Madagascar’s Cyclone Gamane—The Devastating Storm Nobody’s Talking About

Thousands of homes were destroyed and families displaced, with almost no American news coverage.

Cyclone Gamane over Madagascar. NASA, CC0

A few weeks ago, Cyclone Gamane made landfall on Madagascar. It devastated the island in no time flat, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless and without food or electricity. It arrived on March 27th; the government declared a state of emergency on April 3rd. And despite all of this, there was almost no American news coverage about the disaster.

Gamane began as a tropical cyclone over the South Indian Ocean. By the time it reached Madagascar, its wind speed was clocked at an average of 93 mph, with gusts up to 130 mph recorded. Thirty-three communes were flooded in the three days it pummeled the northern coast, and more than 780 houses were destroyed. Eighteen people were killed and more than 22,000 were displaced from their homes. Estimates suggest that there are roughly 220,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance on the island.

Even before the cyclone, Madagascar was numbered among the worst off in the Global Hunger Index in 2023. Before the flooding in February and with Gamane, much of the island was unable to produce enough food to support the population. Roughly 1.6 million citizens are food insecure, relying instead on humanitarian aid. Additionally, the cyclone came at the beginning of Madagascar’s notoriously dry lean season, which lasts from late March until May. If conditions don’t improve quickly, there are concerns that large chunks of the country will experience crisis-level food insecurity.

Emergency supplies on the island are already low—Gamane is only the third crisis to hit Madagascar in 2024, after the Alvaro storm in January and heavy flooding in February. Local humanitarian associations have made efforts to help the populace recover, but without resources, the government has had to call for aid from other countries.

The UN has set up a funding program under the CERF, the Central Emergency Response Fund, to accumulate funds to send to Madagascar. As of April 21st, the program is 20% funded, and is seeking to raise 90 million dollars. Smaller humanitarian organizations, such as the Redemptorist Solidarity Office (headquartered in Cork, Ireland), have taken action in the meantime to provide what help they can. According to their website, the RSO has provided 15,000 pounds for financial support and is shipping several tons of food items and medical kits. They hope to raise enough money to help provide shelter-building supplies for the displaced as well.

Madagascar is uniquely situated as one of the most susceptible places on Earth to natural disasters. Over the last 35 years, more than 50 hazards, including locust swarms, droughts, and heavy flooding, have struck the country and affected nearly half of the entire population. This has, to some degree, resulted in less coverage being dedicated to each event; even now, almost a month since the storm first made landfall, it has received very little publicity in the United States. But despite this lack of interest, humanitarian action is still being taken. It will be an uphill battle, between the fallout from the storm and the height of the lean season approaching, but with the help of the UN and other independent aid groups, Madagascar can and will recover.

Get Involved

At the moment, due to the lack of publicity that the crisis has received in the US, there are not many volunteer opportunities within the country. Those looking to help can donate to SEED Madagascar (which seeks to combat food insecurity), UNICEF Madagascar (which is working to minimize the effects of climate change on the island), or the World Food Programme’s Madagascar mission (which aims to supply over 1.6 million people with humanitarian assistance).

---

Ryan Livingston

Ryan is a senior at The College of New Jersey, majoring in English and minoring in marketing. Since a young age, Ryan has been passionate about human rights and environmental action and uses his writing to educate wherever he can. He hopes to pursue a career in professional writing and spread his message even further.

Beyond the Quakes: Taiwan’s Earthquake Preparedness

Despite being hit with a 7.4 magnitude earthquake during rush hour on April 3rd, 2024, Taiwan has emerged largely unscathed. Why is that?

A seismogram of the April 3rd, 2024 earthquake in Taiwan. James St. John. CC BY 2.0 

On April 3rd, 2024, the strongest earthquake in about 25 years rocked the streets in and around Hualien on the east coast of Taiwan, followed by hundreds of aftershocks. While the search for survivors remains underway, so far 13 people have been found dead, and nearly 1,000 people have reported injuries. While any number of deaths and injuries is tragic, these figures are minuscule compared to the near 2,500 dead and 100,000 injured during the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck in 1999 and left approximately 50,000 homes destroyed.

Considering its location along the Ring of Fire and the presence of three seismic belts in the country, Taiwan has a long history of earth-shaking events. The Ring of Fire refers to a fault line around the Pacific Ocean that is home to a majority of the world’s earthquakes. Because of this, Taiwan records an average of about 2,200 earthquakes every year, with a record of nearly 50,000 during 1999. Taiwan’s mountains then amplify the impact of earthquakes, which resulted in the landslides that accounted for most of the deaths on April 3rd.

Because of this susceptibility and catastrophic earthquakes in the past, Taiwan has developed some of the best earthquake preparedness techniques in the world. Following the devastating Chi-Chi earthquake in 1999, the Taiwanese government began reforming construction regulations. This included seismic retrofitting in buildings and infrastructure across the country and the prosecution of inadequate construction practices. Years of experience have also resulted in efficient emergency response, aided by surveillance cameras and social media used to identify locations requiring aid. 

Educating the public has been another initiative to prevent deaths during earthquakes and aftershocks. In addition to public awareness campaigns, the Central Weather Administration frequently publishes resources including information and tips surrounding earthquake preparedness. The Central Weather Administration has also run a real-time seismic network since 1994, which tracks data and notifies the public of seismic activity through an early warning system. The data collected by the seismic network is also used to update building codes.

GET INVOLVED

Ways for people to support Taiwan’s emergency response and earthquake preparedness include donating to and supporting organizations such as the Red Cross, Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps and Peace Winds America.

---

Madison Paulus

Madison is a student at George Washington University studying international affairs, journalism, mass communication, and Arabic. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Madison grew up in a creative, open-minded environment. With passions for human rights and social justice, Madison uses her writing skills to educate and advocate. In the future, Madison hopes to pursue a career in science communication or travel journalism.

The Global Social Ladder: The Best and Worst Countries for Social Mobility

The World Economic Forum's Global Social Mobility Report 2020 unfolds a gripping narrative.

Income disparity is the cause of social stratification. Steven Depolo. CC BY 3.0 DEED

Have you ever wondered about the likelihood of moving up the social hierarchy, even if you were born into a less advantaged position? This is where the notion of social mobility comes into play. While the understanding and implications of social mobility can differ, at its core, it represents the potential for individuals to improve their socio-economic status relative to their current position in society. In nations with robust social mobility, individuals from more modest beginnings have an increased likelihood of attaining a higher social status.

With this concept in mind, the calculation of social mobility takes center stage as a vital concern. Social mobility encompasses two primary facets: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal mobility takes place when an individual changes jobs while maintaining their overall societal status, often occurring when transitioning between similar occupations. Conversely, vertical mobility represents the movement from a lower societal position to a higher one, or vice versa. 

The World Economic Forum, an international non-governmental organization advocating for multinational corporations, presented its Global Social Mobility Report for 2020, assessing and ranking 82 countries. This comprehensive report evaluated five critical indicators: education, access to technology, healthcare, social safety nets, and employment opportunities. In this examination, we will delve into some of the countries that secured the highest and lowest positions in the report, exploring the economic, historical, and societal factors that shape their levels of social mobility.

Countries with highest social mobility ranking

Interestingly, the top five nations boasting the highest social mobility—Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Iceland—all hail from the Nordic region and thrive under the welfare-state model. This system, blending free-market capitalism with significant wealth redistribution, ensures free public services like education and healthcare, along with substantial pension payments for retirees. The Scandinavian countries owe much of their model's success to a relatively flat social hierarchy, shared history, societal evolution and cohesive societies. In contrast, North American nations like the United States and Canada, despite promoting upward mobility, deviate due to their resistance to extensive government programs and high tax rates seen in Europe, resulting in a distinct welfare landscape that differs significantly from the Nordic model.

