SOCIOLOGY ESSAY HELP PLEASE: Should third world debt be cancelled?

Question

Should third world debt be cancelled? I have to do an essay for sociology on this topic.. and don't know where to start, it is such a vast subject, help please!

Answer 1

Most countries in the third world who accrue debt have spent aid money on military equipment to keep the populace in their place. If you look at BAe Systems and see who they sell to you will see the third world are good purchasers of their products. You could base your essay around this premise, bearing in mind not every third world country falls into this category, but most do. First world countries are keen to do such business because the arms trade is big business.

Answer 2

First, you want to make sure you get more than one opinion to read about on the topic, as you say, it's huge.

Jstor has a lot on the topic, if you have access to a subscription to it:

http://www.jstor.org/search/BasicSearch?...

Other Places to start on "it won't help" - http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1696

- gives some links and names of people involved in this side of the study that can be a good jumping off point.

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated...

Be aware most things you will find on t his topic will come from sources with leans one way or the other- ie. different values guiding their research. Statistics and data can be twisted to fit any cause, it's hard to find anything unbiased about this topic, so be sure you are aware what the bias is in all your information, etc.

Oh, and for popular reference, check out Bono (from U2)'s involvement in activism with the world bank, and for third world debt issues:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/07/news/new...

http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/200...

Answer 3

Might as well be. We have given the fish to eat but never taught them to fish for themselves so we have cause the dependency, not them.

Answer 4

all world debt should be wiped out.its just a power control issue.it totally winds me up that we dont all help each other as much as possible, and that people have to suffer because of this.

Answer 5

Dear Student,

I can't help but to feel gravely distressed by your situation.  You have this essay to write, and you are at a loss as to where to start...how's about the university library?  Call me crazy, but that's where I would start.

Answer 6

'Third world' debt has been cancelled in waves and segments throughout history. I believe some Nordic countries cancelled debt to areas affected by the South Asian Tsunami a few years back, for example.

The answer to this is both yes and no, and you would probably have to start looking at key lenders to figure out why. In the 1990s and early 2000s the biggest funds flowed through the IBRD and the IMF, and also through national banks of countries which have previously had extensive colonies (e.g. Spanish banks to Latin America).A more recent phenomenon is what is called 'sovereign lending' on a large scale. This is typically commodity rich countries (for example Gulf states benefitting from high oil prices) that lend money to less developed countries with minute restrictions compared to those suggested by the IMF. Check out the recent issue of the Economist for some details on how China is lending to less-than-excellent-human-records nations in Africa.

Key terms to look for in your search:

- Sovereign funds

- IMF

- IBRD / World Bank

- LDC

- Debt servicing

Pro - cancel third world debt:

- Ease the financial difficulties of poor states which are already struggling to service the debt or have already defaulted.

- Without crippling debt the third wold can develop and become consumers just like the rest of us.

- Financial prosperity is likely to promote democracy and avoid future conflicts.

Con - maintain third world debt:

- If "we" cancel it they will borrow money from somebody else, getting into the same problem again.

- Debt usually comes with restrictions such as the implementation of a democractic political system and so on. Eliminating debt is likely to reduce the likelihood of a western style government.

- Western debt will be replaced by eastern debt (especially Middle East, China and Russia) which will undermine the West's capacity to influence world geopolitics.

There are probably many more but one conclusion could be to reach a juste milieu

e.g. delay servicing obligations on part of debtors.

Good luck with your essay!

Answer 7

• Brainstorm all ideas

• Find pattern in ideas so you can clump them together

• Put ideas into an order

• Intro - Put essay into context

• Logically and clearly structured in paragraphs

• No more than 5 -6 paragraphs

• Show how well you know character

• Justify ALL points with evidence from the text

• Keep quotations short and precise

• P.E.E - Always round off a point and give it a conclusion

• Include detailed language analysis with precise technical terms

• Imagery and language should be infused into all paragraphs

• When writing about literary text, use the present tense NOT the past

• Don’t use words such as - quite, rather, slightly - don’t use hesitant words, be bold!

• Never use - I or I think… Alternative - we as the reader think

• Consider both sides of an argument

Answer 8

Actually, I'm in an intro to sociology, and a "third world" term is very insulting, your supposed to use "least Indistrulized"

And your question, what debt? they pay basically in cows, if your talking about them needing a little help, theyve done good so far, and in my opinion there better off with out us.

No pollution

No Deadly illnesses

People live to be a good age

No Obesity.

If they WANT help then yes they should receive some, its a matter of if they want any.