The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Impact of the Arab Spring Essay Example for Free

The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Impact of the Arab Spring Essay The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is one type of trade bloc which called multilateral trade agreement where there is an agreement of multiple nations for coordination in specific fields. Also, GCC is known as the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (CCASG), and it was found in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on 25th of May, 1981 by joining 6 states allowing coordination and integration between the member states in all fields. The countries who served as member states are United Arab Emirates (UAE), The Kingdom of Bahrain, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, The Sultanate of Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. GCC mainly acts as a regional cooperation system among the Gulf Arab States in order to response to challenges derived from the surrounding circumstances. For the background, the GCC was established mainly in order to act as a defensive measure because they perceived the threat of Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). In additional, the variables those helped in facilitating the establishment of GCC were firstly the geographical proximity among the GCC member states. Secondly, the GCC states have very similarity in term of their social conditions, regulations and economic structures. Moreover, in economic, they mostly depend on the oil exporting, and they are known as the organization that controls almost half of the worlds oil reserves. The GCC has the total amount of oil reserves about 480 billion barrels and Natural gas of 1,030 tcf (trillion cubic feet). Therefore, they are the worlds most important energy source. The Headquarter of GCC located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and its official language is Arabic. The leader state of Supreme Council Presidency is United Arab Emirates and the Secretary General is Bahraini, Dr. Abdullatif Bin Rashid Al-Zayani. The total populations of member states are about 43. 5 million peoples. In additional, the total GDP of GCC was about US$ 940 billion in 2009, and the GDP per capita was about US$ 21,612. There are several basic objectives of the Gulf Cooperation Council. First of all, they aim to achieve unity among the member states by effecting in coordination, integration and inter-connection between them in all fields. Second, the GCC aims in both deepening and strengthening relationship between people of the GCC in order to create the links and areas of cooperation. The third objective is to formulate more similar regulations. The last objective is stimulating scientific and technological development in the fields of industry, mining, agriculture, water and animal resources. Moreover, they aim to conduct scientific research, also establishing joint ventures and encouraging the cooperation by the private sector. Moreover, they aimed to achieve cooperation with several countries and even other economic integrations such as EU and EFTA. Next is the discussion about the overall picture of the GCC’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For their strengths, they are the worlds largest oil exporter and having ample oil reserves, so they achieve high international bargaining powers, also they are in a strong position within the cartel because they are the main OPEC producer. Their second important strength is the boosted growth and improvement of the non-oil sector and infrastructure resulted from recent oil price boom. Moreover, their increasing number of population made a solid domestic demand for goods/services and infrastructure. And geographically, the member states are the well places for FDI in the region. For the weaknesses, the GCC is home to several violent Islamist groups and as they mostly depend on oil, so it means that their growth, exports and government revenue remain highly risk to the shifts in world oil prices. Moreover, their education system is not met the needs of the private sector and there are likely ongoing political obstacles. For the opportunities, the first one is there are more opening up to a wider range of political views of media. Second, there is slower growth and lower liquidity will bring inflation down domestically, cushioning the impact of the consumer slowdown. Third, the joining the WTO and pursuing a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US, China-GCC FTA, GCC Singapore FTA and GCC EFTA FTA mean liberalization will continue. For the threats, the GCC will be risk if there are any attacks on oil facilities which could lead to a disruption of output, which would be extremely harm to the overall economy because they given the reliance on this sector a lot. The second threat is some investors could be interrupted by perceptions about high security risk and high political risk which could result in increasing costs of insurance. There were several successes and failures of GCC. For their successes, it has been credited with successes that surprised even its members in a variety of issue-areas. Economically, the GCC is known as one of the most powerful organization among trade groups. For example politically, with the performance of the politically homogeneous GCC, is regularly mentioned as the most accomplished among the sub-regional institutions attempted in the Middle East. For example, the boundary demarcation crisis between Bahrain vs. Qatar (1982-1995), the GCC intervention at that time act as a primary cause of success in stop the crisis. For the failure, the GCC still failed to meet the pre-requirements to establish a monetary union in 2010 due to the GCC economies are oil dependent, have little intra-trade between members, lack convergence in macroeconomic fundamentals, and lack synchronization in business cycles. Arab Spring is a sequence of anti-government uprisings in various countries in North Africa and the Middle East, beginning in Tunisia in Dec. 2010. The main reason is to put an end to government oppression, corruption and incompetence. For the impact of the Arab Spring, there are the political changes, and then everywhere facing Arab Spring is in uncertain condition. The second impact is the need of finance support for reconstruction oil-importing countries, however the economies of the MENA oil-exporting countries, (including some GCC members-Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,), are forecast to expand by 4. 9% in 2011, but those of the region’s oil importers are expected to grow by less than 2%. For the international response, the killing of civilians by Arab Spring governments drew strong protests by the United Nations and adverse reports by its agencies for example, Libyan civil war between the forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafis government and the anti-Gaddafi forces. Therefore, the biggest threat to business conditions in the GCC is the Political unrest in MENA, but the impact of â€Å"Arab Spring† is seen more positively than last May, both in the short term and the long term. In conclusion, the Gulf Cooperation Council even is in the competitive position in controlling the most important energy source in the world and has several international agreements which could create huge opportunities, but they are still facing several problems such as political problem, protesting, and impact from global economic crisis. Therefore, the carefully effective strategic plans and movements are still highly required.

