The Atlantic World in the Early Modern Period Essay Example for Free

The Atlantic World in the Early Modern Period Essay Atlantic slave trade is a trade that involved the sale of African people to the colonies of the new world which took place in and around the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic slave trade was also referred to transatlantic slave trade and begun in the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century. Most slaves were acquired through coastal trading with the Africans, nevertheless others were incarcerated by European slave traders through raiding and kidnapping. Out of many stories that have been written about the Atlantic slave trade, most of them talk mainly about the economic benefits that the trade rendered to Europe and North America and the injustices that the slaves received while in America, even though little attention has been given to the devastative effect of the damage that was done to the Africans. From this point, it is arguable that the Atlantic slave trade enriched and developed Europe and impoverished and under developed Africa. The slave trade involved commercial trading system which involved forced recruitment of African workers and their transportation to Europe. The Atlantic slave trade unlike other slave trades was capital intensive and competitive among several European countries. The participants of this trade included both the Africans and the Europeans who were both influenced by the trade The question on whether the Atlantic slave trade enriched and developed Europe and impoverished and under developed Africa can be answered under three categories of discussions that is; the social cost in Africa of forced migration, the Atlantic slave trade and the rise and expansion of the western world and the enduring legacies of the world of slaves. The costs and the benefits of the Atlantic slave trade differentiate between the private, social costs and the benefits. From the Atlantic slave trade it can be said that the people who raided and took captives from Africans and the African leaders who were involved in the buying and the selling of slaves all gained privately. It is not clear on what quantity of gains were got by the slave raiders and traders of the slave trade or the amount of losses suffered by the Africans, though it is argued from human rationality that the slave traders and raiders would not have continued with the captive business for several years if they were not getting some private gains. Due to Atlantic slave trade, there was loss of labor in Africa because most working group were taken as slaves and under population because most people were taken as slaves and others even died in the process of slave raiding. These reasons meant that Africa, unlike Europe would not have sufficient labor force that would drive the real wages and work towards making possible industrial profits. This therefore leads to the say that Europe underdeveloped Africa through Atlantic slave trade. Several arguments have been put across claiming that the Atlantic slave trade, exported to the European continent part of the African’s comparative advantage in the production of commodities for the dynamic world market. This as a result is said to have hindered the growth and development of goods production for international, markets by the African continent. Further argument has been made that the African societies have been under structured and underdeveloped as a result of the Atlantic trade. In trying to relate the wealth of the European continent and that of Africa, it can be noted that through the Atlantic trade, Europe underdeveloped Africa when a comparison between the enrichment of Europe and impoverishment of Africa through the removal of labor power in the process of slave trading is made. The slave trade was followed by the entry of the Europeans into the interior part of the coastal region. This as a result facilitated the expansion of the slave trade at the interior parts of the coastal regions. The slave comprised an element of an economic cycle which consists of three parts. The Atlantic slave trade involved four centuries that is; from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, four continents and several people. According to the Africans and African – American scholars the slave trade would rather be called a great disaster since it involved a lot of suffering on the part of the Africans who were sold as slaves and especially those who were taken through raids and kidnapping. The suffering on the Africans was not however only felt by those who were taken as slaves but also the families of those who were taken as slaves and Africa as a whole. This is because in the process of raiding to get the slaves so many people were killed and several others injured rendering thousands of children orphans. In addition lots of property was destroyed during the raids leaving most Africans homeless and without any food. Furthermore many families lost their loved ones either by being kidnapped as slaves, being sold as slaves or being killed through the raids. Economically, Africans lost a lot, first from the destruction of property during the raids and secondly, most of the African men who were taken as slaves were the strong energetic men who could have worked in the African farms and industries to improve the economy of Africa. Other than the deaths that occurred in Africa during the acquisition of slaves, several other deaths occurred among the African captives both inside and outside America. These deaths occurred during the transportation of the Africans to the new continent, during their storage and at the preliminary landing in the new continent or so it is said. The total number of deaths that occurred is claimed to remain unknown up to this moment though the number was approximated to be between sixteen to twenty million. The Trans Atlantic slave trade was associated with cruelty and inhumanity when dealing with the African slaves which reduced the slaves to just mere commodities other than human beings. For the slaves who survived the middle passage were provided with very little amount of food, shelter and clothing and were expected to do a lot of work. The African slaves however were not enslaved for life, the slaves were paid salaries and from that they were able to acquire wealth. In addition to the salary and acquisition of wealth, the African slaves could buy their freedom and be given social promotion which was not good enough compared to the lives they could have led in their homes with their families. Looking at the economists like David Ricardo and Adam Smith they believe that the Atlantic trade impoverished Africa and advocating trade and competition are the source of maximum welfare gains to humanity. Since the occurrence of the Atlantic slave trade Africa has always been left behind with the Africans stagnating in the continent prevalent with disorders, AIDS, and negative growth rate. The Atlantic slave trade indeed contributed to the development of Europe. However according to some