third world

Not to be out done by the press that Obama, Hillary, and McCain is getting, it seems that every other day or so now, Michael Bloomberg has something to say, and it's not necessarily about New York. Three days ago he spoke out on global warming. Everyone knows about that! Right? Ah, but Bloomberg had some novel ideas. But, now what?

Now, Bloomberg has chimed in regarding those rebate checks that will be in your box sometime between now and August- if you file an income tax return by then. You know- the STIMULUS PACKAGE!

Bloomberg has unleashed another flurry of jabs on Washington, ridiculing the federal government's rebate checks as being "like giving a drink to an alcoholic" on Thursday, and said the presidential candidates are looking for easy solutions to complex economic problems. The billionaire and potential independent presidential candidate also said the nation "has a balance sheet that's starting to look more and more like a third-world country."

Oh, now that really hurts!

Maybe he's upset because he won't qualify for one of the rebates! No, I doubt money is a motivator to Michael. Can you say president of the United States might be a motivator? You know, as crazy as it sounds, one of my TEN PREDICTIONS for 2008 was that Michael Bloomberg would be president! Now I AM the one sounding like a third world politician, right!

President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that will result in cash rebates ranging from $300 to $1,200 for more than 130 million people. The federal checks are the centerpiece of the government's emergency effort to stimulate the economy, under the theory that most people will spend the money right away.

Bloomberg does not believe it will do much good. Me neither! And his harsh words at a news conference Thursday reflect the view among some of his associates that the country's economic woes present a unique opportunity for him to launch a third-party bid for the White House. Me too! :-)

The theory among those urging him to run for president is that a businessman who rose from Wall Street to build his own financial information empire might be particularly appealing as the fiscal crisis worsens. Publicly, Bloomberg says he is "not a candidate," and explained recently he is speaking out on national issues as part of an "experiment" to influence the dialogue in the race.

And did I mention I have a good deal on the Brooklyn Bridge?

While Americans are taking in liter after liter of bottled water, the idea that the U.S. has bad water quality seems to be valid. All the technology that modern science has created for making our water safe has allowed us to drink fresh water any time of the day or night.

The third world countries are not as lucky as those in the United States for having a fresh supply of quality drinking water. It is apparent that these countries suffer greatly from the lack of drinking water and the technology to improve the water. There are not facilities with the higher quality equipment to make the water safe to use. Third world countries are at a loss and only have what is available to them. The governments of these countries can not give them the clean water they need. This lack of clean and safe water has brought about the deaths of millions of the residents because of the diseases in the water. Some of these diseases are diarrhea, cholera, and dysentery.

The simplest and lowest cost water treatment systems are necessary for creating healthier circumstances for these third world countries. With clean water, they can avoid the problems with nasty water and health issues caused by contamination in the water. Research has shown that a million children under the age of six have died each year because of contaminated water and another two million have gotten diseases that come from the parasites in the water. It is an important step to provide these third world countries with cheap water treatment systems to stop the death and diseases.

The easiest filtration treatment method is still the best and lowest for cost. This cheap water treatment method does not need anything high tech for it to work properly. Any type of advanced and under advanced country that utilizes their water from the rivers, lakes, and brooks, can utilize this method. This would be a great project for private and international humanitarian organizations to start working on to give this low cost water treatment method to the third world countries.
For more info http://www.ewatertreatmentsystems.com/watertreatment/GE_reverse_osmosis_water.html on water filter cartridge.

International agencies such as the World Bank have come to the rescue of the third world countries that need safe water by providing loans. It will be necessary for these agencies to continue to provide low cost treatments that are needed. These third world countries need to not only be provided with treatment methods for the water sources that are already there and also the technology to be able to eventually provide themselves with their own safe drinking water.

With the goal of making the Millennium Development Goals is imperative to give the countries in the South to have a chance to reach a solution for creating safe water to the people of the developed and underdeveloped countries. Any type of water treatment systems that can give the third world countries clean and safe water and also be of low cost, will change the lives of many millions of people.

In some parts of the globe, particularly in third world countries, the corporate world takes the aspiring and working individuals of entertainment industry as non-serious people. Not only the aspiring and working individuals of entertainment industry are regarded as non-serious people, but the industry itself does not have any recognition in the chambers of commerce. The reason for that can be attributed to the poor performance of the entertainment industry in those global regions. Whatever the cause(s), it gets very difficult for the workers of entertainment industry to prove themselves as dedicated people and get a better job in the corporate sector at times when they are out of work due to the low number of the industry projects at any time of a year. Consequently, the workers have to do low-pay jobs and live their lives below the living standards they actually deserve or qualify.

Unlike what happens in the third world countries, aspiring and working individuals of the entertainment industry are considered dedicated people and the industry itself is recognized in the commercial circles of developed countries. One can say that this is because of the great revenue that is generated by the industry in those countries. No doubt this is the main reason of the difference, but this is no reason the aspiring and working individuals of the entertainment industry of third world countries should be underestimated and given no-to-few job opportunities in the corporate world. This unfair practice needs to be changed in third world countries if they want to bring fresh perspectives to their corporate sector for good.

Yes, corporate sector of third world countries needs to understand that the people who work for the projects of entertainment industry are just as dedicated people as those working in the corporate sector. As a matter of fact, on many occasions, one can notice that the workers of entertainment industry are more devoted than the human resource in the corporate world. One can understand this by looking at the fact that a working individual of corporate sector can relatively easily take any day off leaving the task or tasks of that particular day to be taken care by their colleague(s). This is certainly not the case with an entertainment industry worker as no matter what happens they have to be present, working on the important days of the projects. They can’t take the day-off that easily because almost all the time they are the only person with the set of skills or talents to be performed for the projects. Often it happens and the entertainment industry professionals always prove themselves as very serious and devoted workers towards their assigned tasks.