1. Denmark-85.2

The capital of Denmark. rawpixel.com. CC0 1.0 DEED

Denmark has earned its top ranking in social mobility due to its outstanding performance in various metrics, particularly in the context of low-income families reaching median income. Assuming constant relative social mobility across these countries, Denmark stands out, with an estimated two generations needed to reach median income, as opposed to six in France. This achievement contributes to lower income inequality in Denmark. With a remarkable score of 82.7 and a third-place ranking on the Fair Wages pillar, Denmark offers a healthcare system that is both high quality and equitable. The national government allocates block grants from tax revenue to regions and municipalities responsible for healthcare provision. Every registered Danish resident is automatically enrolled in publicly funded healthcare, which is largely free at the point of use. Registered immigrants and asylum seekers are also covered, while undocumented immigrants have voluntary access to acute-care services. Denmark also excels in social protection, which involves subsidized day care, special support to children, young people and their families and robust housing allowance. Denmark ranked third in this category. This achievement is rooted in the long-standing trust within Danish society and the "universal welfare model," where all citizens are entitled to fundamental welfare benefits and services solely based on their citizenship. This model is designed to support the integrated capitalist market economy that characterizes Danish society.

2. Norway - 83.6

Skyline in Bergen, Norway. Jim Trodel. CC BY-SA 2.0

Norway, another Nordic nation, secures the second position in the realm of social mobility. Boasting low income inequality and an astonishing ability to reach median income within just two generations, Norway stands out prominently in the global landscape, particularly in its robust social safety net, where it ranks fourth worldwide. What sets Norway's social safety net apart is its commitment to maintaining high living standards and minimizing income disparities. For instance, daycare expenses for a family with three children total around $1,100 per month, significantly less than market rates. Education is entirely free at all levels and most Norwegian public, government-funded institutions have no tuition fee. Educational attainment is exceptionally high due to Norway's longstanding commitment to ensuring that all young people complete 13 years of formal schooling. Consequently, Norwegian residents are known for their outstanding workforce participation rates. Furthermore, active participation in various groups and associations enriches Nordic culture, fosters democracy and enhances overall quality of life. Norway's reputation as "a secure and transparent place to do business," as indicated by the 2021 Heritage Index of Economic Freedom, is a testament to its fair legal system, transparent laws, and political stability.

3. Finland - 83.6

A market in Finland. City Clock Magazine. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Finland secures the third spot in global social mobility, largely attributed to its relatively high income mobility. This means that being born into a wealthy family in Finland provides some advantage, but the impact on a child's future earnings is fairly low. For example, a doubling of parental income in Finland leads to a 15% increase in future salary, in stark contrast to 50% for the United States and 60% for China. Finland prides itself on its inclusive education system, ranking second worldwide. Irrespective of their educational needs or abilities, all students are typically taught in the same classrooms. Only children with the most significant educational requirements receive instruction in special classes or schools. Additionally, Finland takes pride in its robust social protection coverage, which extends to both those who work in the country and permanent residents. This comprehensive system supports individuals during parenthood, encompassing maternity, paternity, and parental allowances, as well as allowances for parents raising sick or disabled children.

4. Sweden - 83.5

Stockholm City Hall, Sweden. Stefan Lins. CC BY 2

Sweden, a Scandinavian nation, exhibits generally high intergenerational social mobility, which pertains to the link between a parent’s socioeconomic status and that of their child. A century ago, Sweden had relatively low levels of wealth redistribution compared to other European countries, and even higher income inequality than the United States. Nonetheless, Sweden’s rising social mobility as a welfare state can be attributed to high rates of internal migration and the robust economic growth of its pre-World War I economy. In the early 20th century, Sweden began developing its welfare state, and between 1945 and 1975, it expanded significantly. The “Swedish Model” gained prominence during this period due to its consistently growing economy, neutral stance in World War II, and a populace with similar cultural backgrounds. Nevertheless, Sweden’s welfare state and its measurement of social mobility have faced criticism for promoting substantial tax cuts, reducing funding for welfare programs, and increasing the involvement of private businesses in delivering public services. Studies examining surnames associated with the upper class have revealed that conventional methods tend to overstate the rates of underlying social mobility. Remarkably, the Swedish aristocracy from the 1700s still maintains its elite status, albeit while slowly being dissolved into the broader population.

5. Iceland - 82.7

Reykjavik, Iceland.Berit Watkin. CC-BY 2.0

Iceland stands out for its impressive track record of achieving high social mobility, and a significant contributing factor to this success is its established family policy. The support for women working outside the home has been ingrained in Iceland's family policy for an extended period. Consequently, the country boasts one of the highest rates of female labor force participation globally, reaching 75% in 2020. In terms of gender equality, Iceland surpasses many other nations, demonstrating a lower male-female disparity. The equitable distribution of the burden of child rearing between genders is another notable outcome of Iceland's family policy, where factors such as kindergartens and parental leave play pivotal roles. In Iceland, a child is entitled to an impressive 12 months of parental leave, with six months allocated for each parent, of which six weeks are shareable. Additionally, the impact of housing costs is minimized, as only 25% of low-income families pay more than 40% of their income for housing. Iceland also takes pride in providing its citizens with access to technology. The country maintains its top position globally in preserving internet freedom, ensuring nearly universal connectivity, minimal restrictions on internet content, and robust online rights safeguards. In 2021, an outstanding 98.36 percent of households in Iceland had internet connectivity.

Countries with lowest social mobility ranking

Nations experiencing lower social mobility worldwide are predominantly situated in the global South, and are marked by economic stagnation, political instability and a recurring history of socioeconomic segregation. These challenges establish a pernicious cycle, particularly in Africa and Middle Eastern countries, significantly impeding the upward mobility of underrepresented communities. The struggle arises from a complex interplay of factors, making it imperative to address economic disparities, political turmoil, and historical injustices for sustainable improvement.

1. Cote d'Ivoire - 34.5

Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana border post. jbdodane. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In the past two decades, Cote d'Ivoire, a West African jewel boasting beach resorts, rainforests, and a French-colonial legacy, grapples with persistent inequalities. These disparities are discernible in the landscape, from the prevalence of luxury items and expensive furniture stores to the emergence of French supermarkets, which are confined to the purview of the well off. The social and economic fabric of the country is intricately woven by centuries of cross-cultural influences, trans-Saharan and coastal trade, and local innovations. The imposition of colonial rule and the shift to independence disrupted established patterns of life, leading to societal and cultural transformations by the 1980s, shaped by responses to disruptions and government policies. Inequality is caused especially by access to power, drinking water, education, housing style and place of residence (urban or rural residence). The Ivory Coast's middle class, primarily prosperous farmers, traders, and professionals in administration, education and healthcare, remains a small minority.

2. Senegal - 36.0

Saint-Louis, Senegal. World Bank Photo Collection. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Nestled in West Africa, Senegal emerges as one of the countries grappling with limited social mobility. During the colonial era, significant earnings from major companies favored foreigners and the local nobility. Post-independence, the government's nationalization initiatives favored a privileged few, sparking a renewed struggle for status and authority. In line with other Sub-Saharan African nations, Senegalese societies, rooted in shared traditions, perceive hierarchy as fundamental to their political and economic organization. Senegal’s largest ethnic groups, despite cultural disparities and historical tensions, share a caste-based social structure with distinct roles. In Dakar, for example, seeking employment for respect and authority, urban males frequently base their decisions on class perceptions. The economic challenges faced by young men often translate into prolonged singleness, as expectations for traditional roles remain unmet. However, the prevalence of inexperienced and illiterate workers, coupled with limited job opportunities, often hinders the ability to challenge labor code violations, resulting in subpar working conditions. Despite these challenges, Senegal modestly progressed in addressing the worst forms of child labor in 2022, collaborating with the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime to establish new procedures for identifying and investigating human trafficking incidents.

