Avente Garde Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Avente Garde - Essay Example It is also art or theatre at its most radical form, hostile to other artistic or conventional forms. It rejects the accepted social values and beliefs and condemn traditionally accepted artistic forms, ridicule the social order for which the society is used to and to put it succinctly, it believes in shocking its viewers. It is always searching for new arenas, and never satisfied with what is already accepted. "However, beneath this diversity there is a clearly identifiable unity of purpose and interest (at least in the theatre) which has all the characteristics of a coherent trend, since its principles can be shown to be shared quite independent of direct influence," Innes (1993, pp2-3). Avant garde is recognized with the postmodern theatre. Postmodern theatre is considered to be the recent phenomenon in the theatre world, connected with the European post-modern philosophy of the 1960s, naturally, which created many radical movements almost in every field. "The radical movement of the sixties constitute one of the most interesting social phenomena of this century; by insiders and outsiders, and what emerges is a confused picture in which elements of pacifism, civil rights agitation, anti-Vietnam sentiments, sexual liberation, feminism, and other forms of antiauthoritarianism are chaotically thrown together," Erwin (1988, p.15).It is different, revolutionary, unprecedented, a movement away from everything that is already established in the theatre. It has completely unconventional and subverted ways of seeing and portraying the world, and each performance becomes a dramatic spectacle of the so called Chaos Theory, and audience invariably find themselves participating in it, improvising it and bettering the dialogues. This can be called the avant-garde theatre movement of our times, far removed from the usual mainstream theatre. Postmodernists would be horrified at any such suggestions that they are even remotely connected with it! The aesthetic experience of the theatre, even though it is avant garde, does not diminish, only for the simple reason that it is unconventional. It has the power of holding the attention of its audience, and many times, the audience directly participate in it, creating an unreal situation, where they are transported into another era and back to the present era with a rude jerk and this way their experience is more authentic, compared to the one they would have had as mere spectators. It is impossible to believe that as ordinary spectators, they could have experienced the total identity with the play any better. Theatre, under postmodernism, is neither objective nor passive. It is crying for the audience participation and new experiences as part of the play. One such ensemble, the Wooster Group, consisting of modern artists working with Elizabeth LeCompte as their director, have cultivated new forms of production, presentation, and theatrical expression, dance and movement, and has created many pieces of production, which have earned appreciation, though not initially. It has also shown that however outrageous the new forms look in the beginning, slowly, it would create an audience of its own, and the new generation, whether they have logical reasons for appreciating it or not,

Brutality on women by the Japanese police Essay

Brutality on women by the Japanese police - Essay Example Brutality against women can be of many forms. It may entail enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer, torture, rape or even the non-spoken form of cruelty. The torture of not being able to freely state your thoughts or raise a voice to receive what you are entitled to. While looking at the Japanese economy, an act of disgrace which still murk golden pages of history would be the issue of the Japanese Imperial Government kidnapping and enforcing young girls under their occupation during the World War II into sex slaves. However, the Japanese Government still defends its acts and denies that the heinous act ever occurred. Walking down the lines of time, we can witness the estimates made by researchers about the number of â€Å"comfort girls† exploited during the past. The figure is expected to be around eighty to two hundred thousand; women were abused and brutalized in the â€Å"comfort centers†. The comfort women were administered, processed, dispatched and controlled by the Japan military. These women were to accompany the military to conquered places or colonial province and comfort them during the times of World War 2. These women were forced to please the military personals unless they were in hospital, there were no fixed leaves for the women, it purely depended on the needs of the men. They endured abuse and violence and were forced to accept military currency for their â€Å"services†. The torment of being forced everyday drained these women emotionally and psychologically. Post the war these women were allowed to leave without any sense of guilt or apologies from the gov ernment of Japan. These women could not openly speak about their ordeals due to the pressures from the society and were pushed to suffer the trauma silently.

