Final Project

World Economy and Crisis

The world economy, which is also called the global economy, means all the economies of the world combined and how they inter-relate with each other.  It is very important nowadays that we should know about the economic situation all around the world because sometimes it directly or indirectly affects us.  International financial problems like inflation ( rising prices), credit crunch (no cash available for loans by banks) as well as foreign exchange rates ( rate of one country’s currency in terms of another currency) and foreign trade are the key points to be taken care of, for smooth running of any country’s economy. Due to this, there is a need to regulate international money and financial matters, which are looked after by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and such organizations.  These organizations ensure smooth running of financial dealings as well as trade issues between all countries of the world. The world economy is not only related to money but also human resources (the people), who work and earn money for themselves and pay taxes to their governments. It is necessary to provide good employment to people so they bring economic development to their country. Overall, when all countries develop, the whole world economy develops. Every year it is calculated how much the world economy has grown or slowed down.

Regular checking and monitoring of the economic situation helps a country to save itself from any crisis. The latest international crisis was in the year 2007–2008, which is considered to be one of the worst in world history. It started due to the banks’ huge amounts of money spent and invested in housing and shares in the USA. Finally, on one day, as people heard that some crisis was coming, they all rushed to banks and asked to take out their money. The banks did not have such a huge amount on the same day and many account holders could not get their money.  There was a shortage of cash everywhere and no bank was ready to give any loan. It created a big issue as people demanded their own deposited money back. It resulted in the total disaster of some large financial institutions, the closing of banks by national governments, and huge losses in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market also suffered, resulting in people leaving the houses, foreclosures (selling of houses due to non-payment of house loans) and high rates of unemployment. The crisis played an important role in the failure of many businesses, losses in people’s wealth in trillions of US dollars, and a downturn in economic activity leading to the 2008–2012 global recession (prices fell, industries closed due to losses, unemployment increased). Still it was not that serious as we can see from the picture below. Here are the figures of some important regions of the world and their economic growth rate ( GDP= Gross Domestic Product Total number of goods produced in a country)

Source:http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-global-financial-cr-by-Niloufar-Parsi-130513-645.html

From this picture, the World Bank's own figures can be seen, that the worst year 2009 of  "global economic crisis”, shows negative results in only 3 regions out of 7,  namely Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America.  In this way this was not a big global recession. In fact, East and South Asia grew by as much as 7.5% in the same year. Also the Middle East and North Africa were progressing with 1.8% growth rate. In other words, in the year 2009, half of the world's population was experiencing a major economic boom (progress). The rest of the population was facing economic crisis.  A report, by Yale Global gave information on why the crisis started, how it affected the industries and consumers around the world, especially in the USA and Europe and the solutions which have been proposed by experts. According to them, the crisis resulted in:  a) massive unemployment; b) the closing of state social welfare programs, and c) more people became poor. Moreover, a bigger problem was this worldwide economic crisis came together with a worldwide militarization (wars, army, defence  spending),  by some big powerful nations.  These nations are spending huge amounts of money on army, defence, attacks and international policing. This money could be used for human welfare projects , to reduce poverty and spread education and  healthcare. 

 

About the world crisis Mr. Barack Obama , President of the US said in a debate:

"I am optimistic about the capacity of us to come together with a plan." ( September 27, 2008)

Source: http://dalje.com/en-world/obama-mccain-quotes-on-financial-crisis-economy/186677

Even now in 2013, another global economic crisis looks like coming recently but the situation is not so bad. The global economy has faced risks but the things now look better. Financial market conditions continue to improve. But the recovery  and progress is not so smooth.  As per history, usually the economic recoveries after financial crises are slow.  All the countries have to work hard to balance their losses with more production and profits for long term growth.  For this, they need to plan reforms and work on them to boost product quality and job creation.  Financial organizations should be helped to recover from their losses and start giving loans to businessmen. The challenges that we must work on are steady economic growth and financial stability and these should be shared by many global partners. That is why greater cooperation and coordination of policies is essential.   For this cooperation, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund come for help especially to small and poor countries. They try to bring investment in industries and create employment opportunities for people, to make them independent and useful for their country. Overall, when all countries develop, the world economy also develops, which means, in general, we all live in a better society.

References:

1. http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-global-financial-cr-by-Niloufar-Parsi-130513-645.html

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008

3. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/global-economic-crisis

4.http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-global-economic-and-social-crisis-why-we-must-fight-the-new-world-order/5334020

5.http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Global-Economic-Crisis-and-by-Richard-Clark-130513-836.html

6.http://www.globalresearch.ca/europes-economic-crisis-unemployment-hits-record-highs-in-spain-france/5333053

7. http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/07-05-2013/124503-russia_economic_crisis-0/

8. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-13-353_en.htm?locale=en

 

 

 

 

 

The Taj Mahal

 

The Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal. It was built in memory of his third wife. It was built in 1632. The Taj Mahal was built on a parcel of land to the south of the walled city of Agra. Shah Jahan presented Maharajah Jai Singh with a large palace in the centre of Agra in exchange for the land. The cost was about 32 million Indian rupees during the years that it was built in 1632-1653. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage. The Taj Mahal is viewed by many as the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Islamic, Persian, Ottoman, Turkish and Indian architectural styles. Back then, one rupee was worth 30 Dutch stuivers. Five stuivers were worth 6 British pence. It takes 240 pence to make a British pound. With this information you can figure that in 1640, one rupee was worth 0.15 British pounds. Therefore, the Taj Mahal cost 4.8 million British pounds in 1640. Using an inflation calculator for the British pound, it was determined that a British pound in 1640 is worth 141 British pounds today. So that means the Taj Mahal cost 678,800,000 of today's British pounds. Converting that to today's American dollars gives the Taj Mahal a cost in modern American dollars of $1,062,834,098. To this day, the Taj Mahal is considered as one of the most visited sites around the world. It is still in perfect condition.

 

 

 

The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia. The glowing white marble was brought from Makrana, Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, twenty eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were decorated into the white marble. Over 1,000 elephants were used to transport the building materials. The construction of the Taj Mahal was delivered to a board of architects  including Abd ul-Karim Ma'mur Khan, Makramat Khan, and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Lahaur and Isa Khan are considered to be the principal designers. There haven't been any changes to the structure since it was built. Isa Khan was an architect from Shiraz in Iran. He designed the Taj Mahal and then, the Emperor, Shah Jahan had the architect's hands cut off so that he'd never be able to design a unique building like it again. A labour force of twenty thousand workers was recruited across northern India. Sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers from southern India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, and a specialist in building turrets, another who carved only marble flowers were part of the thirty-seven men who formed the creative unit. There are no encountered problems during the construction of the Taj Mahal.

 

 

 

The importance of the Taj Mahal came from its unique structure and its emotional symbolism. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, for reasons more than just looking magnificent. It's the history of the Taj Mahal that adds a passion to its magnificence: a passion that is filled with love, loss, and regret. An example of how deeply a man loved his wife, that even after she passed away, he made sure that she would never fade away. This man was the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who was in love with Mumtaz Mahal, his dear wife. She was a Muslim Persian princess (her name was Arjumand Banu Begum before marriage) and he was the son of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir and grandson of Akbar the Great. It was at the age of 14 that he met Mumtaz and fell in love with her. Five years later in the year 1612, they got married. Taj Mahal history provides many details on how this extravagant building came to exist. The Taj Mahal was built in honour of Mumtaz Mahal, who was the wife of Emperor Shah Jahan. Mumtaz Mahal died while birthing their fourteenth child. This building was designed with influences from the Persians and Mughal architecture. There were specific buildings, such as the Jama Masjid mosque that were used as inspiration for the building of the Taj Mahal.

 

Refrences

http://www.tajmahal.org.uk/history.html
 

 http://www.islamicity.com/culture/taj/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
 

http://www.worldsiteguides.com/asia/india/taj-mahal/

century, t. l., & 1857, p. o. (n.d.). Taj Mahal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal 

Welcome to Golden Triangle Tour.. (n.d.). India Travel Agency, Package Tour Of India, India Travel Packages, New Delhi India Tour Operator, Travel Agents In India, Cheap Tour To India.. Retrieved April 28, 2013, from http://www.indiaculturaltours.com/golden-triangle.asp?gclid=CLH4tciq7bYCFcQc6wod1woA8g

"Taj Mahal India." Taj Mahal India. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. http://www.tajmahal.com/.

"History Of Taj Mahal, Tajmahal History, Taj Mahal Info, Taj Mahal Story, Taj Mahal Building." Taj Mahal India, Taj Mahal India Tours, Taj Mahal Agra Tour, Agra Taj Mahal Tours, India Tajmahal Information, Agra Taj Mahal Tour India. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. http://www.tajmahalindia.net/history-of-taj-mahal.html.


"Taj Mahal History - History of Taj Mahal - History of Taj Mahal Agra - Taj Mahal India History." Agra India - Agra Tourism - Agra City - Travel to Agra - Travel Agra - Tourism in Agra. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013. http://www.agraindia.org.uk/taj-mahal/taj-mahal-history.html.



 

LSC 2103 Mini report practice 1

Youths puts skills ahead of money

In a live voting session, 30 per cent of participants said the opportunity for growth and promotion was the most important factor when considering a job offer; 20 per cent said learning new skills was the top factor; while 18 per cent said work environment and culture was the main factor. Only 10 per cent said they would consider salary first. A mere 2 per cent said working hours were the most important criterion. Everyone is always saying that Emiratis only consider working hours and salary. INJAZ UAE is an organization that aims to build bridges between schools and colleges and the private sector. Employers say they can't hire Emiratis because they can't give them the salaries and working hours they demand. Hopefully this will prove them wrong.  Voting results also showed that students believed working in the private sector would present more demands than working for the government. On the other hand, private sector employers mistakenly believe that Emirati youth place more emphasis on salary, benefits and working hours. In order to realize Emiratisation targets, awareness about private sector opportunities needs to be enhanced among the youth.