3. Cameroon - 36.0

UN Women Humanitarian Work with Refugees in Cameroon.UN WomenFollow. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In the heart of Central Africa, the city of Cameroon unfolds as a captivating tale of social dynamics, shaped by the rich tapestry of cultural, religious, and political traditions. Post-World War I, the nation was carved into British and French mandates, giving birth to the intriguing Anglophone region in the Southwest and Northwest Regions. Here, Pidgin English takes center stage as the lingua franca, while the echoes of English education and legal systems resonate. Meanwhile, for many ethnic groups in Cameroon society is tied together by a hierarchical social structure that encompasses various groups, from royalty to slaves, within conventional norms. As traditions intersect with contemporary realities, Cameroon's health landscape emerges as a pivotal chapter. Despite commendable drops in leading causes of death like HIV/AIDS and malaria, geographic imbalances persist. A substantial 70% of regions grapple with acute shortages in health personnel, with ratios plummeting below 1.5 per 1,000. The departure of 232 physicians and 205 nurses from the public sector underscores the challenges, tied to unfavorable working conditions and constrained career pathways.

4. Pakistan - 36.7

Pakistan. Asian Development Bank.CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In Pakistan’s 2020 National Human Development Report, the UNDP explores The Three Ps of Inequality: Power, People, and Policy. It unmasks elite strategies for systemic control, disclosing that productive elites inflicted a staggering $6.34 billion in economic losses on the manufacturing sector in the fiscal year 2017–2018. The military dominates the country, establishing extensive corporate empires, fortifying against citizen uprisings and exerting control over elections. Much like its subcontinental counterpart Bangladesh, Pakistan also grapples with substantial challenges in achieving educational quality and equity, notably in the student-to-teacher ratio across all educational levels. The country is marred by corruption and contends with a lack of political stability and protection from violence — essential elements for constructing inclusive institutions that can benefit all citizens. A formidable learning poverty issue persists, with a staggering 75% of the population affected. This stark reality is reflected in the disappointing allocation of only 2.0% of its GDP to education, while a considerable 4% is directed toward defense. The historical emphasis on Islamic ideology and fundamentalism further complicates the educational landscape. The challenges are further exacerbated by the compounding impact of COVID-19 and the 2022 floods. According to the Human Capital Review, to ensure the retention of all children in school and enhance the quality of instruction, Pakistan would need to allocate an unprecedented 5.4 percent of its GDP — an unimaginable financial burden for the majority of Pakistani families. 

5. Bangladesh - 40.2

View of Dhaka, Bangladesh. United Nation Photos. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Social stagnation has emerged as a pressing concern in Bangladesh, primarily due to the inadequacy of education resources. Bangladesh received the lowest score in Lifelong Learning, particularly highlighting deficiencies in level of employee training, policies for the active labor market, and the digital literacy rate among the active population. In 2019, The Human Capital Project delved into the learning poverty situation, defining it as the inability to read and comprehend a brief paragraph by the age of ten in Bangladesh. The findings were alarming, indicating that a significant 55% of children in the country fall below the minimum proficiency level. Additionally, less than 12% of the population enrolled in colleges or universities in 2010. The absence of a standardized curriculum for teachers in Bangladesh adds a layer of complexity to the education system, compounded by a scarcity of highly qualified teachers capable of instigating transformative changes. Another challenge stems from the severe impact of climate change, particularly on global south countries like Bangladesh. Extreme weather events, such as floods, cyclones, and hurricanes, pose a threat to school operations, infrastructure, and the displacement of students and teachers. Bangladesh Education Statistics reveal that a staggering 25,430 educational institutions are situated in disaster-prone locations. Children in these areas, especially those with disabilities and from impoverished backgrounds, are at a heightened risk of being excluded from educational opportunities.

The potential to ascend the social hierarchy rests on personal merit, yet is intricately linked to the political, societal and economic system that allows individuals to navigate their wealth and social status. In analyzing countries with the highest and lowest social mobility, these variables may not fully capture each individual's likelihood of success, as they are also influenced by factors like a nation's size and social cohesion (as evidenced in Nordic countries). Nonetheless, this exploration sheds light on the push and pull dynamics guiding physical mobility across various corners of the world.

---

Hope Zhu

Hope is a Chinese international student at Wake Forest University in North Carolina studying sociology, statistics, and journalism. She dreams of traveling around the globe as a freelance reporter while touching on a wide range of social issues from education inequality to cultural diversity. Passionate about environmental issues and learning about other cultures, she is eager to explore the globe. In her free time, she enjoys cooking Asian cuisine, reading, and theater.

5 Historical Epidemics that Changed the World

Disease outbreaks are inherent to a populous, globalized world.

Doctors and nurses in biohazard suits during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. National Museum of Health and Medicine. CC0.

Pandemics have been a part of the human story since the agricultural revolution in 10,000 BC. Agriculture gave people the ability to create more food than they ever had before, which meant that the human population soared. People began packing together and settling down in large communities without modern sanitation, creating the ideal conditions for the spread of disease. As time went on, larger and larger communities established extensive trading networks with the ability to spread disease across continents. 

With each disease outbreak, humanity has developed better defenses and practices to help prevent catastrophic losses. However, as long as population sizes continue to rise and the global community becomes ever more interconnected, worldwide pandemics will always be something that humanity must contend with. 

This trend towards an increasingly populous and interconnected world is what fueled the global sweep of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Amesh Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said, “Viruses used to spread at the speed of a steamboat. Now, they can spread at the speed of a jet. In that sense, we’re more at risk.” The only way to adapt to the expanding threat of disease is to learn from the past and prepare for the trends of the future. Below is a list of some of the most devastating pandemics in history and how humanity’s response to disease changed because of them.

1. The Bubonic Plague 

14th Century CE

The plague of Florence, 1348. Boccacio’s Decam Wellcome. CC-BY-4.0.

Also known as the Black Death, the Bubonic Plague is the most notorious pandemic in history. It is believed to have killed between 30–50% of the European population in the 14th century, anywhere between 75 million and 200 million people. The Bubonic Plague is also thought to have killed 25 million people in Asia and Northern Africa at the time. The Black Death is known to have an incredibly high mortality rate, killing between 30-100% of those afflicted depending on the manner of infection. 

The Bubonic Plague spread globally as a result of the Silk Road, which connected the world through trade networks. Rodents carrying fleas infected with the plague were easy stow-aways in trading caravans and vessels. This is one of the first instances where globalization caused a deadly, widespread disease outbreak. 

At the time, the Black Death was thought to be the result of a combination of bad air, an imbalance in the body’s fluids or “humors,” and the wrath of God. Treatments included potions, fumigations, bloodletting, pastes, animal cures and religious cures. Persecution of minority groups was also common, particularly the Jewish population, who became a scapegoat for the suffering caused by the plague. Despite the outlandish and sometimes brutal practices of the 14th century, one method developed in the wake of the Black Death has proved incredibly effective: quarantine. Though, like today, many medieval citizens did not abide by quarantine practices, implementation of — to use a contemporary term — social distancing was one of the few effective practices to slow the spread of the Bubonic Plague.