when it was a game :: essays research papers

When It Was A Game I have been a fan of the game of baseball for 25 years. I played little league baseball for Ocean View Little League in Huntington Beach, California in the early1980s, and four years of high school baseball at Ocean View High in the late 80s to the early 90s. Baseball has been an intricate part of my life ever since. While thumbing through a box in my garage the other day, I came across my old little league year book from 1984. Seeing myself in a baseball uniform at 10 years old was quite amusing. I flipped through the rest of the book, laughing at the way my family and friends dressed in the 80s. I was reminded of a quote my grandmother used to say, â€Å"The more things change, the more they stay the same.† My grandmother is a huge baseball fan. My grandmother grew up in South Central Los Angeles and used to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers play throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I distinctly remember my grandmother and I watching Kirk Gibson hit the game winning home run for the Dodgers against the Oakland A’s in the 1988 Word Series. She is a huge Dodger fan, however, since I played on the A’s in little league that year, I rooted for the A’s. To this day, my grandmother will not pass up an opportunity to remind me of who won that game. My grandmother said to me the other day, â€Å"They don’t make them like they used to†; she was referring to the 1988 Dodger team, as opposed to the teams of today. I think she has a point to an extent; however, I can see the similarities and the differences in the game of the 80s and the sport it has become in the new millennium. The game has changed in some ways, but for the most part, it has stayed the same. The rules are the same as in the 80s. It is still 90feet to first base, 60 foot 6 inches from the pitchers mound to home plate, and you still only get three strikes and four balls. Today, you can still go to the ballpark and get a soda, peanuts, Cracker Jacks, cotton candy, and a hot dog, just like when I was a kid in the 80’s. You can still go to the game early and see the teams take batting practice, and if your lucky, get an autograph or two.

