How are brands related to religion?  Read the article from Fast Company.

Please read for Monday Oct. 4

A Better Choosing Experience, from the consultants at Booz & Co.

China's Urbanization and Aid to Developing Countries

The two articles that I have chosen to write about are about China's urbanization and the foreign assistance being pledged by developed countries for developing countries.

The article on China demonstrated the division that exists between the urban and rural parts of the country that has accompanied economic growth. I was intrigued to see that the Chinese are experiencing characteristics that I have generally associated as being prevalent in the developed countries; these are a displacement of unskilled workers and the increased usage of technology. As I see the situation, this could be a sign that China will join the ranks of the other developed countries some day. If this happens, many of the products made in China may be made in other developing countries. Jeffrey Sachs speaks about sub-Saharan Africa being caught in a "poverty trap" because of their geographical location (Sachs 18, 50). However, one thing that came to my mind is the idea that manufacturing is an economic sector that could succeed if the necessary infrastructure was installed (i.e. roads, rail lines, and airports) to export goods. Maybe China's urban transition could be seen as sub-Saharan Africa's opportunity.

The information on the foreign assistance pledges made a few days ago shows how the Obama administration is committed to giving aid for developing countries and meeting the Millennium Development Goals. However, I thought it was noteworthy that the President said, "Our focus on assistance has saved lives in the short term, but it hasn?t [sic] always improved those societies over the long term." I agree with the concept articulated by President Obama. Developing nations should be asked to contribute to the betterment of their country.

References:

"China's urbanization transition causes growing anxiety," City Mayors, last modified November 27, 2008, accessed September 25, 2010 http://www.citymayors.com/habitat/habitat08-china.html.

Sachs, Jeffrey. Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (New York: Penguin, 2008).

"UN summit ends with pledges and lingering pessimism," AFP, accessed September 25, 2010, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gOwm3l1tKEF1bUYUORixIdnn4Uxg.

Note: Since I already had a blog, the submission of this post resulted in the username of "Oxford Conservative" popping up. It should say "BSica."

The China problem

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/09/the-china-dream.html

As China thrives and begins to challenge the economic supremacy of the US, a reaction formation can now be seen. A 8/9/2010 NewsWeek article, written by Ioannis Gatsiounis, portrays this well. The article outlines how China seems to be threatening America's place as the largest economic body in the globe, and proceeds to cite evidence to confirm [frantically] that the US is still in the lead, that China still has a long way to go to be able replace America as the supreme economic body.

As citizens of a neighboring country to this rising superpower, we have mixed feelings toward its recent development. Taiwan, a self-governing region which mainland Chinese government officials like to regard as a break-away province, has a complicated tie with the mainland. In the late 19th century, China fell victim of western imperialistic colonist, and was reduced to, as Dr. Sun Yet-sun promptly put, a "sub-colony." Western powers infiltrated the Chines territories, and exploited natural as well as human resources blatantly, right under the government's nose. The regime at the time, after two hundred years of isolation, was technologically inadequate therefore powerless to defend itself. Had there not been the Open Door Policy, it would have fallen the same fate as india. At the turn of century, Dr. Sun Yet-sun led a revolution that overthrew the imperial government and established a democratic republic, led by the Nationalists' Party. In the next four decades, however, the Communist Party rose and drove the Nationalist government to Taiwan, but failed, fortunately, to "liberate" it.

Knowing the historical oppression by the western powers, we were glad to finally see the rise of our own people. Yet, Taiwan was able to remain intact from communist invasion due to the US' economical inhibition to China. As we see the inevitable change of balance, we have to really be worried. This coincides well with Sach's claim that our biggest problem is our inability to cooperate.

One Earth, Two Worlds

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer; a saying we’ve all heard but it may hold more validity than we think. In the book Common Wealth Jeffrey Sachs addresses this issue with discussion of the economic growth and decline of several countries. Over the last few hundred years, prosperous countries such as the United Kingdom and America have continued to grow economically while economically weak countries such as sub-Saharan Africa have continued to suffer.

An article published in the mid 1990s in Green Left magazine addresses this issue. This article talks about America specifically and its economic situation. The global economic tendencies as described by Sachs are illustrated on a smaller scale when we take a look at America’s economy. America’s pre twenty-first century economy was on the rise. The reason attributed to this economic expansion was essentially the need of the lower-class citizens. The poor were willing to do any job, just in an effort to get by. Their minimum wage jobs provided the opportunity for the rich to prosper even more and although their work benefited the economy overall, the poor remained stuck in the same rut.

If we do not take care to fix this problem of economic dissonance between the rich and the poor, it won’t fix itself, it will just continue to become worse and worse. Now, looking at this issue from a global perspective gives us even a better picture of what is going on. It is not rare to see a commercial or stumble across a webside that tells us of how our five dollar donation a month can feed 20 starving children in Africa. When I take a moment to think about how significant my small donation is to people living in these underprivileged countries I realize how truly great the difference is in wealth. If this problem isn’t fixed I foresee two, separate worlds. There will be a world with food, money, education and life. And there will be a separate world filled with hunger, disease, and ultimately death. If we don’t take the time now to help our “neighbors” we will only become more and more separated from them until one day we won’t regard their existence at all. We are aware of the situation our world is in; my vote is that we make an effort to fix this—now.

