Fist Pumping Their Way To The Top Essay

â€Å"Gym, Tanning, Laundry†, these three words have become increasingly popular among teenagers because of MTV’s hit reality television show, Jersey Shore. Television shows and their stars can become very influential to many of their viewers. Many of these viewers strive to be like these stars and mimic their style and attitude, in hopes of living the same careless lifestyle that has made these stars known around the world. Unfortunately, these television shows don’t always portray certain aspects of life realistically, and therefore send a false message that can be very deceiving. Studies show that television shows tend to follow several popular trends that do indeed portray the wrong reality. Harry F. Water’s article, â€Å"Life According to TV†, analyzes the different trends that television shows and movies in popular culture tend to follow. Harry Water’s focuses on George Gerbner’s research on the scientific examination of television far beyond familiar children-and-violence arguments. He describes television’s reality warp dealing with sex, age, race, work, health and crime. Water’s states in his article, â€Å"People over 65, too, are grossly underrepresented on television. Correspondingly, heavy-viewing Annenberg respondents believe that the elderly are a vanishing breed and that they make up a smaller proportion of the population today than they did 20 years ago. In fact, they form the nation’s most rapidly expanding age group† (Waters, 1982). Jersey Shore is a reality television show similar to that of â€Å"The Real World† and markets binge drinking, partying, fake tanning, and sleeping all day. It seems that the drama-driven cast seems to be promoting a careless way of life, and in fact might be rubbing off on its viewers. Elderly people are rarely seen on the show, and the stars are constantly shown going out with other young people, and going to bars and clubs that consist of other people around their age group. Even though some of the stars on the show are in their 30’s, they still live a constant partying lifestyle and act as though they are still young and essentially do not have to grow up yet. Teenagers watching this show can see this lifestyle as normal and strive to live their life the same way. The stars in the show live in a nice house and are constantly spending money, even though they only work at a pizza, ice cream and t-shirt company. In reality, these types of jobs would not cover the type of expenses these lifestyles come with. This lifestyle is extremely glamorized and in reality, someone living the same lifestyle as these stars would not be living nearly as luxuriously as they do, due to the success rate they have gained from the show. Many of these stars are on the front of magazines and all over different television talk shows because their show has become so successful and is increasing in fans. Some worry that viewers might have more motivation to be like these casts members and partake in inappropriate activities in hopes that they too will get famous. David Showalter a columnist for New Jersey newsroom says that, â€Å"MTV’s ‘Jersey Shore’ success is a cultural phenomenon† (Showalter, 2011), and for the most part he is absolutely correct. Jersey Shore has been a huge success, but for what? Partying? Another aspect of life that television shows often times portray unrealistically is health. Water’s states in his article, â€Å"Although video characters exist almost entirely on junk food and quaff alcohol 15 times more often than water, they manage to remain slim, healthy and beautiful.† Jersey Shore is centered almost entirely on partying and living that partying lifestyle- partying all night and recovering for half of the next day in order to be ready to do it again. However, the majority of the cast appears to be extremely well fit. This can confuse viewers because constant partying and binge drinking daily can be extremely harmful to one’s health. Even though going to the gym is part of these cast members daily routine, it does not make up for their excessive partying and will eventually catch up to them, when the viewers are no longer watching. These stars go out almost every night and are constantly shown belligerent to the point where they can’t walk and are starting fights in clubs and other public places, and for some reason young teenagers are seeing this as something cool to participate in. In an interview by Steven Guarino, he states, â€Å"Alcoholism is promoted on the Jersey Shore so much that it could influence younger viewers to drink irresponsibly.† The motive and center of the show is clearly the stars ongoing party lifestyle and their crazy drunken endeavors. The Situation, one of the cast members, has even stated in the first season on the first episode, â€Å"You can hate on me all you want to, but what can you possibly say to somebody that looks like Rambo, pretty much, with his shirt off.† Therefore, although the stars are constantly drinking and eating poorly, they still remain slim and good-looking, when in reality most people would be looking the complete opposite. Walter’s article also states, â€Å"Frequent TV watchers, the Annenberg investigators found, eat more, drink more, exercise less and possess an almost mystical faith in the curative powers of medical science.† When watching television shows, sometimes we get hooked and start to believe and agree with these stars way of life, not noticing the reality of it and allowing ourselves to get sucked into popular culture. Tanning is another major part of the popular Jersey Shore lifestyle. As we know, fake tanning can be very harmful to our skin, and cause skin cancer. However, the Jersey Shore characters act as if it is a way of life. Waters also states in his article, â€Å"Television may well be the single most pervasive source of health information. And it’s over idealized images of medical people, coupled with its complacency about unhealthy life-styles, leaves both patients and doctors vulnerable to disappointment, frustration and even litigation† (Waters, 1982). Despite what children have heard from their parents or other people, the un-healthy diets they see on television can appear healthy to them because they seem to be working for these reality TV stars and consequently can end up being more influential than what they’ve heard. Snooki, one of the show’s main characters, recently said on a Jay Leno show, that she’d like to change the world by installing cancer-causing tanning beds â€Å"in everybody’s homes.† Every member on the show tans in a tanning bed daily as a consistent part of their daily lives, and considers being tan as one of the main things one must do in order to be good looking. The cast members are very forward about this and seem to see nothing wrong with it. The Situation states in the second episode of the first season, â€Å"I wait till the last minute to shave, I wait till the last minute to put my shirt on ‘cause you feel fresh. These are rules to live by, shave last minute, haircut the day-of, maybe some tanning and the gym. You gotta do the guido handbook.† These quotes seem to be aiming towards the casts members’ hopes to influence viewers to live these similar lifestyles and to shoot to look like them, even if it’s not what’s best for the viewers’ health and unfortunately television shows continue to influence people in the wrong way. Although Jersey Shore seems to capture every negative aspect of reality television and continues to be unrealistic, it somehow remains the most viewed series on MTV. The third season finale delivered 4.8 million viewers; almost triple the audience who watched the season premiere on December 3 (Martin). It is clear that the Jersey Shore phenomenon is continuing to grow and become more widespread than ever before. This can be very troubling to parents and the messages being sent to young teenagers is influencing them in a very negative way, while showing them unrealistic â€Å"reality television†. With popular culture becoming more and more deceiving, viewers can forget to question who they are really taking after.

Edwards’ Sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Essay

When first reading Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, â€Å"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,† shocked readers how it started right in about the wrath of God and Hell. His diction and images create a tone of alarming immediacy – act now for your own good. â€Å"The bow of God’s wrath is bent†, the arrow ready to pierce the heart of a sinner. Edwards uses this frightening image to compare the power of God to the people. His point is that he wants to persuade sinners to repent. Edwards seems to feel a harsh tone is needed in this to get the point across that they need God to lead them out of the dreadful pit. Edwards’ word choices present a contradiction, saying that people who have a relationship with God can still go to Hell because there is only God’s hand holding us up from Hell. The word â€Å"obligation† implies that the arrow could pierce a sinner’s heart right now, during his sermon. Also, â€Å"everlasting destructionà ¢â‚¬  has a big impact, telling people that they can have life if they follow God, or be swallowed up by Hell. Edwards is didactic and harsh with the information he tries to convey to the congregation, scaring them he hopes, into salvation. He uses these tools to help the tone on the importance of knowing God and how people’s lives can be changed. He does this out of love, trying to tell them how it really is and wanting them to choose the right way. This frightening, bullying tone is a far cry from the 21st century sermons which emphasize God’s love for mankind as in the well known verse John 3:16.

Pediatric Palliative Care

Pediatric Palliative Care Ana M. Gehan Thomas Edison State College Pediatric Palliative Care In modern society, children are expected to outlive their parents. However, for children living with life threatening illnesses, palliative care is an approach to care that enhances quality of life for both the child and the grieving parents. In the article, â€Å"Pediatric Palliative Care: The Time is Now! † the authors stress how important it is to start and/or continue pediatric palliative care programs. Worldwide, an estimated 7 million children and their families could benefit from hospice care (Rushton, January-February 2002, p. 7). In the United States alone, 1 million children are very serious ill (Rushton, January-February 2002, p. 57). Pediatric palliative care has become an increasing discussion in the health care world. Palliative care was first introduced in 1990 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is currently defined as â€Å"an approach to care which improves qu ality of life of patients and their families facing life-threatening illness through prevention, assessment and treatment of pain and other physical, psychological, and spiritual problems â€Å"(Morgan, March-April, p. 7). Pediatric palliative care is an area of the patient care that can be one of the most emotionally challenging areas of practice. In the article, â€Å"Caring for Dying Children: Assessing the Needs of the Pediatric Palliative Care Nurse† the author outlines how stressful the job of taking care of a dying child can be on the nurse. Health care workers may experience emotions such as helplessness, anger, sadness, and anxiety while providing care to dying children (Morgan, March-April, p. 86). These emotions may quickly lead to â€Å"nurse burnout† and increase nurse burnout in hospital settings. It is not uncommon for health care workers to perceive the death of a child as a â€Å"triple† failure: first, because they did not have the means, skills or abilities to save a life; second, because in their social role as adults, they were unable to protect the child from harm; and, third, because they â€Å"betrayed† parents who trusted them with the most valuable being in their life (Morgan, March-April, p. 87). The nurse’s role in caring and supporting children and their families require special coping skills which are essential to providing the most positive outcome for all that are involved in the palliative process. The aim of pediatric palliative care is to keep the child comfortable while supporting the parents in caring for their child according to their wishes and beliefs. From the diagnosis, parents are already grieving the loss of their child. Grieving not only affects the family but has a huge emotional impact on health care providers as well. When a child’s life ends, families need intense and long-term psychosocial and bereavement services (Rushton, January-February 2002, p. 57). Psychosocial and bereavement resources and support for health care professionals who care for these children are virtually nonexistent or minimally supported in the current cost constrained health care environment (Rushton, January-February 2002, p. 57). The medical world and Congress have taken an important first step to support the need for pediatric palliative care services. In 1999, CHI successfully advocated for bipartisan congressional appropriations for demonstration model program to address the unique needs of children with life threatening conditions (Rushton, January-February 2002, p. 59). There is so much to that nursing has to do in the future to make sure that pediatric palliative is out there in every hospital, institute and every setting that a child is at. We all must increase the awareness of pediatric palliative care programs and the special needs of the nurses who care for these dying children. A child’s death may seem like a long, scary pathway. Nurses have the power to create a brighter journey for these patients and their families, as well as for themselves. References Morgan, D. (March-April). Caring for Dying Children: Assessing the Needs of the Pediatric Palliative Care Nurse. Pediatric Nursing, 35(2), 86-90. Rushton, C. H. (January-February 2002). Pediatric Palliative Care: The Time is Now! Pediatric Nursing, 28(1), 57-70.

