James Joyces Araby - Setting in Araby Essay -- Joyce Dubliners Araby

Setting in James Joyce's Araby  Ã‚   In the opening paragraphs of James Joyce's short story, "Araby," the setting takes center stage to the narrator. Joyce tends carefully to the exquisite detail of personifying his setting, so that the narrator's emotions may be enhanced. To create a genuine sense of mood, and reality, Joyce uses many techniques such as first person narration, style of prose, imagery, and most of all setting. The setting of a short story is vital to the development of character. In the opening paragraph, North Richmond Street is introduced as "blind," and "quiet", yet on it rests another house which is unoccupied. The narrator states that the house is, "Detached," from the others on the street, but that, "The other houses on the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces" (379). This creates an image of isolation, and uncertainty, for the one uninhabited house. The image of the lone house, lays in the shadows of the crowd of other houses who stand so remarkably calm, and collected. This enhances the image of the adolescent narrator, and perhaps foreshadows, his blind inclination towards self discovery on the road of life. The image also evokes that of the uncomfortable affect a group of peers may cast upon the isolated teen. Will steady doses of rejection and alienation drive the narrator to darker days ahead? He lives with his aunt and uncle, and there is no mention of his real parents. Whether he was abandoned, unwanted, or orphaned remains a mystery. In fact it may be that the narrator simply has no outlet through which to exercise his fragile emotions and thoughts. He has friends, but none to any degree of intimacy, his playful innocence pron... ...y perception of the reader, with the placement of the physical aspects conveying double meaning. Briefly foreshadowed, the religiousness with which he experiences his boyhood fancy, has all but abandoned and betrayed him. He recognizes the, "...silence like that which pervades a church after a service" (382). The bazaar has been emptied all the life within in it and become a cold inhospitable environment. The narrator is left again in his isolation in the middle of the bazaar, failed and dejected. He states, "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger" (383). Perhaps it is life itself that is the religious experience worth living for, but one evolving from the inner spirit of the self in a great moment of epiphany. Works Cited: Joyce, James. â€Å"Araby†. Kirszner and Mandell 226. James Joyce's Araby - Setting in Araby Essay -- Joyce Dubliners Araby Setting in James Joyce's Araby  Ã‚   In the opening paragraphs of James Joyce's short story, "Araby," the setting takes center stage to the narrator. Joyce tends carefully to the exquisite detail of personifying his setting, so that the narrator's emotions may be enhanced. To create a genuine sense of mood, and reality, Joyce uses many techniques such as first person narration, style of prose, imagery, and most of all setting. The setting of a short story is vital to the development of character. In the opening paragraph, North Richmond Street is introduced as "blind," and "quiet", yet on it rests another house which is unoccupied. The narrator states that the house is, "Detached," from the others on the street, but that, "The other houses on the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces" (379). This creates an image of isolation, and uncertainty, for the one uninhabited house. The image of the lone house, lays in the shadows of the crowd of other houses who stand so remarkably calm, and collected. This enhances the image of the adolescent narrator, and perhaps foreshadows, his blind inclination towards self discovery on the road of life. The image also evokes that of the uncomfortable affect a group of peers may cast upon the isolated teen. Will steady doses of rejection and alienation drive the narrator to darker days ahead? He lives with his aunt and uncle, and there is no mention of his real parents. Whether he was abandoned, unwanted, or orphaned remains a mystery. In fact it may be that the narrator simply has no outlet through which to exercise his fragile emotions and thoughts. He has friends, but none to any degree of intimacy, his playful innocence pron... ...y perception of the reader, with the placement of the physical aspects conveying double meaning. Briefly foreshadowed, the religiousness with which he experiences his boyhood fancy, has all but abandoned and betrayed him. He recognizes the, "...silence like that which pervades a church after a service" (382). The bazaar has been emptied all the life within in it and become a cold inhospitable environment. The narrator is left again in his isolation in the middle of the bazaar, failed and dejected. He states, "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger" (383). Perhaps it is life itself that is the religious experience worth living for, but one evolving from the inner spirit of the self in a great moment of epiphany. Works Cited: Joyce, James. â€Å"Araby†. Kirszner and Mandell 226.

