In order to decide on if a country is livable, one must take many factors into account. These being economy, distribution of wealth, sanitation, crime rates, and quality of life. Latin America can be focused on as a large group of countries that often come up short to these standards, making them unlivable. One of these countries being Guatemala. Guatemala is an unstable country with child malnutrition, a president clearly unfit for his position, all time high crime rates. The unstable economy, poor quality of life, and high crime rates/drug trade are all factors leading to the conclusion that Guatemala is an unlivable place.
Guatemala’s wavering economy is just the first of its few major negative factors, leading it to be labeled as unlivable. Despite having one of the better economies in Latin America, Guatemala’s economy has danced on the edge of failure for an extended period of time. For quite a long time, the citizens have had unequal rights, leading to poor distribution of wealth. “The wealthiest 10% of Guatemalans account for more than 40% of all income; the poorest 10% earns about
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1% of all income”(GCI: ABC-CLIO). Such absurd statistics prove its title. Additionally, high unemployment rate negatively affects the country even at an all time low. Poor quality of life is the second negative aspect plaguing Guatemala, further demonstrating it to be univable.
There aren’t many positives when it comes to Guatemalan health and sanitation. Guatemala’s health and malnutrition are at an all time worst. “Nearly half of Guatemalan children under the age of five are chronically malnourished” Little safe drinking water can be found in the country. The main reasons behind this is that many rivers and streams in guatemala are contaminated with bacteria, that only can mostly removed with a filter. This filter being replaced only every 2 years. In addition their sanitation is also poor. Much of the population, lives in highly populated areas, lacking the clean water for sanitation. “53 percent of the six million people who live in Guatemala exist below the poverty line and just over half (51%) have no sanitation”(ACWRG - Agro
America). The high crime rate in Guatemala is the last central factor contributing to the country’s unlivability. At an all time country-high, Guatemala has the ninth highest murder rate in the world. The main targets of such murders being tourists and women. The country flaunts the third highest death rate of women in the world. Unfortunately, these crimes against women remain a common part of their culture, and not much can be done to prevent them from occurring. Robbery and assault also affect the country’s citizens. Such assaults, being both physical and/or sexual. Alongside the crime, Guatemala’s drug trade has also grown since the end of the civil war in 1996. “Guatemala is a major transit point and processing center for cocaine and heroin moving through Central America on the way to Mexico and the United States”(GCI: ABC-CLIO)
From the articles I found on the Internet it has been proven that you went to a private institution, and that your family wasn't as poor as to the point of starvation.You make these linkages explicit: "My personal experience is the reality of a whole people". It is a call to people of good will all over the world to help the noble but powerless indigenous peoples of Guatemala and other Third World countries to gain their rightful inheritance.
The Mayan Genocide was a result of a civil war concerning communism and democracy between corrupt leaders and the people of Guatemala. The Guatemalan army carried out the genocide under the self-proclaimed name “killing machines”. According to the article Genocide in Guatemala “the army destroyed 626 villages, killed or “disappeared” more than 200,000 people and displaced an additional 1.5 million, while more than 150,000 were driven to seek refuge in Mexico”. The army murdered and tortured without regard to age or gender, men, women, and children all alike. In an attempt to end the conflict Peace Accords were signed, in spite of the fact that there was little change. Directly following the Mayan genocides, Guatemala faced physical and emotional
the United States is to blame for all the that has happened in Central America. Many had to witness traumatic events, but through the midst of it all, they found hope. Some died spreading awareness, while others were forced to become soldiers without a choice. As some killed, as others had no choice but to kill in order to save themselves. Poverty means not always having the required utensils in order to survive.
Guatemala is considered a lower middle income developing economy by the World Bank. Improvements in political and macroeconomic stability have done little to improve levels of poverty and inequality.
Guatemala is a very impoverished country. They have a per capital of what amounts to $5300.00 in US dollars. This is believed to be because of lack of education, lack of infrastructure and transportation. Their economy is very dependent on the exports of coffee, bananas, and clothing. The workers are often left to resort to employment with low paying wages and work extremely long hours. Which include working on coffee bean farms and sugar plantations. Many people often opt to move to the cities for jobs. Edgar Mary(2006). Guatemala question and answer book. Capstone Press. Mankato, Minnesota.
The Guatemalan Genocide was part of the thirty-six year long Guatemalan civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996. Throughout those thirty-six years of civil unrest, the genocide was committed from 1981-1983. A genocide is defined as “the deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group” by the Merriam Webster Dictionary. The Mayan Indians were the targeted group in the Guatemalan Genocide. It is estimated by the Peace Pledge Union that about, “200,000 people were killed or “disappeared”” in the Guatemalan Genocide, which was about 3% of Guatemala’s population at the time. The United States was also involved in the genocide because it helped the Guatemalan government to find and kill their targets, the Mayan Indians. The reason for sympathizing with the Guatemalan government was that the United States was keen on protecting an American company’s investment in Guatemala. The Guatemalan Genocide is a relatively recent event, and the trial to convict the perpetrators of genocide is still in progress. (Thesis)
Sheahen, John. 1987. Patterns of Development in Latin America: Poverty, Repression, and Economic Strategy. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press.
