Unfair trade between developed and undeveloped countries

Unfair trade between developed and undeveloped countries I come from Burma, where market economy has not developed much yet. So the country is in pristine beauty. The country is poor but it has a charm with which nothing can compete because it still possesses wide area of forests, the water in the rivers is pure and it smells very much like nature. This situation cannot be described to one hearts content; one has to see for oneself. When I came to Thailand, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the whole economy was fully open and people can go shopping for every product one can possibly want (not-need). The Bangkok city is vibrant and skyscrapers are everywhere. For one instant, it is very impressive. Looking into the deep scene will present another story. Thailand has integrated itself into the world economy. In another world, it has been assimilated into the international trade system. Thailand imports a lot of products from different countries and exports varieties of products back. Trading is an important aspect of this developing country. When someone goes shopping, sometimes it is hard to distinguish which product is from which country. Not long ago, the phrase made in a country is an important part of a product. For example, made in Thailand, or made in India matters. However, it does not matter anymore with the advance of globalization trade network. The whole economic system is netted so confusingly. An American product will come from China and Japan product from Malaysia. Some people argue that this is the result of free trade. Anti-globalization protesters argued that the volume of world trade has increased significantly since 1950 from $320 billion to $6.8 trillion. The amount of money invested in the trade has surged to the extent that the real money cannot be implied in the financial transactions. Digital numbers are represented as money instead of conventional one. Some people assert that trade lifted peoples lives from poverty. People usually point to China where millions of people rose out of poverty line, even though Chinese government is still criticized for the stark contrast that exists in China between rich and poor. Some people still hope that trade will lift peoples lives out of poverty. However, when we talk about trade, we have to observe the bigger picture, which means international trade. Looking at one country will not give us a clear picture of actual happenings. The whole world is trading among nations under the concept of free trade. So what actually is free trade? Britannica Online Encyclopedia defines free trade as a policy by which a government does not discriminate against imports or interferes with exports by applying tariffs (to imports) or subsidies (to exports). (Free trade, BOE) It also explicitly emphasized that a free-trade policy does not necessarily imply that a country abandons all control and taxation of imports and exports. However, no matter how much people argue that the economic system established by the United States by the end of Second World War brings the concept of free trade and prosperity, there is a serious setback that affects the majority of the people in the world. International trade may bring about prosperity for the people in the rich countries but deepen the poverty in the poor nations. As Global Ministries Organization argues Most free trade agreements are not equal and result in unfair trade practices by giving some countries, such as large industrial countries like the United States, Canada and some countries in the European Union, more opportunities than others and putting some countries, such as ones in Latin America, Africa and Asia, at risk.   Free trade is trade without restrictions while fair trade is an equitable and fair partnership between trading countries. (Global ministries organization, fair trade vs. free trade)   In the past, the British established unfair trade treaties with the countries across the globe. One of them would be the famous Bowring treaty that was forcefully established between Britain and Thailand in 1855. Nowadays there were various forms trade agreements.   These include bilateral free trade agreements (FTA) between two countries and larger multilateral agreements such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is an agreement among 135 nations.   There are also regional trade agreements which encompass the establishment of a free trade zone among many countries in the same region.   Countries across the globe establish several different kinds of trade agreements to support their economies. However, the rich countries are the ones that pursued aggressive trade negotiations with the other poor countries. Office of the United States Representative states on its homepage that Trade Agreements can create opportunities for Americans and help to grow the U.S. economy. At this moment one might want to stop for a while and think. U.S. economy is the biggest economy in the world and it is also three or four times bigger than the second economy in the world now China, formerly Japan. Still, the U.S. is seeking to grow its economy which is a bit irony, because if this phenomenon is not affecting others, it is deemed to be appropriate; however, as we will see in the later part of this paper, a lot of trade activities are not fair in relation to poor nations. The gap between developed countries and developing countries is very big and some scholars conclude that this gap exists due to the unfair practices that are inherent in the system. For example, the U.S. controls their tariff system very high for other countries while forcing other peoples economies to open up so that American goods can be imported. In one mockery of US unfair trade practices, one analyst from Newsweek magazine outlines Fair (unfair) trade often consists of some politician or bureaucrat picking a number out of thin air and imposing it on foreign businesses and American consumers. Fair (unfair) trade means that Jamaica is allowed to sell the United States only 950 gallons of ice cream a year, that Mexico may sell Americans only 35,292 bras a year, that Poland may ship us only 350 tons of alloy tool steel a year and that Haiti is allowed to sell the United States only 7,730 tons of sugar. Fair (unfair) trade means permitting each American citizen to consume the equiva lent of only one teaspoon of foreign ice cream per year, two foreign peanuts per year and one pound of imported cheese per year. Fair (unfair) trade means that the U.S. Congress can dictate more than 8,000 different taxes on imports, with tariffs as high as 458 percent. As we can see here, many developing countries are finding themselves unhelpful amid the American economic imposition. Most developing countries produce agricultural products and these products do not find any way out of their country to sell in other countries. In fact, they face hardship to sell them in the developing countries because of high tariffs walls of the developed countries on the agricultural and manufactured goods they seek to sell.   