Adventures in Chinatown

Adventures in Chinatown To be honest, my weekend mornings are probably less exciting than yours, especially if you spend them in riveted perusal of my fascinating blog posts. On Friday nights, while the rest of MIT is hard at work pioneering the latest advances in party technology, Im slowly becoming a connoisseur of next weeks problem sets. The next morning, my esteemed colleagues are calculating the limit of sleep as time approaches 3 PM, and Im stuck on a deserted island of pre-afternoon hours with nary a soul to bestir. Well, unless the following calculation appears on the brunchtime horizon. Dim Sum! If youre ever mind-numbingly bored enough to pop open a tourist guidebook to Boston, youll see this listed as one of the tastier Must-Dos. So far, dim has been summed roughly every other weekend, and I can assure you that its much, much tastier than Paul Reveres house. Dim Sum, like problem sets and arguably Communism, works best when done with a large group of people. After a certain degree of collective sleep deprivation, weekend mornings exist only so that dorms, fraternities, independent living groups, and various student organizations can wrangle their members/fake-members-subscribed-to-their-mailing-lists onto a subway trip to Chinatown, where crowded eateries are bunched into corners like figures on scratch paper. Thus, to maximize Dim Sum frequency, one should join as many groups at MIT as humanly possible. By “one”, I mean “you”. (I confess that I find Chinatown trips to be absolutely magnetizing. Emerging from the florescent subterranean depths of a red line t-stop, Boston warmly greets you with soaring skyscrapers, farmers markets, pseudo-Italian street food, and motor vehicles struggling to obey the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. A few blocks later, youre dodging taxis in Chinatown and on the verge of making a purchase that will someday cause your roommate to leave you.) Last Saturday, I woke up in a not-very-exciting fashion, so Ill eschew the details and save you a paragraph of reading. To compensate, one of the other bloggers can write an extra paragraph this week if they wish. Around 11:30, I absorbed a lot of photons on the way from Random to the MIT campus. Thusly energized, I smoothly merged into the excited mob of students collected on the Student Center steps, the reaction site for ATSs first Dim Sum run of the year. Voila! A few t-stops on the red line and we were on our way to the ambiguously-indicated “Sum Food”. (Entering Chinatown, there were three directions to choose from, which is only a problem when time is linear. I think. Anyway, the upperclassmen shown above picked the right one, so I didnt need to think long about non-Newtonian physics.) While not as dizzyingly hectic as New Yorks, Bostons Chinatown is a nonetheless a fierce neighborhood to navigate, not to mention one with a pungent cultural identity. By which I mean its the sort of place where I would live were I the type of person who writes novels, or raises live chickens in my yard, or writes novels about other people raising live chickens in my yard. I pulled out my camera to get a shot of the vegetable stands and took a elbow in the back from a vegetable-laden pedestrian plowing through the crowds. Its sort of hilarious that this nearly counted as a work-related injury. (Whats “Russet Potatoes” upside-down? Some sort of green vegetable!) Considering that there were probably at least four dozen people in our mob, ATS decided to scout out the biggest Dim Sum joint in all of Chinatown. Behold, a Dim Sum restaurant with its own marquee (and an anteroom bigger than my floor lounge, and a staircase wider than some residential streets, and another anteroom upstairs, which I guess would make the first anteroom an ante^2-room). And crowds worthy of a Broadway matinée. I suppose Cats could have been playing in the other dining room, theoretically, but Andrew Lloyd Weber is inferior to dumplings anyway, especially with chili sauce (the dumplings, not Sir Weber). And décor reminiscent of French baroque, complete with etched relief figurines that looked creepily like Leibniz (not pictured, for your mental health and mine). I kid you not, the palatial spread shown below was barely half the restaurant. Am I forgetting something? Oh right, food. Appropriately enough, the lighting was “dim”, so the pictures arent exactly going to win me a Pulitzer (not this time, at least. Ill try again later.) (Shrimp dumplings in a translucent rice-flour skin, backed up by peripheral sticky rice) (Zongzi, sticky rice mounds stuffed with chicken, sausage, and other savory fillings, all wrapped in fragrant leaves and steamed) (Congee with preserved egg and Ben 10. The former was in the murky white depths of the rice porridge, the latter shared it with me and topped it with enough pepper to heat a small house.) You get the general idea. I have this theory that the Dim Sum system models the perfect process for optimizing consumer satisfaction. Theres no delay, the dishes are steaming hot, the tables are round so as to maximize socializing capacity, servers bring up a steady parade of rolling carts, and the total charge per person invariably comes up to a single-digit number. In this case, my table was populous enough that I ended up bidding farewell to George Washington only thrice. Thanks, guys! Glad you came! After five weeks in college, Ive learned that groceries actually have to be purchased once in a while. With money and stuff. In all seriousness, I lived entirely on free food for my first three weeks* at MIT, which in itself was an experience worthy of a Hemingway-esque novella, except with less fish. Fondly do I reminisce on my youthful days, when a night of ravaging two-pound lobsters from the fraternity across the street would be followed by a full day of monastic cold cereal and stashed granola bars. If you have the guts and the stomach and the lack of sound judgment, I urge you to see how long you can live on a Freegan diet (yep, “Freegan” is a real word. I wish I had invented it). Youll never look at meals the same way again. (*Some people here have been able to last half a semester without caving in, so Ive heard. This, however, requires Olympic stamina and a willingness to suffer though innumerable company recruitment dinners.) But, having shed the blithely pointless whims of pre-semesterhood, I joined Ben on a much-appreciated dive into the Asian grocery mart next door. Produce galore! At the sight of fully-stocked shelves dedicated to nothing but frozen buns, I lost all fear of nuclear warfare. I might have gone slightly overboard, but at least Ill stay alive, Mom. Ben opted for a more sensible variety of sustenance in the form of assorted snack foods. Bens parents will be glad too. Having fulfilled our nutrition needs for the week, Ben and I headed back into Dim Sum Xanadu, where our cohorts were still feasting away. Adequately stuffed, our friends decided that the logical next step was to buy a lot of pastries. Off to the bakery we went. Warning: Non-kosher image below. This specimen here was classified as “Thousand Layer Cake”, despite having only 7 identifiable layers. I go to MIT, so I instantly recognized that the labeler had failed by two or three orders of magnitude. Unless the baker had intended to represent a thousand-layer cake with a ridiculously low number of pixels, Im still unconvinced. By then, I was ready to call it a day. However, no day was called because we soon found ourselves in a butchers shop that also happened to sell refreshingly fruity drinks. On the way out, I beheld a wonder of creative marketing. The sign is to be read, “Patronize us! Youll never see another company like this ever again!” At long last, we withdrew from the deliciously incoherent bowels of Chinatown. Somebody wanted to stop by the drugstore, so Ben and I went along and turned the Halloween costume displays into masterpieces of satire. I have no idea whats going on in the next photo, so lets just skip over it. After a long morning that melted into three hours of soft, buttery afternoon leisure, I finally got back to campus, where even pigeons try to semi-rigorously follow mathematical principles. And this is why I do homework on Friday nights.

