Read the quote by the former Secretary General Kofi Annan and write an article for your student magazine. In your article, you should: ■■ explain Kofi Annan’s statement ■■ discuss benefits and challenges of globalisation ■■ assess your personal situation as one of the winners or losers of globalisation Write around 250 words and give your article a title. Writing 14 “First, globalization may have delivered many benefits, but it has also eroded the capacity of societies to determine their own destinies. Many modern challenges – including tax avoidance, organized crime, cyber insecurity, terrorism, climate change, international migration, and financial flows, both licit and illicit – have one thing in common: the traditional instruments of a sovereign state have become inadequate to manage them.” Global players Which of the companies below are you familiar with? Who in class knows the most? Talk about the companies and answer these questions. 1 What do they produce or which service do they render? 2 Why are they well-known? What do they have in common? 3 What is the name for this type of business organisation? Read the dictionary entry on p. 218 to check your answer to the third question. Go online and find out which of the companies in 15a are represented in Austria. Do you think Austria is a key market for them? Compare your findings in class. Many multinational companies have a negative reputation. Can you think of reasons for this? Have you heard criticism voiced in connection with any global company? Discuss together. Initiatives have been set up to monitor human rights in today’s globalised economy. Read the article and answer the questions. 1 Why are many initiatives suspected of not protecting those affected? 2 What is meant by ‘responsible purchasing’? Who are the ‘rights holders’? 3 What does the report suggest to improve the situation? Speaking 15 a Colgate HP Vodafone Citibank Bridgestone Johnson & Johnson Procter & Gamble Mercedes Sony Oracle Tesla Pfizer Comcast Ericsson Shell IBM Siemens Unilever Walmart Nissan Merill Lynch b c Reading 16 a b Ethical labels not fit for purpose, report warns consumers Many of the world’s leading certification standards are not only failing to improve the ethical conduct of large corporations but are even serving to entrench abusive business practices, a damning report argues. The study of 40 global voluntary initiatives, including emblematic on-pack labelling schemes such as Fairtrade International, identifies multiple failures in what it calls a “grand experiment” in corporate accountability. These initiatives are “not effective tools for […] protecting rights holders against human rights violations,” says Amelia Evans, executive director at MSI Integrity, the US-based human rights group behind the research. In recent years there has been a steady expansion in the influence of multi-stakeholder ini t iat ives (MSIs) , which originated in the 1990s as a voluntary response by big business to widespread abuses in their supply chains. The report’s sample alone involves more than 10,000 participating companies in 170 countries and covers sectors as diverse as cocoa, palm oil, minerals, electronics, jewellery and children’s toys. 130 Language skills Extras Explore 10 Trading with the world Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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