Responsible Travel To Natural Areas That Conserves The Environment Tourism Essay

Responsible Travel To Natural Areas That Conserves The Environment Tourism Essay Ecotourism can be seen as a solution or contribution to the problems related to environmental conservation, and also as a threat.  This is because by promoting the integration of locals and tourists to areas of high ecological value, such as natural reserves and forests, fauna and flora of these sites may be affected negatively.  In addition, ecotourism promotes the development of infrastructure and facilities that protect the activity, such as gazebos, trails, eco-lodges, among others.  Similarly, it is critical that only promotes local economic development. On the other side, ecotourism activity helps keep wildlife healthy.  Some places, like the Galapagos Islands, ranches in Namibia, wetlands in Brazil, among others, thanks to tourism and what derives from it, residents of such places are motivated to work for conservation, in the way to keep a tourist activity. Ecotourism is more than people visiting a new place, it has to do with the environment and the activities in which a person involved that may harm the environment. There are some objectives that were implanted with ecotourism: First of all, the most important aim that emerged from the implementation of ecotourism is that travellers need to be more aware of the environment and damage, their actions as travellers and members of the society on earth. The main objectives are to minimize the potential environmental impact on natural and cultural environments of sites visited.  Generate awareness about the nature and care.  Tourism experiences that are favourable for visitors and locals. Funds arising from these tourist activities to the preservation of the place are one of the ends sought to ecotourism, thus establishing the basis for the maintenance of ecological tourism and growth. Funds like these can improve economic development that can lead of having more activities and ways that tourists could use and admire the nature of the land without destroying it.   Another factor that usually does not consider is that ecotourism is a source of income for civilizations not too close to the cities.  Usually, they have the same attraction for a city because in reality, there is much to do in a forest or something.  But nature has much to offer as well.  So if the countries with the special nature can find activities that the public would like to participate, visit the site and those who live there are going to collect the benefits of nature. UN acknowledges in its report World Resources 2002, for the most part, nature tourism fails to meet the ideals of social responsibility implicit in this definition. It also ensures that you may travel destinations and are marketed as ecotourism opportunities to focus on providing accommodation to the environment more favourable to community development, conservation and tourism education.  Therefore, the reality of these trips is that they can sustain ecosystems and degrade at the same time.  Given that the majority of ecotourists come from North America and Europe and most destinations are in the developing world would be doing a damage to these countries if they do not get that nature tourism is  compatible with conservation. But the UN also recognizes that even some of the ecosystems that are carefully managed under the principles of ecotourism are showing signs of degradation.  To illustrate the dangers that ecotourism can lead to natural ecosystems, the UN report takes the example of the Galapagos Islands, a natural paradise and the nerve center of biodiversity.  Not surprisingly, half of birds, 32% of plants and 90% of the reptiles that live there do not exist anywhere else in the world.  At first glance, the report says, the Galapagos Islands exemplify the promise of ecotourism.  Each year the archipelago attracts over 62,000 visitors who pay to dive and walk among the 120 volcanic islands and ecosystems, among other exotic species, contain the turtles are named for the islands. According to UN figures, tourism in Galapagos produces up to 60 million dollars a year and is the source of income of 80% of its residents.  Since 1970, the number of visitors has increased tenfold, helping to expand the resources of the park service to Ecuador and create a model of ecotourism high quality and low impact.  However, when things look closer displayed the consideration involved. Thus, the permanent population of the islands has tripled in the last 15 years due to the arrival of immigrants seeking work in the tourism economy of the islands, which also leads to increased pollution and exploitation of fisheries resources.  And, contrary to the purport ecotourism, it is estimated that only 15% of the capital that is entered from tourism goes directly to the Galapagos economy. In some cases not even a single pound reinvested in conservation and tourist park management, but that money goes to government treasury or at the hands of corrupt officials of the park. Ecotourism Impacts The impact of ecotourism is not only economic, but socio-economic, since it involves the communities.  The achievements in the economic order can even benefit communities and areas of the country that usually are depressed from the position of economics and finance, but have very specific natural resources and with hospitable people, traditions and  very special charms. Ecotourism is also a channel to link the activities of local governments or municipalities with other state and society as a whole, but also engages the municipality with the outside world, thus breaking the isolation  internal and external know yet many of our communities.  In the United States of America, for example, has realized that without direct intervention by local governments is impossible to develop ecotourism.  Recall that in this vast country emerged from the beginning of the twentieth century, the first spaces and protected natural areas that would become national parks, without which they would have lost significant wealth who today are usufruct by the communities living in the vicinity  . In short, ecotourism is an important ingredient to strengthening cultural identity. The close links we forge between everything that defines us as people, that is our way of life and production, our culture, our identity, and nature is what will make us turn this activity called eco-concrete manifestation of that  symbiosis, as a social practice that opens new horizons in todays changing world, where the features that differentiate us from other countries are put in evidence and become thus a unique appeal to attract new tourists and  stimulate us. In short, ecotourism combines natural resource management, environmental protection and land to productive action of society, generating jobs, income and new procedures, forms and techniques of living and working in areas  rural and urban areas. As such, ecotourism is an economic activity, environmental and cultural battle against the scourge of poverty, social exclusion and the exodus that started the inhabitant of a town of traditions, and why not, to overcome their  limitations along with its people. Ecotourism development contributes to motorized, national and local, comprehensive and sustainable. Devastating effects from ecotourism Several studies reported any adverse effect on Environment ecotourism course offerings. The ecotourisms offers may be generated in many cases more harm than good for environmental conservation, according to recent scientific studies on various tourist destinations in the expanding mode that is presented by defining as environment-friendly and  lovers whose main customers are reported in Nature. For example, orcas living in the United States coast are struggling to communicate with the noise generated by boats full of tourists looking to find out, as reflected in a study by the University of Durham (United Kingdom) and the Whale  Museum in Washington and published in the journal Nature. As the number of killer whale watching boats has been increasing over the past decade currently 72 commercial ships and 22 small private boats surrounding the whales every day the length of calls of these animals has also  extended in an effort to overpower the engine noise.  The calls have duration of approximately 15% higher when the number of vessels is higher. Also, the British magazine New Scientist reported that the presence of tourists in natural environments of species such as polar bears, penguins, dolphins and many types of birds in animals generated nervousness situations that begin to result in difficulties  chronic for playback. The impact of human presence in the natural environment of animals may seem a priori mild or nonexistent.  However, small changes in animals such as rapid heartbeat, changes in hormone levels and alteration of eating habits are raising fears of long-term survival of certain species. A team from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) has observed the dolphins along the coast of New Zealand since 1996 and has found these marine mammals reach a state of frenzy by the presence of the boatloads of tourists, reducing or  virtually eliminating its quiet time. Also, Canadian researchers at the University of Manitoba have reported the saturation of photographic tourism with the polar bears as protagonists.  The presence of tourists in the bears habitat during the months of October and November produces irreversible condition for the animal, because in those months is bound to an almost total rest to preserve a surplus of body fat. Other examples of the undesirable consequences of ecotourism are the lower the weight of the baby penguin, and therefore less chance of survival in areas with presence of travelers because the parents neglect their offspring feed to be entertained  by tourists -, reproductive problems experienced by some types of pheasants in the Amazon, where it was found that only 15% of nests containing a baby in the areas visited by tourists, compared to 50% in regions  fully protected.

