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]]> <![CDATA[Address by the Executive Director]]> The Academy of Socio-Economic Research and Analysis was founded to undertaken research and advocacy on economic justice in the Asian region and globally. Since its conception in 2004, it has engaged in numerous projects relating to gender and Islam in Asia, the economic and social history of Straits Muslims in the Malay Archipelago and more recently, migrant women workers in the Asia-Pacific region. Industrialisation and globalisation has forced minorities, women and the poor to cross borders to seek more secured livelihoods .In the process, some forms of exploitation have occurred at worksites since people on the move are for the most, poorly educated and politically represented. There have been rising incidences of ethnic racism and hostilities towards migrants although they fill up menials jobs which are usually avoided by local workers. The economic history of population movements in Asia and the Pacific suggest that there are significant opportunities for socio-economic mobility as seen in the material wealth generated by migrant Chinese and Indians in the region. However some populations, like the indigenous minorities and majority indigenous people have not made significant advances in economic wealth although some are accorded with prominent political status and popular power. It is significant that rural populations have for the most been unsuccessful in adaptation or integration with new work cultures of globalisation despite efforts made to provide them with affirmative status and privileges. The diversity of socio-economic livelihoods among local and migrant populations may be a product of colonial history but post-colonial politics, growing ethnic and religious consciousness and the rising plurality of work and trade have elucidated differential strengths and weaknesses among communities in the Asia-Pacific, necessitating different kinds of development strategies and policy approaches for women, minorities, majority indigenous people and migrants. Since global work systems are becoming more internationalised, it is appropriate that global labour policies relating to systems of recruitment and employment, domiciliation and remuneration be more rigorously streamlined to enable a more equal and just work culture to emerge and one that can transcend local economic and gender politics and culture.

It is increasingly argued that material wealth is just one form of wealth and that social wealth or social capital is essential for societies to develop effectively. A well conceived policy of democratic education, comprehensive health care and welfare system with sustainable development could generate productive and secured communities of the future. Democracies with healthy opposition from organised politics and civil society could transform a patriarchal and authoritarian society to a self-critical thinking society where it is equally possible to engage in constructive criticism of domestic and global politics without fear of censorship or punishment. Even if the reaction to criticism is swift, clinical and legal, it curbs minds to be brave and thinking and the end result is an obedient society without creativity and imagination. It may score high on the chart of material development but is socially and politically too immature to understand its own vulnerable future. Freedom of mobility, security from crime, civil disorders and terrorism are again necessary for economic growth and a growing climate of insecurity both domestic and global must be honestly addressed in relation to root causes and events. To approach the "consequence" as the "cause", to caution the global community to "fear and resist" rather than to "learn and understand" is a poor execution of global governance. It provides few solutions for peace and ammunition for more conflict and unless this is a desired outcome, to use military strategies to gain access to borders and resources, communities will be drained of their social wealth and eventually will succumb to primordial and essentialist emotions, rendering a course for future violent agendas with personally justified motives.

An agenda on social wealth to evaluate human development and civility through successful policies of social and economic justice in the form of gender and ethnic equality, social democracy and security will lay the foundations for material wealth and prosperity which in turn can advance social wealth further. We need not necessarily be victims of globalisation if we have social wealth. We could be successful participants of global economies as long as values, policies and conflicts are correctly addressed in the local and global politics of economic change. These values should be embedded in a culture of sharing knowledge and ideas rather than an imposition of values perfected by the West for their own ends.

Finally "the prosecution (must) rest" for the global society to take its natural course. A long-term policy of ideological or political extermination of ethnicity, faith or culture does not bury it permanently. It retreats and resurfaces in forms so bizarre and incomprehensible that social education may prove obsolete even for the best minds.
 

