...Global Interactions November 20, 2014 Paper 1: Arab Spring The Arab Spring refers to a series of popular uprisings throughout the Arab world that began in December, 2010. The catalyst for these uprisings was a twenty-six year old Tunisian, who lit himself on fire outside of a civic building.[1] Mohamed Bouazizi was a fruit and vegetable cart vendor and was trying to sell produce on the streets when his cart was confiscated by a Tunisian government official. This was one of a series of harassments that he had experienced, and the last indignity that he suffered was being slapped by a female Tunisian government employee.[2] He then subsequently set himself on fire, and this event is was set off the Arab Spring, or the Arab Awakening, as it is also called.[3] However, this was only the catalyst; the Arab Spring is a fluid, ongoing event that is steeped in history with economic, political, and social factors contributing to its occurrence. After Mohamed’s self-immolation there were thirty days of national protests in Tunisia before the former Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine was removed from power.[4] During this time there were others in the Arab world watching this on satellite channels like Aljazeera, so there was an increase in cases of self-immolation in other parts of the Arab world, including Egypt.[5] Many in Egypt were watching this going on and thought that if a small country like Tunisia can overthrow a dictator through popular uprising then perhaps they...
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...MBA 7592 Current Event Paper: Arab Spring 07 December 2014 Wilmington University Abstract What is most interesting about what began in the smallest country in Northern Africa is that it had escalated to the most sweeping movement that changed the face of the Middle East for years to come. The Arab spring began to wield its head around December of 2010 in Tunisia but was truly set off once Mohamed Bouazizi a local vendor was humiliated in public by a police officer and was not permitted to sell his fruits (Staff, 2011). This has proven to be a normal practice in Tunisia, in a country where most of its population is college educated. They are unlike other Arab nations in neighboring areas; the majorities of all Tunisians are educated and have been education abroad. This was a wide spread practice across the region with regard to the inhabitants of these countries, the cruel and unjust treatment from these authoritarian leaders, corrupted law enforcement, and suppression of their religious leaders by their very own law enforcement agents. Being able to witness this first hand, observing the way of life within the region and oppressive living conditions they are subjected too, while their monarchs, military and state leaders live a very lavish life. While reviewing why the Arab spring happened, the impact it has had in the Middle East and on its economic system, we will analyze the outcome and the overall consequence it will have on the region. We will also touch on the...
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...Social Integration (Unemployment) Name Professor SOC 100 1/24/2014 Challenges of Social Integration (Unemployment) Unemployment is a situation whereby there are people in the society with the desire to work, but without enough jobs for everyone. Presently, unemployment is amongst the biggest problems that affects many countries globally. Unemployment is caused by numerous challenges. One of the reasons that lead to unemployment is that numerous people are dissatisfied with their salaries. This is a feeling that many people undergo because they feel they are not earning enough money for their work. In turn, they prefer taking unemployment benefits instead of taking up any job. Another reason is because presently there are few companies in most of the countries. In every society there must be people who are unemployed. There are various different types of unemployment, which include hard-core, structural, seasonal, frictional and cyclical. Statistics about unemployment around the globe are numerous. Several researchers gained interest of understanding the challenges behind unemployment. For instance the United States, there is financial crisis and ensuing deep recession associated to the sharp increase of unemployment. The U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 10.1% in October 2009. By looking at the adjustment of changes in demographic composition of the labor force, it is evident that this is the highest rate of unemployment ever witnessed since...
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...The Role of New Media in Arab Uprisings: Al-Jazeera focus by [Author’s Name] [Faculty Name] [Department or School Name] [Month Year] ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible. DECLARATION I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University. Signed __________________ Date _________________ ABSTRACT This research is focused on analysing the role played by Social media in the Arab Uprisings. During l8-day period, the Egyptian protesters succeeded to a large extent in achieving maximum publicity and attracting the attention of the world by mobilizing news media coverage of their protests. The role of media is to provide information and communicate messages to others. Media played a significant role in ringing political changes to the countries belonging to Arab region. Since a long time, the people of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other countries were facing problems due to the unequal and biased policies developed in the country by the leaders. These riots turned out to be an outcome of the frustrations and annoyance which were filling up the people...