The History of Love Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The History of Love - Essay Example The novel has two main characters who also act as narrators of their specific sections. The first narrator is Leo Gursky, an 80year old Polish immigrant in New York. We are first introduced to Leo Gursky when he believes his life is coming to an end, living alone in a small apartment in Manhattan â€Å"I often wonder who will be the last person to see me alive. If I had to bet, I’d bet on the delivery boy from the Chinese takeout. I order in four nights out of seven. Whenever he comes, I make a big production of finding my wallet. He stands in the door holding the greasy bag while I wonder if this is the night I’ll finish off my spring roll, climb into bed, and have a heart attack in my sleep†(Krauss 3). He is scared of dying on a day when nobody has noticed him and says and believes he has to persuade himself of his existence by making himself noticeable. This drives him to mildly attention-seeking behavior like creating a disturbance by dropping his change in a shop or trying on shoes that he does not intend to buy. Gursky passes for a man without much of a life, but we later learn that he was once a man very rich in art and love. He was once in love with a woman called Alma back in Poland, but due to the chaos and tragedy of war while making his way to America, he is separated from his true love Alma who ends up marrying somebody else. Leo’s art is manifested when we are told of a novel he wrote in Poland, The History of Love, but entrusted it to his friend Zvi Litvinoff who later told him that it was lost. The second character is Alma Singer a fourteen year old girl living with her widowed mother, Charlotte and her brother. We later learn that Alma was named after the heroine of a book her father, David singer loved and that Leo Gursky’s book was not lost after all but it was published in Spanish in Chile and that’s how it ended up in the hands of David singer Charlottes’ husband. Alma’s mother is tran slating a novel called The History of love she was given by her husband from Spanish to English. Krauss’s novel centers on the book that was written by Leo in Yiddish, in which all the girls are named after his love Alma. According to Gursky, just the same way Eve was the first woman in the bible is the same way Alma will be the first girl (Krauss 38). As Alma grows up, she is determined to find the real life Alma whom she was named after. Her detective work spurred after a mysterious stranger sends her mum a letter requesting her to translate the Spanish version of â€Å"the history of love† into English. She sets out to bring back her mother into loving again and decides that the mysterious stranger who commissioned the translation of the history of love into English might be a love interest for her mother and she does sets to find out who the stranger could be. As the novel progresses, we start to get passages from Gursky's novel laid out within the Krauss’s novel. Krauss is able to connect the two levels of fiction - the novel within and the novel without. Gursky’s tone is a disappointed, dry voice while Alma's tone is more engaged and naive with most of her expedition written as a comedy. In the young Alma's story we find a charming girl emerging into adulthood

Qualities and skills necessary for success in a specific Essay

Qualities and skills necessary for success in a specific career-Business - Essay Example Only through a charismatic character can a person win the attention and interest of the people. Charismatic character is essential for achieving success in one’s personal as well as professional life. Along with this, the ability to communicate well is an essential requirement. This is where the charm of orators lie. The primary weapon of an orator is his/her ability to communicate. Like any other profession a person who wish to be an orator should first have a role model. He/she should read and listen to their speeches and analyze it to determine the factors of their success. There are many common skills and traits which many of the public speakers and orators have in common. But some of the most important skills are: Thorough Research: Telling the same phrases and incidents again and again makes only a good speaker. But researching more on the topic and presenting new ideas build up great speakers. Focus: A good orator should not divert from the message to be conveyed. All a dditions like humor, story, phrases, etc should end in the transfer of message clearly to the audience. This will help your audience to grasp your message. Organized: You need to be organized and present your ideas logically. An organized speech will help the audience to recall it easily. Humor: Humor is an easier and interesting way to convey the message. Also, the timing of the humor is also of utmost importance in a speech. Knowledge about the audience: Awareness about the audience is essential to make the speech successful. An orator should deliver the message that the audience need to hear. Proper feedback: It is very important to understand that no presentation or presenter is perfect. An orator should seek continuous feedback from the audience in order to make continuous self improvement. Act and speak ethically: Ethics and respect for the audience is very important for a good speaker. A good speaker is responsible for his words and statements. Public speaking opportunities s tem right from the play school of a child and the quality mounts high as we mount the ladder of professional success. To be a successful public speaker, the speaker needs to be very interesting. A boring speaker is a bad speaker. A good public speaker needs to be credible. He/she should have strong authority on the statements. Authority on the statements can be achieved only if facts are presented with passion and conviction. They have the direction and ability to provide ideas and direction to solve their problems. They should inspire the audience with a â€Å"Can Do Approach†. The famous speeches of Sir Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, etc illustrate the key attributes of outstanding public speakers. Bad Public Speakers Bad public speakers are self focused rather than audience focused. Some of the commons things which bad speakers have are as follows: Voice tone: Bad speakers are monotonous in nature. This will lead to loss of interest among the audience. Pace: is imp ortant to speak slowly and clearly. If your words are not clear it is difficult to make any sort of good impression on the audience. Some speakers don’t speak with a conviction. You need to be calm and take the correct pauses. Extroverts vs. introverts: Extroverts are found to be bad public speakers. They are difficult to be trained. At the same time introverts tend to be good speakers as they are better listeners. Conclusion

Unit 3 Taxation and Representation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unit 3 Taxation and Representation - Assignment Example ight by a considerable extent, which was evident by having a close look on their respective approaches towards fulfilling such rights effectively (Ward, â€Å"History in the Making: An Absorbing Look at How American History Has Changed in the Telling over the Last 200 Years†). According to Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, the right of taxation was referred to an option, which has been provided to the willing Englishmen by the British government. However, this provision changed with time. The political rights belonged exclusively to the colonists included the right to vote, order or proceed whereas, the power and authority over the British parliament remained confined to the concerning authorities. The above stated rights regarding the power to vote, order and proceed were only agreed upon by the legislation and the Parliament in terms of sharing with the colonists (Hanover, â€Å"Samuel Adams, and The Rights of the Colonists†). The existence of unrealistic expectations about the relationship prevailed between the mother country and its colonies can be duly considered as a major cause for the revolt brought upon by the colonists over Great Britain. For instance, the unrealistic and the ineffective mandates set up by the Parliament gradually resulted in raising several debates about taxation in the 1700s (GMW, â€Å"Soame Jenyns the Objections to the taxation considerd

National Culture and Financial Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

National Culture and Financial Systems - Essay Example Based on the findings of this two-part study, the writer will draw conclusions and make inferences on the subjects. This will include an examination of important elements and aspects of culture and its consequences on the national, firm and individual levels and specific implications for the two countries in the quest. â€Å"Culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns† (Taylor, 2009: 85). Culture refers to the patterns that are generally accepted in a given community. These behavioral patterns dictate what is right and what is wrong in the community. Hence, culture defines a framework of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Another definition put forward by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition states that â€Å"culture is a shared pattern of behaviors, interactions, cognitive constructs and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization† (2012). This means that culture relates to a number of preferences and patterns that are common in a community because the social structures of the community have accepted them and they transmit them to other people. Culture clearly defines the social system of a community and sets a clear framework for what is right and what is wrong. Organizations take inputs from the environment, process them into outputs which they offer to customers. Customers are products of the society. Hence, customers are influenced by the norms, values, and culture of the society. Due to this, cultural analysis is an important aspect of business success. Thus, a business must undertake an analysis of culture in order to succeed. It can be demonstrated on the national, firm and individual level.

