Malawi

The life expectancy in Malawi for the entire population at birth is 36.97 years, which is extremely low. For males it’s about 36.59 years and females, 37.36 years. The reason the life expectancy is so low is because of the high rate of HIV/AIDS which is a massive problem in this country, with approximately 14.2% of adults obtaining the disease. Food or waterborne diseases are at high risks as well, such as bacterial/protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and even typhoid fever. Malaria and plague are also at high risks in some parts of Malaria, all which are causing the life expectancy rate to decrease.
The infant mortality rate in Malawi is about 103.32 deaths/1,000 live births. For males, it’s 107.44 deaths/1,000 live births and females 99.07 deaths/1,000 live births, according to the 2005 records. There is 55% of Malawians living below the poverty line and many do not take in enough money to feed their families. The mean per capita income in Malawi is less than $1 per day. Hunger is a growing problem due to the Malawi food crisis, which is an ongoing severe food security crisis that has affected more than five million people in Malawi. Due to drought, there is not enough maize produced for the people. It takes about 3.4 millions tons of maize to feed the people of Malawi and they only produced 1.25 million.
Malawi has taken on quite a few refugees in the past years. From 1985-1995, over a million refugees from Mozambique alone came to Malawi. In 1996, Malawi also received a massive amount of refugees from Rwandan and Congolese seeking asylum. But having all these refugees seemed to bring in a significant amount of international assistance which is very helpful to Malawi in a struggling time.

The houses in Malawi are usually built by the local people. Around twenty people are involved in building the house. If people have money they will buy their supplies, if not they will make them. After the house is finished, it will stand for about twenty years. The oldest houses in Malawi are fifty years old. The materials that they use vary between the rich and the poor. Poor houses have dirt floors, grass roofs, and no paint. Rich houses have cement floors, tin roofs, and colored paint. All houses have brick walls. The rich have brick with plaster on it. These are natural resources found nearby. All houses in Malawi are one story high. Around eight people live in an average house.

Some conditions that severely affect children is the right to which they are protected for a primary education. But their families are responsible for books, tuition, and cost of uniforms, so those from poor families are at a serious disadvantage. Also, orphanage is a huge problem with 14% of the population being orphans. Opportunities are few and far between for orphans and most end up as prostitutes or breeding street children. Also, there is no age specified for the protection of minors from sexual exploitation which can cause major problems for an adolescent or child.
Women have the right to full and equal protection under the Constitution, but they do not receive the same treatment. Most women have lower levels of literacy, education, formal and nontraditional employment opportunities, and access to resources. Women are also subject to domestic violence, particularly wife beating. Police do not normally take any action in domestic violence, therefore women have numerous problems that they must learn to deal with on their own.

Help from: http://www.answers.com/topic/malawi

Port Huron Statement

Here is the main chunk of it:

We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.

When we were kids the United States was the wealthiest and strongest country in the world; the only one with the atom bomb, the least scarred by modern war, an initiator of the United Nations that we thought would distribute Western influence throughout the world. Freedom and equality for each individual, government of, by, and for the people--these American values we found god, principles by which we could live as men. Many of us began maturing in complacency.

As we grew, however, our comfort was penetrated by events too troubling to dismiss. First, the permeating and victimizing fact of human degradation, symbolized by the Southern struggle against racial bigotry, compelled most of us from silence to activism. Second, the enclosing fact of the Cold War, symbolized by the presence of the Bomb, brought awareness that we ourselves, and our friends, and millions of abstract "others" we knew more directly because of our common peril, might die at any time. We might deliberately ignore, or avoid, or fail to feel all other human problems, but not these two, for these were too immediate and crushing in their impact, too challenging in the demand that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution.

While these and other problems either directly oppressed us or rankled our consciences and became our own subjective concerns, we began to see complicated and disturbing paradoxes in our surrounding America. The declaration "all men are created equal..." rang hollow before the facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North. The proclaimed peaceful intentions of the United States contradicted its economic and military investments in the Cold War status quo.

We witnessed, and continue to witness, other paradoxes. With nuclear energy whole cities can easily be powered, yet the dominant nation-states seem more likely to unleash destruction greater than that incurred in all wars of human history. Although our own technology is destroying old and creating new forms of social organization, men still tolerate meaningless work and idleness. While two-thirds of mankind suffers under nourishment, our own upper classes revel amidst superfluous abundance. Although world population is expected to double in forty years, the nations still tolerate anarchy as a major principle of international conduct and uncontrolled exploitation governs the sapping of the earth's physical resources. Although mankind desperately needs revolutionary leadership, America rests in national stalemate, its goals ambiguous and tradition-bound instead of informed and clear, its democratic system apathetic and manipulated rather than "of, by, and for the people."

From: http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/SDS_Port_Huron.html

Malawi details

Malawi began recording history between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. Descendants of these people kept an oral history until the 1500's when written history was recorded in Portuguese and English. The Bantu established political states and government. When a large slave trade took place, this brought Islam to the country. At the same time Christianity was being introduced by missionaries.

Malawi is one of the world's least developed countries. Malawi's economy is predominantly agricultural with nearly 90% of the population living in rural areas. Agriculture accounts for about 40% of GDP and 88% of export revenues. The economy is dependent on substantial inflows of economic assistance from the IMF, the World Bank, and individual donor nations. The government has faced many challenges including the failure to develop a market economy, improving educational activities, facing up to environment problems, and dealing with the exponential increase in AIDS cases.