-Phil Giddings

Should Americans be Concerned about Water?

Water is one of the most important natural resources; we literally can’t live without it.  We use it everyday.  In fact, the average American uses 101 gallons of water each day.  Where does all this water come from?   Well, of the approximately 333 million cubic miles of water on earth, 97% is found the oceans, 2% is locked up in glaciers and polar ice caps, and only 1% is accessible to us as freshwater found in rivers, lakes, and as groundwater.  However, these reservoirs are being depleted at an alarming rate.  

As Americans, it can be easy to ignore this issue, especially if you live in one of the states with high precipitation levels.  We find it difficult to identify with the 884 million people in the world who don’t have access to safe drinking water.  The majority of the nation’s population doesn’t know what it means to depend on rain so that they can eat and make a living.  Contrarily, they most likely view rain as a nuisance that disrupted their plans for a weekend at the beach. 

Still, there are many reasons for us to be concerned. Signs of water stress are visible in the United States, as those from California and Florida can testify.  Major rivers, such as the Rio Grande and the Colorado are low, no longer flowing to their final destinations.  As global citizens, we have reason to be interested in the conditions of our home, planet Earth.  From an ethical perspective, this means that we should be concerned regarding the welfare of our fellow citizens, including those in Africa and the Middle East who are dying as a result of infection and diseases acquired from drinking contaminated water.  From a practical perspective, there is a finite amount of water on this planet that we all have to share.  It is tempting to then choose to act in a way such as to collect as much water for ourselves, leaving as little as possible for the others.  However, such a mindset may end up backfiring because if the world’s population continues to grow at its exponential rate, all the water may be used up.  Jeffery D. Sachs, in his book Common Wealth, describes the relationship between water scarcity and war.  Not only does water scarcity lead to conflicts within unstable countries, but it could also very easily develop into war between multiple countries that are competing for the same reservoir.  They need water, not only for human consumption, but also for crop irrigation.   In fact, 70% of water usage is devoted to agriculture. 

No one can predict what will happen in future years, but that is no reason to stop us from taking conservative measures now to improve water management in an effort to stabilize water usage.  As Americans, we like to be independent, we don’t like having someone tell us when we can wash our car or water our lawn.  However, the reality is that as living beings, we have an impact on our environment, and we can choose today to either move towards sustainability or away from it. 

sachs on water stress and conflict

Before engaging on this topic, I would just like to say that Sachs seems to make very bold statements and seems that he has much confidence in his plans and ideas to fix many of today's world problems. I for one, would like to see these plans in action. His statements all have factual evidence that prove the point he is trying to make. His observation and remedy to the rise of water stress, for instance, is a very good example.

Sachs takes all viewpoints and situations into perspective and tries to come up with the best solution to solve this problem. A rise in water stress, he says, combined with other pressures, will worsen food security. He goes on to mention a colleague of his who said that "drops in rainfall [in Africa] are associated with significantly more conflict...There is strong evidence that better rainfall makes conflict less likely in Africa." Pretty bold statement, no? The issue here isn't the fact that there is no water. Look around us, our earth is 70% ocean. However, there are places in the world that are either landlocked and/or dried out, and they have no means possible to retrieve clean water for their villages/towns. If any poverty-stricken places do have access to water, they most likely don't have any access to filter systems or any such device to clean all of the parasites and bacteria that live in them. Therefore the issue is always one of those two; either no water at all, or no clean water.

Sachs feels that "countries need to develop holistic plans of action" which address these 5 areas:

-Safe drinking water and sanitation for all

-Increased water efficiency in agriculture, including the development of drought-resistant seed varieties and new irrigation strategies

-Increased attention to droughts through improved water storage

-Reduced economic risks through rainfall insurance

-Economic diversification and international trade to reduce the dependency of livelihoods on rainfall

A lack of water brings up many issues, as you can see. As it one thing happens, it creates a sort of domino effect and negatively impacting something else. For example, if a farmer is experiencing a drought in his land, he can't grow crops. Because he can't grow crops, he can't profit off of anything, and he'll start losing customers to buy/sell/trade with. And with no profit, he can't support his family. For any instance, one general water problem will cause many problems with that as well. Sach's solutions like physical infrastructure (producing clean water from seawater), and rainfall insurance are great solutions to our water problems. Like I said, look around, there's water everywhere.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13water.html

This article shares a story of a woman from Charlestown, VA who complains of problems with tap water in her home. This is also problematic because the whole town has access to the water, but many complain of their skin burning, rashing, and even eating away at their teeth because of lead, barium and other toxic wastes that don't get properly filtered out in their water. So what would Sachs do in a situation like this, a town that has access to water and a filter system, but an obviously faulty one? Many organizations, such as UNICEF and EPA need to get involved and make changes so that more people, even local people, can have access to cleaner water.

In a global perspective, this could be accomplished by more holistic plans and actions, and with effort from everyone. The issue here isn't saving water, but finding a way for people to use it for all that it can be used for.

-Aaron Suh