Natural Disasters in Bangladesh - Essay Example

Lecturer: Week #7 – Exercise Questions Q When sun rays hit the earth’s surface, the rays get reflected and warm the air above the ground, which then rises to high atmosphere and the cool air from the southern hemisphere rush to fill the gap; the cool air has moisture which forms the main source for rains in Asia. The monsoon rains result in flooding in South Asia, which cause high displacement of populations across the region. The monsoon cause a lot of havoc in Bangladesh since many rivers burst their banks following heavy rains that result from monsoons. Q.2 Natural disasters in Bangladesh have significant effects on long-term population mobility in rural areas where poor and vulnerable people are likely to displaced by the disasters. The country is vulnerable to various natural calamities that upset the people’s lives in the nation following calamities like floods, cyclone and landslides that affect the entire environment and human beings together with their livelihoods. The country’s location makes the nation vulnerable to natural calamities since three quarters of the nation and the Bay of Bengal make the nation the center of life-giving monsoon rains, making the nation prone to catastrophic destruction of natural disasters. The worst catastrophes in the globe tend to arise between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, a region which coincidentally contains the poor nations, which is the case with Bangladesh (Natural Disasters 94). Q.3 The fundamental reason is that the region contributes 3% of earth’s surface while it is population contributes to 47.9% of the world population moreover the region lacks deserts, permanent ice and other conservation landscapes; therefore the protection of endangered wildlife is less feasible in the region. The region also has high rate of deforestation compared to other regions of the world like sub-Saharan Africa and the heavy hunting in the region make it difficult to protect endangered wildlife. Moreover, the region faces the problematic issue of wildlife trade like the rest of the world; however certain factors make it especially problematic in region like the high economic growth and improvement of transport infrastructure that improve access to wildlife areas. Some of the endangered species include three species of Asian pangolins that include Malayan of Sunda pangolin, Indian pangolin and Palawan pangolin. Q.4 Between 40% and 60% of the population in South Asian cities do not have access to piped water moreover, nearly 60% of urban households lack sanitary facilities with 42.9% of urban population in the region living in slums. Slum dwellers in various countries in the region differ for instance in Bangladesh (69%), Nepal (69%) and Pakistan (47%) reporting significant proportion of urban inhabitants living in slums. Q.5 Green revolution began in 1960’s and 70’s and involved the introduction of high yielding varieties of food products with the aim of increasing food production and promoting self-sufficiency. After the introduction of high yielding seeds for food crops there have been clear significant benefits like increased food production in developing nations. However, since the program began some farmers have recently begun disregarding the use of modified seeds and pesticides in favor of organic farming propelled by the rising cost of fertilizer and pesticides. Q.6 Various factors influence the decline of fertility in India like the government policy for reducing to 2.1 from the previous 5.1 in early 1970s. Other factors include rising levels of education and the rising levels of aspirations for well being in the society. Even though India has had family planning programs for a long period of time; however, the average fertility has declined slowly. The relative slow decline of fertility has led a built up of large population in India that will enter reproductive age in the near future thus, the country’ population growth will continue in next few decade despite the decline of fertility in the country. Q.7 Forward capital is regarded as symbolic removal of a nation’s capital to a demographically different location for economic as well as strategic reasons. Islamabad is considered a forward capital in Pakistan since it was moved from Karachi to an island in Islamabad, which was a push by the nation toward the disputed area. Q.8 The various factors that force students to move to US Universities include lack of enough quality institutions in India despite the high demand and American universities are happy to accommodate the top students from India. Moreover, with shrinking returns and the decline of high school graduates in US force US universities to woo Indian students. US universities have turned out to be safety schools for concerned Indian students as well as parents who believe fateful events can determine a teenager’s future. Moreover, US encourages great intellectual freedom in American liberal arts as opposed to India’s educational system which is rigid, which locks students into a field of study giving them little opportunity of taking courses beyond their main field after 11th grade (Najar). Q.9 The various factors that lead to poor citizens even when the nation is economically robust include poor public health and even the private providers do not undertake any initiative for preventive care and improved health education. Moreover, the country’s education sector is poor since teaching in the country is horrifying; in addition, the state fails because of its deep inequality, gender, and differences in income (“Unspontaneous combustion”). Week #8 – Exercise Questions Q.1 Religion followed trade networks linking Southeast Asia to the Middle East, Southern part of Asia and China where Muslim traders as well as preachers served to transmit Islam to South East Asia. The close proximity to the sea indicates that Islam made initial influence and became established extensively in the Southeast Asia region where Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines are found; Indonesia