How should the International Financial System be changed (legally and Essay

How should the International Financial System be changed (legally and politically) so that the burden of the dollar as the main reserve currency for the world d - Essay Example The financial markets went into a tailspin recently when it was rumored that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was looking at alternative to dollar for pegging its currency. Iran has tried unsuccessfully to exhort OPEC countries look for alternatives to dollar, but has announced that it would diversify its foreign reserve portfolio to include Euro as well. It will not create much dent in US armor yet it has strong political message for USA. Malaysia has also tried to establish gold dinar for settling bilateral trade with Iran. Experts feel that it would not be as widespread as these two countries hope as gold would be too cumbersome to be traded and exchanged. Similarly some South American countries are also trying to establish alternatives to IMF and World Bank to cut the dependence on USA and its interfering policies as they see them. They are all small steps yet they show that countries are looking at alternatives to the US dollar. US dollar is not the most preferred currency with the common man too; there are reports that now a days people prefer to be paid in their local currencies by foreigners rather than dollars for the fear of devaluation of dollar something unimaginable a couple of years ago. This shows that the confidence on dollar cross the globe is ebbing slowly but surely. Jean-Claude Trichet President ECB has as far back as 2005 called for structural changes in the international financial system to take care of financial crisis which calls for greater financial transparency, more systematic approach to the future growth and greater global ownership. Apart from these three measures, inclusiveness of emerging economies and economies in transition in international financial architecture and greater cooperation of central banks of emerging economies and economies in transition would help in systematic development and correction of financial system. This shows that not only Europe and Japan have are going to have greater say in international financial system but emerging economies like BRIC and other South East Asian counties too will need to be included. A significant departure from the fact that USA called the shots after the downfall of USSR and end of cold war. USA is grappling with huge current account deficit, Japan as current account surplus where as Europe is balanced. Erosion of value of dollar and erosion of political supremacy of USA is linked together. It is time now for USA to share the burden of dollar with Europe. Edwin M Truman (2007) in his speech has said, "The United States and Europe have huge stakes and responsibilities in the stability of the international economy and financial system. How their authorities manage their economies and develop their financial systems is key. The challenge is to promote healthy, and to minimize unhealthy, competition between the euro and the dollar and their associated financial systems and economies." He calls for climb down of US and European claim to ownership on IMF and World Bank and include emerging and developing countries in the position of management rather than recipients. He even calls for changing the voting pattern to give greater weight age to other countries of the world to ref lect their growing economic stature. The "advanced" countries would need to give up their share by at least 10 basis points and might call for increase in the fund size by 50 percent. This would mean acknowledging the political and economic advancement of the so called developing nations by USA and its allies. There are reports

Whitewashing of African American Culture Exposed in Song of Solomon Ess

Whitewashing of African American Culture Exposed in Song of Solomon      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   White culture would rather keep the African American culture at a distance and shape it into what the white culture believes it should be rather than accept the enrichment offered by the African American culture. This may be because of the white culture's fear of anything and anyone obviously different in appearance. However, it is not enough for the dominant culture to separate itself from the African American culture, it has to shape and mold that culture into the stereotype projected upon the minority culture. African American culture is shaped by the dominant/ white culture, among other things, through the white culture's use of fear within the minority group, the bestowing or withholding of innovations and wealth, and controlling the mobility of the African American.    The white dominant culture uses fear to shape and control people and cultures different from them. In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, the fear evoked by the white, dominant culture comes from the thought of being lynched and beaten by any white person who might take offence at the presence or actions of an African American. While this is not an obvious, overlaying theme in the novel, it is present nonetheless in the existence of the Seven Days as the Black answer to the lynchings and murders of African Americans by whites, as Guitar said, "'when a Negro child, Negro woman, or Negro man is killed by whites and nothing is done about it by their law and their courts, this society selects a similar victim at random, and they execute him or her in a similar manner it they can' (154)." This fear of lynching or physical pain kept African Americans in the limited roles and geogra... ...ted: Bjork, Patrick Bryce. The Novels of Toni Morrison: The Search for Self and Place Within the Community. New York: P. Lang, 1996. Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: Toni Morrison. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 1990. Ellis, Kate. "Text and Undertext: Myth and Politics in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon." LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory. 6.1-2 (1995): 35-45. Furhman, Jan. Toni Morrison's Fiction. South Carolina: U of South Carolina P, 1996. Middleton, David. Toni Morrison's Fiction: Contemporary Criticism. New York: Garland, 1997. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: The Penguin Group, 1977. Peterson, Nancy J. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997. Rice, Herbert William. Toni Morrison and the American Tradition: A Rhetorical Reading. New York: P. Lang, 1996.

Coming Home

They say that there’s no place like home, and I would say nothing much comes close. People here, there and everywhere dream of a place, abroad or locally to go to. But for people like me who grew up at the province and are now studying in a different place, we reminisce the times we were with the people who we grew up with. Yes, the place I would like to visit is my hometown of GeneralSantosCity. The place that I will forever cherish in my memories In the days coming before the semestral break, a friend asked me, â€Å"Are you going to go back to Gensan? † and I said â€Å"yeah†. Then she asked me why, at first I didn’t really know what to say. I just had this overwhelming feeling all semester that â€Å"I need to go back†. To go back to the place I spent sixteen years of my life, the place that molded my being, that taught me so much and gave me so much to bring with me here in Cavite. My quick answer of course was â€Å"because it was where I grew up†, at the time I felt it was sufficient but, as I thought about it more, I realized it was a pretty shallow answer. I mean, who doesn’t want to go back home? But then again what is a home? For some it doesn’t even exist, and for some they say it’s just a memory. Some say it is the place where you grow up wanting to leave and grow old wanting to come back. Still others say it is where we belong, it is not a physical structure but rather for me it is a sense of well being. You just feel right, when you’re there, I don’t know, I don’t have the wisdom to elaborate further, but I’m sure there’s a place where you’ve felt it too. For me, its just different there, I feel so calm, so relaxed, so at ease, so at home, it’s the place I feel I can let my guard down. Well its not that I didn’t have problems while I was in Gensan. Believe me, there were things that I regretted doing there up until now. Ang rami ko ngang kapalpakan noon† as I say in our native language. But after dealing with my new environment here, nostalgia is a welcome visitor. As the lyrics of a song says:†I'm coming home, I'm coming home,Tell the? world I'm coming home, Let the rain wash away, all the pain of yesterda y,I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes,I'm coming home,I'm coming home,Tell the world I'm coming†¦ â€Å". Because you see as time passes by you will come to laugh at the most bitter of memories, even the most hurtful, because I believe there will come a time when all we will have is our dear lives and our failing memories.

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