The international debt crisis-causes, consequences, and remedies Research Paper

The international debt crisis-causes, consequences, and remedies - Research Paper Example A nation usually runs a surplus in the capital account when it runs a current account deficit. A capital account surplus is an inflow of the foreign capita; in the nation which is often advantageous to a country. The main question that is posted by critiques is where these monies go and their role in the growth and development of the economies. If it is used for consumption, it will not have any injections and therefore more debts. It will be more stress to the country as opposed to when it is invested. It is unarguable that debt crisis is a challenge to a number of countries across the globe. In a number of economies, the crisis started during the mid-1970s when a number of the Organizations of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) managed to amass wealth and banks were willing to lend billions of dollars. A number of developing economies borrowed huge sums of money at floating and low interest rates. Due to the irresponsibility of the debtor governments and the creditors, the money borrowed was not used in the productive purposes, i.e. investment; rather it was used for immediate consumption. Consequently, these countries could not generate enough finances to repay the loans. The incidences of adjustable interest loans increased during Reagan’s administration in the United States to reduce inflation through the enforcement of stringent rules. (Madura, 2012) During this time, the prices of the raw materials collapsed, meaning that a number of poor countries did not have enou gh money to repay the debts. Most developing countries failed to pay their debts and have heavily relied on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. There was however a condition those countries were to adopt economic structural adjustments. The government of the affected countries was forced to cut costs on education, health, and other social services to be able to repay the debts. In Latin America, the per capita of most countries plummeted, the GDP stagnated and

Digital Divide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Digital Divide - Essay Example It also highlights the major issues confronting these underdeveloped nations and the current developments thereof in the pursuit of creating an information society. The rapid dispersion of information and communication technologies is gradually transforming the world into an information society that is unbounded in terms of access to knowledge and communication facilities. In this regard, it is very crucial for any country to provide its people with the required knowledge and make possible an equal access to information and communication technologies so as to take an active part in the information revolution. The most significant concern within this perspective is the prevailing discrepancy as to the availability, access and usage of technology around the world, which deprives human being of their ultimate right to knowledge. Cullen (2001, p311) illuminates that, "the 'digital divide' has become a convenient metaphor to describe the perceived disadvantage of those who either are unable or do not choose to make use of these technologies in their daily life". This information poverty existing among and even within countries tends to be the most serious concern for today's information society. The world is diverse with regard to geographical, cultural, economic and social patterns. Selwyn (2004, p355) elaborates that, "many of the differences that the digital divide pertains towards can be traced back to clear differentiation in the technological capital i.e. fundamental differences in the cultural, economic and social resources that individuals and communities can command when engaging with technology". Hence, all these aspects happen to play a distinct role in the dispersion and availability of knowledge and technology in different parts of the world. The most eminent of the 'digital divide' remains to be the one that exists between the developed and underdeveloped countries characterised by a wide gap in all these 'socio-economic' aspects. Selwyn (2004, p345) connote that, "the digital divide is a marked feature of any information society". The digital divide across the globe occurs due to the "socio-economic, technological and linguistic" discrepancies prevailing among nations and societies. Also, the differences vis--vis the education and skills required to avail the information technology mark a wide range of global inequality. The knowledge of English language in several parts of the world is also considered crucial for being able to use the Internet. In this context, there happen to be significant variation concerning Internet usage and information access between developed and underdeveloped countries of the world. For instance, the rate of Internet access in Italy is the lowermost as compared to any other country in the developed world; however, it is still much higher than that of some developing countries such as China (Chen and Wellman, 2004). The Information Society And Third World Countries Third world countries, especially the least developed ones, have highly restrained access to the information technology. Ogunsola and Okusaga (2006, p349) says that, "in many parts of the developing countries ICT is available only on a very limited scale, and this raises doubts about developing countries' ability to participate in the current ICT-induced global knowledge economy". These countries mostly falling under the domains of Africa, South