Should Abortion Clinics be Closed? :: social issues

Should Abortion Clinics be Closed? In 1973, the supreme court decision known as Roe v. wade, made it possible for woman to get safe, legal abortions from well-trained medical practitioners and therefore led to dramatic decreases in pregnancy-related injury and death. Now the policy proposal has been done to close up abortion clinics. We are against this proposal and we will give you some arguments why we think abortion clinics in this state should not be closed. Closing up abortion clinics enables a lot of woman to have an abortion. Having an abortion should be woman’s own choice. But when there are no providers of abortion around, that choice has already been made for her. Closing up the clinics will higher the barriers of having an abortion. But when the barriers are too high, this means that for some woman, the right to make their own choices in life, is taken away from them. The constitution says we have a right on Privacy, so taking away a woman’s chance to make decisions over her own body and life, infringes with that right. In 1973 the American Supreme Court ruled that American’s right to privacy included the right of a woman to decide whether to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference. Closing up abortion clinics violates that right woman have. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) is the nation’s preeminent defender of the Constitution and The Bill of Rights, they defend the rights of all. The ACLU has protected the right of woman to choose abortion, and in recent years has argued the key cases opposing restrictions that deny woman access to reproductive health care. Policy 263 states: â€Å"The ACLU holds that every woman, as a matter of her right to the enjoyment of life, liberty, and privacy, should be free to determine whether and when to bear children.† Closing up abortion clinics will be done with the purpose to reduce the number of abortions. This raises the question whether this will be effective. Before 1973 abortion was illegal. Criminalization of abortion did not reduce the number of woman who sought abortion. What is known is that between 1880 and 1973 many thousands of woman died or suffered serious medical problems after attempting to self-induce their abortions, or going to untrained practitioners who performed cheap abortions with primitive methods or in unsanitary conditions.

Identify Major Features of the Latest Two Cepas and Comment on Their Possible Impacts

Assignment7 – Identify major features of the latest two CEPAs and comment on their possible impacts. The Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) is the first free trade agreement ever concluded by the Mainland of China and Hong Kong since 2003. CEPA opens up huge markets for Hong Kong goods and services, greatly enhancing the already close economic cooperation and integration between the Mainland and Hong Kong. It is also a win-win agreement, bringing new business opportunities to the Mainland and Hong Kong.For Hong Kong, It provides a window of opportunity for Hong Kong businesses to gain greater access to the Mainland market. It also benefits the Mainland as Hong Kong serves as a perfect â€Å"springboard† for Mainland enterprises to reach out to the global market and accelerating the Mainland's full integration with the world economy. As the supplements’ titles imply, we can generally conclude that the major features of 11’ s and 12’s will be deepening the liberalization of trade in services and boosting access to Mainland market for Hong Kong service industries respectively. Supplement VIII to CEPA (deepens liberalization of trade in services)Supplement VIII to CEPA provides for a total of 32 services liberalization and trade and investment facilitation measures, including 23 liberalization measures in 16 service sectors, and strengthens co-operation in areas such as finance, tourism, innovation and technology. Both sides also agreed to enhance origin criteria under trade in goods, and relax the definition and related requirements of Hong Kong service suppliers. Of interest to note is that a lot of liberalizations incorporated within Supplement VIII to CEPA were actually touched upon by Vice Premier Li Keqiang.Aside from unfolding a package of 36 measures, the vice premier indicated that the trade in services between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong should be basically free by the end of the 12th Five-year plan in 2015. This is perhaps one of the clearest indications regarding how soon and how far the mainland market will eventually open up for Hong Kong service suppliers and professionals. To cope with the fallout of the international financial crisis, Hong Kong has advocated since 2009 the development of six new industries in which Hong Kong enjoys clear advantages.It is good to know that CEPA, in both Supplements VIII and VII, has incorporated measures geared to assisting Hong Kong service suppliers to gain enhanced access to the mainland market progressively However, the liberalization rate of the Supplement VIII still seems to be not enough and thus it is not so possible to achieve Li’s indication mentioned above. For example: On banking, supplement allows any Mainland-incorporated banking institution established by a Hong Kong bank to engage in the sale and distribution of mutual funds.Yet, it is only for the Mainland-Hong Kong-incorporated banks and they a re allowed to sell and distribute the mutual funds only; On individually owned stores, the number of persons engaged in the operation is only relaxed from no more than eight persons to 10 persons and the business area is only relaxed from not exceeding 300 square meters to 500 square meters; On insurance, the Supplement allows Hong Kong insurance brokerage companies to set up wholly-owned insurance agency companies in Guangdong Province on a pilot basis, however, the applicant must fulfill 4 criteria, such as:  the applicant should have been operating insurance brokerage businesses in Hong Kong for over 10 years.As the over-all liberalization is relatively limited, so the impact of the Supplement VIII will be small to Hong Kong. Supplement