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Post world war Europe post 1945
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Post world war Europe post 1945
End of World War II saw a high capacity of destruction greater than the First World War particularly in Europe and Asia. Civilians felt the impact as much as the military and the figures were hard to grasp. Politically, the war had an immense impact and the once great powers of Japan and Germany appeared as if they would not rise again. Europe feared eruption of another war and people stayed more in peace and harmony because of the fear. Democracy crept in because it was the best way of supressing some of the causes of the WW II particularly in the Western Europe. Relationship between countries populace and the enemies was weakened as much as possible by the governments. Post World War II was indeed a turning point in Europe both politically, economically and socially as this form of writing explains.
After the worse damage and consequences of the WWII, the Europeans who were highly educated and skilled worked hard to rebuild their society (Gottlieb Web). Great two powers emerged and dominated the world leading to an emergence of a new term superpower. America emerged powerful in terms of military and economic capabilities while the Soviet Union had a brute force and the intangible attraction of the Marxist ideology that was intended to keep her citizens and manage their new empire in the heart of Europe. Gottlieb explains that powerful European empires that initially controlled the better part of the world extending from Africa to Asia were facing challenges of their own weakness as well as the emerging nationalist movements (Web). It was so eminent that European powers were weakening while the US and the Soviet Union were rising to power. Nevertheless, this kind of developments had earlier begun and the war just accelerated the weakening of European power. Technology and science also advanced the political system by introducing atomic weapons and atomic power. Stimulus of war included governments investing in new medicines and technology. There were also rapid social changes in various European countries that deepened the societies.
Collective miseries and sacrifice of the war period strengthened the belief in most democracies and made their people to become more united. The governments were obligated to provide basic care for all citizens and the women rights took a huge step forward as their contribution to the war thus enabling countries such as France and Italy to get vote. Moral authority and prestige of the ruling classes was sternly destabilized by the failure to stop the war, which they had earlier disregarded. There were established political orders that involved fascist, conservative, and some democratic governments were largely challenged by their people since the citizens looked for new ideas and leaders. Germany and Japan saw democracy-taking root slowly as other Europeans were drained by years of war and privation. (Gottlieb Web).
The Europeans gave up on politics and faced the future with sullen negativity while some believed that they would come together and build a better society. Western Europe saw voters turning to social democratic parties such as the “Labour Party” in Britain while in the east; the “communist” administrations, which were earlier imposed by the Soviet Union, were initially welcomed as agents of change. In addition, the end of the WWII brought in settling of scores where people mostly took measures in their own hands and the collaborators were beaten and lynched or shot (Gottlieb Web). Women who associated with German troops had their heads shaved and the government sometimes followed suit by setting up special courts that tried individuals who associated with the enemies. Chinese turned from the unethical and ineffectual nationalists to the “communists”.
The allies instituted an ambitious program of “de-Nazification” in Germany but later stopped it because the German could not work without the Nazis. Allies were planning for peace by doing away with militaristic and chauvinistic attitudes, which triggered the war. Nations were working towards building a new world order that would prevent such kind of catastrophe from occurring (Gottlieb Web). Picture of the Europe at the end of World War II is very pitiful because of the larger population that died. It is worth noting that Hitler and Stalin and the continent with violent retribution, purges and outbreaks of what in some places like Greece and Yugoslavia uprooted thousands of people. Unending anti-Semitism in Europe and the idea that Germany did not contribute to it is what Judt addresses more often.
World War II led to the achievement of the “European Union”, which deepens political union amongst member countries. Several countries have always joined the EU and more others such as Turkey that was recently accepted as a candidate. By 1947, two different German societies were emerging and the western powers watched with growing dismay. Western powers alarmed the elimination of “non-communist” political forces in the eastern Europeans well as the establishment of the People’s Republics under the umbrella of the Soviet Union. The Soviet pressure on her neighbours beginning from Norway in the North to Turkey and Iran in the south with other spy rings as well as other Soviet inspired sabotage in western countries (Gottlieb Web).
The Soviet Union leaders considered the western talk for the democratic procedures as free elections in the Eastern Europe. America also played a key role in taking aid to Europe even though the aid was treated as an extension of the grip of capitalism. Europe were made to understand that the capitalist powers would turn soon the Soviet Union. Europe powers built military alliances which many people feared that would erupt although the first atomic bomb that was exploded in 1949 did not lead to war as was expected. There was also cold war that followed which overshadowed a momentous international change that came because of WWII. Initially the non-European empires were divided amongst themselves including the ones that fall in the Western Europe and the other ones that include Japan and Soviet Union.
It is undeniable that Europeans have exaggerated the role of their own political arrangement in keeping the peace in Europe at the end of the Second World War II. European Union emerged as a way of preventing a recurrence of Western Europe’s crippling wars and reconciling France and Germany. Western Europe was further united by the fact that they had a common enemy behind the iron Curtain. American soldiers as well as the threat of the nuclear weapons helped in keeping the irresistible huge conventional forces of the Warsaw pact nations at bay. Europe generally worked towards peaceful cooperation amongst themselves and put every effort in supressing any possibility of war erupting because of their fascinating experience.
