Sierra Leone

When looking at Sierra Leone, which is known for "blood diamonds", and comparing it to the United States, the results are staggering. What I found was the there were 4 nurses to every 10,000 people in Sierra Leone.

In the US, there are 97. That is a huge difference. Also, the women in Sierra Leone are expected to live until they are 30. In the US they are expected to live until they are 67. That is more than double the life expectancy. Statistics like these show how different 3rd world countries really are, especially in comparison to the US. For example, the US's expenditure on health resources was a 23 while Sierra Leones was only a 7. This likely attributes to the low mortality, as less health resources means less hospitols and other medical aid.

Kenya

Kenya is an extremely poor country which is overpopulated. Out of the 30 million people that live in Kenya 52% live bellow the poverty line. As a result of the country being poor their is a huge unemployment rate, and children become more intersted in durgs, and violence. Another result of the countries situtation is that currently 80% of the population is dependent on subsistence economy. However, the problem is that 20% this food is used for marketing. People are constantly starving, and even enter refugee camps in order to not starve to death. Their is a mortality rate of 414 per 1,000 people. 

Ethiopia's Education

The country I chose was Ethiopia, and the cultural issue I chose to focus on was education. While the WHO African Region had a literacy rate of 60.1%, Ethiopia has only a 41.5% literacy rate. The net primary school enrollment is surprisingly almost even between men and women. I had expected men to have a much higher enrollment than women, but the difference is only 6%. Males having a 55% primary school enrollment while Women are close behind with a 47% enrollment. However, when I researched more about Ethiopia's literacy rate, I found out that the native language Amharic is very complicated and has well over the characters in the English language, ( I found it has around 256 characters, while our alphabet has 26!). This definitely has an large influence on the literacy rate being quite low. Here is an article and video I enjoyed about, "Donkey boost[ing] Ethiopian Literacy." It goes on to tell how Donkeys are now used to drag around mobile libraries which are in fact boosting the literacy rate in Ethiopia. I am happy to see that Ethiopia has addressed their problem and found a temporary solution to gain interest and reason for people to become literate. 

Colonization in Africa

The two things I researched were Dream and Reality: Political and Economic Conditions in Independent Africa and the second was Kenya. The program of the OAU called for an Africa based on freedom, equality, justice, and dignity. Soon after this was written reality set in. Vast disparities in education, income, and unemployment made it hard to truly establish democracy. The concept of "one person, one vote" was an immediate disappointment. And after many African countries gained their independence more than 70 were overthrown by violence. Kenya welcomed foreign investment and the idea of capitalism. With capitalism came it's own dilemmas. Although a substantial middle class was forming their were still many economic problems. Around one-fifth of the country's thirty million were squatters. And around forty-five percent were unemployed. In addition the population was increasing by three percent per year: one of the highest percentages in the world. The country wasn't helping it's own cause seeing that disputes between ethnic groups persisted. When looking at the current stats Kenya is doing medium to good compared to other African countries. Their population continues to grow and in 2005 34,256,000 people lived in Kenya. One stunning statistic is the fact that 84%% of adults are literate. The gross national income is still quite low, however it is far superior than other countries. I believe that since Kenya incorporated a capitalistic economy they were able to truly develop as an independent country.

Kenya and Economic Life

According to the Textbook statistics, unemployment is at its highest, one-fifth of the 30 million population are squatters, topped with a rising population by 3 percent every year to make matters worse. According to WHO, the population living below the poverty line is 22.8, while the WHO region is at 44. It says that the Kenyans welcomed foreign investment and profit incentives. This change caused a lot of economic change that is still extremely prominent in Kenya in recent years, and it currently doesn't appear to be taking a turn for the better.

South Africa: False Paradise?

South Africa is clearly better off than WHO African Area. South Africa has a GPD per capita that is about 5 times as much as other WHO nations standing at $10960, while WHO Africa stands at $2 074. The adult literacy rate is 82.4%, while WHO Africa's is 60.1% These are all, I believe the direct effect of getting rid of the apartheid in 1994. The apartheid separated the heterogenous population of South Africa based on their skin color, but it now appears that the gap is closing, and that social and economic equality is increasing.
There is also the fact that school enrollment is 89% for both males and females. This is high compared to 70% and 63% for males and females, respectively. Even though this is not due to the end of the apartheid, it is still a very large step up for South Africa.
And while South Africa seems to be the most progressive in social and economic inprovement, HIV/AIDS, infant mortality and other diseases still cost many more lives than they should were a stabler form of health care in place. For example, the life expectancy at birth is drastically low at 47 for men and 49 for women. The life expenctacy for WHO Africa is the same for both men and woman as in South Africa. Infant mortality is 67 death per 1,000 live births. HIV/AIDS affects 21.5% of adults in South Africa, while only affecting 7.1% in WHO Africa. These are staggering statistics that truly show that while some areas of South Africa are a step up from other less developed African countries, other parts are no better off.

Nigeria and Education

The population of Nigeria is 131.5 million. The literacy rate in Nigeria is greater than the WHO African Region literacy rate. It is said that out of 131.5 million people, 66.8% are literate, while only 60.1% of the WHO African region is. When it comes to comparing men and women education, men have a 74% primary school enrolment ratio, which is significantly bigger than women that have only a 60% primary school enrolment ratio. 

South Africa and Education

According to William Duiker, South Africa is "perhaps Africa's greatest success story." According to South Africa's WHO statistics, the adult literacy rate is at 82% compared to the WHO region, which is at 60%. Also, the net primary school enrollment rate is at 89% for both men AND woman. And to top it off the percent of the population below the poverty line is 1/4 of the surrounding region's average of 44%. All in all the statistics show that South Africa has benefited greatly from its release from Apartheid.

AIDS in Nigeria

According to the WHO statistics, AIDS is the number 1 cause of death for people of all ages in Nigeria. 16% of all people who die in Nigeria, are on their death bed because of AIDS. AIDS is the second most prominent cause of death for children under 5 years of age. And with 70.2% of all citizens living below the poverty line, these statistics are not indicative of improvement.

Kenya and Rural Life

Kenya has a whopping 34.3 million person population, and it increases by 3% every year. 80% of the population lives in a rural lifestyle, though the rural citizens of Kenya (46%) have slightly more access to improved water sources than the rest of Africa (45%). Regarding the rural lifestyle in Kenya in relationship to the rest of Africa, Kenya seems to be slightly more well off. 43% of Kenyan's have improved sanitation, while a small 28% does for the rest of Africa.

Tanzania and its Education

Tanzania was one of the few African countries that attempted to create a socialist society, mostly through their current president at the time, Julius Nyerere. He promoted nationalizing industries, restricting foreign investments, caps on income, but after almost twenty years he left the country without much progress and rural and urban poverty. Nyerere claims that he improved the social and economic conditions, but just looking at the education in Tanzania tells us that this is not entirely true. Although Tanzania's adult literacy rate of 69.4% is higher than the average African region og 60.1% and the male and female education enrollment is 83% and 80%, if Nyerere's only claim to success is of bettering the social and economic conditions (i.e. education) than there is not much to claim.