IX to CEPA (boosts access to Mainland market for Hong Kong service industries) Supplement IX to CEPA provides for a total of 43 services liberalization and trade and investment facilitation measures, including 37 liberalization measures in 22 se rvice sectors, strengthens co-operation in areas of finance, trade and investment facilitation, and further promotes the mutual recognition of professional qualifications in the two places. Compared with the previous 8 arrangements, the major features and differences of Supplement IX are opener and wider in the different aspects of cooperation, especially in services sector.Not only having a more intensive collaboration in some aspects like business services, financial services and tourism services that are mentioned in those previous arrangements, but also getting a green light for HKSAR to operate benefit-driving social services like residential care services for the elderly and disables. Without doubt, Supplement IX contributes benefits to both China and HKSAR economies. To comment on its impact comprehensively, we will mainly focus on the policies in the services sector. To begin with, CEPA Supplement IX gives benefits to HKSAR, such as helping HKSAR to develop advantages of its services sector before expanding its services sector to other proveniences.According to the arrangement, it states that central government would like to cancel all the barriers, such as the limitation of professionals’ number, identity’s verification as well as the area to run the services for the individual working unit from Hong Kong. Therefore it can give chance to HKSAR to improve its service qualities by enlarging the size of its human capital and operation whatever they want to build up HKSAR brand name via the platform of Guangdong towards the whole mainland market. On the other hand, Guangdong can also absorb the experience such as the division of labor and human capital management of developing services sector with reference to HKSAR’s model taking place there with a larger developing scale so as to improve the industry structure (tertiary industry) and the level of services in Guangdong.Besides, CEPA Supplement IX further liberalized 22 service sector s, including 1 new sector – education services, ranging from professional services to social services. Reducing barriers for the entries to the mainland’s market, it can help HKSAR to develop and promote with more opportunities and also enhance the exchange of idea in between HKSAR and China. Taking an example regarding the education services, China permits HKSAR to operate professional training institutions with a choice in between a single proprietorship, joint venture or cooperation with China. This loosen restrictions can lead to both win-win situation of them as it can help the accumulation of local professionals in mainland and narrowed the differences of professional’s certification in between two regions.All in all, we can see that CEPA does help to reinforce the cooperation between Hong Kong and Mainland China with the progressively loosing policies. And therefore, the impact of CEPA will be sharper and sharper in the future. Yet, in the current stage, there are still many limitations and barriers and thus we deem that the process goes a bit too slow regarding the wish of Li Keqiang that the trade in services between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong should be basically free by the end of the 12th Five-year plan in 2015. Appendix1: CEPA Supplement VIII (cited) Sectors or sub-sectors| 7. Financial services| | B. Banking and other financial services (excluding insurance and securities)| | a. Acceptance of deposits and other repayable funds from the publicb.Lending of all types, including consumer credit, mortgage credit, factoring and financing of commercial transactionsc. Financial leasingd. All payment and money transmission services, including credit, charge and debit cards, travellers cheques and bankers drafts (including import and export settlement)e. Guarantees and commitmentsf. Trading for own account or for account of customers: foreign exchange| Specific commitments| To allow any Mainland-incorporated banking institution established by a Hong Kong bank to engage in the sale and distribution of mutual funds. | Appendix2: CEPA Supplement VIII (cited) Sectors or sub-sectors| Service sectors (sectors not set out in GNS/W/120)| | Individually owned stores| Specific commitments| 1.To allow Hong Kong permanent residents with Chinese citizenship to set up, in accordance with the relevant Mainland laws, regulations and administrative regulations, individually owned stores in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government in the Mainland without being subject to the approval procedures applicable to foreign investments, to provide the following services (excluding franchising operation):(1) The following items of Packaging Services under the Leasing and Commercial Service Industry: the provision of services of commodities classification, sub-packing and packaging, freshness preservation, labelling, mark-stamping etc. for shopping malls, supermarkets or other custome rs; the provision of goods assorting, sub-packing and packaging services specifically for chain stores or supermarkets; the services of delivery companies (centres) which provide mainly goods assorting, sub-packing and packaging services; the provision of sub-packing and packaging as well as re-packaging services for general products; gift wrapping services. 2) The following items of Office Services under the Leasing and Commercial Service Industry: the design and production services of signs and bronze plaques; the design and production services of trophies, plaques, medals and silk banners. (3) Craft activities which are mainly for the purpose of leisure and entertainment (pottery, sewing, painting etc. ) under Indoor Entertainments. 2. To relax the restrictions on the number of persons engaged in the operation and the business area of individually owned stores set up by Hong Kong permanent residents with Chinese citizenship in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government in the Mainland:(1) No more than 10 persons should be engaged in the operation of the individually owned stores. 