National competitiveness discourse promotes massive structural violence

(Vanaja, Globalization: Discourse of Inevitability, and a Quest for a Just and Caring World, Society-Societe, 24:2)

The requirement to have competitive advantage in the global economy so that one does not lose the patronage of companies has led to standards of efficiency that lack humanity. In Mexico, for example, the large-scale agrobusiness has become very efficient and has excellent competitive advantage but workers are not paid even a living wage. While they grow all kinds of fruits and vegetables for export, their own workers cannot afford to buy them. Mexico, in keeping with structural adjustment policies, has promoted large-scale cash crops mostly intended for earning enough money for debt servicing. Fertile lands are allotted to this venture and the water supply is reserved. Meanwhile lands for subsistence agriculture are neglected for lack of water. Subsistence farmers are made to leave their farms in search of work and end up in the slums of big cities, in maquiladaras (free trade zones) or they eke out a living labouring for large agro-businesses. The infant mortality rate is going up. Malnutrition and poverty among children are chronic. As multinationals pollute the air and deplete the environment in their greed for profit maximization, Mexicans are living in an unhealthy environment. Globalization, as many Mexicans testify, is a bad deal (Suzuki 1993). This scenario is played out in many parts of the world as the corporate sponsored globalization sweeps the globe. (3)