2020-10-10
214
The last quarter century against the previous two decades reveals that economic growth has slowed which has affected the world’s population and led to greater inequalities, largely due to the withdrawal of the state. It resulted in more countries struggling only slightly above the poverty line. On the other hand, some African countries can boast of a better economic performance.
Ambiguous trends in global inequality in recent years can be related to the criteria the world statistics rely on when assessing the financial system of a country. Historically, they use average per capitaincomes, and therefore do not capture international income distribution.
The second criterion is that the World Bank arbitrarily and for reasons of convenience chose a one-dollar-a-day poverty line, with 1993 as the base year. Some economists are warning, however, that money-metric measures of poverty can be misleading; instead, we should look to other ways of measuring.
The period after the Second World War saw accelerated growth in the South, as well as in the North; due to the post-war policies pursued. Thus, the century and a half of divergence was reversed after the Second World War, with decolonization and emphasis on boosting national economy rather than on import, alongside with efforts at agrarian reform and rural development.
There are major challenges for the future of economic development prospects. First, the new century has changed trade patterns which are moving against developing countries in at least three ways. The prices of primary commodities declined; second, it was the much greater decline of tropical agricultural prices in contrast to temperate agriculture produce. Third, export prices on developing countries products fell dramatically, compared to exports from industrialized countries. One more contributing factor is that theinternational community is getting more and more committed to intellectual property rights enforcement.
|
|
|
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was originally conceived as an international financial body based on corporate governance principles with basic votes shared equally bymember countries (one dollar means one vote).
The World Trade Organization (WTO), established in the 1990s, at one level, is ostensibly a far more democratic organization which makes it a far more problematic institution governance-wise. First, it implies less freedom for the participants - as a member of the WTO, a country basically makes a ‘single commitment’. It is an all-or-nothing deal. Second, a whole range of new issues have come into play, e.g. trade-related issues come to be of paramount importance; with trade-related intellectual property rights being more debatable at WTO than at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Third, the dispute settlement mechanism is biased towards those countries with plentiful legal and other resources, which enable them to pursue their interests in negotiations and legal disputes. Most benefits would accrue to industrialized countries, and even among developing countries only a few would benefit significantly from trade liberalization. Some ostensible benefits are only apparent. For example, India is supposed to benefit from agricultural trade liberalization. In fact, it has seen over a thousand suicides of farmers suffering from debt aggravated by poor crop yield. Apart from it, lower prices on food coming in from abroad are virtually ruining what is left on the national agriculture. The irony is that urban consumers would benefit at the expense of farmers and their families.
There is need for a broader consensus on how to take into account national interests of each and every WTO and IMF member state.
J. K. Sundaram
Practicum 13.6
Translate the italicized word combinations in text 13a into Russian
Practicum 13.7 
Practicum 13.8 
Practicum 13.9
Account for the most natural pattern of behaviour of J. K. Sundaram (Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs) in the suggested settings, rely on Asking & Giving / Refusing Permission strategy:
- applying for permission to take the floor at the UN session
- applying for permission to have access to the economic activity reports of developing countries
- giving permission for taking photographs for a political weekly during the interview
Practicum 13.10
|
|
|
Practice Asking & Giving / Refusing Permission strategy in the following situations
- Board of Directors’ member is asking for permission to stay away from the next session
- a reporter is asking for the programme editor’s permission to use his executive car to fetch the interviewee to the studio
- the UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman is asking for permission to postpone a film shooting session on account of a press conference at the United Nations
Practicum 13.11
Practice Asking & Giving / Refusing Permission strategyin the following situation (to be done in writing)
-an undergraduate student is asking for Dean’s permission to take finals ahead of schedule
-a student is asking for Dean’s permission to change the title of the research paper / theme of the research
III. Communication Practice
Role play
A team of students, researching into the XXth century economic practices, are applying for access to the university library stock. Rely on the Asking & Giving / Refusing Permission strategy.