Works Cited
Gottlieb, Anthony. ‘Postwar’: Picking Up the Pieces. The New York Times, 16 Oct. 2005. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/books/review/16gottlieb.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.
House Of Cards Analysis
House Of Cards Analysis
The House of cards was a global economic crisis. The documentary house of cards highlights on how the program which at once seemed wise and infuriating was indeed a tale of deception and greed which was unprecedented in the history of America. It gives a presentation of the basic percepts which led to the occurrence of the current crisis of the program. The documentary uses a clear-eyed and balanced approach to show this. The correspondent of the documentary gathered a lot of information of those who took part and went ahead to provoke the whole financial nosedive. Personal stories were gathered from key participants; home buyers, investment bankers, mortgage brokers and investors. This documentary is about a financial house of cards which was slowly being built after September 11 attacks (Dauble, 2009). The U.S government was trying to bring a revive to the economy through dropping the interest rates that saw many families embracing this opportunity in order to refinance their mortgages. However this was not very successful as presumed it would be rather it became one of the most controversial issues in time.
As indicated the crisis seemed as if it was glaringly preordained and it casts the mortgage lenders as being the greediest salesmen of the 21st century. This is because they had agreed to loans for the people who had credit ratings going below 500 points, they asked for no documents and going ahead filing forms that listed the incomes as being three or even four times more than they are in reality.in the documentary it is stated that the federal reserve chairman was the one to blame for the collapse of the house of cards due to persistently reducing the prime rates.
There are various issues which are seen to be emerging from the documentary. These issues can be looked at from a business point of view. The house of cards documentary can be analyzed looking at different topics these can be such as strategy. The strategy used in the program was not good. The Federal Reserve chairman had encouraged the mortgage industry to come up with different types of loans in order to enable more people purchase homes. He went ahead to say that new mortgage arrangement would really be beneficial for American consumers if the lenders if the lenders would offer a wider range of mortgage alternatives as opposed to the fixed –rate mortgages which were in existence. This was very amusing to bankers since their business was to pool mortgages and for investors to purchase who in turn would get monthly payments produced by the mortgages. This means that the more mortgages lenders would have to offer for homebuyers the more the bankers would sell. Unfortunately this was a very poor strategy for mortgage lenders. This is because this program was very inappropriate for the majority of those who took it (Richmond, 2009).
This program only favored bankers since there was a pay option of negative amortization an adjustable rate to mortgages.it was actually put in place in order to encourage those who wanted to buy houses for the first time and they could not afford the cost of the loan. Those buyers would get the option of paying only part of the interest which they owed the lenders each month. The interest that had not been paid would be added to the total amount of the mortgages. This would lead to the balance of the mortgage being increased instead of the mortgage which had been paid to decrease it only grew bigger and bigger. This was not a strategy since eventually there were people who would loose out on the program while others won. This was an unfair strategy to the buyers since they would in the long run have to pay a higher amount of money for the mortgages (Bark, 2009).
The planning of the entire program was not well done. This is because initially the idea of granting home loans to the people who were not able to raise a down payment for a house but really wanted to live the American dream of owning a home. There was low credit requirements in that just about anyone could be legible for a loan. Refinancing in order to meet the adjustable rate mortgages payments which were ever increasing was very easy and fun provided the value of homes went on the rise. However there was a euphoria on the part of buyers, loan guarantees and lenders that occurred. Everything tumbled down when the prices of houses went up and then they began going down. This clearly shows that there was no proper plan that was put in place which could deal with such issues incase they occurred. This means that the buyers, lenders and loan guarantees were not cushioned against such an occurrence and hence they were hit hard by the drop in the prices of houses (Jacoby & Landes, 2009
The issue of ethical and moral awareness also arises in the documentary. Those who gave mortgages were quite unethical in their operations. This is because even though they made the loans available to virtually anyone there was a high price to pay for this. There was no full disclosure of the payments.in fact they made it look so easy to pay but at the end of the day the borrowers ended up suffering as they were forced to pay a higher amount of money than they ought to have paid. There was no moral awareness in the program since it was only meant to benefit a few people. The so called negative amortization just continued be accepted by investors as long as the prices of homes continued rising. This means that they were gaining while the borrowers were at a loss (Bark, 2009).
Despite this incidence there are chances that other similar occurrences will still happen in future. This is due to the fact that there is a free market system and with the existence of such a system such incidences are quite inevitable.
