CRES Module 2 Globalization and Faith International trade: sign of the times or sign of the Kingdom?

International trade: sign of the times or sign of the Kingdom?

“During the 21st and 22nd centuries, sea levels worldwide began rising due to global warming. Port cities around the planet were faced with a choice: construct flood control measures, or drown. In Mombasa, it was decided that, rather than shore up the old docks on Mombasa Island, it would be easier to build brand new ports on the mainland, southwest of the city. … For a time, these docks brought prosperity to the mainland. Shantytowns were demolished to make way for new office buildings, highways were constructed, and commerce thrived”[1]

An internet site supporting a video game series set 544 years in the future may seem an unusual place to begin this study which seeks to consider whether international trade has a future in the context of the Kingdom of Heaven, but the extract quoted above touches on important issues already confronting the global society of today. A cursory examination of the background to the “Halo” video game reveals a conflict between forces of good and evil, and for many who are concerned with issues of global significance today, international trade is quite often cast in the role of the villain.

“The global market empire ….requires the constant exchange of great quantities of goods and materials through ports and airports and along highways. These exchanges often involve coercive and immoral contracts, new forms of human slavery and grave biological and ecological risks”[2]

There can be no denial that international trade is a feature of globalization, and in many instances a significant contributor to some of the problems confronting planet Earth in the twenty-first century. Northcott is quite correct in positing that a future “good earth” cannot sustain current levels of international trade without a greater degree of moral and ethical responsibility than is at present the case:

“If collapse in the earth system is to be prevented the global economy will have to be brought back into scale with the ecology of the earth. … Food, fibre and fuel will need to be grown and utilised locally … and where distant exchanges continue these will need to be re-moralized so that fossil fuel use, and the full ecological and social impacts of all traded commodities… are known and resolved at all stages in the production and consumption process.”[3]

It is worth bearing in mind, that the desire to advance more localised solutions as an alternative to a globalized economy, may be pre-empted by the distinct likelihood that current climate change trends could, in themselves, enforce radical changes to the world of international trade, bringing about greater levels of inequality and poverty, than are presently experienced in the developing world. Referring to the book Adapting Cities to Climate Change [4], an article in the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper[5] suggests that by 2020, and with no reduction in the current level of carbon dioxide particles in the earth’s atmosphere, a sea-level rise of just 0.3 metres will see 17 per cent of the East African port Mombasa (4,600 hectares) submerged. Mombasa is an essential link in the international trading systems of East Africa, and contributes both cause and effect as the “globalization processes such as the expansion of trade and transport drive overconsumption and environmental degradation”. [6] The expansion of the city and the increases in population there and, to a far greater extent, in Nairobi, en route to interior African markets have seriously encroached on fragile landscapes. At the same time, the long-distance transportation of freight by poorly-maintained road vehicles from the port to Uganda, Tanzania and the Sudan continues to have a major polluting effect on the surrounding areas, with the consequence that, quite apart from the globalized impact of climate change, the local environment is further adding to the impending disaster.

It would appear that the developing nations of the world are in a no-win situation. They need to integrate with the dominant culture of international commerce in order to have any hope of emerging out of poverty, and yet are not going to be able to do so if their vulnerable infrastructures are decimated or if very necessary global restrictions are imposed upon them by the developed world which is suddenly developing a conscience about the environment it has damaged over the course of the past two centuries. For Northcott, in direct contrast to the secular world view that: “uniting economic growth and environment protection is a crucial pre-condition for the ever more globalizing world”[7], there seems to be no future role for economic growth and accordingly for international trade:

“The global movement of goods and peoples that distantly connect consumption and production procedures on different continents are sustained through energy-hungry transportation. (…) And with the present trend of economic globalisation, planes and ships between them are forecast to more than double their CO₂ output by 2020. Land transportation of goods and people is an even more crucial component of economic globalisation and presently produces three times the CO₂ emissions of planes and ships.”[8]

The world-renowned Kenyan biologist Stella Simiyu pleads the cause of the developing world, speaking in Vancouver in 2006, and quoted in Kingfisher’s Fire. In response to the question “How can we possibly defend all the energy use involved in bringing peas from Kenya….?”, she argues:

“You just have to concede that poor communities in Kenya have no other markets for their goods, no other way of gaining foreign currency. As the Brundtland report[9] showed, solving our environmental problems requires healthy industries and a healthy economy, simply because it is when an economy is growing that we can afford to make the choices that are essential if we are to live within the planet’s means” [10]