However, competition for government jobs will intensify as demand outpaces supply, and as the government moves into supporting less traditional industries such as media and hospitality as the economy matures.  Job fairs, career guidance and workshops with corporate guests are ways that universities can help create new perceptions about working in the private sector. To do its bit, the business world can offer internships and trainee programmers to young graduates. The survey, which was conducted in the capital as part of an Emirati youth forum, revealed that 30 per cent of the university students and fresh graduates polled place utmost importance on growth and promotion opportunities when selecting a job. Unfortunately, Emirati youth are unaware of development opportunities in private sector companies. When choosing between public and private sector positions, the deciding factors for Emirati youth tend to be growth and promotion opportunities, work environment and skill development. The private sector work environment does not always provide sufficient motivation for Emirati youth.

Mini Report Practice

Falconers aid houbara survival

 

 At the Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX), the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) announced it has exceeded yearly expectations of Asian houbara released into the wild. This year has been significant in terms of success. Some hunters are poaching the houbara by killing it using shotguns, giving the bird a zero survival chance in that case, as opposed to the slight chance of escape the Houbara gets when being hunted by a falcon. A reason for this is the difference in mentality that modern hunters have as opposed to their forefathers who grew up in harsh conditions and  accustmed to giving back to nature as much as they took from it.

Another reason, the Director General revealed, is that many trap these birds and take them from their habitats in order to train their falcons how to hunt. Many falconers have drifted away from traditional methods of hunting, by over-trapping houbara birds, which are not the falcon’s natural prey in the first place. Throughout the Exhibition’s four days, the IFHC will be distributing surveys aimed at falconers to determine how many houbara birds will be needed to be bred, and how severe over-trapping is. Another issue we face is that we cannot determine the size of the black market, which is why these surveys are important.

The survey will indicate how many wild birds are trapped and which areas require the reintroduction programme. IFHC believes that some people are overhunting in some places, that some people are not using the traditional method of hunting and [are] using shotguns, We need to develop a strategy of how to work for these people so it's very important to know what they have in mind.  The survey will give clues to past houbara behaviour. This will hopefully mean houbara will not be taken from the wild to train falcons. Actually, the hunting exhibition is the best place to help us be in contact as much as we can with falconers, and this gives us a very good indication of the hunting pressure and the problems these birds are facing.

Extended Summary 2

How do Gulf corals beat the heat?

 

The algae photosynthesise, producing sugars that provide up to 90 per cent of the coral's energy, and on return, the coral provides shelter, nutrients - mostly nitrogen and phosphorus - and carbon dioxide for photosynthesis.

Prof Burt believes that the way to speed up the recovery might be to propagate the corals manually, collecting larvae during spawning events, settling them in artificial nurseries, and then planting those juveniles back out onto reefs. The sooner that happens, he says, the better. Accurate predictions of the fate of coral reefs require a profound knowledge of the adaptation capacity of the main reef builders

An extreme case of bleaching was seen in 1998, when the El Niño weather phenomenon subjected 80 per cent of the world's coral reefs to extreme temperatures. One coral in particular - the table coral, acropora - has managed a particularly impressive recovery along the Abu Dhabi coast, after having been wiped out in 1998.Working with an oceanographer from the marine biodiversity section of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi, they have been developing detailed maps of coastal current patterns in the southern Gulf.

Extended Summary 1

New RAK pearls Museum

 

The costly pearls were famous in the Gulf region in the past. Our grandfathers were gave them names such as Bint Al Matar and Bint Al Qamar.

Everything from the traditional stories surrounding the pearl, its history as a treasure required by merchants and monarchs across the world, its impact on the local culture and economy, and where it stands today in the modern world, can be found inside the new RAK Pearls Museum.

In addition to photographs of Ama diver - traditional Japanese female divers - the museum's second floor is lined with displays of the world's famous pearls, and instruction on how to differentiate natural and cultured pearls.The RAK Pearl Museum showcases the equipment that pearl divers used to harvest pearls from the sea.

Regardless of the pearling industry's fake, the influence of the pearl lived on, as Emirati women are still being named after different types of local names for pearls, such as Dana, Hessa, Moza and Qemasha.

On the first floor is a historical expedition, including a detailed platform of tools and gear worn by pearl divers, such as Al Khabt, or leather finger gloves; Al Fatam, a tortoise-shell flexible nose clip; and a thick, white cotton diver suit against jellyfish.

First reflective statement

 

LSC 2103 is an academic reading and writing course. This course is about emerging reading skills and writing a report, also summarizing articles from a newspaper. So far I have learnt how to summarize articles and how to achieve that task in the right time. By the end of this course I hope that I will write a report about business plans and strategies and also I will raise my reading skills especially when I have to present a business project. Moreover I will learn the rules of writing a report in the professional way without copy and paste and using the APA reference. My teacher is Hedley, He is British. He is married and got two daughters and four grandchildren; he is living in Abu-Dhabi right now. He is a good teacher because he has a lot of experience in teaching English in many countries such as United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and the United States. His favorite sport is rugby. He is interested in reading books such as Emma by Jane Austen and Farewell My Lovely. At the end we hope that we will learn from Mr. Hedley a lot about this course.