scholars the Atlantic trade brought mutual benefit to both Europe and Africa, for instance a comment made at the university of Bender Arena on the history of slavery and the development of America and Europe pointed out that â€Å"Africa subsidized America with all the labor provided, America subsidized Europe and therefore Africa was the mother of all subsidies. For the Europeans the Atlantic slave trade was a source of development as they believed that labor was removed from where it was totally unproductive to where it was tremendously productive. They claim that this gave an opportunity for the world output to grow far beyond what it would have been if the slaves could have been kept within the African continent. According to the Europeans it was better off for Africans to be taken to Europe and America as slaved than remain in Africa since they believed that Africans stagnate in their continent due to diseases, primitive technology and short lives. According to the Americans the slave was for the good of the Africans since they claimed that the Atlantic slave trade involved the transfer of the slaves from a region with scarce labor to a region with abundant labor. The African leaders sold away inland populations who lacked protection. In return to this the African leaders came with foreign commodities including the European gunpowder and Indian cloth among others which were some of the merchandise that the Europeans and the North Americans exchanged for the slaves. The Atlantic slave trade actually developed the European empire given that one of the reasons why the Atlantic slave trade was started was because one of the resources that were missing in the expansion of the European empires was work force. The African slaves were therefore to provide this work force to help in the expansion of European colonies. Therefore Europeans became beneficiaries of the Atlantic slave trade since through the trade they were able to expand their empires. The indigenous people had proved so unreliable in the expansion of European empire forcing the Europeans to go for more reliable work force. Most of the indigenous people were found to have been dying from diseases that were brought from Europe. On the other hand the climate was not fit for the Europeans and they also suffered from tropical diseases. The only people who were found to be reliable were the Africans who proved to be excellent workers and with their experience in agriculture and cattle keeping, they got used to the tropical climate, were resistant to tropical diseases and could be used to work very hard both in the plantations and mines. Due to this reliability, the Europeans had no option but to go for Africans whom they were convinced could work perfectly well. As a result they resorted to slave trade which they thought was the easiest way to obtain the Africans to work for them. The development of the Europeans also came about as a result of immediate planting of tobacco which they began as soon as they captured the African slaves and were therefore sure that they had sufficient labor to work in their tobacco plantations. The tobacco plantations became very productive making tobacco to become the first successful commercial crop in Europe. As a result of this slave trade plantation agriculture and sugar production also became very common in the parts of the Mediterranean which led to the production of sugar from Asia to Europe. In addition there was the production of indigo which was used in textile dyes and later became the turn toward sugar making it the most expensive commercial crop to produce in Europe. Apart from the plantation agriculture and sugar production, the Europeans also populated the African slaves in their mines and factories. In general the African slaves became very important labor force in European agricultural production. The Atlantic slave marked the revival of the European long distance trading. This was due to the first crusade which brought the European Christians into the slave trade and slave production. In addition, the Europeans got an opportunity to gain a plentiful labor supply for the exploitation of their new colonies from the Atlantic slave trade. As a result Europe began experiencing increased population growth by the sixteenth century and therefore relied so much on the migrations of her poorer peasants and urban dwellers to America to provide its American labor needs. The rise and the fall of Atlantic slave trade pose different problems to the participants. For the Africans the rise of the Atlantic slave trade was such a problem in that its effects on the African society became a critical problem in the African history. The rise of the Atlantic trade however for the European history was a multipart economic being which was centered on the production of tropical staples in America and which was to be consumed by the Europeans. The fact that this production of tropical staples was facilitated by the labor of African slaves was a very important factor for the Europeans in their competition for overseas empire in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. On the other hand the fall of the Atlantic slave trade was an important moment for the Africans as it marked a time when they were to start recollecting their lives and recovering their lost property. It also marked the end of mass killing of Africans by the slave traders. For the Europeans it marked a time when they had to seek alternative labor sources to be able to continue with their developments and productions in their plantations, farms, mines and factories. Conclusion It is a fact that development in Africa remains mysterious, not because there are poor rulers or perverted leadership in Africa but because Africa was severely destroyed in the process of slave trading and also by colonialism which came as a result slave trade. As this happens however, the Europeans continue to enjoy their success in the plantations which became successful as a result of labor force provided by the African slaves. The Atlantic trade indeed brought problems of population growth and economic development for the Africans while it became of European economic interests. The Atlantic slave trade definitely enriched and developed Europe and impoverished and under developed Africa. Bibliography Roger, Anstey. The Atlantic Slave Trade and British abolition, 1760-1810. London: Macmillan, 1975, 245- 53. Clarke, John Henrik. Christopher Columbus and the African Great Disaster. Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism London: Macmillan Press, 1999, 167- 179. Curtin, Philip D. Atlantic Slave Trade. University of Wisconsin Press, 1969, 463-69. Rescher, R. and Seymour J. From Slavery to Freedom: Comparative Studies in the Rise and Fall of Atlantic Slavery. London: Macmillan Press, 1999, 128- 135. Jacob Klein Herbert S. Slave Trade in the Atlantic. Cambridge: University Press, 1999, 15- 20. Thomas and Hugh. The Slave Trading: The Histories of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440 1870. London: Picador, 1997, 400- 11.

