General Flashcards
life expectancy and income per capita
The global trend in income since 1950 is that the income per capita is increasing.
the higher the income the higher the life expectancy
Low-income per capita countries have slight increases the effects can be dramatic (e.g. China). Richer countries are not as affected as poorer countries with income per capita changes. Money can do only so much until the natural age reaches its limit and a person has to die (e.g. Germany).
life expectancy
- globally increasing
- Africa is the anomaly; major diseases like AIDS and HIV; civil wars
types of forced migrations (and descriptions and case study)
Refugee
As a result of the Bangladesh Liberation War, on 27 March 1971, Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, expressed full support of her Government to the Bangladeshi struggle for freedom. The Bangladesh-India border was opened to allow panic-stricken Bangladeshis’ safe shelter in India. The governments of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura established refugee camps along the border. Exiled Bangladeshi army officers and the Indian military immediately started using these camps for recruitment and training members of Mukti Bahini. During the Bangladesh War of Independence around 10 million Bangladeshis fled the country to escape the killings and atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army. Bangladeshi refugees are known as ‘“Chakmas”’ in India.
IDP
The Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), one of the largest and deadliest Cold War conflicts, erupted shortly after and spread out across the newly independent country. At least one million people were killed, four million were displaced internally and another half million fled as refugees.
The government spent $187 million settling internally displaced persons (IDPs) between April 4, 2002, and 2004, after which the World Bank gave $33 million to continue the settling process. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that fighting in 2002 displaced 98,000 people between January 1 and February 28 alone. IDPs comprised 75% of all landmine victims. The IDPs, unacquainted with their surroundings, frequently and predominantly fell victim to these weapons. Militant forces laid approximately 15 million landmines by 2002.
Stateless Person
Azazma tribe is a nomadic society that is spread out between Negev and Sinai deserts on both sides of the Egyptian and Israeli borders. The tribe members in Sinai number between 3,000 to 5,000 people. After the Israeli occupation of Sinai ended, Azazma tribe members on the Egyptian side expected to obtain the Egyptian nationality, but were only left with “passage documents” with unidentified nationalities. This tribe has been living for decades without Egyptian nationality.
The tribe leader told the journalist: We heard that President Morsi is a just man and we demand that he solves our problem so that our sons could travel and work. This is just one of many examples in the Arab world, since statelessness is not uncommon there. The government continues to do nothing about this issue.
China investing in Africa
China needs Africa (energy, resources, access to markets)
The WTO set the playing field for Africa as an attractive opportunity for China.
China expects to achieve $400 billion in trade volumes with Africa and raise its direct investment in the continent to $100 billion by 2020.
Chinese construction companies are able to overcome difficulties and deliver roads and bridges on budgets that cannot be matched by Western or even local companies.
China’s investments will be mainly in infrastructure
Trying to create opportunities in all sectors
From Africa’s perspective, Chinese investment – especially in basic infrastructure – is more than welcomed. It is estimated that Africa suffers from a $900 billion infrastructure deficit: without potable water, all-weather roads, adequate power and reliable communication, African economies cannot thrive. China’s focus on basic infrastructure investment will lay the groundwork for children to be able to go to school and businesses to trade.
“Made in China” had devastating effect on local manufacturing
China’s poor labour and environmental practices
noise pollution and overcrowding
definition, cause, impacts, management techniques
Definition: excessive, displeasing human, animal, or machine-created environmental noise that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life
Causes: Lack of space, rapid/uncontrolled development, sudden population booms,
Impacts: A global issue, scale is area dependent (In India or Hong Kong, it is a large scale issue, whilst in the USA, it happens on a much smaller scale)
Possible management techniques:
Improvement of public transport system (an incentive to reduce # of private cars), a new/raised tax on private cars (disincentive that should lower private cars #’s)
In Cape Town, South Africa the following techniques have been used: Noise barriers- sandbags covered in grass that prevent sound from travelling into populated areas, The introduction of a by-law that set a curfew for when all noise from humans activities must stop (parties)
Town planning ensures that the impacts of noise pollution are taken into consideration and steps to combat them put in place
definition of remittances
Foreign workers transfer capital back to ther home country.
Three reasons why internationla financial aid is not always effect
- Corruption in the country may result in the aid not reaching the people in need. An example is Afghanistan, where the regime sent the aid received from US to Dubai, buying luxury houses.
- International aid is sometimes “turned on” and “off” in responses to the poltical and strategic agenda of the donor countries, making funds unpredictable, which can result in interruption of development programs.
- The provision of aid might promote dependency rather than self-reliance. It replaces domestic savings, direct foreign investement and commercial capital as the main source of investement and technology development. Some countries have allowed food aid to depress agricultural prices, resulting in greater poverty in rural areas and a dependency on foot imports.
