This documentary portrayed the brutal living standards of an average Chinese family. Some scenes were shocking, heartbreaking and others simply moving. I often found myself thinking “What are these people living for? ” I understand how the daughter in the family found it easier to choose the working life at her age, however after seeing how her parents ended up, how can one choose the same when other opportunities are present? I am not asking these questions to judge their choices, I am asking them because I am trying to understand where they are coming from.
I believe the living conditions are horrible. They move away from their family in order to be able to support them. For the parents it is a matter of sacrificing the well-being of their children for their own relationship with them. The parents have strong love towards the children they do not even know, while the children feel little to no relation to the parents. Both sides are understandable. They work day and night so that their family have enough to survive, and so they can have a better life. They see them maybe one or two times a year. This is a life, but it is not living.
They do not have any freedom because of the responsibility and threat on their shoulders. This is a life I would not want to lead. I believe there is great unhappiness here, and like everyone else I want to be happy. I think they can be defined as a modern version of the african slaves of the 1900’s. I think I would feel trapped living like either the mother, father, daughter or the son, and I would rather live like I do now. “Unrestricted globalization can damage the development of less developed countries. ” I believe this statement is very true.
What I understand from it is that when more developed countries force their style of living onto less developed countries, they usually do not have the sufficient infrastructure or resources to sustain this kind of living. This results in poverty, and population not being able to provide themselves with a source of income. As developed countries have a modern way of living with dependence on buying needed products with a form of currency, less developed countries might need to result in the less modern ways, meaning farming and making for themselves.
This because the country’s economy is not ready for the big globalization just yet. The poor economy of one country can be crucial in the decision making of another bigger and richer country. As an example, take the United States and its many companies such as Apple, they make a decision based upon China’s bad economy to put their factories in that country. By knowing that the country is in desperate need of labour, they push the pay rates as far down as possible and take advantage of the cheap working people.
This leads to not only bad working conditions but also bad living standards. They have no rights or welfares, and no security for their future income. The civil society surrounding a country can change what is going on inside the country. This is done by boycotting the products we know are produced in a factory where the employees are taken advantage of. If they do not get any demand for their products, after a while they will not be able to supply either.
Eventually many will have to shut down, and some might change their way of producing. Banana republic is a political science term for a politically unstable country which economy is largely dependent on the export of a single-limited resource product. Honduras used to be this kind of country, and they exported bananas. They sold them to United States at a extremely low price, and in the United States they were sold for more, however cheaper than the fruit already sold there. This made them very popular.
