# World Affairs Dicussion Room (IR,PLSC,ANTH,ECON,HIST,ENVR&more!)



## Ryu (Mar 19, 2010)

I wanted to collect a bunch of students (or professors, etc) who are interested and learning about world affairs and how the world works... because that's what I'm interested in. I know there is a current events forum but I wanted to try to get a more centralized thread or something like that. IDK though how to go about it but I figure I'll give this a try.

Basically, I'd like to be able to talk to other people about what they are learning in their courses. I'm an international relations major and probably going to grad school for something involving international relations, so I'm trying to learn as much about the world as I can. It's simply interesting to me, to boot.

So if you want to talk about what is going on in your courses, or address certain topics, I'm down for that. I'd be up for talking or discussing different theoretical perspectives in International Relations (realists, neoliberals, maxists, etc), looking at the Asian Financial Crisis of the 90s and its various factors, or talking about a course I'm taking called 3rd world development, etc. Or environmental issues, or resources/energy stuffs - or cool articles relating to anything. Feel free to talk about your textbooks (!) or other cool/good/interesting books. All sorts of things like that.

I have no shame in my being an IR/PLSC nerd, or rather my slow development into one. And I'm always looking for people who are interested in similar things to see what more I can learn and/or share about it. 



So.... IDK what to start this off with. 
There is already a thread about what classes you're taking, but, you can surely list those here, as well as your major and/or career interests. Why not mention your classes and/or something interesting. Or talk some about an issue or field you're very interested, and or why.


I'm particularly interested in things that are affecting the world today, but I think history is also important to compare to and learn lessons from. I wonder what will come of this thread


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## Ryu (Mar 19, 2010)

Maybe to start off, some sort of (kindof?) popular thing that might be appealing ...
Something crossdisciplinary maybe...

*Microfinance*

It came up in one of my courses this semester, 3rd world development. I actually spent time in a 3rd world country recently and worked with microfinance in the field. It was interesting (feel free to ask questions!). But for our discussion, I guess to start... well, what do you think of microfinance?

Our class was to have read the book by Yunus, who founded the Grameen bank.

I actually didn't read it :blushed:but the discussion we had in class about it was somewhat interesting. So I wonder what people here think about it/ microfinance, etc. 


I'll just say a little bit, but, one of the things that came up with the discussion we had in class was about coordination in terms of development - yes, microfinance has its use in terms of helping, in a grassroots way, overcoming poverty traps and other things, but it can only be one piece of a puzzle. 

You could go into... north/south issues in terms of development, should third world countries try to develop (dependency theory), does microfinance actually make a country economically stronger, did you do field work related to development? Would you like to? etc. Or anything in other courses that seem interesting related. 

Or some other topic you're studying!


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## Ryu (Mar 19, 2010)

(I think someone should make a joke about how we also need english majors in here as welll... :blushed


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## LeafStew (Oct 17, 2009)

Ryu said:


> Maybe to start off, some sort of (kindof?) popular thing that might be appealing ...
> Something crossdisciplinary maybe...
> 
> *Microfinance*
> ...


I have read an article or two about the subject. I think it's a great thing that microfinance exist because usually people in 3rd world country dont have collateral to contract a loan. That makes it hard for them to invest, create job and create wealth.

I read also about a few websites who do this in developed countries as well (like _Zopa_). Basically some people lend and some borrow over a website. It's like banking except, instead of going through a bank and having a lot of over head charges, the website is the intermediary. People who lend dont get ripped off because their money is split between many loan. The default is suppose to be quite slim so you can get a decent return out of those website. 

Most of these new finance tools are in their infancy so the safety is my main concern. I would like to participate in a website like Zopa eventually and place a bit of my money over there. Interest seam to be good (like 7% so not too good to be true) but I prefer to wait and see if it works. Anyway I'm still studying so I dont have much money to put aside..


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