The obstacles and opportunities faced by either South Africa Essay Example for Free

The obstacles and opportunities faced by either South Africa Essay What are the obstacles and opportunities faced by either South Africa or Mozambique in their attempts to improve economic and political development? Introduction In this essay I will attempt to look at the obstacles and opportunities faced by Mozambique in their attempts to improve economic and political development. I will look at the reasons why Portugal found it hard to decolonise her possessions because she could not neocolonise them. I will look at how Mozambiques problems were exacerbated by civil aid programmes and the conflicts between itself and other African countries. Mozambique: advantages and disadvantages Mozambique is situated at the South Eastern side of Africa. It is the nearest port for Malawi, Zimbabwe and the northern part of South Africa. It has some crucial resources geographically which give it an advantage over other African states. It is also strategically important as it provides easy access to other countries. It is roughly three times the size of England. One of the biggest disadvantages that Mozambique has is that there is no navy or air force to protect its coastal waters that are open to exploitation and capitalisation as there is no marketing control. The only way that this exploitation and capitalisation can be controlled is by the development of a better infrastructure of rail and roads. This is highly unlikely to be achieved due to the lack of cooperation between the regions. There are no coastal protection vessels and also no ways of collecting excise duties. These would be necessary to allow the maximisation of export quantity and therefore allow the country to capitalise, which would give it macro economic stability. Economics and conflict Historically Mozambiques trade was heavily influenced by Islamic and Arab traders. The main exports were gold and slaves. Until the 1930s most of its business was controlled by large Portuguese organisations, this only changed after the coup in 1926, which brought an end to these companies. Before this coup the pan Lusitanian community were based on Lisbon and its governmental control and policies. The regime led to fascist policies and principles. Plantations were developed but were only maintainable through forced labour. This forced labour meant that demand increased and there need to be an increase in the forced labour, creating a perpetual circle and demand for more workers. In the Post War boom commodity prices increased dramatically and led to a further demand from the whites for better services etc. There was an increase in tensions from neo traditionalists, which was exacerbated in the cold war of the 1960s, with military intervention. There were no compromises from Portuguese as Portugal could not decolonise as it could not neocolonise. Alongside the military intervention was an increasing demand for independence. In June 1962 3 exiled groups, Manu, Idenamo and Unami under the allegiance of Julius Nyerere form a front for the liberation of Mozambique called the Frelimo. This was a unified coalition of indigenous opposition to Portuguese rule. In 1964 they crossed the river and started an armed conflict against Portugal and its rule. South African support is given through Rhenamo, and the Rhodesians also react against the conflict. The result of the conflict meant that Portugal was overthrown when they retreat in 1974. Frelimo holds traditional government until 25/6/1975 when independence is declared. It is around this time that the Mozambique support for Rhodesia escalates and the civil war starts. What they want to achieve are military buffer zones were they can use for training grounds in order to train their soldiers. Frelimos Marxist Leninist beliefs that everything should be controlled through a central government is one of the main issues. By the 1990s Mozambique is almost bankrupt and there follows in 1992 democratic elections. Tensions still exist between people on the inner circles of individual parties; the old guard are refuting the intervention of the International Monetary Fund as it would give them no option but to embrace European international practices. Poor education and a lack of a civil service only compound the problem. There is a wholesale exodus of the Portuguese nationals. There is surprisingly a relatively civil relationship between Frelimo and Renamo which leads to an acknowledgement of fairness in the voting process, not skewing the vote in favour of one or another. This was the political starting point to the acquisition, marketisation and capitalisation of untold riches for the Mozambique people. MOZAMBIQUE TODAY Following the conflicts that I have discussed above, the state of Mozambiques economy is still very poor. Its position in the global economy is 168th out of 174. Its annual growth rate is averaging out at about 14% but the benefits are very slow in trickling down to the people. There is a need for public sector reform and good governance to improve this. Variations in national markets cannot be controlled by the producers, and revenue collection remains a problem. Much of the revenue collected is in the urban areas but only benefits the elite in the city. Military spending has reduced dramatically, and the first role of governance has to be defence in order to protect a country. The International Monetary Fund instructed Mozambique to sell off its Para -state industries, and it now relies heavily on foreign aid to survive. The debt level is high although most countries have cut it to 25%, with Britain completely wiping out their portion. Underdevelopment has favoured the middle class bourgeoisie, opening up the markets to allow for borrowing and thus creating some financial stability. There has been a reduction in tariffs and inflation has dropped from 71% 9% allowing for the redistribution of wealth. The downside to this is that it creates unemployment, putting more people back into the trap of