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...research question: ‘What caused the Arab Spring’ In order to tackle this question; desk research, case studies and an interview with Mr Farrid Benkaddour have been conducted. Farrid Benkaddour is a Moroccan sociologist, he started his career in Morocco after obtaining his baccalaureate in 1984. Since then he has been a teacher in Morocco, afterwards he went to the Netherlands to teach Dutch people about Moroccan culture. He currently works for Arabika, a company that specializes in legal assistance, translations, language trainings and intercultural communications. The desk research revealed the opinions of the Arab spring’s countries inhabitants. Inflation, unemployment and poor housing conditions prevailed as a direct consequence of insufficient dictatorial regimes. Freshly graduated youth was left jobless with no sign of improvement in the near future. People became more and more aware of the lack of political influence they had and started idealizing the western political democratic models. The interview and case studies showed there have been negative thoughts about the dictatorial regimes ever since their instalment. Protests have been seen throughout the history of the Arab world. The difference, however, between those protests and the Arab Spring is the modern age. Where earlier protests failed due to lack of support, the modern age tools such as (social-)media carried the Arab spring’s unfolding events throughout the world, reaching a lot of people and consequently...
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...725 Book Reviews The New Silk Road: How a Rising Arab World is Turning Away from the West and Rediscovering China BEN SIMPFENDORFER Basingstoke, Hampshire, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009 201 pp. $42.00 ISBN 978-0-230-58026 doi:10.1017/S030574101000072X The New Silk Road is an insightful, concise (173 pages of text), and thoroughly readable book. The focus is not on energy investments and flows or on government policy, but on business and cultural strands of the Sino-Arab relationship. As a China economist for both JP Morgan and RBS in Hong Kong, and with years of residence in the Arab world, Simpfendorfer has written a book which is rich in detail and cogent in diverse interesting arguments. It is a pleasure to read. The thesis is that we are witnessing the re-emergence of an old but long-lapsed economic and cultural relationship between China and the Arab world. Prior to about 1600 the “silk road” was a major axis of the global economy. Now it is reviving and that revival is an important part of the “global re-balancing” that is underway. Global re-balancing is defined to mean a diminution of the relative economic and cultural role of the West (Europe and the US) and growth of non-Western areas, like China and the Arab lands. The major manifestation of Arab rise, according to Simpfendorfer, has been the massive transfer of wealth to Arab oil producers in the 2000s as oil prices rose due, in large part, to increased demand by China and India. Simpfendorfer believes...
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...«IS IT AN ARAB SPRING OR BUSINESS AS USUAL? RECENT CHANGES IN THE ARAB WORLD IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT" By Michael B. Bishku* INTRODUCTION What began in Tunisia in December 2010 and continues most violently in Syria today has been labeled by observers of and experts on the Middle East as the "Arab Spring," but is that the correct term? (It should be noted that Lebanon engaged in the Cedar Revolution in 2005 - following the assassination of Sunni Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri by Hezbollah operativeswhich resulted in the withdrawal of Syrian froops after 30 years.) While Tunisia seems to be emulating Turkey as a historically secular country with mildly Islamist politicians exercising the greatest amount of influence in their country's respective foreign and domestic affairs, Egypt, the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood, appears to be at the center of a struggle between the Islamists and the military, which has dominated politics in that country since the early 1950s, while secularists and the minority Copts feel as if they have been sidelined. Majority Shi'a in Bahrain were quashed in their attempt to have a minority Sunni government recognize their rights, while Yemen's longtime leader was replaced by that country's vice president. Libya toppled an erratic dictator, but has no experience with representative government and like in Yemen the population possesses tribal identities. Syria is now engaged in a brutal civil war in which at least 20,000 people have lost their lives by the...