Sexual violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sexual violence - Essay Example The majority of the victims tends to blame themselves, and thus fails to give information about the heinous acts of sexual violence, which the offenders perpetrate on them. The reasons that compel victims not to report cases of rape encompass fear, feeling of helplessness, and perceived powerlessness of the security agents such as the police. Similarly, the victims fail report the sexual assaults because of the threat of further victimization from the authorities. The speech indicated that personal fear and lack of trust in the security agents contributes to the unreported cases of sexual assault. These are the lessons that everyone should draw, and then explore ways of dealing with the fear because sexual assault has emotional, physical, and psychological ramifications. It seems that people do not have hope in the police, and thus they chose to remain silent on cases centering on sexual violence. In fact, the event drew a significant lesson that people should take the responsibility of reporting any case of sexual violence. The victims should view that sexual assault is heinous and a disrespect for an individual’s dignity. No one should go silent on issues that violate one’s right to live a respected life devoid of interference of any sort. In fact, the higher education should organize such events regularly in order to equip the students with the right skills that are integral in their lives. Many students are subject to the se xual violence, and events discussing issues central to student life ought to feature prominently in the institutions’ calendars. The student involvement in the campus community plays a critical in ensuring that the learners live a success life in college. The activities foster a sense of togetherness and promote the growth of a community of scholars who exhibit a prime target of acquiring knowledge to apply it in the future

Critically assess the view that using drugs leads to crime Essay

Critically assess the view that using drugs leads to crime - Essay Example These situations illustrate an obvious association between drugs and crime. However, it is difficult to accurately determine to what extent in which drugs could be considered the main motivation for crimes. A person under the influence of an illegal drug while committing a crime does not necessarily mean that the crime was drug-related. To what extent the drug clouded their judgment is subjective at best. That person may be a cigarette smoker as well but the crime would certainly not be classified as tobacco-related. Theories such as Strain, Labeling and Socialisation explain causations for crime and can also be applied to drug usage, but all drug users do not commit crimes and all criminals do not use drugs. The connections between drug use and crime are complex and explanations vary widely. This has been a topic that has garnered a considerable amount of attention for the past few decades among the public, media and politicians because of the considerable negative social and econom ic impact on society as a whole and the victims of crime. Some argue that laws make criminals out of drug users and distributors. Prohibition acts to encourage organized criminal activity because of the high profitability involved. In addition, the inflated expense of drugs is the main reason a user has to resort to crime to support their habit. Broadly differing arguments are offered regarding the degree to which criminal activity is driven by drug use. The term ‘drug user’ cannot be used without qualification when connecting this activity to crimes of any description. Drugs such as amphetamines, cocaine, phencyclidine, (PCP), barbiturates and alcohol are more closely connected to criminal acts of violence than are heroin and marijuana according to current scientific literature (Wright & Klee, 2001). Some statistics that show a linkage from drug use to crime are generated from drug tests on prisoners. If the

Unfair Treatment of Minorities in the Criminal Justice System Essay

Unfair Treatment of Minorities in the Criminal Justice System - Essay Example Unfair Treatment of Minorities in the Criminal Justice System The U.S. criminal justice system has come under critical public scrutiny in the recent years for one of the age-old problems afflicting the nation - racial discrimination. The present research attempts a review of criminal justice administration in the U.S. with a view to establishing the thesis that minorities, Blacks and Latinos, are discriminated against at every stage within the criminal justice system - the racial minorities are charged with more serious crimes, have less opportunity to plea-bargain, are convicted more frequently, and receive harsher sentences when compared with Caucasians in similar situations. The scope of the research is limited to the extent of establishing the thesis and shall not attempt to analyze the underlying causes and/or examine the possible strategies for ensuring equal justice to all. It is significant to note that the issue of unfair treatment of minorities has been a subject of research and academic interest by mainly social science researchers and lawyers. While researchers tend to disagree on the sources of disparity or overrepresentation of minorities, as to whether it is due to disproportionate involvement in criminal offenses or to criminal justice system biases, there is a general consensus that minorities are disproportionately represented and are treated unfairly at almost every stage of the justice system. [Kramer and Steffensmeir, 1993; Blumstein, 1993; Cole, 1999] A review of the available research is attempted to understand how researchers have approached and addressed the issue. According to Coramae Mann, racial discrimination is endemic to the United States; it permeates the criminal justice system and all other American institutions, resulting in the unjust treatment of racial minorities. She claims that when the "more flagrant, systemic means of economic and political control of minorities used in the past were no longer feasible or morally acceptable ... criminal law began to be used to warehouse American minorities and maintain their unequal status." [Mann, 1993; p. 127] David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and an attorney with Center for Constitutional Rights, who studied unequal racial justice in the U.S. claims that "our [the U.S.] criminal justice system affirmatively depends on inequality" [Cole, 1999; p.5] He claims that in the absence of race and class disparities the criminal justice system could not have afforded the policy of mass incarceration pursued since the 1980s. Cole claims that African Americans, who constitute 12 percent of the general population, comprise more than half of the prison population and have higher arrest and conviction rates, serve longer sentences, face higher bail amounts and are often victims of police use of deadly force than white citizens. [Cole, 1999; p.4] According to Cassia Spohn, blacks and Hispanics who are young, male, and unemployed are particularly more likely than their white counterparts to be sentenced to prison and receive longer sentences in some jurisdictions. Spohn's study also claim that minorities convicted of drug offences, those with longer prior criminal

Brief synopsis of research proposal - NGOs in Saudi Arabia; Essay

Brief synopsis of research proposal - NGOs in Saudi Arabia; Strategies, Development and Marketing Management - Essay Example Known in its all forms as the â€Å"non-profit,† â€Å"nongovernmental,† â€Å"voluntary,† â€Å"civil society,† â€Å"third,† or â€Å"independent† sector, this set of institutions includes within it a new bewildering array of entities brought by the younger generation of today, who have usually studied abroad. Furthermore, the least contribution of Saudi citizen in political sphere is to be involved in the non-profit sector. The government’s openness towards the political contribution of citizens is allowed through the involvement in third sector. Therefore, Saudi elite have entered in the so-called ‘civil society’ in its mere concept free from any political implications. This has created a conflict among the society, whether to accept the terminology or to change to other words to be more appropriate culturally and religiously. Despite the division in deciding the name by which it shall be called, majority have agreed on the lofty goal behind the concept in its social dimension -the act of kindness. In the past few decade numbers of non-profit organizations were established in Saudi, these coherent organizations had built a strong relationship with the state. Their activities are mostly based on the philanthropy and socio- religious developments. With the impact of modernization, the well-known traditional groups were bound to fade under its influence, followed by the emergence of a new group of educated Middle Class advocating political agenda. This has created a sort of threat and confusion within the government. New boundaries had to be established to deal with the new language without raising conflicts. In contrast, looking from a positive side through the lens of development, modernization brought new concepts to the realm of the third sector. Insofar, it has been considered a good turning point; the misconceptions of new ideologies