poverty, and smuggling is rife as people see it as the only way to survive. One may ask does the medicine cure the patient or help to kill it? People have very little escape from poverty in these areas as there is no infrastructure and any journeys must be made on foot. Even a trip to the doctor, something that is taken for granted in western civilised societies could mean a walk of about 45 kilometres, if you didnt die on the way. The very aid that was supposed to help the people to improve their lives often made them worse. As Tordoff tells us these were grandiose, overcapitalised agricultural schemes that carried very few benefits for the peasant farmer, thus still being resultant in the food shortage and hunger. The projects often also caused environmental damage. The debt was only increased by this because of the money being misspent on unsuccessful programs, and the loss of export income. The inability to earn wages led to further poverty and strife in the urban communities. The main priorities in Mozambique are ones of sanitation, clean water, and vaccination. This has been shown to work in other countries like Kenya. There is lots of power over business from multinational organisations such as Mitsubishi and Enron. The question one needs to ask is who is it that benefits? Is it the people of the country or the business men in the city? What is the motivation behind people and countries who offer aid? Is it just another opportunity to exploit and profit from the rich natural resources that the country has to offer? Conclusion Mozambique is still relatively poor as a country in economic terms, although it is rich in others such as copious fishing waters that are underused in the global markets due to poor infrastructure. Mozambique was lead by the Portuguese government who were ill equipped to compete adequately on an international and global level. When globalisation took off in other African states, Mozambique was left behind, and never had an industrial revolution. This meant that although there was plenty of opportunity to further develop the country and equip it with the ability to trade on global levels, other capitalist states and markets were far more advanced, with a good infrastructure that opened them up to the markets. The people of Mozambique were poorly educated, many of them illiterate, and because of this they were exploited by other nations. Many of the countries inhabitants are rough peasants and this exploitation led to a fascist dictatorship. They did not have the opportunities like other countries such as Ghana under the leadership of Nkrumah. Places like this could colonise as the leaders had skewed their colonies and economies and bequeathed more education to its inhabitants. Mozambique was never going to be able to match the massive trading powers of France and Britain, as Portugal had never prepared it to do so. Portugal had exploited it but not developed it. The idea behind neocolonisation was to allow maintenance of economic control but allowing it no input. There were no representatives around the table to help with the management of decolonisation. The only way that Portugal could decolonise Mozambique was through a bloody battle, often in a very vicious manner. The advancing system of France meant also meant that their military were stretched to the limits in trying to protect its country, but stood no chance and were often abandoned, as happened in the civil war. Prior to all this all decisions about the country had gone through the president in Paris, who operated in a Masonic way. Post-modern ideas of independence for Mozambique were hindered by the failure of the Westminster model of government, due to incompatibilities and ill equipped governments. There were often visible aspects of leaders becoming economy holders of the empire of entrepreneurship. Mozambiques problems were confounded and exacerbated by the civil aid programmes that supposedly came to help them. The growth centred approach to poverty only compounded this further. Targeted intervention was of no use as the poverty was so widespread. The average wage was well below the poverty line and there was an even harder exertion for the women to secure rewards that were commensurate with their contributions to the independence struggle. They were often given the opportunity to go to the markets with their produce but were then taxed heavily, and losing out on any sort of profit they may have made, basically a form of legalised extortion. Problems with landmines meant that the land was very dangerous to work on, with a high risk of injury or death. These also helped to slow down economic redevelopment. Many of us will remember the campaigns that were led by Princess Diana showing the terrible injuries that people had suffered through landmines detonating as they worked. There was a plea for international aid to be brought in to clear away the landmines and to give the people a fair chance to improve themselves and their towns. By implementing harsh and complicated economic pressures on its people, this is difficult enough in a wealthy modern state, the picture is even worse when we talk about African countries. The problems with a rapidly collapsing infrastructure, or as in the case of Mozambique, a non existent infrastructure, alongside its entrenched parastatal sector hostile to any change, which may threaten its interests, the problems not only escalate but become utterly formidable. In addition to this, the private sector becomes a strange amalgamation of disparate unrelated components. It consists of large multinationals, medium local sized organisations usually run by Asians, and a huge informal sector that largely comprises of peasant farmers. This means that the private sector is unbalanced and isolated to some extent. Considering all these points it is clear that there should be no rush for the imposition of multi party democracies and an unfettered market economy, even if it was possible to do so for Mozambique. Surely any change should be done gradually, with