gcanth103dspring2013

"Child Survival Rwanda has made tremendous progress in improving child survival. Under-five mortality rate has fallen from 153 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 76, with maternal mortality dropping from 1,075 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 487 in 2010 (DHS,2010) However, over 50,000 children under the age of five continue to die annually from diseases like diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection and malaria. In addition, 44% of children under five years old suffer from chronic malnutrition and a quarter of the population still does not have access to an improved drinking water source or improved sanitation facilities (DHS, 2010). Education Thanks to a policy to make primary education free, 95.9% of students; more girls (97.5%) than boys (94.3%) are  enrolled in primary school (MINEDUC 2011), but completion (24%), dropout (12.2%) and repetition rates (14%) for both boys and girls, remain key challenges, along with the switch from French to English as the language of instruction. The latter will clearly impact the quality of education for the immediate future, but is being dealt with through the development of a strategy to address broader issues of the quality of education, including major investments in teacher training and development. HIV and AIDS While Rwanda is one of a few African countries with relatively low HIV prevalence, estimated at about 3% of the adult population, prevalence rates amongst pregnant women in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, range between 16 and 34%. Young people, especially girls, remain at increased risk of contracting the disease and an estimated 22,200 children under the age of 15 live with HIV. The country has made significant progress in scaling up services for HIV positive children, with 75% receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ART) and wants to eliminate the transmission of HIV from mother to child by 2015, making remarkable progress in scaling up services for pregnant women. 82% of health facilities provide PMTC

"Country name: conventional long form: Republic of Rwanda conventional short form: Rwanda local long form: Republika y'u Rwanda local short form: Rwanda former: Ruanda, German East Africa Government type: republic; presidential, multiparty system Capital: name: Kigali geographic coordinates: 1 57 S, 30 03 E time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) Administrative divisions: 4 provinces (in French - provinces, singular - province; in Kinyarwanda - intara for singular and plural) and 1 city* (in French - ville; in Kinyarwanda - umujyi); Est (Eastern), Kigali*, Nord (Northern), Ouest (Western), Sud (Southern) Independence: 1 July 1962 (from Belgium-administered UN trusteeship) National holiday: Independence Day, 1 July (1962) Constitution: constitution passed by referendum 26 May 2003 Legal system: mixed legal system of civil law, based on German and Belgian models, and customary law; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court International law organization participation: has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; non-party state to the ICCt Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal Executive branch: chief of state: President Paul KAGAME (since 22 April 2000) head of government: Prime Minister Pierre Damien HABUMUREMYI (since 7 October 2011) cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president (For more information visit the World Leaders website ) elections: President elected by popular vote for a seven-year term (eligible for a second term); elections last held on 9 August 2010 (next to be held in 2017) election results: Paul KAGAME elected to a second term as president; Paul KAGAME 93.1%, Jean NTAWUKURIRYAYO 5.1%, Prosper HIGIRO 1.4%, Alvera MUKABARAMBA 0.4% Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament consists of Senate (26 seats; 12 members elected by local councils, 8 appointed by the president, 4 appointed by the Political Organizations Forum, 2 represent institutions of higher learning; members t

The prized Inuit cultural value of independence, the lack of a written language, and the harsh reality of surviving in the unforgiving Arctic environment were ill-suited to any centralized political structure.

The Inuit, otherwise known as Eskimo, are an aboriginal people who have made their home in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Siberia and North America, more specifically around Canada (Greenland); United States (Alaska); Aleutian Islands; Russia (Siberia). The word "Eskimo" was given upon resourceful hunters by their neighbors, the Algonquin Indians of eastern Canada. It means "eaters of raw meat." However, it has recently begun to be replaced by the Eskimos' own name for themselves, "Inuit," which means, "real people." The Inuit people descended from whale hunters who migrated from Alaska to Greenland and the Canadian Arctic around 1000 AD. Major changes in Inuit life and culture occurred during the Little Ice Age (1600-1850), when the climate in their homelands became even colder. European whalers who arrived in the latter part of the nineteenth century had a strong impact on the Inuit because they carried over infectious diseases that largely reduced the Inuit population. The Inuit people mainly live along the far northern seacoasts of Russia, the United States, Canada, and Greenland. There are more than 100,000 Inuit, most of whom live south of the Arctic Circle, and the majority, which is about 46,000, live in Greenland. There are approximately 30,000 on the Aleutian Islands and in Alaska, 25,000 in Canada, and 1,500 in Siberia. The Inuit homeland is one of the regions of the world least hospitable to human habitation because the majority of the land is flat, infertile tundra where only the top few inches of the frozen earth defrost during the summer months.

"umi Abedin was making 18 cents an hour as a seamstress, putting together garments for Sean "P Diddy" Combs' clothing line (known as Sean John Clothing) when the factory she worked in located outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, began burning. "The door was locked and we couldn't get out," Abedin said, speaking through translator and Bangladeshi labor activist Kalpona Akter. She ended up having to leap from a three-story window, breaking an arm and a leg - and feeling lucky to have survived. More than a hundred did not."

"As of 2010, six biotech and chemical companies owned 77 percent of the world's patents on living organisms. These companies were DuPont, BASF, Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow. Only 9 percent of similar patents were in the public sector. These patents extend beyond the genetic material of the seeds themselves, and also claim potential ownership of the crops they produce, and even to the food and feed products produced after harvest."

Some background information on issues related to transgender individuals in the military

"EI's March 20 transgender inclusion in the military panel to be livestreamed" This is an extra credit assignment.  Attend in person or stream the event.  Write up a brief 1-2 page reflection based on your notes of the event for up to 4 points on your midterm exam.

This is an interesting article related to the the newly emerging techniques of paleopathology, which were mentioned by Jared Diamond. For anyone interested in health sciences.