The Terror of Rwandan Genocide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Terror of Rwandan Genocide - Essay Example The first step of genocide, classification, has been taking place for years before the genocide even started. Long into Rwanda's history had there been a distinct ethnic difference between the two rival factions, the Hutu and the Tutsis. In the late 1800s, it was the Tutsi people who had enslaved the Hutus in a feudal system, with the Hutus working the land under the supervision of Tutsi landlords. After World War One, however, this all came to change. When Rwanda was granted self-government from Belgium in 1959, the elections led the Hutu majority into power over the government, and this could be seen as one of the first steps towards the later genocide. The distinct differences had already been in place, and now the oppressed Hutus had political control over their ancient landlords. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide#Background). The next few steps toward the genocide all began to happen quickly. As Tutsi refugees began to pour in Rwanda in the 1990s, the Hutu majority began to become afraid of the past enslavement. The Hutu government "broadcast and published material referring to the Tutsi as subhuman and making veiled calls for violence. Radical Hutu groups, organized and funded by members of the government, started to amass weapons and conduct training programs" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide#Background). This was an example of symbolization, by making and targeting all the members of the Tutsi group, dehumanization, by denying the humanity of the Tutsi and declaring them subhuman, and this was also a prime example of organization and polarization, which both continued to happen as the genocide began. There is also quite a bit of evidence that the killings were organized even by the government and government leaders. One cabinet member was quoted in saying that "she was personally in favor of getting rid of all Tutsi; without the Tutsi, she told ministers, all of Rwanda's problems would be over" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide#Background). This shows just how deep into the country the hatred for the Tutsi people ran and was accepted. After the assignation of the president of Rwanda, the damn finally broke, and the genocide began. The military began rounding up all the Tutsi they could and slaughtering them, a sign of preparation as they began to mass weapons and dispatch the militia, and then finally as they began to round up and murder the Tutsi. "Within hours, recruits were dispatched all over the country to carry out a wave of slaughter",( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230.stm) as the people of Rwanda prepared for one of the most brutal and shocking genocides the world had seen since the Holocaust.

Why e-Business is important to the world economy Essay Example for Free

Why e-Business is important to the world economy Essay While the terms e-business and e-commerce are often used in the same context there is a difference between the two. E-commerce generally refers to financial transactions that take place on the Web, whereas e-business refers to all types of transactions over the Web. The use of the Web, or Internet, is perhaps one of the greatest changes in business practices today. The transforming power of this mode of business extends far beyond the obvious points of convenience for the customer and cost savings for the business. The most powerful implementations of e-business enable a complete restructuring of business models (Ware, 1999). The extensive acceptance and relatively low cost access is making a change in the worlds economy. This paper will attempt to identify some the reasons that e-business is important to the world economy. Many businesses are interested in e-business for the most simple of reasons, which is the increase of profits and, generally, a decrease in costs. Often the decrease in costs is associated with paperwork, employee pay and overhead, and these savings can be passed on to the buyer. An example is Cisco Systems who today sells the majority of its computer networking equipment over the internet. According to Schneider:Because no customer service representatives are involved in making these sales, Cisco operates very efficiently. In 1998, the first year in which its online sales initiative was fully operational, Cisco made 72 percent of its sales on the Web. Cisco estimated that it avoided handling 500,000 calls per month and saved $500 million in that year alone. (2004, pg. 15). In a business-to-business (B2B) transaction, if a buyer can purchase more of a product for a lesser amount, they can sell more as well. Selling more helps to stimulate the economy in any country. In addition, when a company does a good job of advertising on the Web, it allows them to get the message about their product or service out to potential customers around the world. This can lead to an increase in sales and also helps the buyer with purchasing prospects. E-business can also provide a larger selection of products and services for a buyer to select from. The ability of the internet to transfer information has made the world a  somewhat smaller place. The use of e-business allows for communications and transactions to happen extremely quickly. Before the use of the internet, trading among countries could take weeks. Such circumstances lent themselves to fragmented individualized markets with subsidiaries run by family members or close friends (Wright. N/D). Now, businesses can interact with their subsidiaries, business partners, vendors, and buyers in a time and cost efficient manner. Many companies, such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell have taken the opportunity to open offices and plants in other countries as this can greatly reduce production costs. The opening of production facilities has in turn created many jobs for many people in those countries, and this helps to stimulate economic growth. According to Gary Schneider the inherently global nature of electronic commerce leads to many opportunities and a few challenges (2004. pg. 41). While there are obvious concerns about trust, culture, and language legalities, more and more businesses are conducting e-business. E-business has opened the door for many countries to participate in business ventures that they did not have previously, therefore generating a cash flow for that countries economy. This type of business has allowed for some countries to openly sell their best products to the highest bidder and to expand market share. When done on a global scale such as this, every country has the opportunity toshare the wealth, which helps the global economy. References: Schneider, G. (2004). Electronic Commerce: The Second Wave. (5th ed.) Thomson. Course Technology. Ware, B. (1999). Syracuse University research centers. Retrieved January 18, 2008 from http://www.syr.edu/research/ebusiness/benreport.htmlWright, N. S. (n/d). Global economy. Business Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 18, 2008 from http://www.answers.com/topic/world-economy?cat=biz-fin

