Dereje's Amplify Diary

Is Population Growth a Threat for Economic Development?

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:53:00 -0500

I am always confused when ever the concept of population growth comes to my mind. Different scholars have different views about population growth with respect to economic development of a given country. Many developing countries are strongly working towards reducing the birth rate in their countries. I believe that it is excellent to work on family planning because the population growth has to be balanced with the over all resources of the country other wise it will be a mess. There are two broad views about population growth; it is a threat and it is an asset for economic development.

Some scholars strongly argue that population growth is a treat for the economic development of a given country by mentioning some poor countries from Africa and Asia having large number of population because of the scarcity of resources. But in the world there are few countries with very few population and leading difficult and awful life and the reverse is also true.

Other scholars from other side believe that population is an asset for a country. No matter what the population number is; what matters is the capacity of creating productive citizen. The world largest population China has clearly shown the world the value of population. China has brought this development by the strong, efficient and hard working people. Its population is an asset not a threat for the economic development of China. Few countries in the world with large populations such as India and Brazil are also following the foot steps of China and leading their countries and populations to the road of prosperity.

There are countries with few populations living in tremendous poverty and there are countries with large number of populations leading prosperous life. So where is the direct relation between population growth and lack of economic development? I believe that the population growth has to be equivalent and balanced with the resource of the country. In my view I believe that formulating poor development policies and strategies and its implementation that lead a country to poverty; more or less every country has its own resource the would be changed in to wealth.

So what do you feel about population growth and economic development? Will you share me your experience?

The Dangerous Leaf Part II

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 06:13:00 -0500

In my previous article I wrote about the dangerous leaf called Chat; at least you have got some information about the leaf and in this article I am writing you few things about the bad side and consequences resulted from the leaf with respect to reproductive health of young people.

As I have tried to mention few points on the previous article Chat contains a substance that stimulates and encourages some one to practice and exercise things in different ways. It forces young people to do things with out considering the consequences. Because of unemployment in the country a large number of Young people are addicted to this leaf and spending more time sitting by chewing it. It also makes them to see every thing either simple or difficult depends on the nature of the person. It also initiate them to make the impossible possible or the possible impossible because their brains don’t properly functioning like a normal person who doesn’t take Chat.

Right after taking chat to get relief from the substance these young people are become strained and forced to go to Bars and Clubs to drink much alcohols. The substance in the chat highly reduces the food appetite but it enhances the interest to drink more alcohol. Because of the nature of the leaf many people are forced to drink a lot while others are not interested to drink any alcohol. It has different effect on different people but it is common for the majority to take much alcohol.

It is all clear that drinking much alcohol will force them to make unsafe sex with their female and male counterparts and this enhance the transmission of HIV AIDS and unwanted pregnancy. This highly affects the life of young people and forced them to lead awful life suffering from the problem that they encountered because of taking chat. They became child mother and HIV positive and their life become miserable and difficult.

Once you are addicted to theleaf you should take it in a daily bases; to take chat it requires a lot of money because the price for the lowest quality of chat almost 2 USD which is the most expensive price to pay for an individual living in the country like Ethiopia where people are living below one dollar per day. This situation forced young boys and girls to commit crime or involved in illegal activities to get the money for daily consumption of Chat.

Here in our country chat makes many young people unproductive and desperate in their life. A large number of young women and men from secondary schools are addicted to this leaf and spending their valuable time in these chat houses which are found adjacent to the schools. In order to cover the costs these young girls are enforced to make sex with their elders like sugar daddies and because of these they are easily exposed to HIV AIDS and unwanted pregnancy that would be considered as the major reproductive health problem that currently prevails in the country.

To reduce the dangerous effect of the leaf some organizations are exerting their utmost effort to create awareness among young people. The work should not be left only for some people or organizations that are actively functioning in this area but it is a work that has to be accomplished by all the people. Unless the concerned bodies working in collaboration with the general public it is difficult to reduce the number of young people that are widely consume chat.

