Asia Trip: Off the Beaten Path

Are the Global North and Global South dependent on one another?

North/South Inequality - Tom Scott (New Zealand)

Reference: https://www.cartooningforpeace.org/en/cartoonotheque/northsouth-inequality/

Global challenges may sometimes root in artificial problems—the origin of the Global North and South. Even though the names are confusing, North and South do not have geographic imprecision.

The terms North (also known as the First World) and the South (Third World) emerged in the 1970s to recognize the Third World's more significant economic and political power and in response to growing dissatisfaction with earlier terms, which were increasingly seen as derogative. (Encyclopedia, 2021).

One of the root causes of global challenges is poverty; scholars conceptualize poverty by answering the level of the poor. Poverty is assessed using the Human Development Index (HDI) as a yardstick for measuring poverty. It will determine the population's access to facilities and services such as health, education, balanced diet, information and communication technology, access to justice, decision-making involvement, and wealth generation. 2010 (Odeh). The caricature indicated above entitled "North/South Inequality" by Tom Scott implies that even if the Global North and Global South are dependent on one another, we can't deny that some community needs cannot be alleviated that quickly. Other well-developed countries like Dubai have slums living behind the most visited skyscrapers and infrastructures. These are day laborers living the most unfavorable conditions and sleeping to a 10 in bunkhouses. Poverty in the UAE is evident in the working class's working circumstances.

Migrants arrive in Dubai searching for a job and transfer funds home to their families. They are promised decent wages and safe living circumstances; however, they are rarely kept. In the UAE, however, there are no government statistics on poverty. Official data on local poverty levels are not made public by the government. The government's worries and aid efforts should be questioned regarding this lack of information. Nationality and gender are used to create economic differences. Women are frequently discriminated against in hiring decisions, contributing to poverty disparity. (Borgen Project). According to Kegley and Wittkkopf (1999), development is defined as a country's ability to fulfill its residents' fundamental human needs and elevate their living level. It may be deduced from Kegley and Wittkkopf's interpretations of development that development has a link to poverty. Essentially, development attempts to either alleviate or eliminate poverty. Moreover, the goal of every development program is to alleviate poverty among a population so that people can live in decent conditions.

Poverty may be alleviated by development. An impoverished civilization can never be described as developed. As a result, poverty denotes a lack of development, whereas development denotes poverty's absence or near absence. If poverty is associated with underdevelopment and development is equated with the absence of poverty, it may be deduced that there are two broad economic worlds cut across the globe: the developed worlds of Europe and the undeveloped worlds of third-world nations. Until recently, poor civilizations were referred to as Third World and Less Developed Countries.

Compared to the Global North, labor productivity (output per worker) in the Global South is exceedingly low (Todaro and Smith, 2006). However, the technical concept of a production function must be supplemented by increased managerial competence, information access, worker motivation, and institutional flexibility, all of which are almost non-existent in the Global South. Also, based on Odeh (2010), the birth rates in Global North are low while the birth rates in Global South are high. By means, there are more non-productive members of society in the Global South and thereby must be supported. People in the Global South countries, according to Todaro, focus on agricultural production because their incomes are low, and their priorities are food, clothing, and shelter, as well as because of the primitive nature of technologies, poor organization, and limited physical and human capital inputs.

The Global South relies on the Global North and is susceptible to it. A massive imbalance of power between the Global North and the Global South can be regarded. The Global North's superior force is manifested not only in the Global North's dominant power to control the pattern of international trade. And the agreements that regulate it and their ability to dictate the terms under which technology, foreign aid, and private capital are transferred to the Global South. This has aided in maintaining low living standards, rising unemployment, and widening economic disparities in the Global South compared to the Global North.

References

Borgen Project. 10 Facts about Poverty in the United Arab Emirates. Retrieved from: https://borgenproject.org/10-facts-about-poverty-in-the-united-arab-emirates/

Kegley, C.W. Jr. & Wittkopf, E.R. (1999). World Politics: Trend and Transformation. World Publishers: New York, 107.

North And South, The (Global). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Retrieved November 24, 2021, from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/north-and-south-global

Odeh, L. (2010). A Comparative Analysis of Global North and Global South Economies. Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Clarion, Pennsylvania. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (Volume 12, No.3, 2010). ISSN: 1520-5509. Retrieved from: https://jsd-africa.com/Jsda/V12No3_Summer2010_A/PDF/A%20Comparative%20Analysis%20of%20Global%20North%20and%20Global%20South%20Economies%20(Odeh).pdf

Todaro, M.P. & Smith, S.C. (2006). Economic Development. Pearson Education Limited: England.