Page 114 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

tfw-54 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.

during this period. Mass education was introduced in Coca-Cola Culture
most of the world; thus, a majority of people in most and the Backlash
countries were introduced to the basics of literacy. More The influence of the United States was particularly per-
and more people lived in huge cities as improved medical, vasive as consumer goods such as Coca-Cola and U.S.
sanitary, and educational services and increasing oppor- styles in clothing, music, sports, and entertainment
tunities for wage work lured people from the villages. For became familiar throughout the world.Yet,Western influ-
the first time in human history cities became healthier ences have also generated a powerful backlash as gov-
places than villages, at least where they were supplied ernments and citizens in other parts of the world have
with the basic amenities of clean water, sanitation, med- tried, with varying degrees of success, to defend tradi-
ical services, transportation, and electricity. Improved tional cultural and religious values. The emergence of
medical care explains the astonishing fact that in just new forms of radical anti-Westernism is merely one
thirty-five years (1955–1990), the average life span of reflection of growing resistance to Western values.
human beings increased from about thirty-five years to Resistance to Western values has been fueled by
fifty-five years. increasing global inequality. In 1960 the wealthiest 20
Urbanization transformed gender relations as families percent of the world’s population earned about thirty
adapted to an urban world in which women’s salaries times as much as the poorest 20 percent; in 1991 the
were as vital as those of men. Women have become in- wealthiest 20 percent earned sixty-one times as much.
creasingly visible in government, in education, in medi- The successes of the most highly industrialized countries
cine, and in science. Yet, true gender equality, like eco- threw a harsh spotlight on the poverty of less industrial-
nomic equality, still seems a remote goal. Worldwide in ized regions, highlighting inequalities in income and in
1990 about eighty women were in secondary education access to medical and educational resources and to
and sixty-five in tertiary education for every hundred necessities such as clean water and air. Although indus-
men, and only about sixty women were in paid employ- trialization spread to more and more countries during the
ment for every hundred men. twentieth century, in too many cases it was incomplete or
During the 1980s and 1990s new forms of electronic narrowly based on the trade in specialist commodities
communications and transportation and the reintegration such as coffee or oil or managed by corrupt militaristic
of the Soviet Union (and its successor states) and China governments that skimmed off profits or spent them on
into the capitalist world economy bound the world armaments rather than reinvesting them in growth.
together more tightly than ever before.This new pulse of Although the wealth and the technologies exist to pro-
global integration has come to be known as “globaliza- vide all humanity with basic medical care, clean water,
tion.” Globalization stimulated economic growth in most and adequate food, millions still die from famine or
of the core industrial economies and many newly indus- water-borne diseases in the least industrialized regions of
trialized countries, although many of the world’s poorer the world, and lack of appropriate education and services
countries found the costs of competition too high and fell has contributed to the rapid spread of AIDS, particularly
further behind, particularly in parts of Africa and Latin in southern Africa, where in some countries almost one-
America. For better or worse, globalization also brought quarter of the adult population had AIDS during the mid-
the world’s many cultures into closer contact. As televi- 1990s. Peasants have become increasingly marginalized
sion and radio became more common even in Third as traditional rural lifeways have been undermined by
World countries, the cultural norms and consumerist val- overpopulation, the fragmentation of landholdings, and
ues of the most industrialized countries became com- competition from cheap overseas imports.
monplace throughout the world. In much of the world the modern era has included the