Snapshots of Development (Gapminder) – Relation between Infant Mortality Rate and Income per Person (GDP per capita)

You can look at the graph here

This graph compares the Infant Mortality Rate and the Income per person of many countries. This graph shows a trend displaying how income per person affects the infant mortality rate. When the income per person increases, the infant mortality rate decreases. Sub Saharan-Africa tends to be around the same zone in infant mortality rate varying a little in the GDP per capita. The causes to this might be not a very good healthcare and wars that are occurring within countries or against other countries like the genocide occurring in Sudan. Another cause might be diseases like HIV and Malaria.  Through the years the infant mortality rate has been decreasing and the GDP per capita is increasing. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region that does not vary very much. The GDP increases slightly but the infant mortality stays the same. Sub Saharan-Africa is the region with the lowest Infant Mortality Rate and income per person.

Humans have advanced in healthcare, this is why the infant mortality rate has reduced a lot (over 200 children less die out of 1000). New technology and the advance in medicine has helped children survive. Most of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa does not have access to healthcare this is why many children die at birth or under the age of 5. 

I expected to see a graph similar to this but I wonder why Sub-Saharan Africa does not advance as much as the other countries. This similar thing happened in other graphs with this region. The more money a person has the more access to healthcare they have and to medicine. They have more money to take care of their children and feeding them correctly. The countries that have a higher infant mortality rate might be because they have less access to medicine and to supplies to take care of the mother and the child.

Psychology of War

War can greatly effect human psychology. The effect of murdering and death can scar you for life. Not an external scar, an internal scar. At war, most of the soldiers suffer. They are hungry, exhausted, tired and unhygienic. This is a horrible experience cause PTSD. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an emotional illness that is caused because of a life-threatening, horrible or unsafe experience. Many people develop PTSD because of wars. Many soldiers suffered from this emotional illness after returning from Vietnam. PTSD has various effects. It has many negative consequences. It can cause personality disorders. Also, if a mother has this illness while pregnant, the baby is more likely to get it. People that suffer from this illness have problems reproducing and may also suffer from other diseases. PTSD symptoms are “flashbacks” about the event, feelings of estrangement or detachment, nightmares, sleep disturbances, impaired functioning, occupational instability, memory disturbances, family discord, and parenting or marital differences. We can see these symptoms in Clint Eastwood’s movie Flags of our Fathers. We can see how the three soldiers who return to the United States keep on having flashbacks of their experience in war and the death of their comrades. We can also see how this has happened recently in the Iraq war to Jesus Bocanegra. He mentions how he has flashbacks about the war that he cannot control. He sees how women and children are murdered. “It was just horrible for anyone to experience”. The Japanese soldiers have a different view than the other soldiers. They prefer killing themselves before surrendering. They consider it a disgrace to their families if they surrender. You can see this both in Flags of Our Fathers and Letter from Iwo Jima. The Japanese blow themselves up with grenades before letting themselves get caught. Hayes, the native American is very disturbed when he sees the Japanese blown into pieces in the cave. We cannot experience and we will not be able to understand what is war until we are put in that situation. The experience to be the witness to thousands of deaths will cause a great psychological impact on that person. Their friends are being murdered next to them. They are killing strangers to defend themselves. You cannot understand what war is and its effects until you have experienced the horror. The consequences of war are horrible. People’s personality and social life change. They are a completely different person than before the war, and they have problems in maintaining social relationships. A man might separate from his wife because of the terrible experience at war and he does not know what to do now. After seeing so many people die right in front of him, a person changes. You cannot live the life you lived before this experience. When a person fights in a war, you might think they are fighting for their country but they are really fighting for their friends. To defend their family and friends. Most of these friends are killed in wars and this causes PDST. War changes a person’s life. In war, you can really see how the real world is, and because of political reasons, how millions of people die when these problems can be solved by diplomatic manners.

The Lemon Tree – Blog #5

Bashir is arrested because he is accused of a bombing. He is sentenced to 15 years of jail. He was treated badly in jail. He is beaten in jail and tortured. Bashir and Dalia’s fathers die in the same year. When Dalia heard that Bashir was arrested she was dissapointed and sad. After Bashir was released, he was deported to Lebanon for 3 years. Daliah set up a Preschool for Arab Children in her and Bashir’s house.

