100% Secure Payment
© 2025 Copyright:
BoutEssays. All rights reserved
Since America and Asia are far apart, there are a lot of differences between American and Asian culture. Everybody knows it, but it brings to mind a question, “Why are they different even though we are human-beings who are all same?” I found out why there is a difference when I read the Joy Luck Club. Although I am from South Korea, I did not realize the differences between them before I read Joy Luck Club. I for the most part agreed with what I read. Asians and Americans usually have conflicts with each other because they misunderstand what is being said or done, because the culture is different and they think differently. Therefore I think that some of the problems were cause by the dissimilarities of the two cultures, especially the contrasting dinner etiquette’s to explain these differences.
Get original essayThe cultural difference that is the easiest to see is dinner etiquette. I was upset when I first came to Canada about how the people kept taking my food because they were too lazy to go and get some more. After three years, I am taking food from the people in the dining hall, which means I have changed my way of thinking in this respect. The reason that I was upset is that Asian people have a stereotype about food. It is just like this. If I have taken this, this is mine, and nobody can touch this. This may sound barbaric or like animals fighting for their food. This kind of thought was probably brought about because through out history we had war many times this means that only the strong people who have lots of food survived. American people all want to share everything that they have. They think that if I give something this time, I can receive something next time. I think type of thinking should be learned in Asia to promote peace. The other problem that I had during my first year at Ridley is that people joked about my family such as mom and dad. It was the hardest thing to endure. If someone joke about my family in Asia, he or she may be killed. This is a bit exaggerated, but it is just like swearing, and it really hurts the people.
We can find some of the examples about the differences in etiquette in “Four Direction” that Waverly Jong wrote. When Rich, who is Waverly’s fianc e, was invited by her family for dinner, and made many mistakes which started by bringing a bottle of French wine. If I think about it in American way, it is a polite manner to bring something to eat or drink for the people who invited me, and it is the etiquette. But it is not in Asian way. I really don’t know why it is rude if we bring something for the people who invited me. Although I guess it is because the people might not like what I bought for them, or I could give them the message that I don’t like the dinner that they have prepared for me. In the book, Waverly said that her parents did not even own wineglasses. This means that Waverly’s parents most likely do not like to drink wine very much. They probably prefer to drink Chinese tea and wanted to recommend it to Rich, but Rich disturbed their plan, and he also lost the chance to drink Chinese tea by bringing the bottle of French wine which he prefers. The other mistake that Rich made is that he criticized her mother’s cooking, and he proceeded to pour a lot of soy sauce on the platter. It is just very rude. Waverly’s mother prepared the food with her whole heart, and it probably took a lot of time to prepare. Most cooks always want to hear how fantastic the food from the people who taste it. Think about her feelings. She cooked her special food for her important visitor. Also, Rich may have ruined it by putting on a lot of soy sauce on the platter, and that was food that everybody was going to eat. The others could think that the food was fine how it was. In America, people taste the food and give the cook some advice to help make the food better next time, and it is normal, but you at least try to be seen enjoying the food in front of the cook in Asia.
There are some more things that we are not supposed to go against when we have dinner. We Asians actually can’t make any noise when we are having dinner. If we do make noise, the elders tell us to be quiet and they may even they smack us, but I have seen a lot of people in Canada who eat food while making a lot of noise. Americans usually enjoy the food so that they talk about their life and they joke on the table, but we should not because it is impolite. On the dining table, there should be only one thing, which is being eaten. It was the dinner etiquette, but we are changing a lot like Americans these days. We can’t also put our elbows on the table when we are having dinner. It is just not polite because it makes the other people keep looking at it and bothers them. The other very important etiquette that we really have to do is that we cannot start eating until the elders have begun to eat. We are also not able to leave the table before the elders finish to eating. It is a type of respect for your elders. There is a great deal of dinner etiquette like these and they are so simple that Americans do not even think about it, and they would not understand why these are rude and doing something else is polite. Also there might be lots of things that I don’t know about in American culture, and I don’t understand them.
The environment and the many other factors we have are all different from each other, the culture is therefore different. The factors can be religion, landscape, weather, and the other many types of conditions. Mostly religion affective’s the different forms the culture. There is a religion called, “Yu-Gyo” and it is based on respecting your elders. That is why we cannot eat first and leave before the elders eat and leave. Even though there are many differences between the cultures, stop saying that I don’t understand the culture, and I don’t care about it because this is not my culture. If we take the advantage of the situation we can incorporate the advantages of each into our cultures and make them better. This will make understanding and people easier and would help to stop racism because we would be of kin.
Adolf Hitler, born in Braunau am Inn, Austria, on April 20 1889, was involved with lots of warfare in his life. During World War I, Hitler served in the German army and was often far away from the front lines. Knowing his life and what he has done to the world there is still a question: how did Hitler become chancellor of Germany? This essay seeks to answer this question by reviewing the biography of Hitler, how he became who he was.
Get original essayOne important factor in Hitler's rise to power was the political instability of the Weimar Republic. After World War I, Germany was in a state of economic and political turmoil, and the Weimar government was seen as weak and ineffective. This provided an opening for extremist groups like the Nazi Party to gain support, as they promised to restore order and stability. Another important factor was the Great Depression, which hit Germany hard in the early 1930s. The economic hardship and mass unemployment created a sense of desperation among the German people, and many turned to radical parties like the Nazis for solutions.
Hitler's own political maneuvering was also critical to his rise to power. He was a charismatic speaker and a skilled propagandist, and he used these talents to build a strong following among disaffected Germans. He also formed alliances with other conservative groups, including the military and business elites, who saw Hitler as a potential ally in their efforts to preserve their power and influence. In 1932, Hitler used his position to form a legal dictatorship, in doing so he discontinued people's basic rights and allowed people to be imprisoned without trial. Hitler also upheld a law that gave his cabinet full legislative powers for four years and allowed divergences from the legislation. With full control over the legislative and government, Hitler and his political allies intimidated their opposing parties into disassembling in August 1934. With the cabinet abolishing the office of president, this gave Hitler the power he needed. Hitler was formally declared leader, and he immediately began to mobilize for war. With Germany withdrawing from the League of Nations, Hitler announces a massive expansion of Germany’s armed forces. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazis caused the deaths of over 11 million people and among the deaths was 6 million jews which at the time was the majority of the European population. Later on Hitler was at war against the allied powers which led them to their downfall and lost in the war due to his poor military judgment at the end. On April 30 1945, After a while of fleeing from the troops, he committed suicid in Germany fearful of being abducted by enemy troops. What were the causes and rise of Adolf Hitler? The causes and rise of Adolf Hitler were the strengths of the nazi party, manipulation of the economy, and new government.