A Plot Review of 12 Angry Men - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 633 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/04/04 Category Art Essay Level High school Tags: 12 Angry Men Essay Film Analysis Essay Did you like this example? What would you do if your decision was the deciding factor in a young boys fate? Would you carefully examine the facts of what happened or would you blindly make a decision based on the thoughts and opinions of those around you? 12 Angry Men (1957) is one of the most acclaimed feature films of all time. It was produced during a time when our nation was approximately 10 years out of World War II. After watching the film 12 Angry Men, I learned that a group of twelve jurors have to decide the fate of a young male who was blamed for the murder of his dad. Throughout the juries deliberation, one man truly displayed all of the qualities of a leader. We know this man as being juror number 8 played by Henry Fonda. Henry Fonda not only shows excellent qualities and traits of a leader but he uses these qualities to lead the jury to a vote of not guilty. Because of this, he plays a significant role. He could have easily been influenced by groupthink, as well as his peers but he was not. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "A Plot Review of 12 Angry Men" essay for you Create order Groupthink by definition is the social psychological phenomenon that results in groups during pressure situations. This theory is broken down into eight signs. Illusion of invulnerability, Collective rationalization, Belief in inherent morality, Stereotyped views of out-groups, Direct pressure on dissenters, Self-censorship, Illusion of unanimity, and Self-appointed mindguards. I believe that groupthink may be a technique to control social behavior because when we are in a group setting we can be influenced by the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of those around us. It controls social behavior because ones actions and decision making can easily be influenced by the presence of others. This was not the case with Juror 8; he was able to independently formulate his own thoughts and voice his opinion. I mean after all, they were deciding on whether or not to sentence an 18 year old to the electric chair. It definitely deserves a bit more critical thought and evaluation. Juror 8 opened the eyes of the other jurors, by showing that the knife was not as unique as the rest had claimed it to be. This helped the young boys chances of not being convicted greatly, however there was supporting evidence that argued why the boy should be found guilty. I will present a few of the pieces of evidence supporting the boys guilty verdict. During the trial the boy advised that he was at the movie theater during the time of his fathers murder, but he seemed to have some trouble remembering the name of the movie or who was with him. A neighbor who lived on the same street testified during the trial stating that she saw the young boy kill his father. In addition, the boy seemed to have had a previous record of offenses, including a violent crime with a knife. With this supporting information being presented, are the other jurors guilty of groupthink or is this substantial evidence to sentence the young boy to the electric chair? After hearing enough of the evidence, majority of the jurors mutually agree into the group process of the storming stage. The jurors began to take on roles as a unanimous vote must be completed before proceeding or moving forward. Nearly all jurors aim towards a guilty verdict, this symptom is the first groupthink term known as Illusion of unanimity. A conflict to this assumed general idea befell as juror eight votes not guilty. Juror number eight shows an added groupthink theory; his vote is later based on; Belief in inherent morality. This theory is the trust in the righteousness above conformity regardless of the circumstances. Conflict arises as the norming stage unfolds, as the other eleven jurors try to persuade that the boy is without a doubt guilty.

