Puerto Ricans and black Americans Essay Example for Free

Puerto Ricans and black Americans Essay In his memoir â€Å"Down These Mean Streets†, Piri Thomas searches for belonging in the racially stratified American nation of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Thomas explores how his race as well as his physical appearance compels him to seek identification with black Americans. Throughout the narrative Piri struggles with his father’s privileging of whiteness and rejection of their visible black racial heritage. Piri questions his father’s abandonment, as he sees it, of their racial identity and of Piri as he attempts to navigate the United States process of assimilation. While Piri struggles with his rejection by larger society as a Puerto Rican, he is conscious that he has another avenue open to him, identification as a black American, and despite his father’s objections he deliberately explores that option as a way to find some sense of belonging and acceptance. Piri was born at Harlem Hospital and is raised in East Harlem where he learns to identify himself along racial and ethnic lines with the other Puerto Ricans and black Americans that make up his world. When his father moves the family beyond Piri’s comfort zone to Italian turf, just a few blocks away, Piri becomes aware of himself as an outsider. For the first time, Piri must face the dilemma of being a darker-complexioned Puerto Rican and being labeled as black. At this point in his young life, Piri’s identity is firmly rooted in a Puerto Rican heritage reinforced by his mother’s desire to return home to the Caribbean. Piri remembers his mother’s sentiments: â€Å"Momma talked about Puerto Rico and how great it was, and how she’d like to go back one day, and how it was warm all the time there and no matter how poor you were over there, you could always live on green bananas, bacalao, and rice and beans. ‘Dios mio,’ she said, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever see my island again† (Thomas 9) Piri’s mother serves as a guide that emphasizes her homeland in Piri’s imagination. Although Piri’s family has no hope of ever returning to Puerto Rico, Piri holds onto his Puerto Rican identity and firmly resists anyone’s labeling of him as black American. Another factor in his resistance to a black identification is the white appearances of his mother, sister, and brothers. Piri shares the darker complexion of his father who negates his African heritage by stating that his dark complexion is due to ‘Indian’ blood and even on occasion exaggerates his Puerto Rican accent to emphasize his ethnic difference from black Americans. Even at a young age Piri recounts feeling as though his dad favored his lighter-complexioned siblings and treated him in a harder and rougher manner: â€Å"Pops, I wondered, how come me and you is always on the outs†¦How come when we all get hit for doing something wrong, I feel it the hardest? Maybe ‘cause I’m the biggest, huh? Or maybe it’s ‘cause I’m the darkest in this family† (Thomas 22). As a child Piri can already sense the difference in the way his father treats him. As an adult he confronts his father about his behavior and associates his bitterness toward him to the racial self-hatred that his father experiences after his arrival in the United States. In an interview, Thomas acknowledges that although he was conscious of the difference in his appearance at home, it was outside of the home and initially at school where he felt the real impact of being Afro-Latino (Hernandez, 5). In his memoir it is after his father moves Piri outside of his comfort zone again and crosses boundaries by moving his family to a majority white community in Long Island that Piri begins to experience exclusion by his peers. At a school dance after he overhears a group of white students expressing disgust and resentment at his audacity in asking a white girl to dance with him, he comes to understand his outsider status at school and refuses to return, which eliminates his only educational resource for obtaining higher paying legal employment later on in life. In addition, Piri recounts another instance in Long Island when he was treated as a trespasser also because of his expressed romantic interest in a white woman. In this situation a white man bombards him on a train with racial epithets for being accompanied by his white girlfriend. In anger Piri transfers his hate for his racial predicament to his girlfriend during sex. He remembers, â€Å"In anger, in hate, I took out my madness on her† (Thomas 90). Piri’s actions following this racist experience complement his father’s use of white women to ease the pain of racism. Piri associates his father’s marriage to his white mother and later infidelity with another white woman as an attempt to nullify his blackness. Piri does not verbally claim that this is the motivation for his father’s attraction to white women. However, Piri acutely senses that Poppa correlates whiteness to superiority and advancement because of his father’s harsher treatment of him in comparison to his fairer siblings and the gradual removal of his family from the barrio and communities of color. Sanchez hypothesizes that while in Puerto Rico, â€Å"Poppa protects himself against his ancestral black blood by marrying Piri’s mother, whose white skin gives him racial privilege and cultural capital† (122). From his father, Piri learns to use white women as a tool to ease his own racial discomfort. Piri is attracted to a fair-complexioned Puerto Rican woman named Trina who becomes his girlfriend. However, unlike his mother who rejects the notion of racial privilege among her family members, Trina is aware of the power position she holds as a white Latina. After a party, Trina comments on her position and the privileges it allows her, â€Å"I can drink anytime I want to†¦After all, I’m free, white, and over the age† (Thomas 112). Piri picks up on her claim to racial privilege and the difference Trina acknowledges between their disparate situations within the American racial hierarchy. In response to Trina’s drunken statements, Piri attempts to assert a dominant position over her by punching her in the face but instead he injures his hand. Facing racial discrimination as black men is a disempowering and emasculating experience for Piri and his father. Affirming superiority over women is one way that they are able to reaffirm their masculinity and reject a black identification. The association of â€Å"black† with the position of inferior social status in the United States and the correlation between women and inferiority in Puerto Rico converge within the context of the Puerto Rican American experience to equate black to woman. Asserting superiority over women aid Piri and his father in rejecting a black identity. Claiming this position over white women in particular implies that they are capable of transgressing a racial line that black men cannot. In Thomas’s narrative, female characters are repeatedly used by Piri and other men to assert their own masculinity and superiority over women and therefore, through substitution, to assert their humanity and negate their inferior racial status. In his narrative, Thomas juxtaposes his family’s home in Babylon, Long Island to Harlem in order to portray Long Island as the mainstream American community that he is excluded from and Harlem as a peripheral community to the dominant one that rejects him. After Piri realizes he is the victim of racial discrimination at a job interview, he decides that he will no longer pursue employment and acceptance in mainstream American society. Instead he finds self-employment and comfort selling and using drugs while living in Harlem. Thomas writes: â€Å"But I was swinging in Harlem, my Harlem, next to which Babylon was like cotton candy white and sticky, and tasteless in the mouth† (Thomas, 105). Thomas contrasts Harlem to Long Island: the former where he finds belonging and safety among the racially marginalized and underground drug culture where he can alleviate the pain of non-belonging and the latter as exclusionary and unwilling to allow him to pursue upward mobility