Essay about Policies and Politics in Madagascar

     In Southern Africa, there were mineral discoveries in the 1860, 70, and 80’s. These discoveries had an enormous impact on Southern Africa. These discoveries lead to a “rush” of many fortune hunters and the establishment of the town of Kimberly, which grew quickly and soon became the largest urban society in the interior of Southern Africa. Soon the diamond industry was controlled by one monopolistic company. This was one negative effect of imperialism in Africa.

1. List and explain the four main features and functions of constitutions. Be sure to associate your answers with specific models from countries explored in this course.

It seems for rich and the foreigners who controls the resources, “the ownership of these subsurface deposits was now given to those who owned the land .” Towns lost their lands and autonomy as to industrialize farming, mineral, oil, and transportation such as railroads.

Farmers in Haiti grow various produce such as; rice, beans, corn, sorghum, bananas, and coffee. In 1994, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government adopted a policy that eliminated subsidies in fertilizers and other inputs that brought down the protected tariffs on grain down to between zero and five percent. The zero tariff policy brought devastating effects. This causes their products to be undersold and too much for Haitians to purchase.

The Brazilian acai berry has been a food staple for low income families for years and a cultural symbol for generations. This berry is vital in Brazil, where it is farmed and, until recently had a relatively small market. However, after an Oprah interview the demand for acai has become an international affair. The rising demand has created a free market; however the once inexpensive food staple has become too expensive for the low income families. This report will analyse the current markets advantages and disadvantages, followed by two possible government intervention models. The examined interventions will be export tariff and price ceiling.

Naturally, the boom of the separate Gold rushes in Western Canada was attractive to the common people for the possibility of attaining large profits in a smaller time period. Thus, the possibility was exciting to many, bringing over a plethora of people who formed communities centred on mining. As such, the large populations of people coming into the area and gaining land was more than enough to enrich and establish a new type of town-structure, this aptly labelled as mining towns. Ultimately, the fate of these types of towns are definite as each of them reach a fate that is reminiscent of the nature of the gold rushes; temporary fads that attracted many, but wouldn’t last long.

It is a globalised world. Being a part of this progressive society, growth is a key indicator of success. Global Trade is one such benchmark that differentiate nations and economies. Every nation has some policies to promote the strengths of their trade globally. Likewise, Colombia has been known to be the third-largest producer of coffee after Brazil and Vietnam (in terms of volumes produced) from a long-time. Coffee is the world’s most traded commodity and most of it is produced by the small-scale farmers. Hence, globalisation has had a great impact on its production as well as trade. Therefore, Colombia’s strength lies in the production of coffee but also promoting their strengths and honing them globally to their benefit. Coffee is not just a cash crop for the Colombians but it’s a way of life for them. The farmers associated with the credulous society of small scale coffee growers called National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (NFC) (1) was founded in the year 1927.

By 1993, the Banana Empire ceased to exist due to Panama Disease, ongoing labour issues, the rise of new competition and the increased assertiveness of host country governments all contributed to the growing intricacy of the industry. Nowadays, the modern banana farmer has been exposed to many pesticides, which have led to adverse health conditions for the majority of workers but working conditions and wages are on the rise currently. The introduction of fair trade bananas in 2004 was fundamental in bettering the working conditions for farmers and labourers.

To start my journey in Africa, I traveled to Meroe. This city, found in eastern Africa, was bustling with Kush people. These people seemed to be somewhat related to the Egyptians, because of their artwork and pottery. I was shocked at how much trade these people could actually export and import. They had many farms, showing they were advanced in agriculture. In addition to their farms I could see and smell the mines. They were iron mines, to be specific. The part of the city where most of the trade took place was full of a variety of people. There were Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and even Indian merchants, all wanted to purchase some of the Kush’s goods. Before I left, I made sure to stop by where the monarch lived, which was conveniently in Meroe. As I walked up to his household, I noticed how much it looked like an Egyptian pyramid. As I talked to him, he seemed worried about internal rebellions, but I’m sure that’s nothing to worry about.

