Essay about Sociology Cultural Interview

South Africa, the “Rainbow Nation”, is renowned for its rich culture and beautiful landscapes. South Africa’s constitution recognises 11 official languages, which is among the highest number of any country in the world. More than a quarter of South Africa’s population is unemployed and living under the breadline.

When it comes to South Africa, the nation remains a land of intrigue. Moreover, the nation remains filled with beautiful forestry and beautiful people. In fact, South Africa remains one of the most developed nations in all of Africa. However, it remains conventional wisdom that South Africa has faced and currently faces numerous challenges. To begin, South Africa is still healing from its brutal history of apartheid. During this time, millions of black South Africans remained disenfranchised from their own country. Moreover, South Africa remains a place with one of the world's highest HIV/AIDS rate. Therefore, numerous people that live in South Africa remain orphaned by the lasting effects disease. Fortunately, companies such as Ubuntu exist.

Modern day South Africa is known not only for the apartheid era and the beauty of cities such as Cape Town, but also for a level of economic inequality that for many represents the dichotomy of globalization. A former British colonial holding South Africa since its creation served as a rich resource for the British of material wealth from its rich mineral supply. While the colony served in many ways a purely economic purpose, it was also one of settlement. Under British control from the 19th century onwards British settlers saw continual conflict and violence with local populations and struggled to establish and maintain colonies across the region. As such, infrastructure and development in South Africa remained limited to a small number of

In the early 19th century South Africa is marked by the advance of the Nguni empire under the leader Shaka. A lot of the minorities in this part of Africa felt economic and political effects because of the Europeans, who were interested in agriculture, that were taking over. There was also a lot of effects from the Afrikaners south Africa had to wait until 1994 to get their rights back.

South Africa joined the international economy because of other countries high demands for its diamonds and gold as well as its needs for more agricultural foods (Byrnes, pg. 175). The country exported $93.48 billion (CIA world fact book) and imported $102.6 billion (CIA world fact book) worth of resources. South Africa uses the Rand (R) as its currency. In the past “the rand was pegged to major foreign currencies” (Byrnes, pg. 242), it depreciated due to the country’s foreign debt. The rand has yet to recover from its fall (Byrnes, pg. 242). As of yesterday, January 26, 2013, one rand is equivalent to $.09 cents (google search).

HIV/ AIDS affects many people in the world. One of the many places that have the highest HIV/ AIDS epidemic is in South Africa. South Africa has one of the highest prevalence of HIV/ AIDS in the whole world. There are 6.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. There is a 19.1% adult HIV/AIDS prevalence, 340,000 new infections, 200,000 AIDS related deaths, and 42% adults on antiretroviral treatment. South Africa has the largest antiretroviral treatment program in the world. There are also many HIV/ AIDS prevention programs in South Africa. A lot of South Africans have to deal with this horrible disease on a daily basis, affecting and changing their lives forever. Other than the programs to prevent HIV/AIDS, there are many other solutions to prevent HIV/ AIDS in South Africa such as HIV/ AIDS education, HIV Awareness, etc.

South Africa is currently part of BRICS and CIVETS emerging markets, and none in Africa. In me essay I’ll be discussing whether South Africa should stay with these emerging markets or rather focus on Africa.

South Africa has faced many years on undeveloped settlement and has also faced traumatic experiences like apartheid and it has left other citizens with no hope of getting any source of education. It has become a norm for every child and

According to South Africa Country Profile, South Africa is “one of the continent’s biggest and most developed economies”, its capital is Pretoria and their president Jacob Zuma. It is located on the South of the African continent and has an amazing historical and cultural past.

The city of Cape Town remains today a city of commercial trade, as trade is conducted through the port in Cape Town to other countries around the world (Economy, 2011). Although many people in South Africa still rely on subsistence agriculture to live, the majority of the South African economy is commercial. They have a plentiful supply of natural resources, which enable them to process those resources and trade them with the rest of the world in the free trade market (South Africa, 2011). In 1948, South Africa faced many problems as a policy of apartheid was implemented by the elected National Party (South Africa, 2011). This meant that there was a separate development of the African Americans and Caucasians, which favored the Caucasian minority (Comaroff, 1997). The apartheid caused many economic problems such as poverty, a lack of public transportation and “a lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups” (South Africa, 2011). South Africa’s economy also suffered major blows in 2007, when there was an electricity crisis, and in 2009, from the global financial crisis. During this time South African GDP dropped 2 % (South Africa, 2011). This being said, the South African stock exchange remains strong and is now the 18th largest in the world (South Africa, 2011).

South Africa is located in the southern part of Africa and is approximately 1.2million km sq. in size, just slightly less than twice the size of the state of Texas. It has a population of 54.96 million people with females constituting 51% of the population while the remaining 49% are males. South Africa has three capitals and they are located in Pretoria, Cape-town, and Bloemfontein while the constitutional court is located in Johannesburg. South Africa has the second largest economy in Africa, behind Nigeria and its main income sources are, manufacturing, tourism, agriculture, energy, including mining and agriculture.

South Africa was a piece of land full of economic potential. It contained gold and diamonds making it popular for anyone who wanted to get cash quick. As soon as gold and diamonds were found it started a gold and diamond rush so people flocked to South Africa to claim the land as theirs and become rich, but slowly as people ran out of money the big mining companies bought out everyone in order to become even richer, and own all the gold and diamonds in South Africa. One of the biggest diamond mines was Kimberly where diamonds were discovered in 1862. The economic potential of South Africa led to the Boers trying to take all of the gold and diamonds away from the native people so it led to Apartheid splitting the native people away from their riches so that the Boers could get it.

Africa is a continent rich human and natural resources, yet a majority of its people is impoverished (Carr). South Africa, later called the Republic of South Africa, is a country where the people repeatedly experienced injustice and corruption from their government, the apartheid and the African National Congress. The South African people suffered from injustice and corruption in both white and black governments. The apartheid system consists of all-white government officials, while the African National Congress consists of people of color. The leaders of apartheid and the ANC both participated in corrupt and unjust practices that resulted in the ill-treatment of the people, poverty

Unlike many other countries in the world, South Africa has three capitals. Cape Town controls its legislative

SA is an upper-middle-income, emerging market economy and has been so for over 50 years. SA has an abundant supply of natural resources and a diversified well developed economy which boasts a service sector which accounts for more than 65% of total economic activity. SA has shown impressive GDP growth since it was welcomed back onto the international stage after spending many years in economic isolation from the rest of the world. SA has a functional