through legal societal structures. Despite the handful of lessons that Piri picks up from his father that allow him to retain some sense of self and manhood in the United States, Piri is furious at his father for abandoning him by rejecting the racial plight of Afro-Latinos and aligning himself with whites and a non-black Puerto Rican identity that causes him to exaggerate his foreign origins and deny any African ancestry. Piri confronts his father and expresses his anger at him for rejecting their shared racial identity before he leaves his family on a journey to the southern states: â€Å"Poppa, don’t you know where you at? Or are you seeing it, Poppa, and making like it’s not there†¦You protect your lying dream with a heavy strain for a white status that’s worthless to a black man† (Thomas 151). Even though Piri leaves home without his father’s support, he has already internalized several of his father’s coping strategies for dealing with American racism which he attempts to employ during his travels and which help lead him to his own survival strategies. Ironically, although he criticizes his father for emphasizing his foreign status as a Puerto Rican, it is the same device that Piri makes use of in the south. Piri’s brother Jose has the white appearance that Piri and his father both covet. Because of this, Piri believes that his father favors Jose and his other fair-complexioned siblings. He is jealous of Jose’s relationship with their father and the ease with which he is capable of assimilating among the white community in Long Island, which represents mainstream America. Because of this, Jose with his white skin, nearly blond hair and blue eyes, represents the image that Piri once felt he embodied but learns that he does not. In an effort to try to gain some sympathy from his family about his racial position, he attempts to force Jose to see how he is like him and that they share the same African ancestry. In a discussion with Jose about his plans to go on a journey south with his friend Brew, Piri is determined to make Jose aware that his black skin is also a part of his brother’s heritage. In an angry response, Jose defends his claim to whiteness and insists that Piri is making the choice to identify as black: Jose’s face got whiter and his voice angrier at my attempt to take away his white status. He screamed out strong, ‘I ain’t no nigger! You can be if you want to be. You can go down South and grow cotton, or pick it, or whatever the fuck they do. You can eat that cornbread or whatever shit they eat. You can bow and kiss ass and clean shit bowls. But – I –am white! † (Thomas 145) Jose’s outburst reveals his understanding that being black is identified with the lower rungs of the socio-economic hierarchy. However, what he does not realize is that whereas he has the power to choose a racial identity, whether it is white, black, or Indian, Piri does not. Piri’s visible racial difference hinders him from assimilating into mainstream America, being socially accepted by whites, or pursuing economic mobility in the same fashion as Jose. Jose explains away Piri and their father’s dark skin by suggesting that in addition to their Spanish ancestry they also have some Native American blood. Native American heritage is seen as an alternative to the black and white binaries used in the United States and allows an individual a place above that of black Americans in the American racial hierarchy. Jose explains away Piri’s dark skin to his white friends by claiming a Spanish and Indian mixture, however Piri rejects this identification in favor of an Afro-Latino identity. Despite the racial rejection that Piri experiences by his father and brother, Piri comes to terms with his blackness partly through his friendship with two black Americans, Crutch and Brew. In a conversation about the racial politics of the south, Crutch piques Piri’s curiosity about the south by describing a similar dilemma to the one that Piri faces: Places like Georgia and Mississippi and Alabama. All them places that end in i’s an’ e’s an’ a whole lotta a’s. A black man’s so important that a drop of Negro blood can make a black man out of a pink-asshole, blue-eyed white man. Powerful stuff, that thar white skin, but it don’t mean a shit hill of beans alongside a Negro’s blood (Thomas, 120). Crutch describes to Piri the historical assignment of mixed-raced people to the black race, even if an individual’s ancestry is mainly of European origin. The image conveyed reflects Piri’s own background growing up with family members with the light hair, skin and eyes of Europeans. Crutch’s description of the importance that â€Å"a Negro’s blood† plays in assigning individuals to racial categories in the south initiates Piri’s interest in traveling there. His journey south serves as a quest to gain an understanding of the racial issues that plague him and his father. Although his father has abandoned Piri to experience life as a black man on his own, Piri continues on his travels with his father as an underlying motivator to discover a place of racial belonging that they both can fit comfortably into. In his southern travels, Piri feels more heavily the weight of his skin color in instances such as when he is forced to sit in the back of the bus despite his remonstrations that he is Puerto Rican or when he is refused service at a whites only restaurant. Despite his initial proclamation that he is interested in going to the south to discover his own identity as a black man and the socio-political constraints of that position, Piri continues to assert his difference and racial privilege as a Latino in the same manner as his father. Without his father’s guidance, Piri completes his travels down south and through other adventures before deciding to make Harlem his home, which is the only place where he really feels as though he belongs. Brown comments on Piri’s return to Harlem: â€Å"Only on the streets of Spanish Harlem, with his boys, does Piri have a sense of ‘home,’ even when he is strung out on heroin and literally homeless, crashing with whomever he can† (Brown, 33). Piri doesn’t make that transition to black American nor does he find a way to assimilate into mainstream America. In contrast to his father, he chooses to return to Harlem, a marginalized community on the fringe of mainstream culture where he is comfortable with his Afro-Latino identity and where he finds belonging among the same streets where he felt accepted during his youth. Piri remembers that the â€Å"world of the street belonged to the kid alone. There he could earn his own rights, prestige, his good-o stick of living. It was like being a knight of old, like being ten feet tall† (Thomas 107). The gangs and streets serve as Piri’s community as a youth; however, once he grows older, the drug underworld is where he turns to alleviate the pain of not belonging. The youth gang culture that Thomas romanticizes in his memoir has grown to unprecedented heights and takes on a new life in the writing of the subsequent generations. BIBLIOGRAPHY Thomas, Piri. Down These Mean Streets. New York: Vintage Books, 1967 Sanchez, Marta E. â€Å"La Malinche at the Intersection: Race and Gender in Down These Mean Streets. † PMLA. 113. 1 (Jan 1998) : 117-128. Brown, Monica. Gang Nation: Delinquent Citizens in Puerto Rican, Chicano, and Chicana Narratives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002 Hernandez, Carmen Delores. â€Å"They Have Forced Us to Be Universal†. Interview with Piri Thoma, 5/6 Mar. 1995. Retrieved from http://www. cheverote. com/reviews/hernandezinterview. html , June 4, 2009

A Minimum Of Two A Short Story