Policy on Refugees and Integration in Costa Rica

Policy on Refugees and Integration in Costa Rica COSTA RICAN GOVERNMENT POLICY ON REFUGEE AID AND INTEGRATION INTRODUCTION: THE AMBIGUOUS STATUS OF THE REFUGEE AND COSTA RICA The problem of the refugee originates as a peculiarly twentieth century phenomenon. The displacement of peoples from the very borders that delineate states presented a historical challenge that threatened the integrity and the essence of the latter. As the philosopher Giorgio Agamben abstracts the pertinence of this problem: Every time refugees no longer represent individual cases but rather a mass phenomenon (as happened between the two wars, and has happened again now), both these organizations and the single states have proven, despite the solemn evocations of the inalienable rights of man, to be absolutely incapable not only of resolving the problem but also simply of dealing with it adequately.[1] For Agamben, this inadequacy of the treatment of the refugee problem, despite the international consensus on the existence of the human rights of the refugee, is intimately tied to the theoretical shortcomings of the notion of the Nation-State itself; there is a consistent rupture in t he functionality of the Nation State when confronted with the anomaly of the refugee, i.e., when a subject is separated from his/her state, this subject becomes a disturbing remainder that other states find it difficult to account for. Thus, insofar as the refugee denotes a certain failure of the Nation State to protect its citizens/non-citizens, the case of the refugee denotes the limit of the State. Nevertheless, despite the tension between the notions of the refugee and the state that ground their relationship, there is an attentiveness to this problematic (evinced in Agambens own remark), demonstrated by the general consciousness of the existence of the refugee. Hence, regardless of any discerned policy inadequacies, there still exists a concerted effort to address the problem. The success of various refugee policies certainly may be evaluated, e.g., as with Agambens negative evaluation. In the case of Costa Rica, its treatments of the refugee crises that began in 1980s Central America was an example of some moderate successes, or at least, the desired mobilization of a states capabilities via governmental policy towards the refugee cause. However, this mobilization encountered its own distinct problems, over-determined (following Agambens abstraction of the problem) by the irregular status of the refugee him/herself. The successes and failures of Costa Ricas refugee policy is a particularly significant case study for numerous reasons. To the degree that there was a concerted effort from the Costa Rican officials to alleviate the refugee crisis, the shortcomings relate not to Costa Ricas negligence of this crisis (thusly indicating the direction of an evaluation of this policy in terms of a general apathy on the part of Costa Rica), but the opposite: it is this very effort that provides a compelling case for an analysis of a refugee policy in terms of its affectivity and its limits. That is, Costa Ricas attempt to rectify their refugee problem, rather than ignore it or deal with it in a manner that undermines the notions of the rights of man, provides an excellent paradigmatic case for the possible indexing of refugee policy. It is because of this very commitment to alleviating the problem that Costa Rica, despite any subsequent further critiques regarding the details of their refugee policy, is recognized by the international community as having advanced a fairly successful policy in regards to refugees. As Tanya Bysok notes Costa Rica is often cited as a model for refugee settlement.[2] However, this is not to suggest that the Costa Rican approach is flawless. Whilst some policies of the Costa Ricans have been recognized as effective by social scientists, this praise does not diminish the evident gaps in the Costa Rican policy. In this paper we shall examine the Costa Rican treatment of the refugee and attempt to understand how the refugee was integrated/or non-integrated into Costa Rican society. This analysis will be concerned with Costa Ricas approach; however, whilst there was a clear Costa Rican governmental policy, a significant factor in the Costa Rican case is the large presence of foreign organ izations that were encouraged to participate in a possible refugee solution. Thus, because of the Costa Rican openness to a diversity of aid organizations and volunteers offering support, the qualitative analysis of the success/failures of the Costa Rican approach cannot merely be attributed to the Costa Rican government itself. Whilst this encouragement of international participation may be logically viewed as an autonomous gesture of the Costa Rican government, it can also be construed as Costa Ricas self-acknowledgement of having been fundamentally overstretched in terms of its capabilities to handle the problem. Secondly, this analysis shall be supplemented with an anonymous questionnaire of former refugees in Costa Rica, in order to introduce a non-theoretical personal discourse within the parameters of our text. The method of the questionnaire is placed into the paper to act as a balancing point with the theoretical evaluation. The emphasis on the notion of testimony, a form of empiricism all its own, forwards an account of the Costa Rican policy that evaluates the countrys treatment of refugees from a theoretical standpoint, while also acknowledging the power and significance of such a testimony. COSTA RICAN REFUGEE INTEGRATION ANALYSIS The genesis of Costa Ricas refugee problem may be preliminarily abstracted as a matter of geopolitical positioning. Costa Rica occupied a hazardous place within Central America in the 1980s. The relative stability of Costa Rica was contrasted by the neighboring conflicts in El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras: The 1980s evinced a certain explosion of such geopolitical and ideological tensions in Central America, from which Costa Rica was spared. As Martha Honey notes, the Costa Rica of the 1980s â€Å"appeared to be an oasis of tranquility†[3] It is this status of a certain oasis in Central America, that evidently yielded Costa Ricas refugee problem: as a stable nation, it represented the destination of choice for refugees seeking to avoid war in their native lands. Costa Ricas stability as a source for refugees has continued in the time period since the beginning of the 1980s. Yet the refugee that Costa Rica encounters now is substantially different: Refuge es coming into Costa Rica today tend no longer to be from Central America but instead the vast majority are from Colombia. Many are middle-class, urban professionals.