Despite fierce economic competition provided by such emerging countries as Pakistan and China, the developed world must resist the temptation to legislate economic security, according to Baroness Valerie Amos, leader of the House of Lords and lord president of the council of the United Kingdom. “We need stronger political leadership to help us as individuals and as countries to rise and meet these challenges, because we have faced them before,” Amos said during a talk presented by the student-led African-American MBA Association and the Chicago African Business Group at the Charles M. Harper Center on May 29.
“For half a century, the world lived with the threat of nuclear annihilation,” she said. “In the 1960s and 1970s, we in the west faced significant economic challenges from Japan and east Asia. What has changed today is the speed of communication and the demand for instant responses,” Amos said. “In the past we thought we could shut our doors on the problems and the conflicts of the wider world, and then feel safe and secure. That is no longer the case. The wider world is coming often and won’t leave us alone.”
To communicate locally the greater good brought by globalization, governments and companies must always look forward to create new job opportunities, she said. But it’s also important for individuals to realize the consequences of their economic actions, Amos said. “If you want to buy a T shirt for $3, you have to appreciate that this will have an impact on what is happening in your own country,” she said. “We also have to recognize that if economies are not flexible enough or not able to move quickly enough to deal with that kind of reality, then resentments will build up.”
To win the battle of ideas and values for democratization, societies must be honest because interdependence can be difficult, Amos said. Multiethnic societies are relatively new in Europe, which is far less diverse than the United States, she said. “Throughout human history, we have always defined ourselves by our differences, be it race, skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation,” Amos said. “It’s the same for all nations.”
Public ethnic conflicts (such as the debate in the United Kingdom over Muslim women wearing veils) provide healthy discourse for society, she said. “I have no problem with it because it is a political debate we have to have,” Amos said. “Many communities feel the need to engage and understand what is happening in Muslim communities in the United Kingdom. I have a real concern that within Muslim communities there is a feeling that the state, the general community, everybody is against this one community. That is not the case, and it’s only by having these discussions that we can actually get these nuances out there.”
Students with the African-American MBA Association chose to sponsor Amos’s visit to serve as an ambassador on behalf of the university and to allow students to hear from a member of the black global economic community, said first-year student Alandrea Tinnons, a member of the association. “Her talk relates tremendously to business today,” Tinnons said. “Our borders are becoming nonexistent. Economic diversity, trade, and how capitalism is able to spread to the rest of the world are becoming bigger and bigger issues.”
—Phil Rockrohr