long term strategies that work alongside and slowly change the present systems. To sum up, arguments for structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund, and lately on an increasing level in the World Bank, only focus on the microeconomic structures, and not the macroeconomic structures of all African countries including Mozambique. One must recognise the role played by recession in the West, due to declining terms of trade for primary products and the oil crisises. Those who believe in structural adjustment believe that the majority of african states share a common state corporatism that is economically corrosive and unproductive. Originally the motivation behind these programmes was to liberalise trade, reduce the role of government and parastate industries in the economy, and to end various subsidies to various sections of the population. It was believed that this would end the balance of payment crises and therefore promote economic growth. By the early 1990s it had been shown that this was not actually the case and that policy based lending had not acheived the intended goals. A new policy was now required to correct this, and the International Monetary Fund now decided that they needed to create a series of rational law based societies throughout sub-Saharan africa. This policy would need to make it clear that investment decisions were to be made on economic grounds, rather than on politically motivated grounds. This plainly put any emphasis of blame, due to previous policy failure, about the economic crisis in Mozambique and esoecially in Mozambique, was laregely a creation of the individual african states themselves. This removed any liability and responsibility on the west, protecting its own interests again. If there is no benefit to themselves there is a reluctance to become involved in the countries problems. The retention of these types of attitudes mean that Mozambiques problems are unlikely to see any significant change in the near future. There will be change but only very slowly as discussed earlier. In my beleif I think the Mozambique people have always been given a rough deal, and cannot see that it will change quickly, as the people who hold the power and capability to enforce change are fearful that they may lose some independance, i.e. the middle class bourguoise. The fear of a lack of control for those in the city, means that the poorer members of society are repressed continually, and because they do not have the capability or knowledge to do something about it, it is unlikely that it will change. I agree that the support given through international aid is necessary, but it should be helping the peasant farmers and the poorer members of society, not just the big boys in the city. This only extenuates the gap between the haves and have nots. Bibliography Tordoff W. Government and politics in Africa.(3rd ed) 1997. Macmillan press. London Clapham.C.Third World politics: an introduction. 1985. Croom Helm. London Chabal. P.Political Domination in Africa.Reflections on the limits of power. 1986. Canbridge University Press. London Cammack P. Capitalism and democracy in the Third .World. 1997. Leicester University Press. Leicester.. McLean. I. Concise dictionary of politics. 1996. Oxford University Press. Oxford. Webliography www.homeoffice.gov.uk www.wto.org www.wtowatch.org www.worldbank.org/research/bulletin www.dfid.gov.uk

Essay --

Fahrenheit 451 Argumentative Essay Was meeting Clarisse good or bad for Montag? In the book Fahrenheit 451 the main character, Montag, meets Clarisse someone he has recently known. She changes and adjusts his whole life. Clarisse brings valuable and wonderful effects upon Montag, but she also brings disastrous effects upon him too. In the society where Montag lives a firefighter’s job is to burn books. Montag is a fireman. Montag burned books for a living, but he has never questioned why the fireman's job is to burn books. Clarisse comes along making Montag realize there is more truth behind his regular, dull life. She always asks him odd questions that Montag has to ponder into his thoughts to answer them truthfully. Meeting Clarisse was good for Montag because she is the reason for motivation that urges Montag forward in his journey of self-realization, she helps him realize that his life has particularly been a lie, and she helps him recognize what he really feels on certain topics. Clarisse brings out a different side inside of Montag, and she brings him out of the little shell he has lived in. Montag is awed by Clarisse's curiosity and questioning. Because she is an person who has her own soul and makes her own decision. Clarisse helps Montag realize this by proving she is beneficial for Montag. For example in the book Clarisse asks Montag, â€Å"Do you ever read any of the book you burn?† and Montag replies by laughing, â€Å"That’s against the law!†. She is not afraid to ask questions that no one would dare to ask. Montag is always intrigued by her. She is unafraid to express her ideas and she challenges Montag by asking him why he is a fireman, burning books. When Montag goes to burn books at someone's home he always thinks about w... ...ds him in discovering his true feelings towards various things in his life. In conclusion Clarisse and Montag meeting was good for Montag because his life changed forever in a positive way even though there were some hassle. I believe that in the future Montag will never forget about Clarisse and always will be thankful for her when he reads books and becomes closer with Granger's group of book readers. Clarisse helped bring out a different side and perspective of Montag that had hidden behind his mind. He started breaking the rules and "living off the edge". Therefore meeting Clarisse was good for Montag because she acknowledges to him the absence of love, satisfaction, and happiness in his life, she helps him realize that his life has been mostly a lie, and she helps him recognize what he really feels on certain topics. She is a very positive influence on him.