Essay --

Within the body of this paper, readers will find an analysis of the motor development, visual-perceptual, fine motor development, communication, social behavior and play, attention, emotions and self- regulations, attachment and development of the self, and hearing and vision of children aging between 0 and 6 months. The continuation of this essay will include identified values and/or belief systems of the 0-6 month culture that could possibly present changes in social worker’s abilities to develop culturally responsive therapeutic relationships. There will also be a distinguishing of recommended tools for identifying problems within this developmental stage including a visual reference for the identified tools. Resources regarding the tools will include what the tool assesses, the age it is designed for, who is to use the assessment tool, how long the assessment typically takes, and the scoring of the results. Motor development In these early stages of life, there is little motor development in comparison to older children, however many of the developments of their later years begin in these tender times ("Occupational therapy," 2002) Between the ages of 0-2 months, some of the motor developments that are present at this time include sparing kicks and what seems like stretching of the arms ("Occupational therapy," 2002). When lying on their backs, the infants head is usually laid to one side or the other based on how they were laid, as they are not yet able to hold the weight of their own head yet ("Occupational therapy," 2002). These activities later on grown into more frequent arm stretches and kicks between the ages of 3 and 6 months. By this time, the baby will have a much greater ability to hold the weight of their o... ...erience is more so focused on the parent(s) of that child in hopes to best serve the child in their home context ("Touch therapy with," 2014). This is a very important consideration in regards to the therapeutic experience of the infant because without parent involvement there is an almost guaranteed failure rate of change or development for that child. Because the infant is not able to fend or express for themselves at this age, it is a necessity for the parent(s) of an infant in therapy to be invested in therapeutic process and dedicated to the implementation of what was discussed in therapy outside of the therapy sessions. With lacking parental involvement, it would make it almost impossible for a clinician to be able to develop a therapeutic relationship with a child reaping positive change of any kind ("Touch therapy with," 2014). Instruments See Attachment