Perpetual Increase of Tuition Fee Essay

Introduction: Like any other individuals, we are pursuing our right in every ways, delivering our thoughts and standing for what is due. We live side by side of our political system; adhere to what is implemented, grasp what has been told and act supposedly. The people is the basic unit of the nation that should be valued, cared and needs be sustained to augment their knowledge and skills in order to have cooperation in uplifting the economy and the living situation of every individual. Education is essential, basic and a must to a person for education is the source of knowledge and can improve you eventually as you step up in every stage that is prepared for a long time. The knowledge that has been thought will be passed down up to the next generation. It truly depicts that education is very treasure for everyone. This is something that can inform you from the lowest up to the highest information that could help you achieve your ambition and goals even how hard it is. But how is education be attained and sustained if it costs too high that even a single bar of it can’t be grasp? How could we possibly digest education when it is deprived to us because of costly tuition fee rate? Is education nowadays a right or just a privilege? Discussion: Our country is indeed aiming for quality education. Every school promotes its unique and exquisite style of performance and in every State Universities and Colleges is having their center of Excellency. But on the other side of the story tuition fee is always increasing and again and again inflating. Majority of the settlers here in our country is having difficulty striving just to uplift the way of living they have. This could be the means of conflict between the students and the learning institutions. â€Å"Higher education for a better nation† but how our nation will be better if this education they offered can’t be afforded? Just in this time many of my fellow youth are studying not inside the learning institution but they are studying how they can supply their daily needs and studying what job they are in. Unemployment rate has never been going down it always strikes the sky above. Why not create or craft new and effective formula and try to break down the problems into pieces. We are facing financial crisis and here comes the inflated tuition fees what is the outcome of it? Probably crushed and ruined dreams of every youth will be as huge as a mountain. It is in this environment that the government intervention is needed. Our tuition fees are not Income Generation of our Alma matter, we are not investors here and we are not investing just to build glamorous buildings and infrastructure, because we just need a simple apparatus just to learn perfectly. Students are investing for their future and we are not business partners of every learning institution. We came to feed ourselves of information not to feed the institution. Students are being aggressive because of this scenario happening they form groups and parties leading to an action appealing this kind of imbalance movement tuition fee hike. Of course they are full of potentials some of them are really solid leaders and if this scenario will continue eventually they will be like handicap persons who cannot move because they were tangled down in the reason of they do not hold degrees. As what we are claiming and what has been told to us by our hero Dr. Rizal â€Å"Youth is hope of our nation† if youth are not properly equipped of information how can we stand for that claim? If we are not properly educated we will be wasted. Truly if this problem will arise gradually nothing would be left for our youth. Our future depends on what we are studying if this would be taken away from us because of the tuition fee hike our lives will be fruitless and our nation wouldn’t be productive enough. Education is a must for everyone in fact education is right but what we are facing today is now a privilege. Education is a long term solution to the problems that we face. So what effect does it have on students? The increase in tuition fee every year means additional loan and burden to parents and more money comes out from the pocket for tuition. So if a student budget a certain amount of money for his or her whole course of study, that student will have to add extra amount of money to the old budget in order to be able to pay all his or her tuition fees. Some students strive to work just to sustain its study, double their time and their effort just to have more savings and for other school projects and requirements. Instead of focusing their mind and ability performing student responsibilities it was divided into different activities in order to sustain the education they have. It can result to stop schooling for a while just to earn more money and save more and more to prepare for its education. It can also be the cause of delay for their future and just a waste of time if they will stop and again another fruitless for their lives again. Depression, frustration and disappointment will be felt by these students. The students also become desperate to debt just to continue and pursue their dreams. So much stress imparted to these students. These effects are really inevitable if this burden continue. Students are the source of man power if they are equipped with the best offensive knowledge and defensive techniques supporting our system providing strong foundation from what they have learned. Conclusion: High tuition fee can motivate students to strive more and learn how to value education more, because nothing more education is a right, the fact that we can’t deny. But as of now we are still a developing country. We should not quickly shift and leap forward for costly tuition fee. Many of our youth is dreaming of education especially tertiary level education. Government should take a look of it; it is also under its jurisdiction to embrace with attention. Give out hope to these youth to pursue the dreams they want. Recommendation: Since it’s somewhat impossible to stop the increase, the least we could do is to give more options to people who clearly have little capability to send themselves to a learning institution. We can still promote scholarship grant or any internship in universities just to ease up the tuition fee bills. But in this time we should make sure that those beneficiaries are much more deserving so that it will not be wasted. Government should donate some facilities or buildings just to lessen the tuition fee, like sponsoring from other groups or any party list groups. We should also consider the life style of the people or income they receive comparing to the tuition fee, if necessary to decrease the tuition in such way students can grab somehow. Reaching out to students what is due to them. We can help one another in formulating solutions to simplify things correctly. As what University of the Philippines created called STFAP or Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program, we can adopt this idea and be regulated in every learning institution. I think it could be more practical in this way so that students may not carry heavy loads. For those who came from low income families they will be receiving monthly allowance and instead of working at night just to sustain education they have. Under the STFAP, you can get benefits with regard to tuition fee payments, laboratory fees and, in some cases, a monthly stipend from the university. The brackets with their corresponding benefits are as follows: * Bracket A (income of over PhP1,000,000 annually) students pay the full tuition fee at PhP1,500 per unit * Bracket B (income of PhP500,001 to PhP1,000,000 annually) students pay only the base tuition at PhP1,000 per unit * Bracket C (income of PhP250,001 to PhP500,000 annually) applicants pay 60% of the base tuition at PhP600 per unit * Bracket D (income of PhP135,001 to PhP250,000 annually) students pay 30% of the base tuition at PhP300 per unit * Bracket E1 (income of PhP80, 001 to PhP135, 000 annually) and Bracket E2 (income of PhP80, 000 or less annually) students do not have to pay tuition fees. Additionally, Bracket E2 students get a monthly allowance valued at PhP12, 000 every semester or about PhP2, 400 every month. Students categorized under Brackets A through D also have to pay full laboratory and miscellaneous fees amounting to about PhP2, 000 upon enrolment.

How Art Follow One Of The Five Formal Elements Of Art

All aspects of art follow one of the five formal elements of art. The elements are line, shape, texture, color, and balance. Some elements are subdued, but some paintings have elements that are very obvious. With the artists use of these elements he states what his style is, as well as, the use of medium, and color that directs the viewer’s eye to a specific area of the painting. I will choose paintings to show these elements, how they are used, and what idea the artist is trying to show, and give my impressions. The first element I will address is shape. There are regular shapes that are geometric and irregular shapes that show motion. I have chosen, for shape, Little Yellow Horses by Franz Marc, shown on page 829. This painting was completed in 1912. The medium is oil on canvas in the Expressionism style. It is currently displayed at Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany. Here we have a painting of three yellow horses with exaggerated curvature and is composed of open circles. The artist saw yellow as a happy color and thought animals were more beautiful than man. The curves are accentuated by the black manes of the horses. The two front horses have an added open circle with their heads being down. The horse in the background has just a slight curve of his back and the arc of his mane. In this work, at first glance, is a sea of yellow, black and circles. Upon a closer look, the artist shows the beauty of the horse. The yellow along with the blue and pinkShow MoreRelatedThe Culture Of South Africa1622 Words   |  7 Pagesrepresented as a whole by all of those people, exhibiting the five elements of culture in their everyday lives. The country is called the rainbow nation because if its diversity of people, religions, and cultures. Culture is all the things that make up a people’s way of life as well as what we inherit from our parents a nd society. 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