The Breakup of the USSR and the Collapse of the Soviet Communist System - Essay Example

There is now an ever-present danger of homogeneity and important cultural aspects of a nation are being gradually replaced such as the national language that is slowly being replaced by English.

Europe today is considered an old continent in demographic terms. Most European nations suffer from slower birth rates and longer lifespans due to advances in medicine. These two factors combined to make most European nations suffer from declining populations with profound implications for economic growth, pension system, and competitiveness. There is now a growing backlash against immigration to Europe from the outside as it undermines their respective national identities. This makes multiculturalism a very tricky issue in most host countries.

The recent killings in Oslo, Norway is symptomatic of the cultural clashes in which Europe is being gradually Islamized by the tide of immigrants who are attracted to Europe's progressivism in its social, political, and economic policies (Hegghammer 1). Asylum seekers abuse these policies and claim asylum status although not qualified; many immigrants simply want to avail the generous benefits provided by European countries. Some call for a counter-jihad. Recent internal migrations from those poorer countries do not solve the overall population decline. Europe does not have a common culture except perhaps its social democracy today.

Essay 2 – the breakup of the USSR and the collapse of the Soviet communist system has profound effects on its economy and culture. The shift towards the capitalist free-market economic system has left many former members of the Russian Domain struggling to adjust. Some countries that were lucky enough to have natural resources are benefiting from the new liberalization and privatization programs implemented to attract foreign direct investments to their countries. Examples are Ukraine (with a good agricultural economy and a manufacturing base that is quite robust) and some Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan which have substantial oil reserves and enjoying a boom due to high prices (Rowntree et al.).

However, the economic benefits of globalization have not trickled down to the mass of people, giving rise to a new economic oligarchy that controls most of their nation's wealth. The Russian Federation is still facing many economic structural adjustments necessary for the coveted World Trade Organization (WTO) membership; Russia is today the only remaining major country not part of this international trade organization.

The rule of law is very weak in this country as well, such that some foreign businessmen are reluctant to invest more. Russian industries are sometimes controlled by politicians and in worse cases, ruled by mobsters too. Many banks in Russia are owned by international crime syndicates to facilitate money laundering activities to hide profits from illegal activities such as drugs, arms smuggling, and prostitution. The Russian Federation's economy is not very transparent and not up to par with international standards in terms of accounting disclosure, investor protection, and the rule of law in cases of disputes in which there is hardly any legal arbitration at all. Russia is still like a police state.

The cultural impact of globalization is that people today are more materialistic. This has further weakened the influence of religion in many people's lives and its expulsion from the social domain, as lamented by the Russian Orthodox Church (Buksinski & Dobrzanski 87) and there is also a growing Islamism movement among its former Central Asian neighbors.

The current migration patterns in Europe are internal and external. The first one refers to people moving from a poor European Union member country to a prosperous EU member – such as from Turkey, Greece, or Albania to either France, Germany, or Belgium. Overall, it does not add to the net European population but just moves people around Europe. The second, which is external, is causing the most problems because most new immigrants happened to be Muslims who face a growing conservative backlash. There is a cultural clash between civilizations and religions in this instance as most Muslims refuse to integrate.

The main problem of the Russian economy is how to re-distribute its wealth more equitably, as the opening up of its markets to globalization (liberalization and privatization) had only produced a handful of oligarchs who benefited. Moscow today has the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world, indicative of this wealth concentration. Read More