Thursday, January 30, 2020
The crisis of Eurozone Essay Example for Free
The crisis of Eurozone Essay The crisis of Eurozone which seems to spread from Greece to elsewhere in Europe has become the most serious problem these days. Although a series of measures have been taken out by European Commission within two years after Europe’s debt crisis erupted, market and political uncertainty appears to be worse than ever. As the most powerful country in the European Union (EU), Germany could never evade the issue caused by the Eurozone Crisis. Many critics advocate that Germany should expand financial aid to other EU countries which are suffering from fiscal crisis since Germany is the richest country in EU and the only one who could afford such a huge debt, however, most Germany’s citizens hold an opposite view. This essay will briefly analyze the current situation of Germany and discuss both views of this issue. Germany, as the most populous nation in EU, not only has the strongest economic system, but also dominates the European economy. According to statistics, the GDP of Germany has taken up a quarter of total EU output and a third that of Eurozone. Owing to its powerful manufacturing industry and strict control of economic cost, Germany has been little influenced by the Eurozone Crisis so far. However the economic growth was obviously slower and almost stalled in the last two year. Based on this situation, one of the opinions proposed by advocators is that Germany could not underestimate the effects on its economy brought by Eurozone Crisis. The economy of Germany would affect and be affected by the economy of other European countries, because the total income of Germany comes from exports, accounting for 50% of overall economy in 2011, and 60% among that benefited from the countries in Europe. In other words, the exports of Germany might suffer a certain decrease by reducing imports of other European countries while the austerity measures are implemented in order to resolve the crisis, which would consequently lead the Germany’s GDP decline in the long run. On the other side, if other EU countries collapsed in this crisis and were forced to exit Eurozone, which means resurrecting of their original currencies, such as Italy reusing Lira or Spain reusing Peseta, the currencies they were going back to would surely have fallen sharply against the Euro. Then, the German products might be much more difficult to export because of being too expensive to be competitive. As a result, the GDP of Germany would suffer as well. However, a majority of German citizens hold the view that German government should not make a further payment for other countries by using German taxpayers’ money, since Germany has sacrificed enough for Eurozone. It is the fact that the level of consumption in Germany has been quite low and the per capita income has grown extremely slow by almost 2% per year over the last years in order to control the deficits. By contrast, some other countries in Europe have raised average income by more than 10% along with high welfares when German people were suffering from the reduction of welfare and a sluggish salary. Thus, it is unfair for German to bail out a country and help its indolent citizens to enjoy a luxurious life through their own suffering. In addition, it is impossible for Germany to solve the debt crisis thoroughly by constantly providing finance for other countries, which seems like a bottomless pit. The national debt of Germany has increased to â‚ ¬2 million until 2011, accounting for more than 80% of GDP , which has exceeded the stipulated 20% of the percentage in Convergence Conditions. In other words, if Germany continued to give financial assistance to other countries, it might have to struggle to reduce its own debts. In general, Germany should provide financial assistance to other countries, but not to the extent of sacrificing itself and aggravating its own debts. Perhaps, Germany could provide other forms of aid such as establishing a scientific welfare system, introducing an advanced industrial technique or offering a better banking regulatory framework rather than just financial assistance. After all, it is not the Germany’s responsibility to resolve the Eurozone Crisis. The countries that were plunged into crisis should take responsibilities for themselves.