Economic Problems of US

Most of the problems of the United States are related to the economy. One of the major issues facing the country today is social security. The United States was one of the last major industrialized nations to establish a social security system. In 1911, Wisconsin passed the first state workers compensation law to be held constitutional. At that time, most Americans believed the government should not have care for the aged, disabled or needy. But such attitudes changed during the Great Depression in the 1930's. In 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act. This aw became the basis of the U. S. social insurance system. It provided cash benefits to only retired workers in commerce or industry. In 1939, Congress amended the act benefit and dependent children of retired workers and widows and children of deceased workers. In 1950, the act began to cover many farm and domestic workers, non professional self employed workers, and many state and municipal employees. Coverage became nearly universal in 1956, when lawyers and other professional workers came under the system. Social security is a government program that helps workers and retired orkers and their families achieve a degree of economic security. Social security also called social insurance (Robertson p. 33), provides cash payments to help replace income lost as a result of retirement,unemployment, disability, or death. The program also helps pay the cost of medical care for people age 65 or older and for some disabled workers. About one-sixth of the people in the United States receive social security benefits. People become eligible to receive benefits by working in a certain period in a job covered by social security. Employers and workers finance the program through payroll taxes. Participation in the social security system is required for about 95percent of all U. S. workers. Social security differs from public assistance. Social security paysbenefits to individuals, and their families, largely on the basis of work histories. Public assistance, or welfare, aids the needy,regardless of their work records. All industrialized countries as well as many developing nations have a social security system. The social security program in the United states has three main parts. They are (1) old-aged, survivors, disability, and hospital insurance (OASDHI), (2) unemployment insurance; and (3) workers' compensation. This tax was to be taken from the payrolls of the nation's employers and employees. The government felt that, like unemployment benefits, the social security should be financed by those who got the greatest benefit, those who worked, and were liable to need those benefits in the A plan that would affect those only who had paid such a tax for a number of years would have done those who were currently suffering under the Depression no good at all. As a result, the social security plan began paying out benefits almost immediately to those who had been etired, or elderly and out of work, and who were unable, primarily because of the depressed economic conditions, to retire comfortably. In this way, the government was able to accomplish two objectives: first, it helped the economy pull out of the depression, by providing a means by which old people could support themselves and, by buying goods and services, support others in the community ; and second, it showed the younger workers of that time that they no longer had to fear living out their retirement years in fear of poverty. Therefore, the social security payroll tax has been used to provide enefits to those who otherwise would have little means of support, and as of this writing, there has never been a year when Social Security benefits were not paid due to lack of Social Security income. (Boskinp. 122) Social Security benefits increased 142% in the period between 1950-1972. not only the elderly, but many of the survivers, the widows and children, of those who paid into the Social Security system, have received social security checks. These checks have paid for the food shelters, and in many instances the college education of the recipients. Unlike private insurance firms, the United States Government does not have to worry about financial failure. Government bonds are considered the safest investment money can buy-so safe, they are considered â€Å"risk free† by many financial scholars. (Stein p. 198) The ability of the United States Government to raise money to meet the requirements of the social security should be no more in doubt than the governments ability to finance the national defense, the housing programs, the State Department, or any of the other activities that the federal governmentgets involved in. By paying out benefits equally to all participate in Social Security- that is by not relying so heavily on total payments in making the decision to pay out benefits, the system is able to pay benefits to people who otherwise may not be able to afford an insurance program that would provide them with as much protection. One of the main reasons for the government's involvement in this program, is its ability and its desire to provide insurance benefits or the poor and widowed, who under the private market, might not be able to acquire the insurance to continue on a financially steady course. The government, then, is in a totally unique position to pay outbenefits that would be out of the reach of many American families. Another great advantage of this system, is the ability of the government to adjust the benefits for the effects of inflation(Robertson p. 134) Private insurance