Wednesday, January 29, 2020

My Favorite Movie Essay Example for Free

My Favorite Movie Essay As a teen, I was not much into movies, which always got my parents concerned. My parents were very broadminded; they encouraged me to see all types of movies, to develop my interest, so that I could â€Å"know the real world†, as they believed that cinema was a reflection of our daily lives. My brother, who was 15, was even more concerned about my disinterest in movies, and took upon himself, the pious duty of introducing me to the realities of life, though in a starker way. He had a huge collection of seemingly boring movies on his laptop, which he hid from my parents, and which were really good comedies I think. Anyways, when God decided that the time was ripe, I started taking interest in movies. But my genre was horror, yes sir! How I loved those teddy-bear type cuddly cute ghosts, romping without footwear and grunting! I loved the multi-colored vomits and also the shrieks and shouts of the fellow onlookers at the cinema hall.. it was all so hilarious! Yeah, I mean what I say, because I loved these movies for their comic elements, and not horror. I would wait with baited breath for the huge hairy ghost to appear, and wait breathlessly for him to stumble, or fall.. actually sometimes their masks would be so obvious, that one waited for the mask to obstruct their eyes, which often did. Witches who would howl and try scaring were completely oblivious to exposed lace under the skin outfits, and they would unceremoniously get caught in their own tatters and fall down the stairs with a thud! I could go on and on, but dear readers, let me jump on to my favorite movie amongst all I saw. I had watched many a movie, till I saw the posters of this movie appear on all city walls. It was called â€Å"Paapi Guddi ka Papa Gudda†, which crudely translated would mean â€Å" Devilish Doll’s Dad’s a Doll†. This magnum opus I guess, was much ahead of its times, like my elder bro (though for different reasons), and this I guess was the reason why it did not fare well at the box office those days. It was about a loving dad and his daughter, who move to a countryside home and get possessed without much ado. A series of exorcisms then begin, but not before the dad and the prodigal daughter have rid the countryside of a big part of the population. The duo, after dismembering their victims would treat them in some chemicals and stuff them and decorate their mantelpieces with these new fashioned dolls! I don’t remember who the cast and crew were, because they were never heard about after the movie. Sometimes I think that many of these poor actors perish on the sets during the making of the movie for want of medical aid, or even food. But let me not digress dear reader, lets move on! The movie was rated â€Å"R†, and I had to see it any cost. It was summertime and I convinced my parents that our school was taking the entire class to a special show for kids of the movie â€Å"Santa Comes, and How!† I then got my dad’s raincoat to make me look an adult and even bought a cigarette, just to gain entry. The readers can imagine a 13 year old midget, wearing dark glasses, cigarette in hand, and a long raincoat trailing behind me, as it does when you see models in Gucci evening gowns with white satin trailing them mopping the ramp! I was accosted by the checker at the cinema gate and was about to be dishonored when he comfortingly said,† No smoking inside the hall please†! I was so relieved, I thought I was about to be caught, but my clever camouflage was a hit. I coolly chucked the cigarette behind me with a style that could beat Chuck Norris, and saw a big hole made immediately in my dad’s raincoat trailing behind me! Thankfully the raincoat was so oversized that I could just turn around and stomp out the fire, still I had to carefully cut and alter the length later so that no one suspected; except my confused dad who kept remarking, †Strange! Never saw a raincoat shrink before!† The movie was a real laugh riot.. for me I mean. The stupid audience was so scared that they turned the hall upside down shrieking, howling and shouting. These elders, I thought, have no self control. Could they not just enjoy the movie quietly? I was just getting into the story and waiting for those fun moments to appear when the man beside me suddenly shrieked. I turned around to see him staring at the usher who had come out of nowhere and beamed his flashlight on the poor guy’s face! After a minute or two, when the cute cuddly bear type ghosts made an appearance, a much louder shriek was heard, which got everybody’s attention. It was the usher himself this time, having beamed his torch on some woman, and getting scared himself. The lady was not pleased at all, but I must admit that she could have done with a little more make-up before venturing into some public place; its just not right to scare people, right? The movie was so entertaining!! The dad had already turned into a monster and was now attired in a hairy suit, strings of which were visible behind his neck. At one juncture, while accosting a victim, the string got stretched, and he was just about to gasp for air and scream himself, when the editor played a spoilsport and ruined the fun. Well, more would come I thought, and it did. In one scene, while chasing a victim, who, God alone knows why, was strolling in a cemetery at the dead of night, the monster dad clearly tripped over a pointed stone and one could see painful emotions on his face, which the editor also could not conceal. He even swore badly, as I was good at reading lips, but the words were not dubbed later I guess. The daughter too had her shares of bloopers, when in one particular scene she had to shout to scare a victim in a bathroom, she accidentally peeked in the mirror and shrieked loudly! Obviously her make-up as a ghost was so convincing that even she got scared of her own reflection! But nothing could be hid from my eyes though, because I always had an eye for details since the day I was born. I even remember the soft, pink fingers of the nurse who delivered me, but that dear reader is another essay material! When the dad was first brought to justice by the local folk, the scene involved a lot of ketchup and sauce, and many juniors standing behind could be seen licking their lips with their tongues! The dad was laid in a coffin and a makeshift priest was to exorcise the dirty soul. The priest looked really holy in his white robes, except for flashy red jockey shorts highlighted under his raiment. His bald head showed from under the wig, which was secured around his egg-shaped head with a lace, supposed to be skin colored, which conflicted a good three shades with his skin and one end of which was clearly visible hanging behind his ear and annoying him no end! And when he was to hammer the wooden stake in the guy’s chest, the small piece of wood that shielded the man’s chest and was directly under the stake, showed, and even slipped when the hammer-blow fell, and the devil in dad winced in pain! It was so genuine that the poor guy hit the roof without the aid of any special effects and landed back in the coffin with a thud, and the dad thankful to the crew for not providing a metal stake! The audience shrieked and wailed throughout, and when the lights finally came on, many more shrieks were heard! One woman shrieked seeing the man sitting next to her chewing her stole! The man shrieked seeing the woman shriek! An old guy screamed discovering he had chewed his umbrella handle! Another screamed at his popcorn spilled in his lap, not out of fear, come on! The popcorn was buttered and he had ruined his best pair, that’s why! Another woman shouted wildly, discovering that the man to her left was not her husband, and whose hand she had been holding throughout! Her husband who was seated to her right, was slapped by the man on his right, whose hand he was holding, thinking it to be some woman’s! There were even more screams as a lady had sneaked in with her cat, which went berserk listening to the shrieks of the audience. Two girls who were my age, shrieked on seeing their parents seated next to them! In short it was wholesome entertainment! The movie was good fun, with plenty of gaffes and bloopers for me. And what a surprise, I even found my English teacher while leaving the cinema hall. Yes Sir, I had seen you that day, and I do recognize your wife, who looked quite different that day at the movie. Yes Sir, I do know your address and your phone number Sir. Hope you enjoyed the essay Sir. And just to mention Sir, I need a minimum of 80 percent marks in this essay to pass my English test. I know you won’t let me down!!