Young People and the Dangerous Leaf; Chat

Wed, 19 May 2010 09:52:00 -0500

In this short article I want to share you information about a very dangerous plant called Chat that is found and highly consumed and chewed by many people in East Africa. It is a kind of leaf which is grown in the highlands of Ethiopia; it stimulates and makes some times dizzy any one who chews it like smoking a dangerous drug marijuana and cannabis.

Many young people in East Africa are addicted to this leaf and spend their productive time by chewing it, the process of using this Chat is very ceremonial and will take long time and require some money to buy; on average it will take three to four hours to chew and for some others may be a day long. There are some dangerous habits that are exercised together with chewing chat like drinking too much alcohol just to get a relief from the stimulus it creates in the body and too much alcohol forced to make unsafe sex, this makes every thing difficult and complicated.

You can easily get the chat in every the other shop in the country, a huge sum amount of money is revolving around this transaction. Once you are addicted to this leaf it is too difficult to give up because it is a very dangerous leaf that easily becomes an addiction. It is because of this many young people here in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa are addicted to this leaf.

In Ethiopia few years ago the leaf was not been consumed by many people. Chewing chat is considered as a culture or tradition that extensively practiced in the Eastern part of the country but these days it is widely exercised in the capital city and all over the country. In some parts of the country especially in the Northern part chewing and producing Chat was considered as evil doing and cursed by all the people but now the story is different. Many farmers have started growing chat in their farm because it is a cash crop that brings more money for the farmers compared to other crops.

These days’ farmers are reducing to produce cereals and shifted their farm land to Chat farm because the demand for chat all over the country is increasing in alarming rate; many young people are addicted to this leaf and spending their time by chewing Chat. Chewing Chat is not legally prohibited and not considered as a dangerous drug in the country and because of this all the people who want to eat chat are free to make use of it.

The country also exported this chat to the neighboring country to Somali, Kenya, Djibouti and to some Middle East and European countries and it is serving as a source for hard currency for the country.

The leaf causes many reproductive and HIV AIDS problem; I will write you more next time about the problem related to this leaf. Many young school boys and girls are in problem with this dangerous leaf.

I recommend you never and ever start chewing Chat; you will be in problem once you start chewing it. It consumes your money, time, energy and knowledge.

If you have any thing to share about chat you are welcome.

Threat against Human Being

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:49:00 -0500

Recently it is common to watch and hear gay marriage. Gay people are married legally in some churches in different parts of the World; lately two HIV AIDS positive gays were conducting their marriage legally in Latin America Argentina. When they were conducting the wedding ceremony they were kissing each other live on BBC. It was a shocking and disgusting moment and news for the people like Ethiopia that are culturally and religiously bounded to see such kind of wickedness and immorality acts.

Many people in the morning around cafes and restaurants were nervously talking about the news they watched in the previous night on BBC and they felt that the world is heading towards the wrong direction. Some of the people have confidently condemned the act by saying the situation would be precarious for the life of people. Some of them strongly alleged that the world problem is not only Global warming but also Gay marriage. Gay marriage is the major threat for human kind and the heads of governments shall gather and find a solution for the issue like global warming, because all the works that are being done is to make the world suitable for the human being and for the continuation of generation. If a gay marriage is permitted, it will spread widely in short period of time through out the world as we clearly seen the increase in the number of people who are involved in this activity and this will bring the end of human race in a given period of time. This is the major and the most dangerous thing that has to be condemned by human race. If you have a vision to see the next generation to remain on the earth you should strongly oppose such an act like a carbon emission.

In our country such an act is considered as the most shocking, dreadful and horrible activity. Few people usually support the interest of gays because they consider it as human right; but others say we should talk about human right when there is human being on the earth, the act is against the existence of human being, so how would we speak about human right while we are actively involving and supporting the extinction of human race or interrupting the process of next generation.