2. Tuberculosis

7,000 BC – present day

A sick woman lies on a balcony with death standing over her, representing tuberculosis. Richard Tennant Cooper. CC-BY-4.0.

The sheer scope of tuberculosis in human history is almost difficult to fathom. Tuberculosis in humans can be traced back 9,000 years to Atlit Yam, a city now under the Mediterranean Sea, where archeologists found the disease in the bodies of a mother and child buried together. Tuberculosis, which has gone by many names throughout time, including “the white death” in the 1700s and “consumption” in the 1800s, is one of humanity’s great enemies. According to the CDC, from the 1600s–1800s, Tuberculosis was responsible for 25% of all deaths. 

Today, vaccines and antibiotics are available to prevent and treat tuberculosis. These developments in tuberculosis treatments saved 74 million lives between 2000 and 2021. However, despite this breakthrough in modern medicine, a total of 1.6 million people died from tuberculosis in 2021 according to the World Health Organization. Over 80% of these deaths come from low and middle income countries. Modern medicine means that Tuberculosis is treatable, but these treatments are not universally accessible. In a globalized world, access to healthcare cannot be a first world luxury if outbreaks are to be prevented. 

3. The Columbian Exchange

1492–1800 CE

Spanish imperialists conquer the Americas. Wilfredor. CC-BY-SA.

The Columbian Exchange is a massive interchange of people, animals, plants, and diseases that took place between Eastern and Western Hemispheres after Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492. This process introduced a number of foreign diseases that Native Americans had no immunity to, whose toll reached genocidal proportions, killing between 80–95% of Indigenous Americans within 100–150 years of Columbus’ first landing. Some of the diseases that plagued the Native Americans include smallpox, measles, influenza, chickenpox, the bubonic plague, typhus, scarlet fever, pneumonia and malaria. European imperialism is to blame for the catastrophic spread of disease to the Indigenous population.

4. The Spanish Flu

1918–1919 CE

Infected patients were isolated during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Jim Forest. CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0.

After WWI, global contact and poor sanitary conditions during the war caused a worldwide outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, known at the time as the Spanish Flu. 500 million people were infected, one third of the world’s population at the time. Of those infected, 50 million people died worldwide, including 675,000 people in the United States. 

This pandemic led to a number of medical innovations still in use today. One of which is the widespread use of masks to prevent the spread of disease. The Spanish Flu pandemic also led to innovations in vaccine technology and spurred our understanding of genes and the chemicals that encode them.

5. AIDS Epidemic

1981-1990s

Protestors march against the stigma caused by the AIDs epidemic. NIH History Office. CC0.

HIV originally jumped from chimpanzees to humans in the early ‘80s, most likely due to human hunters coming into contact with chimpanzee blood. As a result, 84 million people have been infected globally and 40 million people have died. The AIDS epidemic is notorious for the resulting stigmatization of the LGBTQ+ community, which were greatly, though not uniquely, affected by the disease. Epidemics throughout history, since the Bubonic Plague, have caused hysteria and scapegoating, a flaw in human nature that must be quelled. 

Since the 1980s incredible strides have been made in the treatment of HIV and AIDS. As of 2021, 38.4 million people were living with HIV without it progressing to AIDS (when deadly symptoms appear) due to modern treatments. The treatment for HIV is taking daily antiretroviral therapy (ART), which is a cocktail of different HIV medicines. This treatment can allow people to live with HIV for decades without it progressing to AIDS.

---

Sophia Larson

Sophia Larson is a recent graduate of Barnard College at Columbia University. She previously worked as the Assistant Editor on the 2021 book Young People of the Pandemic. She has also participated as a writer and editor at several student news publications, including “The UMass Daily Collegian” and “Bwog, Columbia Student News.”

10 Natural Disasters that Shook History

Witness the awe-inspiring forces of nature unleashed through devastating hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and catastrophic floods.

The recent havoc wreaked by a wildfire in Hawaii has turned the once-idyllic summer paradise into a scene of devastation. The ferocity of another’s sweep through British Columbia and the Northwest Territories stands as a stark testament to the awe-inspiring might of Mother Nature. In contemporary times, we find ourselves confronting an array of astonishing extreme weather events and disasters. From heart-rending floods in California to merciless storms battering Mississippi, and the earth-shattering earthquakes that shook Afghanistan, these events underscore the delicate balance between human society and the natural world.

Throughout the annals of history, spanning various epochs of human progress, we encounter a recurring theme of dramatic weather and geological upheavals. Presented below are six far-reaching instances of natural disasters, each demanding a profound respect for the forces of nature.

1. The Great Hurricane of 1780

Caribbean Islands

Egmont Robt Fanshawe Esqr, Commander, when dismasted in the Great Hurricane on October 11th 1780 near the Island St Lucia. Royal Museums Greenwich. CC0.

Among the most catastrophic events etched in the annals of the Atlantic Ocean is the Great Hurricane of 1780, a tempest that swept across the Caribbean archipelago and left in its wake a death toll that neared 22,000 victims. The island of Barbados, nestled among the Lesser Antilles and situated to the north of Venezuela, bore the full brunt of this storm’s wrath. Accounts from the local inhabitants paint a grim picture: “Many ships were wrecked and many people were killed…the wall has been completely washed away by the sea and the back of the house has been left only on single struts”. With wind speeds exceeding 200 mph — a velocity that engulfs the length of a football field (300 feet) in just over a second — this storm annihilated every vestige of human civilization in its path. Trees, houses, stones, and wood crumbled before its might. Fortresses, cannons, and ships were tossed haphazardly, like mere playthings, as the tempest raged on. Its course then shifted northwestward, targeting the islands of Saint Lucia, Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe.

On Martinique, a nucleus of French sugar production that depended heavily on enslaved labor, the hurricane’s fury claimed a toll of roughly 9,000 lives. But the storm’s impact transcended the natural realm. It unleashed winds that bore the force of history, catalyzing a chain of events that reverberated into the American Revolution. Both British and French troops, staggered by the disaster, bore the brunt of its blow. The catastrophe was particularly unkind to the French forces, then taking part in the American War of Independence as an ally of the newly declared United States — over 40 ships were swallowed by the depths near Martinique, and the death toll among soldiers grew to around 4,000. The impact extended to the British side as well, leaving their once-potent fleet decimated by a trio of consecutive storms. In part as a result, the English presence in the northwestern Atlantic suffered a profound and enduring contraction.

2. Mount Tambora’s Eruption, 1815

Indonesia

Rocks and ashes on the ground with smoke in the background in front of a mountainrange.

Tucked away on the obscure Indonesian island of Sumbawa, the name Mount Tambora might elude recognition today. Yet, its eruption in the spring of 1815 held within it the power to reshape global weather patterns indefinitely. On a seemingly ordinary afternoon, as the sun prepared to dip below the horizon on April 10, 1815, Mount Tambora rumbled to life. An astounding 12 cubic miles of gases surged into the atmosphere, accompanied by a tumultuous eruption of dust and rocks that choked the skies and enveloped both the island of Sumbawa and its surroundings in a shroud of darkness. Amid this scene of apocalypse, inhabitants either met their end in the fiery conflagration or succumbed to the merciless hail of rocks. The handful of survivors found their once-fertile land tainted by volcanic ash and other substances, rendering it incapable of yielding crops. The ensuing famine claimed many remaining lives as starvation took its cruel toll.
The eruption, though spanning merely three days, reached its dramatic pinnacle with the mountain expelling an astounding 300 to 500 million kilograms of material every second. This eruption stands as an unparalleled event in documented history, claiming the lives of 100,000 islanders. It also unleashed the largest recorded volume of toxic sulfurous gases and volcanic ash from a single natural source. The once stately Mount Tambora, which had stood tall, now bore the scars of devastation, losing more than a third of its height as a shattering explosion rent the mountain asunder on that fateful April evening.