References
Dauble, J. (2009). CNBC original documentary “house of cards” uncovers the reasons behind the greatest financial collapse since the great depression. Retrieved June 2, 2013 from http://www.cnbc.com/id/28984151Jacoby, J., & Landes, J. (2009).CNBC Special Report: House of Cards. Retrieved June 2, 2013 from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29163182/ns/business-cnbc_tv/t/cnbc-special-report-house-cards/Bark, E. (2009). CNBC’s House of Cards shows how greed hit home and left the economy humbled. Retrieved June 2, 2013 from http://www.unclebarky.com/reviews_files/38c8823c4b71c835671f944608981da0-568.htmlRichmond, R. (2009). CNBC probes financial crisis in “House of Cards”. Retrieved June 2, 2013 from http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/02/11/us-television-cnbc-idUSTRE51A8NF20090211
As per the CQ Research report, plastic pollution is socially constructed as an environmental problem due to the adverse effec
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As per the CQ Research report, plastic pollution is socially constructed as an environmental problem due to the adverse effects of plastic waste on the natural world. Pollution is seen as a significant driver of climate change globally and many stakeholders have been taking action to try and curb its menace. Although everyone acknowledges that plastic pollution a leading cause of environmental pollution, the issue has been socially constructed differently based on the sentiments of the different stakeholders involved.
The major narratives about plastic pollution are largely driven by the media reporting on natural disasters and their impacts across the globe. The first narrative is that plastic pollution is a global disaster that is already affecting millions of people and negatively impacting human health and the natural environment. The problem of plastic pollution is considered global due to the fact that it affects every region of the world; both in the developed and developing countries. The impacts of plastic pollution can be seen in the Artic Sea, Antarctic, the Pacific Islands, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean and all water bodies in different regions of the world. The negative effects of plastic pollution are been felt everywhere as there is increased water, land and air pollution in all parts of the world and the health effects have been catastrophic (Earn, et al. 124).
For too far long there has been a blame game among the major environmental stakeholders on who is responsible for the huge plastic pollution across the globe. For some people, the problem lies among businesses that use plastic as their main packaging material without trying to invest in non-renewable packaging technologies that would be environmental friendly. Many in this category believe that plastic pollution is not a consumer issue as manufacturers and businesses are forcing people into using plastic more than never before due to their greed for profits. The result has been governments and businesses’ assertions that there are limited investments in climate mitigation and rehabilitation of polluted ecosystems. There are also sentiments that argue that governments and businesses are not investing enough and taking sufficient action to minimize the generation of plastic waste. Although plastic pollution is societal problem that threatens the existence of life on earth, media reporting on natural disasters has socially reengineered the public perception and conditioned people to think that it is a government and business problem.
For some people, the issue of plastic pollution is as a consumer issue. Media reports on plastic pollution are always focused on the consumer rather than the multinationals companies and businesses that continue to use produce plastic products in all its forms. Many people who support the continued use of plastic products especially in packaging argue that it is impossible to ban such products especially those considered ‘single-use.’ For them, plastic is a revolutionary product that cannot be replaced with others such as glass, paper or metal. Many people in this category tend to believe that the current culture of consumerism is responsible for the high plastic pollution rates globally (Kiener, 20). Many manufacturers and industrial users of ‘single-use’ plastics argue that replacing them would result in an increase in the environmental footprint of alternatives, high consumer good prices and reduced product performance. These sentiments are contrary to what many of those who are advocating for the ban on ‘single-use’ plastics make. For many environmental advocates, plastic pollution is a major environmental pollution which must be addressed urgently. They argue that plastic is a cost too expensive for people and nature to bear largely due to their toxicity and low rates of recyclability. Plastic pollution is affecting every aspect of our lives as tiny particles of plastic have been found in food stuffs, drinking water and lungs.
Another principal narrative story about plastic pollution is that it can be managed significantly through increased recycling. Media reports on plastic pollution are always focused on the consumer rather than the multinationals companies and businesses that continue to use produce plastic products in all its forms. In some cases, the issue is presented as one of corporate responsibility, only with focus on plastic pollution at the bottom line. This framing frequently results in a request that companies alter their operations in order to lessen their environmental impact (Wang, et al. 5). Plastic waste constitutes a significant portion of waste that is generated across the globe and recycling and reusing plastic products is seen as a major solution to addressing the menace. Media reports and government policies have created a narrative that recycling and reusing plastic waste is vital in minimizing plastic pollution and avoiding the health complications that come with it.
Stories, statistics, and other methods that highlight the detrimental effects of plastic on the environment and human health are frequently used to define the issue of plastics pollution. Stories on how plastic pollution affects marine life, for instance, frequently highlight the predicament of sea creatures and other animals that consume waste or become tangled in it. The size of the issue is also frequently illustrated by numbers and other facts, such as approximating that there are over 5.25 trillion pieces of micro-plastic waste in the ocean. Media highlights of animal deaths from suspected plastic or pollution effects are also part of the stories that have been widely used in amplifying the enormous impact of plastic pollution in water sources. The high number of people and animals that are being negatively impacted by the effects of plastic pollution are often used creating public perception about the ferocity of plastic pollution in general and its adverse effects across the globe.
Work Cited
Earn, Arielle, Kennedy Bucci, and Chelsea M. Rochman. “A systematic review of the literature on plastic pollution in the Laurentian Great Lakes and its effects on freshwater biota.” Journal of Great Lakes Research 47.1 (2021): 120-133.
Kiener, Robert. “Plastic Pollution.” CQ Researcher, 17 June 2022, pp. 1-30, library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2022061700.
Wang, Limin, et al. “Birds and plastic pollution: recent advances.” Avian Research 12.1 (2021): 1-9.