Worst of all, developed countries practice subsidizing game on their agriculture at a rate of $1 billion a day, which is a whole lot of money while developing countries spend very little money for agriculture even if it is their main economic sector. Therefore because of this money, agricultural producers in the developed countries can produce their goods below production cost and with access to the markets of developing countries they are able to sell their produce at extremely low prices.  This selling and exporting is ensured through trade agreements and trade negotiations. This unfair competition forces international prices to drop in an artificial manner and causes rural farmers in developing countries to collapse.  This was how the U.S. defeated Burma in the rice market while Burma in 1960 was the biggest rice exporter in the world. U.S. now is still one of the biggest rice exporters in the world along with Thailand and Vietnam. At some point U.S. gave out free rice to people in Asia as development aid. This is a major blow to rice exporting countries. How can these countries negotiate with U.S. if they are this aggressive? Moreover, the US exports wheat at 46% below the production cost and corn at 20% below production.  In May 2003, World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn stated that the average European cow receives more subsidies than the entire average income of a person in Africa.   This means that local producers can not compete in their own domestic markets and the result is major losses in income. Another major agricultural product is Coffee and again U.S is involved in this issue. It is stated that coffee is the worlds second most valuable traded commodity.   There are about 25 million farmers and coffee workers in over 50 countries that produce coffee.   The United States largest food import and second most valuable commodity is coffee.   The U.S. imported 2.72 billion pounds of coffee from September 2001 to September 2002.   The U.S. imports coffee mainly from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Vietnam. Unfortunately, many coffee farmers receive less money for their harvest than the cost of its production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt.   Why is that? The reason lies behind the corporations that sell and buy coffee from local people. In Guatemala for example, coffee pickers have to pick a 100-pound quota in order to get the minimum wage of less than $3/day. A recent study of plantations in Guatemala showed that over half of all coffee pickers dont receive the minimum wage, in violation of Guatemalan labor laws. Who is responsible for all these unfair practices? The root causes will lie in the trade and the concept of comparative advantage. Why do not these people farm paddy or wheat in the first place? It is because the idea of cash crop forces them to seek out dollars instead of survival crops. One major area against free trade and multinational companies is the issue of HIV medicines. Patent law in the international trade system is affecting dying people in the developing world. Pharmaceutical companies are producing HIV medicines with a high price so that people in the developing countries cannot afford it. Oxfam, a British NGO is trying to combat this issue. At an international level, they continue to challenge trade organizations, governments, drug companies, and others to make decisions that will help to improve the health of millions of poor people by providing access to affordable generic medicines. The patent issue is a major problem in the trading system. I am going to mention one specific story about US patent on the use of turmeric in wound healing. Graham Dutfield (2002) argued that the US Mississippi medical center received the above mentioned patent on the method of using turmeric in wound healing. As people would imagine, this patent laws have gone a bit too far. One point they did not know is that Indians have used this method to heal wounds since time immemorial. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India had to request the US patent and Trademark Office to revoke the patent on the basis that turmeric powder is widely known about and used in India for its wound-healing properties, and that a great deal of scientific research has been carried out by Indian scientists that confirms the existence of these properties. Finally, the patent was revoked. (p-65) As mentioned above, there are varieties of unfair trade practices in the international trading system. To address these issues require someone to have a look at the underlying philosophy of the whole economic system. The concept of comparative advantage has pushed a lot of countries to produce things which they do not actually need and afterwards trading has to be done. A case in point would be the coffee production, cotton production and tobacco production. In some instances, a lot of countries trade their produce at the expense of local population. Frances Moore Lappe and Joseph Collins (1988) argues that Brazil produced and exported soybeans to feed Japanese and European livestock at the cost of Brazilians hunger. (p-77). Likewise, Thailand traded cassava, frozen fruit and poultry products with the west and the rest of the world while Thai preschools are undernourished. (Lappe and Collins 1988: 76-77) Most of the times, the national governments are involved in the exploiting the poor while engaging in the international trade. They exported food while people were hungry at home. It seems to me that these governments are orchestrating with the international economic system while ignoring the poor people. Encouraging the fair trade needs reconsidering a number of factors such as scrutinizing the trade treaties, pressuring the governments through civil networks groups and resisting the American hegemony when it comes to unfair trade.