is predominantly a Muslim country. Q.2 Arguments of conservative fundamentalists require reform in religion based on the criticism of the west, western economic and intellectual dominance and secularism. Moreover, this conservative form of Islam requires Muslims to view Islam as a comprehensive way of life and a system as opposed to abstract beliefs and laws that ought to be memorized. Thus, religious reform in this conservative form of Islam necessitates drawing of inspiration from the Quran, which entail rejection of western civilization but development of Islamic neighborhoods that forge collective Islamic identity (Haar and James 59). Q.3 Ethnic Chinese are known to have successful performance beginning with transnational business in new environments abroad; thus, Chinese have huge conglomerates with global reach even as their businesses in Asian counties continue to expand. Ethnic Chinese businesses actively flow around the Asian market, in addition, their businesses play significant role in the global market as well as the development of the second largest economy in the world. The initial decades following china’s opening to the global market, the share of FDI coming from HK and ethnic Chinese was 55% of total FDI in the country. Ethnic Chinese businessmen favor Guangdong among other provinces, which indicate the possibility in co-relation between investment and the strong kinship links. Q.4 Various factors contribute to Singapore being a success story in Southeast Asia like the economic intervention and cultural intervention that led to the nation’s economic miracle. During Lee Kuan leadership the government focused on development projects and promoted education in the nation. Singapore’s strategic location of being at the entrance of Malacca Strait that links Indian Ocean to the South China Sea made the nation one of the most important ports and naval bases to Britain (Ming Hua). Q.5 Many factors force Filipinos to work abroad some of which include unstable economic situation, high unemployment rate, poor benefits, low salaries offered by domestic companies and discrimination in job hiring among others. Many Filipinos lack confidence in the nation’s government efforts to secure a fruitful future for many of its citizens since corruption is rampant in the country; hence many of the country’s elite seek green pastures elsewhere. In the country, local employers prefer contacts with employees since contracts make it easy for them to let workers go; these poor benefits propel employees to look for better benefits abroad. Moreover, the huge reason behind the departure of Filipinos is the low salary offered to employees in Philippine even in the fields acknowledged in other parts of the world like nursing, engineering and teachers are poorly paid in the nation. Some of the main occupations they engage in include working as nurses, caregivers, nannies or drivers. Q.6 Indonesia contributes to most of deforestation in Southeast Asia and this is propelled by commercial pressures, regulatory mismanagement and the lack of international assistance. Deforestation tarnishes the nation’s reputation and has negative effect on the nation’s long-term economic development; hence the need to deal with regulatory mismanagement. The Economist article “Unspontaneous Combustion” discusses recent forest fires in Indonesia which resulted in very high air pollution levels as far away as Singapore and Malaysia (see the satellite image at the top of the article). What is the cause of the forest fires in Indonesia and why has the Indonesian government been unable to prevent these fires from occurring Most of forest fires in Indonesia result from palm oil plantations owned by huge palm-oil conglomerates that clear their concessions for palm oil. Even though Indonesian government consider the plantation of palm oil and timber companies to be responsible for initiating the companies, the government is responsible since it fails to control illegal burning and destruction of the nation’s forests as well as the widespread illegal practices by industrialists (“The Economists”). The New York Times op-ed “Singapore’s Lessons for an Unequal America” document how the city-state of Singapore has made an effort to reduce income inequality for its citizens through a unique economic model. According to this article, what are the major principles of Singapore’s economic model? What are some of the criticisms of this model? The main principles in Singapore’s equality model include prioritizing social and economic equity while attaining high rates of growth for the past three decades. In making the nation a success story, the nation embraced the need to curb inequality; thus the government ensured that low wages were not exploitative. Some of criticism for the model include government involvement in distribution of pretax income to help the less privileged; moreover, the model is considered to be not democratic since the model had authoritarian aspects like limitation of civil liberties (Stiglitz). Works Cited Haar, Gerrie , and James J. Busuttil. The Freedom to Do God's Will: Religious Fundamentalism and Social Change. London: Routledge, 2003. Print. Ming Hua Cheng. The Impact Of Ethnicity On The Regional Economicdevelopment In Malaysia. 2011. Web. Web. 23 July 2013 Stiglitz Joseph. Singapore’s Lessons for an Unequal America. The New York Times, 18 March 2013. Web. 23 July 2013 “Unspontaneous combustion”. The Economist. 29 June 2013. Web. 23 July 2013. http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21580154-forest-fires-bring-record-levels-air-pollution-and-end-not-sight-unspontaneous “Bangladesh : State Of The Environment”. Natural Disasters. 2001. Web. “Indian development Beyond bootstraps”. The economist. June 29 2013. Web. 23 July 2013 Najar Nida. “Squeezed Out in India, Students Turn to U.S”. The New York Times. 13 October 2011. Web. 23 July 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/world/asia/squeezed-out-in-india-students-turn-to-united-states.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Read More