Wazir Jahan Karim
September, 2006
]]> <![CDATA[Secured Livelihoods]]> Introduction

The development of public and private services for psychotherapy and counseling remains a grey field in Malaysia. While the demand for specialised care in psychotherapy and counseling advances in an increasingly urbanised and industrialised society, it is uncertain if Malaysia has developed a parallel mental and community health infrastructure to match the growing needs of children, youth, women and men in a highly competitive and  automated age.
The changing societal structures and systems under which people live have placed undue pressures on the nuclear family to absorb the stresses of change and transformation. Productivity is stressed upon from the time a child enters a pre-school programme and is encouraged to demonstrate talent and academic competence at a time when it is still learning and discovering a diverse range of interests and skills.. Primary and secondary schooling is based on a series of technical examinations which set hurdles to social maturation rather than facilitate the advancement of talent, confidence and leadership necessary for development of civil society. Tertiary education is the ultimate competitive arena for economic specialisation and determines the future success of youth in economic life which does not necessarily prepare them for the challenges of  modernity. Conflicting interests and values, choices between personal and collective responsibilities, balancing priorities of work and family may place undue stress on individuals, family members and social groups dependent on productive individuals for their survival. Family and social fragmentation  is a result of choices and priorities which are misplaced or misguided in place, situation or time while personal attrition may advance more rapidly without such support systems to buffer the shocks of demanding and competitive work cultures.
  In an automated individualistic and ego-centric society, core values based on tradition and culture may seem unimportant and secondary as modern global work environments impose differential needs and priorities. The importance of family and other social stabilisers through community and support groups may be challenged through engaging discourses of modern work life which may make earlier social values acquired through family and youth socialisation seem outmoded or obsolete. The media facilitates the commoditisation of human life and imposes other uncertainties in individuals who become unable to determine the kinds of values which can ensure well-being and happiness. As a result, states of anxiety and stress, depression, personality disorders, chronic fatigue, insomnia and drug addiction may disrupt work and social performance and in extreme situations promote anti-social and obsessive behaviour which are criminal or unlawful. Crimes relating to child-abuse, domestic violence, marital rape, juvenile rape, incest, drug-addiction, suicide and many other forms of anti-social behaviour are increasing common among the productive middle and upper classes although statistics may highlight the poorer working classes who may be less able to obtain good legal counseling and so are more likely to be convicted.
In view of the growing need for psychotherapeutic and counseling services, it is vital that Malaysia undertakes a comprehensive mapping of services available in the country in both the public and private sector to enable policy makers to evaluate the kinds of resources which need to be further developed to advance the health sector further. It is proposed that such a mapping be undertaken in the form of a national survey to integrate findings relating to training, programme development, accreditation, registration, fitness of practice and codes of conduct and ethics. This will pave the way for a higher level of competence, competitiveness and accountability in the practice of psychotherapeutic and counseling services in the country.

 

]]> <![CDATA[ASERA-ASPAC Network]]> OBECTIVES

  1. Develop an Asia-Pacific network to build up current database on women-headed households to provide applied solutions on family and community fragmentation.
  2. Form a website to provide online communications and exchange of statistics, papers and other relevant documents
  3. Share policy recommendations which are culture and gender sensitive including best code of practices for the feminisation of labour.


CONTENT OF NETWORK AND METHOD OF FORMATION
      
Special Features and Originality

  1. The network includes field sites where issues and problems are located and provide opportunities for direct exchanges with migrant workers both national and global
  2. Location of workshops in communities experiencing feminisation of the labour force provides the fuel to stimulate discussions in the right direction
  3. Web and field communities converge to provide first hand news on the situation of migrant workers

