WHAT AFFECTS QUALITY OF LIFE?? Ref: p.46, Human Geography 8, Pearson
I. Discussion on Shocking Statistics…
If you were living in sub-Saharan Africa you would be living on less than $1/day. What can you purchase with just $1 in our country? How is your life compared to a person living in Sub-Saharan Africa??
Examine the map, A Developing World, and locate Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on the statistics on the map, for a classroom of about 30 students, 8% of the students would have HIV/AIDS; only 51-75% would have access to clean drinking water; 46% would live on less than $1 / day; 50% of the girls would not be able to read, and 30% of the boys would not be able to read.
What do people need in order to live a decent life? (At least one with some quality??)These statements suggest some ideas: safety from danger, an environment with clean air and water, food and education. What other things do people need for a life with quality? What do the following headlines show about our world today?
Food Bank Running Low Environment Tops Worry List
Canadian Women Live to 83 Daily Life Dangerous in Gaghdad
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
You might be surprised that Canada played a very important part in identifying what people really need (and have the right to). The United Nations (UN) was founded in 1945. The following year, Canadian lawyer John Peters Humphrey formed its Human Rights Division. He worked with a small group of people who drew up the list of basic human rights. The UN adopted his final version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
The Three “L's"
When the UN Declaration refers to health, well being and education; it is highlighting the importance of the three “L”s: life expectancy, living standard and literacy. Each one is a measure of quality of life. Life expectancy is how long a person can expect to live. Long life shows a good health care system. Living standard estimates the average purchasing power a person has, based on where they live. There are actual great differences in wealth within most countries. The literacy rate measures basic education; expressed as a percentage of people who can read and write.
Freedoms
Quality of life means more than just health, wealth and education. Think about a typical newscast. Many people around the world don not have the basic freedoms which we enjoy in Canada. There are cases in which human rights are being violated. Warfare, terrorist bombings and military governments are examples of how life can be extremely different than what we are used to in Canada.
From the UN Declaration of Human Rights…
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion…
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression…
Article 20.
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association…
Article 21.
Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
II. Examining Human Rights in Our World - “IGNORED OR DEMONSTRATED”
Using your knowledge of current events, complete a visual that shows Canadian and world situations in which specific Universal Declaration of Human Rights articles…
A) Are very much in evidence
B) Seem to be largely ignored
Do you think the UN Declaration is being followed in the world today?? Explain your views.
COMPARING LEVELS OF DEVELOPMENT Ref: Human Geography 8, Pearson
I. Discussion – Read the following article for discussion
UN Report on best places in the world to live in the world
(10 November 2006)
This week, the UN once again named Norway as the best place in the world to live, a title it has enjoyed since 2001. Norway is able provide its 4.5 million citizens with high-quality and low-cost education, health care, and social services, thanks to substantial income from oil exports.
Next in the list, placing second through eighth, are Iceland, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, Japan and the United States.
Annually since 1990, the UN Development Report Office has compared the 177 countries for which statistics are available. Data used to create the rankings relate to the ability of people to reach their full potential to be healthy and live long lives, to be able to read and write, to have access to resources like clean water, and to be able to participate freely in the decisions of their community. In those countries near the bottom of the ranking list, these basic needs often go unmet.
HDI: The Bottom 8 - 2006 Countries
170 Ethiopia
171 Chad
172 Central African Republic
173 Guinea Bissau
174 Burkina Faso
175 Mali
176 Sierra Leone
177 Niger
You may be wondering why Canada didn’t rank first. After all, we led the United Nations’ annual ratings for consecutive years before Norway took the lead. However, Canada is in the top 3%, net to some very strong competition. Now take a look at the chart in the margin showing the bottom 8 countries on the HDI list. What do these countries have in common? How are they different from the top ranking countries listed above? Think of this in terms of geographical and environmental factors such as location, natural resources, industry and climate.
What supports a long, healthy life? Genetics and healthy choices are not the only things that affect life expectancy. In a country such as Canada, a wealth of natural resources and advanced economy mean that most people have access to clean water and food. If someone gets sick or injured, they have access to health care. The system is not always perfect, but on average, Canadian live long lives.
