I have hardly seen any thoughtful analysis coming from Malaysia on the topic of globalisation.

It seems the general populace of Malaysia, exemplified by Ong BK, 'Assault from dictatorial gov'ts and globalisation', take it for granted that globalisation is something inherently deleterious to the economies and cultures of developing countries - a sinister, mostly American, plot to dominate the world economically, to ensure the flow of profits is one-way only.

This is not only untrue; it is preposterous. Globalisation benefits companies and workers in developing countries too, sometimes to the detriment of American workers.

The service industry illustrates my point. A very large percentage of American customer service telephone lines are operated by people in India.

You're an outpatient at a hospital in Seattle, for example, and you call your hospital to sort out a billing problem. Chances are, that American-sounding voice over the phone actually emanates from an Indian in Bangalore, who has been trained in both hospital patient liaison and in American accents. (Naturally, special company phone lines are used, not the decrepit Indian government phone system.)

Their pay may be much less than for a comparable job in the West, but it is far higher than local standards.

So how many such service-related jobs migrate from the US to India? The answer is: about 4,000 each month, according to the US investigative television news magazine 60 Minutes.

Those are 4,000 jobs each month that are lost by the American workforce and a prime reason why the US economy in the latest reporting period created only 1,000 new jobs for the entire nation compared to the expected 150,000.

I should think all those with an anti-American agenda would be absolutely delighted to know that hundreds of thousands of American citizens are losing their jobs to people in Third World countries, and that the latter benefit through the rise in wages.

Globalisation is not such a cut-and-dry matter to be painted in shades of one-sided economic imperialism. Not everything is black and white. Ambiguity abounds, multiple perspectives are relevant, and simplistic thinking seldom serves anyone well.