A Minimum Of Two A Short Story Minimum of two is a collection of short stories written by Australian writer Tim Winton. He writes his stories in different views such as first and third person, mainly for the reader to feel the story more in depth. The book features 14 short stories which are; Forest Winter, No Memory Comes, Gravity, The Water was Dark and it went forever down, Nislams Friend, Minimum of two, Distant Lands, Laps, Bay of Angels, The strong one. Holding, More, Death belongs to the dead his father told him and sadness to the sad and finally Blood and water. Throughout all of these stories there is relevant trauma for past events, coming to an outcome of growth in either a positive or negative way. The short story that in my opinion is the most powerful in regards to trauma and growth is the story Minimum of two. Its written in first person view of the husband (Neil). This is a deep story about a married woman called Greta getting raped by a senior in her department by the name of Fred Blakey. He is taken to court by Greta and Neil and is sentenced to 5 years imprisonment but for Neil this is not enough because he went through ample suffering through the recovery of Greta in the way that she did not want to be intimate with him because she was sensitive as expected after being raped. With this issue, Neil decides to take matters in his own hands and contemplates killing Blakey when he gets released, he tells his friend Tony Mitchell that he will be doing this. Mitchell doesnt agree with what Neil wants to do, but Neil doesnt listen to him and ends up killing Blakey when he got out. His conscience then catches up with him and he then feels like the most horrible person, saying that he feels that he was a dead man. The main trauma in this story is the rape of Greta by Fred Blakey, this is mainly trauma from Greta as she becomes sensitive and doesnt get intimate with Neil, this is also a traumatic for him, and this is shown in the way he writes about his feelings. It seems like her intimacy with him is a great thing for him making this story traumatic for both Neil and Greta. In the ending Neil kills Blakey and comes to a negative growth of feeling sorry for himself, as well as losing his best friend Tony Mitchell. The next story that showed trauma and growth is the story called Distant Lands. Its written in the third person view. This short story is about an overweight woman working at her fathers newsagency. This woman is called Fat Maz she was teased and tormented through high school and also was not supported very well by her parents, they also treated her as if they didnt know her or that she wasnt their daughter. There was a day though that changed her life, a stranger Pakistani man comes into the newsagency, and opens the book Distant Lands has a glance and leaves. As she goes to inspect the book she realises the blurb saying You will want this book never to finishafter she reads the blurb she is interested in reading the book, as she is reading it the Pakistani man comes into the newsagency once again and this time re-opening Distant Lands and smiling at Fat Maz, he gives her money and some confidence to leave her garbage job helping at her fathers newsagency The trauma in this story is mainly from Fat Mazs life, how she had been teased all in high school and even at home with her parents she wasnt treated nicely. The growth coming from this is positive when a mysterious Pakistani man comes in and gives her money and confidence to leave her job at the newsagency. Another story that had trauma with growth coming as an outcome is the story Laps. This story written in the third person view is about a young woman by the name of Queenie that has flashbacks of her childhood, and her grandfather when he was alive as she swims laps through a pool. She is new to Perth, and she is somehow reminded of her grandfather and the whaling projects from her childhood and she is haunted by these thoughts. She then gathers enough courage to go back to her home town to tackle her past, and then be able to move on with her life. The trauma from this story is the flashbacks that Queenie get from her troubled childhood; she sees these horrible flashbacks when swimming as swimming reminded her of an earlier time of her life. The growth gathered from this story is that Queenie had the courage to go back to her home town and sort out her problems so that she is now able to live a new life in Perth with no haunting flashbacks. Tim Winton is a talented writer with allot of creativity shown in this collection of Minimum of two. He has the ability to write about hard trauma, but also an outcome of growth. The three stories chosen for this essay (Minimum of two, Distant Lands and Laps) are all examples of how he can bring growth out of trauma. In conclusion this collection of short stories by Tim Winton is really moving to the reader, as he brings not only trauma but growth out of each story.

Legal Barriers For Foreign Investors In Vietnam Economics Essay

Legal Barriers For Foreign Investors In Vietnam Economics Essay Vietnam in recent years has emerged as Southeast Asias fastest-growing economy and one of the regions hottest new destinations for foreign investors. Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in January 2007. Its membership requires the country to merge into the global rules-based trading system and increase transparency in government decision making, speed up economic reform, and strengthen the rule of law. The Vietnamese economy offers many attractions for U.S. companies. About 70% of the population is under the age of 30, and the country has a literacy rate above 95%. Per capita income has more than doubled in the past 10 years, and domestic consumption is growing at more than 20% per year. Vietnams increasingly affluent urban consumers think highly of U.S. consumer goods. Vietnam has many natural resources and agricultural products, including oil and gas, marine products, rice, coffee, rubber, and tea. Some of the countrys top export industries produce garments and textiles, footwear, furniture, and seafood. Its major imports include machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer, steel, raw cotton, grain, cement, and motorcycles. Two decades have past since the country mounted an economic reform program known as doi moi. Vietnam is in the midst of transformation from an inward-looking command economy with little space for personal initiative to a more open society with a vibrant, free market economy that seeks to engage with the wider world. Hanoi in 2006 hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which along with a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, marked Vietnams emergence as a key player in the regional and global economy. The United States and Vietnam have forged strong relations in recent years despite a tragic history, stepping up cooperation in such areas as HIV/AIDS control, avian flu prevention, law enforcement, and a growing military-to-military partnership. The U.S. government is helping Vietnam restructure its education system and reform its legal system. The two governments are cooperating in accounting for servicemen missing since the war, launching a human rights dialogue, and establishing new forms of regional security cooperation. Although the GATT progressively acquired many of the attributes of an international organisation, it was increasingly felt in the 1980s that it was not keeping up with the rapid changes in the global economy, and required strengthened dispute-settlement and transparency mechanisms. While this was reflected in the agenda of the Uruguay round, the Ministerial Declaration establishing the rounds agenda did not call for the creation of a WTO. Instead, it was agreed that the round would be a single undertaking, with all its agreements applying to all GATT contracting parties. In principle, it was not necessary to create an international organisation to implement the results of the round, especially in so far as a common dispute-settlement mechanism was agreed to apply to all of the various agreements reached. The suggestion to establish a Multilateral Trade Organisation (MTO) by Canada in 1990 -supported by the EU was therefore something of a surprise. An important motivation to establis h an MTO was to have a single institutional framework encompassing the modified GATT, its sister bodies on services (GATS) and intellectual property (TRIPs), and all other agreements and arrangements concluded under the auspices of the Uruguay round. The United States initially opposed the idea, but, after further negotiations on the substance of the