Thursday, February 20, 2020

Being Polycultural Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Being Polycultural - Essay Example He discusses his own problems as a child who comes from such lineage. He also brings a new point of view regarding various cultures and impact of each on the other. With the help of Robin Kelly’s article, we are going to analyse and discuss, acceptance of children of mixed parentage in the western society and how Kelly’s concept of being polycultural has helped him in his struggle for acceptance. Today we talk about child psychology and not to hurt the young, vulnerable hearts of kids and young children. But whenever we talk about somebody’s lineage and parentage do we realise that the discussion can leave a permanent scar on the mind of the kid? Upbringing of these children in the society: It becomes a challenge for the parents to keep these prejudices at bay when they bring up their children in as neutral environment as possible. However the tragedy starts when the children grow and start realising that they are someone different from the people around. The dif ference is only the colour of the skin they carry but they are constantly made uncomfortable in their own skin. Robin Kelly has described his life as a normal American teenager. In Harlem in the late 1960s and 1970s, Nehru suits were as popular—and as â€Å"black†Ã¢â‚¬â€as dashikis, and martial arts films placed Bruce Lee among a pantheon of black heroes that included Walt Frazier of the New York Knicks and Richard Rountree who played John Shaft in blaxploitation cinema. How do we understand the zoot suit—or the conk—without the pachuco culture of Mexican American youth, or low riders in black communities without Chicanos? How can we discuss black visual artist in the interwar years without reference to the Mexican muralist, or the radical graphics tradition dating back to the late nineteenth century, or the Latin American artists influenced by surrealism? (Kelly page 2). In this paragraph he does not wish to describe himself as any person who stands out because of his colour. By quoting common references of every person’s childhood he establishes his connection with them very strongly. He even uses terms and phrases which are used by everyone else. Does that indicate his desire to connect with everyone around him? To be accepted as a normal person who probably thinks the same or is brought up with same ideologies as any other person in America? Robin Kelly has also described the suffering of his younger brother because of the question regarding his mixed culture. Perhaps the most sensitive and protected in the family, his younger brother might have been hugely affected by requiring constant approval and acceptance from his friends. Finally his brother gave up his struggle and chose to settle down in a completely different culture and to the other side of the world. This is sort of voluntary resigning from the situation. Even if he might have gone for his personal benefit, he might have thought of it better to move rather th an have a questioning look on the faces of the people around him. This might be the most difficult decision he has made in his life. Robin Kelly’s sister got her name changed because of the same question, â€Å"What are you†. She tried to solve this problem her way by changing her name. Everyone in the family was terribly affected by the question and every one of them tried to find out his or her own way of dealing with it. How difficult it might be for the parents to create a neutral and believable situation for a healthy and normal upbringing! Refusing the acceptance and denying the existence: Examples like Robin Kelly are abundant in western society. There are so many authors who have written about mixed parentage and the reaction of the society, mostly adverse to them. Like in book ‘Life on the colour Line’

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Significance of imperfect competition models for explaining the Essay

Significance of imperfect competition models for explaining the pattern of international trade - Essay Example The researcher states that international trade is growing day by day as a result of globalization and liberalization policies implemented by different countries at different parts of the world. The major obstacles for the smooth flow of goods and commodities between different countries have been diminished a lot as a result of globalization. At the same time one of the major problems associated with international trade is the fact that the problems happened in one part of the world can have detrimental effect in other parts of the world as well. Competition is growing immensely in the market as a result of the rapid growth of international trade. Ideally, all organizations would like to have some kind of monopoly or some kind of control over the price mechanisms in the market. However, growing competition prevent organizations from controlling the market effectively. Competition in the market can be labelled as perfect competition and imperfect competition. Perfectly competitive mark ets refer to the markets in which the firms do not possess any market power whereas in imperfectly competitive markets, some organizations definitely have control in the market as far as price mechanisms are concerned. â€Å"Competitive markets provide strong incentives for good performance - encouraging firms to improve productivity, to reduce prices and to innovate; whilst rewarding consumers with lower prices, higher quality, and wider choice† whereas imperfect competition denies all these things. ... tition†(Pomphret, 1992, p.1).This paper analyses the significance of imperfect competition in the market as far as international trade is concerned. International trade and imperfect competition â€Å"Imperfect Competition exists when more than one seller competes for sales with other sellers of similar products, each of which has some control over price† (Models of Imperfect Competition, n. d, p.1). In other words, in an imperfectly competitive market, firms may have some power in the market as far the fixing of the prices of its commodities is concerned. Monopoly or oligopoly exists in such markets. For example, Microsoft enjoys monopoly in operating system market. They are capable of fixing the prices of their operating systems like Windows 7 in global market because of lack of competition. Even though Linux and Apple’s Macintosh operating system are raising some kind of competition, still Microsoft is able to maintain their monopoly in the imperfectly competit ive operating system market. Same way, OPEC countries are enjoying oligopoly in the oil market. It should be noted that monopolies or imperfect competition helped Microsoft and OPEC to dictate the market with the help of least efficient products. Consumers forced to pay more than the actual prices of a product in an imperfectly competitive market. In short, â€Å"Firms in a competitive market have very little control over what price they receive for their output†(Perfect Competition, n.d.) whereas â€Å"Monopolies have the most market power, which yields the least efficient outcome† (Monopoly and Perfect Competition Compared, n.d., p.4) According to Krugman et al (2011) â€Å"In a competitive economy, supply decisions are determined by attempts of individuals to maximize their earnings† (Krugman et al, 2011,