Text 13b
The texts to follow deal in talking politics. Study the texts and use them as a starting point for communication in formal setting
Gaza Conflict
A United Nations inquiry into attacks by Israeli forces on UN property during the Gaza conflict four months ago has heavily criticized Israel's army. It found Israel to blame in six out of nine incidents when death or injury were caused to people sheltering at UN property and UN buildings were damaged. The Israeli Defence Minister said that Israeli commanders and soldiers ‘made every effort to avoid hurting uninvolved civilians. ’
Then Human Rights Watch accused the Islamists of killing and torturing its political rivals in Gaza. Several Palestinians have died and several more have been maimed in such cases during and since the military assault.
About half the population in the Gaza Strip are dependent onUN food aid, since Israel imposed a blockade on the territory 19 months ago. The lifting of the blockade is among the demands for agreeing on a long-term truce with Israel. Israel and Islamists declared separate cease-fires in January, ending a three-week Israeli offensive in which some 1,300 Palestinians and 10 Israeli soldiers were killed.
The largest Palestinian militant Islamist movement, Hamas, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and Israel. Hamas pursues the long-term aim of establishing an Islamic state on all of historic Palestine; its grass-roots organization has an unknown number of active members but tens of thousands of supporters and sympathizers.
Israel has accused the Syrian-based leadership of Hamas of being behind the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers who were seized in a cross-border raid by militants in June, sparking an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The operating Palestinian President was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005 to become the first Palestinian leader to be given the red carpet treatment in Washington.He had earlier announced a mutual cease-fire; US Secretary of State said it was the best chance for peace in years.
NYTimes.com
Practicum 13.12
Translate the italicized parts of Text 13b into Russian
Practicum 13.13 
Practicum 13.14
Read the phrases below and find Russian equivalents to the English bold type terms
(не) представлять угрозу для мирового сообщества; беженцы (варианты) / лагерь беженцев / искать убежище; бортовой самописец / черный ящик; в ответ на агрессию; воздушные силы; вывести войска из; гуманитарная помощь (варианты); жертвы среди гражданского населения; межгосударственные военные конфликты; меры по подавлению восстания; министерство внутренних дел; миротворческие силы; партизаны; объявить одностороннее прекращение огня; отражать атаку; отряд миротворцев; под защитой; полковник; прибегнуть к скрытым операциям и нетрадиционным методам ведения войны; прицельный ракетный удар; соответствовать международному закону о самообороне.
1. Three weeks after it embarked on the offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire, followed hours later by Hamas announcing a one-week ceasefire.
2. He warned that even large states would probably adopt unconventional tactics. Clandestineattacks are likely to be delivered semi-anonymously through cyberspace or the use of guerrillas and Hezbollah-style proxies.
3. The group demanded that Israel withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip.
4. Hamas' deputy chief reiterated long-standing demands for all the crossings to be re-opened for the entry of humanitarian aid, food and other necessities.
5. Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons from the coastal cities to the north took refuge there. They or their descendants still live in UN camps in Gaza.
6. Any agreement will have to cover an immediate and effective ceasefire, including allowing humanitarian relief to be provided, an effective peacekeeping force with a significant increase in numbers of troops.
7. The grey helicopter touched down in a cloud of stinging dust and sand on the landing pad and disgorged a squad of bluehelmeted Italian commandos.
8. President has repeatedly argued that he ordered troops into the region as a defensive action in response toa foreign invasion. He insisted that he sent forces there to repel the attack.
9. The air force also bombed targets hours before the president said that it had begun military operations and declared war on Iran.
10. It follows from the illegal character of the military assault that the state’s defensive action in response did conform to international law in terms of legitimate self-defence.
11. The first attempt to return failed asylum-seekers to southern Iraq since the US-led invasion in has been a fiasco for the Home Office.
|
|
|
12. The rescue team has been unable to find the flight recorders, or data boxes, in one of the remotest parts of the Atlantic.