Let’s take screenwriters for example. A screenwriter is a very knowledgeable person and given priority for various different writing jobs in the corporate sector of developed countries. As a matter of fact, many top performing corporations of the world including Microsoft Corporation regularly send their entire creative staffs to the lectures of a working screenwriter Robert McKee, who is also a screenwriting coach at a famous brick-and-mortar university of the United States of America and the author of some of the best known books on the topic of story and storytelling.

So, anybody who calls themselves an individual with the working experience of the entertainment industry, a screenwriter for example, is worth calling for an interview for an important job in the corporate sector.

Copyright (C) 2007-2008 M.d Tabish Faraz. All Rights Reserved

Many people living in third world countries and has the ability to start an internet business may not realize the reality where they actually have greater advantage compared to internet marketers from first world countries when it comes to improving their standard of living. It is all related to one thing that is the ability to earn in US dollar, while living in third world countries which relatively have much lower currency value compared to US dollar.

Capitalizing this advantage, let’s look at an example of an internet marketer living in Vietnam and France. A person earning US1000 dollars in Vietnam could be living much better life compared to a person earning US1000 dollars in France. This is because US1000 dollars in Vietnam is equal to 16,301,179 Vietnamese Dong (at the point of writing this article) which is higher than many young professional in Vietnam earning a month currently. A person earning US1000 dollar in France could be having a hard time to maintain a good living standard. Yet, to start and becoming an internet marketer you do not need any qualification, except for your determination to be successful.

Online business has made a fair platform for internet marketer in any part of the world to compete and provide products and services to potential customers anywhere around the world. Many online business models do not require any physical delivery of the products or services, while could be operated 100% on auto pilot. This means, even if an internet marketer lives in a remote part of the world but as long as he has internet connection, he could do his business.

In summary, third world countries internet marketers should take this advantage seriously to upgrade their life and earn better using internet. It could be achieved easier due to the advantages of earning in US dollar.

Irecently had the privilege of traveling to a third world country. I realize that using the word "privilege" when talking about an underdeveloped country may seem incongruous; however, it proved otherwise.

I was part of a group of nineteen, along with my husband and 16-year old son, who traveled to Ghana, West Africa. Although this was not the first time I'd been in a foreign country, it was my first short-term Missions trip.

Our main focus was to teach and train church leaders in several villages as well as provide medical treatment for the locals. Many people there understood English; however, they had difficulty understanding our American dialect. Therefore, all teaching or training was done with the aid of an interpreter.

At my first teaching post, I was asked to explain what I do for a living. How do you explain to people who have so little that you help others organize their "stuff" because they have so much? Most of the people we came in contact with lived in small, concrete or mud huts, without running water. They cooked their meals over an open fire and owned only a few changes of clothing.

Day after day I would look around at what you and I would consider extreme poverty. And yet, the Ghanaians appear to be content and even happy people. When my children were young, I taught them that being content was being thankful for the things they already had. The Ghanaians seem to get this principle.

What surprised me the most about this trip was how hard it was to leave. I had grown to love these people and felt as if I was abandoning them. They have so little and I have so much. To say that this experience has changed my life is an understatement.
Although the focus of our trip was to bless the people of Ghana, I felt like I was the one who got the biggest blessing. As you look around your home and the life you have, I hope you see the incredible abundance and blessings you experience each and every day. I know I do.

The day begins before dawn; starting the fire and getting some hot water on for baths and coffee. Even though we are staying in our palapas in town, the stars are amazingly bright and the air is amazingly clear. Our town is a Maya village.

Even before the east begins to brighten; the roosters are crowing like crazy. The roosters are crazy of course; all chickens are neurotic messes. The crickets are cricketing and the east slowly begins to brighten. Coffee is made, baths are taken, the car is packed and it's goodbye time to the jungle.

But parting is such sweet sorrow. While the bug bites and dysentery will not be missed, the pristine environment and many Maya friends will. Neighbor's tears abound but alas there is an afternoon fight from Cancun to Phoenix that simply cannot be missed. Besides, the jungle can take care of itself and hopefully another hurricane won't hit. God forbid, we lost so many big trees.

We drive into Felipe Carrillo Puerto and get something to eat. Time is becoming increasingly important as we shift back to the First World. Time may be what the clock says but it is starting to run our lives again. We can't miss the flight.

We order coffee and sabuites and discuss the day's preflight travel agenda. Unfortunately a side trip to Akumal is out and we took enough pictures of Tulum; but it would be nice to stop for lunch in Playa before going to the airport. Big plans.

We head north from Carrillo onto the stretch of notorious highway known by us locals as the 'Tramo de Muerte' or Death Strip. Even veteran Mexico drivers prefer spending the night in Playa or Tulum before heading onto the Death Strip at night. But it's almost 9:00 AM and it's not raining. Death Strip or not, it's pedal to the metal.

We stop in Tulum and buy some bread and hear the German and French Canadian accents. Rotten weather in Germany and Canada and no Maya spoken here. The only Maya we see are those making food and stocking shelves; sweeping floors and picking up trash.

It's off to Playa del Carmen and the fastest growing municipality in Mexico. We have lunch at Cafe Andrade and speak to the waiters who we know well; on prior business trips I set up my office there but not today. We see one Maya cook. After some Coronas and an 'arrachera' steak, it's off to the Cancun Airport.

At the rental car drop off we handle the necessary paperwork and the car has no damage; just a lot of that white, limestone sascab dust that one gets doing backroad jungle day trips. We get a lift to the airport and stand in a very, very long line for over an hour but that's okay as the Phoenix flight is over four hours. At the counter they tell us our flight is delayed just long enough so we won't be able to make our connection in Phoenix. This just simply confirms the fact that Phoenix is one big Twilight Zone for connections. If it happens every single time, is that a trend or a law of physics?

To make matters worse, in Phoenix we were missing a bag. The wife had tied yellow and red ribbons and I happened to see this family with a similar suitcase with said ribbons. I took the liberty of examining the tags and determined it was my bag they were getting ready to carry through customs. And they looked a bit strange...not a good idea, eh? Clueless or diabolical? At this point, there are no Maya.

