Working Projects:
China in Africa: Affirming Dependency Theory, Matthew Junker
As China's investment in Africa has grown to an immense degree, a thorough examination of investment patterns and their effect on African peoples and economies has become increasingly important. In order to test whether China's Africa policy truly is supporting African states' “self-development capacity,” or rather reinforcing traditional inequalities and underdevelopment, the following examines case studies of three of China's largest African trading partners, Angola, South Africa, and Sudan. As the most advanced and influential theory of underdevelopment, each case study will be viewed through the lens of dependency theory. After considering what dependency theory brings in helping to create a theoretical understanding of China's Africa policy, the conclusions will be used discuss possible solutions and the long-term challenges ahead.
Development of Creative Industries in Singapore in the Face of Globalization, Douglas Andrew Pierce
From malls to theaters on every shore, in the struggle for shelf space and screen exposure, creative works in local marketplaces are increasingly pitted against global challengers. No longer confined to the culture of their proximity, people now pick and choose from around the world whatever culture they find best. The future hegemony of nations rests upon whose culture gets rung up at these registers. Along with the arrival of new cosmopolitan lifestyles and cross-cultural consumption patterns comes pressure on local creative industries to put forward ever more creative products or face certain obsolescence. Staying on the cutting edge, therefore, requires calling on the creativity of their employees. Although creativity is a complex and multi-faceted process that is associated with everything from genius to mental illness, not to mention attributed variously not only to one’s cognitive processes, but also to divine intervention, personality traits, chance, and the one circumstance that nations believe they are most able to influence and control: one’s socio-cultural environment. For creativity to spark, it must first be nurtured and encouraged. The task of nations, if they are to secure a global competitive advantage for their creative industries, is to offer the best environment for that spark to catch ablaze.
Economic and Political Situation in Turkmenistan, Aya Atjanova
“There is an economic crisis everywhere. Except in Turkmenistan,” responded an unemployed Ashgabat taxi driver (Mitas). The Turkmen media was quiet about the global crisis until 26 November, weeks after it became renowned throughout the world, when the President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov announced his first statement on the issue. “We gathered here today to scrutinize the effects of the crisis on our economy and find efficient measures to lessen its negative influence," he said to the public. Then the Vice Prime Minister of Economy announced that "Turkmenistan managed to avoid the influence of the global financial crisis." He also stressed that Turkmenistan economy is a part of the global economy. However, in fact the country’s international trade is managed through an official state agency, there are no ATMs, currency rate is tightly controlled by the government and there are only five or six hotels which accept credit cards. It is probably hard to find a country in the world which possesses large natural reserves and does not participate in the world’s financial markets (Mitas). The Vice Prime Minister for Economy later clarified that Turkmenistan was able to escape the financial crisis because of its “reasoned and harmonious” policy, expansion of export markets for natural gas, "the increase in foreign currencies revenues” and its lack of foreign debt. However, the real problems facing most Turkmen, a stagnant private sector, a widening rich-poor gap, rising inflation, and high unemployment rate, are disregarded by the government and its media (Mitas).