13. Incensed by civilian casualties from indiscriminate air strikes and by the rhetoric of their clerics, the local population joins the fight.
14. The Colonel admitted that the army was better equipped, better trained and more experienced at counterinsurgency than it used to be.
15. The Taliban have issued an English-language statement claiming they pose no international threat.
16. US president and some of his key aides are increasingly pointing to recent successes against al-Qaida through targeted missile strikes and raids in Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere.
17. Globalisation is increasing the likelihood of conflict with non-state and failed state actors, and reducing the likelihood of state-on-state warfare.
18. He took overall command of NATO troops from 37 countries under the umbrella of International Security Assistance Force.
Practicum 13.15
Read the phrases below and find English equivalents to the Russian bold type terms
a distress call; as a mark of goodwill and a statement of good intensions; as of Monday; at border; civil disobedience and disturbances, open unrest and social discord; crossing point; in case of national emergency; on... days/weeks notice; plainclothes police; recruiting, based on voluntary enlistment; to close with the enemy; to incite inter-ethnic conflicts; to seize and hold the terrain; under the aegis of UN; war aftermath; weapons of mass destruction
1. Используя рельеф местности, нашим разведчикам удалось незаметно сблизиться с врагом и забросать его гранатами.
2. Зачастую невежество и правовой нигилизм тех, кто готовит и принимает политические решения, способны вызвать социальную напряженность, гражданское неповиновение и массовые беспорядки, открытое возмущение и общественное недовольство.
3. Задача налаживания совместной работы под эгидой ООН по мере развития международных отношений становится все более актуальной.
4. На Азиатско-Тихоокеанском театре военных действий Япония после захвата территорииперешла к стратегической обороне, пытаясь удержать за собой завоеванные земли.
5. Власти уведомили население о комендантском часе за три дня до его введения.
6. После роспуска Варшавского договора ООН – единственная эффективная международная организация, которая по Уставу обязана предоставить реальную помощь стране в случае возникновения угрозы ее национальной безопасности, в частности, в рамках подгруппы, которая занимается проблематикой борьбы с терроризмом, использующим оружие массового уничтожения.
7. Отказ от размещения военных баз рассматривается как знак доброй воли и добрых намерений со стороны США.
|
|
|
8. По данным на понедельник, в этом году московской городской поисково-спасательной службой на прудах и водоемах столицы было спасено от верной смерти 164 человека.
9. Дороги были заблокированы, проезд был открыт лишь для полицейских машин, автобусам приходилось ехать в обход, и повсюду были замечены полицейские в штатском.
10. Шторм уже смыл все, что было на верхней палубе, и капитан решил подать сигнал бедствия.
11. Подобные выступления нацелены на разжигание межнациональной розни.
12. США надеются, что в будущем новый контрольно-пропускной пунктна российско-грузинской границе будет способствовать развитию экономики по обе стороны границы.
13. Некоторые организации призывают к повсеместной ликвидации воинской повинности - первому и решающему шагу к полному разоружению.
14. Вопросами оценки последствий ядерной войны ученые начали заниматься только с 1982 года.
Practicum 13.16
Practice Asking & Giving / Refusing Permission strategyin the following situations
-the UN bans Afghan airlines from international flights except for humanitarian purposes. The national Afghan airlines is asking for UN permission to fly 25 seriously ill and injured children to Germany for treatment. The UN gives special permission to make this humanitarian flight
-the government of a developing country asks for UN permission to use military force to fight the rebels, the UN refuses permission
-US Defence Secretary claims the USA refuses access of UN human rights monitors to the Guantanamo Bay prison
Practicum 13.17
Practice Asking & Giving / Refusing Permission strategyin the following situation (to be done in writing)
Jordanian activists ask for UN permission to donate Iraq pencils as part of education kits, the UN rejects the permission on the following grounds: the current economic embargo against Iraq, for fear the lead could be used for military purposes, an outrageously large amount of pencils that is impractical to deliver.