[4] Thus, by no means is the refugee in Costa Rica a homogeneous figure. The wars across Central America in the 1980s that led to such displacement are no longer a significant factor in present Costa Rican refugee policy. The Costa Rican encounter with the phenomenon of the refugee begins in 1980 with increasing hostilities in the neighboring country of El Salvador. The immediate reaction of Costa Ricas treatment of this refugee influx distinguished itself from other nations such as Honduras. Whilst Honduras policy favored the internment of the Salvadorian refugees in camps, Costa Rica from the outset emphasized the process of making the refugee self-sufficient; they sought to sever any dependency of the refugee on the state apparatus itself, while simultaneously integrating the refugee into Costa Rican society. These two approaches immediately evince a lucid difference in treatment. In the case of Honduras, this treatment may be viewed as an isolationist approach, insofar as the site of the camp becomes the home of the refugee it does not represent a zone of inclusion, but rather one of suspension moreover, it is an implicit acknowledgment of Honduras government inability to deal with the phenomeno n of the refugee, placing the refugee in a certain no-mans land, as it waits for the conflict in the home country to cease. In contrast, the Costa Rican emphasis on autonomy and self-sufficiency denotes the acceptance of the refugee immediately into its boundaries. We can abstract this difference in terms of a synchronous thinking and a diachronous thinking. In the case of Costa Rica, the policy does not introduce the phenomenon of two times, i.e., waiting for the war to stop rather, the interruption of the refugee experience is directly addressed, through a minimization of this interruption that is a policy of refugee inclusion in Costa Rica. On the other hand, in the Honduran approach, two times are articulated, a wartime and a non-war time. There is no possible mediation between the times; there is only a case of transition and thus, a passivity on the part of the government that is then transferred to the refugee him/herself this interruption that is the refugee event determines the entire Honduran policy. In essence, Costa Rica attempted to establish the continuity of the refugees’ life, allowing for the possibility of a normalcy to remain in the face of a crisis. Such initial successes of the Costa Rican programme may be attributed to a certain history of human rights discourse that emerges in the country, i.e., that Costa Rica was conducive to internationalism in its support of UN programmes and its own creation of international approaches. This historiographical element is significant to understanding the immediate difference of Costa Rica from its neighbors, as it stresses a historical Costa Rican commitment to human rights. As Alison Brysk notes, Costa Rica qualifies as a global good Samaritan because its record of human rights promotion is enduring and multifaceted, and it makes a meaningful contribution to globally significant initiatives.[5] Hence, Costa Ricas Good Samaritan status is derived from its fidelity to such initiatives on both a regional and global level. Among its contributions, Costa Rica was involved in the peace negotiations that ended three regional civil wars, while also functioning as the seat for the Inter-American C ourt of Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS). On the international level, Costa Rica was involved with international organizations such as serving at the initial prepatory conference for the founding of the United Nations, while also initiating the UN Childerns Fund. These historical contributions of Costa Rica may be construed as establishing a certain tradition within Costa Rica that made it more receptive to the specific demands of the refugee influxes that began in the 1980s. Thus, from an ideological perspective, there was nothing in the Costa Rican state ideology that would be adverse to the refugee; rather, the ideology was committed to human rights from its outset. This tradition may help to understand the initial successes of the Costa Rican programme. In the initial stages of the refugee problem in the 1980s, because of such an international tradition of Costa Rican policy, there was no shortage in the country of foreign and international refugee organizations that participated in the alleviation of the crisis. As Basok summarizes these contributions: A number of government and voluntary agencies have participated in refugee settlement [in Costa Rica]. They include local branches of such international organizations as Caritas, the Episcopalian church, and the YMCA. In addition, refugees themselves formed a number of voluntary organizations in the hope of assisting their compatriots. Apart from providing emergency aid to refugees, the UNHCR has also financed most of the refugee urban projects. Financial assistance has been provided by other international NGOS as well.[6] The plurality of non-governmental actors demonstrated a Costa Rican openn ess to the refugee crisis. Moreover, the possibility of refugees themselves forming aid organizations demonstrated a certain autonomy of the refugee within Costa Rica; despite the loss of nationality that is the refugee displacement, the refugees were granted a freedom to organize and assemble regardless of their anomalous status. These international organizations were also complimented by Costa Ricas own approach, which has been termed as the durable solution model, emphasizing integration of refugees into the country of asylum. As an unpublished UNHCR document describes this durable solution model: Self sufficiency projects are the ultimate aim of UNHCR as they allow the refugees to become independent of emergency assistance and be productively integrated in the receiving community. In the under-developed countries with serious unemployment problems, self-sufficiency projects offer the best alternation for the refugees work problem. For the receiving country, these durable solutions are a contribution to the national economy, particularly the projects which include both nationals and refugees.[7] Costa Ricas commitment to what the UNHCR deemed as the most effective program for refugee crisis further explicates the traditional openness of Costa Rica to international consensus, whilst concomitantly identifying Costa Ricas desired integration of refugees. The UNHCRs evaluation further acknowledges the durable solution as beneficial to the new country of the refugee itself: the influx of labour sources provided a boost to the national economy of Costa Rica. Thus, Costa Ricas commitment to the durable solution model may be viewed as both a commitment to international law and the notion of human rights, whilst also a policy decision how to utilize the refugee crisis for the benefit of Costa Rica itself. Nevertheless, what may be termed as Costa Ricas comprehensive solution, insofar as it incorporated the UNHCRs preferred model while simultaneously allowing for the participation of foreign organizations, nevertheless encountered specific problems. Primarily the non-organizational model’s intervention into the refugee problem was problematic: The results, however, were less than satisfactory. In 1985 it became evident to the UNHCR that less than half of the 152 projects registered with government agencies were still active. Most of the others had failed.[8] The infectivity of the multiplicity of organizations according to the quantitative data of the UNHCR tends to suggest that the approach of a strength in numbers, i.e., multiple organizations engaging in the refugee crisis, was unsuccessful primarily because of a lack of cohesion. Inasmuch as the Costa Rican intent was essentially one of no aid is bad aid†, this ultimate failure speaks to a certain consistency needed be tween organizations, in order better to establish links between groups, and affectively address the grounding problem, that of the refugee him/herself. This bureaucratic entanglement between organizations as detrimental to the refugee is easily discernable from the perspective of the refugee him/herself; because a plurality of organizations exists, the refugee is caught in a bureaucratic system, with no connection to the Costa Rican government itself. This serves as an impasse to the desired integration. This collapse of the various international programs led Costa Rica to attempt a more autonomous policy that would be regulated by the government, therein optimistically hoping to marginalize the previous failures through a centralization of refugee policy. This centralization would enable a consistent discourse of the durable solution to emerge in the Costa Rican space. As Ed Mihalkanin notes After the failure of many of the international and domestic refugee projects, the Costa Rican government tried to integrate refugees into already existing jobs.