The 1815 Mount Tambora eruption. The red areas are maps of the thickness of volcanic ashfall.Wikipedia Commons. CC0.

The aftermath of this eruption reverberated not just in the years that followed, but has cast its shadow even upon the present day, nearly two centuries later. Geographically, the immense explosion carved out colossal craters along Tambora’s rim, plunging to depths of around 1.2 kilometers. It caused a veil of sulfate dust to enshroud the planet, casting a cooling pall over temperatures and unsettling crucial weather systems for over three years. This era, often referred to as the “Year Without a Summer,” cast its shadow in 1816. Across Europe, temperatures plummeted and precipitation surged, ushering food scarcity and triggering widespread upheavals, with protests and riots sweeping across the continent. This tumultuous atmosphere gave birth to iconic gothic literature like Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” John William Polidori's “The Vampyre,” and Lord Byron’s “Darkness”. Meanwhile, North America experienced its share of hardship as well, with New England grappling with snowfall and “killing frost,” a factor that catalyzed the Panic of 1819, the United States’ first major economic depression. Moreover, the impact of this eruption radiated across the ecology of the Indian subcontinent and the Arctic, spawning pandemics and wreaking havoc on ocean currents.

3. Yangtze River floods, 1931

China

A sign for environmental protection at Yangdi village. shankar s. CC BY 2.0.

The city of Wuhan, China has gained global recognition as the ground zero of the Covid-19 outbreak. However, Wuhan's story stretches back beyond this contemporary chapter, encompassing a legacy of natural upheavals spanning nearly a century. China‘s iconic Yangtze River, an aquatic lifeline celebrated for its contributions to sustenance, irrigation, sanitation, trade and industry, harbors another facet — the potential to ravage the land with its powerful floods. The pages of history bear witness to the tumultuous year of 1931, when torrential waters surged and engulfed swaths of central and eastern China. This watery onslaught did not bustling towns of Wuhan and Nanjing, as the Republic China was torn asunder by political tumult, economic strife and relentless conflict. Amid the backdrop of droughts and challenging winters that plagued the 1920s and 1930s, the Yangtze River basin bore witness to a torrent of water cascading downstream in the spring of 1931, as ice and snow yielded to the warming sun.
Within the cradle of civilization that is the Yangtze River Basin, a substantial segment — roughly one-third — of China’s population makes their home. The specter of flooding casts its shadow, further accentuated by deforestation and the unchecked utilization of wetlands. As spring unfolded its petals, waters of the river cascaded into the thoroughfares and mingled with the discharges from Wuhan’s overburdened sewers. By the start of August in 1931, a sprawling area encompassing 180,000 square kilometers — a vast terrain akin to the collective expanse of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut — was claimed by the deluge. Cities and hamlets submerged were in their entirety, while others stood as half-drowned relics. In the throes of the flood‘s onset, around 150,000 lives soon succumbed to its watery embrace, while the final toll remains a haunting enigma. Economic devastation ensued, obliterating years of hard-earned income for countless individuals. Amidst the aftermath, the specters of famine and disease loomed large, exacting a toll far surpassing the deluge’s immediate impact.

4. Valdivia Earthquake, 1960

Chile

This masonry office building in the downtown area of Concepcion, Chile collapsed as a result of the M 8.8 earthquake on Feb. 27, 2010. U.S. Geological Survey. CC0 1.0.

Chile’s geographical positioning atop a convergent plate boundary leaves it perpetually exposed to Earth’s shifting tectonic plates. One seismic spectacle that resounds through history is the Tsunami of May 22, 1960 — a seismic symphony that crescendoed to a magnitude of 9.5 on the Richter scale. To grasp the significance of this figure, consider that an earthquake registering between 6.1 and 6.9, like the temblor that rattled Little Antelope Valley, California near the Nevada border on July 8, 2021, can already inflict substantial devastation within densely inhabited areas. Now, imagine the seismic intensity of a magnitude 9.5 earthquake, which is an overwhelming 177,827.941 times more potent in terms of energy released than a magnitude 6 quake. This degree of seismic activity can wreak havoc, decimating any settlements in proximity to its epicenter. This seismic reckoning occurred around 3 p.m. on May 21, 1960, approximately 100 miles (160 km) offshore from Chile's coastline, tracing a parallel path to the city of Valdivia. In a time when Chile was gearing up to honor the Battle of Iquique, the coastal haven of Concepcion was suddenly plunged into turmoil. The portents of impending catastrophe manifested in violent tremors, the precursor to the cataclysmic quake that bore a magnitude of 7.9 at its inception.

The grimmest chapter unfolded the ensuing afternoon, as a seismic rupture of staggering scale snaked along a sprawling 600-mile fault line. In a dramatic geological ballet, the Nazca Plate — an expanse of the Pacific seafloor rivaling California in magnitude — descended fifty feet beneath the South American continent. The thriving harbor town of Valdivia met its demise, while a multitude of coastal settlements vanished into oblivion. This seismic drama had unforeseen consequences, expanding Chile’s realm by an area equivalent to around 1,500 football fields. Heightening the seismic spectacle, the epicenter of this cataclysm sprawled along a nearly 700 mile tract along the southern edge of the Chilean coast. The upheaval stirred up tempestuous seas, resulting in ruin across distant shores — from Hawaii and Japan to the Pacific coastline of the United States. An estimated count of two million people found themselves displaced by this seismic upheaval. In terms of monetary toll, the damage in Chile alone amounted to a staggering $550 million, with the aftermath registering a grim tally of several dozen to hundreds of fatalities and casualties from the South American and US West Coast, to Japan and the Philippines at the other end of the Pacific.

5. Bhola Cyclone, 1970

Bangladesh

A woman walks past makeshift shelters in the Cyclone aftermath, Bangladesh, 2007. Direct Relief. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. 

Bangladesh, a densely-populated delta nation born from eroded Himalayan sediments, endured the catastrophic Bhola Cyclone in 1970, impacting the country (which was then known asEast Pakistan, and part of the Pakistani state that exists today) and India’s West Bengal. The region's history of cyclones left it vulnerable, averaging nearly two annually from 1959 to 1969. Termed the “Bhola Cyclone,” it ranks among the 20th century’s deadliest disasters, claiming 300,000 to 500,000 lives. The storm's origins trace back to a dissipating tropical system over the Malayan Peninsula on November 5. Rapidly intensifying by November 12, it struck with 130 mph winds. But, as traditional danger notifications over Radio Pakistan came to an abrupt halt, coastal residents were left unaware of the impending peril's magnitude, as reported by Pakistan Press International (PPI). In the aftermath of the devastating cyclone, countless survivors were stripped of their belongings, left only with their lives, as entire villages, rice harvests and essential provisions were wiped out. Following this, outbreaks of cholera and typhoid added to the challenges.

The aftermath of the Bhola Cyclone also played a crucial role in East Pakistan's pursuit of independence from the grip of West Pakistani authority. The mishandled response to the disaster allowed the Bengali Awami League to champion both independence and political reform. This movement gathered momentum in December 1970, when the League secured victory in the elections. As a result, East Pakistan transformed into Bangladesh in 1971 — a victory for freedom caused in part by the cyclone’s impact, although independent Bangladesh would undergo periods of tyranny.