Financial Crisis Recovery Essay Example for Free

Financial Crisis Recovery Essay 1997-1998 Financial Crisis The weaknesses in Asian financial systems were at the root of the crisis that caused largely by the lack of incentives for effective risk management created by implicit or explicit government guarantees against failure. The weaknesses of the financial sector also were masked by rapid growth and accentuated by large capital inflows, which were partly encouraged by pegged exchange rates. In the mid-1990s, a series of external shocks began to change the economic environment the devaluation of the Chinese Renminbi and the Japanese Yen, rising of U. S. interest rates which led to a strong U.S. dollar, the sharp decline in semiconductor prices; adversely affected their growth. The crisis began in Thailand when the Thai baht collapse of in July 1997 with a series of speculative attacks on the baht extended after quite a few decades of outstanding economic performance in Asia. As the U.S. economy recovered from a recession in the early 1990s, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank under Alan Greenspan began to raise U.S. interest rates to head off inflation. This made the U.S. a more attractive investment destination relative to Southeast Asia, which had been attracting hot money flows through high short-term interest rates, and raised the value of the U.S. dollar. For the Southeast Asian nations which had currencies pegged to the U.S. dollar, the higher U.S. dollar caused their own exports to become more expensive and less competitive in the global markets. At the same time, Southeast Asias export growth slowed dramatically in the spring of 1996, deteriorating their current account position. Many economists believe that the Asian crisis was created not by market psychology or technology, but by policies that distorted incentives within the lender–borrower relationship. Impacts of the crisis to the South East Asia Most of Southeast Asia and Japan having currency depreciation, devalued stock markets and other asset prices, and a precipitous rise in private debt. It were resulting large quantities of credit became available generated a highly leveraged economic climate, and pushed up asset prices to an unsustainable level. These asset prices eventually began to collapse, causing individuals, financial institutions and corporations in the affected countries were bankrupt. A change in market sentiment could and did lead into a violent of currency depreciation, insolvency, and capital outflows, which was difficult to stop. In the year after collapse of the baht peg, the value of the most affected East Asian currencies fell 35-83% against the U.S. dollar (measured in dollars per unit of the Asian currency), and the most serious stock declines were as great as 40-60%. Lenders led to a large withdrawal of credit from the crisis countries, causing a credit crunch and further bankruptcies. Foreign investors attempted to withdraw their money; the exchange market was flooded with the currencies of the crisis countries, putting depreciative pressure on their exchange rates. As a result, short-term economic activity has slowed or contracted severely in the most affected economies like inflation and rising in unemployment. It impossible that the government doing nothing when the crisis happened to their country. To prevent currency values collapsing, countries governments raised fiscal spending in domestic interest rates to exceedingly high levels (to help diminish flight of capital by making lending more attractive to investors) and to intervene in the exchange market, buying up any excess domestic currency at the fixed exchange rate with foreign reserves. But when interest rates were very high, it can be extremely damaging to an economy that is healthy, wreaked further havoc on economies in an already fragile state, while the central banks were hemorrhaging foreign reserves, of which they had finite amounts. As a strategy to maintain competitiveness, policies to strengthen the country’s balance-of-payments account were pursued. For example, exports were encouraged and imports were discouraged, the latter through an increase in import taxes on certain goods and services. Measures to increase exports for providing handouts directly to people affected included reducing the cost of doing business through such means as tax incentives to boost the manufacturing, agriculture, and services sectors. In the case Malaysia for example, there are policies regarding 1997 crisis: Denial and hesitation, the Malaysian government denied that there was a crisis in the first place; Tight fiscal and monetary policies, and restructuring the banking system; Government proposed to use regional currencies instead of the US dollars in inter-ASEAN bilateral trade; and Financing the recovery programs with the total cost of all measures was RM62 billion. While in the case of Indonesia, the government providing assistance to the poor like efforts to shield poor and vulnerable sections of society from the worst of the crisis, by deepening and widening social safety nets and devoting substantial budgetary resources to increasing subsidies on basic commodities such as rice; measures to increase transparency in the financial, corporate, and government sectors; and steps to improve the efficiency of markets and increase competition. Another example of helping the poor and needy, government must be fair and redistribute the wealth equally to them according their basic necessities of life. In Malaysia, the practicing of zakat system and waqaf contribution to help the poor and needy indirectly will benefit the society. Moreover, Bank Rakyat and ar-rahnu market on Islamic pawn-broking will help the small and medium enterprise to expend their business. Government also must allocate the budget expenditure for subsidizing mainly on education, healthcare and housing for the people. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that provides financial assistance and advice to member countries. It was created out of a need to prevent economic crises like the Great Depression. With its sister organization, the World Bank, the IMF is the largest public lender of funds in the world. It is a specialized agency of the United Nations and is run by its 186 member countries. Membership is open to any country that conducts foreign policy and accepts the organizations statutes. The IMF is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the international monetary system, the system by which international payments among countries take place. A core responsibility of the IMF is to provide loans to member countries experiencing actual or potential balance of payments problems. This financial assistance enables countries to rebuild their international reserves, stabilize their currencies, continue paying for imports, and restore conditions for strong economic growth, while undertaking policies to correct underlying problems. Unlike development banks, the IMF does not lend for specific projects. It thus strives to provide a systematic mechanism for foreign exchange transactions in order to foster investment and promote balanced global economic trade. To achieve these goals, the IMF focuses and advises on the macroeconomic policies of a country, which affect its exchange rate and its governments budget, money and credit management. The IMF will also appraise a countrys financial sector and its regulatory policies, as well as structural policies within the macroeconomic that relate to the labor market and employment. In addition, as a fund, it may offer financial assistance to nations in need of correcting balance of payments discrepancies. The IMF is thus entrusted with nurturing economic growth and maintaining high levels of employment within countries. The large financial packages which the IMF has arranged for countries affected by the Asian crisis and its result have stimulated a debate both among policy-makers and academics as to their costs and benefits. The IMF’s role in providing financial assistance to its members in overcoming short-term balance-of-payment difficulties generally has been evident. Advantages and disadvantages of IMF The IMF offers its assistance which it conducts on a yearly basis for individual countries, regions and the global economy as a whole. However, a country may ask for financial assistance if it finds itself in an economic crisis, whether caused by a sudden shock to its economy or poor macroeconomic planning. A financial crisis will result in severe devaluation of the countrys currency or a major depletion of the nations foreign reserves. In return for the IMFs help, a country is usually required to embark on an IMF-monitored economic reform program, otherwise known as Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs). An IMF loan provides a cushion that eases the adjustment policies and reforms that a country must make to correct its balance of payments problem and restore conditions for strong economic growth. Supporters argue that the IMF can also impose necessary reforms on an economy. Reforms such as privatization, fiscal responsibility, control of Money supply, and attacking corruption. These policies may cause short term pain, but, are essential for preventing future crisis and long term development. Substantial financial advantages are attached to IMF credits because debtor countries benefit from lower debt service costs. Moreover, commercial banks often demand agreement with the IMF before lending is resumed and generally will charge lower interest rates to countries with an IMF program. The benefits attached to the IMF loan can be regarded as a compensation for the policy adjustments which the debtor countries carry through. At the same time, thanks to the unique role the IMF can play, the costs involved for the creditor countries seem to be rather limited, as the opportunity costs of forgoing the proceeds of alternative investments are relatively small. By temporarily providing finance and at the same time fostering adjustment, member countries could overcome external problems without overly detrimental measures either for their own population or for other countries. The interest rates charged by the IMF in normal circumstances can be relatively low, because the special role of the IMF in the international financial system reduces the risks for the IMF itself as well as for the creditor countries which have provided the resources. Because of its special position the IMF can mitigate the risks attached to its loans. Helped by its low funding costs, the IMF can charge debtor countries lower interest rates than private sector participants which have to charge high spreads because of the sovereign risks involved. Over time, the IMF has been subject to a range of criticisms, generally focused on the conditions of its loans. The IMF has also been criticized for its lack of accountability and willingness to lend to countries with bad human rights record. On giving loans to countries, the IMF makes the loan conditional on the implementation of certain economic policies. These policies tend to involve: * Reducing government borrowing Higher taxes and lower spending * Higher interest rates to stabilize the currency. * Allow failing firms to go bankrupt. * Structural adjustment. Privatizations deregulation, reducing corruption and bureaucracy. The problem is that these policies of structural adjustment and macroeconomic intervention make the situation worse. For example, in the Asian crisis of 1997, many countries such as Indonesia, Korea and Thailand were required by IMF to pursue tight monetary policy (higher interest rates) and tight fiscal policy to reduce the budget deficit and strengthen exchange rates. However, these policies caused a minor slowdown to turn into a serious recession with mass unemployment. The IMF have been criticized for imposing policy with little or no consultation with affected countries. Jeffrey Sachs, the head of the Harvard Institute for International Development said: In Korea the IMF insisted that all presidential candidates immediately endorse an agreement which they had no part in drafting or negotiating, and no time to understand. The situation is out of hand. It defies logic to believe the small group of 1,000 economists on 19th Street in Washington should dictate the economic conditions of life to 75 developing countries with around 1.4 billion people. Because the IMF lends its money with strings attached in the form of its SAPs, many people and organizations are vehemently opposed to its activities. Opposition groups claim that structural adjustment is an undemocratic and inhumane means of loaning funds to countries facing economic failure. Debtor countries to the IMF are often faced with having to put financial concerns ahead of social ones. Thus, by being required to open up their economies to foreign investment, to privatize public enterprises, and to cut government spending, these countries suffer an inability to properly fund their education and health programs. Moreover, foreign corporations often exploit the situation by taking advantage of local cheap labor while showing no regard for the environment. The oppositional groups say that locally cultivated programs, with a more grassroots approach towards development, would provide greater relief to these economies. Critics of the IMF say that, as it stands now, the