2) The business area for retailing services; food and beverage services; hair dressing, beauty treatment and health care services, bathing services and repair services of home electrical appliances and other goods for daily uses under residents services and other services; import and export of goods and technologies; photography and photographic processing services; washing, cleaning and dyeing services; repair and maintenance of motor vehicles and motorcycles; and storage and warehousing should not exceed 500 square metres. | Appendix3: CEPA Supplement VIII (cited) Sectors or sub-sectors| 7. Financial services| | A. All insurance and insurance-related services| | a. Life, accident and health insurance services (CPC8121)b. Non-life insurance services (CPC8129)c. Reinsurance and retrocession (CPC81299)d. Services auxiliary to insurance (including broking and agency services) (CPC8140)| Specific commitments| To allow Hong Kong insurance brokerage companies to set up wholly-owned insurance agency companies in Guangdong Province (including Shenzhen) on a pilot basis. The place of operation should be in Guangdong Province (including Shenzhen), and the pplicant must fulfill the following criteria: (1) The applicant should have been operating insurance brokerage businesses in Hong Kong for over 10 years; (2) The applicant’s average annual business revenue for the past 3 years before application should not be less than HK$500,000 and the total assets as at the end of the year before application should not be less than HK$500,000; (3) Within 3 years before application, there has been no serious misconduct and record of disciplinary action; and (4) The applicant should have set up a representative office in the Mainland for over one year. | Appendix4: CEPA Supplement IX (cited) Sectors or sub-sectors| 8. Health rel ated services and social services| | C. Social services| | Welfare services delivered through residential institutions to old persons and the handicapped (CPC93311)Day-care services for the handicapped (CPC93321)Welfare services not delivered through residential institutions (CPC93323)Rehabilitation services for handicapped| Specific commitments| 1. To allow Hong Kong service suppliers to operate elderly service agencies in the form of wholly-owned profit-making enterprises. 2.To allow Hong Kong service suppliers to operate welfare services agencies for persons with disabilities in the form of wholly-owned profit-making enterprises. | Appendix6: CEPA Supplement IX (cited) Sectors or sub-sectors| 5. Education services| | A. Primary education services (CPC921)B. Secondary education services (CPC922)D. Adult education services (CPC924)E. Other education services (CPC929)| Specific commitments| 1. To allow Hong Kong service suppliers from Hong Kong to set up international schools on a w holly-owned basis in Qianhai and Hengqin. Their target students may be expanded to cover children of Chinese nationals residing abroad and of returned talents after studying abroad who are working in Qianhai and Hengqin. 2.To allow Hong Kong service suppliers to set up business-based training bodies in the Mainland on a wholly-owned, equity joint venture or contractual joint venture basis. | ——————————————– [ 2 ]. Refer to appendix 1 [ 3 ]. Refer to appendix 2 [ 4 ]. Refer to appendix 3 [ 5 ]. Refer to appendix 4 [ 6 ]. Compared with the previous arrangements ,including CEPA 8, regarding the treatment to Hong Kong permanent residents have services taking place in Mainland China, there are numerous limitation for their development’s scale ranging from limitation of professionals’ number to the size of their services’ environment. In CEPA 8, the number upper li mitation of professionals and working area are 10 and 50 m3. [ 7 ]. Refer to appendix 6

Reasons for Implementing Basel III and Its Costs Essay

The global financial crisis (GFC) was a painful wound that marked the twentieth century. It was the greatest crisis the humanity has witnessed since 1930 (the great depression). It first started in the United States and spread then to the entire world and caused a considerable slowdown in most developed countries and has affected the financial markets and the growth prospects in developing countries. It is called the doubled jeopardy crisis as it spread rapidly with a contagious effect to the other countries of the world. Despite the efforts exerted by governments and central banks to rescue the economy from this huge recession through aggressive fiscal and monetary policies, demand in the macroeconomic level dropped. This huge crisis wasn’t the result of a person’s mistake but it was the result of cumulative effect of poor regulations from the financial institutions and from central banks, unregulated hedge funds, multilayered mortgages and the overrating by the credit firms. It first started by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 due to the large losses they sustained on the US subprime mortgage market and was followed by the failure of the seventeen largest banks in the US â€Å"the too big to fail† and six hundred other banks in the US. The federal bank was urged to rescue the too big to fail as their failure would have destroyed the whole world economy. The strong interconnectedness between the world countries through the stock market, foreign exchange and international trade led to a contagious crisis in the other countries. Houses prices in USA collapsed with a loss of $2. 4 trillion during eight months hitting the balance sheets of banks exposed to the housing sector, which affected the entire US financial sector, and then, in turn, other developed and developing countries. A sharp decrease in the international trade and in the international stock markets by 50% to 75% from their peaks occurred which resulted in a decrease in the rate of investment and an increase in the rate of unemployment. The USA lost equities worth $16. 