Daliah felt betrayed when she heard that Bashir was accused of  a bombing. I really liked this book and I find it great that even though most Palestinians and Israelis are enemies, Daliah and Bashir get along very well. They have good discussions and they became good friends.

The Lemon Tree – Blog #4

Moshe and Solia Eschkenazi arrive at Ramla. They Eschkenazi’s move into the Khairis old house. Many jews have come like Moshe and Solia, from different parts of the world. All different from each other, but still alike. Israel attacks the Egypt border. Israel crushes all the Arab’s airforces in a very small amount of time. After this war, The West Bank was now occupied by Israel, including Ramallah, where Bashir was a lawyer.  This is when Bashir decides to go with his cousins to Ramla.

When Bashir returns to his house and meets Dalia, you can see what he really thinks and what he says. Even though he is in his own house, he understands it is no longer his. He is furious to be treated as a guest in his house but he does not want to cause any trouble.

The Lemon Tree – Blog #3

Accompanied by their daughter Dalia, Moshe and Solia Eshkenazi decide to move to Israel, Ramla. The Khairis are forced to leave their home, leaving everything behind. They know that will not be able to return. Theytake refuge in the city of Ramallah along with many other refugees.  Ahmad couldn’t find work in Ramallah so he decided to move with Zakia and his 9 children to Gaza. There Ahmad and some of his daughters find jobs. “Our aim is to return, death does not frighten us, Palestine is ours, We shall never forget her. Another homeland we shall never accept! Our Palestine, witness, O God and History, We promise to shed our blood for you” (100).  This piece stood out for me because I see how determined these children are to return to their homeland. You can see their patriotism. It is wrong to see how these children, even though so young, have been taught these things. It makes me see how things are different in different parts of the world.

The Lemon Tree – Blog #2

In 1943, the Jews in Bulgaria heard rumors of them being exiled. Moshe and Solia Eshkenazi (Dalia’s Parents) were worried about these rumors. Dimitur Peshev, vice-president of the parliament, and Asen Suichmezov put and end to the deportation of the Jews. After seven years of marriage, Solia became pregnant and gave birth to Dalia on December 2, 1947. In Chapter 4, we can see the situation in Palestine. Britain hands over the problem to the newly formed UN to solve the problem. The UN proposes to divide Palestine into two states. An Arab state, and a Jewish state. The Jews are in favor of this, but the Arabs are not. This is when the problems starts, when the war begins. The Khairis decide to leave al-Ramla since they believe it is not a safe place to be living in.

On page 34 of the Lemon Tree we can see Violeta, a Jewish woman, going to Alexander Miltenov asking him for documents in exchange for money. Miltenov takes the money but refuses to give the documents and the papers which Violeta asked for in exchange. This piece stood out for me because here we can see how the Jews are treated unfairly. Miltenov should’ve given her the money back or the travel permit. Bulgaria didn’t want the Jews in their state but they still didn’t grant them travel permits to leave.

My view towards the problem in Palestine has changed after reading this book but I still believe the same thing. The Jews deserve to have a homeland, and so do the Palestinians. The UN partition plan was gladly accepted by the Jews but the Arabs rejected this. If they would’ve accepted it, many of these problems would have not occured, many lives would have been spared. Both sides have been violent, which I believe is wrong. It is better to settle these problems in a diplomatic manner, unlike now, where missils are being launched from both sides.

The Lemon Tree- Blog #1

In the beggining of this book, we are introduced to Bashir Khairi, a young Arab man, that has been preparing and dreaming to return to his home. He and his family were exiled nearly two decades ago from al-Ramla. He was getting ready to set out for his old home, al-Ramla with his cousins Yassser and Ghiath. Tolan also introduces us to Israeli Dalia Eshkenazi,  a student of the university of Tel Aviv. After this point, we are shown the history of the city of al-Ramla when the Arabs used to reside there. We are introduced to the Khairis. We can see how Ahmad, the father of Bashir, builts this house in the city of al-Ramla. Palestine is in Britain’s hands.

I like how we are shown the Palestinians culture. We can see how they like to play cards and smoke water pipes.

