Multinational Citizens

Who are the only "persons" in the legal sense whom can become citizens of many countries? They are being allowed to own, buy and sell property in practically all the countries of world. Well, the "persons" just happened to be multinational corporations like Shell, Goodyear, IBM, McDonalds and so forth....

The Corporation by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbot underscores the influence, power and implications of the corporate entity to the world since its first inception in history. In all areas of society, we are being brought up to belief that the business is good, and wealth is the way to prosperity. Remember the 80's when the mantra "Greed is Good" as echoed by Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street. It was a hilarious start to the film when the film-makers cleverly put together a series of media shots of people describing the corporate debacles of the past years as "Bad Apples"... I really enjoyed it.

It seems globalization is major theme of this film because it practically describes corporations has permeated into our society by even submitting patents for living organisms, seeds and all things the natural earth has endowed us. Well, I am not sure how they are going to patent all these... but with profit as a main motivator, they will find some means to do it legally. Whether it is enforceable in the eyes of Mother Nature... that is not for them to decide. With global warming as discussed in my previous post, and if no definite steps are taken to address it, all the profit and gains would not be enjoyed by anyone. One CEO interviewed, even called himself "A plunderer of Earth"... this sounds like suitable description so far.

The corporations also tries to own knowledge that has been endowed upon us from the generations of people before us. This in a business perspective seems natural for the corporations but I think this has gone abit too far. Knowledge that we have today, is being enjoyed by us because of the fruits of labour of our past ancestors. The concept of intellectual ownership of knowledge is fairly recent in our history.

I am not saying intellectual property or capital of the various artistes or companies of today should not be respected, but there should be some measure whereby the knowledge accumulated in the past could be in accessed freely and used by all. Of course, I do not offer a roadmap or framework on the how to deal with this... but definitely it should not allow the rule of externalities that was discussed in the film to be abused by the corporations.

Noam Chomsky is one notable interviewee in this film; one whom I admire for his intellectual prowess. His arguments on the various points shows and it makes the film a more watchable one. I remembered a friend of mine mentioned to me about him once a time and I had begun to read Chomsky's articles online.

In an nutshell, this is a film about globalization as well. People from the developing countries exploited by their meagre wages, while the products they produce are being sold at incredible high prices in the developed ones. The companies make no apologies for this, as profits are their main purpose of their existence.

It brings to my mind a book entitled "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. Similarly, after watching this film and cross-referencing to Perkin's story of global institutions like World Bank, IMF and so forth, I begin to wonder if this is the new societal order that has sprung out in this point of our human history. Of course, anyone would know in previous eras, there were the empires, kingdoms, the church, feudalism and other forms of dominant power in our civilisation.

So, the question is how are we affected by the "soft power" of the corporation wielded by the few in the name of their shareholders on society. Well, one learning point for me is "The Nag Factor". This seemingly marketing tactic has made children of ours as the focal point target to manipulate parents to buy things that they don't seem to need. Well, this is really something I need to be conscious about.... before wielding my credit card while on my way to a cashier at least....