The Man-Made Disaster: Chernobyl

Gulin Langbroek 11. 1 THE MAN-MADE DISASTER: CHERNOBYL â€Å"It is one of histories ironies that the worst nuclear accident began as a test to improve safety. †, states Snell (1988). The Soviets wanted to find out how the Chernobyl power plant would cope with a sudden power loss, therefore the experiment tested how long a spinning turbine could provide electric power to certain systems in the plant. Like many accidents, the Chernobyl accident resulted from a combination of human error and weaknesses in the design of the plant.The man-made disaster occured at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Ukranian Republic belonging to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and near the borders of Belarus and the Russian Federation. Following a short explanation of the health and social impacts of the accident, this essay will discuss the errors in judgment and biases that went on while running the Chernobyl power plant. As a result of the accident, tons of radioact ive material was released to the air, still posing a threat to living beings in that region.The radioactive doses caused long term health effects ranging from thyroid cancer to leukemia. The Chernobyl area was also connected directly with the river systems of the Ukranian Republic, causing destruction of biological life in rivers and also deaths of people who had consumed river water. It is also a fact that cleaning the area was just as dangerous to those people who had to do it as they were exposed to higher doses of radiation. Agricultural regions near Chernobyl had caused the production of foods such as milk and vegetables with radioactive material contamination.Lots of people were forced to migrate from contaminated areas to uncontaminated areas, creating social problems such as loss of staff, no job availability and many more difficulties which made everyday life miserable. Overall, the Chernobyl accident has caused great distress and casualties in the USSR and European countri es. 1 There were some errors which should be mentioned before going into details on the errors in judgment. One error which might have caused the accident was that it was a rushed experiment.The test was scheduled to be carried out just before a reactor shutdown which only occurred once a year, so the operators felt under pressure to complete it promptly so that another year wouldn't have to be waited. This probably didn't trigger the accident directly but perhaps was one of the factors causing the necessary measures and precautions to not be taken. The test was thought to be an electrical test only, so instead of the reactor specialists, turbine manufacturers were the ones who were observing it. Thus, the effects on the reactor was not weighed fully.Finally, the Chernobyl plant was one of the most developed and highly technologic power plants ever constructed, therefore the operators running it felt as if they were an exclusive and elite crew and had built too much overconfidence, not realising possible disasters. To be specific, some biases could be named and analyzed further. Perhaps the most crucial bias which should be looked at in all man-made disasters is the neglect of probability which is the tendency to omit the probability of failure when making a decision.This also ties in with the overconfidence bias since if the managers had doubted the reactor in the first place, more precautions would have been taken. In this case, such a massive disaster had never happened before among Russia, and since the power plant as stated before was assumed to be very reputable and exceptional, the managers of the plant had neglected any probability of the experiment going wrong. According to Kletz (2001)â€Å"The managers do not seem to have asked themselves what would occur if the experiment was unsuccessful.Before every experiment we should list all possible outcomes and their effects and decide how they will be handled. † 2 The second biggest bias of the owne rs and constructors of the plant which caused the accident was the functional fixedness bias. As it is stated in Wikipedia (â€Å"List of Cognitive Biases 2012) â€Å"This bias limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used†. The reactor was operated in a rule-based behaviour, meaning that the operators were informed on what tasks they should complete but not told why it was so important to complete them.This had caused them to operate the plant in a way which Kletz (2001) states as â€Å"process feel rather than theoretical knowledge†. Before the Chernobyl accident, all reactors were designed and relied on the fact that rules would be obeyed and instructions would be followed so there was no need to set up extra protective facilities. This of course could have been the worst approach to building a nuclear plant, considering the fact that the workers were not trained to their best abilities.Instead of relying on the traditional method of a ssuming operators would follow the rules, the reactor should have been built in a way that the rules could not be ignored. That way the workers would not have been limited to using their insufficient information on how to run a power plant and technology would have done this job instead of them. In short, the traditional way of relying on man-made decisions should have been abandoned and relying on automatic equipment should have been adapted. Assuming operators would obey rules brings another issue to light, the projection bias.The projection bias is defined as unconsciously assuming that one's personal emotions, thoughts and values are shared by others. The lack of communication between the managers of the power plant and the operators in how seriously safety measures should have been taken is among the biggest causes of the disaster. According to Kletz (2012), the managers of Chernobyl had â€Å"talked about getting things done without any mention of safety, leaving the operator s with the impression that safety is less important.Managers should remember, when giving instructions, that what you don't say is as important as what you do say. † 3 Last but not least, the biggest error in judgment the operators could have had was caused by the ostrich effect. This bias is the act of ignoring an obvious negative sitution. The big question is, why should any operator ignore situations which could cause the death of many people including their own? The answer lies in how the management system was established.Because the reactor relied on decisions of the higher authorities and not on protective safety equipments, every little detail of the power plant had to be consulted with the managers. As Kletz states (2012), â€Å"Everything had to be referred to the top so it was necessary to break the rules in order to get anything done†. Running a power plant should have not relied on this kind of system since operators were more likely to take shortcuts, not i nform the managers or simply ignore problems so that they could get things done quickly. Had these biases and errors in judgment not occured, the accident would perhaps never have happened.In operating such intricate systems such as a power plant, one must keep in mind two crucial things: Always having protective equipment installed and never letting workers neglect safety rules. Unfortunately as humans, only after this disaster have we began to take these precautions, making us victims of the normalcy bias. In any case, we must always look out for human errors that might lead to irreversible damage. 4 RESOURCES Marples, D. R. , & Snell, V. G. (1988). The social impact of the chernobyl disaster. London: The Macmillan Press Kletz, T. (2001). Learning from accidents.Retrieved from ftp://193. 218. 136. 74/pub/anon/ELSEVIER-Referex/1-Chemical%20Petrochemical%20and%20Process%20Collection/CD1/KLETZ,%20T. %20A. %20(2001). %20Learning%20from%20Accidents%20(3rd%20ed. )/Learning_from_Accident s_3E. pdf European Commision, International Atomic Energy Agency & World Health Organization. (1996). One decade after chernobyl: Summing up the consequences of the accident. Austria: IAEA List of Cognitive Biases. (2012). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 16, 2012, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/List_of_biases_in_judgment_and_decision_making 5

