Globalisation – The BBC Box

Welcome to our presentation on Globalisation, in which we will discover and find all about Globalisation and the BBC Box. The BBC box is a project founded by the BBC to show people the effects of Globalisation and how it affects people in less-developed countries. The BBC have cleverly acquired a steel container in which, they have placed a transponder so they know what is happening and where it has been.

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BBC Box Location Map

Click on blue and red boxes to find out where the box has been.

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In Britain, the box’s journey began in Greenock in Glasgow; there it is driven down (with a cargo of scotch whiskey) to Southampton. The cargo of whiskey headed out for shanghai and this is where it began its journey around the world on its sea-born journey to discover the secrets behind Globalisation.

Britain

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The Suez Canal is a trade route (built in 1869) that lifts the weight off merchants backs by taking a shortcut through Africa. This is also an advantage to us, as costs for certain luxuries (such as oil) are kept low. The box was taken down this route with a heavy cargo, but with a risk of pirate boarding, that have been a growing problem in this area of the world.

Suez Canal

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Los Angeles was the next stop on this journey through the world, after arriving in Shanghai, the box has a fresh new cargo of beauty supplies and gardening tools. So far, the box has encountered pirates in Somalia and fought against Typhoons in the South China Sea. There is a strong bond between America an Asia for various supplies and products. Sometimes, the containers would be filled with cars to take them away to Asia, fortunately this didn’t happen.

LOS ANGELES

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New York is well known for its height in technology and amazing skyline, but also for its massive businesses and corporations; this too helps to spread the new cargo around America. From Los Angeles, the rest of the box’s cargo was distributed around America so the rest of the Cargo can be shipped around the world. It is also sent to New York because their port is closer to the location it is being sent to, rather than re-tracking steps and having a longer journey.

New York

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Brazil! This is the next stop for our journey and we’re in the area of Santos. The BBC sent this here for two reasons:• To make a shorter route through to China• To distribute the rest of the cargoMany companies will do this just for more business (so they can sell more stock), sometimes, the local people will make some various items to fill the box up that bit more. Here, it has been refilled with Car Parts and Monosodium Glutamate (addicting chemical put in food).

Santos, Brazil

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SingaporeIn Singapore, many container boxes are sent

here to be refilled with goods. This is the last stop before unloading the whiskey at Shanghai. Boxes are stopped to check the cargo of the containers and when passed, the Customs officers will allow them into their territory. Officers were surprised to find whiskey in the BBC box as they were expecting it to have already been dropped off at an earlier stage.

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At the next stop, Shanghai, the box drops off its first cargo, the Scotch Whiskey. There would be no point of travelling with the box empty, so the box exchanged its load for a new one, beauty products and gardening supplies. This has then travelled a short way over to the East for a quicker route, fitted with the newest technology to prevent pirate raids in the pirate hotspot of South China. After the brief encounter with pirates, the box is soon free to move on to America, a large consumer agency.

Shanghai, China

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Haiphong, ChinaThis is the current location of the box, still containing the Monosodium

Glutamate and Car parts from Brazil. Presumably, they have stopped here due to the area’s unique exchanging point of cargos from around the world. This seems more likely than other explanations as this has happened previously and if this is the last stop, then they still have to contain some sort of cargo. Where is it going next, nobody knows, this is one of the great mysteries of Globalisation – you never know its next destination...

Thank You for Watching

By Alex Davis and Euan Bassey of Richard Lander School