Over 60 percent of Malawi’s population live below the poverty line. About 40 % of the population are illiterate. With an economy that is dependent upon agriculture and the rate of population growth more than three times the growth rate of the economy, the economic future is not bright. In 1891 the British Central African Protectorate (known from 1907 until 1964 as Nyasaland), which included most of present-day Malawi, was established.
The population estimates for this country are low, but take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS. The AIDS can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.

For climate, winter is the best time to visit Malawi. June and July are the coolest months with average daytime temperatures of 70ºF (21ºC), and colder nights especially in the highlands. November to April is the hot, humid rainy season with more rain falling on the higher plateaus than around the lake, with temperatures reaching up to 90ºF (mid-30ºCs). Some roads may become impassable during heavy rains.

Most information from: http://www.answers.com/topic/malawi

Malawi

Malawi is on of the regions that the earliest ancestors of humans lived. From here the roots of language, story and communication were formed. During the colonial period, the country was included into the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, achieving their independence in 1964 with Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda as Prime Minister, Later (life) President. In 1994 Malawi held it's first democratic elections since it's independence, and the current President is Dr Bakili Muluzi. They do run under a multi-party democracy.Malawi was the former British protectorate of Nyasaland that became independent in 1964.

English is the official language of Malawi, however, Chichewa is the most commonly spoken local language. Other languages spoken in Malawi include Chiyao, Chilomwe, Chitumbuka, Chitonga and Chisena. As for religion, the majority of Malawians are Protestant at 55%. There are also some Roman Catholics (20%), Catholics (20%), Muslims (20%), some with indigenous beliefs (3%) and other (2%).

Managing Director Juan José Daboub is visited Africa to help sustain growth and reduce poverty. During his visit, he saw many challenges confronting Africa. There is a major energy crisis facing all of Africa causing a reduction in the expected GDP growth. They believe that the cause of this crisis is the high prices of oil, inadequate and costly generation facilities, and struggling state-owned power utility. These causes are creating a loss of electricity for long amounts of time throughout schools, businesses, clinics, and even households.
Malawi has an issues with Tanzania over the boundary in Lake Nyasa, aka Lake Malawi, and the Songwe River. Tanzania would be considered one of their allies during the current time.

Click here to see a map of Malawi: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/malawi.jpg

President Carter's book

The book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" has caused major controversy just starting at the title. When asked, President Carter stated that he used the words "Palestine" and "Apartheid" to try and generate interest in the book and to try and get people to read the book to find out the real facts. He uses the word "apartheid" suggesting that the analogy of the hated policies of South Africa is especially outrageous. Carter mentions failures on all sides in the book, including the Palestinians, Israel, and the U.S. However, it is extremely critical of Israel and its policies in the Palestinian territories. "It's based on a minority of Israelis occupying, confiscating and colonizing land that belongs to the Palestinians," Carter told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. Carter places the majority of the blame on Israel for its continuing conflict with the Palestinians. It is causing major conflict by connecting Palestine with apartheid.
President Carter claims that the Palestinian Arabs have long supported a two-state solution and the Israelis have always opposed it. But overall, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" is so biased that it without a doubt raises the question of why would a man like Jimmy Carter write such an indecent book. Whatever President Carter's motives may be, his authorship of this ahistorical, one-sided, and simplistic brief against Israel forever disqualifies him from playing any positive role in fairly resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. That is a tragedy because the Carter Center, which has done so much good in the world, could have been a force for peace if Jimmy Carter were as generous in spirit to the Israelis as he is to the Palestinians. President Carter took a big risk by writing this book and having the courage to speak out against the Israeli extremism that often is ignored by our American media and leaders.

Most of my information came from this site:

http://www.aish.com/societyWork/arts/Carters_Distorted_World.asp

No Logo

In the video, Naomi Klein explains how logos have taken over our marketing world and how logos are seen everywhere. Every time we turn around, we are seeing logos or name brand products on the media. She explains how we are constantly bombarded with advertisements and commercials. We cannot deny them or escape the logos in the world and they cannot be ignored. Marketing has grown into a competition and those who can market their product the best will become the most successful regardless of the product. This way the product becomes no longer the purpose, but they are selling you an idea or a way of life. This way they can technically sell us back to ourselves.
As far as connecting this to "The Yes Men", two men went to the WTO conferece to point out flaws in their ideas. Even though it was a ridiculous idea with the metallic suit and their invention of the suit, it wasn't about the suit itself. It comes down to how well you market the idea. Just as in Naomi's videos, she mentions that it is more about marketing the product more than the product itself.
The other major part of Naomi's video was the fact that producing goods needed to be done at the lowest possible cost. There is a global auction going on and the workers are the pawns. Wages are supposed to go up and the situation improve, but we are actually witnessing a race to the bottom where countries are outbidding each other to who can abuse their workers more. But in order for the company to save money, they have to control the workforce (workers are young and mostly women). We see in the advertisements the scenes and never normally the product.
As we have read about in the role of the State they are supposed to represent the interest of the dominant group. In Naomi's video, the multi-national corporations are the dominant groups. The jobs created by these multi-national corporations should not be held to the same standards as "real jobs." We see that even a story of globalization can be seen in by picking up a shoe, with leather from Argentina, shipped to Philippines, produced by Korean subcontractor, went through Hong Kong broker who was dealing with company in Oregon. In her video we see how globalization is viewed and how people around the world accept it. But we as students must see the affects of globalization on the world and see how we are affected by globalization and be able to form our own opinions on what is happening in the marketplace. Then we will be able to make better decisions on what to buy rather then just who does the best job of advertising or marketing.