IMF is only deepening the rift between the wealthy and the poor nations of the world. Indeed, it seems that many countries cannot end the spiral of debt and devaluation. The relatively low interest rates charged by the IMF can lead to moral hazard behavior on the part of the debtor countries. This is largely reduced through the tough policy measures which the IMF imposes as a condition for its programmers. In practice, most countries do not turn to the IMF if not forced by adverse circumstances. Decisions about which countries may borrow money are made by rich countries. Poor countries have little say about loans and the conditions attached to them. The IMF will only lend money to countries if they agree to certain conditions. These conditions increase poverty. The livelihoods of people in poorer countries are destroyed by unfair competition from foreign goods and services. The IMF does not give good financial advice. Countries have suffered by following it. IMF East Asia Case The IMF was involved in one of the worst East-Asian economic crises thus far. Everything started when Thailand was experiencing difficulties in meeting foreign liability obligations so the IMF intervened by suggested to devalue the Baht. The same suggestion was made to Indonesia, Korea and the Philippine. Soon, South Korea and Taiwan jumped in the trend and Hong Kong and Singapore dollars faced speculative attack. The crisis spread all the way to South America where Brazil and Argentina currency came under attack, but they both stood their grounds and refused to devalue which might have prevented a global financial crisis. Other aspects of the handling of the case that were looked down upon were the issue of the bail-out and the political situation of the borrowing country had once again been ignored. Thailand had already borrowed from the IMF and they were bailed-out very publicly which gave an incentive for surrounding countries to follow very risky projects or decisions, believing that the IMF would be a safety net as opposed to a lender of last resort. This is what happened in South Korea when large, unprofitable investment projects were undertaken, largely due in part to the conglomerates of businesses that are close to the bureaucracy but more importantly, sponsored by the IMF. Likewise, Fund officials protested that many East-Asian countries needed a reform in the banking system and governance, where bad banking, nepotism and corruption do not help create stable and efficient economies. During August December 1997, the International Monetary Fund signed three emergency lending agreements with Thailand (August), Indonesia (November), and Korea (December). These programs established packages of international financial support at an unprecedented cumulative sum of approximately $110 billion, based on the financing commitments. During the period August to December, the IMF programs failed dramatically to meet the objective of restoring market confidence. In all three countries, the exchange rate was expected to stabilize, but in fact quickly depreciated far below the targets set in the program, and this despite a very sharp increase in interest rates. Foreign investors remained unconvinced about the debt servicing capacity of the private debtors despite the announced availability of IMF loans, and continued to demand the repayment of short-term loans as they fell due. The IMF programs failed to achieve their goal of maintaining moderate economic growth in the Asian countries. The programs also failed on several intermediate goals, including the preservation of creditworthiness, the continuation of debt payments, and the stabilization of the exchange rate at levels that prevailed upon the signing of the original lending agreements Indonesia was deeply affected by the 1997–1998 crises, more so than its East Asian neighbors. Its economic contraction was deeper and more prolonged. It was the only one to experience a (temporary) loss of macroeconomic control. Eight years have passed since the collapse of Suharto’s New Order regime on the heels of the economic crisis of 1997–1998. During that time, Indonesia’s economy contracted by over 13% in 1998 alone. This followed three decades of virtually uninterrupted rapid economic growth and led to deep social and political crises. Although countries such as South Korea and Thailand were able to overcome their economic crises in a few years, Indonesia’s crisis resolution has been complicated by political instability, at least until 2004, and by a slower recovery. Indonesia was formally under International Monetary Fund management from 1997 to the end of 2003. But the presence of the IMF actually increased the severity of the Indonesian economy, not more than one year after that; there were capital flight out of the country that led to massive unemployment, compounded by the drastic decline in the exchange rate. At the end of 1998 more than 50% of Indonesias population lives below the poverty line. One of the IMFs policy prescriptions is to close 16 banks and it caused the anger of people and withdraws their money in national banks and some foreign banks. In May 1998, due to an agreement between the IMF and Suharto, the government revoked subsidies for food, and raises the price of oil and electricity. This policy had a strong opposition from the people and not long after that, Suharto regime fell. During Megawati regime, in August 2003 the government finally decided not to continue the IMF program and choose to enter the post-program monitoring. The government option raises the consequences that are not much different. IMF can still continue to dictate economic policy in Indonesia because the government still had to consult every economic policy that will be taken with IMF. The Indonesian government announced that they would pay the remaining debt to the IMF, totaling U.S. $ 7.8 billion, within 2 years. It seems to be the correct political decision to break away from the economic policy interventions that has continued since the crisis in 1997. 2008 Financial Crisis Triggered by events in The US and EU The cause or trigger of the 2008 global financial crisis was the boom of the United States housing bubble which peaked in approximately 2005–2006. Since banks began to give out more loans to potential home owners, housing prices began to increase. The increase in house price and improvement of construction activity started around 1992. At that time the Federal Reserve was holding its policy interest rate at an unusually low level by the standards of the past few decades. The good times lasted until 2005, when monetary policy was tightening after another spell of low interest rates. Over that period, construction activity contributed 1/5 percentage points annually to the growth rate of real GDP, and the share of employment in construction and finance, out of the total workforce, rose from 10 ¼ percent to 11 ¾ percent. That is, over this period, of the 27.4 million people added to work rolls (which ended 2006 with a total of 136 million), 4.8 million were directly related to construction and fifi nance. Finally, the nation was left with an excess stock of housing. A contraction in construction transpired to wind down the inventory overhang, which is often a feature of economic slowdowns and recessions. In addition to that, easy lending standards also contributed to the Real estate bubble. Loans of various types (e.g., mortgage, credit card, and auto) were easy to obtain. As part of the housing and credit booms, the number of financial agreements called mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO), which derived their value from mortgage payments and housing prices, greatly increased. That kind of financial innovation attracted institutions and investors around the world to invest in the U.S. housing market. As housing prices declined, major global financial institutions that had borrowed and invested heavily in subprime MBS reported significant losses. While the housing and credit bubbles were expanding, US Government was going a process called financialization. US Government policy from the 1970s onward has emphasized deregulation to encourage business, which resulted in less oversight of activities and less disclosure of information about new activities undertaken by banks and other evolving financial institutions. Thus, policymakers did not immediately recognize the increasingly important role played by financial institutions such as investment banks and hedge funds, also known as the shadow banking system. These institutions, as well as certain regulated banks, had also assumed significant debt burdens while providing the loans described above and did not have a financial cushion sufficient to absorb large loan defaults or MBS losses. These losses impacted the ability of financial institutions to lend, slowing economic activity. The U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported its findings in January 2011. It concluded that the crisis was avoidable and was caused by: 1. Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve’s failure to stem the tide of toxic mortgages; 2. Dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk; 3. An explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street that put the financial system on a collision course with crisis; 4. Key policy makers ill prepared for the crisis, 5. Lacking a full understanding of the financial system they oversaw; and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels.[35][36] Table 1 The Causes and Impacts of Global Financial Crisis Taken from Takatoshi Ito â€Å"Comparison of the Financial Crises: Japan and Asia in 1997-1998 vs. U.S. 2008-09† The Collapse of World Trade Although the crisis is originally from financial sector, trade had great implication that hit countries around the world. Exports collapsed in nearly every major trading country, and total world trade fell faster than it did during the Great Depression. From a peak in July 2008 to the low in February 2009, the nominal value of world goods exports fell 36 percent; the nominal value of U.S. goods exports fell 28 percent (imports fell 38 percent) over the same period. Even a country such as Germany, which did not experience their own housing bubble, experienced substantial trade contractions, which helped spread the crisis. The collapse in net export in Germany contributed to the decline in their GDP which put the country into recession. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Germany’s drop in net exports contributed 8.1 percentage points to a 9.4 percent decline in GDP (at an annual rate); Japan’s net exports contributed 9.0 percentage points to a 10.2 percent GDP decline. Real exports fell even faster in the first quarter of 2009. The Decline in Output Around the Globe The financial crisis was rapidly transmitted to the real economy. The financial disruption was so strong and swift in most countries so that their confidence level in economy fell as well. Confidence levels are measured in different ways across countries, but they were generally falling throughout 2008 and reached recent lows in the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009. As noted, world GDP is estimated to have fallen roughly 1.1 percent in 2009 from the year before. In advanced economies, the crisis was even deeper; the IMF expects GDP to have contracted 3.4 percent in advanced economies for all of 2009. For OECD member countries, GDP fell at an annual rate of 7.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 8.