Southeast Asia - Assignment Example

Geography Yours College Geography PART There are various major issues in Southeast Asia. These include: environmental, demographic, cultural, social, and economic. Major issues such as deforestation and air pollution fall under environmental issues in Southeast Asia. Another area is the demographics which affects overpopulation and rapid urbanization. Language barriers and discrimination of overseas workers are under cultural concerns. Poverty and gender inequality on the other hand are part of the region’s social controversy and lastly, corruption and child labor are the topmost concerns regarding the structure of economics within the region. Deforestation results in watershed damages, discarded landscapes, and wildlife habitat that are destroyed. Out of all tropical regions, Southeast Asia has the highest annual deforestation rate which continues to increase. There are forests that need protection concluding that deforestation will continue if no measures of conservation are put into place. The tropical rainforests in this region have experience change in carbon dioxide levels and humans are in need of endless supply of oxygen (on which we humans receive from trees and carbon dioxide being our waste product). When massive amount of forests are removed, many gases are emitted into air. In Indonesia, this is extremely dangerous because of peat bogs. Peat bogs contains decaying organic matter, which in times of drought, have intense carbon dioxide emissions. These greenhouse gases are being combined with other greenhouse gases causing the area to be highly subjected to fire. Air pollution is caused by air particles, biological molecules, or other harmful materials into Earth’s atmosphere that cause diseases and eventually death to humans. An example for this is haze where illegal agricultural fires are caused due to slash-and-burn practices. Additionally, burned land can be sold at a higher price illegally, and eventually used for activities including oil palm and pulpwood production. It is also considered to be cheaper and faster compared to cutting and clearing using excavators or other machines damaging living organisms such as animals and food crops, or the natural environment. The average record high levels of air pollution caused by haze were in June 2013 in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In having to response to regional pressure after the latest haze crisis, Indonesia has finally agreed to adopt the ASEAN agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution from 2002. This kind of problem flares up every dry season, in varying degrees. Overpopulation is when undesirable conditions of a number of existing human populations exceed in the carrying capacity of Earth which is caused by: reduced mortality rate, better medical facilities, and depletion of precious resources. In addition to that, conflicts and wars rise in unemployment, and high cost of living also make up causes of overpopulation. Philippines is one of the countries in Southeast Asia that face this issue and believed to why the country has sustained poverty and poor economic growth among families by depriving them of the financial resources that were required to secure education and adequate health care for their children. In the year 1967, the country has agreed that overpopulation is an inhibitor of economic development which eventually began looking into a variety of government-sponsored measures to lower the rate of population growth. Urbanization is when population shifts from rural to urban areas. For example, urbanization with economic growth means that the countries have the financial sources to introduce inclusive policies whereby the benefits of economic growth are shared among the urban and rural population to achieve broad-based development. As this issue progresses, the availability of emerging and persistent urban problems in large cities as well as secondary cities and towns will be critical for policy-makers to formulate effective urban policies. The availability will solely depend on systematic collection and analysis of data and their way of presenting to recognize urban, peri-urban and intra-urban dynamics to form new developments. Another example would be urbanization can lead to demographic, socio-cultural, environmental, and political changes in urban and rural societies that affect the relationship between the family, the community, civil society and State. Language barriers are indicating the difficulties faced when people who have no language in common attempt to communicate with each other. In the case of Indonesia, a recent news article regarding that if foreigners want to work in Indonesia, they must speak the language to clearly represent means of employment. When it comes to tourism, there are a few things to remember: pay attention to the body language, learn to say and listen, carry multi-language maps, and travel with a local guide. There are also technological uses on how to break up any language barrier. An example would be NewsLoop (a content aggregator for mobile, being a subsidiary by Singtel (a telephone company in Singapore)). This app offers services on what you need to know about a certain country. For the case of discrimination of overseas workers, Philippines is the top country with an economy heavily dependent on remittances of overseas workers. The Philippine government estimates there will be 6.8M Filipinos in 191 countries as of December 2003. Every day, at least 2,500 Filipinos were added to leaving the country through official agencies. The number swells if it to include those who depart on non-working visas but actually intend to find employment. Organizations and networks of families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and NGOs have been at the forefront of addressing immediate and strategic needs, problems and concerns of OFWs, through direct services, organizing, popular education, and advocacy at the local, national and international levels, they have pursued relentlessly the cause of working for the recognition and protection of the rights and welfare of OFWs, regardless of legal status. Poverty is generally scarcity, death, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. Increased participation in a nonfarm employment has been more pronounced among the more educated children, whose education is facilitated by an increase in farm income brought about by the spread of modern rice technology. An important lesson for poverty reduction is to increase agricultural productivity through the development and adoption of modern technology, which subsequently stimulates the development of the nonfarm sector, thereby providing employment opportunities for the rural labor force. Gender inequality means unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. In Bangkok, Thailand, the country faces enormous social, economic, and health challenges including pervasive inequality and violence political instability due to the fact that the population is high while the income is low. Since women take on the role of child-bearing, men are considered to be breadwinners. Religion is one of the factors in the treatment of women wherein the behavior of men in Southeast Asia contributes to the subservient role of women, as husbands go unpunished for physical and sexual assault. Additionally, due to the economic climate in the region, many women and young children are being trafficked and forced into prostitution, undesired marriages, and bonded labor. Corruption is a form of a dishonest or unethical conduct by a person entrusted with a position of authority, often to acquire personal benefit. Some activities may include bribery and embezzlement. Corruption in the political system can be understood as a major issue for a democratic society. Taking into consideration five of the most important countries in the Southeast Asia: Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, an interesting fact comes to the shore. Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia, which just recently started their democratic way of life after long periods of military rule, are considered the most corrupt amongst the developing countries. Child labor refers to employment of children in any work that deprives children, interfering with the ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful. MANILA  – The Philippines has ranked among the 10 countries in the world that have made “significant advancements” in eliminating the worst forms of child labor in 2012, according to an annual U.S. Department of Labor survey released recently. In recent years the Philippine government has taken steps to reduce the number of children working in hazardous conditions, such as mining, construction and fishing, through a conditional cash transfer program, where children from poor families get a cash subsidy from the government if they continue to stay in school. PART 2: As what mentioned above, there are two issues that most likely to be a major factor in the region. These two issues are: poverty and gender inequality. First off is poverty. Poverty is when a region lacks resources or needs some finances. (in ref to Rural Poverty in Southeast Asia) over 70% of the poor people are in rural areas. Countries like Vietnam and Cambodia (90%) are found in rural areas. Indonesia’s poor in urban areas declined from 20% to 14% while rural poverty decreased from 45% to 21%. In relation to Indonesia, Philippines’s rural poverty decreased from 53% to 47%. The most obvious expressions of poverty is malnutrition. Malnutrition diminishes poverty alleviation efforts by limiting human capital accumulation, labor productivity growth, and generating welfare losses to society through later adult disability, chronic diseases and early mortality. In Cambodia, 33% of children under 5 years in rural areas are moderately underweight and 13% are severely underweight. In most rural areas of Southeast Asia, 22% of women aged 15-49 suffer from malnutrition. (Table 1: Poverty from Southeast Asia http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/165778/2/AJAD_2005_2_1&2_3Balisacan.pdf) (in reference to: http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/ag086e/ag086e02.htm) Gender inequality on the other hand can be affected in various factors including education and marital status. For example, in the Muslim majority groups like Indonesia and Malaysia and Muslim minorities of Thailand and Philippines, the so called “underdog theorem” states that a group which is being discriminated against or subordinated tends to be aware of the gap of the support efforts to eliminate it. Therefore it is anticipating the difference between significant impacts on people’s gender perception on these four countries. Education on the other hand, may enlighten people about the problems of inequality and making them receptive to the possibility of reducing the gender gap. It may also be reproducing inequality. According to Kane (1995), “may actually legitimate rather than challenge inequality” by giving the importance of individual talent or social accomplishment. Educational attainment is categorized into five: no formal education, primary school completed, secondary school completed , high school or other vocational training school completed, and university degree and above. Marital status can also have an effect on gender perception but in a complex way. Since the impact of marital status can differ between the sexes, the results are divided into males and females. (in reference to: https://jica-ri.jica.go.jp/publication/assets/JICA-RI%20Southeast%20Asia%20(Yoshida).pdf page 5) Religion is another factor to be dealt with the Gender inequality. Religion in Southeast Asian countries is either Muslim or non-Muslim. In Islamic countries, particular societies exist and importantly impact on the gender perception. It is worthwhile to note that Islamic influence impacts the people attitudes and feelings for gender issue. Women except in Bangkok are supportive for the concept of gender equality. In Philippine, martial status influence is high as compared to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand countries. Married men are more conscious towards the women’s conditions and support the idea of reducing the gender inequality. Gender inequality results into health care issues in countries Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. PART 3: Canadian companies have business opportunity in Southeast Asian countries to make investment for poverty reduction. Singapore is the important country of Southeast Asia where Canadian companies can operate their business in other countries. Private sector flow through Canadian companies’ foreign direct investment can help in reduction of poverty in Southeast Pacific. Canadian companies can be attracted for Southeast Asia region due to labor pool, stability, opening of new markets, strategic position, natural resources and presence of the international companies. Canadian companies may have additional business opportunities in this region to make free trade agreements with its partners in Southeast Asian countries. Vietnam is one of the big places for Canadian companies where economic growth is realized by making growth in GDP and trade from international companies. Foreign direct investment (FDI) from Canadian companies can create a completion of agreements that may result into improvement in quality of stock and physical capital of host countries. Many potential sectors of region countries can become the attention of Canadian investment. Retailing industry, energy sector, water as well as telecommunication sectors have potential for Canadian companies to make investment. Canadian companies have to overcome the challenges like poor infrastructure, transparency, accountability and commercial laws of host countries. Because, some of the countries, particularly Philippine has different laws for manufacturing of products and environmental matters. However, foreign companies intending to invest in Southeast Asian countries must seek the prior guarantee and protection before becoming a partner of the Canadian companies. The Philippine is ranked as 85 out of the 175 countries, which are indexed in the corruption perception index. Southeast region can become a high growth rate throughout the world; by making investment in women’s enhancement and improvement programs. Southeast Asia region requires more attention from foreign companies for links between demographic changes and investment for employment and skills improvement for female gender. Youth unemployment is more common than adult unemployment in region. Women are treated and perceived with low deserving for employment, because cultural norms resist in getting the jobs for women. However, this issue can be reduced by giving the jobs to women after they get special training and skills. People living in poor areas who are near or below the poverty line are focused customers of Canadian companies to invest for betterment of communities living in the Southeast Asia pacific. Advantages of Canadian companies’ business in region include the change of lifestyle of people of host countries. People may have opportunities to get the social, cultural and educational rights on equal basis. Investment in the private sector can alleviate the poverty and increase the cooperation between foreign companies and people of host countries (Martinez-Fernandez and Powell 2009). References Martinez-Fernandez C. and Powell M. (2009). Employment and Skills Strategies in Southeast Asia Setting the Scene. Available from http://www.oecd.org/countries/bruneidarussalam/45592999.pdf Accessed on 28/11/2015. Read More