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Lizabeths Experiences in Marigolds by Eugenia Collier Essay -- essays

'Marigolds' is a story written by the author Eugenia Collier. It is considered a 'coming of age story.' A coming of age story is a story where the protagonist becomes an adult through experiences, knowledge, or an adventure. Throughout the story the main character, Lizabeth, goes through experiences that upset her. These experiences teach her to have compassion and not to be afraid of hope and beauty. 'For all the smoldering emotions of that summer swelled up in me and burst-the great need for my mother who was never there, the hopelessness of our poverty and degradation, the bewilderment of being neither child nor woman and both at once, the fear unleashed by my father's tears.' This quote from the story explains what was troubling Lizabeth. As a child her mother wasn't around often...

Monday, January 13, 2020

Imf -Role for Developing Countries

Introduction: International Monetary Fund (IMF),is a specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1945. It was planned at the Bretton Woods Conference (1944), and its headquarters are in Washington, D. C. There is close collaboration between it and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Its primary mission is to ensure stability in the international monetary system. The IMF provides policy advice and financing to member countries with economic problems.The organization, using a fund subscribed by the member nations, purchases foreign currencies on application from its members so as to discharge international indebtedness and stabilize exchange rates. The IMF currency reserve units are called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs); from 1974 to 1980 the value of SDRs was based on the currencies of 16 leading trading nations. Since 1980 it has been reevaluated every five years and based on the relative international economic importance of the British pound sterli ng, the European Union euro (formerly the French franc and German mark), the Japanese yen, and the U.S. dollar. To facilitate international trade and reduce inequities in exchange, the fund has limited power to set the par value of currencies. Members are provided with technical assistance in making monetary transactions. In 1995 the fund moved to increase disclosure requirements of countries borrowing money and at the same time created an emergency bailout fund for countries in financial crisis. IMF was criticized in 1998 for exacerbating the Asian financial crisis, through the fund's decision to require Asian nations to raise their interest rates to record levels.During the international financial crisis of the early 21st century the IMF provided loans and access to credit of more than $100 billion to developing countries that were affected by falling demand for their exports and other financial problems. Instead of increasing government expenditure and boosting domestic demand, l ocal employment and economic activity to overcome the recession, the IMF is cutting spending and increasing tariffs and taxes in already contracting economies for the express purpose of maintaining low inflation and fiscal deficit rates, flexible exchange rates, and trade and financial liberalization.In this paper we try to analyze effect of reduced government expenditure for developing countries that sought aid on dealing with currency crisis. We also analyze the reasons behind strict monetary policy prescribed by IMF. Our analysis provides a framework that would help improve IMF’s approach in future. Reasons behind strict monetary policy: IMF claims upon maintaining transparency in setting up operation, but it is actually extremely secretive. In recent years, as criticism about this policy has grown, IMF has made certain parameters of structural adjustment of various developing countries public.Although IMF assumes a dominating role in structuring policies for affected nati ons, it imposes its policies on them rather than involving them in the decision making process. Key structural adjustment measures include: †¢ Privatizing government-owned enterprises and government-provided services, †¢ Slashing government spending, †¢ Orienting economies to promote exports, †¢ Trade and investment liberalization, †¢ Higher interest rates, eliminating subsidies on consumer items such as foods, fuel and medicines and tax increasesThe basic idea of these policies is to shrink the size and role of government, rely on market forces to distribute resources and services and integrate poor countries into the global economy. Also, despite pledges to address the crisis in flexible and innovative ways, the IMF's key objective in crisis loans remained ‘macroeconomic stability' through the ‘tightening of monetary and fiscal policies' with below objectives: †¢   Lowering fiscal deficits and inflation levels †¢   Buffering inter national reserves †¢ Reducing or restraining public spending   Increasing official interest rates or restraining the growth of the money supply †¢   Preventing currency depreciation Structural Adjustments in IMF policy: Structural adjustments have been successful at its intended efforts to diminish the scope of government and to integrate developing countries into the global economy. But they have failed by many other measures. By and large, countries