ANTICIPATED BENEFITS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

The project is expected to introduce and develop a more dynamic interdisciplinary approach to the study of emerging problems of work and labour in the global market. By locating the network discussions in local areas where such labour markets are formed, network participants will be able to obtain direct feedback from public and private agencies including civil society movements on the complexity of the issues. Instead of commissioning a formal survey, the coordinator of each country will prepare a kit containing background information on trends, underlying problems and profile of workers including statistics and social mapping of worker’s migratory patterns and the network will together work out the scenario and form conclusions which are general enough to compare to other countries where similar work and labour patterns are formed
These comparisons will form the basis of social theory relating to global labour and the feminisation of global labour. This methodology will enable comparative data to emerge over a shorter period of time and one where historical, geographical, economic, and social perspectives can be woven into a common thread of understanding.
It is also hoped that the findings from this network can lay the grounds for international agencies like ILO to develop international codes of practices for the use of cheap female labour in the global labour market .This can encompass regulations relating to  rates where workers are paid similar wages as men and women from the host country, reimbursements of costs of relocation, allowances for children and other  social benefits.
It is anticipated that graduate students will be able to benefit from this network since they will be exposed to extensive sessions of brain-storming, discussions and dialogues which can generate new knowledge on current issues of globalisation , gender and work.
The network hopes to be able to generate a lecture series on “Globalisation and Social Wealth”” where members of the network and other eminent scholars can give public lectures on current issues and problems of globalisation and liberalisation, focusing on gender, poverty, family transformation, new markets, democracy and many other interrelated topics of academic and popular interest. The country coordinator will lay the ground work for these public lectures which will eventually be posted on the web. Debates can continue with blogging and email messaging. This lecture series can develop into a credible organisation of its own and will be able to influence the development of theory and policy.
As explained earlier, discussions on globalisation and the deregulation of markets is capital driven but is built on the idea that human capital can be composed and disposed at will according to market forces. This network can make a major contribution to the understanding of what has been described by A Sen as “economic justice” where policy intervention can help to bridge the rights of workers with the needs of industry.

Social Theory and Methodology
 
a) The network through online communications, narratives blogs and workshops will advance the research process with greater efficiency. It shortens the interface between empirical and applied outputs and enable quicker results in data gathering.
b) The participatory action approach will also benefit the “researched” ie migrant workers since they can out source quick solutions from activist and researchers of the network.
c) The network can stimulate thinking with greater relativity and enable participants to sharpen comparative perspectives.
d) The unique approach to the study of engendered labour movements can throw new light on economics and demography. This could be a contribution to ‘gendered economies’: or ‘womenomics’ as it is popularly referred.


1) Social Perspectives

a) Different field locations could be at different phases of advancement in the   deregulation of labour markets and this will provide evidence of the   dynamism of     structural process which move labour to follow capital or capital to follow labour. The relationship between capital driven and labour driven economies will be elucidated.
b) The transformation of family structures follow the dynamism of labour
      markets and comparisons on the deconstruction of family and
community institutions and their subsequent revitalisation if any can be drawn.
c) It is also possible to envisage that urban centres may have diasporas of
earlier migrant communities and differences in the historicity of
             early diasporas and emerging labour movements may explain the  rise of   
             problems relating to juvenile delinquency, domestic violence and child abuse
 in communities where these workers originate and where they work. Sexual
             exploitation for example is a new phenomenon of the migratory labour
        market while youth malaise is a rural problem in communities  
        without mothers.

 

Future Prospects
 
     Such a network can play a crucial role in shaping social and economic  policy
on the free market. By showing the private sector how problems and issues of women affect their productivity, the private enterprise could participate in
worker welfare projects with greater sensitivity. The private enterprise can also
engage in direct discussions with  relevant policy makers on Ministerial levels.
         Service officers linked to the needs and rights of women migrant workers
         such as banking , financial, health and educational institutions could be more
actively involved in the network and offer client friendly products and services
which can assist workers invest their earnings more efficiently with long term results. This can benefit the health and education of their children and function
as a social safety net against the sudden withdrawal of these enterprises into
even cheaper labour markets.
The network could also maximize its contribution on empowerment of
       women workers through contribution of papers to international organisations
      like the ILO, UNDP products like Counseling Clinics, Social Service 
       Directories, Human Rights Education through Media dissemination , Preventive
       Health Brochure and other civil society services which are available in
       countries where  the Workshops are located.