Repression of Women Exposed in Susan Glaspells Trifles :: Trifles Essays

The Repression of Women Exposed in Trifles  Ã‚   Susan Glaspell in Trifles explores the repression of women. Since the beginning of time, women have been looked down upon by men. They have been considered â€Å"dumb† and even a form of property. Being physically and emotionally abused by men, women in the early 1900’s struggled to break the mold formed by society. Even with the pain of bearing children, raising them, doing household and even farm chores, their efforts have never been truly appreciated. Mrs. Wright was â€Å"†¦real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid—and fluttery†¦Ã¢â‚¬  as Mrs. Hale, her neighbor, describes her (22). This would all soon change after her wedding day. With Mr. Wright’s insipid character and lack of patience of any joyous sound, Mrs. Wright’s spirit dwindled to nothing. It seems she spent hours at a time focusing on her quilts, preserves, and caring for the only life there was in the house, her canary. Even when Mr. Hale offered to get a party telephone, Mr. Wright responded, â€Å"†¦folks talk too much anyway†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (5). This silence he preferred also applied to his spouse. There were no hugs given out much less a smile. He failed to give her even the most minimal sing of appreciation much less the emotional warmth she hungered for. The coldness felt in the house as the sheriff and court attorney entered the house symbolized the same coldness brought about by Mr. Wright. For the house to be cold and gloomy and everything else outside the total opposite, was much more than just coincidence. It was as if when you entered the house a cadaver, cold and clammy, had embraced you in its arms. â€Å" I don’t think a place’d be any cheerfuller for John Wright’s being in it†, Mrs. Hale told the court attorney (11). Mrs. Hale knew perfectly well what kind of personality Mr. Wright had, which is why she specified that she wished that she had gone to visit Mrs. Wright when only she was there. â€Å"There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm†, says Mrs. Hale, yet they are seen as mere trifles because it is the women who take on these tasks. â€Å"The treatment of women in ‘Trifles’†, a web site that analyzes the demeanor of women throughout the play, states â€Å" The women are betrayed as if they are second class citizens with nothing more important to think about, except to take care of the medial household chores like cooking, cleaning, and sewing.

Abortion: Murder or Necessity

Abortion: Murder or Necessity Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo before it is viable. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced. Abortion, when induced in accordance with the local law, is among the safest procedures in medicine. However, unsafe abortions (those performed by persons without proper training or outside of a medical environment) result in approximately 70 thousand deaths and 5 million disabilities per year globally each year, with 20 million of those performed unsafely.Life begins at conception which forms an unborn child (or â€Å"fetus†). Abortion is an intentional violent act that kills an unborn baby, without any anesthesia, the baby is dismembered, torn apart, and vacuumed out of the mother. Dr. Micheline M. Mathews-Roth, Harvard Medical School, referenced medical textbooks that claimed that human life begins at conception. Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the â€Å"Father of Modern Genetics,† stated, â€Å"To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place, a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion †¦ t is plain experimental evidence. † During pregnancy, even though you feel nothing, your baby is kicking; clenching his fists, curling and fanning his toes, and is generally very active and comfortable inside you. In the past few years, medical research has shown that unborn babies can feel pain. Dr. H. M. Liley, the leading authority on the study of babies before birth, stated, â€Å"When doctors first began invading the sanctuary of the womb, they did not know that the unborn baby would react to pain in the same fashion as a child would. But they soon learned that he would. One believes that every fertilized egg is a sentient human person; abortion would be horrific, tragic, and lethal. But it would be no more murderous than any othe r kind of accidental death. During abortion, doctors or abortionist (the person who performs the operation), uses long cylindrical rods. Starting from the smallest and moving up in size, he inserts them into your cervical opening, stretching it as he progresses. When the cervix is open wide enough, he will put a hollow plastic tube, with a knife-like edge on its tip, through your cervix up into your uterus.The suction it creates is 29 times more powerful than a vacuum cleaner. It tears the baby’s body into pieces, and sucks it through the tube into a canister. The knife edge is used to cut the deeply rooted placenta from the uterine wall. The remains of the now-dead infant are then pulled out. Abortion is a tragedy not only for the unborn who will never experience life but for the mother also. What motivates an abortionist? What must they think as they slash and tear a baby apart or plunge a knife into its neck? Somehow, abortionists have become callused to the reality of the ir actions.Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, they have blood on their hands, and it cannot be washed off. Many people have become apathetic about abortion. Since they have already been born, abortion is no threat to them personally. Why should they care about someone else’s baby? If there is any lesson to be learnt, it is that we should value and protect innocent human life even if it is not our own. Abortion is an intentional violent act that kills an unborn baby, without any anesthesia, the baby is dismembered, torn apart, and vacuumed out of the mother.Life begins at conception which forms an unborn child (or â€Å"fetus†). The unborn child's DNA is that of an individual human being, distinct from its mother despite being naturally ‘within' and attached through an umbilical. Abortion, as defined above, is the mother's (and/or join parents') decision to terminate the life of the unborn child. Any human being willfully taking the life of another human being (or ordering their death, such as â€Å"hiring a hit man† — or in the case of abortion — telling a doctor to perform an abortion) is committing a murder.Rarely do people die from giving birth. Many more die as a result of complications after an abortion. But the bottom line is that the child is innocent of any crime, so why punish it? It is a human being of intrinsic value. One’s not saying it is an easy choice and can certainly sympathize with those who have had to make it. Perhaps they even made the wrong choice. But, God is a loving and forgiving God, who can even forgive murder; which