2 trillion in 2008. Investment banks collapsed and the IMF began to support countries such as Hungary, Iceland and Ukraine. However the impact of the crisis on developing countries varied depending on their direct or indirect trade links to crisis affected countries. Although governors claim that the global financial crisis didn’t affect Egypt, we discovered that it affected the emerging markets heavily as exports and capital flow have been lower than expected. The real GDP growth of the emerging economies fell from 8. 3% in 2007 to 6. 1% in 2008 and just 2. 4% in 2009. As we can see in the graph, Egypt’s GDP has witnessed a drop of 2. 5% after the global financial crisis. Also the weak financial systems of the emerging markets will take years and years to restore and fewer funds would be available for investment and innovation. In addition the aid that these countries used to get from the large donors set to fall as well as exports who decreased by 20% which explains the decrease of the GDP. This financial crisis is not a shock that damaged banks and financial institutions but actually it damaged many people’s lives. Although the worst of it appeared to happen in the past, its effects are sustainable and long lasting. Employment rate decreased sharply which reflected in an increase in the percentage of people living under the poverty line. Around 120 million people are living on less than $2 a day and 89 million more on less than $1. 25 a day. Same scenario applies for Egypt; we can see in the graph that the unemployment rose from 8. 9% in 2007 to 9. 4% in 2009. This high poverty rate led to higher mortality rates, higher number of depressed and ill people. Another result of this high unemployment rate is a decrease in consumption, businesses will downsize and more unemployed people will be. It is a vicious cycle of recession. That’s why World Bank and financial institutions are urged to find ways out of this crisis and to create stable financial systems that protect the humanity from such disasters. To avoid a reoccurrence of a financial crisis with that expansion and to protect the human beings from its withdrawals the committee of Basel decided to reform the Basel II and to upgrade it to a stricter system with more regulations on the market. Basel committee consists of a group of banks representatives that meet once every three months to enhance the efficiency of the banking sector in a fair and consistent framework. They started by drafting Basel I in 1988, then upgraded it to a more sophisticated one in 2006 and finally drafted Basel III in 2011. This latter is our concern in this term paper. Basel committee on banking supervision and the financial stability board, which consists of 29 members: 2 non-voting and 27 voting, tailored Basel III accord. All through 2008 and 2009 they studied and design the Basel III requirement and revised it through extensive consultation over the year 2010. After the global financial crisis and after feeling its huge negative impacts on people lives, the implementation of Basel accord III became mandatory and the country that wont abide by it won’t have access to loans nor from large donors nations, nor from commercial banks, nor from IMF and World Bank. Also these countries won’t be allowed to issue any foreign derivatives. By the year 2013 each country should be ready to start implementing Basel III requirement and meeting them on 2019. The Basel Committee designed some requirements to be met in order to raise the flexibility of the banking sector and improve its ability to absorb shocks by strengthening the regulatory capital framework, building on the three pillars of the Basel II framework. Basel III mainly consists of raising the quality and level of the capital base, to enhance risk capture and to contain excessive leverage and to introduce new liquidity standards for the global banking system. Basel III consists of an upgrading for the three pillars of Basel II. The first pillar consists of enhancing the minimum capital and liquidity framework. Banks’ risk exposures should be backed up by a high quality capital base and avoid overrated capital. Concerning capital management, banks are asked to have a minimum of 4. 5% common stocks of their risk-weighted assets (RWA) to ensure that they can absorb risks better, they should also raise their new capital conservation to 2. % of RWA to cover any unanticipated risks and a countercyclical buffer of 0% to 2. 5% by the January 2019. Banks should enhance their risk coverage by strengthening the capital requirements for counterparty credit exposures arising from banks’ derivatives, repo and securities financing activities. These reforms will help reduce systemic risk across the financial system and they provide incentives to strengthen the risk management of counterparty credit exposures. After the global financial cris is, the importance of conserving a countercyclical buffer rose. That’s why Basel III accounts for crisis by conserving capital to build buffers for individual banks and the banking sector that can be used in stress and serve as a shock absorber instead of transmitter of risk to the financial system and the broader economy. During the financial crisis, a number of banks continued to make large distributions of dividend as a way to reassure investors although the sector was deteriorating which made individual banks and the sector as a whole weaker. That’s why Basel III introduced a framework that gives supervisors stronger tools to promote capital conservation in the banking sector. Also a leverage ratio requirement is introduced in order to limit leverage in the banking sector and help it to mitigate the risk of deleveraging process that can be harmful to the economy. The second part of the first pillar basically consists of developing two minimum standards for funding liquidity. The first is the liquidity coverage ratio, which promotes the availability of sufficient high quality liquid assets for one-month survival in case of a stress scenario. Banks will cover these liquidity need through tier 1 assets which comprise of cash, central bank reserves and high- quality sovereign debt, and tier 2 assets which consists of high-quality corporate and covered bonds, with min AA- credit-rating and non-zero-risk-weighted sovereign debt. The second is the net stable funding ratio (NSFR) which aims limit over-reliance