]]> <![CDATA[History Objective]]> History

Formed in 1996 as the Academy of Social Sciences or Akademi Sains Sosial (AKASS), the organisation has made significant advances in developing applied research programmes and policies on cultural minorities, heritage conservation, gender, global governance and civil society. It has established an extensive network of activities while promoting human resource development through involving young and promising scholars in high-level workshops, seminars and conferences. Wide professional linkages have also been established with international academic institutions and centers of excellence throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. In the process, attempts to link governmental with non-governmental organisations in research and advocacy have been made. The next five years will spur on new directions in research and development where programmes will be more closely associated with national and global issues of economic and geo-political interest. Currently, the academy supports efforts to advance internationalisation in research, advocacy and publications by enhancing its global competitiveness and supports programmes in any national or international intellectual community which can combine the best practices in research collaboration, clustering and networking. 

Objectives

• Promote Malaysia’s position globally in research advancements in economics and society.
• Advance innovative interdisciplinary perspectives, theories and methodologies in socio-economic research and advocacy.
• Develop policies to restructure gender, community and society to achieve more equitable wealth
• Publish outstanding empirical works and scientific achievements in economics and society
• Networks with national and international centers and institutions of research and advocacy

]]> <![CDATA[Contact Us]]> Contact Us

 You can contact ASERA by filling in the contact form below:

 

]]> <![CDATA[Fellows]]> Structure and Organisation

The Academy is administered by ab Executive Director assisted by a Company Secretary and a Financial Controller. The Executive Director is appointed by a Board of Directors consisting of a maximum of four prominent individuals, two Malaysian and two non-Malaysian from other international organisations concerned with research and development. Currently the academy has 11 members who are conferred the titles of ‘senior’, honorary, ordinary fellows and members. The Academy promotes collaborative research publications and networking among fellows and members through participation in international meetings, dialogues, seminars and conferences.

Executive Director
Prof. Dr. Wazir Jahan Karim (LSE)

Directors
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Razha Rashid (Toronto)
Dr. Shakila Menon
Prof. Maurice Bloch

Company Secretary
Ch’ng Lee Chee
Well Corporate Services Snd. Bhd.

Financial Controller
Tan Kim Hong

Web Master
Teh How Kiat


FELLOWS OF THE ACADEMY

Senior Fellows

Prof. Dr. Wazir Jahan Karim (LSE)
Economic Anthropologist
(Globalisation, Gender, Social and Economic Transformation)

Dr. Farid Alatas (John Hopkins University)
Political Sociologist
(Modernity, Political Systems, Islam)

Prof. Hood Salleh (Oxen)
Social Anthropologist
(Environmental Economics, Cultural Minorities)

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Razha Rashid (Toronto)
Cultural Anthropologist
(Political Values, Networks, Information and Communication Systems)

Fellows

Dr. Shakila Manan (National University of Malaysia)
Linguist
(Stylistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, English Language and Literature)

Dr. Hajar Abdul Rahim (University of Reading)
Linguist
(Semantics, Corpus Linguistics and TESL)

Honorary Fellows/Member

Prof. Syed Hussein Alatas (University of Amsterdam) - Fellow
Political Sociologist
(Modernity, Socio-Economic Transformation, Values)

Madane Lim Pao Lin (University of Manchester) – Member
(Educational and Ethnic Policy)

Javed Jabbar (Pakistan) – Member
Media Sp.
(Politics, Islam, Globalisation) 
 

 

]]> <![CDATA[Location]]> The Asera Office at Lebuh Pantai.

The history of Penangs historic port is best explored in the conservation guidelines on Penangs “Waterfront Business – Financial District”. It recalls the old days of sea travel when Penang was a favourite port of call. Beach Street in the heart of Georgetown was laid out by Francis Light. Many of the buildings here were European offices with retail or wholesale stores. With the construction of the Swettenham Pier and the modernization of trade and commerce at the dawn of the 20th century, Beach Street, now knows as Lebuh Pantai became the address of fashionable commercial buildings designed by European architects.

The former government office located on Lebug Downing and Lebuh Pantai were bombed by American B-29s at the close of the Japanese occupation. The Survey Office however, survived, and is now the premise of the Muslim Religious Council and the Syariah Court.