new organisation, agreed to the framework that currently exists, including the name change. Although the US Congress remained suspicious of any limitations to its sovereign powers in trade policy, during the ratification debate it became clear that the establishment of the WTO would not do much to change the status quo as far as the infringement of sovereignty was concerned. The GATT-1947 was a binding international treaty, and most of the institutional aspects of the WTO already existed under the GATT. None the less, the establishment of the WTO was a significant event. Attempts to put the GATT on a more secure organisational footing had been made periodically since the failure of the US Congress to ratify the ITO. During a 1955 meeting to review the GATT, a number of contracting parties proposed to establish an Organisation for Trade Co-operation (OTC). This proposal was much less elaborate than the ITO but it also failed to win the approval of the US Congress (Jackson, 1990). The issue of providing an institutional framework for international trade reappeared again in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN in 1963. A group of experts called for the creation of a new UN agency with universal membership and substantial powers in the sphere of international trade. The idea was that this body would implement, interalia, recommendations of UNCTAD as well as other relevant policy decisions taken by organs of the UN. The proposal envisaged that the GATT would become the agen cys Committee on Tariffs. The proposal did not meet with much interest among the major trading nations. However, the 1964 UN General Assembly resolution establishing UNCTAD provided that it should be concerned with matters relating to the elaboration of a comprehensive trade organisation. Nothing concrete came of this despite lengthy discussions about the need for a New International Economic Order during the 1970s in large part because of the widely differing philosophies held by industrialised market economies and much of the developing world regarding the appropriate basis for international trade. With the creation of the WTO, an international trade organisation exists that is firmly based on GATT principles reciprocity and non-discrimination. The Scope, Functions, And Structure Of The WTO As the principal institution with responsibility for the multilateral trading system, the WTO has the same status as institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF. The WTO has legal personality and has been accorded privileges and immunities similar to those accorded to the specialised UN agencies. It is headed by a Ministerial Conference of all Members, meeting at least once every two years. More frequent participation by trade ministers than occurred in the GATT context is intended to strengthen the political guidance of the WTO and enhance the prominence and credibility of its rules in domestic political arenas. It can be noted, however, that past experience of the GATT with Ministerial meetings suggests that these can easily be an inefficient use of the time of many Ministers from smaller trading nations. This is because in negotiations the controversial issues tend to be solved at the last moment and require agreement between the major players. The latter may take a significan t amount of time to strike a deal between themselves, thereby marginalizing the potential for participation by Ministers of smaller countries. The WTO is charged with providing the common institutional framework for the conduct of trade relations among its Members in matters related to the agreements and associated legal instruments included in the Annexes . . . to the Agreement. There are four such Annexes, which contain the substantive rights and obligations of Members. Annex 1 has three parts: Annex 1A entitled Multilateral Agreements on Trade in Goods, contains the GATT-1994 (the GATT-1947 as amended by a large number of Understandings and supplementary Agreements negotiated in the Uruguay round); Annex 1B, which contains the GATS; and Annex 1C, the Agreement on TRIPs. Annex 2 consists of an Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes the WTOs common dispute-settlement mechanism. Annex 3 contains the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM), an instrument through which surveillance of Members trade policies occurs. Finally, Annex 4 entitled Plurilateral Trade Agreements consists of Tokyo round codes that were not multilateralised in the Uruguay round, and that therefore bind only signatories. Annexes 1-3 together are called the Multilateral Trade Agreements. The WTO has five functions. It is charged with facilitating the implementation and operation of the Multilateral Trade Agreements; providing a forum for negotiations on already covered or new issues; administering the Understanding on dispute settlement and the TPRM; and, finally, co-operating with the World Bank and the IMF to achieve greater coherence in global economic policy-making (Article III WTO). Between meetings of the Ministerial Conference responsible for carrying out the functions of the WTO the organisation is run by a General Council at the level of officials. The General Council turns itself, as needed, into a body to adjudicate trade disputes (the Dispute Settlement Body) or to review trade policies of the member countries (the Trade Policy Review Body). Three subsidiary councils operate under the general guidance of the WTOs General Council: the Council for Trade in Goods; the Council for Trade in Services; and the Council for Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. Separate Committees exist to deal primarily with the interests of the least developed countries (Trade and Development); surveillance of trade restriction actions taken for balance-of payment purposes; trade-environment linkages; and the WTOs finances and administration (Secretariat). Additional committees or working parties deal with matters covered by the GATT, GATS, or TRIPs Agreement. There are committees functioning under the auspices of the Council on Trade in Goods dealing with subsidies, anti-dumping and countervailing measures, technical barriers to trade (product standards), import licensing, customs valuation, market access, agriculture, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, trade-related investment measures, rules of origin, and safeguards. Similarly, specific committees address matters relating to the GATS or TRIPs. Committees also exist to administer the Plurilateral Agreements. However, these are not under the guidance of the General Council but operat e within the general framework of the WTO and inform the Council of their activities. There were more than thirty councils and standing committees in the WTO in 1995 twice as many as under the old GATT. WTO In a struggle that began in the early 1980s, many countries worked in the Uruguay Round negotiations of 1986-94 to strengthen the multilateral trading system, as well as advance the liberalisation of international trade in goods, services and ideas. Governments are in the process of implementing the resulting agreements that now comprise the World Trade Organisation. They are interested in extending the WTO system to outside economies, but not in exposing it to fresh disputes and divisions, which is why negotiations on the accession of new members are detailed, rigorous and time consuming. This is critical in accommodating the economies in transition. One of the major political tasks before the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as it gears itself to address the needs of the international trading community for the remainder of this century and beyond, is to extend the benefits of the open multilateral trading system to economies that are still outside.  [1]  It means ensuring that the integration of outsiders into the world economy leads to concrete benefits for them as well as for their trading partners who are WTO member countries. It also means that the terms and conditions of entry should be such as to preserve and, hopefully, strengthen the credibility of the multilateral trading system, rather than weaken or expose it to disputes and divisions. Success in meeting these goals will depend, in practical terms, on the way the accession process is managed and controlled. If the right terms are arranged, an additional 1.5 billion new consumers and workers would benefit from the multilateral trading system, well before the year 2000. This is an opportunity that cannot be missed. One of the WTOs central objectives is to make the organisation truly global in scope and application. The WTO has 124 members as of October 1996. The member countries are now engaged in accession negotiations with 28 governments that have formally applied to join. Many others are considering applying. Bulgaria, Mongolia and Panama completed their accession negotiations earlier in the year and will become WTO members when they ratify their protocols. The most recent applications for accession have been from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Georgia. Existing requests include major economies like the Peoples Republic of China, Chinese Taipei (known in the WTO as the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu), the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Belarus and Vietnam. All these are important players on the international economic, trade and trade-related investment scene. There are also requests for accession from smaller but similarly significant countries. Many of them are economies in transition such as Albania, Armenia, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia and Moldova. There are others that are developing economies, among them Algeria, Jordan, Seychelles, Tonga and Vanuatu. Applications have also been received from such least developed economies as Cambodia, Nepal and Sudan. These countries and territories represent a wide range of economic and political interests. But they represent a critical common factor that motivates them. Big or small, developed or developing, they all look to WTO membership to underpin their domestic economic reforms, to help them compete fairly in the international marketplace and to counter discrimination and arbitrary behaviour with the help of enforceable multilateral rules. Benefits Of WTO Membership Why do governments want to join the WTO system? What are the benefits of WTO membership? First, membership means access for their economys exports of goods and services to the markets of the WTO community on unconditional most-favoured-nation (MFN) terms. The substantially reduced tariffs and non-tariff barriers achieved through eight rounds of multilateral trade negotiations over the last half century become available to entrepreneurs in the applicant country immediately on its accession. In the Uruguay Round negotiations, finally concluded at the end of 1994, developed countries further agreed to reduce tariffs on industrial goods by 40 percent. Their average tariff rate will stand, once the tariff agreements have been fully implemented, at around 3.8 percent; and 99 percent of their industrial-product tariffs will be bound at their new levelsmeaning that, having been reduced as a result of multilateral agreements, they cannot be raised again without further multilateral negotiations. Reforms agreed in agriculture include a 36 percent reduction in export subsidies and an 18 percent reduction in domestic support afforded to agricultural producers. In addition, the level of security for trade in agricultural products has been substantially strengthened, for 100 percent of agricultural product lines are now bound and no non-tariff barriers are permitted for agricultural products, with the exception of measures taken for balance-of-payments purposes.  [2]   Rough estimates by the WTOs economists suggest that the reduction of international trade barriers as a result of the Uruguay Round agreements could produce an increase in world income between US$109 and US$510 billion per year by the time the market access commitments are fully implemented in 2005 (GATT Secretariat,1994, p. 36.). These figures do not take into account the beneficial impact of other results concerning, for example, strengthened trade rules, procedures and institutions, or the market-access commitments and rules for trade in services. Secondly, WTO membership means the effective dismantling of discriminatory barriers that have been specifically directed at certain countries, for instance those erected against China, Russia and the East European countries. The most important benefit in this respect would be the availability to those countries of the same principle of nondiscrimination that WTO member countries normally apply to each other in the conduct of their trade relations, albeit with exceptions permitted under WTO rules. Thirdly, in the context of the general reduction of tariffs as barriers to trade, traders in the acceding country benefit from rules dealing with the trade-distorting effects of many types of hidden non-tariff measures like public subsidies, technical standards, customs-valuation and import-licensing procedures and restrictive policies on foreign direct investment or intellectual property rightsnow comprehensively regulated by transparent rules. The new General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) brings international disciplines to bear on activities in this vital area of trade as well. The importance of effective multilateral rules and disciplines in governing international trade relations increases in direct proportion to the intensification of international competition in the marketplace. For acceding governments, membership also puts at their disposal a strengthened and contractually binding international dispute-settlement mechanism. The importance of this mechanism is self-evident and its link with the need for security and fairness in trade relations is well recognised. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the dispute-settlement mechanism is the fact that the dispute-settlement bodys findings and their implementation cannot be blocked by any member; the mechanism is automatic. Finally, it is increasingly seen that the accession process helps reformist governments resist the pressures of sectional interests opposed to reforms that are being pursued in the long-term interests of economies as a whole. Governments can embark on the reform of expensively protected sectors, like industry and agriculture, and justify their actions as a price required by the WTO in return for the benefits of membership. Why Does Accession Take So Long? Each accession is a negotiation and is thus unique. For the same reasons, no deadlines or time limits are laid down in the accession process. Progress essentially depends on the openness of the applicant governments trade regime and the rapidity with which it can be brought into conformity with WTO obligations. Vietnam and WTO During the initial years of doi moi, Vietnam enjoyed remarkable levels of economic growth: the end of collectivised agriculture gave a substantial boost to the rural economy, while an influx of foreign investment coupled with liberalisation of private sector economic activity brought considerable benefits. By the second half of the 1990s, however, the economy was slowing, partly influenced by wider regional problems after the 1997 Asian crisis, but primarily because of domestic factors. Ari Kokko picks up the argument where Martin Gainsborough left off, asking how far that slowdown reflected a decline in Vietnams commitment to the reform process, and also the extent to which the downturn reflected structural problems rather than temporary setbacks. His answers focus on three key areas: trade policy, state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform, and the position of the private sector. (ADB 2000) On trade policy, Kokko paints a fairly positive picture. Vietnams 2001 Bilateral Trade Agreement with the United States was a major landmark in the direction of eventual World Trade Organisation (WTO) accession, and there is plenty of evidence that Vietnamese exports have been enjoying a sustainable recovery in recent years. This reflects the outward orientation of private sector