However, in many countries in the world, average life expectancy is low. Life can be short in nations torn apart by years of war and political turmoil – countries like Afghanistan or Mozambique. Many countries face problems that contribute to lower life expectancy. The lack of clean drinking water or famines caused by drought can result in malnutrition and disease. Severe shortages of hospitals, medicine and doctors reduce the odds of recovery for someone who is ill or injured. Parts of Africa face another huge threat to life expectancy – the AIDS epidemic. AIDS has caused the deaths of large numbers of adults in many African countries and has lowered life expectancy to 40 years or less.
Literacy is a good measure of access to education. While the UN Declaration states that everyone has the right to at least elementary schooling, the map above shows that this is not happening in many parts of the world. In Niger, for example, fewer than one person in six has basic literacy skills.
Nations with low literacy levels often lack many basic requirements for schools. Shortages of money, building materials, school supplies, and trained teachers are immediate problems. As well, there may be a lack of roads, power, and other services to support a school. In many developing countries, rural families need their children at home to help with crops, animal care, and household tasks. In these societies, anything more than basic schooling is a luxury that many cannot afford. This can limit opportunities for people, generation after generation. Think about your school experience up until now. How does a country such as Canada support education and literacy?
Gross domestic product (GDP) and Gross national product (GNP) are 2 similar ways to describe the value of all goods and services produced by the people of a country in one year. They are used to measure the size of a country’s economy, and can indicate the living standards of the country. GDP and GNP can also be calculated per person, or “per capita”. In 2005, Canada’s GDP per capita was $35 494 ($US), ninth in the world. But don’t ask for your share to spend. GDP per capita refers only to the production of goods and services, not the actual amount you can spend on things. It is a national average, including everyone from millionaires to Grade 8 students.
How does GDP per capita show living standard? Improvement in a country’s economic performance can mean better public services, a cleaner environment, and better production for workers. However, this is not always completely true. What might happen if economic wealth was not distributed evenly among all citizens?
III. Reflection
Explore the “Developing World” map. Examine the statistics given for literacy, GDP and life expectancy. What patterns have you noticed? How are all these factors connected? Why is this? Share reasons in small groups. Create a diagram that shows the connections below… Feel free to add in other factors such as water and other resources.
What Does the HDI Score Mean??
The UN Human Development Index brings all the measures of education, health, and wealth together into one big picture. What might an HDI score mean to a country? If you were leading a country’s government, what would you do if your nation were awarded a very high or very low HDI score? How might that score affect your popularity and power among the people?
I. Pre- Activity: Complete the Student Activity Sheet #1:
Human Geography Terms to reinforce what you have learned so far.
II. Read “A Case Study – Mauritius a Success Story”
III. Reflection
Examining "The Developing World Map"
1. Use the information on life expectancy on the map and compare Africa to the rest of the world. List 5 reasons to explain this pattern.
2. Compare literacy and standard of living or GDP around the world. What patterns do you notice?
3. Could Mauritius’ formula for success be applied to other developing countries? Explain.
DEVELOPMENT AID AND DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
I. Discussion
Imagine that you could do something to improve the quality of life in some part of the world. What important changes would you make? How would you get your message out to others? In 2005, top music performers donated their talents for Live 8 rock concerts in the leading developing countries including Canada. They wanted to raise awareness of world poverty and urge developed countries to contribute to more solutions. What have young Canadian artists composed recently to help a country in need??
Types of Aid
Foreign Aid describes the flow of assistance between governments. Money, loans, trained people, supplies and equipment can move from one nation to another. The following information describes different forms of aid.
• Bilateral Aid –This type of aid connects two countries together: a donor and a recipient. Countries may have bilateral aid ties with strategic military allies or with former colonies. At other times, aid may be a response to a crisis. Canada’s official foreign aid is handled by CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency. In 2004, CIDA coordinated the Canadian effort to help countries affected by the tsunami in South Asia. What has CIDA recently coordinated just this year?
• Multilateral Aid – This type of aid comes from more than one country. The best known multilateral aid organization is the UN. Contributing countries work together to support thousands of development projects around the world. Organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other agencies are employed to bring humanitarian aid where it is needed.
