Poverty in Liberia

What is poverty? To be poor is to be underprivileged, to live a lifestyle not deemed a proper and healthy one to most, and, as is the main connotation, to have an insufficient amount of money. Fourteen years of civil war has left the infrastructure of Liberia in ruin, affecting water, sanitation, food security and livelihood in general. This has left Liberia the third poorest country in the world, in terms of GDP per capita. In actuality, there are only two classes in Liberia: the very rich and the very poor, with the majority classified as the latter.A reporter from the African Development Bank Group estimated that only 4. 8% of Liberia’s population could be considered middle class (the lowest percent on the continent). There is no middle class, but rather, a working poor. Infrastructure The civil war decimated the infrastructure of Liberia, leaving most Liberians void of safe drinking water, access to proper sanitation facilities, electricity, and roads. More than half of al l Liberians are without access to clean water and functioning sanitation facilities. 8% of all deaths in Liberia are caused by deficiencies in water and sanitation. Hepatitis A, typhoid fever, and bacterial and protozoic diarrhea are very infectious diseases that are found in Liberia’s unsanitary water. As for electricity, most of Liberians live in the dark, with a choice few relying on loud and unreliable diesel generators. Paved roads are scarce as well, stunting transportation and, in turn, affecting the economy in Liberia. Not Enough Money 76% of Liberians are now living below the poverty line ($1/day) and 52% live in extreme poverty ($0. 50/day).Most workers in the middle class, or the working poor in other words, of Liberia earn $100 a month plus $30 of transportation stipend and a bag of rice. $300 a month is an upper-middle salary, about four times more than what policemen earns, and 10 times more than what half of all Liberians live on. These half of the Liberians li ve on the â€Å"dollar-a-day† policy. The GDP per capita in Liberia is $392, which is lower than all nations in the world except for Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This means that the average person in Liberia only makes around $400 dollars a year.Not Enough Food Not enough money means not enough food, especially since the previous civil war destroyed the agricultural sector of Liberia. Before the civil war, most Liberians lived off the land, making a living off of agriculture. Since the war effort took up so much of the time and hard work of Liberians, this changed, leaving them reliant upon expensive exported goods. Over 60% of households currently report not being able to afford three meals a day, and 40% of Liberian children experience stunted growth. 20% percent of them are underweight. 35%of Liberians are malnourished.Human Rights In Liberia most poor children work for family businesses. The families sometimes have no money to hire employees and so t hey use their own family members instead. They may work in farms, or take part in street trading, or domestic work. Some are even trafficked out of the country from rural areas to urban areas or to diamond mining areas for purposes of sexual exploitation or forced labor. These acts are with the sole purpose of making money. Liberia is the oldest free nation in Africa, is rich in resources, and was a refuge for African American slaves in the 1800s.Friction between the newcomers and natives led to turmoil, eventually landing Liberia in the place as one of the poorest counties in the world. Poverty paints all aspects of Liberian life, from water and food to human dignity. Is there a brighter future for Liberia? â€Å"I'm sure by the time this man gets your age, he will live a better life than what I have lived† said a 55 year old man living int West Point, the poorest slum in Monrovia, to a reporter, as he hugged his grandson. As long as the Liberian people have hope, there is h ope for Liberia.