The Phoenix Airport is modern but about as intuitive as a computer chip. After finding our bag and going through immigration and customs, we of course barely miss our San Jose connection. The good news, the next one was only two hours later.

It is very clear this next flight is the Silicon Valley Techie shuttle run as all are carrying their laptops and look dead tired with that sunken, black eye syndrome. On the flight to San Jose I noticed that almost all were asleep; no pretzels and Bloody Mary mix for this lively bunch.

At San Jose all was new and bright and under construction. The San Jose Airport is in the state of Perpetual Construction. If you drive, you will never take the same path twice. That should remind you to buy stock in Perpetual Construction, Inc. and their never-ending contract.

After a long day it's finally home. The bills have piled up and nothing has gotten better. Washington, D.C. and Hollywood, California are still there and still the same. Things may change but not much. At home the Internet and phones work and Carlos Slim doesn't own them yet...my water bill is thirty times higher and my electric bill twenty times higher. Agrarian Reform does have its advantages. It's raining but there are no trees down...yet.

As I look through my "Official Sample Ballot" for the upcoming Presidential election I see numerous and sundry ways whatever is proposed is going to cost me more money. That's what the future bodes...welcome to reality. No Mayas on the ballot but the Indians that are on the ballot stand to make tens of millions of bucks if I vote for them to open casinos. Why not?

It never ceases to amaze the power of long distance travel and the impact of a good, strong culture shock. Only broken Maya spoken here.

Winstrol, Stanozolol or Stromba has the third place in the world of steroids. It is one of the most powerful anabolic steroids available today. Certainly, Winstrol is one of the most successful drugs in the medical as well as bodybuilding fields.

Winstrol was developed by Winthrop Laboratories in 1962. The drug became extremely popular all over. In many European countries, the anabolic steroid is known as – Winny. It comes in two forms – oral and injectable. The drug is most commonly used in tablet forms, but the drug in injection form gives out the better results.

The chemical formula of Winstrol is – C21H32N2O, and its molecular mass is 328.49. The anabolic steroid has a life of one day, and it is recommended to be taken after 48 hours.

Winstrol is used in both humans as well as animals, but the drug is not prescribed to be used for a long period of time. The drug has less hepatoxic properties, which make the drug compatible to the human body. Winstrol can be used for a period of 8 weeks, but the use of this anabolic steroid is not recommended for the time period of more than 8 weeks. If used for such a long period of time, the anabolic steroid can cause several serious health risks, side effects, or it may damage the lever.

Some of the side effects associated with the use of Winstrol include – allergies, choking, difficulty in breathing, swelling of lips, arms, face, breast tenderness, breast tissue enlargement in males, voice deepening, clitoral-enlargement in females, headache, acne, and difficulty in sleeping.

Yet, it is important to take note that Winstrol is a FDA approved drug, but it is classified as a Schedule lll controlled substance under the federal regulation, due to its side –effects. The use of the anabolic steroid is not recommended for women, still some women take the drug.

Winstrol is available with doctors’ recommendations in the United States. The drug is also available online. There are a number of online drugstores selling Winstrol Stanozolol online. If anyone intends to buy Winstrol Stanozolol online, it should be purchased from genuine, reliable, and reputed drugstores online.

When the whole modern-day dynamics of Las Vegas began there was almost nothing there to begin with: it was a forgotten town filled with dust and almost nothing else. Now Las Vegas is one of the most important tourist destinations in the United States and arguably, in the whole world. In just half a century, the shabby town emerged from the dust and became a major city living in glory.

Meanwhile, all sorts of banana-republic leaders all across the third world promised to scores of discouraged citizens all sorts of magic recipes for progress, more bizarre than pretending to win the lottery three times in a row, and while the gullible bought those arguments and put them to practice, they sunk themselves deeper into the mud.

So, Las Vegas is probably the best proof that plainly stupid ideologies don't work, that absurd national projects are just that, absurd ideas, and that tinkering with nationalistic political ideas, the nationalisation of natural resources or banking, extracting heavy taxes from apparently sinful companies and so on is just B.S. and nothing else.

The thing that takes anyone out of poverty is smart work, like what has been done in Las Vegas these last decades, attracting investors and foreigners with their money, and what better way to attract them than by giving them the promise and the chance of gambling? Las Vegas, and not some rabid guy in a green uniform is the thing to imitate if you really want to get out of true misery.

Introduction

Colonialism is a system in which a state claims sovereignty over territory and people outside its own boundaries ; or a system of rule which assumes the right of one people to impose their will upon another (Brett, 1973). During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rich, powerful states, including Britain and other European countries, owned third world colonies. ‘Third world’ originally referred to countries that did not belong to the democratic, industrialised countries of the West (the First World) or the state-socialist, industrialising, Soviet Bloc countries (the Second World) (Chilton, 2004). This essay uses specific third world examples to summarise the main impacts of nineteenth and twentieth century colonialism, when colonial powers reached their peak. It focuses on European colonialism in Africa and India.

One view of development is that, at the level of the individual, it implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self-discipline, responsibility and material well being (Rodney, 1972), which European colonial powers achieved through economic growth, by exploiting the natural and human resources of their colonies. Europe and Africa confronted each other in respective states of development and underdevelopment, the latter term being defined by Europeans in relation to the lack of African progress in the techniques required to sustain an advanced materialistic culture (Brett, 1973).

It can be argued that colonialism had some positive effects. For example, the British instigated irrigation networks in India: by the 1890s nearly 44,000 miles of canals and distributaries irrigated a quarter of India’s total crop area, increasing agricultural output. But this too had some negative effects, including waterlogging and salination of the canals and greater prevalence of malaria with more mosquito breeding areas (Arnold, 1996).

Colonialism was also supposedly beneficial because it provided infrastructure for economic development and some social services. However, this essay argues that the impacts of colonialism were overwhelmingly negative and infrastructure was provided solely to enable the colonial power to exploit the natural resources and workforce of the colony.