[9] By Costa Rica directly addressing the problem, this focusing of the remit of refugee policy could better serve the goal of integration: as the refugees are located in Costa Rica, the most efficient means towards integration would be to have the government directly involved in the refugee process by opening economic opportunities to the refugee. This shift reflects a certain fundamental ambiguity at the heart of the general theory of refugee policy. While, prima facie, the plurality of non-governmental organizations that operated in Costa Rica to alleviate the suffering of the refugee may be viewed as a logical step, inasmuch as it emphasizes giving aid to refugees in light of any possible limits to the capabilities of the Costa Rican government, this approach simultaneously suspends the notion of an integration into Costa Rican society. That is to say, if integration is the ultimate goal of Costa Rican refugee policy, such integration can only be engendered by the direct intervention of the government itself, as the government is ultimately congruent with Costa Rica. From this perspective, the collapse of the aid programmes emanating from various international sources may be viewed, in actuality, as a step towards a more direct involvement of the Costa Rican government in the refugee problematic, in terms of a more strident form of integration. This strident form would be necessary if the Costa Rican government would become the primary instrument for refugee aid in the nation, as opposed to the organizational plurality. Nevertheless, after the general failure of the international aid programmes, charity organizations, etc., the new Costa Rican government initiative itself faced various de jure issues that prevented the establishing of a greater remit for refugee aid. As Mihalkanin writes, at times Costa Rican laws actually prevented refugee aid, despite any best intentions of the Costa Rican government. This was the case regarding Costa Rican employee law: â€Å"Yet very few work permits were issued since by law only ten percent of a firms workers can be foreigners.†[10] Thus, the attempt to integrate refugees into the Costa Rican labour force already met opposition in a pre-existing law that marginalized the possibility of foreign workers in Costa Rica. As Mihalkanin notes, despite the intent of both the government to integrate the refugees and the employers’ will to aid the refugees by giving them work, this shared movement encountered a double impasse: the de jure situation of the l abour law, coupled with the de facto situation of employers, whom, although giving refuges a workplace, could not register the workers because of the law. Therefore, any type of de jure integration of these refugee workers who were already working in Costa Rica, was not possible because of the law; despite their labour power, and one must conclude, the desire for this labour source, the separation between the de jure and the de facto situation prevented this opportunity at integration. What occurred then is simply a missed opportunity, a miscommunication between government and private sectors, the latter wholly receptive to the influx of refugee workers, but whose hands were metaphorically tied by the Costa Rican law. This problem of the limits of aid in the sphere of labour relations also extends into the basic human rights of Costa Ricans, such as health care: insofar as health care is available to refugees in Costa Rica, access is limited from both a temporal and financial perspective. As a UNHCR report from 2003 noted, â€Å"in Costa Rica, access to social security services is universal, which means that everyone, regardless of nationality, is entitled to health coverage at a very low cost.†[11] Nevertheless, the caveat here is that â€Å"refugees and asylum seekers are entitled to free healthcare cover during their first three months in Costa Rica.†[12] This leads to an immediate problem facing refugees after the three month period of coverage has elapsed; as Gloria Maklouf Weiss, Director of ACAI (Asociacià ³n de Consultores y Asesores Internacionales), a UNHCR partner in Costa Rica recapitulates this problem: â€Å"some refugees are in such economic hardship that they cannot pay even the very small monthly fees.†[13] Thus, considering the situation of the refugee, the three-month time limit appears insufficient for health care coverage. The securing of an employment opportunity in Costa Rica within this same three-month period would have to be a concomitant aim of a programme; otherwise, the benefits of the Costa Rican health care policy are severely limited by the refugees’ inability to generate capital. On this point, the separation of the spheres of employment and healthcare impede the abilities of the refugee to begin a life in Costa Rica; insofar as employment and healthcare are considered as distinct issues, the benefits of healthcare are separated from the refugee labour force. The weakness therefore in this aspect of the policy is not anticipating the contiguity between employment integration and the possibility of health care. It is examples such as these incongruities in the law and policy of Costa Rica itself that failed to provide a comprehensive programme for its refugees. Thus, whilst Costa Ricas position as a stable country remains attractive to refugees in a time of crisis, various gaps in the system prevented a comprehensive plan to address the phenomenon. QUESTIONNAIRE The data in section 2.0 regarding Costa Rica’s history and policy approach to the refugee crisis only provides one side of the picture. This theoretical analysis of Costa Rican refugee policy, considering the constraints on any discourse of this style, is to be supplemented by a questionnaire submitted to four former refugees in Costa Rica. Whilst the sample size of the questionnaire is admittedly small, the necessity of its inclusion rests on a theoretical significance given to the notion of testimony in an effort to verify or contradict the reading provided of Costa Rican refugee policy. The prejudice of the academic discourse is to be alleviated through the survey presentation; thus, the purpose of the questionnaire is based on a theoretical value attached to testimony and the attempt to provide a more complete picture of the refugee policy of Costa Rica. Because of sensitivity to the time concerns of the participants and because of issues with the English language, the que stionnaire was deliberately simple and limited to four questions. QUESTIONNAIRE ANALYSIS While the sample size is admittedly small, and the nature of the questions direct, the data of the questionnaire would seem to indicate a moderate level of satisfaction with the Costa Rican refugee policy. The option for the refugees in Costa Rica appears to be beneficial; the majority of answerers expressed that integration and employment possibilities were available in Costa Rica, whilst also noting the receptivity of the various refugee organizations to the concerns of the refugees. It is germane to note that the questionnaire deliberately avoided inquiring into the personal history of the participants, in respect for ethics and the privacy of the participants. While this may be construed as detracting from the accuracy of the questionnaire, as it brackets out some of the personal histories involved in the participants, the aforementioned ethical position of protecting privacy was taken as paramount. Rather the questionnaire was to function as a cursory testimonial survey of Costa Rican refugee policy, and thus, while no means a complete account, it does indicate that the Costa Rican option for refugees was more positive than it was negative. CONCLUSIONS The difficulty of the refugee problem primarily lies in the problems it engenders vis-à  -vis the traditional structure of the State, which relies for its