Vietnamese firms and of multinational corporations with operations in Vietnam. Substantial overseas development aid disbursements and private cash remittances (often transferred by overseas Vietnamese to relatives and business partners in the country) have helped boost Vietnams balance of payments. State enterprise reform is another matter entirely. Like Gainsborough, Kokko insists that the lack of progress here is undeniable; most SOEs are loss-making and have continued to enjoy preferential access to credit, while the bulk of equitisations to date have not affected the largest and most troublesome state en terprises. Kokko notes that the private sector remains underdeveloped, faced with various forms of discrimination and limited access to credit. At the same time, he is more positive than Gainsborough in highlighting certain areas where private sector reform has proceeded quite rapidly. He praises the 1999 Enterprise Law, which has led to the registration of numerous new small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Kokko also singles out support from international donors for private sector capacity-building notably Japans Miyazawa plan, which has provided substantial funding to nurture SME development. Ultimately he suggests that SOEs reform might be tacitly bypassed: future strategies should focus on the development of the private sector while accepting more gradual reform of the SOE sector. He also expresses concern that Vietnam needs a better welfare and safety net infrastructure to protect its citizens from the uncertainties of the market, and to reduce both urban and rural povert y. After the problematic 1979 invasion and occupation of Cambodia, which blighted Vietnams relations with much of the world during the 1980s, the emphasis was now on settling all disputes by negotiation. Ideology was now marginalised, whereas previously it had formed the core of Vietnamese foreign policy: pragmatism prevailed. Vietnam was particularly anxious to find ways of countering Chinese economic and strategic dominance in the region, and this helps explain Vietnamese enthusiasm for building stronger ties with other Southeast Asian countries best seen in the decision to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Another crucial juncture was the normalisation of relations with the United States. Within ASEAN, Vietnam has acted as an informal leader for the new entrants of the 1990s (the others were Burma, Cambodia and Laos). Yet the ASEAN summits held in Hanoi in 2001 lacked clear focus; Vietnam seemed to prefer ASEAN to adopt a lower profile, and was uneasy with rec ent moves towards ideas of flexible engagement, constructive intervention or enhanced interaction, which would permit member states to comment critically on developments inside other states. Vietnam was attached to an older model of ASEAN, the so-called ASEAN way, based upon principles of consensus and non-interference a much more comfortable model for a one-party state. Yet Vietnam also sought to use ASEAN membership as a means of pressing its claim for admission to other multilateral bodies such as the WTO, laying itself open to charges of crude pragmatism. In its relations with the rest of the world, Vietnam (like many other states) often wanted things both ways: the benefits of foreign investment without the constraints of playing by international economic rules, or the benefits of ASEAN membership without the pressure to conform to regional norms of behaviour. In a way, this duality resembles other aspects of Vietnams post-doi moi order: Vietnam has persistently sought to take advantage of opportunities presented by globalisation and economic liberalisation, whilst avoiding the associated social and political costs. One consequence of the perceived success of reforms during the early 1990s was that the Vietnamese authorities revised their economic targets for the period from 1991 to 2000. Instead of aiming for a doubling of the countrys GDP over this period, as was originally intended before the Seventh Party Congress in 1991, the target was changed to a doubling of GDP per capita (Socialist Republic of Vietnam [SRV] 1994). Assessing the achievements of the reforms, many foreign observers concurred, concluding, for example, that Vietnam appears well-positioned to become a new East Asian dragon (Irvin 1995:725). However, these impressive achievements could not completely hide some of the structural and systemic weaknesses of the economy. By 1996, donors and foreign observers had highlighted several problems related to the import-substituting trade regime and the role of the state, in particular the continuing reliance on SOEs as the main vehicle of development (Kokko and Zejan 1996; Ljunggren 1996; Mallon 1996; United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] 1996). On trade policy, concerns focused on the distorted incentives provided by the complex, non-transparent and highly restrictive trade regime. The combination of tariffs, quotas, import licensing requirements, foreign exchange controls and various other trade barriers created strong incentives in favour of import substitution in consumer goods and selected heavy industries and a bias against export-oriented production. One paradoxical result was a rapid increase in imports: import-substituting industry in Vietnam, as elsewhere, was heavily dependent upon imported machinery, raw materials and intermediates. Consequently, although exports grew rapidly, import growth was even faster, resulting in growing trade and current account deficits. By 1995, the current account deficit exceeded US $2.6 billion, or 13 percent of GDP. Several problems were imminent. Would it be possible to finance large deficits without endangering future growth and macroeconomic stability? How would Vietnams commitm ents to liberalize trade from around the year 2000 mandated, for example, by Vietnams membership of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and ambition to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) be realised? Would the promises to reduce tariffs be neutralised by the emergence of strong interest groups benefiting from, and therefore lobbying for, continued protectionism? The most important result in terms of formal policy may be the agreement about a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between Vietnam and the US, which was signed in July 2000 and ratified in late 2001. The BTA is an important step towards Vietnamese membership in the WTO, and perhaps also a key step in Vietnams continuing economic reforms. Unlike the AFTA agreement, which is based on consensus and does not prescribe severe sanctions against member countries that do not fulfil their commitments, both the BTA and eventual WTO membership are likely to come with stricter conditions, enforcement and sanctions. Moreover, the BTA allows Vietnam to reap some of the benefits (in terms of access to US markets) early on, while the perceived costs (resulting from opening the Vietnamese market to US firms) will come later. It is possible that these two features will strengthen the reform process: it will be difficult to default on reform promises once they have generated thousands of jobs that may be lost if promises are not fulfilled. The continuing increase in exports is another sign of progress in this area. In 1999 and 2000, exports grew at an annual rate of over 20 percent, which was more than four times the rate of domestic demand growth. This shows that an increasing share of the Vietnamese economy is integrated with the international economy, and that there is probably a gradual shift in the balance of power from groups favouring inward-oriented policies to groups relying on contacts with the international economy. In fact, the current Ten-Year Socio-Economic Development Strategy sets up the goal that the export growth rate should be twice as high as the planned 7.5 percent GDP growth rate during the period 2001-10: if the target is achieved, the ratio of exports to GDP will exceed 90 percent by 2010. Other important reforms have been made on the import side. Import tariffs have been reduced gradually, in line