My Interest In Politics And Economics

A number of jolting politically motivated circumstances and decisions such as Brexit, a controversial Trump becoming president and a long-standing conflict in the Middle East have not only affected the people within affected countries future political and economic judgements and caused civil unrest but also encapsulated by interest and engagement. Through the exploration of Politics and Economics, I strive to learn how my intellectual passions such as analysis and evaluation can be put into practice in order to determine whether certain decisions may be considered beneficial or not for certain groups of people, countries or even the economy as a whole.

Social unrest in a society can derive from government intervention in which the aim is to benefit a country as a whole, but realistically ends up benefitting some aspects rather than others. This I realized during my IB Extended Essay research on the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989, in which I explored the political and economic context in the Thatcherite period and how Margret Thatcher's apparent 'rejection' of the British working class, by introducing policies such as the closing of coalmines, spurred thousands to participate in a strike. This benefitted the British economy, as coalmines were inefficient and costly, however unfavoured the 20,000 miners who lost their jobs. This led me to question what were at the roots of such a controversial decision, whether the economic growth that the British government had in mind was worth the eradication of thousands of working-class jobs therefore increasing unemployment and decreasing the popularity of the government. A huge part of the structural components that shape countries and their people the way we recognise them today largely derive from past political activities and decisions.

Whilst living in the Santo Domingo, I took the opportunity to visit a village with my father's work just outside the capital and talked to and observed the behaviour of Dominicans towards Haitians. Something I was very conscious about was the tension between the two races primarily due to the 1937 Dominican massacre of 20,000 Haitians. This very much fuelled racist slurs, violence and mutual hate between the two which I sensed for myself almost daily. This for me differed greatly from England, as I had never really imagined or even experienced the huge divide between people of different races and led me to consider what factors were contributing towards the reluctancy of both governments to try and abolish the existing racism that was clearly damaging their countries. I experienced first-hand how people no matter which society or what culture or part of the world they originate from, will always be affected by their countries political decisions whether they choose to or not.

During my volunteering in Operation Smile in the Dominican Republic, what came to my attention My views on one of the essential ideas in economics between the differentiation of needs and wants was challenged recently whilst reading "How Much is Enough?" by Robert and Edward Skidelsky, as it is argued that a weakness in the world is caused by humans failure of not being able to say enough is enough, as there is a constant ambition for more and more money. Furthermore, it suggests that progress should not be measured by the usual economic growth or GDP per capita, but by "seven elements of the good life", which include health, security and respect among others, broadening my understanding that over recent years, I have had the privilege to represent the Dominican Republic national football team at junior level as well as captain my school team, involvements which have not just helped me develop skills such as leadership and teamwork, but also shown me the importance of relating to peers on and off the field therefore enabling me to mature in my awareness and communication.