The Importance of Tourism for the Malaysian Economy in a Recession

Given the relatively small size of our economy, Malaysia is a country heavily reliant on exports as a source of income. Manufacturing, our biggest foreign exchange earner, currently accounts for the bulk (70%) of total exports led by electronic parts and components, followed by commodities such as oil and gas as well as palm oil. As long as this over-dependency remains, Malaysia will always be exposed to the risks of the cyclical nature of global ICT product demand and the speculative prices of raw materials. Based on the growth experience of industrialized economies, manufacturing has also already reached its optimum share of 30% contribution to the Malaysian GDP. In other words, traditional means of exports will continue to decline and diversification of our export earnings is imperative for us to compensate for the resulting gaps. Dato Seri Najib Razak’s recent announcement of further liberalization to the services sector couldn’t have been more well-timed. Through this, we can expect to speed up our reduction of on imported services while boosting our exports (in various other categories) to register a healthier overall bank balance. We’ve only just started seeing trade surplus for services since 2007. This would not have been possible without tourism, which contributes to almost 50% of the services sector and Malaysia’s 2nd largest foreign exchange earner. Besides having an incredible multiplier effect in terms of income and employment distribution due to far-reaching linkages to other sectors (construction, finance, insurance, manufacturing etc. – tourism, unlike other goods or services, has no exact substitutes; meaning demand for holidays is more likely to grow rather than be traded with something else. Neither is it subjected to price fluctuations affected by speculative factors like commodities for example. If the index of average international tourist expenditure equals the price of the international product , prices received enjoy greater stability versus raw materials. In fact, prices have tended to increase in a stable manner due to among other things, demand for holidays and the rigidity of destination supply in the short and medium term. Tourism also has the capacity to recover foreign-currency investment in a shorter time – a strong motivation for FDI inflows to the country. The UNWTO estimates that a medium-class beach hotel in a developing country will earn back in 1 year the entire foreign exchange required to build and equip it. In this bleak climate however, decline in international arrivals is naturally expected. Unless enough measures are put in place to safeguard the industry – the impact would overwhelming on not just travel per se, but on a massive chunk of businesses that rely on tourism as a demand stimulus. There are several key things we need to do. Firstly, we need to be extremely targeted in terms of our source markets. This recession is quickly speeding up the shift of economic power to emerging economies – the result of the contrast between the excess of savings in Asia and the debt burden of Europe and North America. While it is a global downturn, China, India, and MENA region are still expected to post positive growth – which is a far cry from the -3% growth forecasted for developed countries. Besides ASEAN, contribution of international arrivals from these countries will make up a substantial share of our prospects. What this also means, is that our ASEAN counterparts would be vying for the same piece of the pie. Even more difficult is the fact ASEAN destinations share their own equivalent of what Malaysia offers as a travel destination – common key interests like cultural experiences, beaches and spas, historical monuments, shopping, local cuisine, sports etc. As witnessed from most communication efforts both regionally and globally, countries have more often than not packaged these attractions together in a beautifully crafted montage of pictures either on television or print advertising that spells out what a destination has to offer. During a time when such demonstrations become expected proof of value, how do we then break through the clutter and arrest the traveler’s attention? To do this, we need to create ideas that mean something to them, ideas they would want to spend their time with. Value need not necessarily mean tangible or functional attractions to a traveler alone. Rather than starting with the multitude of things a destination has to offer, we need to look at our arrival prospects as people first – and identify a fundamental need, that could be emotional or rational, before tailoring our destination to resolve them. An example of how this approach has worked lies within Tourism Malaysia’s own communications targeting the South and West Asian markets by JWT-Sen Media Malaysia in 2008. In India, 2 large and rapidly growing segments of travelers were identified – honeymooners and young, affluent working couples with kids. Surveys revealed an interesting discovery amongst newlyweds, the fact that a majority of marriages in India were still largely arranged, by choice. A honeymoon for them is akin to a couple on a first date, where an awkward tension exists between both parties. By tapping on this, we demonstrated the emotional value of a Malaysian holiday by telling a story of how a relatively unknown man called a husband becomes a close friend of a woman with each passing day, having gone through different experiences in Malaysia together. As for young families – the main motivation behind a holiday is to indulge in quality time with their family, as 55% feel they don’t spend enough time with their children back home. To capture this segment, a story of a busy, successful boss who rediscovers the dad in him was spun around a holiday experience in Malaysia. Similarly for West Asia, we tapped on a finding that the target looked forward to the refreshing feeling of â€Å"water† when they go on a holiday, as it’s a transient form of escapism from their natural surroundings. We sought to bring this feeling to life by weaving a tale about a little girl who comes to Malaysia with her parents, equipped with a tiny parasol, looking for cool hills and the excitement of rain†¦and finds it. Through selling value based on fundamental â€Å"people† motivations instead of purely selling the destination, Malaysia posted a growth of arrivals from India by 28% within the months of October to December 2008 (when the campaigns ran) versus the same period during a recession-free 2007. In the largest West Asian markets – Saudi Arabia and Iran posted an astonishing 47% and 64% growth in arrivals respectively. The question we need to ask ourselves now is – what are travelers looking for in these times, and how do they want to feel? Once this has been identified – it’s a matter of ensuring the most efficient way to reach them. While this sounds seemingly simple, the proliferation of channels to reach ever-changing consumers is continuing to evolve rapidly. It’s no longer enough to assume threshold weight on traditional mediums like print or TV advertising alone to talk to different segments of travelers with incredibly different needs. The availability of broadband connections has expanded speedily in our target markets – the number of Internet users in China has grown by over 40% YOY to 298 million in 2008, whereas in India, a growth of 33% was seen among urban users. Increasingly, travelers in the Asia Pacific region prefer to plan their travels online – 75% of them in fact, as evidenced by the latest PATA/Visa Travel Intentions Survey; strongly catalyzed by the growth in low-cost airlines over the years, where most transactions happen online. Planning usually kicks off broad based, before honing into destinations that arrest their attention for more focused planning. The Internet allows travelers to find what interests them more easily and connect with like-minded people in ways they never could before. Top sources for information are travel, hotel, airline websites, as well as word-of-mouth and recommendations. Where the latter stemmed mostly from family and friends in the past; it has found its way to be readily available in the form of travel blogs, networking sites and various other forums. The Internet as an alternative media channel is unrivalled in its targeting and accountability, providing the capability to track what people search for and where they surf – and allow communications and information to be tailored specifically to travelers’ presumed special interests. The on-going advancements of the infrastructure also give much fluidity to the medium; allowing the creation of the destination experience digitally to make travelers feel a certain way; which is far more powerful than asking people to think about the value. In the TV era, getting trial happened at the end of the marketing process – now it can be the start.