with Vietnams AFTA commitments, and the road map for future tariff reductions under the agreement was published in early 2002. The tariff reduction scheme constitutes an important step to facilitate the long-term planning of Vietnamese producers: with a clear time-bound plan in place, there is less scope for interest groups to lobby for extended protection. Most quantitative restrictions have also been removed, and all domestic enterprises are now allowed to import any goods that are not subject to quotas. Yet some problems remain. The tariff structure remains complex. There is great dispersion of tariff rates in the range from zero to 100 percent, with higher rates on import-substituting goods and lower ones on imported inputs. This provides high effective rates of protection for local market-oriented industry. Various administrative measures, such as temporary import bans, have also been used to restrict imports of consumer goods. Summarizing a review on trade policy, CIEM (2002:126) notes that this shows how many policy decisions tend to aim at dealing with the problem on a case by case basis rather than resolving it based on a consistent and overall approach. Foreign trade transactions can also be controlled and restricted by the allocation of foreign exchange. The State Bank of Vietnam controls and approves remittances of foreign currency abroad, and State Bank authorisation is required to borrow foreign currency, to convert dong to dollars, and to open offshore escrow accounts. Exporters are obliged to surrender a large share (at present 40 percent) of their foreign exchange earnings to the State Bank. For a long time, state enterprises and agencies had privileged access to foreign exchange (World Bank 1999b), and it is possible that these preferences still apply. Vietnam has to deal with almost 100 anti-dumping lawsuits and trade disputes each year, in which domestic businesses often come off worst. At the recent G20 Summit in Toronto, as ASEAN Chair, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung called for G20 nations to ensure a sustainable economic recovery and fight against trade protectionism in all forms. He emphasised that Vietnam has to face many disguised protection measures in some developed countries, saying that G20 nations should continue to introduce specific measures to remove barriers to trade and foreign direct investment. These barriers have become obstacles for Vietnamese investors and exporters. To some extent, these barriers, with stricter regulations on food hygiene and safety and anti-dumping, have had a positive impact on Vietnamese businesses who have to increase the quality of their products to compete against foreign rivals. Tran Manh Canh, Deputy General Director of the Hanoi Trade Corporation (Hapro), says that his company exports many products to the Republic of Korea, which requires a high standard of food hygiene and safety. However, Hapro leaders consider these a good opportunity for local businesses to sharpen their competitive edge to penetrate the global market, adds Mr. Canh. In addition to this, trade barriers have also posed numerous difficulties and challenges for Vietnamese businesses who do not have a proper understanding of this issue. Many local businesses find it hard to access information about the trade laws of countries that have commitments with Vietnam. Therefore, clarifying trade barriers and technical standards provided by partners and ensuring transparency in the origin of products are still big challenges for Vietnamese businesses when they export their products to foreign markets. For instance, the European Union (EU) has an anti-dumping tax of 10 percent on Vietnamese leather shoes. The European Bicycle Manufacturers Association (EBMA) has requested a review and extension of the anti-dumping duty on imported Vietnamese bicycles. This affects the Vietnamese bike ind

vikings Essay example -- essays research papers

Vikings In Control They were fierce, heartless Barbarians who Seized and looted many European lands from the 800’s to 1000’s. They made their sneaky attacks at the crack of dawn killing anyone who came axe length away. Including innocent babies defenseless children of all ages, and helpless women. ( The Celebration Program) During their time, these people never called themselves â€Å"Vikings.† This name isn’t even meant to be the name or a group, but an activity. The base word vik was simply another name for a pirate. Therefore, to go a-viking meant to fight as a warrior. The Northmen, which is another name for Vikings, lived in small communities that were ruled by either a king or a chief. People were divided into three classes being noble, freeman, or slaves. The nobles were usually considered Kings because they were people who were wealthy. The freemen were farmers, merchants and people who served the ruler. Last, but not least slaves were Scandinavians whose ancestors had been enslaved. (The Celebration Program) Even though Vikings are addressed by one very large group, there are actually three kinds of Vikings. They are Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. The Norwegian Vikings were actually the group that began the raids in Lindisfarne in 793. They raided England, Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland. Because of Ireland’s fertile farms, rich churches and monasteries, it was a big target. Norwegian pirate chief Turgeis attacked Ireland from 839 ...

Does Islam Cause Violence in the Middle East? Essay -- Islam, religion

Since the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, a large focus of the Western Powers, like the United States, has been on the Middle East. Out of this has come a conclusion that this area of the world is prone to be more violent than other parts and this is largely to due to the Islamic religion. This the West has concluded in large part through observation coupled with some qualitative data. However, is this an adequate assertion of the area, and of the religion of Islam? To begin various types of violence will be explored quantitatively and qualitatively to see if there is a difference in the level of violence seen in the Middle East as compared to Western States. Once it has been determined if there exists a difference in the amount of violence in the Middle East, as compared to Western States, it than shall be explored to see what role Islam may play in it. Comparing Violence It has been assumed that while the rest of the world appears to be seeing decreasing levels of violence, it appears the Middle East has yet to experience this same trend. By just watching the news or reading the paper, it has appeared that in the past couple of decades there have been either an increase in violence in the Middle East. In addition, it has also appeared that certain types of violence that the West has not experienced for some time still exist within the region. The question this raises then, is the Middle East more violent? On the other hand, is this nothing more than Islamophobia? To find the correct answer both a quantitative and qualitative approach will be taken. Through this patterns should emerge that will lead to answer whether are not the Middle East is more prone to violence than other Western States (Pinker, 20... ...s Office on Drugs and Crime. (2013). UNODC Homicide Statistics. Retrieved November 24, 2013, from http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/homicide.html This publication is put out by the United Nations and its office on Drug and Crime. The purpose of this publication is straight forward. It is to the homicide rates of each State. The data is collected by various agencies, some associated with the United Nations and some not. This document is easy to read and to understand. It serves the purpose in which it was created by showing the homicide rates nearly all the States in the world. The underlying issue with it is that not all the data is complete. When it comes to Western, developed, States the data is complete. However, when it comes to less developed states, it is not. This can causes issues if someone is looking for patterns or comparing regions.

