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Poverty And Poverty

Decent Essays

Poor people lack many of the same options easily afforded by wealthier individuals. When the traits of commonly vulnerable groups overlap, the likelihood vulnerability and a lack of wealth increase. People who are poor are more likely to also have less education, be elderly, and be women (Gentile 595). A poor individual can’t move to a safer neighborhood or can’t always buy healthy, organic food. Because the contaminated areas are empty, and coincidentally very suitable for agriculture, very poor families and people moved into the abandoned houses, growing their own or buying the cheaper locally grown -- and potentially very radioactive -- food. In some places, people moved into areas where the levels of radiation were low, only to find …show more content…

With some countries, like Belarus, in “economic freefall” and others fighting to prevent the same, people are expecting any assistance from their governments, and "if the choice is to die from starvation today, or to possibly die from radiation in the distant future, our people choose the second option" (Ford). Even when they are aware of this fact, they lack the options to do anything about it or -- “their memories blurred, their choices limited by poverty -- have simply stopped caring” (Ford). They can’t move somewhere that is less irradiated. They can’t afford the imported -- and non-radioactive -- food that comes in with a higher cost where the “average salary is $200” (Bellaby). They can’t access the medical care necessary to treat the symptoms and illness created by their exposure to the radiation. Additionally, knowing that they have been exposed so intensely leads many to feel as if treatment won’t do anything, so they don’t seek it, even with thyroid cancer rates in children and young people skyrocketing far above normal (Ford). In some places, like Belarus, the cancer rates in children were “60 times [greater] than they were before the Chernobyl nuclear plant's meltdown” (O’Connor).
Analysis and Critique
That situation isn’t helped when it’s known that the USSR government waited 18 days to notify the world that anything had happened in Chernobyl, despite other countries having evidence showing that something did (Mulligan). The USSR was

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