Good Example Of Nations Needing A Prayer: A Reflection Essay

[First Last Name]

English [Number]

[Date Month Year]

Africa
Silence Chihuri (n. p.) wrote on 30 March 2015 in the New Zimbabwe.com on the woes that had been hounding the African continent: natural disasters that keep coming back; droughts and famine that endured for years in Ethiopia, in the Sub-Saharan, and then in Niger; civil wars that resulted to genocides; and unending poverty and disease. These misfortunes are hounding the continent as the gap between the rich Africans and the poor are getting wider each day and the national population grows in bounds. They have natural resources they cannot productively use, leaving foreigners with dollars a free reign in exploiting them, and their government had not been effective in pulling up their people from poverty.
The health challenges in Africa include communicable and non-communicable diseases and high mortality of mothers and children (WHO-ROA 11). These abject public health condition receive aggravations from widespread poverty, global financial crisis, recurring epidemics, and disasters both manmade and natural. Its weak health systems failed to increase its low intervention coverage levels. The weak health system resulted from impotent leadership and governance: inadequate staffing, low and variable medical supplies (e.g. vaccines), lack of technology, inadequate information access, low financing, and poor service delivery. These situation can be found in most, if not all, of the 47 African states that consists the WHO African Region (WHO-ROA 15).

Myanmar

As of March 27, heavy fighting continues in the Kokang region near the China-Myanmar border. On March 13 a bomb exploded killing five Chinese nationals. The political and economic differences between the central government and its regional ethnic groups had brought the country into recession. Since the conflict started, more than 200 people had died (Qingrun n. p.). Some 29,000 Rohingya Muslims living in northern Rakhine State had been stripped by the government of citizenship, declaring them as non-nationals or foreign residents, native born but not indigenous (Theodora n. p.). Many of these people left Myanmar for the neighboring Bangladesh or Thailand to flee growing civil strife, political chaos, and economic torpor. Moreover, Burma is a major source for women, children and men being trafficked for forced labor, and sex work. Its porous borders are also access path for drug traffickers and militants.

Indonesia

Despite the promising new leadership, Indonesia continues to experience serious human rights problems: violence, discrimination against religious minorities (e.g. the Ahmadiyah, Bahai, Christians, and Shia), deepened as police and military personnel refuse accountability in their abuses of residents in Papua and West Papua provinces. There is also a rising climate of religious intolerance and discriminatory legal structures (Human Rights Watch n. p.).

Europe

More than 3,000 Europeans, coming from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Span, Sweden and the United Kingdom, have joined the Islamic State through Syria and Iraq, and their return to Europe pose a serious security threat, from potentially more extremist perspectives (Mix 10). Active recruitment for I.S. is ongoing underground and serious risks exist over presence in European states. There had been arrests made of those who planned to travel to Syria or Iraq or actively recruit I.S. fighters. Monitoring those who had left and those who might be coming is a daunting task that is prone to imperfections. In January 2015 many died from terrorist attacks in Paris. It is obvious that Europe is very vulnerable. Subsequently, the military budget of European states had been reducing, raising the risk of vulnerability from aggression, such as insurgency, international terrorism, Cybersecurity, and proliferation of WMD (weapons of mass destruction). The expansive behavior of Russia has threatened its former colonies as well as Poland and the Baltic states (Mix 7). Although the Eurozone crisis (2010-2012) seemed stabilized, signs indicate that the underlying economic problems in Europe remained unresolved fully. The EU is also dependent on Russia for some 30 percent of its gas imports and 25 percent of its total gas-oil supply (Mix 8). Russia has acquired large ownership in EU energy infrastructure. Russia is also known to withdraw oil-gas supply in times of conflict like what happened to Ukraine in 2006 and 2009.

Russia

One year after the Western countries imposed its trade sanction with Russia, and Russia’s ban on food imports, commodity prices became erratic and unstable, state firms off from global lending (refinancing increasingly difficult), and drilling in the Arctic stopped (Ellingworth n. p.). The broad economic sanction hurt most the ordinary Russians (not the elite). Jobs experienced more pressure, and inflation may hit 12 percent in 2015. The government is scrambling for alternative sources of oil supply. In the first three months of 2015, Russian economy entered a recession with its ruble significantly weakened and inflation high as oil prices dropped sharply.

Cited Works

Chihuri, Silence. “The Problem with Africa.” Newzimbabwe.com 30 Mar. 2015. Web. 30 Mar.
2015. http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/opinion94.13175.html.
Mix, Derek. “The United States and Europe: Current Issues.” Congressional Research Service 3
Feb. 2015. PDF File.
Ellingworth, James. “American Farmer among the Winners in Sanctions-Hit Russia.” Associated
Press 1 Apr. 2015. Web. 1 Apr. 2015. https://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/american-farmer-among-winners-sanctions-063458196.html
Human Rights Watch. “Indonesia.” World Report 2013, 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
Qingrun, Song. “Myanmar Must Restore Peace on China Border.” China Daily 27 Mar.
2015. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. http://www.asianewsnet.net/news-73321.html
Theodora. “Burma Transnational Issues 2015.” Theodora.com 23 Jun. 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2015.
http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/burma/burma_issues.html

World Health Organization – Regional Office for Africa. “WHO in the African Region: Making

People Healthier” 2014. PDF File.