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Christian Pyros

UNICEF Rwanda - The children - The Situation for Children in Rwanda - 0 views

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    "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
Christian Pyros

CIA - The World Factbook - 0 views

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    "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
andrew carlino

Promotion of Sports - Ministry of Sports and Culture - 0 views

  • The sport has a natural and universal power of attraction, inspiration, motivation and commitment. It can be used to encourage individuals, communities and even countries to take part in activities promoting health. It can also be an effective tool in mobilizing resources for public health.
  • Furthermore, sport is of paramount importance to the economic level. It creates and sustains sector jobs assembling media producer and marketer of sports equipment, sports clubs, doctors, lawyers, coaches and advisers of all kinds; firms specializing in architectural design Stadiums and other sports facilities. Some professional athletes also derive income from their sport.
  • The government of Rwanda has invested in sports and leisure infrastructure which has made a progressive impact in the past decade. Despite what has been done so far, the need in terms of sporting and leisure facilities is concerned is still enormous. The need for Sporting and other leisure activities is important for the psychological and Physical development of the youth.
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  • They contribute to their personal development through promoting good health, personal discipline, leadership and team building skills.
Parker Delmolino

The Costs and Consequences of Rwanda's Shift in Language Policy | Africa Portal - 0 views

  • Language policy in Rwanda has revolved around three languages — Kinyarwanda, the indigenous language of Rwandans, French and English
  • In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, the Rwandan government has worked strenuously to develop the country and construct a new national image; the shift in language policy from French to English is part of this ambitious project.
  • The Rwandan government’s decision to transition from French to English as the country’s main official language is part of the country’s play to join the East African Community (EAC) and to ease economic relations with its neighbours and South Africa.
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  • Kinyarwanda unifies the population because, unlike most other African countries, Rwanda only has this one indigenous language. Estimates show that almost 100 percent of the population speaks Kinyarwanda and 90 percent of the population speaks only Kinyarwanda
  • French was introduced as an official language in Rwanda during Belgium’s rule of the country from 1890 to 1962. Once a school system was established in French, Rwanda became a member of La Francophonie. The significance of French began to decrease after the 1994 genocide, under the new leadership’s obvious preference for English.
  • Two years after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took power in Rwanda, they declared English an official language alongside Kinyarwanda and French.
  • The decision to distance Rwanda from the French language also has implications for the country’s post-genocide identity project. It allows for a break from the colonial past and ties with Belgium and France, factors which the Rwandan government specifies as key in the development of genocidal ideology.
  • From 1996 to 2008 the language policy required the first three years of schooling be taught in Kinyarwanda, after which the students chose English or French as the primary language of instruction
  • Officially, the language shift is part of Rwanda’s membership in the EAC and economic relations with other member states.
  • Rwanda’s economic problems are serious. Overpopulation and struggles over land continue to challenge the country and its path toward development and prosperity. Policymakers expect that a move toward adopting the English language will accelerate the country’s ability to improve standards of living and facilitate national reconciliation.
  • Overall, the Rwandan population has a positive attitude towards the use of English language: they perceive English as a valuable commodity (Samuelson and Freedman, 2010: 203). It is important, however, to keep Rwandan realities in perspective when examining policies.
  • The implementation of English as the official language of instruction has led to serious hurdles in the Rwandan education system. Among them has been establishing a teaching force fluent in English.
  • To this end, the government has taken ambitious steps to change how Rwandans perceive their identity.
  • Yet, there are problems with using English as the only language of work. Particular identities and sections of society are linked to this language more than others, putting English-speaking groups at an advantage in socioeconomic relations, and non-English speaking groups at a disadvantage.
Courtney Morrow

What Are the Inuit Tribe's Politics? | eHow.com - 0 views

  • 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.
  • Increased Political Awareness and Activism In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the increasing numbers of educated Inuit youth returning to their settlements energized the Inuit, particularly with regard to regaining traditional territories with their abundant natural resources. A main focus of the Inuit's emerging political activism was to ensure they would have greater involvement in the decisions surrounding the disposition of the land's resources, particularly in the energy sector, and to obtain a greater measure of economic stability and prosperity through the processing and sale of these resources. Throughout the late 1900s, the Inuit were generally successful in reaching settlements with national governments granting their claims to large expanses of their traditional territory.
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    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.
Claire Alexander

Inuitinfo - Location, Environment, and Population - 0 views

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    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.
J Scott Hill

In Central Africa, Bitter Cassava Is Linked to Mental Deficits - NYTimes.com - 1 views

  • Konzo, a disease that comes from eating bitter cassava that has not been prepared properly — that is, soaked for days to break down its natural cyanide — has long been known to cripple children.
  • In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Boivin and colleagues gave tests of mental acuity and dexterity to three groups of children. Two groups were from a village near the Angolan border with regular konzo outbreaks: Half had leg problems; half did not but had cyanide in their urine. The third was from a village 125 miles away with a similar diet but little konzo because residents routinely detoxified cassava before cooking it.
J Scott Hill

It's Lose-Lose vs. Win-Win-Win-Win-Win - NYTimes.com - 2 views

  • Writing in this newspaper in support of a carbon tax back in 2007, N. Gregory Mankiw, the Harvard economist, who was a senior adviser to President George W. Bush and to Mitt Romney, argued that “the idea of using taxes to fix problems, rather than merely raise government revenue, has a long history.
  • Using a Pigovian tax to address global warming is also an old idea. It was proposed as far back as 1992 by Martin S. Feldstein on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal.
  • he federal deficit could be reduced by approximately $1.25 trillion over 10 years” — roughly what we are trying to do through the foolish sequester. Such a tax would add about 21 cents per gallon of gasoline and about 1.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity. It could be phased in gradually as the economy improves.
J Scott Hill

Humanosphere | News and analysis of global health and the fight against poverty - 2 views

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    "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."
J Scott Hill

Movement Against Patenting of Seeds in India: Negative Effects of Patenting Seeds - 0 views

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    "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."
J Scott Hill

The New DADT: The Military's Ban on Transgender Service - OutServe Magazine - 0 views

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

Gettysburg College - EI's March 20 transgender inclusion in the military panel to be li... - 0 views

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    "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.
Karolina Hicke

Heart disease present in ancient mummies - 0 views

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    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.
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