“12.7 percent of the world’s population lived at or below $1.90 a day in 2012. That means that 896 million people live in poverty across the globe” (Leary). Many large organizations have been working around the clock trying to solve the poverty problem, such as the Peace Corps and Red Cross. Organizations like these have set up local banking systems for people living in poverty to manage their money safely. But although they have set up many service centers like banks and doctors offices across the globe, poverty is still striking the population hard. Living on One Dollar follows the journey of four friends as they set out to live on just $1 a day for two months in rural Guatemala. Their main mission is to study the economics of the area, which
First, is essential to understand Paraguay people and society as well its demographic in order to fully understand the culture. Paraguay is a South America country that is land lock between Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil. Its estimated population of Paraguay is around 6,623,252 people. Most of the population is concentrated in the southern part of the country. Asuncion is the metropolitan capital and largest city of Paraguay, where the national government is located. They have two official languages which are: Spanish and Guarani. The most common religion is Roman Catholic with 90% of the population. Paraguay falls below from the average Latin America countries in several socioeconomic categories, which include the immunization rates, sanitation, potable water, and secondary school enrollment. Also, poverty has been an issue over the last 10 years and remains high especially in the rural areas. However, in recent years many regions have been improving in terms of housing quality, potable water, electricity and phone service. Also, the fertility rate is declining significantly, “from an average 4.3 births per woman in the late 1990s to about 2 in 2013, as a result of the greater educational attainment of women, increased use of contraception, and a desire for smaller families among young women.” (CIA, GOV)
For Guatemala, Zemurray’s propaganda led to the collapse of the land reforms which would have empowered the peasants by turning them into producers. As Huxley (76) implies, individual stability precedes social stability. Multinational businesses like Zemurray’s United Fruit Company owe their hosting societies the obligation to act in a sustainable and socially responsible manner that would empower the locals. The use of propaganda by Zemurray was not ethically justified as it destabilized the broader society and led to a strained relationship between the majority Latin American nations and their American neighbors which persists the present.
In trying to implement this program, laws were created that allowed the government of Guatemala to “expropriate private and government-owned land,” that was then allowed to be divided among farmers and peasants who had no land of their own. This land reform program was created after looking at a land consensus in 1950, the consensus showed that “2.2% of all landowners possess 75% of all land privately owned, and 76% of them own only 10% among them.” This meant that most of the land were owned almost entirely by 2% of the population while the majority of the population only owned 10% communally. This program called for the “Guatemalan government’s “seizure” of more than 200,000 acres of the company’s land on the west coast of Guatemala.” After having dispersed this land among the peasants, the United Fruit Co. appealed to the Guatemalan government to give back the land. The company argued that since the land was theirs, the government had no right to distribute the land, especially because that land would help for emergencies… Arbenz denied this appeal and United Fruit Co. later moved to appeal to the Guatemalan Supreme
The state of poverty in America today is abysmal. According to the United States Census Bureau, 14.8 percent of the population, or 46.7 million people, lived in poverty in 2014 (Carmen DeNavas-Walt, 2015). That number has been on the rise, especially since the last recession in 2008. While America’s poverty level is on the rise, other countries have found ways to reduce their poverty level. Brazil, for example, has reduced its poverty level by half after a decade of its program called Bolsa, Familia, which reduced short-term and long-term poverty through direct and conditional cash transfers to poor Brazilians (Ceratti, 2014). From 1980 to 2010, China has reduced its extreme poverty rate from 84 percent to 10 percent (Towards the End of Poverty,
Peru is a country that is steadily growing economically. Peru is classifies as upper middle class by the world bank and has the fastest growing GDP by 6.3 percent growth rate. They are ranked 39th in the world for total GDP. Peru is considered to have the most dynamic economies in latin america. Peru is also ranked 8th out of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world. However the real problem in the country is poverty. 59 percent of the country live in poverty and 19 percent of the country live off of less than 1 US dollar a day. Peru has taken this into consideration and has been working for the past five years to fix this problem. About 15 percent of the urban population was poor last year. On the other hand, the rural population
Located in the most northernmost part of South America, lies Venezuela, a home to over thirty-one million people (The World Factbook, 2018). Most of the people live in the northern or western highlands, which includes their capital city of Caracas (The World Factbook, 2018). Similar to the unequal population distribution in the country, Venezuela suffers from an unequal distribution of total income. That being said, the World Bank still classifies Venezuela as an upper middle income of development. (World Bank, n.d.). Advancements in their income development, as well as the development of the country as a whole, is hindered due to underlying economic issues. Currently halting Venezuela’s
The Philippines has long been a country with a struggling economy. Ever since World War II, they have struggled to have a steady government and labor system. Independence did not bring any social changes to the country. The hacienda system still persists in the country, where large estates are farmed by sharecroppers. More the half the population are peasants and 20 percent of the population owns 60 percent of the land. Although the sharecropper is supposed to receive half of the harvest, most of the peasant's actual income goes to paying off debts to the landowner. Poverty and conflict strained the industrial growth of the country with many Presidents trying to fix the problems, but failing to do so. Factors that have faced the country are there is almost 9 percent unemployment, and the country suffers from the consequences of a balance of trade deficit. With the resources that the Philippines have, they are capable of pulling themselves out of the economical hole they are in and being up to par with their successful neighboring countries.