Once in power, Hitler quickly consolidated his authority and began implementing his agenda, which included aggressive expansionism, persecution of Jews and other minority groups, and the establishment of a totalitarian state. Hitler's rise to power was facilitated by a combination of factors, including economic hardship, political instability, and his own political skills and alliances. One of the cause and rise of Adolf Hitler were manipulation of the economy. After Germany went through a depression the people were not having it. There were too many problems going on from jobs getting lost to no food to consume, Hitler knowing people don’t have the things they want and need, he proposes ideas that are in their favor. The Nazi party proposed the idea that jews were the problem to soceity and proceeded with burtal manuvers. Proposing the idea that a certain group in your contient creates a distraction. Since people who opposed the regime were labeled as enemies. Special detention camps were created. In these camps, the Nazi police had supreme authority and introduced a system of sadistic brutality unrivaled in modern times. The Nazis killed millions of Jews and other people in the Holocaust. Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, which initiated World War II, was the logical outcome of Hitler’s plans. His first years were spent preparing the Germans for the struggle for world control and building up Germany's military, and then he aimed to unite all people of German descent within their historical homeland. His next step was acquiring enough land for Germany to become economically self-sufficient and militarily unstoppable.
Lastly, the new government caused Hitler to rise in power. After Czar and his family were killed, a new communist government was set up. The new Russian government took the farmlands to turn them into public property. Still, the revolution did not spread globally, the existence of a huge and a powerful communist nation changed the balance of world politics. Germany at first was going to become a commmunnist country, but instead they formed a new social democracy. Its new Weimar Republic combined democratic institutions with a less-extreme form of left-wing politics known as socialism. By Weimar republic Germany's new government having major problems economically, the people were upset and were not going to let this form of government continue to unfold and soon, they came under great pressure and it was eventually taken down by assault. As Adolf Hitler and the far-right Nazi Party took over, they gave laws that the epolpe couldn’t go against since it was made illegal to go agai nst the ideaology all together. completely change society by eliminating private property and allowing for much greater freedoms.
In conclusion, Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 was the result of a complex interplay of political, economic, and social factors. His rise to power was facilitated by a sense of desperation and disillusionment among many Germans, as well as his own political maneuvering and alliances. The tragic consequences of Hitler's rule serve as a warning about the dangers of extremism and the importance of defending democracy and human rights.
In 2005, Steve Jobs gave a commencement address at Stanford University’s graduation. I was not at Stanford’s graduation that year, but I was asked to watch this speech last year in English and write my response to it. That was the first time that I had heard Jobs’ speech, and although it was aimed towards inspiring an audience of college graduates, I aimed some of that inspiration at myself as a soon to be high school graduate. There were many aspects of his speech that were inspirational, but a few struck me harder than others. To begin his speech, Jobs tells the audience that he is going to tell them three stories: one about connecting the dots, the second about love and loss, and the third about death. From each of these stories I took away something inspirational.
Get original essayThe first story about connecting the dots I found to be ironic, because in it Jobs tells about how he dropped out of college six months into his freshman year despite the fact that he is talking to a group of graduates from a very expensive and prestigious university. He says he did so because he could not see the value in it and did not want to continue to waste his parents’ money. Next he goes to say that he stuck around for an additional eighteen months as a drop in to classes that actually interested him before really quitting, getting at the point that you should follow your curiosity always. As a result of his dropping into a calligraphy class, he explains that Macintosh’s had beautiful fonts and therefore so did all other personal computers that followed it. From this story, I found Jobs’ underlying message to always follow your curiosities very inspirational and took it into account in my own life. I took it as him saying that if you pursue what interests you, you will be successful in the end. In his second story about love and loss, he talks about getting fired from Apple, the company that he started and built. He says, “…what had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating…I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me” (Jobs, 2005). He goes on to say how after this disappointment, he went on to create Pixar which was later bought by Apple. He had persevered through losing everything he worked for, and ended up on top anyways because of it. Not only did I find Jobs’ perseverance in the story to be inspirational, but also his use of a metaphor with dropping the baton. This made his situation very relatable to any audience because anyone can understand the feeling that must come from that. Lastly, in his third story about death, Jobs discusses how he once read a quote along the lines of how he should live everyday as if it were his last, and so he did. Then he went on to talk about his caner diagnosis and how he survived but had now better understood that any day could be his last. Towards the end of his story he tells the audience, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life… Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your inner voice, and most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become, everything else is secondary” (Jobs, 2005). The statement itself was inspiration to me, but his call to action for the audience to follow this advice in their life was inspirational to all. He engaged the audience to really take to heart what he was saying. Many of the ways that Jobs was inspirational in his speech I could see myself incorporating into my own speeches.
I would like to use stories from my own life to inspire others and engage the audience more to keep them thinking and processing what I am saying. To do so I plan to try and relate my research or anything that my speech involves to not only examples from my own life but to the audience so that they are interested in what I am saying. To get the audience involved I plan to try and ask more questions or call them to action in my conclusion and throughout my speech. By doing these things I think that I will be able to strengthen my speeches and be more inspirational as a speaker overall.
Birches" is a memorable poem that is rich and interesting enough to repay more than one reading. Robert Frost provides vivid images of birches in order to oppose life's harsh realities with the human actions of the imagination. I recommend this poem to anyone interested in reading and studying poetry that meets many requirements for excellence. However, it can not be understood from a quick once-over in a classroom. Its meaning can only be revealed by reading it over and over in a quiet setting.
Get original essay"Birches" has a profound theme and its sounds, rhythm, form, tone, and figures of speech emphasize this meaning. Theme "Birches" provides an interesting aspect of imagination to oppose reality. Initially, reality is pictured as birches bending and cracking from the load of ice after a freezing rain. They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed So low for long, they never right themselves: Reality has its ups and downs. This passage suggests that people never fully recover from being dragged down by life even if they don't seem broken.
Imagination is portrayed as "a swinger of birches." The portrayal of the boy refines this image: One by one he subdued his father's trees By riding them down over and over again. The boy seems to take in lessons about life from these encounters with the trees on his father's land: He learned all there was To learn about not launching out too soon. This boy lives away from town and must play by himself. He has learned his father's lessons. Imagination is the gift for escaping reality that each one of us possesses. We do not have to depend on anyone to take a mental vacation. Mastering your art of imagination will increase your ability to handle the bad things life dishes out. That's why the narrator advocates using imagination. On Earth we can become weary from life's everyday occurrences--that "pathless wood." However, Earth's the place for love--not hate, weariness, or any negative feelings. Therefore, use imagination to come back to reality relaxed. At the end, the narrator imagines climbing the birch tree "Toward heaven"--to the top and swinging a branch down to the ground. Suddenly he sounds relaxed and carefree. Isn't this better than the villain "Truth"? It sounds like imagination works.
Sound Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. This passage begins the visual journey through the woods. In this journey, Frost wants the reader to see the birches as they really are and as they seem in a series of pleasant images. Part of the realism comes from the sound of passages like this one: They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalaching on the snow crust-- Frost's alliteration--here the repetition of /z/ and /s/ and /k/ sounds--lets us hear as well as see the birch trees after a freezing rain and the morning after as the melting begins. The /k/ sound in "crack" and "crazes" mimics the sound of the ice in the breeze "shattering" and crashing "on the snow crust." It also imitates the crunch of snow under the weight of boots. The /s/ and /z/ sounds suggest the rising breeze--his use of /s/ sounds increases as it rises. These sounds also suggest the scratch and swish of birch branches scraped on the crust.