undergoing structural adjustment have not experienced economic growth, even in the medium term. Main Reasons include: †¢ The IMF caters to wealthy countries and Wall Street:Dominating decision power and voting power has made US a largest shareholder of IMF of rich countries. Disproportional amount of power held by wealthy countries translates into decisions that benefit wealthy bankers, investors and corporations from industrialized countries at the expense of sustainable development. †¢ The IMF is imposing a fu ndamentally flawed development model IMF forces countries from the Global South to prioritize export production over the development of a diversified domestic economy. i. e. hift from food production for local consumption to the production of crops for export to the industrialized countries. Small businesses and farmers can't compete with large multinational corporations. Thus the cycle of poverty is perpetuated, not eliminated. †¢ IMF Policies hurt the environment The IMF does not consider environmental impacts of lending policies; and environmental ministries and groups are not included in policy making. The focus on export growth to earn hard currency to pay back loans means unsustainable liquidation of natural resources.This happened with the bailouts of Brazil, Indonesia, and Russia–countries that are renowned for their great biodiversity The IMF bails out rich bankers, creating a moral hazard and greater instability in the global economy The IMF pushes countries to dismantle trade and investment rules, as well as raise interest rates in order to lower inflation. The removal of regulations that might limit speculation has greatly increased capital investment in developing country financial markets. More than $1. 5 trillion crosses borders every day.This capital is short-term, unstable, and puts countries at the whim of financial speculators. The Mexican 1995 peso crisis was partly a result of these IMF policies. Impact of Structural reforms on developing countries and its evaluation: Those developing countries that have experienced the greatest economic successes in recent decades have violated many of the central precepts of structural adjustment. They have protected certain parts of their economy, and they have maintained an active governmental role in economic planning.A review of policies sponsored by the IMF illustrated the basic failure of structural adjustment. Countries undergoing such structural adjustment experienced stagnating growt h rates and saw their foreign debt nearly double-dramatic evidence of failure, since reducing foreign debt is one of ESAF's ostensible purposes. As per reports, the two regions with the most structural adjustment experience, per capital income has stagnated (Latin America) or collapsed (Africa, where per capita income dropped more than 20 percent between 1980 and 1997). The emphasis on exports tends to be socially disruptive, especially in rural areas.Poor subsistence farmers frequently find their economic activity described as nonproductive, and experience land pressures from expanding agribusinesses, timber companies and mines. Pushed off their land, they frequently join the ranks of the urban unemployed, or move onto previously unsettled, and frequently environmentally fragile, lands. Structural adjustment has generally contributed to rising income and wealth inequality in the developing countries, a fact tacitly acknowledged by both recently retired IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus and World Bank President James Wolfensohn.Consider the Asian meltdown caused in large part by South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, which was caused by heavy reliance on short-term foreign loans. When it became apparent that private enterprises in those nations would not be able to meet their payment obligations, international currency markets panicked. Currency traders sought to convert their Asian money into dollars, and the Asian currencies plummeted. That made it harder for the Asian countries to pay their loans, and it made imports suddenly very expensive.The IMF’s usual policy of countries not meeting their balance of payments due to increased value imports and reduced exports was reapplied here. Treating the Asian Financial crisis like other situations, IMF made arrangements for loans to enable these countries to payoff their debts. But IMF placed the condition that the countries would adopt the structural adjustment policies. But th ey failed to understand that the Asian crisis condition differed from this situation.Like, even though Asian countries did not run budget deficits, they were compelled to restrict government spending which further deepened their slowdown. The Fund failed to manage an orderly roll over of short-term loans to long-term loans, which was most needed; and it forced governments, including in South Korea and Indonesia to guarantee private debts owed to foreign creditors. In retrospect, even the IMF would admit that it made things worse in Asia. Malaysia stood out as a country that refused IMF assistance and advice.Instead of further opening its economy, Malaysia imposed capital controls, in an effort to eliminate speculative trading in its currency While the IMF mocked this approach when adopted, the Fund later admitted that it succeeded. Malaysia generally suffered less severe economic