Also, there needs to be a more defined definition of a blood diamond (“War on Blood Diamond Trade Loses its Lustre in Age of Digital”). The Central African Republic fails to realize that the diamonds being bought come from instances of executions, child labor, as well as looting (“Companies must Not Profit from Blood Diamonds”). Obviously, Africa is rich in minerals, which is its curse (Ainger et al.367: 9-27). Consequently, there has been 50 wars, fighting for control of resources. Political, social, and economical factors matter in these resource wars (Ainger, et al.367: 9-27). Recently, the Kimberly process fails to uphold in central Africa, Cameroon. As a result, Cameroon is flooding with conflict diamonds because of mediocre leadership along with corruption (“Conflict Diamonds from CAR Entering International Markets Via Cameroon”). This may be the effect after the African Republic was internationally embargoed in 2013 (“Conflict Diamonds from CAR Entering International Markets Via Cameroon”). Therefore, “As the Kimberley Process visits Cameroon, it must take action immediately and demonstrate to companies, retailers-and most importantly to consumers-that it is able to stop the flow of conflict diamonds," Offah Obale. Presently, the diamond industry is in a bit of a mix as the Kimberly process is expected to help countries receive clean diamonds in order to restore international market relationships ("War on Blood Diamond Trade Loses its Lustre in Age of Digital"). Now, it is known that the common life-span is estimated to be 34 years old in Africa, Sierra Leone. Also, “We have always maintained that the conflict is not about ideology, tribal or regional difference... The root of the conflict is and remains diamonds” says UN ambassador of Sierra Leone, Ibrahim Kamara. At the present time, there is a cease fire in the Republic of Congo since

I was quite turned off from Group B’s argument on these bases and their thematic approach which suggested that gold, a material good, was more precious and valuable than actual people and their sacred cultural practices. While I understand that this case study is comprised of fictitious issues based in a made up country, the knowledge of the human rights issues fixed around blood diamonds I acquired from our pre-class reading and quiz helped me to take a real world stance on people verses government in the case of natural resources. Prior to the Jacqueline Soloway reading and our class discussion, I was only vaguely aware of the political and economic conversations surrounding the mining of war diamonds. For quite some time I had known that a surplus of diamonds were harvested from the overworked hands of children and impoverished peoples, unfortunately I had no exposure to multiple government’s complacent or supportive roles in having people to mine for diamonds in unsafe, war torn territories. In my daily life I advocate for fair trade, therefore I would never knowingly perpetuate the atrocities of blood diamond mining by purchasing products that result from such human rights violations; because of this I practically knew my decision before I entered the lecture hall and either group presented. I did, however, want to hear both groups out in class and make the decision I felt

In his memoirs, Winston Churchill mentioned how nervous he was about the situation in Madagascar. He was quoted in saying that “ I felt a shiver every time I saw the word Madagascar in the newspapers. All those articles with diagrams and measured maps, showing how very important it was for us to take Madagascar and forestall the Japanese, and be there ‘first for once,’ as they said, filled me with apprehension.” Years later after the war ended, Churchill commented on the assurance of Madagascar’s safety saying “Madgascar rests under the safeguard of the United Nations.”

Some of the countries with surplus commodities may dumb them on international markets at a low price. Under such conditions, some of the efficient industries can might find difficulties in competing for long period. Furthermore, countries whose economies are mostly rural will face unfavourable terms of trade. For example, ration of export prices to import prices. Which means that their export income is more smaller than their import payments the make for high value added imports, as it leads to subsequently large foreign debt levels.

In light of this, I would like to explore research frontiers in the area of the challenges of managing food and farm businesses in a global setting of the 21st Century. In our society beleaguered by agricultural problems that ranges from economic to environmental problems such as weather and global warming, issues concerning trade and management of agricultural enterprises has been the topic of debate for the past decade. Many developing/poor countries who earn their living from agriculture continuously suffer from poverty and hunger as a result of the increasing pressures on the world's resource base. Policymakers are gripped with finding solutions to problems such as structural and technological constraints, inappropriate domestic policies and an unfavourable external economic environment. As a result, the growth of these economies has been slow, undernourishment has been increasing and the marginalization of these countries in the global economy has continued. This trend has created problems for developing countries over the past decade. Economic and financial

The international trade of goods across the world accounts for approximately 60% of the world Gross Domestic Product (The World Bank, 2014). A great proportion of goods transactions occur every second. The primary question is whether international trade benefits a country as an entirety, and, if so, why would a country implement protective trade policies to restrict particular exports? To address this question, this essay aims to explore the impact of trade on various economic stakeholders, including consumers, producers, labour and government and, furthermore, will compare models and theories with reality to ascertain the true winner/ loser in the international trade market.