In Ethiopia almost all the people consider this practice as a sin which will never get an excuse. And it is against the principle and doctrine of any religion functioning in the country. The people also believe that those people who are involved in such activities are insane and abnormal. The most dangerous and precarious things about the marriage between men is the probability in increasing HIV AIDS transmission, this make the situation worse and difficult. Such kind of marriage is more fertile for sexually transmitted disease. Basically the act is not public but few people are talking about the issue. Many people are aware about the activity of gay people in some areas of the city; these groups of people are actively carried out their actions during night, because of fearing the challenges of the public. If they are found to do this activity in day time they will face a great problem. It is a hidden activity; that is why they usually rape street boys who are living in the side of the road by paying them some amount of money. Some street boys are making their life from this activity and it is difficult for them to go out from such activity once they have started. Especially some foreign people are traveling long distance to involve in such act and some of them are working in charity organizations coming to the country in the name of charity.

Recently it becomes common to read and hear such a report every time. This shows that such an act is being widely exercised in the city, because of the request from the public the government of the country is giving a considerable attention for the case and it has started punishing those people who are involved in raping boys on the street. This is considered to be the first step to fight such acts in the country.

Here in the capital city of the country these groups of people have their own bar and restaurant which usually opens during night and they frequently tried to communicate different people to involve in their group and some of them faced dangerous situation. It is too dangerous and risky to ask some one to be the member of the group. But with the entire problem they have always increasing the membership of the group. Most people strongly oppose and never and ever want to listen about this issue; they would rather prefer to die.

I personally believe such activity increases the spread of HIV AIDS because every thing is done at the back of the curtain and that makes the situation in Ethiopia very difficult and complex so all the concerned body has to involve in awareness creation activities.

If you have any experience in your country in relation to gays please let’s share.

The Silence has not yet been Broken

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:01:00 -0500

The most important point in addressing the problem of HIV AIDS is to make the victims of the pandemic part of the solution; ignoring them and working alone with out the full participation and commitment of the victims will never bring permanent and reliable change that every body desire. It is obvious that the awareness which have been created in the society since many years back has producing results and saving lives of many people all over the world. However in global conditions new infections are outpacing the gains achieved in putting people on treatment, and AIDS remains one of the leading causes of premature death globally. This is shows that the silence has not been broken yet; still many more people are not comfortable to speak about the disease.

A large number of people from different segments of the society are not willing to under go HIV test to know their status and they are not keen to expose themselves and starting anti-retroviral treatment (ART) because of the discrimination they are facing from their families, relatives, friends and societies. This is specially observed in scholars and elites of the societies.

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Success and Challenges

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:13:00 -0500

The Federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (FHAPCO) of Ethiopia released a report on HIV and AIDS the celebration of World AIDS Day which under the theme of the year “Universal Access and Human right”. The celebration of World AIDS Day and the theme selected for this year has created opportunity for the nation to assess previous activities in the effort to arrest HIV/AIDS; which was found to be perplexed with tremendous success and combined with various impediments and flaws. Let’s share you the success and the challenges that the government of Ethiopia has been acquiring and facing respectively.

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Harmful traditional practices

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:19:00 -0500

Ethiopia, an ancient country has culture and traditions dating back over 3000 years. With over 80 different Ethnic groups with their own language, culture norms, customs, beliefs, and traditions are leaving with peace and harmony.

Like other countries Ethiopia is also a home for many useful and harmful traditional practices. These traditional practices have been widely exercised through out the country since many years back. It is good quality to develop and promote the useful traditional practices in the country so as to make it the identity and the culture of the people. In contrary there are many harmful traditional practices that are creating physical, mental, psychological and social problems in the society. Some of these harmful traditional practices which are considered to be a major problem in reproductive health are common in Ethiopia.

Today in this article I would prefer to entertain female gentile mutilation one of the traditional practices which is widely practiced, especially in rural areas of the country where awareness of reproductive health is considered to be very low and minimal.

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