FEMINIST THOUGHT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

FEMINIST THOUGHT - Essay Example he was in favor of equality between men and women, was against discrimination, and her harsh life experiences transformed her to a feminist with a different viewpoint on equality. As pointed out, Sojourner Truth fought for the wellbeing of women and to hinder the progress of social evil barriers like discrimination and marginalization in the society. She spoke about anti-slavery and womens rights, often giving personal testimony about her experiences as a slave. She strongly argued against the inequality among man and women in the name of gender status, and male supremacy. Joy Hakim points out that â€Å"She works for womens rights, black peoples rights, prison to reform, and temperance† (N.pag.). While there, she tried to challenge discrimination based on racial identity. As a womens rights activist, Truth faced additional burdens that white women did not have, plus the challenge of combating a suffrage movement which did not want to be linked to anti-slavery causes, believing it might hurt their cause. Yet, Truth prevailed, traveling thousands of miles making powerful speeches against inequality among men and women, slavery, and for womens suffrage. Besides, and she preached a combination of feminist Christianity, abolition, inequality and women’s rights. In general, Truths view of the social relation of the sexes differed totally from the prevailing philosophy that women should be a silent, or should be placed on pedestals. If institutions in the public sphere, such as the courts, were not fit places for women, she thought they were unfit for men as well. She declared she could work as much as a man. In her 1867 speech, she claimed to be over eighty years old, and said that she would live more years to see women get their rights man is so selfish that he has got women’s rights and his own, too, and yet he would not allow women to enjoy their rights. Personally, I consider that life experiences transformed Sojourner Truth to an activist. Truth was a lover