Today, Lebuh Pantai is Penang’s financial street. The Hongkong and Shanghai bank, the Standard Chartered Bank, the ABN-AMBRO bank which currently houses University Sains Malaysia’s Heritage Centre, the Southern bank, have all refurbished their heritage premise in the last 10 years. The rent controlled buildings on the street awaits similar renovation.

ASERA in Georgetown in strategically located in the Standard Chartered Bank Chambers on Beach Street. The ASERA office has a commanding view of Fort Conwallis and the Light House and the RNO building on the Esplanade, overlooking the Straits of Melaka and the coastline of Kedah and the mainland.

 

]]> <![CDATA[History]]> Formed in 1996 as the Academy of Social Sciences or Akademi Sains Sosial (AKASS), the organisation has made significant advances in developing applied research programmes and policies on cultural minorities, heritage conservation, gender, global governance and civil society. It has established an extensive network of activities while promoting human resource development through involving young and promising scholars in high-level workshops, seminars and conferences. Wide professional linkages have also been established with international academic institutions and centers of excellence throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. In the process, attempts to link governmental with non-governmental organisations in research and advocacy have been made. The next five years will spur on new directions in research and development where programmes will be more closely associated with national and global issues of economic and geo-political interest. Currently, the academy supports efforts to advance internationalisation in research, advocacy and publications by enhancing its global competitiveness and supports programmes in any national or international intellectual community which can combine the best practices in research collaboration, clustering and networking. 

]]> <![CDATA[Publications]]>
  • Micro-Economic Trends and Civilisational Islam (pdf)