The True Followers of Holy Christ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The True Followers of Holy Christ - Essay Example Consequently, they could only be included in the religion through holy bath or baptism in order to associate them with their parents as the followers of Jesus Christ. Infant baptism, according to the American Catholic Organization, only makes sense if parents are true Christian disciples. If they are not, then it makes little sense to initiate their children into a Church which calls for a commitment to living the mission of Christ (2012). Baptism is conducted with the same religious fervor as the ancient Jews used to make arrangements for the execution of circumcision of the newly born boys in order to demonstrate their love and affiliation with the first patriarch Abraham (Diamont, 2005); the same is the case with baptism, which seeks its roots in the earliest Christian era, when the Church had maintained rigorous standards for the entry of non-Christians in the faith; consequently, the saints used to baptize the people embracing the faith, which used to be the sign of the grant of pardon from all the previous sins they had committed before converting to Christianity (Latourette 1975). In addition, baptism is also performed by repeating the ways of Jesus Christ, as New Testament manifestly reveals that Jesus was baptized himself by John (Luke 3:21; Matthew 3:16; Mark 1: 9-10). Later, the saints including Augustine of Hippo and others were also baptized at the eve of adopting the faith (Augustine 2011). Gradually, the tradition earned the status of an essential religious sacrament to be performed on all the newborn babies. Being the part of old tradition, which has become a sign and symbol of the adopting Christianity as faith, the Catholics still stick to the ritual of baptizing their young ones in order to demonstrate their unflinching belief in Jesus Christ as Savior on the one hand, and the source of spiritual guidance, and worldly and eternal bliss on the other. Thus, baptism has become an integral part of Christian faith, which is performed on infant bab ies and converts with great religious fervor and enthusiasm in all parts of the globe at large. PART II Baptism/ Initiation Rites in Christianity and Islam: Initiation in Christianity: While discussing the initial Catholic rites other than baptism, confirmation and Eucharist are also included in the list. The Sacraments of Initiation are the initial sacraments by which persons become members of the Catholic Faith (saintanne.org). All the three initiation rites are conducted equally on the young members of Christian faith as well as on the adult converts. Baptism is the bathing in a pool, tank, brook or river etc, which could be performed while standing, sitting, or kneeling in some water, where another Christian then lowers him under the water and then brings him back up out of the water, which is literally called immersion; the same word is found in the Bible (clarifyingchristianity.com). The same process is conducted on the infants with the help of their parents, while they take i n their arms or laps during the process. Like baptism, confirmation also maintains an important place in basic Sacraments. Baptism corresponds, according to Pope St. Leo, to our bodily birth, while confirmation corresponds to our bodily growth (Hardon 1998).

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Airlines - Essay Example Enron Corp. was the result of merger between Houston Natural Gas and Internorth. There was a shift to unregulated energy trading markets from regulated transportation of natural gas. Enron was a Fortune 500 company and was in #7 in 2001 was deleted from New York Stock Exchange. According to the mangers of Enron who reviewed the accounts of the company, during California energy crisis Enron has kept undisclosed reserves of up to $1.5 billion in trading profits. Enron came under fire from politicians of price gouging. The hidden reserves would have doubled the Enron's reported profits. It is also reported that Enron manipulated reports on reserves to have steady profit growth to Wall Street and credit rating agencies. The executives also claimed that the reserves were held back and used to fulfil the political and financial ends. In 1990 Enron reported its total revenue as $10 billion and in the next subsequent ten years it grew by $101 billion. It emerged as one of the fast growing companies in the United States. The main reasons for its collapse is not due to the core energy operations but the company's new ventures in dot com sector and investments Internet and communication business. According to investigators of the security of exchange commission gone into investigate the case, have interviewed witnesses to come to a conclusion that the methods or practices violated the laws for doctoring quarterly earning refers to start cookie jar reserves. The existence of Enron reserves puts strange twist to it. The executives of Enron inflated profits and concealed losses with official balance sheet. Partnership in this scenario of reports that Enron has shown wrong accounts in December 2000, the company filed for bankruptcy protection but interviews with more than a dozen ex-Managers and Executives revealed that the Enron many a time paid the profits on trading to meet the needs of politicians and financiers. The major portion of the gains were Shown on paper only on long term contracts only had it been the cash that could have put off liquidity crisis that led to its collapse. As per one of the former Executives, before a few months of Enron bankruptcy, the reserves were depleted. It is common to use reserves to manage profits through it is unlawful. The former long time chairman and company's president chief executive were aware of the reserves and felt them proper. Judy Leon, Skilling's spokes woman said that Skilling did have any knowledge of unlawful and illegally activity with the reserve account. Further she said that many kept in credit reserves to save the Enron form the risk as California facilities could be bankrupted by the crisis, which may lead to situations where they cannot pay their debts. Slowly the Enron's activities came into light when the then CEO Jeffrey Skilling resigned in August 2001 from his position without giving any proper reason. This was the starting phase of its collapse. In October Enron incurred first quarterly in four years that was up to $1 billion because of poor business performance. In November 28 2001 Enron's debt was downgraded to below investment grade by the bond rating agencies. The Justice Department was handed over the Enron's case and it conducted a criminal investigation and the case was brought to the Senate and the House, which held

Shurgard Self-Storage Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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Conflicting Obligations Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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Most valuable lessons learned from this Business Ethics course Essay

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