Timeline showing standard of living, colonization, and GIS in Africa.
Created by astasrac000 on Feb 16, 2011
Last updated: 02/23/11 at 04:03 PM
In the simulation, I lived to be 72 years of age. I died of cervical cancer.
One difficulty I faced in my life was having a food shortage. There were 10 food shortages in my lifetime, and the last one hit in 2081. Food shortages due to things like drought are very common in Zimbabwe, and they have impacted the country of Zimbabwe by killing many due to starvation and leaving lots of others without adequate food sources. It will be hard for Zimbabwe to recover from the many famines they have because half the population already needs aid to get food, and without those aids during food shortages, it will be hard for many to survive.
One difficulty I faced in my life was contracting schistosomiasis a total of 3 times. The last time was 2062. Schistosomiasis is caused by ingesting contaminated water, and once inside the body the parasite grows into a worm. This is common in Zimbabwe. Health facilities in Zimbabwe show that schistosomiasis is one of the top ten causes of clinic attendances in Zimbabwe. This disease impacts the country of Zimbabwe by contaminating the water, spreading schistosomiasis. Something Zimbabwe could do to prevent schistosomiasis is to have people drink cleaned/filtered or bottled water to make sure it is not contaminated.
Standard of Living means the material level of comfort which is measured by services, products, and luxuries available to someone or a country. My standard of living in Zimbabwe is mainly low because I am illiterate, and I didn't make much money to get my basic needs. Three things from my Real Life that show my low standard of living in Zimbabwe are: 1. I had no chance of schooling, so I was illiterate. 2. My sister Vuyelwa died at age 0 from a disease, showing infant mortality. 3. There was a variety of diseases including hookworm, stunted growth, and schistosomiasis that I suffered many times in my life time. Colonization has influenced the standard of living in Zimbabwe in the following two ways. Colonization probably decreased standards of living because once the British came into Zimbabwe, they didn't treat the Zimbabweans as well as they should have, which could have lowered life expectancy. A second way colonization probably decreased the standard of living in Zimbabwe was once the British colonized Zimbabwe, the per capita GDP could have gone down since the population grew from the colonizers.
GDP means the gross domestic product, or the total market value of everything produced in a country per year. Per capita GDP is the total GDP divided by the population of the country. Zimbabwe's per capita GDP is 400 dollars. As a beggar in Zimbabwe I make 1,500 Zimbabwean Dollars per month. In U.S. currency, I make almost 4 dollars per month. This means that I live on about 50 Zimbabwean Dollars per day, and an almost non-existent amount of about 13 cents in U.S. currency per day.
Literacy rate means the percentage of people in a country over the age of 15 with the ability to write and read. The literacy rate in Zimbabwe is 90.7%. Something that happened in my "Real Life" that illustrates the 10% without a literacy rate is that I was never sent to school at the age of 6, so I was illiterate and very unlucky.
My life expectancy in Zimbabwe is approximately 47 years compared to approximately 78 years in the United States. One reason for this high difference in life expectancy could be the Per Capita GDP. The United States has a Per Capita GDP of almost $48,000, while Zimbabwe has a Per Capita GDP of $400. Zimbabwe is not able to afford as much, so they probably have lower standards of living, causing a lower life expectancy. Two details about my life in Zimbabwe are: I suffered from a total of six diseases (including measles and schistosomiasis), and I was a Christian person who spoke the language of Ndeble.
The reason Zimbabwe became independent from Britain is because a civil war was fought for 14 years to get their independence. Despite becoming independent, one way Britain's influence is still seen is because the companies and organizations in Zimbabwe are still supported by Britain.
When the Dutch and British arrived in South Africa, the colonized country, they became involved in the discrimination against blacks becoming more prominent. In 1948, whites legalized racial discrimination with "apartheid laws" (policies limiting and controlling the freedoms of blacks), like not letting them own land or giving them bad places to live. Blacks protesting against the laws were not tolerated, and were hurt or put in prison. The large amounts of discrimination in South Africa threatened to ruin the country. After noticing what the apartheid laws were doing to their country, the leaders decided to negotiate with the African Congress and make peace. They ended up creating the South African Truth and Reconcilation Commision to try to insure peace between the discriminating whites and the targeted blacks. This is also the thing that ended the civil rights violations of blacks in Africa by trying to heal the country of the horrible things that happened to blacks because of the apartheid laws. This type of conflict is classified as Ethnic/Religious Differences that were influenced by the Europeans because they began the discrimination against the blacks when they arrived in South Africa, and were the ones who put the apartheid laws in place. The discrimination in South Africa probably caused negative net migration for the country of South Africa because people would have wanted to flee the country to get away from the racial discrimination and the danger they were in. Fleeing the country to places of safety would cause positive net migration for the countries that South Africans escaped to.
Before Europeans, Zimbabwe was made up of many different kingdoms, for example: the "San", and the "Shona", who built stone walls that are now remains of ancient cities.The British were interested in colonizing Zimbabwe because of the mining opportunities, precious metals, and other resources.
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