Remember when I wrote a post about the effects of globalization? No, that’s okay. I’ll refresh your memory. I wrote a post titled “Is this the effects of globalizations?” wherein I just finished researching and writing an essay that answered the question:

Have women benefitted from Globalization, specifically Aboriginal women?

I said No, globalization does not benefit women, specifically Aboriginal women.

I didn’t know how I was going to introduce this essay. Yes, I wrote the entire essay with arguments and counter-arguments even before I finished the introduction and conclusion–it’s how I write best. Then, I came across a Globe and Mail article that featured Michael Moore’s blog post titled “Why I support the people of Thompson, Canada–and you should too.” Mr. Moore wrote about Vale, an apparently huge mining company that violated their “social contract” that was meant to benefit the people of Thompson, Manitoba and supposedly Canada under the Investment Canada Act. My introduction was born. Thank you, Mr. Moore…

However, the people of Thompson, Manitoba were apparently left worried about their futures. Vale was pulling out of the small Manitoba town. It was closing up shop, according to the Globe and Mail, on “it’s nickel smelter and refiner just months after it received a $1-billion loan from Export Development Canada.” Read the Globe and Mail article titled Michael Moore Adds Star Power to Manitoba Mining Battle. This article is dated February 25, 2011. Over 500 jobs at stake, but that doesn’t matter… Vale made net profits of $17.3 billion last year. So what, big deal.

Big deal, now Globe and Mail has another article titled Vale Launches $11 Billion Bid for South Africa Miner. Here the Globe talks about how Vale has a vision to set up shop in Africa and even try to diversify from it’s main business of iron ore. This article is dated April 8, 2011, last update May 5, 2011.

The February article states that by 2015, Vale received the above mentioned loan after promising to increase employment, and then immediately after Vale announced that the same refinery would be closed by 2015.

The April article states that by 2015, Vale would like to increase cooper output by 45% by 2015, as it plans to move away from iron ore (its main business). In this same article, an analyst (Sasha Naryshkine, analyst at Johannesburg-based Vestact) is quoted saying the following:

“The fact that a big Brazilian global partner is having a look at African assets might signal something for some of the other majors around the world…Because if you aren’t afraid of mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, you are not afraid of anything.”

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I bet they are not afraid of anything if they got away with what they are apparently getting away with in Canada. Providing hope to citizens, then tearing it away. As Michael Moore says in his post in relation to Thompson, Manitoba,

So this is about one thing and one thing only: killing the social contract of Canada…The corporations’ plan is that the Third World will become the Only World.

In this world of Multi-national corporations and globalization, there is always a winner and a loser. Mainly the winners are the MNCs; the losers, the citizens of not just poor countries, but First World countries…Thank you globalization.

Links to the following posts/articles mentioned in this post listed below:

• Globe and Mail Article dated February 25, 2011, titled “Michael Moore Adds Star Power to Manitoba Mining Battle
• Globe and Mail Article dated April 8, 2011 & last updated May 5, 2011 (since writing this post), titled Vale Launches $11 Billion Bid For South Africa Miner
• Michael Moore’s post titled Why I support People of Thompson, Canada–And You Should Too.”