African-Americans In The Civil War Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

African-Americans In The Civil War Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers African-Americans In The Civil War The foundation for black participation in the Civil War began more than a hundred years before the outbreak of the war. Blacks in America had been in bondage since early colonial times. In 1776, when Jefferson proclaimed mankinds inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the institution of slavery had become firmly established in America. Blacks worked in the tobacco fields of Virginia, in the rice fields of South Carolina, and toiled in small farms and shops in the North. Foner and Mahoney report in A House Divided, America in the Age of Lincoln that, In 1776, slaves composed forty percent of the population of the colonies from Maryland south to Georgia, but well below ten percent in the colonies to the North. The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 provided a demand for cotton thus increasing the demand for slaves. By the 1800s slavery was an institution throughout the South, an institution in which slaves had few rights, and could be sold or leased by their owners. They lacked any voice in the government and lived a life of hardship. Considering these circumstances, the slave population never abandoned the desire for freedom or the determination to resist control by the slave owners. The slave's reaction to this desire and determination resulted in outright rebellion and individual acts of defiance. However, historians place the strongest reaction in the enlisting of blacks in the war itself. Batty in The Divided Union: The Story of the Great American War, 1861-65, concur with Foner and Mahoney about the importance of outright rebellion in their analysis of the Nat Turner Rebellion, which took place in 1831. This revolt demonstrated that not all slaves were willing to accept this institution of slavery passively. Foner and Mahoney note that the significance of this uprising is found in its aftermath because of the numerous reports of insubordinate behavior by slaves. 8 Individual acts of defiance ranged from the use of the Underground Railroad - a secret, organized network of people who helped fugitive slaves reach the Northern states and Canada - to the daily resistance or silent sabotage found on the plantations. Stokesbury acknowledges in, A Short History of the Civil War, the existence of the Underground Railroad but disagrees with other historians as to its importance. He notes that it never became as well organized or as successful as the South believed. Even with the groundwork having been laid for resistance, the prevalent racial climate in America in 1860 found it unthinkable that blacks would bear arms against white Americans. However, by 1865 these black soldiers had proven their value. Wilson writes in great detail describing the struggles and achievements of the black soldiers in his book The Black Phalanx. McPherson discusses in The Negros Civil War that widespread opposition to the use of blacks as soldiers prevailed among northern whites. Whereas McPherson relates the events cumulating in the passage of two laws that aided black enlistment, Wilson focuses on the actual enlistment. He notes that the first regiment of free blacks came into service at New Orleans in September 1862 through the efforts of Butler. Wilson credits Butlers three regiments of blacks as the first officially mustered into Union ranks. North Carolina and Kansas also organized additional black units where minor skirmishes proved to be successful. Wilson also notes that Kansas has ... the honor of being the first State in the Union to begin the organization of Negroes as soldiers for the Federal army. McPherson believes that up to this point President Lincoln had opposed the idea of blacks fighting for the Union but after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that slaves in states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, shall be then, thence forward, and forever free, he reversed his 8 thinking. At the end of the Emancipation Proclamation Lincoln announced that the freed blacks would be received into the armed service of the United States.... Lincoln planned to tap into a new source of fighting individuals, ...the great available and as yet unavailed of, force for the restoration of the Union.. Lincoln thought this would both weaken the enemy and strengthen the Union. The recruitment of the blacks took laborers from the South and placed these men in the Union army in places which otherwise must be filled with so many white men. Lincoln also felt that seeing the blacks fighting against the Confederacy would have a psychological effect