6. Tangshan Earthquake, 1976

China

July 28, 1976, Tangshan earthquake, epicenter area. Wikipedia Commons. CC0.

Tangshan, located in Hebei Province, China, felt the earth’s fury in a cataclysmic event that still resonates as one of the deadliest and most destructive earthquakes in recent memory. On the quiet morning of July 28, 1976, as darkness lingered before dawn, the thriving Chinese industrial city of Tangshan was abruptly thrust into chaos. Hints of the impending disaster were strewn outside the village of Baiguantuan. A thousand chickens, typically eager for sustenance, abandoned their feed to sound off an agitated cacophony. Mice and yellow weasels, creatures of the night, scrambled in frantic retreat, sensing the impending upheaval. 

Subsequently, a seismic shock with a magnitude ranging from 7.8 to 8.2 on the Richter scale rocked the region for 23 seconds, reducing 90% of Tangshan's buildings to rubble. This was followed by a series of potent aftershocks, two of which surpassed a magnitude of 6.0. Roughly 15 hours later, a robust aftershock measuring 6.1 struck. The earthquake obliterated coal mines and the industries reliant on them, triggering the collapse of power, water, sewage, telephone, telegraph, and radio networks. The destruction of railway and highway bridges isolated the city entirely. Tragically, half of the city’s population — about a million individuals — lost their lives.

7. Ethiopia Famine, 1983 –1985

Ethiopia

Those who weathered the 1984 famine in Kobo and belong to the elder generation conveyed to ambassadors Haslach and O'Hara that the compounding impact of several unfavorable rainy seasons has resulted in the most formidable drought they have ever experienced. USAID Ethiopia. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In spite of a global food supply that typically suffices for the world's growing population,  hunger remains an unfortunate reality in many developing nations. Over the past decade, grain yields per hectare in Africa have plunged by a third, and since 1981, food production has diminished by 15%. The year 1984 marked Ethiopia's encounter with a massive famine that reverberated across the globe, claiming around 2 million lives. A harsh drought intertwined with fierce conflicts to intensify the distress, as Eritreans fought for their autonomy and Tigrayans for their rights. This turmoil unfolded in central Eritrea and the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, marred by arbitrary incarcerations, expulsions and ethnic cleansing. Manipulating hunger relief, the Ethiopian government used the crisis to relocate and expel Tigrayans, triggering a more volatile conflict that obstructed aid delivery to civilians in controlled areas. Consequently, sick and famished individuals congregated along stretches of Wollo's north-south road, halting vehicles in a desperate plea for sustenance — an unsettlingly frequent sight.

Accounts of hunger in Wollo and Tigray were disregarded by authorities and shrouded in secrecy. Aid organizations overlooked warning signals, prioritizing a rapport with the government. Economically, the majority of Ethiopian farmers are involved in livestock rearing or agricultural activities. Their reliance on the market to meet even their basic consumption needs is profound throughout the year. The drought of 1984 exposed the frailty of Ethiopia's political and economic systems, causing the loss of nearly 8 million lives to famine. Today, the threat of starvation still hangs over Ethiopia, impacting no less than 350,000 individuals in the Tigray region, still wracked by conflict four decades later.

8. Kashmir Earthquake, 2005

Pakistan

The meeting point of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates lies right in the heart of Kashmir, giving birth to the grandeur of the Himalayan mountain range through intense geological forces. This collision not only shaped the Himalayas but also unleashed tumultuous seismic activities in the area. In the early dawn of October 8, 2005, a formidable earthquake rocked northern Pakistan, leaving behind a trail of devastation. The consequences were felt deeply: villages were leveled, roads buried under rubble, and vital services such as water and electricity were severed. A staggering three million individuals found themselves homeless, while the grim count of human lives lost reached a tragic toll of at least 80,000. This seismic occurrence stands as the nation’s deadliest earthquake ever experienced. Among the most severely affected regions was Uri, where the heart-wrenching aftermath left 80% of the town in ruins. 
The scene in the Muzaffarabad region of Kashmir was equally haunting, as villages laid in ruins, bearing silent witness to the aftermath of a natural disaster. Over 780,000 structures were left devastated or irreparably damaged, while countless more faced extended periods of unusability. Notably, around 17,000 educational institutions and crucial hospitals situated near the epicenter of the earthquake either crumbled or suffered significant destruction. Reporters on the ground captured heart-wrenching moments, where traumatized parents, their eyes filled with panic, gathered in search of their children. Amid the chaos, faint cries of surviving children could be discerned from the debris, a fragile ray of hope in the overwhelming despair. However, with the passage of time, those cries grew fainter, and as night descended, grieving parents began the grim task of recovering the lifeless bodies of their young ones.

9. Haiti Earthquake, 2010

Haiti

A poor neighborhood in Haiti shows the damage after an earthquake. United Nations Development Programme. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The 12th of January, 2010, marks a somber date in Haiti's history, forever associated with a colossal earthquake. The earth shook with a magnitude 7.0, and its epicenter in Port-au-Prince, the capital, was delivered the harshest blow. Once-vibrant neighborhoods and towering structures crumbled, nature’s unyielding might reshaping the cityscape. Haiti's geological position along a fault line between substantial tectonic plates makes it prone to seismic activity, evidenced by historical quakes in 1751, 1770, 1842 and 1946. However, the country's houses, often made of concrete and cinder block to withstand storms prevalent in the Caribbean, displayed vulnerability during earthquakes.
In a nation already locked in poverty’s grip, this catastrophe left an indelible mark. It went down in history as the most catastrophic event ever faced by the Western Hemisphere’s most destitute country. The impact was overwhelming: approximately 3 million people were caught in its fury, with an unimaginable loss of about 250,000 lives and another 300,000 grappling with injuries. A staggering 19 million cubic meters of debris, enough to stretch a mournful line from London to Beirut if gathered, signifying the immense destruction in Port-au-Prince. Amid the ruins, the education sector lay in ruins, with four thousand schools reduced to rubble or severely compromised.

10. Siberian Taiga Fires, 2019 –2020

Russia

An emergency firefighter from the Ministry dousing a forest fire near the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant. RIA Novosti archive, image 733844  Alexey Kudenko. CC-BY-SA 3.0

Picturing Russia’s icy dominion of Siberia, it might appear inconceivable that this frigid realm could ever harbor one of the planet's mightiest wildfires. Yet, in early spring in 2003, this implausible chapter began to unfold, with echoes in 2019 and and again in 2020. The wildfires, sparked by lightning, stand as vital ecological players in the birthing and nurturing of boreal forests. But Siberia’s story in recent decades has taken a dangerous turn. A mix of parched conditions and heightened human involvement has triggered a surge in fires, making them more frequent and covering wider ground. This shift has altered the historical fire patterns. Between 1995 and 2005, the fires in this region shot up tenfold. And then there is 2021, when a single fire claims  40 million acres of forest. Yet, close to half of that destruction occurred in 2019 and 2020. This hints at a potential threshold, potentially already passed, after which extreme fires could become a common occurrence in the region.

With more than a fifth of the world’s forested expanse within its borders, these  lands are home to many Indigenous and local communities in underdeveloped areas that rely on the boreal forest for timber. Real peril surfaces for these groups when they face  Siberia’s peculiar wildfires, aptly named “Zombie” fires. These are wildfires that possess the eerie ability to spontaneously rekindle months after being quelled, maintaining an underground inferno within partially decomposed organic matter in Siberian soil. In the absence of proactive measures to combat global warming and safeguard ancient woodlands, these fires are destined to swell in size and surge in uncontrollability with each successive year.