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...Introduction to UAE Economy 2 Introduction to French Economy 2 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) 3 Components of GDP 4 Consumption 4 Private Investments 4 Government Expenditures 5 Net Exports 6 Unemployment 7 Inflation 8 Exchange Rate 8 Critical Analysis of Economies 10 France 10 United Arab Emirate 11 Abstract This paper is an attempt to give the comparative analysis of the economies of France & UAE. Both economies vary in their structure, size and opportunities. This work tries to elaborate the economies by discussing variable like GDP, Inflation, Exchange Rate and Unemployment. It tries to give a clear picture of the past trends, factors influencing the variations and future predictions. It also involves the critical analysis of both the economies that what current scenario would shape up the future. Introduction to UAE Economy The UAE has an open economy with high sizable annual trade and per capita income. Since the discovery of oil in UAE more than 30 years ago the country has achieved economic diversification and reduced the contribution of oil and gas to GDP to 25 percent. UAE has transformed itself from desert principalities to a modern state with high standard of living. UAE government spending has increased in effort to decrease unemployment and infrastructure expansion. In April 2004, the UAE signed a trade Agreement with Washington and in November 2004, agreed to negotiate Free Trade Agreement with the US; however talks did not move forward...
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...author of this article. Climate change has been charged with many numerous and insidious effects on the planet and human affairs in general, but how far reaching are this effects the economic, social and political structures. In this article we shall explore the proposition that climate change can lead to massive political upheavals and specifically if climate change could have caused Arab Spring. Arab Spring is the widespread revolutions and protests that have rocked that Arab world. There has been a wave of protests, riots and armed conflicts that has swept through the Arab world beginning on 18th December 2010 continuing to present day, with various revolutions accompanied by toppled governments and civil wars resulting from the Arab Spring. The following countries has their governments kicked out; Yemen, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt who kicked out two consecutive governments. Syria and Bahrain had major civil uprisings with the Syrian one presently considered a civil war. Riots have broken out in Jordan, Kuwait, Sudan, Morocco and Algeria with minor protests occurring in other Arab countries. Arab Spring has been undoubtedly been motivated by mainly political reasons, to topple the tyrannical governments. The desire for freedom and recognizance of the right of the people seems to be...
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...flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets”. (htt64) In both economical and cultural circumstances, people benefit from globalization, but to a certain extent. Globalization can help science, communication between people worldwide, free trade and better choice for consumers. Globalization however, leads to the disappearing of language, tradition, singular identity and tracks of people’s roots. Economy benefits from globalization because of the easier ways to trade and assembling products. Globalization can help industries to find and develop resources, be more eco-friendly, learn how to be competitive, create more jobs and make the prices for consumers cheaper. This happens because if an industry needs to face the world market without being protected by trading barriers, it needs to be efficient and competitive in order to survive. Big industries become generally more eco-friendly in order to have a good reputation and be self-sufficient. An example could be the Ferrero enterprise that has the “goal of sourcing 100% sustainable cocoa by 2020 and to achieve independence” (httFe). The liberty of expanding big industries freely to other countries could though destroy small businesses that can’t face competition. Furthermore, it could bring to an increase of exploitation of resources and wars for them. If one’s industry is free to move to a place were non renewable resources are cheaper, every other multinational industry with its same necessity would do it...
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...Countries, Gulf JEL codes: G18, Q32, O47 Introduction Over the past 50 years, world trade has increased at a faster rate than world output. Between 1948 and 1999, merchandise exports grew by 6% in real terms, compared to an annual average output growth of 3.7% (World Trade Organization, 1998: 33-36). This means that today, the countries depend more on trade than they had following World War II. In other words, the world economy is becoming more integrated and more globalized. So, what forces have been driving this phenomenon? Is globalization a positive force in the economic development of the third world countries? Does globalizations have any downsides and if so, how can the world community deal with the downsides? What are the challenges and opportunities with which globalization presents the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies? How can these countries harness the winds of globalization in ways that help them realize their development goals? The answers to these questions will provide a better understanding of globalization and its economic implications for the GCC economics and the rest of the world. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. First, there is a brief discussion of the major forces behind the increasing globalization of the world economy in recent decades as well as the alternative views of the implications of such phenomenon for the development of the third world countries. Second, there is a section on the degree to which the GCC economies are...
