Cold War Essay Example for Free

Cold War Essay In the European theater of operations for WWII, the Allied victory and the Axis loss resulted in unprecedented destruction of the economy of the region. The Americans felt that the United States had a purpose to work for the revival of the European economy along the lines of political and social factors that could allow free countries to emerge (qtd. in May par. 2). The sweep of such a purpose on into a solid commitment was not perceived or hoped for at the outset. In the United States the Executive branch (including the State Department) and the US Congress were often at odds about what to do about the European economic situation. But there was agreement that the aftermath of WWII must not come to have a result in any fashion like the economic conditions that prevailed after WWI (Marshall Plan Par. 7). It was initially felt that the United States involvement in European recovery would not be costly or time consuming. It was thought that Europe and especially the United Kingdom and France with their colonies, could pull themselves back up in short order (Marshall Plan par. 4). The cold winters after the war did not help the situation. The worst winter in a century was experienced in Europe in 1946-47 (Kunz par. 5). There was high unemployment, food shortages, and strikes. In particular, the food shortages sparked humanitarian and relief efforts among various organizations. The new United Nations sponsored much of this effort and it was almost all funded by the United States (Marshall Plan par. 11). Not enough of this was organized well enough or in great enough amounts to do more than to briefly alleviate the problem. American troops in Europe also lent a hand in repair and refugee work. For the long term, the food shortages could be seen to keep on occurring since the traditional source for supplies for Western European had come from Eastern Europe (Judd â€Å"East-West Trade† par. 2). After these winters of food shortage, it was becoming apparent that a divided Europe was becoming the norm. The awareness of such a division was not generally acknowledged prior to these harsh winters. President Truman entered the United States into some bilateral agreements intending to militarily aid Greece and Turkey. These countries could be seen as being in East Europe. They were facing subversive efforts by communists to take over those countries. For Western Europe, some thought the Morgenthau Plan could be used (Marshall Plan par. 13). This plan supposed massive war reparations could be extracted from Germany to restore the countries other than Germany. There was also the Monnet Plan (Marshall Plan par. 13) which proposed more punishment of Germany since France would control the Ruhr and Saar coal regions for French purposes. On a purely monetary front the Bretton Woods agreements of 1944 established the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for loans to European nations (Kunz par. 7). The funds made available for these loans were proving to not be of the necessary magnitude. It had been assumed that the international economic system was sound and that an initial infusion of monetary aid would do the trick. But even more was needed. The American agricultural production was unimpaired, the level of manufacturing output was unprecedented, and the American gold reserves were safe. An outlet was needed to sustain and use the economic prowess of the American transition from wartime to domestic and foreign consumption. The economic plan for a reconstruction of Western Europe, if needed, could borrow from the New Deal experience as the American response to the Great Depression had been accomplished. Early in 1947, evidence of a recession brewing in the United States turned some economist’s attention to a need to assure European purchases of American goods. The Americans did not want to see continued European wartime controls and plans which had placed the idea of a continuance of control and regulation by European governments as conclusive. Many in Europe were looking to the Soviet Unions central planning controlled by the state. The Soviets were reporting very high growth rates with the prospect of prosperity just around the corner (DeLong and Eichengreen 11). The Americans had not successfully concluded a war in Europe to end fascist tyranny and oppression only to then see a different brand of tyranny and oppression in its place. This threat was perceived to be the communists, Soviet or otherwise. The Soviet influence was directly felt on Eastern Europe. The American administration felt that, for Western Europe, an economic union would be needed. These nations would have to be on the same page if they were not to go communists or be controlled by communists. Accordingly, on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State Marshall spoke of the need to promote free institutions in Europe through their restoration with American aid (Marshall Plan, par. 15).

A Critique of Compulsory Schooling :: Education

â€Å"The knowledge of the world is to only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.† Thus said Lord Chesterfield, who understood the fact that locking children away is not the best way to teach them. It is a painful reality that students are not being educated, but rather simply being schooled, and most people who understand street slang know that â€Å"to be schooled† is to be beaten down. This terminology is not a coincidence. Compulsory schooling is eliminating society of its most vibrant sources of variety, and teaching children that no work is worth finishing, and that they must depend on someone else’s word in order to survive. John Taylor Gatto, NY State Teacher of the Year in 1991, describes how society is slowly becoming sterile due to a lack of variety – when children are locked away in their classroom prison cells, and senior citizens are locked away in retirement homes, there is no one from which to find an alternating viewpoint. Schools tear children away from their families when they could be using the time to learn something from their parents, or their grandparents. There is a reason why mythological wise characters are always aged, and children are tragically missing prime opportunities to spend time with these experienced individuals. God forbid they should actually learn something that might be applicable to them later in life, as opposed to the standardized material that will be forgotten as soon as the next test is turned in. Schools tear at the very source of variety – the family. If all children are herded up into a single institution, they are less likely to think critically enough to recognize oppression or hypocrisy from the higher-ups (the ones making money). For example, drivers constantly relay stories about how traffic cops have tried to take advantage of them by making up laws and assuming that the offender is not critical enough to question his authority. Tickets are given and fines are paid over false premises, and no one wonders why. People like traffic cops feed off of the ignorance that is pumped out of these schools – indeed, it is often their best source of monetary gain. The victims in these situations always feel absolutely betrayed. However, schools often play out similar scenes, and yet it is rare to find a student who understands this betrayal. They are placed under the supervision of strange adults – many of whom simply go through the motions in order to earn their paychecks – and are expected to place unbending faith in the words that these adults utter.