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Despite the historic nature of its collapse, the U.S. economy actually fared better than about half of OECD economies during those quarters. The decline in industrial production across major economies, each of these economies in January 2009 was more than 10 percent below its January 2008 level, and Japan faring far worse relative to the other major economies. Impact on Developing Countries The impact of the crisis on developing countries will affect different types of international resource flows: private capital flows such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), portfolio flows and international lending; official flows such as development finance institutions; and capital and current transfers such as official development assistance and remittances. The World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies foresees a 15% drop in FDI 2009. FDI to Turkey has already fallen 40% over the last year and FDI to India dropped by 40% in the first six months of 2008. FDI to China was $6.6 billion in September 2008, 20% down from the monthly average in year 2008 so far, and mining investments in South Africa and Zambia have been put on hold. The crisis has led to a drop in bond and equity issuances and the sell-off of risky assets in developing countries. The average volume of bond issuances by developing countries was only $6 billion between July 2007 and March 2008, down from $ 15 billion over the same period in 2006. Between January and March 2008, equity issuance by developing countries stood at $5 billion, its lowest level in five years. As a result, World Bank research suggests some 91 International Public Offerings have been withdrawn or postponed in 2008. However, not all developing countries were effected tremendously by 2008 financial crisis. In South East Asia we may take a look Indonesia performance towards the 2008 financial crisis. Indonesia experienced a significant macroeconomic shock at the end of 2008. But, of course, Indonesia was not on its own. Indeed, Indonesia was one of the least affected countries in South East Asia. Although GDP growth slowed markedly to 4.4% in the first quarter of 2009, it did not experience the collapse in growth experienced by countries such a Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. Indonesia’s growth in recent years has been driven predominantly by non-tradeables rather than tradeables, and, although the crisis reduced growth across the board, sectors such as transport and communications, and utilities have continued to grow in double digits. At the same time, the tradeable sector which has performed best is agriculture, which, at 4.8%, has experienced its strongest growth since the East Asian crisis, helping to compensate for the effects of the crisis. Indonesia has learnt from 1997 crisis so that they can manage 2008 financial crisis well. The Role of International Institutions of The G-20 The G-20, which includes 19 nations plus the European Union, is the the main nations of much of the coordination on trade policy, financial policy, and crisis response. Its membership is composed of most of the world’s largest economies and makes up nearly 90 percent of world gross national product. The first G-20 leaders’ summit was held at the peak of the crisis in November 2008. At that point, G-20 countries committed to keep their markets open, adopt policies to support the global economy, and stabilize the financial sector. The second G-20 leaders’ summit took place in April 2009 at the height of concern about rapid falls in GDP and trade. Leaders of the world’s largest economies pledged to â€Å"do everything necessary to ensure recovery, to repair our financial systems and to maintain the global flow of capital.† Furthermore, they committed to work together on tax and financial policies. Perhaps the most notable act of world coordination was the decision to provide substantial new funding to the IMF. U.S. leadership helped secure a commitment by the G-20 leaders to provide over $800 billion to fund multilateral banks broadly, with over $500 billion of those funds allocated to the IMF in particular. In September 2009, the G-20 leaders met in Pittsburgh. They noted that international cooperation and national action had been critical in arresting the crisis and putting the world’s economies on the path toward recovery. They also recognized that continued action was necessary, pledged to â€Å"sustain our strong policy response until a durable recovery is secured,† and committed to avoid premature withdrawal of stimulus. They launched a new Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth that committed the G-20 countries to work together to assess how their policies fit together and evaluate whether they were â€Å"collectively consistent with more sustainable and balanced growth.† Further, the leaders committed to act together to improve the global financial system through financial regulatory reforms and actions to increase capital in the system. It set up emergency lines of credit (called Flexible Credit Lines) with Colombia, Mexico, and Poland, which in total are worth over $80 billion. These lines were intended to provide immediate liquidity in the event of a run by investors, but also to signal to the markets that funds were available, making a run less likely. In each of these countries, markets responded positively to the announcement of the credit lines, with the cost of insuring the countries’ bonds narrowing (International Monetary Fund 2009b). The IMF also negotiated a set of standby agreements with 15 countries, committing a total of $75 billion to help them survive the economic crisis by smoothing current account adjustments and mitigating liquidity pressures. IMF analysis suggests that this program discouraged large exchange-rate f in fluctuate in these countries (International Monetary Fund 2009). These actions as well as the very existence of a better-funded global lender may have helped to keep the contraction short and to prevent sustained currency crises in many emerging nations. The Government Responses The U.S. executed two stimulus packages, totaling nearly $1 trillion during 2008 and 2009. The U.S. Federal Reserves new and expanded liquidity facilities were intended to enable the central bank to fulfill its traditional lender-of-last-resort role during the crisis while mitigating stigma, broadening the set of institutions with access to liquidity, and increasing the flexibility with which institutions could tap such liquidity. United States President Barack Obama and key advisers introduced a series of regulatory proposals in June 2009. The proposals address consumer protection, executive pay, bank financial cushions or capital requirements, expanded regulation of the shadow banking system and derivatives, and enhanced authority for the Federal Reserve to safely wind-down systemically important institutions, among others. The response of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and other central banks was taken shortly and dramatic. During the last quarter of 2008, these central banks purchased US$2.5 trillion of government debt and troubled private assets from banks. The governments of European nations and the USA also raised the capital of their national banking systems by $1.5 trillion, by purchasing newly issued preferred stock in their major banks. In October 2010, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz explained how the U.S. Federal Reserve was implementing another monetary policy —creating currency— as a method to combat the liquidity trap. By creating $600,000,000,000 and inserting this directly into banks, the Federal Reserve intended to spur banks to finance more domestic loans and refinance mortgages. However, banks instead were spending the money in more profitable areas by investing internationally in emerging markets. The bank bailout, more formally called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, failed to achieve the ultimate goal. The goal of these bailouts from the perspective of the largest financial institution is billions of dollars in taxpayer money allowed institutions that were on the brink of collapse not only to survive but even to flourish. The legislation that created TARP, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, had far broader goals, including protecting home values and preserving homeownership. Congress was told that TARP would be used to purchase up to $700 billion of mortgages and to obtain the necessary votes, Treasury promised that it would modify those mortgages to assist struggling homeowners. However, almost immediately, as permitted by the broad language of the act, Treasury’s plan for TARP shifted from the purchase of mortgages to the infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars into the nation’s largest financial institutions, a shift that came with the express promise that it would restore lending. Treasury, however, provided the money to banks with no effective policy or effort to force the extension of credit. There were no strings attached: no requirement or even incentive to increase lending to home buyers, and against our strong recommendation, not even a request that banks report how they used TARP funds. It raised the issues on accountability in providing the bailouts. Lesson Learnt from 2008 Crisis There are several lessons that can be learnt from 2008 financial crisis. Those lessons are stated below : 1. Aggregate volatility is part of market system. There is a need to have more depth study of aggregate volatility. 2. Long lived large firms (such as financial institutions) may not be fully trusted. We should rethink the role of reputation of firms in market transactions. In addition, we need to revisit the key elements of the economy of organization so that reputation should be derived from the behavior not merely from the asset. 3. Economic growth will only take place if there is real increase in the real commodities not financial commodities. 4. People mistakenly equated free markets with unregulated markets. 5. Policy makers should be flexible in their policies and guided by overall national objectives. 6. All trading countries should diversify both their exports composition as well as export destination. 7. World financial system is becoming fragile so that there is a need to reform the current financial system. Islamic based economy system has great opportunity to alter the existing financial system. Islamic perspective From Islamic perspective, the approach that most suitable which is providing handout to the poor and directly to people affected by financial contracts. There were horrible gaps between the rich and the poor all over the world, which remained existent all the time, even after the fall of the planned economy. It goes without saying that the position in developing and under developed countries is even worse. This uneven and unjust system of distribution needs to be reformed on a conceptual basis. The entire world today is crying on the present financial crisis, but few people have realized that this is basically a crisis of rich people who were playing with loads of wealth, and all of a sudden, their income faced a steep fall. So far as poor people are concerned, they have been living in perpetual crisis all the times, but no one care for them, The present crisis should not be examined within the relatively narrow confines of debt; rather, it is fundamentally a question of social justi ce, a concept that is paramount in Islam. Social justice includes three aspects, namely a fair and equitable distribution of wealth; the provision of basic necessities of life to the poor and the needy; and protection of the weak against economic exploitation by the strong. The debt burden, however, is increasing inequality between rich and poor countries and is tantamount to exploitation. It also means that poor countries are often unable to provide the most basic services for their citizens. The huge debt that currently burdens poor countries has arisen from loans that have charged interest and have not shared risk between the lender and the borrower and have, therefore, contravened the two most fundamental principles of Islamic finance. Islamic commands to refrain from charging interest and to share financial risk seek to avoid the concentration of wealth and the economic exploitation of the weak and thereby prevent situations such as the current debt crisis from arising in the first place. The core belief in Islamic finance is that money should not in itself be an earning asset; therefore, Islam prohibits any and all forms of interest. There are also other systems which prevent an economic crisis of pandemic proportions to arise; contractual relationships in business, finance or trade must be based on trust and familiarity of networks of common experiences (takaful) which implies that debts cannot be repackaged and resold as assets globally to faceless investors while profit must be redistributed directly to the poor (zakat) in the Holy month of Ramadan to build and strengthen social safety nets through institutions of charity welfare and education. Over and above zakat, all Muslims pay zakat fitrah to the poor, during the month of Ramadan, either through state collection centers or direct contributions to the poor. There is a trend within rural areas to identify destitute families and the disabled within the underserved rural areas of the State where they reside. Over the last few years, increasing realization of a topic poverty during an economic crisis creating the new poor among the Muslim working classes and a bnormally high repayment rates through unlicensed loan-sharks and licensed money-lenders have made national banking institutions which serve the poorer rural communities shift their services to the Ar-Rahnu market or Islamic pawn-broking market. Currently four Islamic financial institutions, Bank Rakyat (The People’s Bank); the Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia (Islamic Foundation of Economic Development, Malaysia); Permodalan Kelantan Bhd (Kelantan Investment Co.); and the Agro bank offer such services to the rural and urban working classes. It has established an Ar-Rahnu X’Change Franchise Network, where it plans to provide an Ar-Rahnu franchise throughout the country, managed by reputable cooperatives of the working classes. Given the acute dependency of the working classes on ready cash in times of emergency and the high rates of interest in regular pawn-broking market, there seems to be few alternatives except to expand the Ar-Rahnu market among Muslims and non-Muslims and charge the poor for ‘safekeeping’ services, rather than interest. Despite the fact that loan disbursements of Bank Rakyat alone is among the services which have contributed to Bank Rakyat’s amazing rise as a successful national cooperative bank, giving out higher than normal dividends to its share holders, loan sharks are virtually setting up desks outside flats and apartment buildings of the Muslim poor in towns and cities to offer cash and carry’ facilities to the desperately poor. This lucrative market speaks volumes of the rise of atopic poverty among those on or below the poverty line, the inadequacy of zakat and disbursements of