Theory
Theoretically this thesis engages with capitalist and neoliberal literature followed by literature on everyday narratives to be able to contextualize consequences of historical and recent developments in the Kurdistan Region (KR), addressed in literature section, and the ways people have been affected by them are connected to the aforementioned topics.
In this section, I argue that through the intervention of outside institutions and governments, foreign advisors and experts, and returnees from diaspora, a new politico-economic model begins to emerge, albeit very slowly and takes force in the late 1990s and reaches it apex in the late 2000s. I work towards answering questions such as, how and why this model was implemented and who were the actors, advisors, and think tanks behind it? What are the consequences on everyday experiences for individuals and the collective? These questions will be answered by engaging with ethnographic works and theoretical literature on neoliberalism, capitalism and the everyday. To follow the historical roots of political and economic developments and trace their everyday affects vis-à-vis ethnographic narratives. To understand how in Kurdistan a small elite made up of local politicians, World Bank officials, economic advisors and class of businessmen have come to test their righteous neoliberal agenda on previously neglected, underdeveloped region. A place requiring development and modern changes, politically but most importantly,
Capitalism is a system where the sole goal is for private owners to gain profit. In the 1930s’ Dust Bowl, private owners, such as farm owners did not pay laborers enough money. In addition, minimum wage laws did not begin until 1938. Wages dropped so low because of the contradicting owner and laborer goals. Moreover, the stock market crash caused demand to drop and jobs to disappear. Overproduction also contributed to elimination of jobs. The wage gap between the wealthy and poverty further increased over time. Despite, the huge elimination of many jobs during the stock market crash, the changing seasons created some cotton and fruit picking jobs because certain plants are ripe for a certain period. However, laborers had to travel to other states or even countries to look for jobs only to face ostracization from the natives. In pursuit of capitalistic goals, the government promoted harmful DDT chemicals and nuclear weapons to keep the chemical and weapons industry alive.
In the period of historical globalization, a lot of horrible events had happen and many people have suffered, also lost what they had such as land, culture, languages, family, freedom, and dignity. Like the Rwanda incidents, Apartheid Law in South Africa and the incidents in Residential Schools in Canada. Although those things had happened, they still survive and right now is rebuilding and moving forward to not let it happen again with the little help of NGOs. In my opinion, Contemporary society has done enough to respond to the legacies of historical globalization. Moving forward and start making a better future is the only answer for those horrible events from repeating itself.
Nevertheless, the Kurds believe that the threat of intolerant Shiite Arabs coming into power requires a formidable response to ensure their security (Source C). Even though the foreign affairs pose a threat to the Kurds,
Ever since, Palestinians have had to adapt to new places and cultures in order to survive, which makes it more difficult for them to preserve their own. Said presents several examples of transculturation throughout the essay. For instance, the use of the Mercedes, even though Said describes it in negative terms, the use of the Mercedes has come in handy for Palestinians. Enduring one disaster after another, Palestinian identity is arduous to preserve in exile. It is a struggle of having no country. Our country is a big part of who we are. As we are born, we are destined to become a part of it. It becomes part of our identity. Things that we grew up with meant something to us. We usually treasure things that became part of our lives. Even unconsciously, we take hold of it. Home brings us memories, memories that we want to hold on up to our last breath.
• Describe the concepts of capital and globalization presented in the introductory essay. Karl Marx is describing capital as a social order based on the class of people (Longhofer).
Individual Identity: Every year my family tries to take a trip back to China in order to see family. On trip back played a big role in shaping my identity. In the summer of 2012 I had the daunting task of travelling alone China. This consisted of mastering the Chinese phrases needed to guide me along the way and some way of figuring out how to transfer flights. Surprisingly the hardest part was not finding my way it was merely being alone I found that I got very lonely in the long 14 hour trip and I needed to find a way to occupy myself in order to avoid loneliness. The things I learned from being lonely help form my identity. I found that the more I tried to push away the loneliness the more it just came
This is a devastating reality many are facing in the Middle East every day, some more grim than others. It is through a writer’s words, written or oral, or a photographer’s lens where we see our news, our history being captured. In this
The legacies left behind as a result of post-world war 1and 2 has caused tremendous problems that still occur in the twenty-first century. The carving of formal Palestine has fueled issues between ethnicities in the present day states known as: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. As a result, promises that were made prior to the war, of what lands would be awarded to the negotiating actors had been broken; the Sunni/Shia conflict in the present day, was also the result of Sunni leaders in the in the 1920s. In this paper, you will see how these conflicts have grown over time.
The world is not a large and strange place anymore. The world is a place that is interconnected and intertwined. The world has become from a place that each country and their peoples are separate and isolated to a place that each country and their peoples are part of a global network. Thanks to globalization this is occurring. Globalization is the ‘international integration” or ‘de-bordering’ – “a number of highly disparate observations whose regular common denominator is the determination of a profound transformation of the traditional nation-state” (Von Bogdandy 2). Globalization is connecting different people from different cultures and backgrounds together. More and more corporations are entering new foreign markets to sell their
The title of this New York Times photo essay is “A Century After Armenian Genocide, Turkey’s Denial Only Deepens.” The article was written by Times reporter Tim Arango and the photos featured in the piece were taken by Beirut-based photojournalist Bryan Denton. This photo essay uses ten photos and an extended writing accompaniment to share stories regarding Armenian Genocide and its relevance to modern geopolitics.
In Thomas L. Friedman’s “Globalization: The Super-Story”, he examines the features of globalization from various aspects and how it helps people better understand 9/11 events. He claims that globalization is the new improved system formed in place of the old “cold war system”(102), and through the patterns of which, people observe today’s world in an integrated way. Simple short phrases, organized structure, colloquial language, and punctuation are techniques Friedman uses to create a reader-friendly, convincing essay. To begin with, Friedman uses simple short phrases to emphasize his points. He starts with an enthusiastic term “big believer” (102), which establishes the colloquial
To what extent is our understanding of economic globalisation challenged or expanded by analysing the lived experience of global processes.
By definition, Capitalism is an economic system controlled chiefly by individuals and private companies instead of by the government. In this system, individuals and companies own and direct most of the resources used to produce goods and services, including land and other natural resources labor, and “capital”. “Capital” includes factories and equipment and sometimes the money used in businesses (Friedman, 5).
In recent months we have seen political unrest in Tunisia, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. In each of these countries the political leadership had amassed immense power and was using these powers to restrain and limit their countrymen from development. The ruling class clearly had formed a political structure with a clear agenda to inhibit the growth of their fellow citizens. In the past few decades, people from these countries have endured structural violence due to political hegemony. Exposure to western media has made the people realize the advantage of distributed power. Hence these countries are witnessing a surge of protest, with people fighting against the system. Parsons emphasizes on the distribution of political power and its effects throughout his
Death, decay, crime, war, and other horrors are at the center of Hayder Al-Mohammad’s “You Have Car Insurance, we have Tribes.” The author’s intended subject, tribes, and more specifically how they are as the author says, waxing in Iraq, however, is only briefly discussed in the article, which focuses more on the city of Basra Iraq. While the Al-Mohammad does look at historical aspects of the city of Basra through the lens of tribalism, he fails to construct a reasonable argument for why tribes are needed in modern Iraq, or for that matter, in general. This is because he commits several sins in authorship, including mixing personal experience with historical fact, self-contradiction, and switching between third and first-person writing.