function on the notion of citizenry. Inasmuch as human rights become an international imperative, the anomalous appearance of the refugee conflicts with the traditional State model. This tension is however a source for the production of new approaches to the refugee problematic. Costa Rica’s position in the ravaged Central America of the 1980s placed the nation into a role of a paradigm case for refugee policy. The Costa Rican approach must be commended at the outset for its commitment to human rights and the welfare of the refugees. The intent of the Costa Rican policy therefore must be viewed in a positive light. However, the complications that arose from the refugee crisis provide valuable data and source material for the possible improvements of refugee policy. Costa Rica’s acceptance of foreign, international and non-governmental charitable organizations to alleviate the crisis, whilst helping the refugees on the â€Å"terrain†, actually hindered the successful integration of these refugees into Costa Rican society, inasmuch as these organizations, as non-Costa Rican entities, actually created a further distance between the refugee and the Costa Rican state. Moreover, once the majority of these organizations had failed, the Costa Rican government was left to complete the so-called â€Å"durable solution.† The impasses to the â€Å"durable solution† may be traced to employment and economic laws of the Costa Rican state, laws which were unable to successfully meld with the desired â€Å"durable solution.† It is various de jure factors, despite the overall Costa Rican government intent and the intent of the private sector to integrate refugees through employment, which hindered the affectivity of this solution. Nevertheless, Costa Rica is still referred in some academic literature as an excellent example of a refugee policy. This seems to be supported by the anonymous questionnaire that was a part of our research; the questionnaire, while its sample size is admittedly small, nonetheless offers a certain support to the notion that Costa Rica was more effective than not regarding the refugee experience. Thus, whilst there are problematics in the policy of Costa Rican refugee integration, it is nevertheless a paradigm from which numerous positives can be drawn, whilst also providing a better insight into the impasses that may present themselves in such a policy: hopefully these cases, will yield a better approach to the difficult notion of the refugee in the future. BIBLIOGRAPHY Giorgio Agamben, â€Å"We Refugees†, accessed at: http://roundtable.kein.org/node/399 Tanya Basok, Keeping Heads Above Water: Salvadorean Refugees in Costa Rica McGill Queen’s Press: 1993. Alison Brysk, â€Å"Global Good Samaritans? Human Rights Foreign Policy in Costa Rica†, in: Global Governance, Vol. 11, 2005. Martha Honey, Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s, University of Florida Press: 1994. Ed Mihalkanin, â€Å"Refugee Aid, Displaced Persons, and Development in Central America† in: Refugee Aid and Development, Greenwood Press: 1993. UNHCR, â€Å"Health Fair in Costa Rica gives refugees much needed medical care†, March 6, 2006, accessed at: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EVOD-6MNF3L?OpenDocument> 1 [1] Giorgio Agamben, â€Å"We Refugees†, accessed at: http://roundtable.kein.org/node/399. [2] Tanya Basok, Keeping Heads Above Water: Salvadorean Refugees in Costa Rica, pg. Xvii. [3] Martha Honey, Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s, pg. 4. [4] UNHCR, â€Å"Health Fair in Costa Rica gives refugees much needed medical care†, March 6, 2006, accessed at: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EVOD-6MNF3L?OpenDocument> [5] Alison Brysk, â€Å"Global Good Samaritans? Human Rights Foreign Policy in Costa Rica†, in: Global Governance, Vol. 11, 2005. [6] Basok, pg. Xviii. [7] Basok, pg. Vi. [8] Basok, pg. Xviii. [9] Ed Mihalkanin, â€Å"Refugee Aid, Displaced Persons, and Development in Central America† in: Refugee Aid and Development, pg. 90. [10] Mihalkanin, pg. 90. [11] UNHCR, accessed at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EVOD-6MNF3L?OpenDocument> [12] UNHCR, accessed at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EVOD-6MNF3L?OpenDocument> [13] UNHCR, accessed at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EVOD-6MNF3L?OpenDocument>

The Study and Findings of Climatology in Nepal Essay -- Climae Environ

The Study and Findings of Climatology in Nepal In many areas in Nepal, the history of climatology only dates back to 1956. Around this time, the Indian Meteorological Department instituted stations in various areas around the country, which were eventually taken over by the Nepalese government in 1966. Having these stations in place has given scientists significant insight into the Nepalese climate. However, some of the Indian equipment remained in the Nepalese stations, and unfortunately many Indian findings vary significantly from the Nepalese records of the same areas. Therefore, some information is unreliable, coupled by the fact that not all stations have operated since the start of the program (Thyer, 645). However, there are other sources of NepalÕs climate history, like extracts from articles written by climatologists from other countries, like Japan, the US, Germany, and France (Thyer, 645). Nepal is a small country, land-locked between India and the Tibet region of China in South America. It is 900 kilometers from east to west, and 150 to 250 kilometers from north to south (Spence, 223). Nepal is home to eight of the ten highest mountain peaks in the world, most notably Mount Everest, which lies at 8,848 meters. In contrast, some of the areas that are situated lower in Nepal are only about eighty meters above sea level. Clearly, Nepal has much climate variation; in fact, the climate progresses from tropical to arctic within a 200-kilometer area from south to north (Agrawala, 12). There are five geographical regions in Nepal (though, sometimes the mountain regions are grouped together as one). The Terai plain is the southernmost strip, bordered to the north by the Himala... ... Works Cited Agrawala, Shardul, Vivian Raksakulthai, Marteen van Aalst, Peter Larsen, Joel Smith, and John Reynolds. Development and Climate Change in Nepal: Focus on Water Resources and Hydropower. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 2003. Spence, Captain F.S. Himalayan Survey. The Geographical Journal. Vol.153, No.2. July 1987. Thyer, Norman. Looking at Western NepalÕs Climate. The University of Calgary. June 1985. Unknown-1. Introductions about Nepal: Geography and Climate. Himalayan Dreams.com http://www.himalayandreams.com/climate.html Unknown-2. Nepal Weather. Adventure Travel with iExplore. 2007. http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Nepal/Weather+and+Climate Unknown-3. Kathmandu Climate and Weather. Globe Media Ltd., 2007. http://www.wordtravels.com/Cities/Nepal/Kathmandu/Climate

Physical Development of Children in Middle Childhood Essays -- Child D