The main ecological impacts of colonialism relate to:

Land and forests: through deforestation and cash cropping;
Extraction and mining: through changes to the landscape and economic systems;
Introduction of animal and human diseases by colonial settlers.

The main political impacts relate to:

Destruction of local institutions;
Coercive and repressive state rule;
Development of artificial national boundaries;
Displacement of local populations

The examples will show that the impacts are intertwined. Political ecology assumes that politics and environment are thoroughly connected (Bryant, 1998), and the conclusion will draw together the key points.

Ecological impacts

Deforestation and Cash Cropping:

British colonialism exploited timber for Britain’s industrial revolution. Timber was used for shipbuilding, to fuel steam engines in industry and transportation, and to make railroad sleepers for India’s growing colonial rail network; by 1910 there were more than 32,000 miles of [rail] track (Arnold and Guha, 1995). Forests had to be cleared for the railways, which in turn enabled timber exploitation in deeper areas. Cleared areas were converted to agricultural land for revenue. Ecologically, deforestation resulted in soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, problems of salination, rising water tables; abandoned wells; drying or siltation of drainage channels, and the spread of malaria (Gadgil and Guha, 1992).

In the pre-colonial era, under the Mughals, it was non-timber products such as pepper, cardamom and ivory that were collected through centralised state control. Under the British, emphasis shifted to ‘scientific management’ of timber species such as teak, pine and deodar (Gadgil and Guha, 1992; Bawa 1992). At the same time as imperial foresters sought to eliminate competitor species to favoured tree species, they attempted to restrict alternative forest practices that might ‘interfere with official timber extraction and regeneration operations – shifting cultivation usually being a favoured target’ (Gadgil and Guha, 1992).

In Madagascar, French colonialism from 1896 created deforestation, pushing coffee cultivation over traditional rice harvesting, when it became apparent that [French] producers were able to generate large profits from the latter. This resulted in rice shortages, as early as 1911 . The net effect was an increase in shifting cultivation as people tried to grow rice to feed themselves and coffee as a cash crop. Forests were increasingly fragmented and either destroyed by burning or clear-cutting (Ward, 2002). The state prohibited shifting cultivation in 1909, imposing “rational forest resource management ", to reduce deforestation and allocate land for rice, but then opened up the island’s forests to logging concessions in 1921(1), increasing deforestation and illegal felling of trees. A combination of these detrimental government policies meant that "roughly 70% of the primary forest was destroyed in the 30 years between 1895 and 1925(1)".

As a result of colonial policies, Madagascar became an importer of food. Local people were displaced and the state gained control over resources. Coffee plantations were notable for having erosion rates nearly twice as high as subsistence plots. Fertile land was cleared and replaced with a persistent monoculture, unsuitable for nearly all plant and animal inhabitants of the previous forest (Ward, 2002).

In Nigeria, the British forced local people to export palm oil to Britain, for use as a lubricant for railways, to make soap, cooking fat and pharmaceutical products. In 1900, palm oil constituted 89% of Nigeria’s total export (Aghalino, 2000). The subsequent decline of the industry due to competition from rubber and cocoa and palm oil from other colonies, undermined livelihoods.

Extraction and Mining:

Diamond mining in South Africa was lucrative for Europe. The colony provided a slave-type labour force to dig out diamonds, while value-added steps, such as cutting and polishing the diamonds, were conducted by a minority of whites in South Africa and in Europe (Rodney, 1972). Mining was harsh work and separated families, leaving women and children unsupported in government reservations. Appropriation of the lands of indigenous peoples resulted in massive displacements of people (Frick, 2002). Major ecological impacts included large-scale destruction of lands causing erosion, siltation, deforestation, desertification and flattening of mountains. Mining also caused pollution of soils and rivers with toxic chemicals used in the industry, as well as air pollution from the dust of bulldozing and transportation .

Diseases (human and animal):

The nineteenth century introduction of steam power enabled shipment of live cattle by rail and sea in numbers previously impossible (Daszak et al., 2000). In Africa, rinderpest, a European livestock disease, killed off between 90% and 95% of all cattle in Africa between 1889 and the early 1900s, also killing other grazing animals. African tribes dependent on livestock lost their livelihoods. By one estimate two thirds of the Masaai population in Tanzania died as a result of rinderpest (Nelson, 2002).

The absence of grazing animals also resulted in growth of grassland vegetation, changing landscapes to better suit the tsetse fly. In Uganda, an estimated 200,000 people died between 1902 and 1906 from sleeping sickness spread by new hordes of tsetse flies (Nelson, 2002). In South Africa, livestock diseases were accompanied by a lung sickness epizootic, which hit in the mid-nineteenth century (Ross, 1999). Colonial settlers also brought smallpox, to which Africans had no natural immunity (Nelson, 2002). Diseases, both animal and human, caused the death and impoverishment of local people.

Political Impacts

Destruction of Local Institutions:

In many cases, pre-colonial societies had acquired skills and basic capital, and were developing in their own way. India, for example, was a major player in the world export market for textiles, but lost most of its domestic and export market under British colonialism. Britain raised its protective duty against Indian textiles to a massive 85% in 1813, with major impact on the Indian market. In 1815, the total
value of Indian cotton goods exported to Britain amounted to £1.3 million in value, falling to a mere £100,000 by 1832. Through protectionism and the establishment of the exploitative (British) East India Trading Company, Britain destroyed the Indian textile market and developed its own prosperous textile industry (2).

While India produced about 25% of world industrial output in 1750, this figure fell to only 2% by 1900. This de-industrialisation, which can be defined as movement of labour out of manufacturing and into agriculture, was accompanied by the creation of a poorer, more rural society in India (Clingingsmith and Williamson, 2004). In 1810, 40% of Indians lived in towns, by 1900 only 10 percent did (D’Amato, 2003). Contrary to myths about colonialism being a time of ‘heroic progress through Westernisation,’ the actual narrative [now] should be one of recovery (Cronon, 1983).