The Political Theories Of The Notorious Philosophers-...

The political theories of the notorious philosophers— Confucius, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Marx, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau— have significantly impacted the American Political System of today through their timeless appeal. If these philosophers were alive today, what would their perception be of the American Political System to date? Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, in 551 BCE - 479 BCE created Confucianism, centered upon restoring â€Å"peace and order.† According to Simon Worrall with National Geographic, the fundamental reason for Confucianism was to return prosperity to China. Confucius viewed the family as the foundation of society, believing the man or the father were the heads of the household and their wives and children as their subjects. Thus, Confucius promoted for a male-dominated society. One could say that the United States has modeled a patriarchal society, regarding gender inequality in politics and in the economy. For instance, a substantial disparity exists between men and women who hold high political positions. Granted, women can vote—nineteenth amendment ratified in 1920—and have all the same rights as men in current American society, but for over a century women didn’t have the same rights as men. Significant strides were made in women’s suffrage during President Woodrow Wilson’s candidacy when his wife, Edith Wilson, brought to her husband’s attention the fact that she couldn’t vote for her own husband. Even though women were consideredShow MoreRelatedThe Importance of Considering Philosophical and Psychological Foundations in Developing a Curriculum.9983 Words   |  40 Pageseducation recognises that the development of a civil society depends on the education of the young as responsible, thoughtful and enterprising citizens which is a challenging task requiring deep understanding of ethical principles, moral values, political theory, aesthetics and e conomics; not to mention an understanding of children themselves (Phillip, 2007). ------------------------------------------------- Philosophical ------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------