Programming Language and Future Career

Career-related discussions are something that my dad and I tend to have on the weekly basis, and have increased since changing my major to Management Information Systems last year. Our latest discussion was on the phone about word choice and the do’s and don’ts when writing/typing papers and other documents, moving forward in college as well as in my future career. What sparked up this conversation though was my dissatisfaction with a comment I got on a paper from a peer review. The comment stated that my choice of words were not â€Å"scholarly† or on the college level.It really got under my skin so I decided to call my father about it. I told him the situation, and I felt that my paper was scholarly and I wrote it in a way that my fellow classmates would understand. His response was, moving forward into my career, the choice of words I used really would play a big part. As more advice he told me that having a bigger vocabulary showed professionalism and knowled ge. Throughout our discussion I became frustrated because I believed that as long as my audience understood what I was talking about it should not matter how â€Å"simple† the words were.Even though I knew what he saying was right I did not want to hear it, because I was frustrated about the comment. I wanted to tell him that I didn’t care what he had to say after a while, but I have a lot of respect for my father. I knew what he was saying was right from experience being a computer programmer, where he is constantly in meetings and speaking in front of his colleagues. After we finish talking I still felt a little frustration, because I kept thinking back to the comment.I really was surprised by the valid points my father made about the situation because I was so set on the way I felt and my stubbornness took over. The discussion was really needed though, initially I was not going to go back and reedit my paper but my father words really made sense. I guess he was righ t the choice of words you choose can really go a long way. The advice I took from our discussion to help me in my future career was to continue practicing and improving my writing skills.

Automobile Industry Macro Factor Affecting and Ther Weitage

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SKILL BASED QUESTIONS Simplest†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Q †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ East Bengal V/s Manchester United, match organized on Monday(Just day after). Fan across world are expected. Tickets available are 20,000, which have to be sold, but selling them over the counter is ruled out because of much less time available †¢ What now? 1) IT enabled services improve the effectiveness and efficiency of businesses in comparison with non-it enabled ones. Discuss. 2. IT involvement in BPOs is very important. Do you feel â€Å"There is no BPO without IT†? Justify your views. 3)In what major ways have IS in business changed during the last 20 years?What is the major change you think will happen in the next 10 years? 4) Peter Black ,the marketing manager of West star Inc. plans to have a marketing IS in the organisation. How would he go about improving the existing system? 5) How can Internet technologies help a business form strategic alliance with its c ustomers, suppliers and others? 5a) Why is there a trend towards cross functional Integrated enterprise systems in business? 6. If personalizing a customer’s website experience is a key success factor, then electronic profiling processes to track visitor website behavior are necessary. Do you agree r disagree with this statement? 7. Trendz Inc. is a retail company which plans to have an online presence. Explain the process of Web store development 8)Information systems play strategic roles to improve company’s competitive position. Identify the strategic roles of information systems that can give an organization competitive advantage. 9) XYZ Inc. has a very effective information systems. However, to keep the data secure, the security controls of IS in the company are very essential. What are the major types of controls that are needed to ensure the security of IS in XYZ. Inc? 10) Neglecting the ethical dimensions of IT can ave an effect on the functioning of a business . Explain in brief the ethical and social dimensions of IT. 11) The regional director of a marketing company wants to have an emergency meeting with all his sales team members and to show them a new protocol developed by the competitor. But all are at far-away places on sales assignments. Suggest how a suitable technology based method helps him. 12 †¢ Marketing Managers of a manufacturing firm are planning to increase the sales this year at any cost and they are supposed to prepare a proposal to show the management saying, what-if they increase the advertisement budget this year by 0%, 20% and 30% over the last year’s budget. †¢ Suggest a suitable Information system which helps them in their What-if analysis and comment. 13 †¢ Japan is planning host a football tournament, surprisingly for ROBOTS to showcase their technological supremacy. †¢ What branch of computer science will help them in designing the ROBOTS to play the game? Comment. 14 †¢ A logist ics company want to provide up-to date information to their clients about their shipment regarding their place or location, movement, and time of arrival at the destination, at any point of time the clients want to know about, in order to ave a satisfied customer base. †¢ Suggest what technology they should adopt to continuously track the shipments and how can they achieve their goal. 15 †¢ Company ABC is planning to do all business activities including collaboration with all stake holders using the telecommunication network while, company XYZ is planning to do only sales transactions using the same telecommunication network. †¢ Identify the technologies each of the firms are planning for and differentiate between them. 16 †¢ Business organizations want to purchase a software package which helps them to go global for all their eeds including market reach, interaction with customers and sales across the globe with better efficiency. The vendor companies have come forward to offer the same which is a multi module application software with features like single database, integration of all stand alone functional packages and which typically attempts to cover all basic functions of organizations. †¢ What they are planning to sell to Business organizations and if that software fails what would be the reasons? 17 †¢ Today one information system is used commonly by sales representatives, field service managers, feedback collection executives, response center gents, follow up executives, sales campaign managers, customer relationship executives etc†¦ at Honeywell to collect the orders, feedback, maintain the customer database, to send product brochures etc†¦. †¢ Explain that information system. 18 †¢ American companies off load their jobs to South Asian countries especially India, in order to reduce their operating and processing costs due to availability of cheap labour in such countries. †¢ What the business we a re talking about? How internet is helpful in doing such businesses. 19 †¢ Thirteen years ago when you purchased mobile phone and went to activate your SIM ard, it took almost 2-3 days to start making calls. †¢ Now if you do so, you can start immediately. What particular information processing activities are applied? Q 20 †¢ Describe your involvement in a large software development project, either as part of the commissioning team, or in developing the systems concept or in writing components of the software. †¢ How did your involvement relate to the involvement of others and how was the work of the different participants coordinated? †¢ How was the project overseen and managed? †¢ In what ways to you think the management of the project, or its implementation, could have been improved?