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...POLITICAL SCIENCE The Rise of Far Right in Europe An analysis based on the article “Far right on rise in Europe” published in “THE GUARDIAN” a study by Demos Thinktank. When thinking of the French presidential elections one may even disregard the fact that Mr.Hollande won and pay more attention to the significantly high score of Mrs.Marine Lepen. Indeed, the latter representing the Far Right Movement arrived third with 17.90%, just behind the Right Movement represented by Mr. Sarkozy with 27.18% and the Left Movement represented by the winner Mr. Hollande with 28.63%. This is extremely high when we know that generally in France, the winner party only scores on average 52%. Some people wonder why this extreme conservative party is gaining more and more credit among French citizens. wasn’t the idea of Human Rights born in France? Isn’t France known for its “liberty, equality, fraternity”? What happened to the country of freedom? In my opinion the three main events that led up to this delicate situation are: the recent economical crisis, the role of Media, and the carelessness of racist discourse. Before I begin my analysis, it is important to say that the support for the Far Right Movement is not exclusive to France but also to several European countries such as Austria, Germany or Switzerland as mentioned in the article. However, I will be essentially focusing on France since it is dear to my heart as I was born and raised there. First, the economic crisis...
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...QUESTION 1 The research theme of the article is the Arab Spring and democracy. The Arab Spring as a revolutionary act got people from western countries excited as the Arabians were fighting for their liberation. As the Arab people were fighting to get democracy, it was thought that if the people who were fighting were to get that democracy, there would peace among states (Coetzee 2013: 310). The Arab Spring served as a confirmation that the world would eventually get to a point where it was liberal democratic and that if the Arab world was to be liberated, there would be tranquillity. Even though the aims of the Arab Spring were intended for good, it did not achieve positive results. It actually created more problems and threatened the security and stability of the Arab countries. The theoretical perspective that the author used is a structural realist one. He drew on the theory of Kenneth Waltz and argued that the future of international politics is going to be filled with complications and difficulties. The theory of structural realism argues that the highest goal of states is to attain power (Jackson & Sorensen 2013: 81). Even though this is so, the states are guided by the principle of anarchy and are restricted by the structure of the system since it is the one that determines how states behave. The power of states such as Russia and China is increasing which threatens to move the balance of power from unipolar to multipolar which will be dangerous because the rise...
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...The Culture of Yemen Each society throughout the world has developed its own unique culture within itself. Culture is defined as an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that is both a result of and integral to the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations (Merriam). Factors such as historical events and geographic location contribute to the development of a culture. Cultures in Middle Eastern countries are diverse full of history and traditions. In this research paper, we will discuss the characteristics that shape the culture make up of the country Yemen. Yemen is an Arab country that is based on Islamic beliefs. In Yemen, the Muslim population is for the most part evenly divided between Sunni and Shi’a. In southern Yemen, the population is predominantly Sunni to where as the northern part of the country the Shi’a. Within Islam there are different religious beliefs that socially divide Muslim groups. Each religious group follow basic Islamic beliefs however, interpret the historical pass of leadership within the religion differently. This difference has placed strain amongst the two groups for hundreds of centuries (Shi’a vs Sunni). In ancient times, the area around Yemen was known by the name of Arabia Felix which meant happy or prosperous (Nyrop). The area was well known for the trade of indigenous goods such as spices, silks, precious stones and a variety of goods. The country was divided into tribal communities...
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...Kristy Evans Explaining the significance of September 11 , 2001 events CRJU 2110 Assignment #1 Explaining the significance of September 11 , 2001 events CRJU 2110 Assignment #1 Introduction: When I hearing or thinking about September 11, 2001, I get a flash back of me sitting in my sixth grade classroom watching the Arab bombing the United States Twin Towers, at that time I really did not understand what was going on. Until our teacher was explaining it to us and she pulled up a video and showed us. I felt sad and horrified for all the people who were losing their lies. I had never heard of terrorists before so I was also really nervous. I was terrified at the thought that there were people out there who despised our country so much that they wanted to kill us. So in my paper I will be talking about the short term and the long term effects that it had on us. Topic I: Short Term Effects A. Military Operations (Iraq War) B. Domestic Response: Hate Crimes against Muslims C. American Reactions (created groups to help those injured) Topic II: Long Term Effects A. Economy Decline (Stocks and unemployment rate ) B. Health Effects (toxins spread to residential areas in NYC) C. Government Policies (More security, airport security, anti-terrorism acts) I. Short Term Effect A. Military Operations In the meantime dealing the attack on 9/ 11 our government has been financing war related tasks in Iraq and with the Global War on Terror...
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