Perhaps they also imitate the swish of layers of warm garments rubbing together as you walk. These sounds contribute to the tone, or attitude, concerning "Truth," or reality. The upheaval caused by the breeze and the sun's warmth portray a shattered, uncomfortable feeling. Life is full its peaceful ups; however, it also consists of shattering downs. CONSIDERATIONS OF CRAFT Rhythm and Form "Birches" consists mainly of blank verse: unrimed iambic pentameter, as in the lines below. ............./.........../............../............/............../ When I see birches bend to left and right ......../.............../............../.............../............./ Across the lines of straighter darker trees, However, Frost deviates from this pattern to emphasize certain lines that give clues to the theme. Lines 3, 5, 23, and 30 each contain the word "them," meaning the birches. Lines 14 and 15 rime and also deviate from the pattern of iambic pentameter: ........................./......................../............../............./............/ They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load ............../........./...................../......................./........................../ And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed The meaning reflected in the lines scanned above plus the next line: "So low for long, they never right themselves:" add up to dramatize what life's "downs" will do to a person. Lines 42, 50, and 54 contain the rimes be, me, and tree, which emphasize that the narrator wishes to be in his imagination, that he identifies with the imaginary boy who was "a swinger of birches
Tone The poem communicates an attitude about imagination and reality. The choice of certain words and certain details makes it clear that the speaker prefers imagination but is aware of reality. Initially, the forest scene describes "crystal shells/ Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust--/ Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away." The words "shattering and avalanching" give the feeling of calamity and perhaps fear or sorrow. A disturbance in the universe is suggested by the "heaps of broken glass" that make it seem as if "the inner dome of heaven had fallen." Since Truth is linked to the ice storm, the speaker sees that the reality is that ice storms have bent down the birches. There is a turning point that informs the reader that the villain "Truth" has butted into the poem. The speaker, who was getting whimsical and nostalgic about girls drying their long hair "in the sun," admits that "Truth broke in/ With all her matter-of-fact about the ice storm." But now it's imagination's turn.
The speaker's huffiness about truth pushes reality aside for the more refreshing view of imagination. The comforting image of the boy who "one by one . . . subdued his father's trees" pits art against the destructive chaos of reality. The boy refines his art of imagination by persistence-- And not one but hung limp, not one was left For him to conquer. He learned all there was To learn . . . . This scene is softer than the scene of the ice storms in lines 5 - 15. But the point of this opposition between imagination and reality, the boy vs. the ice storm, doesn't come until years later at the end of the poem. The frustration of life sometimes makes it "too much like a pathless wood." After disclosing that he himself has been "a swinger of birches" the speaker confesses that he yearns to return to those days in his imagination to get away from the frustrations, the shatterings of real life. The last line, "One could do worse than to be a swinger of birches," sounds relaxed, thoughtful, resolved. After having taken a mental vacation into the forest, the narrator comes back to reality refreshed, ready for love and ready to face reality again. Isn't this one purpose of all art--paintings, movies, literature, sculpture, music--to refresh us by drawing on our imaginations so that we can use our dreams or our memories to survive day-to-day, matter-of-fact reality? "Birches" is no ode to winter; it is more a tribute to the power of imagination. Frost uses several figures of speech to stress certain points and add freshness to the poem. For instance, Frost gives human qualities to "Truth" in the personification about interrupting. This striking personification alerts the reader that "Truth," or reality, is a major part of the theme for this poem.
Similes heighten both sides of the contrast between truth/reality and imagination/memory. The nostalgic image of "girls on their hands and knees that throw their hair/ Before them over their heads to dry in the sun" begins with the simile-signal "like." When describing life "like a pathless wood," Frost uses imagination to depict reality. So imagination even subdues or overcomes reality. The last line, "One could do worse than to be a swinger of birches," understates the theme. If imagination can be equated with art, the last line may suggest that one could end up in a worse life pursuit than being an artist, or a poet. Major Assets "Birches" is a memorable poem. It is lengthy and complicated enough to give the reader something to discover every time it is read. In the poem, Frost uses several tools of the poetic craft to depict the theme. "Birches," written in generally unrimed iambic pentameter, includes rimes and variations in rhythm that stress major points of the theme. "Birches" also contains several figures of speech and vivid language to depict reality and the power of the imagination. A good poem should stir the reader and touch the emotions. This poem advocates using the imagination to deal with life's downs. In today's harsh, hectic world, this message definitely hits home.
Major Drawbacks One major drawback of "Birches" is that the reader must be careful not to take the wording literally, at face value. "So was I once myself a swinger of birches" does not necessarily mean that the narrator used to hang off of trees like Snoopy, and the statement "And so I dream of going back to be" does not necessarily mean that the speaker wants to climb a birch tree. The important word is "dream." It's our dreams that steel us against the branches of reality that lash across our open eyes. The poem must be reread again and again to see what the narrator is referring to by taking each statement in the context of surrounding lines and the larger context of the whole poem. The narrator has been imaginative, has subdued reality with the power of the dream, and so he wishes to again. Another example lies in the line "One by one he subdued his father's trees." We know the ice storms bent the trees, that the boy did not conquer his father's forest. Instead the reader must reread to find that with imagination the boy is able to subdue life's downside, perhaps overcoming the setbacks that his father endured and may now afflict the speaker, who dreams of using imagination to overcome difficult times. It is also hard for a first-year college student to get past the pretty nature poetry. I could picture a winter scene: "As the breeze rises" and the effect of "the sun's warmth" on the sheaths of ice covering the tree branches. But this is where I ended the scene. I did not picture the shattering of ice "on the snow crust" like "heaps of broken glass to sweep away." Initially, I did not get the shattered feeling; I felt the scene was peaceful.
Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.
Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.
Get custom essayI enjoyed reading "Birches," and I believe my reaction is both personal and aesthetic. This poem was lengthy and complex enough to contain many of the aesthetics of an excellent poem. I will always remember the vivid images provided by Frost's use of figures of speech and sound. This poem also stirred my feelings. I work in a very high-pressure business environment and sometimes I escape by daydreaming. I long for the day when I have my own business. I believe my reaction is not typical of first-year students; most would be "put off" by this poem's length and complexity. Many, however, would look at this poem as a possible wealth of information or as a manual for defending oneself against the onrush of reality
Chapter 14 in the Excellence book appears to simply discuss the idea of the growth of the individual. This chapter talks about how we as individuals must continue to learn throughout our lives and learn from our experiences. It discusses hard work and perseverance. Chapter 14 also discusses how society as a whole must come together to assist those in need. It states that we must help those who cannot achieve individualism on their own. These ideals I believe root from the perspective of the author.
Get original essayBased on the quote on page 126 “It is not easy to tell young people how unpurposefully we learn,” it is safe to say that the author is an older person. This characteristic of the author allows him to write what he does about individualism. The author discusses how humans learn through their experiences and should never end their learning; he says this is what makes an individual. The author could only have this belief if he himself has lived a long life and had many personal experiences giving himself individualism. I also believe that the author is a strong believer in hard work and that he likely has experienced much hard work in his many years. This gives him the perspective to talk about how we must work hard for ourselves and for others who need our help. It is clear to me that the author is a generous and hard-working man that believes in the will of the people to work together for each other to create and individualistic society.
Chapter 17 of this reading is rather inspirational. To me the chapter read almost like a speech or a preaching in which the author’s goal was to inspire the people to support one another and believe in their country. The author does a very good job of explaining that a free society cannot survive without actively participating members, he explains that without obligations to one another free societies would crumble. Therefore we must all hold each other accountable to help one another and to help our country stay afloat. I believe that democracy will “win the day” as long as the democratic members do their duties in maintaining it. It seems that democracy is becoming more and more popular throughout the world and as long as the people support democracy it will prevail.