Governance and International Relations Lifeboat Ethics Essay

Governance and International Relations Lifeboat Ethics - Essay Example This divide is the basis of much talk within the ranks of the economists and gurus who understand ethics and how it should be implemented across the board . What is even more interesting is the fact that surrounds the determination of resources for the developing nations as they seem to go beyond a certain level of growth within their respective regimes. It is a fact that the world is not that rosy for the underdeveloped countries which essentially have to make both ends meet to ensure that they are on the right path – geared to achieve results which are attainable and positive along the way . On the same token, this paper gives a good look at the lifeboat ethics which indeed is a way to find out where the resource distribution should be acknowledged and how this would mean sheer value for all the nations in the world. Philosophically, it is quintessential to understand the phenomenon behind the lifeboat ethics. This is a term that was proposed by Garrett Hardin, who was an ecologist in the year 1974. Hardin used this metaphor to describe a situation where a lifeboat consisted of 50 people which had room for another 10 individuals to get on board. Since this lifeboat is on the move as it is in the ocean where hundreds of swimmers surround it, the ‘ethics’ element comes in when the dilemma arises with regards to the swimmers . This dilemma discusses whether these swimmers should be taken on board the lifeboat or left as they are at the moment. Hardin believed that the lifeboat metaphor could easily be compared alongside the Spaceship Earth model which consisted of resource distribution where he asserted that a spaceship would be led by a single leader who is essentially the captain of the spaceship. However, the earth lacks a captain4. He also opined that the tragedy of the commons came about from the spaceship model which was completely different from the lifeboat premise where rich nations were seen as the lifeboats while poor countries were termed as the swimmers5. In the same setting, Hardin’s lifeboat ethics resembles closely with the environmental ethics, utilitarianism, resource depletion talks and so on. He uses lifeboat ethics to find out the queries regarding policies such as immigration, foods banks and foreign assistance in the form of aid. Purely from a philosophical perspective, the aspect of lifeboat ethics should be understood with regards to how the policies are drafted for the rich and the poor nations at the same time. This means that their domains are drawn up in such a way that there are successful touch points for the rich countries while extreme losses for the poor ones. This divide is something that has a huge say in deciding who is going wrong and which country needs to pull up its socks to bring harmony within this world in terms o f resource allocation6. Hence lifeboat ethics is a good enough measure of finding out how ethical domains should be understood within the basis of bringing about equality so that no one misses out on the resources which are available throughout the world. In terms of the philosophical undertakings, it is only with the presence of adequate policies that things will get resolved and that too in an amicable fashion for all the nations in the world – without any discrimination whatsoever. Hence attention should be paid towards the philosophical side as well because these remain significant to comprehend within the relevant thick of things. When one discusses the tangent of lifeboat ethics, it is also of paramount essence to gain an insight into what the fallacies are. The future is never known with a particular degree of certainty which is indeed required for the problem at hand. Also there is the basis of no one being likely to be in the situation which has been

How has the global political economy changed as a result of the global Assignment

How has the global political economy changed as a result of the global financial and economic crisis since 2007 - Assignment Example Today, most economists aver that the worst is behind us. However the pangs of the latest recession are still being felt. The immediate future is not rosy with growth forecasts being downgraded by most countries. That the distant future would bring back the joys of boom period is what every nation is pinning its hopes on. Along with this economic and financial crisis that has seen unemployment numbers soar, banks collapse, incomes shrink and demand wane, there has been turbulence in the world political scene as well. If the stock markets are shaky, so are the government set ups of many nations. Vukovic (2011) maintains that the reason for the crisis lies primarily in the political domain. He asserts that the strong influence of interest groups, lobbying power of financial corporations, leads to favoritism in macroeconomic policies and inefficient resource allocation. While the mighty, deemed to be infallible United States is facing a leadership crisis, there is political turmoil in Eu ropean countries. Walker (2011) suggests that this crisis of leadership is prevailing, along with United States, in Europe, Japan and Australia. Furthermore this leadership deficit extends to institutions like the IMF. The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are also facing political crisis of sorts as this crisis has spared few. The present paper looks at the political scenario in certain select countries of the world to understand how the global financial and economic crisis since 2007 has impacted the global political scene. United States of America Duchin (2009) establishes that the banks' political ties played a considerable role in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) fund distribution. It was thus the political activism and not prudence that governed government spending when recession was at its peak and the beleaguered companies clamored for cash. There has been a political stand-off in the U.S between the Republicans and the democrats as the two parties failed to agree on key issues. So much so that the disagreement between them brought the US on the brink of a debt default and kept the world on tenterhooks fearing another meltdown. The latest arrangement between the two warring factions will enable the U.S government to borrow money till the end of 2012. The government, on its part will ensure a spending cut of almost $1 trillion spread over the next decade. Experts opine that the compromise formula may be short-lived and questions like â€Å"where to cut government spending?† could again flare up the political scene. Furthermore, is the political constrains that will decide whether Obama can go in for the third round of quantitative easing or not. India Today (2011) avers that Barack Obama, the U.S president, has numerous issues to confront, including the first ever credit rating downgrade of the US, as he goes for reelection. The president would be hoping that his $447 billion jobs bill translates into favorable, tangible number s by then. The status of the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world automatically links the currency exchange rates with political overtones. The movement of this currency leads to political repercussions in the rest of the world. Germany Greece has been the latest beneficiary of rescue loans granted after the consent of Euro zone leaders. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel., has come under fire from the Christian Democratic Union for her efforts to secure additional bailout funds for Greece. Opinion polls in the