Artificial National Borders:

By 1914, frontiers of the African States, which were to emerge at independence in the 1960s had already been laid down on European maps (Clapham, N.D.). Borders restricted pastoral communities and created conflicts among ethnic groups. By one estimate, belonging to Asiwaju (1985), no less than 177 African cultural or ethnic groups are partitioned across borders, representing on average 43% of their country’s population (Englebert, 2001).

In Sudan northern Muslim Arabic speakers had regarded southern non-Muslims as sources of slaves. The creation of Sudan enclosed the two groups, exacerbating conflicts and causing civil war . In other countries there have been conflicts over resources in boundary areas. For example, armed clashes between Burkina and Mali in 1971 and 1985 over the Agacher Strip, which was rumoured to hold oil (Englebert, 2001). There are claims over Ethiopian and Kenyan territory inhabited by ethnic Somalis (Boyd, 1979). Thus, colonialism, through the establishment of inappropriate borders, created (ongoing) political instability.

Coercive Colonial State Rule:

Colonial states exploited local people by imposing high taxes. The average tax burden in India, for example, was twice that of contemporary England, although average income there was 15 times greater at that point in time. The burden of taxation was not counterbalanced by expenditure on infrastructure or human development (Murshed, 2003).

Conclusion

The examples from the third world have shown interconnectedness between political and ecological impacts. For example, Indian colonial railways enabled widespread deforestation and increased disease transmission; for example, the spread of bubonic plague in the 1890s and influenza in 1918-19 (Arnold, 1996). These ecological impacts displaced and killed indigenous peoples and gave the state control over resources, enabling further exploitation to serve a political agenda.

The legacy of colonialism remains. In India for example, the state organised system of ‘scientific forestry,’ established under British rule, has remained unchallenged since independence in 1947, serving the political and economic interests of colonial and postcolonial regimes alike (Bryant, 1997), taking resources away from local people.

The dependency created by colonialism continues. In the 1980s neo-liberal structural adjustment programmes pushed ‘free’ trade on third world countries, based on the idea that markets work best. Trade is unequal. Richer countries subsidise their own producers and supply chains make small-scale producers compete to sell low price produce to richer countries, who capitalise on the value added (Vorley, 2003).

Colonialism was a period of monopoly capitalism, driven by major resource exploitation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as colonial powers industrialised. Europe established plantations to grow cash crops, mines, and transport systems to facilitate the extraction of resources; rails and roadways were designed for commodity export, and not for economic interconnectedness and development within colonies. People were forced by taxes and coercion to work in colonial enterprises in
which they were overworked and underfed; agriculture suffered, food production declined, and hunger, famines, and disease followed. (Podur, 2002)

Many global inequalities can be traced to colonialism. In addition to unequal trade, the creation of borders and states created conflict between ethnic groups, and an unstable third world political system. The scale of unsustainable environmental exploitation could not be controlled by newly industrial nations who were in many cases economically weak. Third world countries have less capacity to cope with resultant environmental problems, but the scale of ecological impact, stemming from colonial practices and exploitation, affect the whole of humanity. Ex-colonial powers can never abrogate their responsibility for what the world has become.

References

Journals/Books:

Aghalino, SO (2000) British Colonial Policies and the Oil Palm Industry in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, 1900-1960. African Study Monographs, 21 (1) January, p. 23

Arnold, D (1996) The Problem of Nature; Environment, Culture and European Expansion, New Perspectives on the Past. Blackwell Publishers Limited, p. 178

Arnold D and Guha R (1995) Nature, Culture and Imperialism: Essays on the Environmental history of South Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press

Bawa, KS (1992) Colonialism, Rural Poverty and the Use of Forest Resources. Conservation Biology, Volume 6, (3), p. 477,488

Bryant, R.L (1997) Beyond the Impasse: The Power of Political Ecology in Third World Environmental Research. Area 29, 1-15

-(1998) Power, Knowledge and Political Ecology in the Third World: A Review. Progress in Physical Geography 22, 1, p. 79-80, 85

Boyd, JB JR (1979) African Boundary Conflict: An Empirical study. African Studies Review, 22, p. 1-14

Brett EA (1973) Colonialism and Underdevelopment in East Africa; The Politics of Economic Change 1919-1939. Heinemann Educational Books Limited. Preface, p. 291

Chilton, S (2004) POL 3570: Third World and Development: what is the Third World available at http://www.d.umn.edu/~schilton/3570/Lectures/3570.WhatIsThirdWorld.html
Accessed 7 February 2005

Clapham, C (N.D.) Boundaries and Indemnities in Post-Cold War Africa: Territoriality and Statehood in Tropical Africa, p. 981-983

Clingingsmith, D and Williamson, JG (2004) Indian De-industrialisation Under the Mughals and the British, p. 3

D’Amato, P (2003) The Meaning of Marxism: Bringing Back the Old Days of Empire, Socialist Worker Online, May 16, p. 9

Daszak, P., Cunningham, AA., Hyatt AD. (2000) Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife – Threats to Biodiversity and Human Health. Wildlife Ecology Review. Science Volume 287, 21 January available at www.sciencemag.org
Accessed 7 February 05

Englebert, P., Tarango, S., Carter, M. (2001) Dismemberment and Suffocation: A Contribution to the Debate on African Boundaries, p. 3-6

Frick, C (2002) Direct Foreign Investment and the Environment: African Mining Sector. OECD Global Forum on International Investment, Conference on Foreign Direct Investment and the Environment, Lessons from the Mining Sector, 7-8 February, p.15

Gadgil, M and Guha, R (1992) This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India. London: Routledge

Murshed, SM (2003) Marginalisation in an Era of Globalisation, July 2nd, p. 4

Nelson, RH (2002) Environmental Colonialism: “Saving” Africa from Africans. Paper prepared for presentation at the Inter Region Economic Network Conference, “Conservation and Sustainable Development” in Nairobi, Kenya and for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, August 25, 2002.