problems than the other countries embroiled in the Asian financial crisis. Considering example of Pakist an,   Pakistan is among the most frequent users of IMF loans, having borrowed IMF money 12 times since 1980.However, 10 of these programmes were abandoned midway due to Pakistan’s failure to fully adopt the IMF’s policy recommendations. Undue US interference, inadequate political analysis capacities within the IMF, inappropriate sequencing and over-ambitious agendas given the short loan durations were the main reasons . For example, Pakistan was advised to reduce import duties before it developed alternative taxation measures to cover the ensuing tax revenue shortfalls.This increased Pakistan’s public debt significantly as it had to borrow to cover the resulting fiscal deficits. However, Pakistan must partly share the blame since it accepted the loan conditions. Same happened with for some African countries, which lack both the technical capacities to analyse the IMF conditions and alternative financing options The IMF's structural adjustment prescriptions for countries suffering through the Asian financial crisis were roundly denounced, including by many conservative and mainstream economists and opinion makers.The widespread criticism of the Fund undermined its political credibility. The IMF response has been to make some minor concessions in making its documents more publicly available, limiting its demands that countries liberalize their capital markets (including by allowing unlimited trade in their currency, and permitting foreign investors to invest in domestic stocks and bonds without restriction), and increasing its rhetorical commitment to paying attention to poverty in its structural adjustment programs.But the financial crisis, aggravated due to IMF’sstructural policy, had alreadyled to massive human suffering. â€Å"IMF suicides† became common among workers who lost their jobs and dignity. In Indonesia, the worst hit country, poverty rates rose from an official level of 11 percent before the crisis to 40 to 60 percent in varying estimates. GDP declined by 15 percent m one year. IMF policies exacerbated the economic meltdown in countries hit by the Asian financial crisis.Mandated reductions in government spending worsened the Asian nation's recessions and depressions. And the forced elimination of price controls and subsidies for the poor imposed enormous costs of the lowest income strata’s. In Indonesia, food and gasoline prices rose 25 to 75 percent overnight or in the course of a few days. Although most developing countries are in need of fundamental reform along the general economic principles advocated by the IMF, the problem lies with the specifics of the IMF reform agenda.Thus as per the latest records, most successful East Asian countries have adopted IMF’s principles but have utilized very different specific tools which preserve long-term development, unlike IMF-recommended tools. Instead of widespread immediate privatization, China initially introduced managerial in centive systems in agriculture and industry. This boosted Chinese productivity without the massive economic ruin that the IMF-advised mass-scale privatization caused in Russia in the 1990s.In fact, no developing country sticking entirely to the IMF approaches has achieved the type of success achieved by East Asian countries. Towards growth- and development-oriented fiscal and monetary policies: A more development-oriented macroeconomic policy stance is necessary in order to generate the quantum leap in resources that LICs need to finance large-scale new investments in economic and social infrastructure, which includes the specific MDG (Millennium Development Goals) goals in the health and education sectors, and job creation.Progress on poverty reduction and basic human development has historically required, and continues to require, such a critical degree of spending and investment in the domestic economy. In order to support the achievement of the MDGs, IMF policies need to change: †¢ Support of active use of fiscal policy to for public investments and public spending to build essential economic and social infrastructures. Future revenues expected from the investment should pay off the debt that the government initially incurred. The IMF should encourage more expansionary monetary options that better enable domestic firms and consumers to access affordable credit for expanding production, employment, and increased contributions to the domestic tax base. Monetary policy should thus maintain low real interest rates, rather than ineffectively trying to keep inflation low with high interest rates which dampen aggregate demand and growth prospects. The IMF should permit the regulation of the capital account to confront the continuous inflow, as well as outflow, of private capital from national economies, i. e. ‘capital flight'. Now the question lies, whether the IMF is actually concerned about sustainable development? If yes, then the emphasis should no t be on IMF pushing the countries to adopt its structural policies in exchange of the debt funds. Instead, IMF's influence and power needs to be reduced so it has less say over developing country policies.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

The Secular Feminism Of The Middle East Essay - 2435 Words

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