This topic considers what the physical development of children in ‘middle childhood (6-10)’ is, and how their physical needs in the learning environment can be accommodated. The key elements taken into consideration would be the development of motor skills for the selected age group and the influences of the specified group. The benefits of physical activity and the consequences of prolonged inactivity, how a student’s development can be facilitated or restricted through development in other areas with the use of physical activity and issues of health and well being in the learning environment to accommodate or support the physical needs and development of the students in the specified age group. Accounts and ideas by specialists in the field of physical development and the specified group have been documented to show how these factors can work together. These elements are necessary to understand how a child’s environment and developmental levels enable them to learn effectively The fine motor skills development in students’ within the middle childhood age range gradually improves throughout their learning period. Throughout their ‘middle childhood’ students’ writing becomes smaller, neater and more consistent with fewer spelling and grammatical errors and drawings contain more detail and are â€Å"supported by physiological maturation and cognitive advances† (McDevitt & Ormond, 2010, Pg 161). Their ability to try and succeed at fine motor skills such; arts and crafts, knitting and beading projects increase. It is imperative to increase children’s writing tasks from shapes, letters and numbers to words, sentences and sums to improve both fine motor skills and cognitive abilities. Physical development can affect other area... ...reat Britain: Oneworld Publicatons Lucas, R.W. (2005). People Strategies for Trainers. 176 Tips and Techniques for dealing with DIFFICULT Classroom Situations. USA: AMACOM American Management Association McDevitt, T.M & Ormrod, J.E. (2010). Child Development and Education. USA: S4 Carlisle Publishing Services McInerney, D.M. & McInerney, V. (2002). Educational Psychology Constructing Learning. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Catherine Godfrey Shilton, T. & Naughton, G. National Physical Activity Program Committee, National Heart Foundation of Australia. Physical activity and children A Statement of Importance and Call to Action from the Heart Foundation. (2001). Retrieved from http://fulltext.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2001/nhf/call_to_action.asp Early Childhood Education (2012). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_childhood_education Physical Development of Children in Middle Childhood Essays -- Child D This topic considers what the physical development of children in ‘middle childhood (6-10)’ is, and how their physical needs in the learning environment can be accommodated. The key elements taken into consideration would be the development of motor skills for the selected age group and the influences of the specified group. The benefits of physical activity and the consequences of prolonged inactivity, how a student’s development can be facilitated or restricted through development in other areas with the use of physical activity and issues of health and well being in the learning environment to accommodate or support the physical needs and development of the students in the specified age group. Accounts and ideas by specialists in the field of physical development and the specified group have been documented to show how these factors can work together. These elements are necessary to understand how a child’s environment and developmental levels enable them to learn effectively The fine motor skills development in students’ within the middle childhood age range gradually improves throughout their learning period. Throughout their ‘middle childhood’ students’ writing becomes smaller, neater and more consistent with fewer spelling and grammatical errors and drawings contain more detail and are â€Å"supported by physiological maturation and cognitive advances† (McDevitt & Ormond, 2010, Pg 161). Their ability to try and succeed at fine motor skills such; arts and crafts, knitting and beading projects increase. It is imperative to increase children’s writing tasks from shapes, letters and numbers to words, sentences and sums to improve both fine motor skills and cognitive abilities. Physical development can affect other area... ...reat Britain: Oneworld Publicatons Lucas, R.W. (2005). People Strategies for Trainers. 176 Tips and Techniques for dealing with DIFFICULT Classroom Situations. USA: AMACOM American Management Association McDevitt, T.M & Ormrod, J.E. (2010). Child Development and Education. USA: S4 Carlisle Publishing Services McInerney, D.M. & McInerney, V. (2002). Educational Psychology Constructing Learning. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Catherine Godfrey Shilton, T. & Naughton, G. National Physical Activity Program Committee, National Heart Foundation of Australia. Physical activity and children A Statement of Importance and Call to Action from the Heart Foundation. (2001). Retrieved from http://fulltext.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2001/nhf/call_to_action.asp Early Childhood Education (2012). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_childhood_education

The Signal-Man and The Monkeys Paw :: Free Essay Writer

How do the writers create a sense of suspense? Fictional text need to be interesting so that the reader likes it. Many writers use many different things to capture their reader’s interest. Both Charles Dickens and WW Jacobs, in the Signalman and the monkeys paw both use different ways to try and keep the interest of their reader. The Signalman and the Monkey paw, are very similar both are horror stories set in 0ne location with very few characters. Even though they seem similar, they are actually told in different styles. Throughout the story the Signalman, Charles Dickens uses a Varity of methods to create atmosphere, tension and mystery. The author of this short story Charles Dickens was motivated to write this story because of a terrible train wreck at Staple Hurst, Kent, which he was involved in on 9 June 1865, in which several passengers died but he survived by luck. The story â€Å"The signalman† starts with the quote "Halloa! Below there" as the story unfolds this quote becomes very important. At the start of the story â€Å"The signalman†, suspense is created when the narrator calls out to â€Å"the signalman†; the signalman seems to stare at him in shock. It seems to be weird because the signalman seems to fear the narrator, or is somehow astonished by his presence. The signalman’s actions create ambiguity, which is successful to create the overall suspense. Both the writers use conflict to create suspense, for example in the signalman, the narrator and the signalman seem to show a sense of conflict. For example the narrator presence, seems to astonish the signalman. The signalman says† before he stirred I was near enough to him to have touched him, not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one step and lifted his hand† the signalman is implying that he is uncomfortable with the narrator. Even the narrator notices the weird behaviour that is displayed by the signalman he says, â€Å"You look at me, I said forcing a smile, as if you dread me†. They do not understand each other at this moment; the both think that each other are ghosts. The signalman says, â€Å"I was doubtful, he returned, whether I had seen you before, where? He pointed at the red light he looked at there? I said†. The signalman was implying that he had seen the narrator, under the red light that was the same place which he also said he had seen the ghost. The narrator also believes the signalman is a ghost he says, â€Å"A monstrous thought came into my mind as I perused the fixed eyes saturnine face, that this was a spirit not a

Post-impressionism and Artists

