about it, it is you and only you who is resposible for makinf yourself and your country more competitive..
To reach their level of efficiency (and assuming fair play) he will need to change his decades old kiosk to a square ready warehouse with metal shelves and florescent lighting and nothing but the bare minimum to allow it to function. Killing it's spirit
Social advantage? Are you kidding me? People flock to the lower prices. Forget about everything else. That's the reason why Wal-mart is the world leader.
Look, opening new markets for products and goods that are not intrinsic. But competing with the local economy in their own bread and butter. That is not acceptable. Just like the recent catastrophe in Egypt where the little artifacts were all made in China instead of supporting the local businesses. And the Ka3k and Ma3mool of the Eid was all made in China. Tasting worse than crap but people still buying it because it was cheap
We need to protect our domestic products and nurture our local industries. Yes they are not as efficient. And yes they make many mistakes but we need to take pride in those. Not just open the door to everyone from the outside to shut-them-down then jack-up the prices as they like because there are absolutely no other alternatives!
I don’t want to see Bani-Hamideh sadow be all made in China for 1/1000th of the cost! I don’t want Abul Abed coffee to turn to Starbucks. I don’t want to see Hashem Hashem turning to Mcdonalds. It’s true that these are more efficient. But they lack soul!
Why do you buy gap when you can buy old navy knowing that they are the same company making the same clothes in china, but still some people buy banana republic!The same pair of jeans but with different brand names!
Bani hamedeh has gone global, and they can do more business than ever, just add the words holy land, hand made, traditional, revenues go for charity and poor communities and you will get business more than ever; they can ship globally to anywhere in the world, their market expanded from wealthy women in abdoun to filthy rich consumers in miami and holywood!
The best thing you can provide your population with is opportunities to learn and grow, if they have no motivation to do so then thats their problem, if you don't want to grow and be employable at any given time anywhere in the world, then you only have yourself to blame..
This should serve as a wake up call for all of our youth, instead of screaming about it, look inside yourself and search for your strenghts and build on them, each and everyone one of us should know more about everything, being specialized in hummus doesn't mean that you can't build some skills in making a new kind of hummus:)
Innovate man, innovation is the soloution..Think outside the box, this free trade should make us better and lets us focus more on how to attack, not on how to put ourselevs in boxes and complain about lost jobs..
But I agree with our friend Ordonee.. all we say is exactly like we say in Arabic "Drat 3al balat" unless "shillet el ons" decides to take action and protect our local economy and way of living
Oh, and really LOL@Loyalti
I didn't get the loyalti part? Did you mean brand loyalty? Brand loyalty is what makes or breaks a company, just like countries..
The idea is larger, at a national scale. If Jordan turns to a population of computer geeks, then we have pay premium price for things we almost pay nothing for. Who's going to be the peanut maker in downtown? The international cartel of Planeters will take over that job, and instead of 50 piaster per bag now it's 5JD. Oh and they will throw a protective heat sleeve on that paper bag just in case you decide to sue them!
...{Edited by Qwaider} I hope you don't mind me calling you that. Unless you're a major business owner or a super entrepreneur of some sort what do you think you will be gaining from all of this?You're going to end up like everyone else as Qwaider said, a slave to the man. Like the millions of the working class American airheads who know nothing other than how to be excellent consumers. While sinking more and more in debt and getting more obese
Think again Mohanned, There's a lot more at stake than the limited gain some people will get. In the long run, it will be survival of the richest.
Who ever said anything about turning jordan into programmers! And now you are entering into the regulation area, the government ought to control greed, but you can't blame the government or as Mrs.Fire calls it globalization for increased prices, you are ignoring many factors and focusing on one and that is not right..
This is going no where, you are limiting your scope and I am talking in general..At the end I say that free trade is a good thing, it is a challenge to bring the best out of us but at the same time it is also bringing the worst of us which is translated into laziness and protectionism..If you don't want to walk the extra mile and learn some more skills then you are a BUM, PERIOD.
And hey faten sweety spare me your flames of nonsense, to much emotions:)
Who's limiting and who's generalizing!!?
Salli 3al nabi!
I'm starting to regret modifying Faten's comment ;)
I DO NOT talk about technology, engineering aside from having fun with the Microsoft Vs Google argument. Because, simply, I do not have the authority and the knowledge to do so. If I do, then I will sound like an idiot who repeats what he hears, which makes my argument incoherent for lacking a profound understanding of the issue at hands.
Anas :) 7ader ..
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