Morries Aphorisms essays

Morries Aphorisms essays Using Morrie's Aphorisms as Teaching Tools No bubble is so iridescent or floats longer than that blown by the successful teacher. Sir William Osler (1849-1919), 4 Oct. 1911, Glasgow (quoted in: Harvey Cushing, Life of Sir William Osler, vol. 2, ch. 31, 1925). Mitch Albom wrote Tuesdays with Morrie as a final tribute to his old college professor, Morrie Schwartz, who intended that his death should be his "final thesis." Grim and fascinating, Professor Schwartzs courage in the face of a painful death is truly inspiring. The lucidity and wisdom which Professor Schwartz gained over the years became increasingly pronounced and focused as he contemplated his life and imminent death, as well as his place in the Cosmos while his frail body melted away through A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig's disease). This paper will discuss five of Professor Schwartz aphorisms (or proverbs), which would facilitate learning in subject- specific -and other educational venues. So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when theyre busy doing things they think are important. This is because theyre chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. (emphasis added) (p. 43) Professor Schwartzs analysis of the "meaning of life" is particularly appropriate for teaching philosophical views and sociological concepts. Since time immemorial, man has contemplated why he is on the Earth and what his place is in the Greater Scheme of Things. While students rush through the educational process in a pinball-like attempt to learn what they need to thrive and survive, they frequently overlook those aspects of their education, which are the most important. When people become self-actualized,...

Lead Student Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Lead Student Assignment - Essay Example The team then identifies the feasibility of the project. Next, project is defined and enters its planning phase. The team prioritizes its tasks, calculates a budget, drafts a schedule and determines the required resources. After that, project is launched or executed, which involves distribution of resources and allocation of responsibilities for the team members. When the project is up and running the manager performs project performance and control by comparing the status and progress of the project with the actual plan. Schedules and the budget may need re-adjustment during this phase. Finally, after the project accomplishes its objectives and the client becomes satisfied, the project is closed with an evaluation being the last step. A project charter in project management can also be referred to as a project statement or project definition. It constitutes of the project’s scope, the participants and its objectives (Carreira & Bill 45). The project charter gives a preliminary delineation of the responsibilities and roles, identifies the key stakeholders, outlines objectives of the project and defines the PM’s authority. Its main role is to serve as an authority reference for the project’s future. Taking the example of an organization that wants to create a framework for employee recognition, a project charter would first include the identification of the project, i.e. the name of the project, its description, sponsor, project manager and the resources of the project team. The second part involves the business reasons for the project, such as improve the organization’s ability to recruit candidates of high quality, complementation of HR values, complementation and building upon activities already in existence. The third part involves the purpose, in this case implement and develop activities aimed at corporate

Brief Synopsis of the Film Avatar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Brief Synopsis of the Film Avatar - Essay Example Colonel Miles Quaritch who heads the Earth’s security force, however, found the rich source of unobtanium which is the Na’vi’s sacred gathering place and attacked it. Jake joined in defending Hometree that led to the eventual retreat of the humans. Jake was later transferred to his avatar permanently through the help of the Tree of Souls. II. The intersection of two issues: racial and gender discrimination Humez and Dines theorized that mass media which are the radio, television, and film help form our identities that includes the way we see the world, relationship with it and the values we hold and cherish (2002). In essence, media has so much influence that it could dictate our perception and value system particularly the film because it immerses its audience in the reality it portrays and thus, inadvertently influences its audience of the cultural and social perspective of the film. In James Cameroon film Avatar, there is two distinct cultural and social persp ective of the film that causes injustice and subjugation wrought by greed and social stratification. These two distinct issues that were obvious in the film that is the discrimination of humans against Na’vis who were viewed by humans as primitive and with condescension whose race is taken as an impediment in their quest to harvest the mineral unobtanium. This relationship between humans and Navi’s become unjust because it perpetuated a system of inequality whereby it restricts some people while privileging others (Magner qt. in Weber 13). Another subtle issue that was present in the film was the gender issue of stereotyping of women as people who are often subjugated to men. This became an injustice because Na’vis imposed a social stratification that subjugates a gender (female) to another gender (male). These issues intersect in a way that the race and a particular gender are relegated to another which in this case are the Na’vis and the women to be bel onging in the lower strata as represented by Neytiri, the chieftain and the spiritual leader’s daughter.