on short term funding and encourage banks to fund their activities through longer term with a minimum of a year of stable sources of funding on an ongoing structural basis. The NSFR should be covered first through tier 1 which is capital and liabilities with effective maturity of one year or longer (corporate), tier 2 which consists of capital and liabilities with effective maturity of one year or longer (non corporate), stable deposits of retailers and small business customers and finally through wholesalers who are the less unstable source of funding. Pillar two that should be followed by banks consists of enhanced supervisory review process for firm wide risk management and capital planning. Central banks are required to draft a code of governance for their banks and make sure that they abide by this code, that there is a total separation between management and ownership and they should also put a cap for the executives’ remuneration. Finally pillar three requires some disclosure requirements from banks to help improve transparency of regulatory capital and improve market discipline. A full settlement of all regulatory capital elements should be backed to the balance sheet in the audited financial statements. These are basically the requirement of Basel III. Each country’s banks should show a complete abidance by its requirements by 2019. However these changes will cost countries a deer price. Although the implementation of Basel III will protect the banking system from default and will enhance its efficiency, it will cost the global economy a deer price. We will first discuss the cost of Basel III implementation on the developed nations then on Egypt as a developing country. For the G3 â€Å"United States, Euro Area and Japan†, the implementation of Basel III would subtract an annual average of 0. 3 percentage points from their growth path over the full ten-year period (2011-2020). According to the size and the significance of the banking system relative to the economy and the extent to which they will need to adjust to meet the new requirements of Basel III, the Euro Area will be hit the hardest and the Japan the least. Especially during the transition period (2011-2013), there would be an indirect slow down in the employment resulting from the lower GDP growth. First, although the US banking system recovered rapidly after the financial crisis phase in the middle of 2007, the crisis created a considerable increase in its liquidity and capital ratios. To perform the changes in regulation, the US liquid asset ratio should be increased to 22% in 2012, maintained at that level through 2013, and trimmed steadily back to 18% thereafter. To abide by Basel III requirement this will cost the banking sector net interest margin to be squeezed (a decrease in ROE from 12% to 10. 4% in 2020) which will be reflected in a higher lending rate and as a result a lower demand for bank credit, which will accordingly affect the investment, business will downsize, GDP will decrease and employment as well. A heavy price for this regulatory change will be paid which is an increase in the number of unemployed people by 4. 6 million by 2015. Also the US should abide by NSFR requirement by greater reliance on longer-term wholesale funding rather than short-term. Second, the Euro Zone, the largest banking system in the world with a total asset of â‚ ¬31. 1 trillion at the end of 2009, will incur huge costs by implementing Basel III. By applying Basel III requirements the nominal GDP of the Euro Zone will end up about â‚ ¬853 billion lower by 2020 with a cumulative loss of 4. 5% of the average annual GDP growth. As a result the Euro Zone will have about 4. 8 million less jobs being created over the coming years. All these compulsory restraints on the banks are enough to keep the economy in a recession over the year 2014. This implies a loss in the nominal income and consequently a loss in tax revenue about â‚ ¬300 billion (3% of GDP). In addition, when banks boost their holdings of liquid assets and improve their risk weighted capital ratios, this means that they will favor banks lending to governments, which will cause a greater allocation of bank lending toward governments, and crowds out lending to the private sector. Besides, Basel III proposal will have a negative twist to bank credit flows to Emerging Europe (OECD2) in the years ahead as lending them will incur more charges allocated to credit and because maintaining operations in Emerging Europe would become more and more expensive. The third developed country is Japan which will suffer the less from applying these regulatory changes this is because Japan’s banking system stood relatively stable through crisis and the disorder in the Japanese money market was minimal compared to others as they learnt from their crisis of 1980s. The regulatory measures that the Japanese took in the last decade would serve as a good road map for applying Basel III. According to Basel III the Japanese banks should increase their capital by issuing extra ? 15 trillion of Tier 1 (common) equity during the five coming years, but they will face a problem which is that Japanese investors prefer buying debt instruments rather than equity and also the low profitability of Japanese banks makes the issuance of more common stocks unattractive to them. This means that banks would pay a high cost, as they will be forced to cut their balance sheets and downside deflation risks. Banks will also impose higher fees, require additional costs for financial operations, and they may as well reduce their size and their balance sheets by reducing repos, loans, trading assets and securities, which will affect pricing negatively. In addition, the Japanese economy will be negatively affected, as their average cumulative annual growth would decrease by 1. 5% by 2020 and their number of unemployed people will increase. The cost of Basel III implementation will be multiplied by the effect of the weaker growth in credit and nominal income that will consequently weaken tax revenue (loss of 0. 