VI. Discussion

Write an essay on Global Climate Change. Make summary of it and exchange your ideas with your groupmates. Here are some questions to help you start the discussion:

1. Is climate change a reality or concern of coming generations?

2. Has the climate changed within your life span?

3. Is there any need of an international collective effort to prevent the dire consequences of global climate change?

4. Can anything be done on a personal level to improve the situation?

Unit IV racism

1. Pre-reading task:

a) Before reading the article study the following list of collocations on the topic:

1. to riot , rioter; riot police, riot shields;

2. a minor / major incident (riot);

3. to segregate different ethnic groups; to reduce segregation;

4. to flare (up) -about violence; to spread out across;

5. colour prejudice;

6. immigrant enclaves;

7. segregated housing; to sell up and move out;

8. labour-intensive (textile) manufacture;

9. white racial harassment; racial abuse; racist attitudes;

10. discrimination; to suffer discrimination; "positive" discrimination;

11. to sustain racial divisions;

12. to fear vandalism;

13. to overcome the root causes of the problem;

14. to pay reparations for slavery and colonialism;

15. ethnic groups /minorities; ethnic antagonism; tribal wars;

16. to voice one's grievances;

17. race-relations experts;

18. inner-city ghettos;

19. disparities in wealth between different ethnic groups;

20. to be victimised; to be legislated against;

21. to co-exist peacefully;

22. to disapprove of inter-racial marriages; to break down stereotypes;

21. a colour-blind government.

b) Discuss the following points. Make use of the vocabulary listed above:

1. Do racial problems exist in this country?

2. Are racial problems high or low profile issues in the mass media?

3. How are racial problems dealt with on the government/grass-roots levels?

4. Why does the U.N. regularly hold World Conferences Against Racism?

II. Reading.

1. Read the article through and try to grasp the main idea without using a dictionary: don't discriminate The Economist September 1st, 2002,p.10

Many groups want governments to discriminate in their favour. But they shouldn't.

Durban, in South Africa, is a charming city, but delegates attending the UN World Conference Against Racism there this week are too angry to enjoy its beaches or curry houses. America is upset that the draft declaration is too hard on Israel. Western governments are annoyed by demands that they should pay reparations for slavery and colonialism, while many Africans and African-Americans are furious that these demands for reparations have been turned aside. Ethnic groups from all around the world have assembled to trumpet their grievances and demand "remedial measures".

Most of the Durban delegates, like many race-relations "experts", tend to agree that bigotry is everywhere, and getting worse. Look at the Balkans, they say, or at America's inner-city ghettoes. They tend also to argue that most disparities in wealth between different ethnic groups can be blamed on discrimination. Their preferred solutions usually involve governments doing more: not merely forbidding racial discrimination but when recruiting or awarding contracts, favouring groups which have been victimised. Universities should apply different standards to applicants from such groups. Companies should be obliged to hire and promote more of them.

All this is open to question. Racial discrimination is still a huge problem, and is widely and rightly legislated against. But in many places it appears to be on the wane. In South Africa, a government devoted to keeping whites up and blacks own eventually stood aside peacefully to make way for multi-racial democracy.

In Britain recent race riots obscure the fact that people of different colours for the most part co-exist quite peacefully. Two generations ago, most white Britons probably disapproved of inter-racial marriage. Now, among the young, it is both common and uncontroversial.

As countries have grown richer, so the poorest ethnic groups have benefited too. Sixty years ago in America, 60% of black women with jobs worked as domestic servants. Now, only one in 50 does, and black female college graduates earn more on average than white female graduates. Racist attitudes may still be widespread, but in fewer places do they determine an individual's life chances. Several ethnic minorities suffer discrimination but are still richer than the majorities among whom they live: the Chinese in South-East Asia, the Indians in east Africa, and the Jews in many places.

People from different tribes are not doomed to squabble. Where ethnic antagonism leads to bloodshed, it is usually because politicians have inflamed passions to secure their own grip on power. The tribal wars in ex-Yugoslavia and Rwanda started this way, as did the milder violence in rural Zimbabwe.

COLOUR-BLIND IS BEST

The trouble with an emphasis on state activism to combat the problems that do endure is that even well-intentioned governments can do more harm than good. When, for example, the South African government allows black-owned firms to charge more and still win contracts to build houses or lay water-pipes for the poor, this is splendid for blacks who own construction firms, but leaves the poor, who are mainly black, with less shelter or clean water. When American universities admit blacks and Hispanics with lower exam scores than others, they make it more likely that they will fail to graduate at all. In Nigeria, affirmative action in favour of the majority tribes in all 16 states means, that in the words of Chinua Achebe, a novelist, "It would be difficult to point to one important job held by the most competent person we have."

It may seem naive to argue that governments should be colour-blind, but wasn't that Martin Luther King's dream? All citizens should be equal before the law. States should not discriminate, "positively" or otherwise. There may be sensible exceptions. In countries struggling to end or avoid civil war, or where certain groups have recently been subject to state-mandated discrimination, a short dose of positive discrimination may be the least bad way forward. But such measures should be a last resort, and come with an expiry date.

In most countries, most problems are better tackled without reference to race. Efforts to relieve poverty should focus on poor people. If black Americans or native Malays in Malaysia are scoring lower marks than other groups, the answer is to improve their schools, not to tell them they need not meet the same standards as others. Allocating public favours by ethnic group can Balkanise societies and make large chunks of the population reliant on the state. Treating citizens as individuals encourages them to think of themselves that way, and helps break down the stereotypes on which racism thrives.