Cultural Identity and the Language of Food Essay example -- Cultural Id

Cultural Identity and the Language of Food Food is integral to cultural identity and is as much a part of culture as religion and language. Indeed, some cultures elevate food to a level nearing, if not exceeding, the status of their religion. Because I love to cook, to combine flavors in a way that results in something unexpected and wonderful, this paper will discuss various words related to food. Not actual food words, but words surrounding food. Interesting words like â€Å"gastronomy† and â€Å"feast.† Often there is much symbolism related to these words; from the fundamental idea that to eat is to live to the possibility that there are religious connotations to the etymology of some of these words. Given their reputation for affairs of the heart, as well as being the purveyors of cuisine, it is not surprising that many of our food words come from the French -- such as gastronomy, saute, banquet and garnish. â€Å"Gastronomy,† refers to the art or science of good eating. It comes from Greek French gastronomie, from Greek gastronomi, gastro-, + -nomi, -nomy. Its Indo-European root word, gras, (Shipley, 133) simply means to devour. According to the American Heritage Dictionary (AHD), the word banquet has been fluctuating for a long time. The Old French word banquet, the likely source of our word, is derived from Old French banc, â€Å"bench,† ultimately of Germanic origin and originally from the Indo-European *bheg (Shipley, 31). The sense development in Old French goes from â€Å"little bench† to â€Å"meal taken on the family workbench† to â€Å"feast.† The AHD cites the English word banquet as first recorded in a work possibly composed before 1475 with reference to a feast held by the god Apollo, and it appears to have been used from the 15th to ... ...w York, NY. 1983. Davidson, Alan. Oxford Companion to Food. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1999. Elkort, Martin. The Secret Life of Food: A Feast of Food and Drink History, Folklore, and Fact. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. 1991. Foley, Tricia and Catherine Calvert. Having Tea. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1987 Jaspers, Karl. The Great Philosophers. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993. Kiple, Kenneth F., and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas, eds. The Cambridge World History of Food. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Oates, Whitney Jennings. The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers. New York: Random House, 1940. Shipley, Joseph T. The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984. Tannahill, Reay. Food in History. New York: Random House, 1988.