Podur, J (2002) History Handbook Non-Reformist Reparations for Africa: Repairing the Damage available at http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/february02podur.htm Accessed 7 February 2005

Rodney, W (1972) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications, Tanzania Publishing House, p. 9,18,21,162,224

Vorley, B (2003) Corporate Concentration from Farmer to Consumer. UK Food Group/IIED.

Ward, BC (2002) Land Use, Environment, and Social Change in Madagascar, June 5, p. 9-12

Websites:

(1) http://honors.rit.edu/~ray/seniorseminar/index.php/Colonialism Accessed 1 February 2005

(2)
http://www.angelfire.com/mac/egmatthews/worldinfo/problems/disputed.html Accessed 7 February 2005

(3)
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/mining-cn.htm
Accessed 7 February 2005

(4)
http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/85/general.html#colonization Source: WRM's bulletin No. 66, January 2003 Accessed 7 February 2005

Source : www.banknetindia.com/

The banking sector will grow significantly faster than GDP in the ‘E7’ emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey, according to new projections in a PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report ‘Banking in 2050: How big will the emerging markets get?’ Total profits from domestic banking in the E7 could be around half those in the G7 (US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada) by 2025 and larger than in the G7 before 2050.

China and India show the greatest growth potential in the coming decades. Both economies are projected to lead the rise of the E7 through organic growth and M&A activity. The new projections for the banking market, using projected market exchange rates, suggest that total domestic credit in China could overtake the UK and Germany by 2010, Japan by 2025 and the US before 2050. India could also rise from relatively low levels today to emerge as the third largest domestic banking market in the world by 2040 and, in the long run, could grow faster than China.

Commented Dominic Nixon, Asia Financial Services Leader of PwC, “The E7 banking markets will become ever more important in the global banking sector. Institutions that do not develop strong positions in these markets will find it difficult to maintain the same growth rates of assets and profits as those that do.

“We expect to see continued high levels of deal activity in the E7 markets, albeit with the normal short-to-medium-term cyclical variations over time. M&A will encompass consolidation activity ‘in-market’ as local banks acquire one another, foreign banks enter the E7 markets, and banks from the E7 expand internationally through acquisitions.”

Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey are also strong candidates for a rapid expansion of their banking sectors over time, driven in particular by strong growth in retail banking (mortgages, consumer credit) that is already becoming apparent today and has much further to go as economic development proceeds. These territories all have the potential to develop banking sectors of comparable scale to major European economies such as France and Italy before 2050.

The strategic implications of the rise of the E7 banking markets include strong growth in M&A activity both within the E7 countries (due to consolidation of often fragmented banking sectors at present) and across borders. Restructuring of the E7 economies should also create major opportunities for private equity firms. Leading E7 banks will also expand outwards and become major competitors in the global ‘war for talent’, a trend that is already underway with Russian, Chinese and Indian banks attracting staff with experience of G7 institutions. As the E7 banks

leverage the knowledge of these staff, their competitiveness in both domestic and global markets will increase.

Summarising the findings, Mr Nixon said, “The banking world in 2050 will look radically different from the one we see today, with the E7 economies becoming at least as important as the G7. This reflects both faster projected GDP growth in the E7 and the systematic tendency of banking sectors to grow faster than GDP as economies develop. The E7 markets are relatively high risk, but our analysis suggests the potential to mitigate these risks through making long-term investments in a broad portfolio of emerging banking markets.”

In a previous report, ‘The World in 2050’, published in March 2006, PwC economists predicted that by the year 2050, the ‘E7’ economies will have outstripped the current G7 by around 25% when comparing GDP using market exchange rates and around 75% when using purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates.

The latest report examines the possible changes in the scale of the banking sector between now and 2050 and highlights the pace of change, while providing some measure of the size of the opportunity and challenge for banks. The projections are based on an analysis of developments in G7 and E7 banking markets since the 1950s, which highlights the tendency of the banking sector to grow faster than GDP as

economies develop.

Article Publish by:http://www.investmentbankingcentral.com

Maiden of Virtue is the third boss in Karazhan and is an optional boss; you do not need to kill her to progress further into Karazhan. This essay will discuss how to defeat her.

For those that have never been to Karazhan, the instance is located at the southern end of Deadwind Pass. This zone sits between Duskwood and Swamp of Sorrows. When you enter Deadwind Pass from Duskwood, take your first right and follow the road south until you reach Karazhan. If you are entering from the Swamp of Sorrows side, you will need to make your first left and follow the road south until you reach Karazhan.

Maiden of Virtue has four abilities worth noting:

Holy Ground - She will continuously cast AOE waves that will spread out from her throughout the entire fight. These waves do minimal damage to their targets. However, if you get hit by them, they will silence you for approximately two seconds. For this reason, your tank should keep her in the middle of the dark gray area. The rest of the raid members should stand directly on top of either of the two dark gray steps leading up to the center area and they will easily avoid getting hit by this constant AOE.

Holy Fire - Random DOT that inflicts around 3,000 points of damage initially and an additional 2,000 every 2 seconds. This must be dispelled immediately. Holy Fire is the most dangerous of her abilities and needs to be removed as quickly as possible. For this reason, it's usually best to assign one full-time healer to remove this DOT.

Holy Wrath - AOE, instant-cast chain spell. The damage from this spell increases with each target that it jumps to. Everyone must stay clear of Maiden except your tank for the duration of the encounter. It is advisable not to have any melee DPS for this fight; all-ranged players is the easiest way to defeat her.

Repentance - Stuns all players for 10-12 seconds or until they take damage. When she casts Repentance, she will stun the entire raid. Since your tank will take almost immediate damage from Holy Ground, your tank will break free from Repentance and can resume tanking.