Military Dictatorship and Hieratical Political Leaders Essay

Military dictatorship and hieratical political leaders failed in Bangladesh Military dictatorship and hieratical political leaders failed in Bangladesh to institutionalize democracy and ensure development and liberty for the people. It looks like that we have to restart from the beginning. As early as 1965 the late Akhter hamid Khan of Comilla Academy had a vision to take government to the doorstep of common people through a local government and micro- enterprises under cooperative with management support from a rural based bureaucrats and reduce the revenue urden of the central government a corresponding reduction of members in the centralized bureaucratic administration. To invoke public propositions and opinion in this regard, the following few points have been innumerate to be further developed in future. . Bangladesh was liberated by the toiling masses at great sacrifices primarily by farmers, labors and students, though history did not credit them for their role and instead placed all laurels and benefits of the liberation war to the army, politicians, bureaucrats, greedy elitist and business community to whom all the ealth and privileges and legal concessions of all the Governments have been showered upon. Another liberation war is necessary to liberate real peo ples and ensure their development. 2. points were fundamental basis of ensuring all right, entitlement & Justice to peoples of a promised Sonar Bangla. On that same basis we have to restructure & reform our executive & Judicial functions with maximum autonomy & power to local government leaving only such functions as National security, Foreign affairs, Currency, reserve bank & federal financial affairs, Planning upport and coordination, One integrated national Industrial corporation for development of Basic & large Industries, One integrated R & D council for development of Science and technology, with major emphasis on empirical research. One National Multimode integrated Transport Network System, One National IT Centre for networking all ministerial & local government functions, archiving and retrieving data and information etc. 3. Democracy, Socialism, non-alignment and secularism were the basis of our constitution which was tempered and tailored many times by all Governments to suit certain specific objective of some leaders and their party. The basic principles of a constitution should be sealed for any amendment except through referendum only. The 1st constitution of Bangladesh had some clauses with embedded party interest such as preventive detention under article 33, unrestricted tenure for PM;s office article 57, Local Govt. structure and power as in article 59 & 60, blind following of party line as in article 70 and many others. Though all parties derive certain benefits from these, they must be recast to reflect public pinion on them. . The chapters and clauses on part VI Judiciary contains no structural, Judicial and procedural reforms to ensure dispensing timely Justice within affordable cost. The system has become single biggest obstacle towards â€Å"prevention of vices and chapters and clauses on part IX Services of Bangladesh contains no structural and procedural reforms to convert the servants of the colonial masters to respectable employees of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Myopic planning, redtapism and fund crumpling are common causes of all or most project failures in Bangladesh. PSC failure to recruit proper personnel on the basis of personnel integrity, meritocracy, accountability and preference to generalist in place of function based specialist are major causes for rise of a elitist, high living and corrupt bureaucrats who hold every thread of power over political government and who will never allow local government function to be within control of elected local government as the same will hamper their financial interest. . Reorganization of Statutory bodies ; state owned enterprise, public undertakings including banking, securities, and non banking inancial enterprises in Bangladesh is essential as they have substantial bearing on our economy caused due to drainage of capital through loans given to be subsequently classified. Project failure and loss of employment, flight of capital and money laundering, low FDI, management failure, undisciplined labor, lack of accountability and transferency etc. 7. Prepare a total guide line proposal for long, medium and short term development plan for developing Bangladesh with a vision to raise it to a modern state with an egalitarian society by dismantling the existing horrible wealth gap between rich and poor.

The Industrial Revolution And The Enlightenment Of The...

After the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment of the 16th and 17th centuries, much of Europe began to embrace progress. This new worldview led to the Industrial Revolution, a period beginning in the late 18th century and lasting through the 19th century in which England experienced economic expansion and a burst of new, major inventions that earned England great industrial power. However, this transformation did not come without issues. The problems of the Industrial Revolution, including horrific living conditions and a loss of humanity, were largely unrecognized by the English government at first, but after years of reformers, writers, and foreigners bringing attention to these issues, the English government acted to successfully†¦show more content†¦Although these reforms improved working conditions, they did nothing to fix the living conditions of the poor that, as a visitor to one of the cities hit the hardest by the effects of the Industrial Revolution, Southey had witnessed and was able to truthfully describe. Another person hoping to describe Great Britain to those who were unexposed to the living conditions of its working class was Edwin Chadwick, a public health reformer. In Chadwick’s Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the laboring Population of Great Britain (Doc. 4), he discusses how, in 1842, Great Britain was disease-ridden, filthy, and damp with a struggling working class left to live in overcrowded dwellings. However, as a reformer reporting to a government that would have trusted his claims and have left them unverified, Chadwick may have exaggerated many details to incite reform. Another critic of the living conditions of the working poor, as well as Great Britain’s loss of humanity, is Flora Tristan, a French socialist. During the same year, in her published journal entry (Doc. 5), Tristan describes towns in which most workers don’t own clothing, beds, furniture, fuel, or decent food, causing the worke rs to be sick, thin, and frail. Tristan also writes that, by visiting a factory, it is obvious that the comfort and welfare of workers never enter builders’Show MoreRelatedEnlightenment And The Enlightenment Movement In The 18th Century975 Words   |  4 PagesEnlightenment is a concept that promoted individual rational logic and thinking as more valuable than traditional. The enlightenment thinkers rejected the old assumption about everything and committed to things that could be demonstrated through scientific experimentation. They are loosely organized intellectual movement, egalitarian, liberal, rationalist, secular, and impartial in both values and outlook. In the longer term standpoint, the enlightenment can be taken to the last phase of the cumulativeRead MoreThe French Revolution And The Enlightenment1471 Words   |  6 Pageshistory, the 18th century marks a change in time. The age old traditions of the Ancient Regime and Catholic Church will see a shift in powe r. Power now in the hands of the people. 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A lot changed with the French Revolution and the abolishment of the French monarchy but let us take a look a few years before that, where two great minds of this time had their own opinion of Liberty an how to achieve it. Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are two of the original