zakat, the high dependency on regular income earners among the middle classes for welfare driven services and products and unclear nature of the rising wealth of the Muslim and non-Muslim upper classes in Malaysia The Islamic finance can bring on significant gains in money released into public capital and infrastructure. The redistributive mechanisms of surplus are instituted into welfare based institutions such as free or subsidized education, health and child care, education, and even publicly directed employment. Its principles may differ from modern welfare economics except the gains at the far end of the redistributive machinery are similarly directed towards the poor. The policies of the New Economic Policy in Malaysia, state welfares in Brunei, or publicly instituted employment as in MENA countries are more Islamic than regul ar, except they are part of the post-colonial ‘reformist’ policies of Muslim states which preceded the modern up-beat drive towards Syaria’ah compliant finance. Islamic finance, however, has not demonstrated a clear connectivity with redistributive justice as in the post-colonial political economy except through instituted deductions of zakat from dividends of shareholders. Profits from credit or financial corporations are not necessarily redistributed through zakat. Furthermore, for borrowers, the appreciated value of assets and services as forecasted and built into systems and rates of repayments which compensate for the lack of interest and, in reality, repayment rates may even out with the regular—rates are generally fixed in advance unlike regular interest rates which are more flexible, varying according to market conditions. However, it does allow more capital to be released into projects immediately, allowing a more extensive amount of goods and services to be produced, without the worry of serving loans. One, however, has to be assured of significant productivity even in the early stages of the loan but payments of zakat accruing from successful investment, from the financier or production from the borrower are fixed at a low rate of 2.5%. It is also consensual rather than forced (as in income taxation) and Muslim countries in general pur sue income tax collections as the more important thrust of national revenue. There are generally two disparate systems at work in Muslim countries Islamic finance and post-colonial welfare instituted economics. The welfare inputs in Islamic countries which are operational today proceed whether or not there are institutions of Islamic finance in the country. In Malaysia, Brunei, and the MENA countries discussed in this paper, components of welfare economics in heavily subsidized education, health, housing, farming, and welfare for the poor, are part of a post-colonial legacy of social reform to institute economic parity across groups and classes. In these Muslim nations, the public sector has played an important role in employment for Muslim or indigenous citizens, often acting as a social safety net in times of economic crises. However, these welfare driven policies are subject to much criticism since they favour the poor, encourage low productivity, and a non-competitive public sector. As Islamic institutions of welfare catch on with progressive social educa tion through media and networks and become an alternative system of welfare for poorer Muslims through zakat and other contributions, welfare increasingly becomes a social responsibility of the Muslim middle classes. There is hardly any data on how the profits earned by larger corporations of Islamic finance actually become instituted into a system of welfare economics based in Islam. Private investment trusts of political elites or national trusts controlled by them. In a properly instituted system of redistribution, through wages, salaries, educational, and health subsidies and so on, there should be very little wealth differential between the owners of political Capital and citizens but economic disparities are significant in these Muslim countries and it has been shown how gains among the lowest 20% may be offset by higher or equivalent gains among the top 20% income earners of these nations. The production of stable professional middle classes in these nations has led to an enrichment of social capital and welfare driven redistributive institutions through social networks but Islamic conscientisation had sometimes moved this ‘spiritual gain’ as an objective reality. The belief i n ibadah or ‘to do good’ may outweigh the call for greater transparency in the use of national collections of zakat and so on. Many Muslims in Malaysia pay both income tax and zakat, rather than ask for exemption from income tax. They also maintain Islamic voluntary organizations with personal funds, donate to mosques and charities, and make endless food contributions to orphans and the poor. There is very little data gathered on the actual amounts paid privately or anonymously and state-directed contributions, although increasing, are not reflective of actual payments contributed by the middle classes towards Islamic charitable institutions. On the other hand, Muslim based banking and financial institutions are obscure in their social responsibility towards the poor, including their own clients who may be victims of topic poverty during times of economic crises. In conclusion, Islamic institutions of trusts which are state directed or privately administered by banking and credit agencies contain more humanistic principles of investment and redistribution of profits except that there is a missing component—between the principles of redistribution of surplus or profits in Islam finance and the actual mechanisms to provide welfare to the people who are not share-holders or stake-holders. In Malaysia, Brunei, and the MENA countries of the Middle East and North Africa, state agencies assume trusteeships over compulsory collections like the zakat but do not have any institutional mechanisms to enforce private corporations local or foreign to contribute towards the welfare of the poor. Conclusion The first Financial crisis was began in July 1997 when the Thai baht collapse with a series of speculative attacks on the baht extended after quite a few decades of outstanding economic performance in Asia and most of Southeast Asia and Japan having currency depreciation. There some approach to help financial recovery, It is impossible that the government doing nothing when the crisis happened to their country. To prevent currency values collapsing, governments raised fiscal spending in domestic interest rates to exceedingly high levels. And last approach Government providing handouts directly to people affected and providing assistance to the poor like efforts to shield poor and vulnerable sections of society from the worst of the crisis The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that provides financial assistance and advice to member countries. It was created out of a need to prevent economic crises like the Great Depression. The large financial packages which the IMF has arranged for countries affected by the Asian crisis and its result have stimulated a debate both among policy-makers and academics as to their costs and benefits. However, IMF has also been criticized for its lack of accountability and willingness to lend to countries with bad human rights record Debtor countries to the IMF are often faced with having to put financial concerns ahead of social ones The cause or trigger of the 2008 global financial crisis was the boom of the United States housing bubble which peaked in approximately 2005–2006. The impact of the crisis on developing countries will affect different types of international resource flows: private capital flows such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). However, not all developing countries were effected tremendously by 2008 financial crisis, Indonesia was one of the least affected countries in South East Asia. The G-20, is the the main nations of much of the coordination on trade policy, financial policy, and crisis responses. The first G-20 leaders’ summit was held at the peak of the crisis in November 2008. The bank bailout, more formally called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, failed to achieve the ultimate goal From Islamic perspective approach that most suitable which is providing handout to the poor and directly to people affected by financial contracts the present crisis should not be examined within the relatively narrow confines of debt, rather it is fundamentally a question of social justice, a concept that is paramount in Islam. The practicing of zakat system and waqf contribution to help the poor and needy indirectly will benefit the society. And this is the best approach that government should do by providing help directly to the poor and people affected by financial contract namely firms and banks. If government reduced the amount tax to be paid, cost of production will decrease level of employment and production will increase. Meanwhile, banks will bail out to save company and people indirectly reduced the worry of public causing the level of borrowing and consumption raises. So, as a result, it can stimulate the capital investment of the economy to increase the economic growth and level of GPD. References Fadillah Putra, â€Å"Economic Development and Crisis Policy Responses in Southeast Asia (Comparative study of Asian Crisis 1997 and Global Financial Crisis 2008 in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines)† (2008), Public Administration Department, Brawijaya University Federal Reserved Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter †What Caused East Asia’s Financial Crisis?† 98-24; August 7, (1998) Hussein Alasrag, â€Å"Global Financial crisis and Islamic finance† (2007) http://www.muftitaqiusmani.com/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=41:present-financial-crisis-causes-and-remedies-from-islamic-perspective-catid=12:economicsItemid=15,retrieve on 11 November 2012 http://www.academia.edu/1133515/Global_Financial_Crisis_An_Islamic_Perspectiv e, retrieve on 4 November 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008#cite_note IMF_Loss_Estimates-31, retrieve on 4 November 2012 Mohamed Ariff, Syarisa Yanti Abubakar,†The Malaysian Financial Crisis: Economic Impact and Recovery Prospects† (1999) The Developing Economies, XXXVII-4: 417–38 Reinhart, V. (2011). A year of living dangerously : The Management of the Financial Crisis in 2008. Journal of Economic Perspective.25 (1). Pg 71-90. Ibid Recovery from the Asian Crisis and the Role of the IMF, IMF Staff (2000) http:// www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/international- monetary-fund imf.asp#axzz2EQhoHzz9, retrieve on 4 November 2012 http://www.nrcc.org/default/Issues2012/2012_Issues_Book_Chapter_Financial_Crisis_Bailouts_and_Financial_Reforms [ 1 ]. Federal Reserved Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter: What Caused East Asia’s Financial Crisis? 98-24; August 7, 1998 [ 2 ]. Federal Reserved Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter: What Caused East Asia’s Financial Crisis? 98-24; August 7, 1998 [ 3 ]. www.wikipedia.com [ 4 ]. www.wikipedia.com [ 5 ]. www.wikipedia.com [ 6 ]. Federal Reserved Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter: What Caused East Asia’s Financial Crisis? 98-24; August 7, 1998 [ 7 ]. www.wikipedia.com [ 8 ]. Mohamed Ariff, Syarisa Yanti Abubakar, (1999) The Malaysian Financial Crisis: Economic Impact and Recovery Prospects: The Developing Economies, XXXVII-4: 417–38 [ 9 ]. Economic Development and Crisis Policy Responses in Southeast Asia (Comparative study of Asian Crisis 1997 and Global Financial Crisis 2008 in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines) Fadillah Putra, Public Administration Department, Brawijaya University [ 10 ]. Recovery from the Asian Crisis and the Role of the IMF, IMF Staff (2000) [ 11 ]. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/international-monetary-fund-imf.asp#axzz2EQhoHzz9 [ 12 ]. http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/sick-cn.htm [ 13 ]. Reinhart, V. (2011). A year of living dangerously : The Management of the Financial Crisis in 2008. Journal of Economic Perspective.25 (1). Pg 71-90. [ 14 ]. Ibid [ 15 ]. Ibid [ 16 ]. Ibid [ 17 ]. Wikipedia. Financial Crisis 2007. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008#cite_note-ssrn-8 [ 18 ]. Wikipedia. Financial Crisis 2007. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008#cite_note-IMF_Loss_Estimates-31 [ 19 ]. Ibid [ 20 ]. Greenspan-We Need a Better Cushion Against Risk. Financial Times. March 26, 2009. Taken from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9c158a92-1a3c-11de-9f91-0000779fd2ac.html. [ 21 ]. FCIC Report-Conclusions Excerpt-January 2011. Taken from http://c0182732.cdn1.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/fcic_final_report_conclusions.pdf [ 22 ]. CRISIS AND RECOVERY IN THE WORLD ECONOMY. Taken from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/economic-report-president-chapter-3r2.pdf [ 23 ]. Ibid [ 24 ]. Ibid [ 25 ]. Ibid [ 26 ]. Ibid [ 27 ]. Ibid [ 28 ]. Velde, D. W. (2008). Effects of the Global Financial Crisis on Developing Countries and Emerging Markets. Policy responses to the crisis. INWENT/DIE/BMZ conference in Berlin, 11 December 2008. [ 29 ]. Ibid [ 30 ]. Ibid [ 31 ]. Ibid [ 32 ]. Ibid

