The International Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The International Economy - Essay Example According to the World Bank reports, the net capital flows to developing countries have increased tremendously from $ 28 billion in 1970s to $306 Billion 1997 (World Bank 2001: 110). This has led to increased investments and economic growth of those countries. However, the performance of a nation depends on its structural characteristics, resource endowment and policies or the investment climate. Though developing countries account for a third of world trade, most of its trade is to other developing countries and mainly depends on primary commodity exports. Trade liberalization in these countries therefore has not been able to stimulate economic growth and exports (Parikh 2007). For economic growth to be realised, developing countries need to engage in trade of manufactures and services. If developing countries still remain underdeveloped and the gap between developed and developing countries continues to widen, what then is the role of trade liberalization and investment in the econ omic growth of third world countries? To answer this question, the paper will discuss trade liberalization, investment liberalization, economic growth, and the reasons why there is a wide gap between developed and developing countries. Trade Liberalization There has been a tremendous growth of the world trade for the past 20yrs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) puts the growth rate at six percent per year (IMF 2001). This has been made possible by various rounds of multilateral trade agreements under GATT which later formed the world Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. The WTO is entrusted with the role of regulating world trade and settling disputes among trading nations and is guided by several principles. The Most favoured Nation (MFN) and national treatment principles guard against any form of discrimination. The trade is also supposed to freerer by removing trade barriers through rounds of negotiations. The trade is also competitive as unfair practices such as damping of pro ducts at cheap prices are not encouraged. The trading partners are guided by the WTO rules hence cannot change trade policies arbitrarily thus the trade is predictable. Another principle of the world trade is that it is to be beneficial to less developed countries. As such, various rounds of negotiations have been going on to decide on how to make trade favourable to developing countries especially by allowing them more time to implement tariff reduction. As a result, most developing countries have opened their economies to trade and are enjoying the benefits. According to Blandford (2007), 2/3 of the current 148 members of WTO are developing countries. Despite opening the economies to trade, most developing countries continue to put restrictions to trade to protect domestic industries. Furthermore, as Parikh (2007) notes, most developed countries continue to put restrictions of access in areas of export interest to developing countries and are also experiencing slow growth hence do not import a lot from those countries. This affects many developing countries that rely on primary commodities for export as their imports outweigh exports resulting in unfavourable terms of trade. Most beneficiaries of trade liberali

The Claims of Liberation Theology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Claims of Liberation Theology - Essay Example This means that the liberation theology of a Gustavo Gutirrez is substantially the same as that of a Christian laborer in northeastern Brazil. The basic content is the same. The sap that feeds the branches of the tree is the same sap that passes through the trunk and rises from the hidden roots underground. The distinction between the levels is in their logic, but more specifically in their language. Theology can be more or less articulate; popular theology will be expressed in everyday speech, with its spontaneity and feeling, whereas professional theology adopts a more scholarly language, with the structure and restraint proper to it. It is not hard to see what liberation theology is when one starts at its roots-that is, by examining what the base communities do when they read the Bible and compare it with the oppression and longing for liberation in their own lives. But this is just what professional liberation theology is doing: it is simply doing it in a more sophisticated way. On the middle level, pastoral theology uses a language and approach that draw on both the ground level and the scholarly level. Truth, in the Bible, includes fidelity, justice, and firmness. ... The fulfillment takes place in history, and thus, God appears truthful through history. Christ is the fulfillment of the Father's promise which makes us his children in him. This is according to the acts and words of Jesus. The Father fulfills his promise in the death and resurrection of Jesus. To be a Christian is to accept that the promise begins to be fulfilled and realized in a historical context. In the Bible, the act of knowing is not relegated to a purely intellectual level. There exists contemporary yearn for a mechanical correspondence in the relationship between knowing and transforming and living a truth which verifies itself in history. Nevertheless, the cultural world in which we live allows us to discover a starting point and a horizon in which we can delineate a theological reflection which must appeal to its own sources. The theology of liberation differs from such theologies as those of development, revolution, and violence not only in a different analysis of reality based on more universal and radical political options, but above all, in the very concept of the task of theology. The theology of liberation does not intend to provide Christian justification for positions already taken and does not aim to be a revolutionary Christian ideology. It is a reflection which makes a start with the historical praxis of people. It seeks to rethink the faith from the perspective of that historical praxis, and it is based on the experience of the faith derived from the liberating commitment. For this reason, this theology comes only after that involvement; the theology is always a second act. (Bonino, 1975, 109-14) Its themes are, therefore, the great themes of all true