Globalization and International organizations

Globalization is used as a general term for a complex series of economic, social, technological, cultural and political changes. This is a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. It has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity. As a result there are a great number of international organizations. Notable examples are the United Nations, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, European Union and Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. And I’d like to tell about the organization which takes care of world’s heritage.

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Its purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights. It was created in 1945 in order to respond to the firm belief of nations, suffered from two world wars in less than a generation that political and economic agreements are not enough to build a lasting peace. Peace must be established on the basis of humanity’s moral and intellectual solidarity. And UNESCO became an agency of the United Nations in 1946. The headquarters are located at the World Heritage Centre in Paris. And there are a lot of departments of this organization all over the world, for instance cluster of offices to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova and Russia is situated in Moscow. The Organization has now 195 Members and 8 Associate Members.

Nowadays UNESCO takes part practically in every sphere of life, including technical, international science programs, freedom of the press, regional and cultural history projects, international agreements to secure the world cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human. Currently, there are 24 World Heritage Sites in Russia: 15 of them are cultural and 9 are natural. There are some the most famous of them:

· Firstly, Lake Baikal. Situated in south-east Siberia, it is the oldest and the deepest lake in the world. It contains 20% of the world's total unfrozen freshwater reserve. Known as the 'Galapagos of Russia', its age and isolation have produced one of the most unusual freshwater faunas, which is of exceptional value to evolutionary science.

· It’s worth mentioning Volcanoes of Kamchatka. This is one of the most outstanding volcanic regions in the world. The interplay of active volcanoes and glaciers forms a dynamic landscape of great beauty. The sites contain great species diversity, including the world's largest known variety of salmonoid fish and exceptional concentrations of sea otter.

· And the most famous places of interest in Russia are Moscow Kremlin and Red Square. Closely connected with all the most important historical and political events in Russia since the 13th century, the Kremlin was the politics and also a religious center. Situated there St Basil's Basilica is one of the most beautiful and well-known Russian buildings.

UNESCO's World Heritage Center has recognized more than 800 natural and cultural sites. For each, the country in which the site is located has produced a detailed study of the site and a plan for its protection. Monitoring of the state of those sites makes countries to work hard to achieve that protection, and over the history of the program only one country has withdrawn a single site from the list.

To make a conclusion the international organizations play an important role in the modern world. Amongst all other activities of them, the most important is negotiating and setting up multilateral agreements. The International Organizations are the necessary instrument of the achievement the peace in the world and of progressive development of all spheres of life.

 

Eminent men of science

There are a lot of men in the natural sciences, but I’d like to tell about the greatest women, who dedicated herself to the Mathematics.

Sofia Kovalevskaya was the middle child of Vasily Korvin-Krukovsky, an artillery general, and Yelizaveta Shubert, both well-educated members of the Russian nobility. Sofia was educated by tutors and governesses. She was attracted to mathematics at a very young age. Her uncle Pyotr Krukovsky, who had a great respect for mathematics, spoke about the subject.

 When Sofia was 11 years old, the walls of her nursery were papered with pages of Ostrogradski's lecture notes on differential and integral analysis. It was Sofia's introduction to calculus. Sofia 's father decided to put a stop to her mathematics lessons but she borrowed a copy of Bourdeu's Algebra which she read at night when the rest of the household was asleep.

 A year later a neighbour, Professor Tyrtov, presented her family with a physics textbook which he had written, and Sofia attempted to read it. She did not understand the trigonometric formulae and attempted to explain them herself. Tyrtov realised that in her working with the concept of sine, she had used the same method by which it had developed historically. Tyrtov argued with Sofia's father that she should be encouraged to study mathematics further but he permitted Sofia to take private lessons several years later.

 Sofia was forced to marry so that she could go abroad to enter higher education. Her father would not allow her to leave home to study at a university, and women in Russia could not live apart from their families without the written permission of their father or husband. At the age of eighteen, she entered a nominal marriage with Vladimir Kovalevski, a young palaeontologist.

In 1869 Sofia travelled to Heidelberg to study mathematics and the natural sciences, only to discover that women could not join to the university. Eventually she persuaded the university authorities to allow her to attend lectures unofficially. Sofia studied there successfully for three semesters and, according to the memoirs of a fellow student, she immediately attracted the attention of her teachers with her uncommon mathematical ability.

 In 1871 Kovalevskaya moved to Berlin to study with Weierstrass. Despite his the efforts the senate refused to permit her to attend courses at the university. This actually helped her since over the next four years Weierstrass tutored her privately.

 In 1874 Kovalevskaya was granted her doctorate from Gö ttingen University. Despite this doctorate and letters of strong recommendation from Weierstrass, Kovalevskaya was unable to obtain an academic position. This was for a combination of reasons, but her sex was a major handicap.

 In 1878, Kovalevskaya gave birth to a daughter, but from 1880 increasingly returned to her study of mathematics. In the spring of 1883, Vladimir her husband committed suicide. After the initial shock, Kovalevskaya immersed herself in mathematical work in an attempt to rid herself of feelings of guilt. Mittag-Leffler managed to overcome opposition to Kovalevskaya in Stockholm, and obtained for her a position as private docent.

 She taught courses on the latest topics in analysis and became an editor of the new journal Acta Mathematica. She took part in the organisation of international conferences. Her status brought her attention from society, and she began again to write reminiscences and dramas that she had enjoyed doing when young. In 1889, on the initiative of Chebyshev, Kovalevskaya was elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

In early 1891, at the height of her mathematical powers and reputation, Kovalevskaya died of influenza complicated by pneumonia.

 

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