Scenario of the Internal Community Free Essays

A leadership marked by both personal integrity and value-driven vision, it is needless to argue, belongs to one of the most fundamental aspects of a truly effective organization. And as the new principal of a K-6 elementary school, whose composition consists in 450 students, 24 teachers, 15 office personnel and 1 custodian, I would do my best to build a legacy of strong leadership, vision and integrity. To my view, the challenges which the school currently faces all take cue from effective leadership, or its unfortunate lack thereof. We will write a custom essay sample on Scenario of the Internal Community: or any similar topic only for you Order Now If I may correctly surmise, teachers resort to â€Å"power cliques† only when circumstances make room for it; i. e. , when they feel that they can fill up the power vacuum stemming from a system’s the lack of able headship. Just the same, an educational institution begins to suffer from unfriendly atmosphere when a sensible lack of checks and balances within the system is tolerated. Change is therefore a key benchmark at the onset of my assumption of duties. But before making any administrative decision, I shall first circumscribe the nature and scope of the problems at hand, by paying close attention to the concerns of parents, teachers and other members of the community. Come August 1, I shall waste no time in gathering as much pertinent information as possible to figure what is wrong. After briefly introducing myself to the teachers and community, I shall initiate a campus-wide survey that would enable all stakeholders to vent their take on the current school system. The results shall become objects of inquiry during the brainstorming and deliberation of the school’s working vision – an activity which shall be participated in by the entire school’s staff, and shall be held a week before the school year formally commences. During the meeting, I shall be employing a â€Å"non-directive† or â€Å"democratic† approach to the affairs of the deliberation periods. I would empower my staff to brainstorm and deliberate among themselves – under my guidance – the practices that need serious alteration, if only we can work for the greater good of the struggling school community. In this approach, I am borrowing the idea propounded by Jonathan Rix and Kathy Simmons: effective learning institutions, they contend, needs â€Å"to alter† prevalent cultures so as to realign its vision towards maximal learning (2004, p. 67). By August 25, my mission is to communicate the new vision of the institution – collectively discerned, as they were, by the entire school administration and staff – to the parents and custodians concerned and, surely, to the students. On top of such vision, I would also propose the idea of frequent classroom visitations, as well as thorough reviews of all extant instructional objects and learning materials. And since I find inclusivity and involvement as necessary factors for effective learning communities, I shall propose to set convenient but â€Å"non-compromise-able† dates for regular updating, participated in by administrators, parents, students, as well as by some representatives from community organizations. Furthermore, I shall communicate to them the telling importance of mid-year evaluations, by way of school surveys, so as to rectify the seeming lack of checks and balances which the school once suffered from. The rest of the year shall be dedicated to a relentless effort in bringing about concrete fruition to the goals of the institution which has been set for the year. Goal-redefinition, if necessitated, can be accommodated during the mid-year. Critical to this continuing effort is my goal to meet all teachers and staff individually during the year. Personally, I would like to work on concepts that find their concrete correlation with reality. The effort is, obviously, onerous on my part. But I am a firm believe that no great things can be achieved overnight. If I want my educational organization to succeed, I have to undergo the painstaking process of brainstorming and implementing goals, as well as leveling honest reviews in respect its relative success, or lack of it. Running a school entails the continued appreciation of the systems that work, a courage to change what does not work, and the wisdom to know the difference between them. How to cite Scenario of the Internal Community:, Papers

A Better Person / More To Life free essay sample

I was raised in a middle class family where I once lived a one-dimensional life. I have everything I ever needed and everything I ever wanted. However, the value of appreciation was absent in me. Growing up in a materialistic world, I thought having expensive items would make me a better person. On a wintry December day, I went downstairs and noticed my grandfather packing his luggage with tons of clothes. I asked, â€Å"Where are you going?† He responded, â€Å"I am going to Vietnam. Do you want to come with me?† I swiftly replied, â€Å"No, there is nothing to do there.† â€Å"There are lots of delicious food there and beautiful places,† he answered back. Since I really had nothing to do at home, I decided to go along with him to Vietnam. The plane ride was awfully long. When we arrived in Vietnam, my grandfather and I took a taxi to one of the poorest areas in Vietnam. We will write a custom essay sample on A Better Person / More To Life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page â€Å"Are we heading in the wrong direction?† I thought to myself. There were no signs of beautiful places or delicious foods. Surprisingly, we were not going in the wrong direction at all. My grandfather then told me that we were going to go donate clothes to the needy. For a minute, I was stunned. Then I began to wonder why every Christmas, my grandfather would pack plenty of shirts, pants, socks, and even shoes for such a short vacation. We stopped at an orphanage called Hy Va »?ng NhA , which translates to Hope House. While distributing these clothes to the orphans, I saw the warm smiles upon their faces and their welcoming arms to accept anything that would be beneficial towards their needs. One girl caught my attention. The sheer joy in her eyes while receiving a dress was mesmerizing. As I helped my grandfather, my perception of being a better person changed. I kept questioning myself, â€Å"Does having expensive stuff truly make me better than all these orphans her e?† After an hour or so of donating clothes, my grandfather and I were treated to a pleasant meal and had the opportunity to get to know some of the orphans. Hearing their stories of how they ended up here was quite poignant. It was time to head off back to our hotel. I knew that I would never forget this remarkable episode of giving to others. Upon arriving home after a few days in Vietnam, I reflected on this significant experience which truly showed me how bad life could be for anyone and that I should be more appreciative of things, such as having a home, food to eat everyday, and loving parents. Thus, I have learned that there is more to life than just material wealth.