China and Debt Bomb

Six years ago, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao cautioned that China's economy is â€Å"unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable. † China has since doubled down on the economic model that prompted his concern. Mr. Wen spoke out in an attempt to change the course of an economy dangerously dependent on one lever to generate growth: heavy investment in the roads, factories and other infrastructure that have helped make China a manufacturing superpower. Then along came the 2008 global financial crisis.To keep China's economy growing, panicked officials launched a half-trillion-dollar stimulus and ordered banks to fund a new wave of investment. Investment has risen as a share of gross domestic product to 48%—a record for any large country—from 43%. Even more staggering is the amount of credit that China unleashed to finance this investment boom. Since 2007, the amount of new credit generated annually has more than quadrupled to $2. 75 trillion in the 12 months through January this year. Last year, roughly half of the new loans came from the â€Å"shadow banking system,† private lenders and credit suppliers outside formal lending channels.These outfits lend to borrowers—often local governments pushing increasingly low-quality infrastructure projects—who have run into trouble paying their bank loans. Since 2008, China's total public and private debt has exploded to more than 200% of GDP—an unprecedented level for any developing country. Yet the overwhelming consensus still sees little risk to the financial system or to economic growth in China. That view ignores the strong evidence of studies launched since 2008 in a belated attempt by the major global financial institutions to understand the origin of financial crises.The key, more than the level of debt, is the rate of increase in debt—particularly private debt. (Private debt in China includes all kinds of quasi-state borrowers, such as local governments and state-owned corporations. ) Enlarge Image Corbis On the most important measures of this rate, China is now in the flashing-red zone. The first measure comes from the Bank of International Settlements, which found that if private debt as a share of GDP accelerates to a level 6% higher than its trend over the previous decade, the acceleration is an early warning of serious financial distress.In China, private debt as a share of GDP is now 12% above its previous trend, and above the peak levels seen before credit crises hit Japan in 1989, Korea in 1997, the U. S. in 2007 and Spain in 2008. The second measure comes from the International Monetary Fund, which found that if private credit grows faster than the economy for three to five years, the increasing ratio of private credit to GDP usually signals financial distress.In China, private credit has been growing much faster than the economy since 2008, and the ratio of private credit to GDP has risen by 50 percentage points to 180%, an increase similar to what the U. S. and Japan witnessed before their most recent financial woes. The bullish consensus seems to think these laws of financial gravity don't apply to China. The bulls say that bank crises typically begin when foreign creditors start to demand their money, and China owes very little to foreigners.Yet in an August 2012 National Bureau of Economic Research paper titled â€Å"The Great Leveraging,† University of Virginia economist Alan Taylor examined the 79 major financial crises in advanced economies over the past 140 years and found that they are just as likely in countries that rely on domestic savings and owe little to foreign creditors. The bulls also argue that China can afford to write off bad debts because it sits on more than $3 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves as well as huge domestic savings.However, while some other Asian nations with high savings and few foreign liabilities did avoid bank crises following credit booms, they non etheless saw economic growth slow sharply. Following credit booms in the early 1970s and the late 1980s, Japan used its vast financial resources to put troubled lenders on life support. Debt clogged the system and productivity declined. Once the increase in credit peaked, growth fell sharply over the next five years: to 3% from 8% in the 1970s and to 1% from 4% in the 1980s.In Taiwan, following a similar cycle in the early 1990s, the average annual growth rate fell to 6%. Even if China dodges a financial crisis, then, it is not likely to dodge a slowdown in its increasingly debt-clogged economy. Through 2007, creating a dollar of economic growth in China required just over a dollar of debt. Since then it has taken three dollars of debt to generate a dollar of growth. This is what you normally see in the late stages of a credit binge, as more debt goes to increasingly less productive investments.In China, exports and manufacturing are slowing as more money flows into real-estate spec ulation. About a third of the bank loans in China are now for real estate, or are backed by real estate, roughly similar to U. S. levels in 2007. For China to find a more stable growth model, most experts agree that the country needs to balance its investments by promoting greater consumption. The catch is that consumption has been growing at 8% a year for the past decade—faster than in previous miracle economies like Japan's and as fast as it can grow without triggering inflation.Yet consumption is still falling as a share of GDP because investment has been growing even faster. So rebalancing requires China to cut back on investment and on the rate of increase in debt, which would mean accepting a rate of growth as low as 5% to 6%, well below the current official rate of 8%. In other investment-led, high-growth nations, from Brazil in the 1970s to Malaysia in the 1990s, economic growth typically fell by half in the decade after investment peaked. The alternative is that Chin a tries to sustain an unrealistic growth target, by piling more debt on an already powerful debt bomb.

