The Media of Diaspora Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Media of Diaspora - Essay Example The common notion of a globalised world is that it is composed of governmental organizations and big corporations, but this is not always the case as shown by large segments of the global population living in countries not their own but merely adopted. It gave the notion or concept of a movement that is â€Å"globalisation from below† and dispelled conventional wisdom also that a diaspora refers to the Jewish people only or exclusively. Discussion There are significantly large numbers of people living in other countries today due to the advent of modern forms of travel, such as the steamships and airplanes, which made travel easier and much cheaper. Prof. Karim H. Karim has sought to spotlight the public discourse on this growing number of people who uproot themselves to move to another country which he calls as transnational groups. These groups in turn use a variety of media to communicate and keep in touch with the original communities in their home countries, using various forms of communications such as postal mail, telephone, fax, satellite television, audiotapes, video cassette tapes and with the Internet, through e-mails and chat groups (Karim 1). The main purpose of Prof. Karim is to examine how these transnational groups have utilized various communication tools at their disposal and what the social effects are on them. The study of diapora today has been expanded from its previous closed set of characteristics to a broader definition in terms of its social scientific parameters regarding human dispersals. Some of the main points or arguments raised by Prof. Karim are that diasporas do not fit nicely into a neat definition at all times, except perhaps their common feature of being powerless in a foreign land; but even this definition does not hold true in all instances, as there are exceptions to this, such as ethnic groups which ended up as ruling elites, as in some Caribbean nations. A common misconception likewise dispelled by Prof. Karim is that diasporas are not exclusively among Asians, Africans or Latin Americans only but also include some of white ethnic groups such as Greeks, Macedonians, Italians and white Rhodesians, although these groups may have an easier time in assimilating because they are also white like the majority of Anglo-Saxons. The key marker or characteristic of a diasporas’ group is a non-dominant position in the global cultural context. Within this definition, the worldwide community of Muslims can be included because they do not have much access to global communications networks such as the CNN or the Reuters news organization like what other groups or main majority of citizens have. Diaspora does not pertain only to people going out of their native countries, as it is also applicable to indigenous peoples who have been displaced (or forcibly removed) from the traditional homelands they had previously occupied for centuries. The definition applies to the Inuit natives of Alaska and other parts of the Arctic circle who had remained within boundary of their countries but not in the earlier same exact geographical location (ibid. 2) and a clear manifestation of this condition is being â€Å"de-territorialised† as a nation of people. Pursuant to this longing for an ancestral homeland, many diaspora groups end up claiming certain lands in other territories despite some conflicting claims on it, like Israel in

Benefits And Costs Of Using Common Currency In Greece, Germany And Research Paper

Benefits And Costs Of Using Common Currency In Greece, Germany And Eurozone - Research Paper Example 14). As a result of reduced transaction costs, Eurozone nations expected a thirty billion dollar annual savings (The Euro, the European Central Bank, p. 154). Directly as result of eliminating exchange of currencies, the exchange rate volatility was also removed. These exchange rate fluctuations make the trade between countries more risky; because if one currency devalues in relation to other, the marketer of the depreciated currency will be affected by getting less than what his product is worth. Or conversely the buyer of depreciated currency may require paying more than what he originally contracted for (Eudey, pp. 14-15). Exchange rate rish is thus another form of transaction cost which was avoided. Another major benefit of Euro as the common currency was the avoidance of speculation. Before the introduction of Euro, speculation used to greatly occur throughout the Europe. Whenever a currency was thought to be devalued in near future, people used to sell all their holdings in tha t currency. The only solution to the problem of speculation was keeping the interest rates as high as possible to keep the people interest in the currency. These high interest rates were bad for the economy and hindered economic progress in Europe during 90s (Eudey, pp. 15, 16). Adoption of Euro as a common currency thus removed speculation and economies of the member countries could develop and flourish easily without the disadvantages of higher interest rates. Euro also does away with the problem of competitive devaluation of currency among the member nations. Before the era of Euro, European nations used to devalue their currency to increase the exports. Inflation was a direct result of this devalution (Eudey, p. 15). The adoption of common currency did in fact come with many costs as well. The first and the foremost disadvantage of adopting common currency by the Eurozone countries was that by accepting Euro as national currency they surrendered their right to adopt and change t heir monetary and economic policies to suit their domestic conditions (The Euro: Expect, pp. 123). There was another big cost of not being able to adjust the exchange rates between trading countries to eliminate the economic falloffs of individual countries. Even after the adoption of common currency and a unit monetary policy throughout the Eurozone and its many benefits, there is no surety that some member country may not go in recession; and this was the main concern for all the countries. If at any time one country goes into recession, it cannot alter the individual monetary policy and as a result the only option left is to wait, because a change in the monetary policy of all the nations would adversely affect more countries than benefit the country in recession (The Euro, the European Central Bank, pp. 157). Despite of this, the idea of creating a common currency was that by tying many European nations through a common currency, the business cycle of all countries will soon be closely linked to each other and very soon would there be no possibility of recession in one country while stability in other (The Euro: Expectations and Performance, p. 123). However, changes in individual Fiscal policies was allowed. Benefits and Costs of common currency in Greece Recently there has been a debt crisis in Greece and other Eurozone countries which has jeopardized the likelihood of continuing with the Euro. Especially Greece is highly considering to quit the Euro and reverting back to its national currency Drachma. The debt crisis is raising a lot of questions and discussions about the potential advantages and