Primary roles:

Paladin - full time removal of Holy Fire. This DOT must be removed from party members as quickly as possible as it does a lot of damage. Your paladin should also keep Blessing of Sacrifice on the main tank at all times. When Maiden casts Repentance, your paladin will take damage along with your tank (from Blessing of Sacrifice) and they will both break from the stun. The paladin then assumes the role of primary healer for your tank while the rest of the party waits for the Repentance stun to wear off. If your paladin fails to break free from repentance, he or she must bubble and heal the main tank. You can only do this once, of course, so Blessing of Sacrifice must be kept on the tank at all times. Without Blessing of Sacrifice, she is extremely difficult to defeat.

Priests/Druids - must keep HOTS on the main tank at all times along with healing the rest of the party throughout the fight. Additionally, priests should create a one-click macro to target maiden and cast PAIN onto her (this extra DOT will help with the overall damage done to her).

To start the fight, everyone should spread-out around her. Be careful not to aggro her while you are getting into position! One of your priests should stand directly opposite the tank; this healer will be responsible for healing your main tank while everyone else moves in close to her. Prior to your tank charging in, your other healers should cast HOTS onto him or her.

Your tank should charge straight to the center of the area and tank her there. The rest of the party should form a circle around her and stand directly on top of the dark gray steps leading up to her. The first step is usually close enough to allow your paladin to remove Holy Fire from everyone without having "out-of-range" issues.

Keep HOTS on your tank, keep blessing of sacrifice up at all times, remember to stand on the dark gray, and keep your paladin alive! Follow these suggested tips and you should kill Maiden of Virtue within a few attempts.

1. Introduction

The debt crisis and loan defaults have been a constant feature of the global economy, the present size of the world debt problem overwhelms the imagination. It is clear that the countries in the Third World are in an inherently disadvantageous position. As primary exporters, they are at the mercy of price and demand fluctuations in international markets. These fluctuations are beyond the sellers’ control as they reflect the economic health of client industries in the West.

The total world debt soared from approximately $100 billion in the early 1970s to nearly $900 billion dollars by the mid-1980s. Time Magazine stated, “Never in history have so many nations owed so much money with so little promise of repayment” .

This paper will explain the “origins” of the debt crisis problem and re-assess in detail the causes of the debt problem, and question whether the Third World Debt Crisis was a crisis of debt (i.e. the fault of the developing countries) or of credit (i.e. irresponsible lending by banks).

2. The “origins” of the Debt Crisis problem

There are so many books and articles that provide detailed descriptions to the origins of the debt problem . However in my opinion, the global debt problem stems from two periods:

• In particular, the forces dating to the mid-1970s, and the first oil price shock (1973-74)
• The beginning of the Reagan Administration

2. (A). The mid-1970s and the first oil price shock

The period 1974-80, played a huge part to the debt crisis, which can summarised as follows:

Firstly the most important oil-exporting countries, (not being able to utilise domestically the vast financial surpluses generated by oil price increases), made huge deposits in various financial institutions.

Secondly, at the same time, a good number of middle and high income oil exporting nations (especially those with a higher degree of industrialisation) decided to accelerate their rates of economic growth, not withstanding the increase in oil prices. That policy contrasted sharply with the “stagflation” situation prevailing in the OECD countries.

Thirdly, in order to carry out their economic expansion policies, many developing countries requested huge loans from OECD commercial banks, (in the form of Euro-dollars ), so they are able to make massive imports of all kinds of goods, (apart from oil: in particular chemical products, foodstuffs and capital goods).

Following upon this point, the OECD banks, with great liquidity and a weak domestic demand for funds started a wild competition to export capital to the more dynamic of the less-developed countries (LDC). This is a very critical moment, as for that very moment, the LDCs decided to apply to the international private banking system to obtain the money required to implement their expansive economic policies.

Finally, in order to decrease the risks of those operations, the international private banks, decided to “change the terms and conditions of the loans” shifting from the fixed of interest that had prevailed until then, to variable rates. The borrowing nations accepted such changes under the influence of the aggressive marketing techniques employed by the banks. This included attractive offers that appeared to be to the borrowing nation’s benefit, without realising the grave harm that they would suffer in the future. What appeared in the beginning appeared as a mere technical innovation that came to be a real trap, since any increase in the interest rate would apply to the total outstanding debt.

2. (B). The Reagan Administration

The second period started shortly after the Reagan Administration in the USA (January 1981). During this period, the situation of the mid-1970s changed completely. Alongside a world economic recession, inflation became increasingly intense in the US and other industrial nations, and rates of interest escalated. The economic recession in the central nations caused a sharp drop in prices of raw materials exported by Third World countries. This was precisely the moment, when the financial charges, due to interest payments became heavier, and when the flow of fresh capital to the Third World began to decrease.

Such was the case in Autumn 1982: Mexico was an oil exporter, (or was at least self-sufficient), declared that it could not repay its debts, and the crisis in Mexico caused the full attention of the entire industrial nations. The crisis became universal, and was followed by 30 other Latin American countries in 1983, (including Brazil and Argentina ). Latin American countries had to compress their imports in order to be able to continue paying their debt services, and for the first time, Latin America became an important “net capital exporter”.

The extreme problem in 1982 derived primarily from the effects of global recession from 1980 to 1982, combined with hostile mental shocks to credit markets caused by events in individual countries. To a traditional economist: “the problem is a consequence of the development from inflation to dis-inflation in the world economy. Funds that were borrowed when inflation was high, and real interest rates were low or negative, are no longer cheap in an environment of lower inflation and high interest rates”.

3. The causes of the Debt Crisis problem

Having examined the growth of debt during the 1970s, and having looked at the circumstances which led to crises for Latin Countries (Mexico in particular) during the early 1980s, the next question to be answered is “why did the debt grow so fast in the 1970s?”

3. (A) The rise in oil prices

One of the most important causes of debt growth was the rise in oil prices in 1973-4 and 1979-80. only a few debtor countries, such as Mexico, Indonesia, Venezuela and Ecuador, benefited from the rise in oil prices. The table below, shows the difference between what was paid for oil and what would have been paid for oil, had its price not increased more than the US inflation rate.

