There is currently a two-year drought in Somalia that is affecting the poor and farmers the most. The article begins with an interview of a pastoralist in Somalia who had been scarily affected by this tragedy. His owns a small farm, when the drought started he owned 20 cattle, his herd is now literally died down to 5. The cattle were the main source of income for his family. A family who is in debt and often goes with little to no food for days. Because the drought has taken over most lands, the small fields that are still available for grazing have been completely used up. This forces many families to have the same problem as the first pastoralist and abandon their lands for urbanized areas. With less farmers and pastorists helping the economy, there is even less economic circulation. There are about 4.7 million starving people in Somalia, that’s about 40% of the population. There are many organizations trying to help Somalia including the UN who see that this is a serious epidemic.
http://www.irinnews.org/node/255998
The malnutrition on children and mother in India has been declining. Although, since India became independent, it has been one of the world leaders. But how are 1.5 million children dying before their first birthday every year? Why do some areas only have about 18 hospital beds per 100,000 people in the area? This is because there is such a severe difference in classes in India. There is basically no health care for most of India and there has not been a lot of help from the government. Only 15% of the population has health care and it is some of the best in the world while the other 85% of India is left with extremely unsanitary and over crowded hospitals. As the populations become further and further away from very populated areas, the health care becomes worse. There are less supplies and development on the land the further away from the urban cities there are. Various organizations such as FSD are trying to help this serious problem that also effects the economy, health, education and general living conditions in India.
http://www.fsdinternational.org/country/india/healthissues
I grew up in Branchburg, New Jersey, a majority of the town is suburban with a mix of many different types of houses and incomes. These two cases from Somalia and India are honestly nothing like my home town. Because I am in a populated area and near a city there has never been a water shortage in my life time. Also, many have efficient health insurance because of the class structure in my town where most have jobs that supply health insurance. Also being in a populated area, there are enough taxes to support large enough hospitals to care for a large amount of the population. I have learned that being in rural areas does not allow for enough population to keep an economy alive.
Hi Micaelie,
My name is Carmen. I really liked your case studies, especially the first one. The reason why it was an interesting case and most importantly I think that there are many farmers that face similar incidents due to droughts. This comes to show the effect that geography has on how people live their lives. I would also have to agree that because of bigger populations we know how to be able to support a larger group. I feel that the rural areas are much smaller and can’t maintain themselves especially in situations like Somalia. Overall, some kind of arrangement needs to be made so that they can not suffer as much as they do when they face incidents like these or even worse ones.
Here is the link to my blog: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/26/module-5-development-case-studies-7/
Hi my name is Megan, and although I can see how cities may have more money due to higher populations, economy is heavily driven by rural areas as well. I’m from a rural area in Pennsylvania and although our hospital is mediocre compared to State College’s, our school system is ranked higher than many in the county that have cities. If interested in relocation as addressed in your first article, you might be interested in my own blog: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/25/relocation-on-country-to-county-scales/
Having a perspective from an urban environment can really change your outlook on particular situations, just as living in a rural one has done for me. Large populations drive development projects as they have more voices, and therefore more influence, than smaller ones. So a city’s project must also consider the relevance to populations that are impacted no matter their status. Drought is something that can only be prevented with precautionary systems, a whole country probably does not have the means in which to implement such measures to secure farmers that are greatly effected by the national event. In many cases it comes to the amount of people effected, if a large population (city water supply) can be saved from the devastating effects or a few farmers the city will win. Environmental justice comes into play as to wether or not this is an effective use of resources.
Hi Micaelie, my name is Omar. Here’s a link to my post:
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/25/population-control-policies-on-a-global-scale/
In my post I talked about population control policies in China and India and related them to where I live, Libya. I liked your post because it draws attention to serious challenges that some countries are facing today. Somalia’s tragedy clearly demonstrates the big effect of geography on development. Also, India’s problem seems to be of social origin. It draws attention to the notion of selective development where specific classes of people get more privilege. We should strive to make development accessible to all people.