Nurse Ratched free essay sample

A sexless, rigid caricature of a nurse, Nurse Ratched imposes discipline on her ward with all the fervour of an Army Nurse, which she had been. Large, with huge breasts only partially disguised by her ultra-stretched white uniform, she nevertheless has a pretty, delicate face that belies her cruelty. Manipulative to the core, the only thing that really matters to Ratched is her desire to control everything around her – the environment, the staff, and the patients. She has rendered the staff doctor who is in charge of the ward helpless and ineffectual. Her methods are subtle: she speaks with the calm voice of reason, dealing with patients as though they are children. Her group therapy sessions are intentionally humiliating to patients. Her agenda clearly is to turn the group members against each other. That protects her from any unified action against her rules and her dominating role. As long as everyone stays in line, she retreats to her safe place – a glassed-in office overlooking the ward. We will write a custom essay sample on Nurse Ratched or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Chief sums her up mentally as follows: â€Å"So after the nurse get her staff, efficiency looks the ward like a watchman’s clock. Everything the guys think and say and do is all worked out months in advance, based on the little notes the nurse makes during the day. This is typed and fed into the machine I hear humming behind the steel door in the rear of the Nurses’ Station. † Small wonder that McMurphy becomes the ultimate threat to her tight, close little domain. He demands that the patients be given rights. She believes they only the rights she decides to give them. Cruel in the extreme, she plays repetitious loud music over the ward’s speaker system, successfully drowning out normal conversation. As her battle with McMurphy intensifies, his hatred of her leads him to aggressive actions against her. Finally he can stand no more. In his last battle against reasonless authority, he tries to strangle her. That may be the end of both of them, not just McMurphy, for his example inspires several of the inmates to check themselves out of the ward and out of her power. Nurse Ratchet’s character has been subject of much critical discussion and even controversy, for several observes consider her a sexist stereotype of the controlling female. History Electroshock therapy, or ECT, was discovered in 1937 by two Italian psychiatrists who thought to apply an electrical charge directly to the brain. Despite the harsh stigma that has been unfairly associated with this type of treatment – in Kesey’s novel it is seen as a means of punishment rather than a cure – the use of electroshock therapy has proven immensely successful in cases involving moderate to serve bouts of depression. Others argue that its side effects make it one of the more barbaric forms of legal medical procedures in the modern age. Another possible reason for some peoples strong anti-ECT views may stem from Keseys work, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (5). A passage from this piece was quoted earlier in this paper. The work depicts the earlier developments of this treatment and not the ECT of today, or even two decades ago. However, this work left a deep impression on the public that ECT is a painful, humiliating, inhumane procedure used to control unruly patients in mental institutions. The early abuses of electroconvulsive therapy where patients were shocked up to 12 times a day in an effort to regressing the patient to an infantile state ·[to allow] restructuring his or her behavior (5) undoubtedly left an appalling vision of this therapy in patients and their families. However, this restructuring hypothesis has been abandoned. There is also a small, but vocal group of ECT patients who attack the therapy, perhaps because of feeling violated by the memory loss. Mental illness impairs judgment and it is possible that the patients forgot how sick they were before the treatment But by the end of the 1960s, electroshock had almost vanished from the psychiatric scene. The film â€Å"One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest† was released in 1975. Jack Nicholson played the unforgettable character who is given unwanted and unnecessary electroshock treatments and his fellow patients on the ward were portrayed as lobotomized-looking, hollowed-out souls who had trouble recognizing friends and family. Their capacity for speech and language had been damaged and they often ended up needing to be institutionalized. Cuckoo’s Nest played a major role in discrediting ECT. Quotes The Shock Shop, Mr. McMurphy, might be said to do the work of the sleeping pill, the electric chair and the torture rack. Its a clever little procedure, simple, quick, nearly painless it happens so fast, but no one ever wants another one. Ever. The Electroshock Therapy Table The electroshock therapy table is explicitly associated with crucifixion. It is shaped like a cross, with straps across the wrists and over the head. Moreover, the table performs a function similar to the public crucifixions of Roman times. Ellis, Ruckly, and Taber—Acutes whose lives were destroyed by electroshock therapy—serve as public examples of what happens to those who rebel against the ruling powers. Ellis makes the reference explicit: he is actually nailed to the wall. This foreshadows that McMurphy, who is associated with Christ images, will be sacrificed Legal Summation Good morning gentleman of the jury and your