Impressionism was a movement that came about in the late 19th century, most specifically its roots can be traced back the 1874 when a group called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. organized an exhibition in Paris. (Samu, 2004). The group led several exhibitions through the 1880’s which brought them into the spot light despite criticism from the conventional art community in France. The movement received its name from one of the movements most now most recognized artists Claude Monet and his piece Impression, Sunrise. It is said that a critic accused the painting of being a sketch or â€Å"impression†. (Samu, 2004) Paintings of this period tended to be outdoor scenes and panoramas. My Grandfather, Lawrence Bird, who was an artist and set designer for Disney modeled his style of art after this period. He was inspired by the artists of this period and their focus on developing their own technique that was more centered around light and its effect on the image. The painting technique included short choppy and broken strokes with vibrant and light colors adding new dimensions to their paintings. Impressionism did an amazing thing it realized the phenomenon of transitoriness. The artist that carries his canvas out into the great outdoors and strives to record every small detail of what his eye can perceive is in very different state of mind than the artist that creates his art in a studio reconstructed from sketches or studies. (Collins, 2012) The social, economic and political climate of this time saw many changes. You had the industrial revolution, which replaced small farms and factories with large industrial complexes. This eventually led people into more urban areas out of the country side. There is the release of the communist manifesto by Marx and Engles and of course Darwin’s release of â€Å"Orgin of the species. † (Werner, 1998) Both changing the way people thought and viewed the world they lived in. Due to the above mentioned industrial revolution there are many new and useful items now readily available to artists, authors, sculptors and so forth. One of these items includes synthetic chemical pigments that often have greater luminosity than previous organic pigments, thus allowing the artists to explore more vibrant styles. The most notable and recognized painters of this time embraced this new medium in which to work with. These artists included: Alfred Sisley, Armand Guillaumin, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet and Pierre Renoir. As a former sailor in the United States Navy I have an affinity for lighthouses and depictions of the sea. One of my favorite pieces of this time is Claude Monet’s – Mouth of the Seine, done in 1865. This masterpiece, with its lighthouse in the distance depicts the coming and going of the many merchant, fishing and leisure vessels as they navigate the waters of the Seine river as it empties into the English Channel. The image to me, represents a simpler time where sailing was an art that was performed by skill rather than instruments and automation. Impressionism was not brought about by a necessity or tragic change in the social environment, more so out of the fact of new ideas and the availability of these new mediums. This allowed the artists to break free of the â€Å"statu quo† and express their view on the world around them in a fresh, new and vibrant way. Impressionism opened up the art world’s eyes and lead to the influence of many new and creative artists that expounded on not only using the optical impressions but also using the new found artistic style to also expression emotion and themes of greater symbolism. (Voorhies, 2000) These artists â€Å"rebelled† against the so-called limitations of impressionism. These artists felt that impressionism was missing many key elements including emotional, structural, symbolic and spiritual representation. (Misialowski, 2006) Artists of this time frame worked, in most cases, independently and today are most often referred to as Post-Impressionists. The style was defined by vibrant colors, thick paint application, real life subject matter, geometric shapes, and distortion of objects figures for expressive emotional effect. Some of the key artists of this time included: Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat. Aristide Maillol and Edouard Vuillard. One of my favorite pieces of this time comes of course from van Gogh. The piece is titled Stra?enarbeiter which means Road Workers. The imagery of this piece is rough and course with distorted views and sharp lines. The shapes of the trees almost draw you away from the what the piece is actually titled after, the road workers who are shown off in the distance and then again on the left edge of the painting. The colors give the image a dark look like it is depicting a late fall day with the workers frantically trying to complete the task before the onset of winter. Again, like the impressionism movement, there was not really a prime reason for this movement other than the artists wants to more freely express themselves through their work. The social climate of the times were changing allowing for these artists to do what they were doing, however; the majority of these post-impressionism artists were â€Å"starving artists† and didn’t gain huge notoriety until after death. The two paintings are similar but completely different. Each of the pieces captures the artists view of the world as they perceive it, the use of color to exact a response from the viewer. Each artist depicted a scene in which people were working against the elements with those that were there for leisure. Where they differ is in the way the artist wants the picture to be viewed. While Monet wanted to show the beauty of the landscape, ships and buildings, van Gogh showed a different view of it being distorted colorless and hopeless. As impressionism gave way to post impressionism, post impressionism paved the way for modern art. Showing many artists that it was okay to express and play with imagery. That art was not locked down to someone else’s definition of what it should be. It was what your perception of it was. It could be the anger of a thousand paint splatters. It could be the combination of print, paint, chalk and pastels. What you thought was art was art. As my Grandfather told me, art is not limited or bound by rules nor is it created in a lab. Art comes from within, from your emotions, from your perceptions. Impressionism unlocked chains of a thousand years of oppression to give us the inspiration for what we have now.

Presidential Election of 1828 Essay

A rematch between two bitter rivals, Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, the presidential election of 1828 was highlighted by the split of electoral votes in New York and Maryland. Andrew Jackson had swept through the west, gaining every single state, and even got Pennsylvania. The winner from the election of 1824 by the ‘corrupt’ bargain, John Q. Adams, had gained the support of all the northeast states. However, the real surprise was the split electoral votes in Maryland and New York. The northern states loved Adams because he favored elites and their manufacturing industries. The south and west favored Jackson because he believed in equal opportunity for any citizen of the United States of America. Two states, Maryland and New York, did not give all their electoral votes to either Adams or Jackson, but were divided equally among the two. The reason for this split was both states were divided into districts that all had one vote. These districts could settle on who they wanted to give their electoral vote to. In every single other state, the electoral votes were decided upon by the state legislature, and once decided, all the electoral votes would be given to one candidate. However, in lone New York, the whole state could back Adams, but if one small self-sufficient farmer district wanted Jackson, then they could award their one electoral vote exclusively for him. So, if there was a dispute in states with a system like New York, the electoral vote could be split. The split between these two states showed how divided and diverse one state could be. If one little district went against the majority, it changes where the electoral votes are distributed, and can thus change the outcome of the election. New York and Maryland proved that one little group can make a large difference. These small changes made the election of 1828 unique, and actually exemplified how dissimilar one state’s people could be.