The aftermath of these catastrophic events has seen age-old landscapes, nurtured and passed down through generations of human stewardship, swept away by transformative suprahuman forces. Through the preservation of the narratives about these occurrences, humanity confronts its identity as an indispensable element in the delicate web of our ecosystem, transcending the notion of a mere overseer.

TO GET INVOLVED：

All Hands Volunteers and Happy Hearts Fund united their efforts back in 2015, right after the devastating earthquake struck Nepal. Their joint endeavor aimed to reconstruct schools and communities fortified against future disasters. Guided by the vision of David Campbell and Petra Nemcova, the fusion of these two forces coalesced around the powerful concept of “Smart Response.” By the fall of 2017, the merger's resonance was clear as All Hands and Hearts stood tall. Learn more about All Hands Volunteers and Happy Hearts Fund here.
Direct Relief International has emerged as a steadfast force, improving the lives of individuals caught in disasters in 80 countries. The group designs a multifaceted response by offering food, drink, shelter and medical care. Direct Relief methodically tailors medical aid to fulfill urgent requirements, keeping a pulse on the particular dynamics of each case and giving search-and-rescue operations, emergency medical services, and quick logistics top priority. This project entails locating essential local healthcare professionals, comprehending the unmet requirements of outlying populations, mobilizing appropriate medications and equipment, and deftly managing the complex logistics of storage, transportation and allocation. Learn more about Direct Relief International here.

---

Hope Zhu

Hope is a Chinese international student at Wake Forest University in North Carolina studying sociology, statistics, and journalism. She dreams of traveling around the globe as a freelance reporter while touching on a wide range of social issues from education inequality to cultural diversity. Passionate about environmental issues and learning about other cultures, she is eager to explore the globe. In her free time, she enjoys cooking Asian cuisine, reading, and theater.

How Malaria Might Make a Comeback in the US

In order to prevent another pandemic so soon after the last one, US authorities need to stop this new malaria outbreak in its tracks.

The female Anopheles mosquito plays host to the disease’s parasite. CC BY-SA 2.0

Over the past two months, seven cases of locally acquired malaria have been identified in the US. These cases, six of which appeared in Florida and one in Texas, have drawn significant attention as the first time in 20 years the disease has been transmitted domestically. At present, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that all five patients have received medical treatment and are recovering positively, and that the risk of malaria reappearing in a more widespread epidemic across the U.S. is extremely low. That being said, this is a good reminder for those in charge of American public health infrastructure to reflect on how best to shore up national defenses, especially in the wake of the recent Covid-19 pandemic.

Malaria is caused by parasites, which commonly infect Anopheles mosquitoes, and who in turn transfer the disease to humans when they inject their proboscises into our bloodstreams. There are several species of the malaria parasite, collectively known as Plasmodium, some of which cause more serious cases than others, but all of which require tropical climates to thrive. Regardless of the species, malaria is still extremely serious and symptoms such as high fevers, chills, and nausea begin to manifest in a few weeks. Most worryingly is that malaria, if left untreated, is fatal. As of 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) believed that a grand total of 247 million cases of malaria occurred around the world, of which 619,000 were fatal. The majority of these deaths were children in various countries in Africa, where malaria is a constant present threat and contributes to a vicious cycle of social and economic poverty, taking a massive toll on countries in already precarious situations.

Malaria awareness in the US during the 1950s. Library of Congress. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

At the beginning of the 20th century, malaria was considered an extremely serious issue in the US; the CDC was actually founded in 1946 to eliminate the disease. Over the next six years, various public health measures such as insecticide use and window screens were implemented to reduce the 15,000 cases reported in 1947, and in 1951, the CDC finally announced that malaria was in the US no longer. This remained the case for decades, until an incident in 2003 when eight locally acquired cases in Palm Beach, Florida were identified. Fortunately, the outbreak was quickly quashed thanks to an immediate response campaign that completely rid the area of mosquitoes to prevent transmission. Since then, malaria has remained fairly absent from the American healthcare landscape.

It is important to note, however, that malaria has never been completely extinct in the US; prior to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, roughly 2,000 cases of the disease were identified and reported annually in patients who had traveled to countries with high incidences of malaria in Southeast Asia and Africa. Additionally, once infected individuals return to the US, local mosquitos who feed on them can pick up the parasite and spread it further. Every so often, this may result in a small reintroduction of the disease and potentially even some limited transmission, but there has never been any worry of it resulting in a much widespread epidemic.

The malaria parasite pictured under a microscope. Joseph Takahashi Lab. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The reason these recent cases received so much attention were that all five were acquired locally within the US, which likely indicates that the parasitic mosquito population has made a resurgence as well. Thankfully, the species of parasite identified to have caused this small outbreak is known to transmit one of the milder forms of the disease, but that in no way detracts from the gravity of the situation. Matters of public health have become much more salient in regular discourse since the COVID-19 pandemic, and with it, some extreme opinions about containing and treating transmissible diseases. While America’s healthcare infrastructure continues to operate in largely the same way as it did during the 2003 outbreak, experts have agreed that public cooperation is now more important than ever if this re-appearance is to be nipped in the bud.

The RTS,S malaria vaccine. TheScientist. CC BY-SA 2.0

One particular area in which this agreement would go a long way, is that surrounding the efficacy of vaccines. In October of 2021, the WHO officially recommended the use of the RTS,S malaria vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline to prevent transmission in regions with high incidences of the disease. In addition to being logistically simple to store and administer, trials proved that the vaccine was beneficial to 90% of those treated, a staggering figure in the world of pharmaceutical development. Introducing the vaccine to the U.S. seems like an obvious step to take in the wake of these recent malaria cases, especially given the low price of a single dose at $9.30.

Vaccines have been a hotspot of controversy over the past few years, with many people denouncing both their safety and efficacy as a preventative treatment. Government authorities and healthcare professionals and academics around the world continue to release studies and evidence to show that vaccines are essential to build up individual and population-wide resistance  to a variety of diseases, but large groups of the public still remain unconvinced. Among the many lessons and important takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of vaccinations is among the most important, especially in the face of a potential re-emergence of a disease as deadly as malaria.

---

Tanaya Vohra

Tanaya is an undergraduate student pursuing a major in Public Health at the University of Chicago. She's lived in Asia, Europe and North America and wants to share her love of travel and exploring new cultures through her writing.

It’s Time to Decolonize Healthcare

Medicine has a long history of reinforcing colonial stereotypes.

Medical students at their induction ceremony at the University of Minnesota. Anthony Souffle. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Have you heard that women are 73% more likely to experience serious injuries in a car crash than men? If you are curious as to why, it’s because when designing airbags and other safety features, auto manufacturers use crash-test dummies based on measurements of the average male. These so-called safety precautions are engineered to protect only half of the world’s population. The scariest part, however, is that car manufacturing is not the only industry in which such blatant exclusion and discrimination occur. The practice of medicine, whose sole purpose is to treat and cure people, has recently come under fire for having a foundation rife with antiquated and colonial ideas, upholding social hierarchies that alienate not just women, but people of non-European heritage. The term “decolonizing” here refers to efforts to eliminate these racist, sexist and homophobic ideals that existed during the initial development of the Western Medicine, in favor of methods that recognize and successfully treat the whole, diverse range of patients. This need for a decolonization of healthcare became especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, as African Americans and Hispanic people were twice as likely to have severe cases of the disease as white Americans. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent of the average male crash-test dummy in this case. Western medicine as it is known and applied in many countries around the world has existed for hundreds of years, continuously cementing its elitist and exclusionary ideals.