honour. Before we begin I would like to take a few minutes of your time and so I ask if you would close your eyes and think for a minute. Imagine if you were strapped to one of those cold hard Electro-shock Therapy tables, your hand and feet pinned down, numbness creeping in, circulation getting slower, you can hear the blood pumping through your veins and you see someone being amused by this suffering and distress, a cold hard sneer of joy plastered on a hard steel emotionless face and revelling in the torture that is being bought to you. Ladies and gentleman this is what is happening in this institution as we speak. Ms Mildred Ratched also called the â€Å"Big Nurse† has been accused of Grievous bodily harm through Electro-shock Therapy under the pretence to punish patients instead of curing them. The Electroshock Therapy table can be explicitly associated with crucifixion. It is shaped like a cross, with straps across the wrists and over the head. Moreover, the table performs a function similar to the public crucifixions of Roman times. Walter Henry Ellis, Arthur Stanley Ruckly, and Maxwell Wilson Taber who were Acutes whose lives were destroyed by electroshock therapy—serve as public examples of what happens to those who rebel against the ruling powers. Ellis makes the reference explicit: he is actually nailed to the wall. According to mental illness specialist Dr. Thompson, the Electro-Shock Therapy is a painful, humiliating, inhumane procedure used to control unruly patients in mental institutions. Gentleman of the jury this is what Nurse Ratched was manipulating every patient who underwent that procedure. Humiliating and controlling mentally ill patients, this is outrageous, why punish a man, who sometimes has no control over his actions, why punish and manipulate someone to such an inhumane procedure which in the eyes of leading medical professionals has no benefits. How can you gentleman of the jury possible let a rigid portrait of a nurse, manipulative to the core, the only thing that really matters is her desire to control everything around her, be a nurse to these mentally ill patients. Gentleman of the jury she is a heartless, emotionless, inhumane, manipulative human being. Who punishes her patients and laughs at them. When one thinks of a nurse what comes to mind. I read an interesting article about the health care profession a while back and what really struck me was how people view nurses. The majority of patients view a nurse as their main primary care giver. Usually a nurse is the first face you see in the morning and the last before you go to sleep. The nurse is your voice in the hospital system. In the article patients were asked several questions about care, hospital procedures and about nurses. One of those questions asked was â€Å"How did the rostered-on nurses treat you as a patient† and a whopping 95% answered that the nurses treated them with respect and dignity. 95% that’s amazing. Okay what about the rest of the 5% of patients, those 5% hopefully didn’t encounter Nurse Ratched or somebody similar while they were in care. But to be realistic I think Nurse Ratched is one of a kind and being one of a kind we can unite and eliminate this cruel and inhumane being. So much sorrow and tears have been shed and lives altered. When can we say enough is enough? So gentleman of jury and your honour I have put forth to you my findings concerning this case. Let’s bring justice to those in need and stop this torture once and for all. The prosecution rests your honour.

International Finance essays

International Finance essays As early as 1941 plans were being prepared in the UK and the USA for the post-war economy that were heavily influenced by the experience of the 1930s which had witnessed the collapse of the gold standard, the Great Depression, volatile exchange rates, trade-protection and competitive devaluations. In 1944 the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference took place in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA, where forty-five countries attended in order to restructure international finance and currency relationships and sought to build a framework for economic cooperation that would avoid the disastrous economic policies that led to the previous conditions. The participants of this conference created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development which was later divided into the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements. The plans for the system of Bretton Woods were developed by two all time important economists, Harry Dexter White, then minister of state of the U. S. treasury and John Maynard Keynes, a British economist. Throughout the years, the IMF has been able to assist countries in need and as such, has been the focus of the international financial system. However, the financial crises of the past few years have exposed weaknesses in the international financial system. These weaknesses relate to the increasing size and importance of large cross border capital flows and the interdependence of global economies as a result of globalisation. It was found that once crisis struck in one country, the reaction of the interconnected financial markets was extreme and highly contagious causing disastrous effects in unrelated markets. Following the collapse of the Thai baht in 1997, the financial markets in other East Asian countries suffered similar and devastating consequences. Furthermore, the continued spill over effects of this crisis hit Russia, reached Latin America...