factories are at a standstill, are supply chains, interrupted – the globalization of the Coronavirus will not end but.
temperature measured at the airport of Jakarta, after a first Corona-the case in Indonesia photo: Ajeng Dinar/reuters
The Coronavirus is spreading globally – so the idea is that the epidemic might have something to do with globalization. Claus Leggewie calls: “Deglobalisiert you!” (taz of 6. 3. 2020). However, it is not that simple.
First of all, what is striking is not that the Virus is spread mostly through trade routes, but almost always of tourists will be transferred. Disease cruise ships will be the case, but also pilgrimages can be dangerous: Greece has 73 corona ill – 47 have been infected on a trip to Jerusalem.
pilgrimages reaches far back. Even in ancient times, Europeans traveled to Jerusalem; and also in India there were two thousand years ago, the first pilgrims. Similar applies to Mecca, which was already in pre-Islamic times, a place of pilgrimage. It will, therefore, abandoned ancient rituals, now if Bethlehem is sealed off, or the Hajj to Mecca fails to stop the spread of the Coronavirus.
globalisation is not a modern phenomenon, if by this is meant that people are to the rest of contact. Even on German Fields, the amazing finds you can make. As was discovered during the construction of the motorway A 20 in the vicinity of Anklam, a silver treasure with Arab coins from the seventh to the ninth century. The money had been minted in North Africa, in Baghdad and in Iran, a coin came from Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan.
The history of diseases also documented how close the relations were. In the year 1330, the bubonic plague originated in Central Asia, and it took less than two decades, until they took their Seuchenzug through Europe and about a third of the population wiped out.
Since then, of course, there were changes in: The quantity of travellers and the speed of transportation has multiplied. The Coronavirus is no longer required years, from China to Europe to penetrate, but was already arrived after a few weeks in this country.
Each “de-globalise” would be revolutionary, but Even a “careful Deconstruction” would capitalism fall over
But it is noteworthy that the methods are still similar, such as an epidemic encounters – namely, quarantine. The word comes from the Italian and French: in 14. Century it was believed that they could combat the plague, only by isolated potential Sick for forty (quaranta) days.
But a quarantine – the Name says it all – is thought of as a temporary ban on contact. The talk of “de-globalise” suggests, however, that the relationship should be cut forever, the mankind since thousands of years to connect. The acts of this world. People will also travel in the future and their germs disperse.
However, the term “globalization” is used often narrow and purely economic. Is meant then there is the global exchange of Goods and services. Also Leggewie seems to think, especially in this globalization, as he calls for a “regionalization of the markets”. The time has beneficial effects: By the Coronavirus factories are anyway still in the world, and supply chains are interrupted.
in Principle it is not wrong, a regionalisation of trade. It puts a strain on the environment that more and more goods have to be carted around the globe. Anyone who takes climate protection seriously, will, in the future, without mobile phones from China to get along. But oddly enough, Leggewie believes that there could be a “gentle Demolition” of the trade relations.
“Gently,” sounds harmless, careful, and pragmatic. It acts as a more moderate policy proposal that doesn’t scare away the “middle” of voters. This is a misleading. Each “de-globalise” would be a Revolution. Even a “careful Deconstruction” would bring capitalism to collapse.
globalisation is not an unfortunate aberration, but the very core of capitalism, as Marx and Engels: The Communist Manifesto ends with the famous words, “proletarians of all countries, unite!” Deliberately not there, that only the German workers should stand together. The two socialists were already in 1848, that capitalism breaks all the boundaries.
of Course, the entrepreneurs knew they had to cross borders to interact. The brothers Siemens, were typical: in 1847, they founded their company in Berlin, and in 1850 they had a daughter in London, and in 1855 in St. Petersburg. Already in 1867, they laid a Telegraph cable from London to Calcutta, and, in 1874, a cable from England to the United States. The brothers Siemens knew from the beginning that it was enough, in a Berlin backyard to be seen. They thronged immediately to the world of business.
Marx has been described in 1867 in “das Kapital” that’s right, why companies need to expand their capacity and their markets constantly: The production of goods is the making cheaper and cheaper the more pieces of you. For four cars is not an industrial robot worth it; at 10,000 cars, the machines to make every single car cheaper.
Germany would be too small for its industry. Just because there is a world market, is worth the technology used in the company. A “de-globalise” would be the end of the German industrial structure. Just a reminder: Germany, 50 per cent of its business exported nearly performance.
It is true that the global networking eats up fossil fuels and has no future, if it is not to come to a climate crisis. But a “careful” Deconstruction is not similar to the de-globalise and the Coronavirus is neither cause nor concept. The pathogen triggers an epidemic. Not less but also not more.