The most interesting part of this reading for me was the idea that citizens must support democracy for it to work. This was an idea never presented to me before and I find it to be true. If the people as a whole do not help one another or help the nation it is impossible that it will flourish or continue to grow, in fact the nation will inevitably fall. This new idea will hopefully always be present in my mind and help me to make decisions that will benefit my fellow citizens and my country.
Communication helps us to share meaning amongst different kinds of people, in which they encode and decode messages. These messages may be verbal or non-verbal.
Get original essayIntercultural communication is when communication takes place between individuals from diverse cultures from all around the world. Intercultural communication can be seen as complex due to different cultures not encoding and decoding messages the same. In our everyday encounters of intercultural through personal experience and observation. Furthermore, our rapidly changing world impacted by religion, gender, education and migration brings us in contact with different cultures and co-cultures. Much of the tension and challenges are connected to the dynamics of surface and deep culture, differences in values and beliefs, stereotyping and prejudice are influenced by our worldview, by the environment and through various media.
There are 6 imperatives, which are important to understand intercultural communication. We will be critically discussing the peace, demographic, technological, economic and ethical imperatives.
The first imperative we are going to look at is the peace imperative. The peace imperative asks, “Can individuals of different genders, ages, ethnicity's, races, languages, and religions peacefully coexist on the planet?”. Peace is a major component for intercultural communication as cultures critically affect the way in which we communicate.
Learning about people, finding norms and similarities and appreciating the differences between us will help gain more peace and help us all coexist, which is the ultimate goal of the peace imperative. When we find norms, we tend to relate more to a person as well as respect them. Yet, having our different cultures and backgrounds will give us each our own identity as well as cultural identity.
Throughout history, conflict between genders, races, ethnicity’s, etc., has been an immense issue across the world. It has led to many wars, conflict in powers as well as unbalanced power. For example, South Africa. South Africa has a rich history in cultural conflict which was prominent in the years of apartheid. Being a country with 11 official languages and a diverse population, peace between citizens was tricky, as it would need mutual understanding and norms between the cultures.
There are many other examples and instances where people of diverse cultural backgrounds did not live peacefully together, such as Cyprus and Turkey. However, I feel that humans are not animals and we do not have to fight to survive. When we put in the effort and work towards harmony among cultures and try to understand one another, it is possible to live peacefully together. By this we can find peace through understanding. We saw this in 1994 when the apartheid laws were lifted and people of different races in South Africa were seen as equal.
The study of intercultural communication in regard to the peace imperative is extremely important as we live in a world with millions of diverse people who differ from the person before them. Being able to communicate and establish a relationship with people of different races, cultures, etc., is almost a must to ensure a peaceful life where humans can live and function together. “If we don't have a certain amount of peace, there will be a constant power struggle and this in the end will cause it to be impossible to live with one another”.
“Ethics denotes the general and systematic study of what ought to be the grounds and principles for right and wrong human behavior”.
Ethics can be described as principles that are culture-bound and indicate guidelines for the behavior of individuals that are part of a certain group or culture. What is meant with culture-bound is that the individual’s outlook is restricted by belonging to a particular culture. Martin et al. says that “Cultural values tell us what is “good” and what “ought” to be good”. The cultural values and ethics we agree upon is set up by a person’s morals. When we talk about morals we look at what type of lesson or message we can import from either a story or experience.
When it comes to ethical judgment it differs from cultural values in terms of focusing more on the intensity of what is right and wrong in human behavior. According to Johannesen et al. there are certain standards that are used like honesty, truthfulness and fairness to make the judgement of rightness and wrongness. Ethical judgement is sometimes stated explicitly, when something is explicitly stated there is no room for confusion. An example of ethical judgement explicitly stated is The Christian faith that has the Ten Commandments that state, in a clear and detailed manner, what the Christian’s see as right and wrong and they live by it. Examples of what the Ten Commandments state or see as wrong is committing murder, stealing and telling lies.
Because of the world being so big and having over a billion people with different races, cultures and beliefs it is necessary to set a universalist position. This is the position where rules are applied to things that most societies view as “wrong” like murder, treason or theft. All the cultures around the world have the same rules or regulations to follow when it comes to one of the above mentioned “wrong” has been misconducted by an individual.
But because all the cultures believe in different things a contradistinction position was created. The relavist position is the judging of cultural behavior viewed in the context it took place. This means the way the individual acted can be explained if you look in the situation it happened.
“Part of learning about intercultural communication is learning about cultural patterns, and identies- your own and those of others”. When you want to become an ethical student of culture there are four skills that you need to master. You need to practise self-reflexivity, learn about others, listen to the voice of others and develop a sense of social justice.
When you study other cultures and their practises you also learn more about yourself. Before you can understand their culture, you need to understand yourself and the position you have in society. Self-reflexivity is the process of looking at yourself in the mirror.
It is important to reflect on your place in society, the social categories you fill and what implications go with those categories. An example is the blagues belges jokes told by the French can be seen as offensive but it is different when the joke is told by a Belgian.
“Study of cultures is actually the study of other people”.
In South African Tourism they use “look-and-tell”, because the tourists want to know about South African cultures they go to portrayed traditional villages where the cultures are shown to the tourists exhibiting dances and weddings in shows.
A better way to educate the tourists is through “learn-and-explore” where the tourist can engage in a dialogue and ask about the cultural realities. When they explore on their own term they learn more about the culture than being told about it.
“We wish to bring into clear focus that the fact that differences in culture, ethnicity and gender are some of the most crucial areas which have to be considered if we are to provide some understanding of the need for ethical, mutually beneficial communication and interpersonal interactions in decades ahead”.
When it comes to listening to the voice of others it is important to realise that two-way communication or dialogue is necessary. Hearing about different experiences from people with vary backgrounds can lead to you viewing the world differently.
Successful intercultural understanding is achieved through mutual listening. When people can relate to experiences and knowledge of others they find it easier to learn other cultures.
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities and privileges within a society. It is a responsibility that comes with the acquisition of intercultural knowledge and insights.
Studying intercultural communication leads to a transformation in the individual and benefits to the larger society and cultural groups. We as intercultural students, have the responsibility to educate ourselves about cultural differences, intercultural conflicts, impacts of stereotyping and larger systems that may deny any basic human rights and apply our knowledge to the communities we interact with.
For you to have a sense of social justice you need to acknowledge that oppression exists and that cultural differences exist in hierarchy. The cultural differences are not just interesting but can be privileged and set rules for others to follow.
According to Martin et al, Marshall McLuhan, who is defined as a “media guru”, used the term “global village” to define a world where most communication technology, brings news and information to even the most rural areas of the world.
People are constantly connected. If it is through email, messaging, social media, television or radio, we know what is going on and can communicate easily with people worldwide.
Due to our ever-changing communication regimes, it has changed our way of thinking about ourselves and how our intercultural relationships form.
Cellphones have immensely impacted our communication. We are “always on” and can be found very easily due to social media. When we are in person and not interacting, we can easily hide away by drowning ourselves in our friend that always accompanies us – our mobile device. Martin et al describe it as avoiding communications with those surrounding us and some may be afraid of mobile communication because it may cause a psychological problem of “emptying out”. “Emptying out” is described as bodies being present in a public space but communication does not take place.