Impact of oil prices on the debt of non-oil developing countries
1973-1982 (billions of US dollars)

YEAR A B A-B
1973 4.8 4.8 0.0
1974 16.1 5.3 10.8
1975 17.3 5.7 11.6
1976 21.3 6.8 14.5
1977 23.8 7.5 16.3
1978 26.0 8.6 17.4
1979 39.0 10.9 28.1
1980 63.2 11.9 51.3
1981 66.7 12.1 54.6
1982 66.7 11.9 54.8

TOTAL 344.9 85.5 259.5

A= Actual cost of oil
B= Cost of oil if its price has not increased beyond US inflation rate
C= Additional cost of oil

The additional increasing cost of oil over the decade was therefore $260 billion. This massive transfer of resources between Third World countries could not have taken place without equally massive borrowing from Western banks.

3. (B) The Western Banks

The Western commercial banks would also have to take some of the blame and were only too happy to lend to sovereign states whose export performance looked promising. Such lending was more profitable than lending in the developed First World markets. The Third World was regarded as a growth area for new lending by Western banks.

The almost unlimited availability of bank loans very often persuaded a process of de-industrialisation. Increased debt led to increased interest payments, which (if the loans were not properly invested), led to further loans. Through these changes, many Third World countries became more vulnerable to developments in the world economy.

If this argument is taken into account, then the Western commercial banks themselves are responsible, for five reasons:

(i). The banks believed that countries could not go bankrupt, and that no real insolvency crisis could occur.

(ii). Many of the loans were organised through a syndicates of banks, and many of the participating banks felt no need for their own “risk assessments”.

(iii). Competition for a share of the market transformed many banks into virtual “loan-pushers”. The two main players being City Bank (US) and Natwest Bank (UK).

(iv). Lending at variable interest rates allowed the banks to transfer the risk associated with inflation to the borrowers.

(v). The absence of effective regulatory bodies in the international financial market made it easier for banks to follow their own short-term interests and instincts in their lending policy, and to ignore the medium and long term effects of their actions.

It must be remembered that in the financial business of lending money, loans are an element of a huge commercial market, where banks struggle for a share of the market. This is socially constructed capitalism in practice.

The intention of lending money to the Third World was a “new concept”, where banks relied on a “handful of simple credit-worthiness indicators”, that were not helpful in forecasting the likelihood of the crisis. Some banks even began to push their customers to accept higher loans, by offering customers more money than they had asked for, and by easing their credit conditions.

Another point to note, is that, the banks also needed to buy time to strengthen their capital base. Banks began to accept the rolling over of debts , the re-scheduling of debt repayments, and the supplying of new money. While agreeing to delay in the repayments of the loans, the banks opposed any reduction in the interest of the loans.

This was the structural weakness of the financial system. Once committed, it was practically impossible for banks to withdraw from the market.

3. (C) Interest Rates and Recession

If higher oil prices set the stage for a heavy debt burden for many countries in the 1970s, the global recession and high interest rates of 1980-82 added sufficiently to the burden indiscreetly.

Borrowers became accustomed to low real interest rates in the 1970s, it made sense to borrow in such conditions. In 1979-80, nominal interest rates were high, (LIBOR – London Interbank Offered rate – averaged 13.2%). Approximately two-thirds of developing country debt is indexed to LIBOR .

However, by 1981-82, inflation fell sharply, but nominal interest rates remained high. This meant very high real interest rates of 7.5% in 1981 and 11% in 1982. It did not make sense to borrow in such conditions, but by then most non-oil developing countries had no choice in the matter. They had to borrow more in order to pay-off old debts, and the interest rates had an immediate effect on debt growth.

Instead in an effort to reduce inflation, some Western Governments increased interest rates and adopted tight fiscal policies. The non-oil developing countries paid the price of that interest rise in 1981-82. For debtors, inflation is a good thing, as it erodes the debt they have to pay off. For creditors, who wanted to reduce inflation, increased interest rates were a worth-while price to pay for lower inflation.

The problem of this policy, was that higher interest rates tended to aggravate the world recession, that began in the 1979-80period. Growth rates in the OECD countries fell from an average of 3.2% during the 1973-9 period, to an average of 1.2% during 1980-81 periods. Falling demand in the OECD countries, especially for primary commodities, was responsible for a fall in export values. Demand for primary commodities is generally inelastic, and one reason being that there was already a surplus capacity in the OECD.

3. (D) The Domestic Policies of the Third World Countries

I must admit that, not all of the blame of the debt crisis should fall on the burden of the Western financial banks. Some blame has to go to the developing countries themselves. Domestic policy errors contributed to the deterioration of the debt situation.

In Mexico, for example, the government allowed the “Peso” to become seriously overvalued, and allowed budget deficits to surge to 16.5% of GNP in 1982, when the presidential election made authorities reluctant to carry out effective budget-cutting measures. The government stuck to a strategy of high growth (8.2% annual growth in 1978-81). The strategy was based on the assumption that oil prices will always keep rising. That probably exceeded capacity growth and failed to take adequate account of the substantial weakening of the oil market in 1981 .
In Brazil, domestic adjustment policies were stronger and indeed contributed to a severe recession that began in 1981 and continued into 1983. Even so, Brazil’s domestic policies bear substantial responsibility for the eventual crisis in 1982. Throughout the 1970s, after the oil shock, Brazil consciously followed a high-risk strategy of pursuing high growth rate based on rapid accumulation of external debt. The resulting legacy of large debt proved to be an oppressive burden when the international economy weakened and exports declined instead of continuing their earlier rapid growth . Matters were made worse by overvaluation the “Cruzeiro” after an ill-fated attempt to bring down domestic inflation by placing a 40% ceiling of devaluation in 1980. nevertheless, in 1981, the government was taking adjustment measures and was considered by the international financial community to be managing the economy well.

In Venezuela and Mexico, policies led to large capital flight abroad. The basic defect was maintenance of an overvalued exchange rate on a fully convertible basis, combined with domestic interest rate policy that failed to provide sufficient attraction to retail capital domestic