    • *Click on the above links to download.
    ]]>         <![CDATA[Research Projects]]>
  • Global Borders
  • ASERA-ASPAC Network 
    • Objectives
    • Content and Methodology
    • Benefits and Prospects
  • Secured Livelihoods
    • ]]>         <![CDATA[Global Borders]]> ASERA conducts qualitative and quantitative research in all fields of study relating to philosophies of society, education, economics, environment  communications and management. It is primarily interested in analytical, evaluative and policy research and cooperates with qualified teams of international researchers from pubic and private universities or institutions of higher learning. The academy also conducts courses and workshops on research management and planning and human resource development in research and data analysis. A primary concern is the germination of critical thinking in applied economic sciences to spur on excellence in economic and social research on globalisation.
    The Academy is also concerned for more extensive research collaboration among Asian institutions of higher learning and between the developed West and Asia. In Asia generally, universities promote research in science and technology which are media worthy but which are not necessarily significant breakthroughs in scientific and social thinking. ASERA collaborates in efforts to develop research breakthroughs in the economic and social sciences which are theory worthy in an effort to promote the value of interdisciplinary research and to upgrade theories of globalisation and macro-economics which can affect the socio-economic life of a global society. 
    “Global Borders” is a subject reference to describe the increasing categorical inconsistencies, oppositional positions and dualisms which people are subject to in everyday relations. Globalisation is described in economic terms , as “a process enabling financial and investment markets to operate internationally, largely as a result of deregulation and improved communications (Collins) or “to make worldwide in scope and application’ (Webster).More recently, it has been described as an ‘entity’ and ‘process’ ‘that could have more than just an economic impact on the parts of the world it touched’ (S. Jeffrey, ) Jeffrey further states that ‘globalisation took a life of its own’. It is interesting that without much ado, the global age of post-industrial economics developed its infrastructure from the information age and knowledge became the new buzz word of wealth and success. In the industrial age prior to globalisation, the economic revolution of industrial growth also created a life force of its own as it uprooted farmers, women and youth from the rural economy and made them workers of service and manufacturing industries- neo-Marxists called them the new ‘proletariats’ of the city. It shrunk extended families into nuclear but did not create alternative support structures for families to operate in the cities causing social fragmentation and instability .But this became a way of life and people learned the art of urban survival, walking lonely in a crowd and drawing comfort from alienation, safe with the thought that productive work with an enterprise was the ultimate form of survival. Soon they developed their own ethnic enclaves, networks and triads to secure their own  niche and the city evolved into a plural entity with multiple systems of exclusivity and legitimacy.
    Labour became human capital and contributed fundamentally to the wealth of the nation. Young men and women were persuaded by the State to work in clean, smoke-free factories in Free Trade Zones and the services it generated because it was “a good thing”. One could make immediate monetary contributions to the family and benefit from a new found freedom never known before. But these young men and women, indeed even the happy farmers of the city in the least developed and developing world were not prepared for the sudden news  that knowledge was now the prime mover of wealth with its own ability to generate value-added capital. The majority understood that productive work alone was enough. But one had now to be a “ knowledge worker” or  belong to the stockpile of  “floating labour”-cheap, fluid, dispensable human labour  or what has been referred to by  Angell as ‘the surplus of humanity’. In the global age, productive work loses its power to influence organizational  behaviour because the owners of capital control the knowledge to generate new capital  and along with it the global systems which make them invisible and faceless , safely operating from distant lands never ventured by workers. Trade unionism buckled under the loss of the adversary and industrial arbitration lost its dynamic appeal. Workers were suddenly reminded that they were operating under mysterious labour systems when the multinationals from which they drew their wages had moved to “cheaper lands”
    One is constantly reminded that globalisation is a phenomena different from internationalisation in that it transcends borders of identity based in the nation-state, territoriality and citizenry.Yet the political culture of  globalisation is founded in events which alienate people from the creative process of decision-making about what are or should constitute the contents of this political culture. More specifically, people in the Asia-Pacific, Africa and the least developed nations of the world are without doubt the most passive recipients of global processes while the active directors of the rules of engagement of these  process are located in States in the advanced West. Indeed the deeper structures of legitimisation of rules and institutions which guide this process are not generally understood by people of the advanced West who go along with new lines of thinking of “inevitable” future global scenarios because they have been convinced by their leaders that these new global scenarios will secure their livelihoods and enable the western democratic process to shape the rest of the world.