The internet is said to include more than a billion websites. Nearly 75% of adults and 91% of adolescents in America use the internet. Access and use depends on age, income, location, ethnicity and religion. English is a dominant language on the internet and many people who search in their home language (which may not be English), will not find what they are looking for, making the internet inaccessible. To make the internet more accessible, we need to promote multilingualism across the World Wide Web. Global businesses must be able to adapt and different languages, this can be done through hiring local translators. Marketing must be done in the language of the target market.
In terms of intercultural communication through technology, we come into contact with thousands of people who have very different cultural backgrounds. Blogging can majorly impact intercultural communication. Blogs can include forums, discussions and articles on different cultures in terms of language, food, entertainment etc. People blog because they want to document their lives, express opinions, express ideas or as a community forum.
By using technology, our encounter with intercultural communication has increased, especially when they must decide which language to use in a multilingual situation. People seek intercultural communication for diverse reasons, one being that want to use and learn new languages.
An issue of interest is the “digital divide” and this is those who have technology and those who don’t. It is slowly shrinking, especially because of the easy access to cellphones and cellular networks across countries, but those in rural areas with little to no education and infrastructure are left behind. Another factor is your social environment. You will be more inclined to use the internet if your friends and family use it.
Coming from a mother who is British and a father who is South African, I have always been around intercultural communication and I’ve learnt the importance of it in the workplace. We need to learn to understand how to work with different cultures to avoid disputes.
For example, I’ve ran a photography business since 2014, which focuses on events, portraiture and lifestyle and I have worked with so many different cultures and its always great to see how my clients meet other people from different cultures. I recently captured a wedding of a couple where the bride was a South African who is Afrikaans and the groom was a Vietnamese American.
Working with clients for events that are all from different cultural background really has emphasized to me how important it is to learn to work with diverse cultures.
As the economic imperative is very important for businesses, it affects me greatly. I have recently started my own photography business and aspire to work with other international organizations and businesses. I would like to do wildlife photography full time and expand into the overseas markets as well to do business. In order to do that I need to be able to communicate and build relationships with people all over the word on an economic scale.
For example, connecting with organizations in Kenya who deal with anti-poaching and animal rehabilitation could potentially give me the chance to travel to Kenya and work with the organizations to create documentaries and so on.
There is intercultural communication everywhere we go. Our world and its cultures are so interconnected that we need to be aware of them and we need to learn how they contribute to society and make every individual unique. We must be conscious of not only our communication but others as well. By learning, understanding and applying the imperatives, we can see how important intercultural society is in our world.
Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.
Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.
Get custom essayAs we live in South Africa, we are exposed to our 11 unique cultures but also those from around the world that live amongst us. Although we all know how dynamic and challenging our country is, every day we learn to love the different cultures and the new cultures that are being made. We need to not only learn about intercultural communication but apply it and embrace its complexity.
One of the most important developments after the Second World War was the partition of the Indian Subcontinent into the states now known as Pakistan and India. The financial toll of the War had been too much for the British to handle and they were now quickly vacating their colonies. But it was not always envisioned in this way. The British, along with the Hindus had always sought a unified India and refused all talks of partition vehemently. But it was the Muslims, under the guidance of their leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah that strived, fought, struggled, burned and died so that India was partitioned and a new country emerged on the map of the world: Pakistan.
Get original essayIn his early years, Jinnah, like Nehru and Gandhi had been a part of the Indian National Congress. A celebrated lawyer and a stern and confident individual, Jinnah was adamant that Muslims should join and support the Congress. Both Nehru and Gandhi also joined the Congress in their early years after returning from abroad to advance the transfer of some of the rights to the Indians. Gandhi had been campaigning in South Africa regarding the treatment of Indians there and Nehru had been studying at Cambridge. The rights which Congress demanded included a greater political representation for Indians in the running of their country, grant of some basic rights to the Indian masses and overall, a step in the right direction for Indians who had until now been considered second class citizens to the British.
Nehru and Gandhi, both Hindu, considered India as belonging to the Hindus where Hindus should form the central government due to their increased numbers. As India had been ruled for the past 1000 years by Muslim rulers, there was also resentment among the Hindus due to this factor. Nehru and Gandhi also sought to transform the Indian National Congress, envisioned as a platform for all the religious groups in India, into one advancing solely the rights and aspirations of Hindus. When Jinnah called for reform, he was shunned aside. This led to further disillusionment on part of Jinnah, who now believed that Hindus could not be trusted once the British left. Jinnah had worked to bring the Muslims and Hindus closer together, to see past their differences to unite against the British. At one time, he was even a member of both Muslim League and Congress. One of his greatest achievements towards Hindu Muslim unity was the Lucknow Pact, signed at the residence of Jawaharlal Nehru in which Hindus acknowledged separate representation in the legislative bodies for Muslims, separate electorates for Muslims and the agreement of unity among the Hindus and Muslims when speaking to the British.
By now, violence across the subcontinent had increased. There was the incident of killings at Amritsar in 1919 in which the British cold heartedly murdered around 400 people. These disturbances unnerved the British who introduced sweeping new measures to control the violence. First, the defense of India Act during the First World War and then the Rowlett Act in 1919 were introduced which caused outcry among the Indians. In August 1920, the Hijrat Movement and in August 1921, the Moplah Uprising further caused unrest and dissent . Gandhi started the Non Cooperation Movement to upheaval the British. Protests, strikes, boycotts and other nonviolent forms of resistance marked the times. Nehru led the movement in the Central provinces and was arrested. But Jinnah did not share Gandhi’s enthusiasm and did not join him in this regard. In spite of being peaceful, the movement resulted in violence and the Muslims were always the first victims of such incidents.
There was some falling out within the Congress party during this time as Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru’s father, made his own Swaaraj party. But Jawaharlal stood by Nehru and continued to support him
In order to pay heed to the demands of the Indians, the British sent a commission under the leadership of Viscount Simon, a liberal member of the House of Lords, to get to know the demands of the Indians. But both Congress and the Muslim League boycotted the Commission and instead sought to draw up their demands by establishing a joint committee. The result of this Committee was the Nehru Report (1928). The Muslim League and Jinnah were devastated. Although it had been a joint committee, the demands of the Muslims which included increases political representation for Muslims in Muslim majority areas like Sindh, Bengal and the North West Frontier had been completely sidelined. This made further co-operation between the Hindus and Muslims impossible and further disillusioned Jinnah from his dream of Muslims and Hindus working together for a united India.Motilal Nehru had been a strong advocate of a single united India with no political distinction between the two. Separate electorates and representation, in his view would have further divided the Indian people. He also did not want to risk criticism from his fellow Congress members by granting the Muslims their demands. Whatever the reason, this incident was extremely damaging for Hindu Muslim relations and for a united India.
In response to the Nehru Report, Jinnah issued his famous Fourteen Points in March 1929. He demanded equal rights, opportunities and political representation for Muslims compared to Hindus. He also sought to protect the Muslims from further legislative attacks of the Congress by demanding several changes in the legislative framework. The Muslim League united in support of these demands while the Congress held firm to the idea of single India. Both the parties wanted an end to British Rule but there was no common ground on what should replace it. When Gandhi initiated another civil disobedience movement in 1930, it was criticized by the Muslim League as not only a movement for independence but also for establishing dominance over Muslims.