plans are totally unable to adjust for the effects of inflation with complete accuracy. In order for an insurance company to make this adjustment, they would have to be able to see forty-five years into the future, with twenty-twenty vision. When a private pensionplan currently insures the twenty-year-old worker, it can only guarantee a fixed income when the worker reaches sixty-five and a fixed income is a prime victim of inflation (Robertson p. 332) In order to adjust for that inflation, the private insurance firm would have to be able to predict what the inflation rate will be from the moment the worker is insured until the day he dies, and then make the complexadjustments necessary to reflect this in the pension plan. An inflation estimate that is too small will result in the erosion of the workers retirement benefits. Because the government, unlike the private insurance firm, can guarantee that it will exist well into the future, and will have the continued income of the Social Security tax to draw upon, it can make on-the-spot adjustments for changes in the inflation rate. Some adjustments, in fact, have been automatic in the recent years, therefore relieving the pensioners of the periodic worry of whether this years benefits would be adjusted, or whether the level of payments would remain stable, thereby, relative to the cost of living, making them poorer that ever before(Stein p. ). In the face of the government's ability to make those necessary adjustments and to continually finance the Social Security program, many opponents of the system argue that the government programs are driving out the private insurance industry. The statistics remain otherwise. The social security tax is one of the fewest taxes in the United States, and the only federal tax in the country, that is given for a specific purpose. All other taxes are put into another fund, so that welfare programs, defense, pace projects, and the other categories of government spending are all financed from one giant, uncategorized bowl of tax revenues(boskin p. 62). When the Social Security system was first established, it was felt that a direct payroll tax, based on the pay of the worker and paid both by employer and employee, would be the fairest way for the people that were currently working to pay benefits to those who weren't working, as well as to provide for some future requirements and disabilities. Therefore, a specially constructed payroll tax was used to fund the program. By measuring the amount taken in by the tax to the amount, not only that is taken out, but to the amount that will be taken out in future years, opponents of the Social security system make the case that the system will be unable to keep itself in such a manner indefinitely. And, if Social Security were a private insurance program, it wouldn't. But the fact is that Social Security is not a private program. it is funded by the government. Further, the government is in a unique position to change the laws of commerce and contract to adjust the system, making it more responsive to the needs of the retired, which, in turn, would reduce their need for the Social Security benefits. For example, the United states Government should raise the mandatory retirement age. By raising the age to sixty-eight, the Social Security System could delay paying out benefits for several years to thousands of people, saving the system a significant amount of money in benefits. For these reasons, the government is in a position which cannot be compared to private industry. In this sense, looking at social security as an insurance program and comparing it to other insurance programs in the private system could easily give the impression that the system is gong bankrupt, when in the reality it isn't. The thing to keep in mind about the Social Security system, then, is this: the system itself is in no fundamental danger of collapse. There is only temporary, cash flow situation that must be carefully looked at. The federal government pays out 4. 5 billion more in Social Security benefits as it collects in taxes every year. In fact, $4. 5 billion is a small price, compared to the other programs the federal government now finances from general revenue. Besides tapping the general revenue fund and raising the retirement limit to 68 or even 70,the government has the option of raising the Social Security tax or even reducing the benefits slightly. The government has so many options with regard to financing the benefits that the question becomes of the cash management, not quite as significant as the huge deficits that the Social Security has been accused of having. The government is already under way to help alleviate this cash flow problem. Public officials have debated which of the various ways would help best serve the public interest, and legislative action has been taken that would ultimately result of the Social Security system to a positive cash base. This shift would provide the workers of America with the same benefits they have been guaranteed since 1935- and have been paid, and expanded ever since. The social security system has withstood forty years of changing economic conditions and greater concern of public welfare. What would replace the system, if the critics had their way? The social security system has saved an untold number of people from disaster throughout many years. Many of the nations old people- some as young as sixty-two, a few over a hundred, live from Social Security paycheck to Social security paycheck, with this government program as their livelihood.

Where Things Come From Rock Materials