Personal Identity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Personal Identity - Essay Example Are There Other Features That Need To Be Factored In As Well, Or Instead? Overall, What Factors Are Indispensable For Establishing And Sustaining Our Identity Over Time? The mind deals with many concepts that include our beliefs, desires, sensations, emotions and passions among other things (Wiggins, 2007). The philosophies of the mind involve studies that are carried out to determine the nature of our minds, the mental events that take place in them, their functions and properties along with the relationship of our consciousness to our physical bodies (Crane, 2001). The field greatly considers the relationship that exists between our minds and bodies. However, it also considers other matters which do not concern the relationship that exists between our bodies and mind but that help in defining our personal identities (Behrendt, 2003). According to philosophy, consciousness is a terminology that is used in describing the relationships that exist between our minds and the environments we interact with (Crane, 2001). The term has been described as involving our ability to experience, feel or have feelings of selfhood while possessing the control of our minds (Wiggins, 2007). Many philosophers like Velmans claim that our consciousness involves anything that we are aware about which in turn makes the activity the most common feature in our lives. Philosophers argue that consciousness comprises of our views, thoughts along with feelings (Behrendt, 2003). Memory on the other hand, has been described as the set of cognitive abilities which enable us to retain information while reconstructing our past experiences (Wiggins, 2007). A philosopher like William James in the year 1890 argued that memory is the knowledge we have of previous states of mind we have experienced but have already been dropped from our consciousness (Martin & Barresi, 2003). This therefore implies that our memory derives its inputs from our consciousness in perceiving the events that take place in our environments (Crane, 2001). Philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato proposed various concepts that greatly helped in resolving the issues involving the relationship of our minds to our bodies (Behrendt, 2003). The two philosophers came up with the concepts of dualism whereas the notion of monism was introduced by Descartes (Wiggins, 2007). There are several types of dualists among them being the substance dualists along with the property dualists. The former dualist’s claim that the mind exists independently whereas the latter dualists believe that the mind consists of clusters of properties that are independent that usually come from our brains and cannot just be condensed to it (Davies & Stone, 2005). They additionally state that the brain is not a unique substance and other factors should be included in the analysis of our personal identities. On the other hand, monists like Descartes dispute the idea that our bodies and minds are ontologically unique types of entitie s (Hoerl & McCormack, 2001). However, other people like the idealists believe that the only thing that exists is the mind and that everything else is mental or is an illusion that has been created by our minds (Davies & Stone, 2005). The neutral monists believe that there is a substance that is unknown of which our minds and other matter in our environment are a part of (Wiggins, 2007). Currently, philosophers of the mind usually adopt either a reductive position whereas others adopt non reductive approaches in illustrating that our minds and bodies have a relationship that exists between them (Davies & Stone, 2005). However, there are still other philosophers who dispute the idea that the mind is an unadulterated physical construct that can go a long way in defining our personal iden

Save the endangered African Elephant Research Paper

Save the endangered African Elephant - Research Paper Example Those harming the elephants seem to intensify their activities each day despite the moves to oppose the activities leading to reduction in numbers of the number of elephants in African nations (Hertzler 8). The areas of our lives affected by this problem include: 1. The more the dwelling places for people continue decreasing as the population of the people increase, individuals and elephants remain constantly conflicting with each other in several occasions and at various places. 2. Where the farms are just next to the elephant dwelling places or cross elephant relocation paths, destruction to crops and societies become popular, causing the origin of fight, which the elephants at the end lose. 3. Worse of all, death on some occasions happens on both sides, as individuals remain tramped while attempting to cover their livelihood, and â€Å"challenge† range† elephants remain killed by game protectors. 4. Apart from these social effects of the elephants to human beings, pol itically, the extinction of elephants, which are a source of revenue to our nation, causes a drawback in the growth of the economy. The deterioration of the economy leads to poor living standards of the citizens of the affected nation. Step 2 Since 1981 to 1989, the elephant numbers in Africa decreased from 1.3 million to 650 thousand elephants. Eastern and central African nations permitted poachers to kill elephants for ivory. Southern African nations managed illegal hunting and controlled the numbers of elephants. Despite preservationists asking about the numbers projections, several individuals panicked that, African elephants could shortly distinguish from the earth. The poachers killed the elephants in large numbers even without caring the importance of them to African nations. The number of the elephants decreased at an alarming rate and the Africans had to respond quickly to save the situation (Hertzler 10). This situation led to: 1. Decreased number of tourists touring Afric an nations to visit the game parks and reserves to admire the elephants hence reduced revenue. 2. The reduced revenue led to slow rate of economic growth and thus affecting the living standards of the Africans: deteriorated. 3. Reduced number of tourists led to some individuals employed in the tourism sector losing their jobs and thus affecting their lives. 4. The loss of jobs may even lead to rise of crimes like theft in order for one to sustain his life and those of the dependants. Two sensitization programs remained started to save the elephants from the poachers who had intensified in their activities. One was political poaching to do away with global ivory business completely. The other program was a technique to form popular assets rights and offer local societies an incentive to preserve elephants. The program to prohibit trade remained started with the â€Å"Urgent Memorandum† through the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). After the process of initializing, it remaine d forwarded to AWF team, giving caution on quick reduction in elephant preservation rule. Scholars inside WWF offered no support for the ban on ivory business (Chaytor 5). Scientists did not exist. The first group to suggest a prohibition remained the Human Society of the United States. They desired to improve African elephants from Appendix II to Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Flora and Fauna, spelling out