This lack of unity amongst the Indians made it difficult for the British to know what to do next. When a series of Round Table conferences called up by the British failed, matters became more complicated. Gandhi did not take part in the first conference and continued his noncooperation movement which led him to prison. In the second conference, he stood by the Nehru Report and refused to grants for the Minorities. This led to the failure of the conferences. In 1935, the British introduced the Government of India act which granted sweeping rights to the Indians . But both the Muslim League and the Congress opposed the act as it did not give India independence like they sought.
The 1937 elections further proved the divide between Hindus and Muslims. The Congress won a sweeping majority and established government across all of India including the Muslim majority areas. The election had been fair but it was the treatment of Muslims under Congress that made them realize what would happen to them if the Hindus were left in control once the British left. On the political front, the Congress completely ignored the Muslim League and refused to add any Muslims to the government unless they joined the Congress. Congress flags flew from public buildings and a Hindu nationalist song, Bande Mata ram became the new national anthem. This anthem encouraged the expulsion of Muslims from the subcontinent. A Basic Education Scheme, introduced by Gandhi removed religious education and replaced Urdu with Hindi as the medium of instruction. One Local Board in the Central Provinces instructed the pupils which included Muslim boys to bow down to the portrait of Gandhi. Muslims living under Hindu rule felt harassed. They saw these moves an attempt by the Hindus to negate their culture and identity. Here was the evidence that even with legal safeguards, Muslims could not trust the Congress to safeguard their rights. The arrogant, hardline attitude of the Congress after the 1937 elections convinced more Muslims that Quaid e Azam, as Jinnah was now popularly known was not wrong in his judgment of threats to them under Congress Rule.
When World War 2 broke out, the difference between the Congress and the Muslim League became more evident. In reaction of Britain not consulting the Indians before leading India to join the war effort, Congress resigned from the government and continued to oppose the British war effort. The league, on the other hand, was pleased with these developments and declared this the ‘Day of Deliverance’. It provide limited support to the British during the War, claiming that they did not want Nazi Germany to win. The British then sent Sir Stafford Cripps with a promise for Independence once the war was over. But this offer had come too late. The Muslim League saw Cripps’s proposals leading to a Hindu majority imposing a new Indian Union and denying the rights of Muslims whereas Gandhi wanted immediate power. Both the parties rejected the proposals. Gandhi started the Quit India Movement, which Jinnah saw as a ploy by Congress to gain full control once the British left. This movement cause severe bouts of violence unseen in India since the last twenty years.
In 1944, Gandhi and Jinnah met several times to discuss what would happen once the British left. The talks ended in a stalemate as Gandhi still claimed to be representing all Indians including Muslims and wanted independence first, then consider partition. He argued that Muslims could not be called a nation by any means and that they are not at all distinct from the rest of India. M.A. Jinnah knew that Congress could never be trusted to uphold its promise once the British left and wanted the issue of partition to settle before the leaving of the British. He argued that by any canon of International Law, the Muslims were a nation as they had a lifestyle completely different from those of the Hindus. The Quaid had called for a separate Muslim homeland called Pakistan earlier during the Lahore Resolution of 23 March 1940.
The Wavell Plan at Simla proposed an executive Council with equal number of Muslim and Hindu ministers . But as the Sikhs and other Scheduled Casts would most definitely vote with the Hindus, the Muslims would never be able to share power and the Government of a United India would be dominated by Hindus. Highlighting this reason, the Quaid proposed that Pakistan was a necessity. Another Cripps Mission in 1946 failed again and highlighted the irrevocable differences between the Jinnah and Gandhi. The Quaid, through everything, had been adamant about the creation of Pakistan and rejected any other proposal that did not safeguard a separate Muslim homeland. Giving into his demands, the British agreed to this. Lord Mountbatten, the final Viceroy of India, announced the creation of two states, Pakistan and India and the division of the assets between them . He, however, also added that the two nations could in fact join together once more into a United India by mutual discussion. Both the Congress and the Muslim League seized onto this demand. For Muslims, this meant Pakistan was now a certainty. On the other hand, Congress argued that Pakistan would not work and would soon collapse. India would be united once more and their dream would become a reality. Pakistan and India were finally born on the eve of 14th August 1947 with their followed by horrific acts of violence as rival communities tried to reach their respective designated homelands.
So irrevocable differences between the Muslims and the Hindus led to the partition of India. Both the communities, while united in opposition to the British and being brothers of the Land offered stark comparison in everything else. Hindus considered the cow, a sacred animal while for the Muslims, it was a slaughter animal. This led to several incidents of religious and communal violence (which continue even to this day in India). Their religion, their food, their culture, their language, their festivals, their calendar, their clothing, their outlook on life, everything was completely different. As Nehru and Gandhi had argued, this did not mean that Muslims were a separate nation. They were converts and the children of converts. This, for Gandhi and Nehru, made the Two Nation Theory completely baseless and false. For Muslims, however, this meant a complete difference from Hindus and under International Law, they were fair in their demand for a separate homeland.
Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.
Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.
Get custom essayWhatever the case, it is evident that ideological differences on part of the leaders (Jinnah, Nehru and Gandhi) led to a divided India. Oppression, on part of the Hindus and their refusal to share power and accept the ground reality led to the growth in demand for a separate Muslim homeland. Had it not been for the suppressing attitude of the Hindus, the idea for Pakistan might not have caught traction. In addition, it can be argued that the two state solution has worked out pretty well for all parties involved. Although there are still bouts of severe communal violence, both Pakistan and India are stable states with a promising future. Had the partition been carried out without haste, the issue of Kashmir would have been resolved and there would have been relative peace between the two nations.
We are selling all kind of sports and family cars used and unused. Like we have used Toyota Alphard for sale and many other used car are also available in our showroom.
Get original essayIf you want to buy any used car then you start searching for it and if you want to sale then you put ads of it on different mediums like Used Toyota Alphard for sale. There is a number of companies which are providing this service of selling and buying used cars. So nowadays, it’s not difficult to buy to or sell a car.
We all know the importance of cars and other transport vehicles in our life. They are the basic needs of everyone. We are so much addicted to them. Without them, we cannot move from one place to another. For traveling and moving from one place to another we always required a car and any other transport vehicle. We all know this as well, that automobiles make our life fast. As a result, we lose our inner patience. We want everything as soon as possible. We don’t want to wait for anything.
Nowadays, sports cars and other used cars have become the passion of the public. People waste a lot of money on them. Everyone wants that he must have a good car for its use. If I say it’s become a race between people then I am not wrong. Everyone wants to buy a new car better than others, without thinking that can he afford this. As a result, they lost their huge money just to show off. Now, a new trend starts that people start selling their used car and buying a new one.
If you want to sell your used car then it’s not a difficult thing, nowadays. There is a number of mediums through which you can sell your car easily. There is a number of companies which are providing this service. Like showroom of your town and many other online companies.
