How Does Poverty Affect The Life Of Malawi?

After Zambia gained political independence their economy was doing better. Their economy was surrounded around their primary natural resource, copper. As copper sales went up, new medical buildings and schools were built, they had a promising textile industry and things were looking up. Until an unexpected rise in the price of oil in tandem with the dropping prices of copper forced Zambia to borrow from the IMF and world banks at extremely high interest rates. Soon Zambia found itself in a mountain of unpayable debts and to repay creditors, spending was cut to education and health and other infrastructure projects. Eventually all of the progress they have made goes to waste as it can not be maintained. Foreign countries currently dictate the economic policy via structural adjustment, i.e. policies that “should” increase revenue and allow them to pay the loans off. This inevitably leads to a country that is so dependent on foreign aid because their own industries have been destroyed by foreign influences.

The location and geography of the country has caused the people to experience famine after famine, leaving many to die from starvation. A famine is in definition, “A great shortage or an extreme scarcity of food over an extended period of time” (Webster). There are several different types of famine that occur in different types of the world. The type that Ethiopia generally goes through is called a Ravallion. During a Ravallion famine, there are unusually large amounts of causalities with extreme shortages of food in certain parts of the population. There are many things that cause famine, whether it’s draught, plague, or civil disrupt. Right now, Ethiopia is experiencing a draught that has killed almost all of their crops. Because of the famines that Ethiopia experiences most every year, there is usually an increase in the amount of people malnourished. This year, 11to 14 million people are expected to go hungry leaving many to starve to death. Ethiopia has experienced many draughts like these, the worst however, being in 1983. This draught lasted two years and the draught alone killed over 400,000 people in one year, this doesn’t include the deaths that were due to starvation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983%E2%80%931985_famine_in_Ethiopia).

Countries like Rwanda are in intensely bad shape, and most all African countries have some form of an epidemic of disease, poverty, or malnutrition.

The economy was completely brought down, then left that way in turmoil. Even now there is struggle in the economy due to leaders not knowing how to organize and help their people even though they are in serious need of direction. Since King Leopold II had taken over every aspect of the colony during the 19th century, Leopold kept the system flowing with every resources and trade yet he did not share any of his knowledge with the original tribes that resided, after his departure many of the few settlers that remained no longer knew how to repair what was so far gone. A land that was once rich in resources is now amongst the worst in poverty. There is a huge lack in food for the population that resides there.

It is uncertain what the future holds for the country of Zambia and its inhabitants. One thing is for sure though, that is, that if the current trends continue and Zambia keeps borrowing money form the IMF and keeps becoming more in debt and their economy keeps becoming weaker and more unstable then the people of Zambia will be selling second-hand clothes for the rest to their lives. All of these factors are connected, so you cannot change one without having an effect on the others. We, the United States are only trying to help because we profit from them. We need to stop because our actions are only making a bad situation worse. This once thriving and lively country needs to be set on the right path because as of right now they are on the path to disaster, and it is because of Neoliberal policies enforced by the IMF, the selling of second-hand clothes, and the immense debt they are in that are contributing to the fall of their

Chief Wimbe becomes ill soon after and passes away. Hundreds mourn his death and dance over his gravesite. The people believe that the election of Bingu Wa Mutharika will bring better times for the local farmers. At the same time William estimates that twenty percent of Malawian’s have HIV and witches charge outrageous

Agents that affect Africa’s population are many: the temperature has an effect, cross-cultural interaction, and other oppressions all effect how the land is run. African culture has traits of power, whereas as American’s view money as power. People in Africa view food and stones, such an ivory and gold, animal’s skin all for power. From past centuries, what someone in leadership could bring to the community, tribe made him someone in power. For instance if a leader, killed a deer, or food for his community night after, night that man would become in power.

The people in Malawi face an abundance of health problems every day because of their lack of knowledge about how to prevent diseases and access to treatment. In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William’s mother is infected with malaria and almost dies. Malaria is the third leading cause of death in Malawi after HIV/AIDS and lower respiratory infections. However, health organizations and the Malawian government have helped control the spread of Malaria.