6% of GDP) and compound the Japanese government’s budget deficit and debt difficulties and will deepen deflation risk in Japan as well. Although Japan is the least country affected by this regulatory changes but the price they will pay seem to be price significant especially for an economy where the banking system did not perform poorly through the recent crisis, or reveal itself to be a source of global systemic risk. Not only developed countries will incur the costs of Basel III but also developing countries will do as well including Egypt. Most emerging market banking system are going to incur lower costs than mature markets that’s because their banking systems are well capitalized and maintain ratios of regulatory capital to risk-weighted assets well above the current 8% minimum of the Basel II requirements. Egypt exceeded the minimum capital requirements of Basel II (8% of RWA), as its capital requirement was 11. % of RWA, which may help it to have an easier time to abide by Basel III. That’s why an increase in the minimum requirement of two percentage points, to 10% of risk- weighted assets would not appear to be a significant burden on the Egyptian banking systems that is currently quite well capitalized. However a price should also be paid by the Egyptian banking system, as it has to increase it common stock from 3. 6% of RWA to 4. 5% of RWA which means that investors will get a lower return in comparison their high risk (lower profit by share). As the majority of banks won’t be able to issue more capital, they will be obliged to decrease their RWA by having less banking services, by downsizing their branches, reducing their assets, decreasing their lending and imposing higher fees. Also Egypt will be challenged to meet the net stable funding rule requirements (NSFR), which may lead to an increase in its banks’ overall funding costs. Besides, the potential application of a leverage ratio to off-balance sheet assets such as letters of credit and guarantee for small and medium- sized enterprises and trade finance instruments could have a penalizing effect. Moreover, because Egypt has unstable economic conditions it needs to increase its countercyclical buffer from 0% to 2. 5% of RWA in order to account for any recession and it needs to raise its new conservation buffer from 0% to 2. 5% of RWA. These figures mean that Egypt would be obliged to raise its total capital by around 3. 5% of RWA in additional capital which will reflect in a decrease of Egypt’s GDP by 6% over 2013 to 2019. Egypt will incur an additional cost of Basel III because of the compounded effects generated by the indirect effects of Basel III application. Lending to emerging markets such as Egypt became a costly job for mature markets economies (lending to NON OECD costs 50% risk), which may result in a shortage of Egypt’s liquidity and indirectly inflation pressure would be untamable for food prices. Unfortunately, I have to say that after the glamorous revolution of the 25th of January Egypt’s costs of implementing Basel III will dramatically increase. Because the revolution resulted in a decrease in the Egyptian GDP y 6% in few months, the central bank is using aggressive monetary policy to increase consumption by â€Å"increasing lending† which will consequently cause a higher RWA and will put Egypt in a deeper trouble to apply Basel III requirements. Egypt will pay a triple cost, first the above stated costs of Basel III implementation, then the indirect costs caused by the mature markets who will decrease their lending to Egypt and finally the cost of the revolution that lowered our credit rating from a BB- to BBB+ (junk) which will increase our cost of borrowing from other nations. In my own opinion, Egyptians should wake up, stop riding and start building their economy by hard work, which should be reflected in a high productivity rate that allows firms to increase their sizes instead of downsizing and generating job opportunities. I think the central bank of Egypt (CBE) should start by giving all its attention to solve the current crisis and should seek the Basel committee and beg them to giving Egypt a larger period of implementation in order to be able to meet their requirements. To restructure the current situation of Egypt, the CBE should start by seeking a source of funding in order to satisfy the basic human needs of food and shelter. The CBE could seek the IMF and large donors and urge them to take long term loans in order to rescue the current situation and avoid hunger. Another way to raise funding is to issue bonds in the stock market (unconventional monetary policy tool). This way CBE could obtain some necessary liquidity to import the needed food and to pump more money in the market to create a money illusion so that people start spending. Second, the CBE should start solving the real problem of the Egyptians, which is poor income distribution by giving higher return for post office depositors and by extending their loans. Another way to have a better redistribution of wealth is to enhance the SMES to enlarge their investment and open up new job opportunities by enhancing commercial banks to lend them with low credit rate. I personally think that pumping money in the hand of poor people, although it is a costly process to raise salaries, but it is a rewarding one as the poor population is the one that will use the increase in wealth in consumption rather than savings and hence increase GDP growth. On the long run, after stability takes place in Egypt, huge reforms will be needed in order to rebuild the Egyptian economic system. A decrease in the inflation rate would be recommended. Ã' CBE could use its two conventional monetary olicy tools, which are to decrease the discount rate and the LRR to encourage banks to give loans with lower interest rates, and to minimize the inflation rise hence enhancing consumption and increasing investment and as a result a rise in the GDP will take place. Using aggressive monetary policy can help alleviate the current situation but only a fundamental reform of the educational system, and an efficient allocation of resources would help Egypt to take place among developed countries one day. Egypt is a country with rich resources and with a high labor force that if used efficiently could form a developed nation.