Media coverage of the african continent

Media coverage of the african continent Introduction This thesis contemplates long standing issues surrounding media coverage of the African continent. Previous studies have shown a systematic trend amongst Western journalists to depict current events in developing nations, particularly African nations, from a negative and oversimplified perspective. It examines why important events in less-developed parts of the world often have their reality distorted in the Western media. Unfortunate precedence has shown that this is particularly relevant to the Western media in the context of its questionable conduct in covering the African continent. The media portrayal of the unrest in Sudans troubled Darfur region appears to reflect the errors that often lurk amidst the work of journalists covering humanitarian catastrophes in distant lands. In spite of Gà ©rard Pruniers assessment of the violence as the â€Å"quintessential ‘African crisis: esoteric, extremely violent, rooted in complex ethnic and historical factors which few understood, and devoid of any identifiable practical interest for rich countries,† Darfur generated an unanticipated amount of interest in the West. It quickly became the cause cà ©là ¨bre amongst people on both sides of the political divide. Darfurs power to transcend politics was most apparent in April 2006 as thousands of Americans converged into the nations capital to appeal for greater action to end the alleged genocide in Sudan. Republican senators joined Democrats such as Barack Obama to urge the Bush administration to take a more decisive approach to tackle the crisis and help refu ges escaping the violence. Although the event attracted prominent speakers including celebrities, politicians, athletes and Noble Peace Prize winners such as Elie Wiesel, the bulk of the crowd was comprised of ordinary Americans who donned blindfolds to urge political decision makers not to look away from the atrocities taking place in Darfur. The medias part in this event cannot be overstated. As conflicts in remote areas of the globe have little impact on the lives of ordinary Western citizens, regardless of the magnitude of the violence, the extent to which an ordinary person knows and cares is entirely contingent on the level of media coverage a conflict is granted. As such, the mass media has massive power in shaping both a governments foreign policy and the publics imagination of situations around the globe. The medias influence in determining the perception of the Darfur conflict was particularly immeasurable because in most instances it was the only image outside observers in the West received of the crisis itself. As a consequence of the medias attentiveness to the unfolding catastrophe in Sudan, they were able to spark a sophisticated and popular human rights campaign. Coupled with advocacy organizations such as the Save Darfur Coalition, an unlikely alliance of liberal and conservative groups, the mainstream med ia in the United States exposed their audiences to the atrocities that were unfolding in the Sub-Saharan nation. Yet, as Darfur burst onto the worlds consciousness in mid-2004 and became the Western medias darling as far as coverage was concerned, depressingly similar outbreaks of violence in Africa at the time, including in Uganda and the Congo, were all but overlooked. As such, this thesis aims to understand how a ‘quintessential African crisis became an international issue that garnered Western empathy and generated an unexpected level of press interest. Essentially, how did an internal crisis in a remote area of Sudan, where the concerns were primarily local, manage to capture the attention of campaigners and writers in the West? If we are to accept Susan Moellers claims that audience sympathies towards foreign deaths have hardened, and that the American public is largely interested in news events related to their own country, how did the narrative of Darfur, a story that does not contain an obvious American connection, overcome public apathy when other tragediesinAfricaare often unab le to? To better understand why Darfur was prioritized in the Western media and to better ascertain why certain foreign events became news the way they do, this thesis will examine the media press coverage of Darfur in the Washington Post and the New York Times during the first three years of the conflict. These two American newspapers were initially chosen for this study because of their high circulation numbers (601,669 and 1.65 million respectively) and the value that both these media organizations place on covering international affairs despite their opposing political leanings. Moreover, during the preliminary selection process to decide which newspapers to analyze in this thesis, it quickly became evident that compared to their rivals, the Washington Post and the New York Times had not employed news wire services such as Reuters and the Associated Press for their articles. These two American newspapers mostly relied upon their own correspondents and journalists to deliver stories from the ground, either from Sudan itself or from neighboring Chad. In addition to the published articles from the Washington Post and the New York Times, Britains Guardian newspaper has been included in this study for critical examination as it offers a unique opportunity to investigate whether a newspapers national affiliation and political culture has any impact on the presentation of the Darfur issue. Methodological Approach And Organization Of This Thesis This thesis is divided into five sections. The second chapter will address the fundamental question: how did the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Guardian report on the Darfur conflict and what were the prominent themes and media framing devices evident in their articles? This chapter will examine the content (what the journalists covered) and the form (how the journalists covered the conflict). Due to the scope of examining three newspapers over a three year period, this thesis will concentrate on critical moments in media reportage of the Darfur disaster. As such, this chapter and the thesis at large is not a quantitative study of the media treatment of Darfur. Rather, it merely attempts to highlight the peaks and lows of media coverage in order to ascertain the reasons behind the fluctuating press interest. Five decisive moments will be studied: 2003 in its entirety, April 2004, June 2004, September 2004 and January 2005 The third chapter will provide an extensive critique of the media representation of the violence in Darfur and scrutinize the themes that emerged from the three newspapers in question. The purpose of this particular section is to address whether the Western newspapers in question appropriately covered or mishandled the Darfur crisis. By exploring the construction of Arab and African identity in the Sudanese context, this thesis will analyze and explain how through the use of emotive language and framing, the American press were able to create and solidify a misleading image of the crisis as a genocidal campaign instigated by Arabs against an indigenous African population. It will address the controversy surrounding Darfurs genocide status under international law. With this objective in mind, this thesis will refer to ‘genocide only as it was defined by the United Nations in 1948. This chapter also seeks to expose important dimensions to the conflict that many journalists overlo oked as they peddled one convenient version of the violence at the expense of critical evidence. The latter part of the thesis will draw upon seminal postcolonial theory to explain why Darfur captured the public imagination and the attention of Western journalists. It will examine whether the medias interest and frequent misrepresentation of Darfur can be read in the larger context of a new Orientalist discourse. This chapter will also endeavor to explore the possible reasons and motives behind the Western media interest in Darfur. Literature Review Foreign news stories related to the African continent are often characterized by images of tribal warfare, rampant disease, political instability, famine and despotic regimes. These unpleasant misrepresentations of African issues have been closely studied since the ‘New World Information and Communication Order debates of the 1970s. The historical media debates were instigated by developing non-aligned states as a response to the lopsided transfer of mass communication content from Western nations to poorer nations that often reflected the preferences of Western news agencies. Scholars such as Hassan M. El Zein, Anne Cooper and Melissa Wall have all acknowledged its relevance to contemporary media discussions. These scholars insist that the tendency amongst Western media organizations to disproportionately focus on the negative, the violent and the exotic when it comes to covering developing regions and particularly African issues did not end with the great media debates of the 1970s. Their findings are not dissimilar to Abiodun Goke-Pariolas contention that the Africa continent as a whole suffers from a long practice of media neglect and when African issues are eventually acknowledged in the Western press, the stories and images are permeated with stereotypes and tropes that have persisted since the time of slavery and imperialism. The fifty-three distinct nations that make the African continent are often treated as a homogenous entity comprised of uncivilized heathens who are unable to govern themselves. If and when Africans are shown in the western media, Goke-Pariola argues that they are regularly portrayed to be poor, helpless and malnourished. Michael Maren points out that such graphic descriptions and imagery work to advance the notion that the inhabitants of African are reliant on the compassionate West for their survival. Whilst reports in the Western press about conflicts on the African continent are frequently crisis-driven in such a way as to insinuate that the inhabitants are naturally more prone to violence, journalists rarely make mention of the Wests connection to the violence. In his article titled American Media and African Culture, Bosah Ebo emphasizes the lack of historical context in media stories about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Ebo notes that Western journalists covering Rwanda repeatedly failed to make the association between the ongoing civil war and the impact of the Belgian colonial legacy of politicizing Rwandan ethnicity by pitting Hutus against Tutsis in their ‘divide and rule strategy. Instead, the genocide was portrayed as another African crisis fuelled by irrational tribal hatred. Wall echoes similar sentiments in a comparative study of the Rwandan and Bosnian crises. In her analysis of American newspaper coverage of the two conflicts, Wall found that whilst the ethnically motivated violence in Bosnia was framed as an aberration for Europeans, despite the largest genocide occurring in Germany, the conflict in Rwanda was portrayed as standard behavior for Africans. David Gordon and Howard Wolpe have claimed that this level of misinterpretation and formulaic media treatment of the African ‘continent as little more than a gigantic basket case leaves Western audiences with an unconscious sense of cultural, intellectual and political superiority. As most Americans have never visited Africa and probably never will, the images of the African continent that most Americans hold to be real and authentic come courtesy of the media. This view of Africa as the ‘dark continent is primarily based on press coverage and is also ‘an outgrowth of a deeply burie d, fundamental set of cultural assumptions about race and civilization that have been building in Western culture for at least four hundred years. Despite this extensive scholarship on the mass medias portrayal of Africa, modest research exits in the field of Darfur and the media. Much like David Campbells Geopolitics and Visuality: Sighting the Darfur conflict, this thesis is limited to the study of contemporary events in Western Sudan. In his study of the photo-journalism of the Darfur conflict, Campbell found that most photos were graphic images of starving and dying women and babies in refugee camps. Unlike Campbells study however, this thesis attempts to go beyond content analysis that largely corroborates prior studies on media casing of African issues. It endeavors to comprehend the outpouring of humanitarian good will that the atrocities in Darfur produced in the West and the possibility that strategic geopolitical interests played a role in the medias intense interest in the conflict. Pippa Norris, Politics and the Press: The News Media and Their Influences (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997), 23; Eronini R. Megwa and Ike S. Ndolo, â€Å"Media image and development: political and economic implications of U. S. media coverage of Africa,† in Development and democratization in the Third World: myths, hopes, and realties, ed. Kenneth E. Bauzon (Washington: Crane Russak, 1992), 267-272. Gà ©rard Prunier, Darfur: the ambiguous genocide (New York: Cornell University Press, 2005), 124. For a detailed analysis of media power and the CNN effect, the theory that postulates that the modern mass media have a significant bearing on the conduct of foreign policy, see Piers Robinson, â€Å"Operation Restore Hope and the Illusion of a News Driven Media Intervention.† Political Studies 49 (2001): 942. Prunier, Darfur: the ambiguous genocide, 124. Susan D. Moeller, Compassion fatigue: how the media sell disease, famine, war, and death (London: Routledge, 1999), 11. William Preston, Jr., Edward S. Herman, and Herbert I. Schiller, Hope folly: the United States and Unesco, 1945-1985 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), 296. A.Goke-Pariola, Africa in the â€Å"New World Order†: Old Assumptions, Myths, and Reality, available from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED347842; [24 June 2009] Michael Maren, The road to hell: the ravaging effects of foreign aid and international charity (New York: Free Press, 1997), 13. Bosah Ebo, â€Å"American Media and African Culture† in Africas media image, ed.Beverly G. Hawk (New York: Praeger, 1992), 18. Ibid. Melissa Wall, â€Å"A pernicious new strain of the Old Nazi virus and an orgy of tribal slaughter: A comparison of US news magazine coverage of the crises in Bosnia and Rwanda.† 59 (1997): 411-428 David F.Gordon, Howard Wolpe, â€Å"The Other Africa: An End to Afro-Pessimism.† World Policy Journal 15 (1998): 9 E. J. Murphy, The African Mythology: Old and New. (Storrs, CT: World Education Project, 1973), 1. David Campbell, â€Å"Geopolitics and visuality: Sighting the Darfur conflict,† Political Geography 26, (2007): 357-382.