Africa is the worlds second largest and second most populated continent, yet it is underdeveloped and some what ignored by the rest of the world. They provide fine countries, (like the U.S.) with diamonds, gold, copper, and col tan while their people are starving and dying from war and disease. Africa has many problems within it, but I think one of the major and most important issues is their ever growing number of orphaned children. Without parents or guardians to help them, how can they be expected to become educated, caring adults who can try to make their home a better place. Their minds are corrupted from an early age to becoming soldiers or slaves and they just don't know any better or have any other choice. There is currently 45 million orphans just south of the Sahara desert. So why are there so many orphans and how come they don't all get taken care of? The biggest reason is that parents are dying from diseases, particularly from aids. This website tells many peoples personal struggles with being HIV positive and how many of them were pregnant when they found out. http://www.avert.org/africanstories.htm. 80% of all children orphaned by aids live in Africa. Some of the reasons why Aids is still spreading so rapidly in Africa is because even if the people are being educated about the problem it doesn't mean they are going to change their behavior. The cultural block is that many men practice dominance over women, not giving them any choice, and many men still believe in polygamy( having multiple sex partners during marriage). So the disease keeps on spreading because the reluctance to change. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2872/is_/ai_98009196 The other causes of people dying, including parents, are starvation and malnourishment, Malaria, and the civil war that still continues today. Different ethnic groups are at war because Africa is dependent on their natural resources and it goes through economic decline which are prime conditions for civil war. Malawi is facing its worst food crisis in 50 years. The hunger and malnutrition inflicting some 20 million Africans is the result of severe droughts that dried crops and floods that destroyed much of what survived in countries already struggling with the economy.In the last decade, malaria has been increasing at an alarming rate, especially in Africa. it ranks third among major infectious disease threats in Africa after pneumococcal acute respiratory infections . So this is the problem, What is the solution?
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Africa : the problem
Africa is the worlds second largest and second most populated continent, yet it is underdeveloped and some what ignored by the rest of the world. They provide fine countries, (like the U.S.) with diamonds, gold, copper, and col tan while their people are starving and dying from war and disease. Africa has many problems within it, but I think one of the major and most important issues is their ever growing number of orphaned children. Without parents or guardians to help them, how can they be expected to become educated, caring adults who can try to make their home a better place. Their minds are corrupted from an early age to becoming soldiers or slaves and they just don't know any better or have any other choice. There is currently 45 million orphans just south of the Sahara desert. So why are there so many orphans and how come they don't all get taken care of? The biggest reason is that parents are dying from diseases, particularly from aids. This website tells many peoples personal struggles with being HIV positive and how many of them were pregnant when they found out. http://www.avert.org/africanstories.htm. 80% of all children orphaned by aids live in Africa. Some of the reasons why Aids is still spreading so rapidly in Africa is because even if the people are being educated about the problem it doesn't mean they are going to change their behavior. The cultural block is that many men practice dominance over women, not giving them any choice, and many men still believe in polygamy( having multiple sex partners during marriage). So the disease keeps on spreading because the reluctance to change. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2872/is_/ai_98009196 The other causes of people dying, including parents, are starvation and malnourishment, Malaria, and the civil war that still continues today. Different ethnic groups are at war because Africa is dependent on their natural resources and it goes through economic decline which are prime conditions for civil war. Malawi is facing its worst food crisis in 50 years. The hunger and malnutrition inflicting some 20 million Africans is the result of severe droughts that dried crops and floods that destroyed much of what survived in countries already struggling with the economy.In the last decade, malaria has been increasing at an alarming rate, especially in Africa. it ranks third among major infectious disease threats in Africa after pneumococcal acute respiratory infections . So this is the problem, What is the solution?
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3 comments:
Wow - 45 million orphans is a staggering number. Its huge and not easy to ignore and blink away. You do a wonderful job at explaining the cause/effect ripple from AIDS. In the end, the children are devastated by this chain of death and disease. You also do a good job at letting the reader know about famine and crop failure. I hope you'll explore in some of your next posts what all of us can do to help the millions of orphans, even it is just one at a time. Congratulations on sharing a difficult issue with the world. It's not easy to look at, nor to solve, but that's where we begin. Keep up the good work. :)
You have pointed out a horrible problem in our world and do a good job explaining the causes and possible solutions. Orphans in Africa is a broad topic as it is, but you might want to mention some global statistics and maybe orphans in the U.S. to bring the topic closer to home.
Hello. I just want to say that I really like your blog and am quite speechless. It’s so sad to hear that so many people can live in such tremendous poverty in a single continent. I really liked how you put in your blog so many facts about the poverty that’s going on in Africa so I could get a better understanding. There are so many ways in which we can help this country live in a better environment but we do little about it, although there are some shows like American Idol who actually donate a load of money to people who are in Africa and who are in need. Again, an interesting topic and I hope we do more in the future to help this country out.
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