     A consensual media hype back the statements of these powerful political leaders. A global world produces equality, prosperity and well-being because it is founded in principles of democracy and economic liberalism. A world leader cannot go wrong with this statement and people are proud to think that their leaders can bring an end to world poverty and create a new global history. There has been proven evidence to back this and the owners of global capital who are also the owners of global media networks are quick to point this out. The collapse of communism and socialism in East Europe the Soviet Republic, China and  regions in Southeast Asia has opened markets and deregulated labour encouraging a free flow of capital, workers and resources according to natural forces of supply and demand. When supply meets demand, people who have been poor with low prospects of employment and mobility are able to find work in neighbouring or distant countries but irregularities of employment give rise to exploitation and eventually dissidence at work. ‘Floating labour” is kept at “floating wages” according to the degree of labour regulation abided by different countries. “Bordernet” workers who are for the most, workers without work permits are most open to exploitation since they are commuters and as illegal workers are generally excluded from any form of organised negotiation or unionism.  Rising inequalities of income between the North and South, workers and owners of capital have been contradicted by arguments of increasing incentives, opportunities and choices ;  people are free to enjoy a variety of choices of places of work as long as they are equipped with information and knowledge on how to achieve it.
    Globalisation establishes a state of “wellness” for the worker regardless of ethnicity, culture or politics but it is knowledge-based and requires greater investments of capital to generate the right kind of human capital suitable for a more competitive global work environment. However, since economic globalisation is capital and resource driven and has developed its structures of delivery even before people in the less and least developed world have had time to understand the commitments that have to be made in knowledge transformation, they continue to seek  work in manufacturing and service industries which have reached their doorsteps  without realising that this kind of work is not part of the process of new wealth creation. After all cheap unskilled labour is still in demand only more volatile and fluid without loyalty and commitment. Human capital continues to embody the global structures of wealth creation for the owners of capital, for at the fringes of the process of globalisation, cheap labour is necessary to generate the goods and services of the new global economy. The principle is to keep it cheap, unrepresented and as far as possible alienated from the brains of the global  enterprise .
    ‘Wellness” then is a concept of the global enterprise- to develop the notion of ‘competitive advantage’- that to go “global” is more advantageous than to restrict one’s chances to the ‘local’ or ‘regional’. Nevertheless, in the context of work and enterprise, there are already global institutions which are in place to determine the preconditions of performance and most countries on the receiving end of these rules will find it impossible to contribute to the higher end of capitalisation and production because they are still involved in industries which are labour intensive. They have higher rates of population growth and younger populations than the advanced West. Indeed capital-intensive enterprises have skillfully adapted to the contrasting demographic structures of “women givers” and “women receivers” countries which are not necessarily demarcated by Western-Eastern geo-political locations. The low population growth, high educational and technological advancements in the advanced West have paid off for these countries can now dictate the terms of trade and investment in countries with large labour reserves. The majority of African and Southeast Asian nations can be described as early industrial or late industrial while developed countries are post-industrial and reaching high levels of maturation in the acquisition of technologies for knowledge-based economies. Hence the age of globalisation rests on a global dynamics of unequal advantage creating greater social inequalities of access to capital, knowledge and   resources .The demographic, socio-economic and political structures of Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America are far too behind the advanced West to respond to globalisation in the same way.
    These contradictions become even more apparent when highly skilled human  capital migrate to the more developed West because they are able to offer higher economic incentives or better research environments. The United States and the European Union have benefited from the massive loss of talent from India, China, South Korea and Taiwan and this has also led to a boom of creativity and inventiveness where patents and intellectual property have become the new capital resources of advanced Western economies.  India and China are being closely watched since they are the two likely Asian countries to develop a competitive edge over the United States and the European Union with their surplus of talent and human capital but their high economic growth rates are accompanied by growing income differentials which are more significant than the advanced West. It is obvious at this point that the least developed and developing countries will not be able to develop a stockpile of new intellectual wealth as long as patents and intellectual property registered in the advanced West override those in Asia. An artificial knowledge lag will be created as more Asian patents are registered in the United States. The pace of global competitiveness is also too fast for developing countries to comprehend because one step behind in knowledge acquisition can bring obsolescence on a national scale. Again the high ratings of American and European institutions of higher learning attract the best Northeast, South and Southeast Asian young talent to these universities leading to growing hierarchies of preference between foreign and local graduates, further affecting salaries and job mobility. In Asia, there is growing discrimination against local graduates in the private sector as more multinational and local enterprises recruit  graduates from established foreign universities .
    If local universities attract the best young talent, these hierarchies might disappear at some point but it is doubtful if this will happen as more European and American universities open their doors to Asian students who pay full fees. Educational investments of this kind also benefit young Asian talent .Asians develops global competitiveness at an early age because standards of global competitiveness are produced from the advanced West .However ethnic and faith issues remain a barrier to global competitiveness. Muslim graduates from the United Kingdom in particular, continue to express their frustrations in job recruitment in the United Kingdom. A Muslim graduate from the University of Leeds who helps his father in a fish and chips stall is hardly engaged in “gainful employment”. These Muslim graduates may only obtain gainful employment from Muslim enterprises and these are limited in scope and content. In Asia, a local graduate with talent and more versed with local cultural sensitivities may be more successful in establishing local enterprises which may be expanded into regional outlets but even so ethnic tensions keep in or keep out local talent and enterprises are increasingly ethnic-based subject to latent racism which are seldom articulated on the level of macro-politics.