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Exploring Chance In Pushkins the Queen of Spades Essay -- Pushking Que
Exploring Chance In Pushkin's the Queen of Spades It is said in The Bible that God has given Man 'free will.' Unfortunately for Man, The Bible does not entail exactly what 'free will' is. Some speculate that there is a force called Chance. These people believe that through a serious of coincidence, luck, and their own choices, they can control their future. Others believe in a force known as Fate. With this line of thinking, everything has a goal, and those goals will be met eventually. This gives the believer a sense of inevitability and they tend to be more laid back due to the philosophy of least resistance. Least resistance is the idea of 'it's going to happen anyway, so there?'s no real point in pushing back.' In Pushkin's 'Queen of Spades', chance and fate seem to endlessly intertwine themselves to the point where there appears to be a third force somewhat dictating their actions. In some instances, the lives of the characters seem to be going in a set path (Fate). At other instances, it appears as if had this not just happen ed to happen at this point in time, this person's life wouldn't have been affected in this way (Chance). Are Fate and Chance separate forces, or puppets on the strings of another power' Chances are, they're one in the same. Â Â Â Â Â The play opens with a man, Tomsky, who ?just so happens? to be telling the story of his grandmother and how she ?fatefully? came upon the secret to wealth. First, looking at it from the chance perspective, had this not happened, life would have been altered for many people. Countess Anna Fedrova, Countess A-----, is the person who puts the order of chance happenings in motion. Had she not been born, had she been ?damaged? in some way earlier in life, had she not married the man she did, and many other ?what ifs" and ?if onlys" could have stopped the series of events from occurring. But, ?by chance?, all of these things did happen. ?By chance?, a man who would be interested in learning the secret of the three winning cards was listening to Tomsky. Again, had his life not gone the way it had, he might not have been around Tomsky in the first place. ?By chance?, he was. The pattern of ?by chance? is set up early in the story. The entire story was written ?by chance?, which makes an interesting parallel to real life. Had Pushkin not been born, we would not have the story, and so forth. Â Â Â Â Â Or was i... ...ploring the theme of chance, one realizes that chance is simply a game of perspectives. Random to one was planned by another. Was everything put together as a plan to make Hermann go insane one day? Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ?At that moment it seemed to him that the queen of spades smiled ironically and winked her eye at him. He was struck by her remarkable resemblance. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ?The old Countess!? he exclaimed, seized with terror.?? Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â (Pushkin, pp. 23) Or did it simply just happen to turn out that way? Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ?Hermann went out of his mind, and is now confined in room Number 17 of the Oboukoff Hospital. He never answers any questions, but he constantly mutters with unusual rapidity: ?Three, seven, ace! Three, seven, queen!? Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â (Pushkin, pp. 23) As only God knows why all was created, only Pushkin knows why these events happened in the way they did. It all depends on how you look at it. In hindsight, what was once thought to be fate is simply the pattern of chances strung together. Works Cited Pushkin, Alexander. ?Queen of Spades?. Great Russian Short Stories. Ed. Paul Negril. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2003. 1-23.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Is the Emphasis on a Color-Blind Society an Answer to Racism
Racism is a word that sparks a nerve in many individuals today. As hard as it is to believe, racism is still a big factor in what we as a society know as a unified America. Although, it is not as obvious as it was in the past, it still goes on, just in ways that are less noticeable. We ask the question, is the emphasis on a color-blind society an answer to racism. Ward Connerly claims it is a way to stop the segregation and make America a whole as it has been striving to be for the longest. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva believes color-blind racism is the new racial ideology and still brings about racial inequality. As the solution to the question progresses, we ask ourselves, will a color-blind society change the way whites view blacks and minorities? Will it change the discrimination that is brought about everyday from individualistic opinions? Those that say they are not biased against other races are the main ones that are judgmental to how certain ethnicities act. Regardless of a color-blind society, there is still going to be racial inequality. Color-blind racism is basically racism that acts as if color doesn’t matter, when in actuality, it really does. Whites believe that if they use color-blind racism, they aren’t racist. They bypass the word â€Å"black†and use other words to substitute it for. They bypass the word â€Å"race†and instead use words such as â€Å"ethnicity,†â€Å"culture†or â€Å"background†to make their statements not sound so harsh. Despite the fact that they believe they may not sound prejudiced at the time that does not stop them from thinking it. As Eduardo Bonilla-Silva believes, color-blind racism may not be as crude as the Jim Crow era, but it resembles it in a more minor way. For example, whites will vote for a black man for President of the United States, but they still look down on the black society, most likely hoping that the â€Å"black President†will help those stereotypes. Ward Connerly attended the American River Junior College and earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in political science with honors at Sacramento State College. He is the founder of the American Civil Rights Institute and an outspoken supporter of equal opportunities for all Americans. He expressed his views on racism by discussing an encounter he had with a woman. While explaining his desire to succeed at