“Dalia’s family had been spared the atrocities in Bulgaria by acts of goodwill from Christians she was raised to admire and remember. Now she believed her people had a destiny on the land of Israel. This was partly why she believed what she had been told: The Arabs who lived in her house, and in hundreds of other stone homes in her city, had simply run away.” (3) This piece stood out for me because nobody would just leave their house for no reason. The Arabs left their homes to flee from the Haganah and save their wifes and children. This makes me thinks of when adults lie to their children to hide them from the problems on the exterior.

Corporations and Worker’s Rights – Entry # 3

 Taxi drivers were strike in Chongqing, China. They are on strike because they don’t have enough compressed natural gas, they have competition with unlicensed cabs, and the traffic fines are very high. This strike caused 100 taxis to be smashed and 3 police cars were also smashed. After this strike, on November 10th, taxi drivers went on strike in Sanya, China. They went on strike for the same reasons as the taxi drivers in Chongqing. Instead of taxis, citizens had to take the motorcycle cabs or the bus. Cab drivers that weren’t on strike got beaten and 28 cab drivers have been arrested. Representatives from each side(government and taxi drivers) discussed for a solution. Finally, the mayor apologized to the cab drivers for loss of regulation and he promised to give a good response.

This source is trustworthy because it is written by a Chinese student altough it may be biased but still it has come from global voices and you can see this information on other websites that describe it similarly like China Daily. We can see this in a 3rd point of view as spectators. You can see how this strike relates to the strikes that occur with bus drivers here in Barcelona. The bus drivers were on strike every Thursday because they wanted to work only 5 days a week and they wanted the same salary. This is important because worker’s rights should never be taken away. We could also have problems like this in our work sector, and there has to be a way to solve them, even though violence is not a solution. I find it horrible that taxi drivers were beaten because they were doing their job. Violence is not a solution that should be used and in my opinion it will never solve a problem. Diplomatic ways are far more effective than violance.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-11/03/content_7167549.htm

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/11/14/china-the-3rd-cabbies-strike-in-10-days-now-appeased/

Corporations and Workers Rights – Entry #2

In Quito, Ecuador, there are 1143 factories but less than half of these factories are approved by the firemen. Last week, 2 men died and 9 of them were intoxicated in “Industria Cartonera Incasa”. The cause of their death was an explosion caused by an incorrect chemical being mixed. The company that provided chemicals delivered sodium sulfate instead of aluminum sulfate. 40% of the waste was thrown into the dranage system and the rivers. I believe this is horrible, because of one persons fault, 2 people were killed and 9 harmed. Also, this caused more pollution and contaminated the river.

    BBVA has declaired that they will stop loaning money that contaminate too much. Their objective is to reduce C02 emisions by 20% by 2012. Any loan that is higher than 10 million dollars will be passed by this filter to check if they are polluting to much or not. I think this is great and If all banks would start doing this the CO2 emissions would reduce impressively.

Corporations and Workers Rights – Entry #1

Worldwide, there are many problems dealing with corporations and workers rights.

In the United States, labor provisions are not correctly enforced and they should be improved. Also, the United States enforced a new law stating that retailers and dealers are not allowed to import jewels from Burma. Also, the Humans Rights Watch encourages the United States’ population not to buy jewelry from Burma.  This is because all the money Burma makes from gems is used incorrectly (it helps finance military abuses in Burma). I agree with this and believe that gem dealers shouldn’t import gems from Burma because they are financing an unethical cause. When consumers buy these gems, they encourage the stores to import more gems from Burma and this is harmful to the country’s population.

Many countries and companies are having economic problems. For example, In Ukraine the stockmarket has dropped 75 % in value. In Sri Lanka, the tea industry is in crisis because they buyers don’t have money to buy more stock.  Many companies are closing down stores and factories because they are loosing too much money because the consumers are not spending money as much as before. I believe the world is going through a recession and this will last one or two years. Countries, companies, and people will loose money. People will get fired and it will be hard for them to find jobs.  I believe that governments should create jobs for unemployed people and pay them sufficient salary to live a healthy life. If people earn more money, they will spend more and companies will make more money.  By reducing the unemployment rate, the recession will come to an end.