ARTHUR LOK JACK GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES EXECUTIVE MASTERS IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

GLOBAL MACROECONOMICS AND THE CARIBBEAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT (BUAD 6085) INDIVIDUAL COURSEWORK ASSIGNMENT

CAN SMALL DEVELOPING COUNTRIES SURVIVE IN A GLOBALISED ENVIRONMENT?
Submitted by:

VITRA SINGH
(UWI ID #: 91780646) Cohort 22 25 OCTOBER 2010

It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity. - Kofi Annan

INTRODUCTION

I sit at a food court near a Manchu Wok take out in O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, waiting on a flight to Miami and a connection back home, to Trinidad. My Dell laptop is on the table in front of me and my Nokia phone is next to it. My roll-on hand luggage is at my feet, a SwissGear brand, bought in London with a tag on the side which reads ‘Made in China’. Across the table from me, sits a group of young American men on their way to Beijing. Announcements in the background call the departure of an Air France flight. A family walks by; a man, a woman and a girl of about six. The man calls out to the little girl and his accent confirms for me, his East Indian heritage. The girl’s attention is absorbed in a bright pink Nintendo DSi. Later at the gate, a seventy five year old woman from Nebraska, sits next to me and tells me that she is on her way for an ‘overseas adventure’ in South America. She has always wanted to do this, she says, handing me what looks like a brochure. The words across the top actually read ‘Overseas Adventure’. This seventy year old woman found the tour on the internet, whilst surfing on her grandson’s computer. Another young child is sitting across from me. I don’t recognise the East-European sounding language in which the woman sitting next to him speaks. The little boy is also absorbed in a DSi.

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