having a color-blind government, the woman commented by replying what he was doing was going to be best for his people. Although, she may not have realized her remark offended him, situations similar to that occur all the time especially with blacks and minorities. Persons may do it without the intention to insult, but that just proves that everyone is viewed more so by color than by characteristics and personality. Many minorities will always be judged by their color because whites believe that they will never have higher power. Even though Ward Connerly went through rough obstacles growing up involving race, rather than focusing on the bad experiences he had, he claimed that if you â€Å"take people at face value and give them an opportunity, race is irrelevant. †He supports the emphasis on a color-blind society so people won’t use discrimination based on the color of one’s skin. He used examples such as classifications and how there was no need to classify people by race. After the Civil War, with having separation for bathrooms, poll taxes and water fountains, distinguishing differences between people should have been stopped. He decided to place the Racial Privacy Initiative in California, to prevent governments from categorizing individuals by race, color, ethnicity and origin. That may help to some degree, but there’s still going to be physical appearances by all people and no one is going to worry about classifications, because whites are still going to have their assumptions about blacks, even if they don’t completely say so. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva received his Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin. He has authored two books called White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era and Racism without Racists. He currently teaches sociology at Duke University focusing on race relations. Professor Bonilla-Silva proved his points with adequate examples shown in daily life. He uses the theory that blacks and most minorities are â€Å"at the bottom of the well. †He brought up that steering highly successful and educated blacks towards the poor, less paying jobs in the worst conditions are ways to keep minorities away from the upscale white society. According to Bonilla-Silva, the U. S. has scarcely moved beyond the era of segregation. He argues that all whites today rely more on cultural rather than biological analogies to explain blacks’ position in this country. I concur with his support because he has more supporting evidence than Connerly. Based on his interpretations, I’ve come to the conclusion that whites do come up with explanations to prove that they are so-called non-racial but as Bonilla-Silva said, â€Å"regardless of whites’ sincere fictions, racial consideration shade almost everything in America and black and dark skinned minorities lag behind in every area of social life. †An emphasis on a color-blind society is not the answer to racism. It’s just an excuse for whites to say that racism is not part of everyday life; that it simply just doesn’t exist. Ward Connerly had good claims, but his evidence did not support his conclusion enough to make me feel this topic would change the state of race in the U. S. Him describing his encounter made me feel that racism was never going to cease or for that matter, get better. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva brought out great support. By reviewing his examples and opinions, it is true that color-blindness is a front. Most whites will always have animosity towards those that don’t â€Å"resemble them. †Both authors did focus on the matter of race and how it is seen in the country. Race is seen differently throughout all individuals. Some find it just a word that has no meaning and is only involved with the past, but others find it an exaggeration of the word hatred. A word that brings out the worst in people’s personalities. Regardless of how much emphasis is even involved in having a color-blind society, racism still and always will exist.
Monday, January 6, 2020
Analysis Of The Book The Little Opposition Of The Night...
Stubb: Stubb is a man who loves to smoke his pipes and laugh in response to fear. His little opposition to going after Moby Dick shows how he believes in predestination and that all things in life are planned already, so he might as well make the most of them with a laugh and good smoke. This can be interpreted as a nervous reaction to what he knows will truly occur and the death that may ensue. He is afraid and the greater his fears become the more he smokes and frequently he laughs. This can be seen in the dream he has about Ahab kicking him and becoming a pyramid. His reaction when he awakes is to smoke off the anxiety and fear. He attempts to make his surroundings less fearful by interpreting them in different ways. He â€Å"presided over†¦show more content†¦Tashtego is the first man to strike a Sperm Whale on the voyage, but because he is on Stubb’s boat he receives no credit for the killing. Again, Tashtego is denied his accomplishment when he is the first man to set eyes upon Moby Dick, but Ahab proclaims he was the first to spot the whale; therefore he withholds the gold doubloon from the harpooner. Demonstrating racial inferiority. Daggoo: The main description given of Daggoo portrays him as â€Å"A gigantic, coal-black negro savage, with a lion-like tread-an Ahasuerus to behold. Suspended from his ears were two golden hoops, so large that sailors called them ring bolts, and would talk of securing the top-sail halyards to them†(106). As a child he voluntarily shipped on board a whaling ship and he has never seen any place in the world but Africa and Nantucket. He is a beast of a man characterized as â€Å"[he] retained all his barbaric virtues, and erect as a giraffe, moved about the decks in all pomp of six feet five in his socks†(106). He is the Squire of Flask and is given the job of the third harpooneer. Flask: Flask is the third mate for the Pequod and is described as â€Å"short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed to think that the great leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him†(105). In the chapter where all of the characters discuss the images that they see encrusted upon the doubloon, Flask is the only man who states that he sees money.
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