     One the other hand, indigenous languages are rapidly losing their appeal as governments reintroduce English to assist the youth compete in a global environment. In a sense, ethnic prejudice and racism has no place in a global work environment but even if English or other Asian languages are preferred, there is still a preference in Asia to hire those who are socially or culturally familiar. In a diversified talent market, there may be little need to hire the “adversary”, the talented worker from a different community which is politically powerful or politically weak. If politically powerful, they may be useful as ‘go-betweens”, “agents” or “brokers” to negotiate with ruling politicians but their usefulness stops abruptly there. Yet some Asian languages like Chinese and Japanese are popular because they are the performing languages of the Asian business environment while others like Malay, Singhalese or Vietnamese are unable to provide similar attractive returns. These issues require further study for globalisation also requires regional specialisation and knowledge of local and regional cultural resources contribute to the enrichment of human capital but how prepared are employers to take on the task of cultural enrichment when they are in a powerful position to punish or degrade employees who represent communities of the most or least powerful.
    The politics of globalisation is also defined by global interests of the developed world which provide ideas of global security according to the ideational systems of capitalism and liberalism. Critics of these systems are generally labeled as “anarchists” or “anti-global”. Hence standards of global morality are based on support or opposition to economic globalisation and have developed a universal relevance which is directly linked to global security. Global media reflects the line of thinking of political leaders of the developed world and   critiques of economic globalisation by leaders of the developed and least developed world are seldom represented in global media except when they endorse the views of leaders of superpowers or in the case of ‘rogue’ nations to oppose them. Global politics contains clear lines of conflict and opposition between nations and intellectual communities which agree to conventional rules of political wisdom of economic globalisation and those which do not and this is for the most determined by other rules of geopolitical interests which further divide the globe into allies and adversaries.  The rise of religious fundamentalism in the politics of superpowers is debated as if it could be an emerging line of thinking in political secularism yet religious fundamentalism in the Muslim world is clearly reviewed as a dangerous trend against the global peace process. It is unfortunate that political autonomy in the Muslim world has become associated with militant fundamentalism, the last and final phase in the principle of jihad .Secularism is a coded global standard for modern capitalist democracies but is increasingly an issue of debate.
     In the Asia-Pacific where religions are increasingly dividing ethnic communities, causing political instability in plural nations, religious organisations have been remobilised into non-governmental organisations in the pursuit of ethnic or ideological interests .These are contradictory to  and obstruct the development of local civil society movements which then fail to advance into a neutral global civil movement. This has exacerbated the development of universal values of transparency and trust and has made people suspect the work and activities of non-governmental organisations which are neutral. The rise of sectarian conflict in the Asia-Pacific , the rising disillusionment against States which are unable to deliver tangible economic and political goods and services and the increasing malaise of youth in search of rewards without  effort have made it increasingly difficult for developing nations to abide by standards of global competitiveness set by advanced nations. Border conflicts and the increasing precarious position of ‘border-net communities’ have also distracted people from participating in more challenging activities of  life while the vulnerability of indigenous languages undergoing endangerment and language death have reactivated debates on indigenous and national heritage. The rights of indigenous minorities are increasingly threatened as their relative underdevelopment calls for greater economic integration and main-streaming. This obsession to ‘develop’ indigenous people to achieve a better quality of life is disputed not only by minorities but by conservationists who argue that development strategies are seldom sustainable and deprive indigenous people of their rights of access to land and other natural resources. Indigenous people continue to provide evidence of anti-global trends which developing countries are anxious to play down. A review of the  position of indigenous people of  the advanced West reveal a pathetic status of diminishing plurality and diversity against a grey cloud of loss histories . The poverty of indigenous people in the advanced West, Asia-Pacific and Africa is the only unifying factor which has achieved a global epidemical scale.
    Finally there are other kinds of borders which are harder to probe-the borders of minds which contain thoughts and emotions which harbour centuries of prejudice and hatred or mistrust for movements of reform. Psychological and emotional barriers are part of the deep structures of human cognition which find solutions in simple dichotomies of things right and wrong in human society but because they are patterned by essentialist and primordial ideas of morality, the subjective experience overweighs the act of logic and reason. Indeed it even seems reasonable to guide current policy and action on the basis of medieval history or mythical culture which contradicts the essence of the formation of the modern state or the modern global state. The idea of ‘rights of origin” to define borders of political exclusivity contradicts the notion of borderless citizenry and exacerbates conflict over land and resources. Human rights is a reference to loss of freedom and liberty over personal, political and cultural resources yet very few have challenged the rhetoric of whose rights it is which  are  being championed  and whose are being disfavoured.

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