Land Grab Essay

Agricultural Investment, and the Scramble for Food Security’ by Michael Kugelman and Susan L. Levenstein, has offered us: deep, multi-positional insight presented by a host of authors with valid sources on one of the most interesting phenomenons happening within our current economic system. From the surface it seems to be talking about how developed food- secure nations are buying up swaths of farmlands from the worlds most food- insecure countries, but after a deeper look into the book, this phenomenon and it’s complexities is much greater than that. There are twelves chapters in this book, each chapter written by a different author or authors, getting into different aspects and perspectives of this so called â€Å"Land Grabbing† issue. The first chapter (introduction) is written by Michael Kugelman, followed by some history by Derek Byerlee, an overview by David Hallam, social and economic mplications by Alexandra Spieldoch and Sophia Murphy, environmental impacts by Laura A. German, Wouter M. J. Achten, and Manuel R. Guariguata, investors’ perspectives by Gary R. Blumenthal, improving outcomes by Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Helen Markelova, regional perspectives on Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union by Chido Makunike, Raul Q. Montemayor, Bastiaan P. Reydon and Vitor B. Fernandes, Carl Atkin respectively, and finishes off with â€Å"Recommendations and Conclusion† by Michael Kugelman. The term â€Å"Land Grab† used on the book cover and in its pages depicts a large owerful foreign entity that acquire large amounts of land that is usually used by local poor communities to produce food and/or provide other essential basic human needs. These communities are often displaced soon after because they are banned from the site in which they have cultivated and lived off of. This term (Land Grab) is used quite fittingly as Michael Kugelman and Susan L. Levenstein’s position on this matter is quite critical and essentially focused on the inequalities and other adverse effects of this phenomenon. That being said, the book still does mention a few xamples where there was a net positive outcome from these large land leasing transactions. The book also accepts what’s happening and takes on a very realistic way of approaching this issue. First, we must acknowledge the underlying causes. The first major event that nave made significant impact on this global farmland market was the food crises in 2007 and 2008. The global prices of food has spiked, riots have increased, and export bans have been created to keep the availability and the prices of food low within exporting nations. This created a huge problem for importing nations as their food security as being undermined. The richer importing nations quickly started looking abroad to lease land for food security. These large scale land transactions, however, is not a new phenomenon, non-food commodities such as tea and rubber has been produced on leased land for a long time, but the amount of land being acquired by these large entities have never increased so dramatically in the past. Estimates of 203 million hectares to 230 million hectares of land have been approved or is under negotiation from 2000-2010. That is roughly the size of Western Europe. With increases of urbanization (taking ver farmland), population, food consumption, bio-fuel consumption, droughts, and the temperature rising causing decreases in yields, it does not seem like this land grabbing trend will stop any time soon. Of course when talking about root causes, we can’t omit the incentives for the host countries: better technology, more local employment, better farm yields, better infrastructure, and most of all, money in the host’s pockets. As a matter of fact, because of this money making opportunity, a lot of these nations are leasing with very lax regulations, tax incentives, tax holidays and other perks and benefits such as Pakistan’s 100,000 men security force to protect the leased land. So the premise is set, and since we’re currently embedded in this economic system, there’s no running away from it, at least not for a long time coming. So what is the problem? That we have to take a closer look at these case studies. The case studies presented in the book are focused on the key regions of investments from a descending order: Africa, South E. Asia, Latin America, Central/ Eastern Europe, and former Soviet Union. The key investors would include but is not limited to: capital rich food importing nations such as the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, China, Japan, South Korea, and India, it also includes agricultural business firms from the West. The book also mentions that it isn’t always the capital rich countries that are investing in these large swaths of lands, North Africa for example is investing in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asian nations are investing in each other’s soils. Similar trends in these case studies show up repeatedly: benefits to local communities are for the most part not materializing, many local communities have been displaced (Ex. A British project in Uganda displaced roughly 20,000 people), arge quantities of fresh water is being consumed, and deforestation is rapidly occurring (Ex. Sub-Saharan Africa’s palm oil production have caused 100% deforestation rates). These trends should not be surprising as most of the host governments and investors are in the market purely for self interest and show little regard to the impacts ot poor local communities and the environment. These adverse effects creates a problem of conflict between the people and the large entities in these land transactions. We can see these conflicts in Madagascar (South Korea’s deal to buy 1. 3 million hectors of farmland sparked widespread rotests in 2009 to bring down the government), Uganda (Indian corporate investment in Uganda farmland has sparked violent responses), and Kenya (Kenyans have vowed to fight back violently after being evicted to accommodate a sugar plantation). It is no wonder now that Pakistan has offered 100,000 men security force to protect the leased land. And with this 100,000 men security force, we can also see extent of disregard for these poor local local communities. The book ends with a more optimistic perspective on this matter. It is very realistic as it provides ways to make these transactions better, and morally Just for veryone. It talked a little about the increase in transparency on this subject. It itself has brought light to the public and continues to do so. But not only do the authors want to inform academics, policy makers, business people, and the general public, I believe that the authors of the book also hopes to encourage better provisions for hiring locals, selling the food back to local communities (a few case studies in Asia has shown that this trend has occurred and the benefits to local communities have actually materialized [this gives us a little more hope for the future ahead of us]), and protecting the environment. Hopefully the book will also have provided enough information to influence host countries to create more robust laws and regulations and offer to support small holders (host countries are a lot more restrictive on small holders than big investors) so these local communities are not completely exploited (studies suggest that small holders are a lot more efficient, environmental friendly, and morally Just compared to big holders). The book also gives sheds a bit of light on alternatives such as drought resistant farming technology/methods (less reliant to farm abroad) and Asia’s plan to form of rice pools so less entities gets compromised.