It is at this point in the debate about the value of international trade that issues of ethics, justice and equality surface, and at which point, accordingly, faith communities could be expected to become engaged. This, however, is not a widespread expectation. Such contemporary commentators who are predisposed to give consideration to faith communities and their involvement in issues of globalization, see issues of faith as being as much a part, or even ultimately a cause of the problem as the solution:

“Judaeo-Christian humanism … contains deeply dualistic values that put human beings at the centre of the universe….Unless we are willing to change the underlying cultural and religious value structure that has combined with the social and economic dynamics of unrestrained capitalistic accumulation, the health of ( the planet) is likely to deteriorate even further”[11]

It may possibly be less of a challenge for the world at large to acknowledge and encourage Christian activities that would seek to preserve the wonders of the natural world, but the reality is that international trade, founded upon human exchange and interchange exists. Like any other aspect of life involving relationships within the created order in a fallen world, it is in need of redemption and transformation. In seeking to bring this dimension of human existence under the values of Christ’s Kingdom, the world of international trade has to meet with the incarnate Christ. This can only come through the active application of Christ-like attitudes and principles by those faith communities that themselves have experienced and understood His living presence within them.

Writing in a web article espousing engagement on the grounds of Christian ethics, Holler says:

“We need social policies and laws that at least attempt to ensure equity and justice in the economic system for all people. That’s why I thought (my Christian denomination) needed a global trade expert who could operate deftly in both social ethics and global economic policy…. (yet) Our churches and educational systems have not caught up to preparing us for global awareness and a few loud voices are actually opposed to it.”[12]

William Carey, the Baptist Missionary presented in 1792 a seminal treatise that has influenced much modern mission, [13] and in which he quotes from the prophet Isaiah: “Surely the Isles shall wait for me; the ships of Tarshish first, to bring my sons from far, their silver, and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord, thy God” (Isaiah 60.9). Isaiah 60 is a prophecy into the Kingdom to come, and this sentence reveals a very positive future for international trade. The ships of Tarshish were trading vessels transporting goods around the then-known world, and for Carey “this much therefore must be meant by it, that navigation, especially that which is commercial, shall be one great means of carrying on the work of God; and perhaps it may imply that there shall be a very considerable appropriation of wealth to that purpose.”[14]

In the same way that Paul the Apostle provides a practical application to Carey’s theory, and incarnated Christ into the maritime world through his own international journeys[15], so too is it incumbent upon Christians to do the same in the globalised maritime environment of the twenty-first century.

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Bibliography

Books:

Northcott, M. S. (2007) A Moral Climate – the Ethics of Global Warming DLT, London

Hodson, M.J. & M.R. (2008) Cherishing the Earth – How to care for God’s creation Monarch, Oxford

Steger, M.B (revised 2009) Globalization – a very short introduction OUP, Oxford

Bhagwati ,J. (2004) In Defense (sic) of Globalization OUP, USA

Harris, P. (2008) Kingfisher’s Fire – A Story of Hope for God’s Earth Monarch, Oxford

Bellefontaine N & Linden O (ed.) (2009) Impacts of Climate Change on the Maritime Industry WMU, Malmø

Leichenko R.M. & O’Brien K.L (2008) Environmental Change AND Globalization – Double Exposures OUP USA

Articles:

Murithi Mutiga ( 2009) Rising Sea Could Swallow Mombasa in 20 Years http://allafrica.com/stories/200906280011.html

Hollon L. Social Ethics, Global Trade and Christian Faith http://perspectives.larryhollon.com/?p=1201

McGilchrist D. The Ships of Tarshish http://insidework.net/featured/the-ships-of-tarshish

Freeman Dyson. Speaking out against Climate Change BBC Focus Magazine August 2007

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[1] http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Old_Mombasa

[2] Northcott, p.8

[3] Northcott, pp. 15-16

[4] Bicknell, J, Dodman D, Satterthwaite, D (eds) (2009) Adapting Cities to Climate Change: Understanding and Addressing the Development Challenges Earthscan London

[5] Murithi Mutiga, The Daily Nation, Kenya: Rising Sea Could Swallow Mombasa in 20 Years 27 June 2009

[6] Steger p.87

[7] M Segar Abdullah in “Environmental Challenges for Shipping and Port Activities”, Bellefontaine & Linden p.60

[8] Northcott p. 36

[9] Bruntland G H Our Common Future report from the United Nations World Commission on Environment & Development 1987

[10] Simiyu as quoted in Harris p.96

[11] Steger pp84 & 86

[12] Holler: Social Ethics, Global Trade and Christian Faith http://perspectives.larryhollon.com/?p=1201

[13] Carey Wm. An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/enquiry/enquiry.html

[14] Carey p. 68 in Section IV as quoted by McGilchrist

[15] E.g. Acts 21:2-4