The best option to sell your used car is a showroom. For this you take your car there and tell the worker I want to sell my car. Like my Used Toyota Alphard is for sale. It is the easiest and profitable way to sell your car. Because the showroom owners know the each and everything related to your car. Your car features, model number each and everything. If your car’s condition is good then he will pay good and there is any fault then he will pay you according to the condition.
The second medium for selling a car is an online medium. There are a lot of companies which are working in this domain and providing services for selling and buying cars. If you want to sell your car through this medium you just put an attractive ad of your car. First, you have to take 4 to 6 photos of your car and upload them with good and interesting description. Like with your car’s images you have to write first, used Toyota Alphard for sale and then write about the features and condition of the car. If your description is good and attractive then it will enhance the selling chances. But if your description doesn’t match with the images then it will create a bad impact on your selling profile. So you have to write an attractive description which creates a good impact on customers.
The number of divorces has increased a lot in the past 50 years. In the 1960s there were roughly 30,000 divorces per year, whereas in the early 2000s there were around 120,000. The divorce rate means that, according to Chandler (2006) on average, 40% of all marriages will end in a divorce.
Get original essayOne of the reasons for the increase in the divorce rate is changes in the law. Over the past 50 years there have been three main changes in the law that have made divorce easier and therefore more common: equalising the grounds for divorce between the sexes, widening the grounds for divorce and making divorce cheaper. The grounds for divorce were equalised in 1923 and this change caused a rise in the number of divorce petitions from women.
In 1971, the Divorce Law Reform Act of 1969 widened the grounds for divorce to ‘irretrievable breakdown’ – this means that couples only had to prove that the marriage was unsalvageable in order to get a divorce. No other criteria needed to be met, so this led to a large increase in the divorce rate. Divorce was made cheaper in 1949 when legal aid was introduced, thus making divorce more attainable for working class couples and again contributing to rise in the number of divorces.
Mitchell and Goody (1997) argue that one of the most important reasons for the increase in the divorce rate is the declining stigma attached to divorce and the changing attitudes towards it. In the past there was a lot of stigma attached to divorce, for example, many churches would refuse to carry out marriage ceremonies involving divorcees. However, more and more people are regarding divorce as socially acceptable. This means that more couples are considering it as a viable option as they are less inclined to be embarrassed about it, causing there to be a higher divorce rate.
Another reason for the rising number of divorces in the last 50 years is secularisation. As religious influence in society declines, people are less likely to be influenced by religious teachings when making decisions about divorce. Although many religions are opposed to divorce, some churches are making their views on divorce and divorcees less harsh, possibly because they are losing large amounts of people.
Rising expectations of marriage is another reason for the increase in the number of divorces in the last 50 years. Many functionalists, for example Fletcher (1966), argue that higher expectations of marriage make couples less willing to endure an unhappy marriage. In the past, people didn’t have a lot of choice in who they married since it was largely linked with economic reasons. This meant that their expectations were lower, making it less likely for them to become unhappy.
On the other hand, for many people nowadays, marriage should be based on love, and if there is no longer any love then there is no reason to remain married. This means that many couples get divorced, adding to the divorce rate. Although they do accept that divorce is becoming increasingly popular, functionalists indicate that people are continuing to get married and many people get remarried, meaning that most people have not rejected divorce altogether. However, feminists argue that the main cause of divorce is the patriarchal nature of marriage and oppression of women within the family, stating that functionalists do not explain why it is mostly women who petition for divorce.
A final reason for the rise in the number of divorces in the past 50 years is changes in the position of women, since women are more likely to request a divorce than men. Nowadays, women are much more likely to be in paid work; 47% of women were working in 1959 compared to 70% in 2005. This means that that it is less likely for a woman to be dependent on a husband and more likely that she would be able to afford a divorce. However, feminists argue that, since women are now wage earners as well as homemakers, this has created more conflict within marriage and is the reason for the increase in the divorce rate.
The pay gap between men and women has decreased hugely due to equal pay and anti-discrimination laws have also meant that women are less dependent on men. Girls are achieving more in education than boys today, meaning that they are able to achieve higher-paid jobs, so they can afford to get divorced if they choose to. Also, welfare benefits mean that women can get divorced even if they are dependent on their husband during marriage. Allan and Crow argue that “marriage is less embedded in within the economic system” now, since there are fewer family firms. This means that couples are do not depend on each other financially and so are able to get divorced.
The increase in the number of divorces over the last 50 years means different things to different sociologists. For instance, the New Right see a high divorce rate as undesirable because it undermines the nuclear family and leaves boys without an adult male role model. In contrast, feminists see a high divorce rate as desirable because it indicates that women are escaping the oppression of the nuclear family. Postmodernists see a high divorce rate as a cause of greater family diversity, while functionalists argue that a high divorce rate is the result of people’s high expectations of marriage. Finally, interactionists want to find out what divorce means to individuals, for example Morgan says that we shouldn’t generalise about the meaning of divorce since it is different for everyone.
In conclusion, the main reasons for the rise in the number of divorces in the last 50 years are changes in the law, declining attitudes and changing attitudes, secularisation, rising expectations of marriage and changes in the position of women.
According to scholars, a financial crisis is an expansive variety of situations in that some if not all of the available financial assets abruptly drop a large part of their original value(Martin and Milas, pp.443-459). Notably, in the 19th and 20th centuries, a lot of the financial crises were linked with banking panics and confusion(Kindleberger and Aliber, pp.34-89.).
Get original essaySimilarly, there are instances that can be referred to as a financial crisis these are the stock market crisis, sovereign defaults, currency crisis, speculative bubbles and crashes, international financial crisis and lastly wider economic crisis (Ahrend and Goujard, pp.45-89). It is important to understand that a financial crisis may result in the loss of paper wealth however it does not necessarily conclude in compelling changes in the real economy. This paper will discuss firstly, the possible causes of financial crisis. Secondly, the different impacts experienced in economies as a result of the global financial crisis and lastly evaluate some of the actual or proposed reforms available.
According to scholars, leverage is borrowing to fund investment (Higgins, pp.34-57).This is commonly specified as the biggest contributor to a financial crisis. Too much leverage is the cause of all financial crises. Notably, leverage goes above balance sheets and also, it is ingrained in off-balance sheet apparatus for instance derivatives. Equally, the most dangerous leverage is ingrained in structured finance securities. There is no known accounting for leverage this makes it complex and beyond the competence of lawmakers to limiting it. However, the only quick fix is to establish intentional overkill, radical higher capital requirements as well as accepting the consequences.
A hypothetical example of leverage happens when an individual or a financial company only invests their own finances, in the very disturbing case the individual or the company can lose their money. However, when an individual or a financial company borrows for the purpose of investment, the two cases can potentially receive more money from their investment or even in the worst cases lose more than the available. Therefore, leverage creates the risk of bankruptcy and magnifies the hidden returns from investment.
Considering that bankruptcy is the case when a company refuses or fails to honor all the payments promised to other companies, it may result in the transfer of the financial stress from one company to the another. Particularly, the regular strength of leverage in economies usually rises before a financial crisis. For instance, margin buying (borrowing to finance assets in the stock market) become perpetually common before the Wall Street Crash in the year 1929. Equally important, selected scholars believe that financial institutions can add to the fragility by not revealing leverage and as a result adding to the underpricing of risk.