Make Case Study Writing Manageable

Make Case Study Writing Manageable Make Case Study Writing Manageable Case studies are one of the most difficult things to write. There are very specific formats to be followed. Sometimes they can be complicated for people that have never attempted this type of writing. Research needs to be documented so it can be confirmed by someone else at a later date (if necessary). All graphics need to be checked for potential typographical errors and consistency. Writing even a small case study can be challenging, and why so many new writers can benefit from the help of an academic writing service. Writing a case study has several steps. First, gather all relevant information, sift and organize it to make a convincing case. In a pre-digital era information could be spread out over a huge physical area with note cards, books, reports, and folders. One advantage of using laptops and desktops is that all that information can be scanned in and kept in a single thumb drive or in the cloud. Not only can you work on a case study wherever you wish, it keeps your workspace organized. The next step is to start organizing in a clear and coherent way. This can be facilitated by a renaming and sorting files, or dividing resources into a few physical piles. By classifying sources into different categories, a better narrative can be developed. Better yet, your directories and files can later be digitally shared with others, giving them easy access to the information. Once this has been done the writing itself can take place. Using an academic writing assistance service can be a huge help in this endeavour. A professional writing service can teach you how to create any necessary graphics, adding a little extra panache to the study and better organizing information that may have been merely input into a plain-looking table. They can also check for typographical and factual errors. This makes the effort much easier for any person in charge of a case study. All told, a academic writing assistance service can save a lot of stress and time, making it well worth the investment. For those looking to make an impression on readers, this service is well worth the investment. For those more concerned with the research, help with writing is a welcome relief. Contact Master’s Essay today to get started.

Many Ways to Break

Many Ways to Break Many Ways to Break Many Ways to Break By Mark Nichol How does one break? Which preposition follows the verb break depends, in American English idiom, on which type of literal or figurative breaking is occurring. To break away is to escape, to suddenly separate from a group, as in a race, to stop doing something (also referred to as taking a break), or to end or reduce one’s dependence on another. A part of something is also said to be broken away from a whole. (See also â€Å"break up.†) â€Å"Break down† means to succumb to one’s emotions, or refers to when something, such as a vehicle, stops working, or to dividing something into parts or destroying it; the noun form is breakdown. To break for something is to stop doing something, such as working (also referred to as taking a break), or to run toward something suddenly, as when trying to escape. â€Å"Break in† means to interrupt, intrude, or invade. In addition, one breaks a person or an animal in by training him, her, or it; to break something in is to accustom it to use. To break into means to start doing something suddenly, as in â€Å"break into song† or â€Å"break into tears.† â€Å"Break into† can also be synonymous with â€Å"break in† or can refer to dividing something into pieces. An invasion of private property is called a break-in. To break off is to suddenly interrupt one’s speech or a meeting or to cut off communication with someone, or it can refer to a part of something separating from the whole. â€Å"Break out† can refer to the onset of a rash or another skin condition, to an escape, or to a sudden outburst or to the beginning of a disturbance such as a riot or a phenomenon such as a fire. It also describes the act of suddenly making something such as drinks and/or food available. One can also break out into a cold sweat from anxiety. The noun form, suitable only for some senses, is breakout. Waves or a sudden overflow of water can break over an object such as a ship’s gunwale or a seawall or other barrier. A person or a thing can break through a literal or figurative barrier; the act is called a breakthrough. â€Å"Break up† is slang for ending a romantic relationship, but it can also refer to the division of a whole into smaller pieces, whether naturally, as when ice breaks, loosens, and melts in warmer weather, or artificially, as when somebody breaks a candy bar into sections to share it; the noun form is breakup. (The admonition â€Å"Break it up!† is a call to stop engaging in something, such as a fight.) One can break with tradition, which alludes to doing something differently than it is customarily done. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Slang Terms for MoneyDisappointed + Preposition25 Idioms About Bread and Dessert