• Tied Aid – This aid comes with conditions that tie the receiving country to the donor. It is like a gift card that must be spent in one store, whether you want to shop there or not. Tied aid requires that the receiving country must buy supplies and equipment from the donor country. For example, money needed to fight AIDS in Africa may only be given if they money is used to buy the necessary drugs from the donor country.
• NGO – Non-Governmental Organizations are aid agencies which are not part of the government. Examples include: Oxfam or the International Red Cross or Free the Children.
• World Bank – The World Bank is a multilateral organization that supports international development. Governments and banks invest large amounts of money in the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The World Bank then lends the money to countries for specific projects. Between July 2006 and June 2007, the World Bank distributed 24.7 billion dollars ($US).
Heroes and Villains
The World Bank is large source of foreign aid loans. Officials say that they are successfully fighting poverty, while critics claim the bank is actually causing it. For example, farm poverty is widespread in developing countries, but between 2001 and 2005, only 1/10 of the funds went to rural development projects. Critics point out that loans for large scale projects such as dams, pipelines and airports are favoured instead. Loan conditions are strict. Sometimes countries must cut social services (schools and hospitals) in order to continue to making payments. For these reasons, protestors gather whenever the World Bank meets with global leaders.
Some of the criticism of the World Bank is one sided. It overlooks how large scale projects could support long-term economic growth. For example, if a country has petroleum deposits, construction of a pipeline would allow it to export oil. This might improve living standards, but there is no guarantee. Niger (Africa) exports oil, but remains near the bottom of the UN Human Development Index. Airport construction is another criticized project, yet the important part of Mauritius was the construction of an international airport which improved trade, tourism – thereby raising the GDP per capita.
Does large scale technology always benefit everyone? Big projects such as hydroelectric dams cost a lot of money, and sometimes the benefits do not filter down to help people in rural areas. So an approach to development called appropriate technology has become increasingly popular. The Play Pump is an example of this technology. It is called “appropriate” because the technologies look at the locally available materials or power sources. It does not require large investment, high tech equipment or fossil fuels. It aims to improve people’s ability to feed, clothe and shelter families. Ideally appropriate technology should be “green” and use renewable energy sources.
Questions to Ensure Understanding…
a) Explain examples of the following types of development projects: bilateral tied aid; multilateral aid from an NGO; locally made appropriate technology
b) What is the difference between large scale aid projects and appropriate technology? Give an example of each concept.
c) How would you convince the World Bank to direct more of its loans to appropriate technology solutions?
Are Canadians Doing Enough??
Yes No
In 2006, the Canadian government spent more than $3 billion on foreign aid. That amounts to about $100/Canadian. This is proportionally much higher than the U.S. or Japan. Canadians also respond very generously to NGO relief efforts like the Asian tsunami disaster in 2004 and Haiti Earthquake 2010. The United Nations recommends that that developed countries give 0.7% of their GDP to foreign aid. That amounts to 7 cents on every $10. Canada pledged to meet this goal, but currently gives 0.3% of the GDP. Most European countries exceed Canada’s rate, and 5 of them met the UN standards in 2006.
Make Poverty History is a Canadian NGO that wants to end poverty worldwide. Their goals include increasing Canada’s foreign aid to 0.7% and canceling the huge debts owed by developing nations. The organization urges people to support fair trade products, such as coffee, clothing and craft goods. (Fair trade is trade that gives fair prices to small, independent producers on a wide variety of goods). What is happening in our community to fight poverty? How can fair trade items help poor countries? What is your view?? Reflect on the following:
• Canada must increase its foreign aid level to 0.7% of its national income.
• Both large and small retailers in Canada should support fair trade.
II. Student Activity Sheet: Development Assistance Simulation
To complete this activity you will need both the map, “A Developing World” and access to the on-line map. You will also need access to the Internet to choose your Millennium Development Goal (MDG).
Complete and research answer to the information on the following activity handouts,
Development Status Organizer
Decision Making
Then prepare for a presentation on your findings.
III. Development Assistance Presentation and Vote
Present your groups findings; be sure to have all necessary visual aids.
Practice the order of how facts will be presented and who will say each part.
The Vote! Members of the class are going to watch the presentations and complete a vote ranking the branches.
Groups will use the Voting Organizer sheet.
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