The political and economical issues spread beyond the government and to the community in Zimbabwe. For 15 years prior, the economy is Zimbabwe had been slowly fading but after the recent election the unemployment rate rose to eighty percent (“Govt” 1, 2). The number for jobless people increased to a massive number of nearly 200,000 making the eleventh year high up to 3.33 million (“Bankruptcies” 1, 2). This made it extremely challenging for families to afford things like education, health care, and even housing. As a result, this forced people to turn to crime and corruption just to try and make a living. While the citizens were turning to crime, the government was wasting all it’s money for personal needs. It was also discovered that the government had been paying more than 40,000 to what was referred to as “ghost workers” appearing on their payroll (“Govt” 1, 2). As a result of this, Zimbabwe was part of a huge fraud situation with the Nigerian Deposit Insurance. They were accounted for seventy-four cents for all fraud counts (“Our” 1). Soon after this scandal, Zimbabwe had no choice but to declare bankruptcy making the country record, 1082 bankruptcies as of 2008 (“Bankruptcies” 1, 2). After the fraud situation the government tried to cover up by creating an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). The government was interested in fixing

Families worked mainly as farmers and cared for the environment immensely for it was the only source of income. Other social life roles were women staying home and letting the men work, as well as christianity being the number one religion. Politically, Malawi was under the control of a totalitarian state till 1994 following their independence from england in 1964. During the time of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, the country was a multi-party democracy, where a president ruled for five years and the vice president had to be chosen from the opposing party. Most policies weren't in effect due to its young government, but due to their not being any electricity in most places, there was no energy policy. However, this was all during 2001, and since then power, modern medicine, a strong military, and new regulations have help Malawi grow. Though their heavily christian faith bans same-sex marriage, they have opened new embassies to multiple western countries. As stated, Malawi has varied from America throughout it all. America has not recently changed since 2001 other than new legalization of marijuana in some states and same-sex marriage, and is why the core roles and

People in Africa suffer from famine issues for thousands of years since it’s a 3rd world country. With the lack of food many people have died of starvation. And with no medicine in Africa people die at a young age. This has impacted them in a negative way because

2.8 million, of whom 1.5 million are children face food shortages because of the severe drought. The lack of rain caused the crops to not grow and no crops means no food. Since most of the people in Malawi rely on the agriculture to provide food and survival, their lives have been impacted deeply. Malawian mothers were interviewed by IBTIMES UK and talked about their concern for their children’s health due to the lack of food that they have. The malawian government gave them 18,000 tons of maize to feed the families but the mothers are worried because the children won’t eat it and are afraid they might die. In 2010, it was recorded that 1.4 million of the children are malnourished. There has also been a lack of electricity. “We’re in a vicious cycle, “Even myself, in my house, I have one or two bags of charcoal because you need it during the blackouts. That’s me. What about somebody who is not conscious of the dangers of charcoal?” said Clement Chilima, the government’s director. It is hard to overcome poverty and I don’t know how people get used to

Third world countries have been suffering for a long period of time throughout history from the

The former British colony of Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America. This creates a trade barrier of language in the region, which is predominately Spanish-speaking. This impacts the economy as Guyana cannot trade as easily with its neighbours, limiting the trading partners, it has, especially the ones in close proximity, which would reduce the price of exportation. This impacts the population, especially rural farmers as they lack the access to the distribution of their goods. Meaning they fail to make sufficient funds to run business and provide a substantial standard of living, therefore suffer from poverty.

The disasters cause poverty because these countries are often weak financially and cannot afford to restore their country after extensive damage. Therefore due to lack of resources the situation gets worse. It affects their inhabitant's lives causing a lack of production leading to being unable to provide for citizens. In turn leading to poverty, as they cannot even provide substances to trade and lose money. Other factors that affect the lives of citizens are lack of clean water and standard education.