It is often and basically observed that an outstanding investment demands each investor in a financial market to make an assumption of what the other investors in the market will do. George Soros who is one of the most renowned successful investor, an author and a political activist once called this need to assume the intentions of other investors ‘reflexivity’(Soros, pp.309-329).
Equally, John Maynard Keynes a British economist related the financial markets to a beauty challenge game in that each player must try to assume which model other players will regard as the most appropriate (Luzzetti and Ohanian, pp.34-78). Self-fulfilling prophesies and circularity may be speculated reasonable proof or reliable information is not made available because of the non-disclosure. Although, in most known case the investors have the motivation to equal their options. For instance, an individual who thinks other investors want to buy more or lots of Japanese yen may foresee the yen to escalate in value, therefore he or she has the motivation to purchase yen as well.
Equally, a depositor in Bank of Melbourne who foresees other depositors withdrawing all their money will await the bank to fail; therefore the depositor has the motivation to withdraw too. Notably, economist refers to this strategy of copying the strategies of others the strategic complementarity.
It is a common knowledge that if individuals and firms have strong incentives to undergo the same thing they expect others to undergo, then self-fulfilling predictions may occur. For example, if investors look forward to the value of the dollar to rise, this may trigger its value to rise and is depositors may expect a bank to fail, this may trigger it to fail. Hence, a financial crisis is at times viewed as a dangerous ring in which investors despise some assets or institution simply because they predict other to do so.
Asset-liability mismatch is another common factor believed to add to the financial crises that economies or institution may face. Scholars believe that a mismatch may occur when assets that develop interest do not align with the liabilities upon which interest ought to be secured(Park, pp.43-78).
For instance, an asset financed by a liability with a contrasting maturity develops a mismatch. This risk is associated with the institution’s assets (loans) and liabilities (deposits) especially when the two are not aligned appropriately. For example, banks provide deposit account which its customers can withdraw money at any time, then the profits gathered is used to give loans to homeowners and businesses. Now a mismatch will occur when depositors panic and withdraw their money a lot more quickly than the banks can collect all their loans.
Much analysis on the financial crises that have had to happen in the past have emphasized the role of investment mistakes that arise due to lack of proper knowledge and weakness in the human reasoning. Renowned economic historian Charles P. Kindleberger pointed out that major financial crises follow a technical or a financial innovation that expose investors with new or modern types of financial opportunities, which in his own term referred to this as ‘displacement of investors’ expectations’(Pons-Vignon, pp.57-89).
Some of the known examples of this include the Mississippi Bubble that occurred in the year 1720 and the South Sea Bubble also occurred in the same year. The two instances occurred when the concept of company stock investment was unfamiliar and new at the time. Recently, common financial crises come after the changes in the investment circle developed by the financial deregulation as well as the crash of the dot-com bubble in the year 2001 this began with the irrational excitement around the internet technology.
Lack of knowledge and experience in financial and technical innovations may guide and explain how investors frequently and grossly overestimate asset values. If investors in a new class of assets highly profit from the rising assets while other investors learn about the innovation, others may follow in the investment expecting to earn more profits and as a result, contributing to the rise of the prices even higher. Now if such herd behavior results in the escalation of prices above the original value of the assets, a crash may be unavoidable. On the other hand, if the price falls and the investors realize there is no other gain in the investment the opposite may happen. A price decrease may cause a rush and quick asset sale supporting the decrease in amounts.
Governments have tried to destroy and eliminate financial crises through controlling the financial sector. The major goals and achievements of regulation or control are transparency; helping banks’ financial standing publicly known by demanding often reporting under uniform accounting routines (Financial Incentives Had No Effect on Hypertension Care in UK, pp.1-10). Similarly, regulation helps banks and financial institutions to have enough assets to meet their constitutional obligations, by capital requirements, reserve requirements as well as other restriction on leverage.
It is important to note that some financial crises have been directed to inadequate control, and have helped transformation in regulation in order to avert repetition. For instance, the former International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn blamed the 2008 financial crisis on regulatory deficiency to protect against risk-taking in the financial structures, more importantly in the United States. However, exaggerated regulation has also been named as a potential motivation for financial crises. To demonstrate, the Basel II Accord has been castigated for demanding financial institution to increase their capital when there is a risk, in return this might cause the banks to reduce lending specifically when capital is limited potentially provoking a financial crisis.
The global financial crisis was first experienced in July 2007 with an economic condition in which the investment capitals become hard to find (credit crunch), and a liquidity crisis caused by the loss of confidence by the investors in the monetary worth of sub-prime mortgages(Taylor and Clarida, pp.45-90). As a result, the US Federal Bank injected a large amount of capital in the financial markets. By end of 2008, the financial crisis had escalated leading to the crashing of stock markets around the world. The consumer confidence fell as individuals narrowed their belts in the anxiety of the future.
The GFC of the year 2008 was compared to as a sledgehammer pointed at the glass screen of the world’s economy. In many different ways, the world is still trying to get back to balanced position. Evidently, the GFC was felt by every generation and memories and visions of businesses in ruins is stripped open and will never be forgotten nearly. The question every individual is asking can it happen again? And how well are the people prepared to incase this financial Armageddon befalls again?
Ten years ago the Dominos began falling from poor bets on the US subprime mortgage market. Firstly, the Bear Stearns and then the Lehman Brothers collapsed. The GFC that set the world ablaze has up to now left many sectors trying to set up their foundation again from the grassroots. The comparison of what was experienced in the United States and what followed knocked down the world as well as the current stands in Australia emerge gloomy on the surface. It is important to note that America was over-reliant on household loans in that instance, with 98% of its GDP being summed up by mortgages.
Australia now stands at 123% of GDP which is the second highest in the world or similarly it is the second wealthiest country in term of wealth per adult. However, the Australian financial system is improbable or unlikely to collapse is that the Reserve Bank of Australia is keenly monitoring the bank rates as well as ensuring the financial institutions remain workable. Notably, the biggest factor that supported the GFC was that loans were being given to people who never had a chance to pay them back.
The impact felt by different economies after the GFC was as follows lost outputs, lost exports, lost remittances, lost aid especially in the third world economies, lost capital inflow and so on. Resulting from the global financial crisis was that emerging as well as developing economies across the globe faced a steep slowdown in output success. It was noted that the real GDP of both the emerging and the developing economies dragged from 8.3% in 2007 to 6.1% in 2008 and later to 2.4% in the year 2009. The real GDP of nations in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), as well as the western hemisphere weakened in the year 2009 although in developing sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, as well as the middle east real GDP was experienced below average rates in the years running to the financial crisis.
The world economy has marked progress five years later, world unemployment is down, and credit is available also the home prices are up. However, in order to protect the economy against the financial crisis experienced there is still a lot that will have to be accomplished.
Keep in mind:
This is only a sample.
Get a custom paper now from our expert writers.
Get custom essayFirstly, the regulatory and the authorities concerned must ensure that the economic recovery reaches both the small businesses and the middle class. The current policy of asset investment commonly known as quantitative easing, which practiced by the Federal Reserve has managed to reduce unemployment kept the interest rates low as well as strengthened the economy. However, to support this policy, there is a need to move from the now fiscal policy which in many instances has proved to oppose this goal. This entails giving relief to the people facing foreclosure and encouraging options that make student credit compensation more manageable for borrowers.