Protestors in Portland, Oregon during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Spencer Platt. CC BY-SA 2.0

As with most disciplines, medicine is practiced the way it is taught. Exclusionary principles date all the way back to the very origins of the field: even Aristotle described the female body as a mutilated version of the male one. These and other, similar beliefs have trickled down through the years, resulting in the white, heterosexual, able-bodied man being considered the “average” patient, while everyone else is forced to fit the cookie cutter treatments and medical services designed for a fraction of the population. This results in huge gaps in specific medical knowledge about women, people of color and people with disabilities that are often either ignored by the medical community or, more dangerously, are filled by blaming other, unrelated causes.

A prime example of this appears in the controversial condition termed “female hysteria” which, for hundreds of years, has been used by doctors (especially male ones) to label any women’s symptoms or behaviors they did not recognize. Far from being a historical phenomenon, psychology is still used today to brush aside the symptoms of female patients. Dr. Kate Young, a public health researcher from Monash University in Australia, is one of many medical professionals who has published research on how female patients suffering from endometriosis are often referred to as “reproductive bodies with hysterical tendencies,” furthering the harmful idea that women are oversensitive to pain and therefore are more inclined to exaggerate their discomfort.

Improving access to health education is crucial to help female patients deal with medical gaslighting. American Association of Nurse Practitioners. CC BY-SA 2.0

Of course, women are just one of many groups who stand at a systemic disadvantage when receiving medical care and advice, and the effects of racism on the health of people of color and minority populations have been studied extensively for years. In 1992, Professor Arline Geronimus of the University of Michigan proposed a concept called “weathering,” which describes the pattern of early health deterioration among African Americans as the consequences of constant and repeated experiences with socio-political marginalization and discrimination. Almost three decades later, doctors are finally starting to make the connection between this more or less forgotten idea and the disproportionately high incidences for African Americans of high blood pressure, strokes and even colon cancer, along with a host of other conditions.

While contemporary racism, both structural and otherwise, is definitely to blame, we cannot ignore medicine’s long history of excluding Black and Brown bodies in science and research, not to mention medical textbooks, illustrations and even case studies. Historically, the main use of people of color for medical study was as test subjects in unethical experiments, with no intention of using the results to better the medical conditions of these minorities. The Tuskegee Experiments are often the first such example that comes to mind: a study in which American researchers deliberately infected African American men with syphilis under false pretenses, and proceeded to withhold care in order to track the natural progression of the disease. However, other similar “studies” have occurred time and time again, with The Aversion Project singling out LGBTQ+ members of the South African military between 1971 and 1989, or the US government-run Guatemalan syphilis experiments of 1947 which duplicated the Tuskegee study on Guatemalan immigrants to the US. Like female hysteria, the perception that certain people are less deserving of treatment and are therefore more expendable has leached into the modern medical landscape. Fixing such deep-rooted issues will not only require a huge increase in diversity within the medical profession, but also a serious push towards increasing our understanding of how medicine and disease is experienced by a wide range of people.

Nurses in New York advocating for healthcare justice. New York State Nurses Association. CC BY-NC 2.0

Ridding healthcare systems of their colonial foundations will not happen overnight, but there are many individuals and organizations who are working to foster change. Here are a few that you can learn about and support in their efforts to increase diversity and inclusivity in the medical community:

1. Dr. Annabel Sowemimo: In addition to being a noted doctor and academic, Dr Sowemimo is a prolific activist and writer, especially in regards to reproductive health. She founded the Reproductive Justice Initiative which focuses on reducing health inequalities and also published her first book earlier this year about racism in medicine titled “Divided: Racism, Healthcare, and Why We Need to Decolonize Healthcare.”

2. Mind The Gap: Founded in late 2019, this project culminated in medical student Malone Mukwende publishing a handbook with staff at St George’s University of London that highlights how a variety of medical conditions present on patients with darker complexions.

3. Dr. Nadine Caron: As the first female general surgeon of First Nations descent in Canada, Dr. Caron has long been an outspoken advocate for Indigenous people’s rights in both medical practice and research. In 2014, she co-founded the Center for Excellence in Indigenous Health at the University of British Columbia, her alma mater, which focuses on supporting research on Indigenous health.

4. Advancing Health Equity: Founded in 2019 by Dr Uché Blackstock, an internationally recognized doctor, advocate and speaker, this organization partners with medical institutions and gives professional training on how to provide racially equitable healthcare and medical services.

---

Tanaya Vohra

Tanaya is an undergraduate student pursuing a major in Public Health at the University of Chicago. She's lived in Asia, Europe and North America and wants to share her love of travel and exploring new cultures through her writing.

Kazakhstan's Journey From Nuclear Devastation to Disarmament

The harrowing story of Soviet nuclear testing in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, and the wrangling with its legacy.

The center of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.Alexander Liskin.CC BY-SA 3.0.

It was the summer of 1953. Valentina Nikonchik was outside playing in Semey, a village in eastern Kazakhstan, then part of the Soviet Union. The ground suddenly trembled, and the air filled with a deafening boom that shook Nikonchik to her core. Little did she know that she had witnessed the first detonation at “the Polygon” of a thermonuclear device, a monstrous weapon of mass destruction that released a force equivalent to 400 kilotons of TNT.

West of Nikonchik’s hometown of Semey lies Semipalatinsk, the testing location where the Soviet Union’s nuclear visions were accomplished. A once-thriving region, now a desolate wasteland, has a dark history. In this Central Asian Soviet Republic, the Soviets conducted nearly 400 nuclear tests, blasting a lethal storm of radioactive isotopes into the environment and soil from 1949 to 1989. Even now, the consequences of these tests are still felt, with environmental damage and public health risks ongoing in the area. 

At a conference commemorating the ninth anniversary of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement, the first anti-nuclear protest movement in the USSR, statistics showing that between 500,000 and 8 million people were directly impacted by the test site’s operations were presented. The detonations, with their tragic and predictable repercussions, represent one of the twentieth century’s major ethical violations. Altogether, the total force of the nuclear explosions at Semipalatinsk equals more than 2,500 Hiroshima bombs. The long-term health effects for the region were harrowing, including an alarming spike in health issues such as miscarriages, birth deformities, and suicides blamed on “unsanitary conditions” in the area by Soviet military scientists in the following decades. What is so disturbing about these dismissals is that the same medical professionals had been performing creeping radiation tests on the villagers for years. 

The testing site, despite being uninhabited, is encircled by villages, and the major hub of Semipalatinsk lies just 160 km away. But the testing was kept secret, known only to top Communist Party officials, while anyone who spoke out against the detonations was immediately silenced. Russian scientists confessed that they failed to follow burial and nuclear material protection protocols, as they thought that no one would be in the area. The newly independent Kazakh government officially acknowledged 1,323,000 people as negatively affected by nuclear testing in 1992. However, just 1,057,000 of them received radiation passports, leaving over a quarter of those affected without the requisite documentation. From 2003 to 2017, a $30.5 million reimbursement was intended to give relief to over 700,000 passport holders. Divided between them, a pittance of only only $40 was allocated to each individual each year.

Map of Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Range, Area “N”. Martin Trolle Mikkelsen.CC BY 2.0.

In 1990, a year before independence, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and Kazakh poet Olzhas Suleimenov’s Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement banded together and pushed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s to issue declaration of a nuclear testing moratorium. Kazakhstan seized the opportunity to declare independence the same year and promptly closed down the infamous Semipalatinsk plant. Then, the nation went further, renouncing its inherited position as the world's fourth-largest nuclear weapons owner, and relinquishing its stockpile.

Despite this, the inhabitants go about their regular lives, seemingly unaware of the danger that surrounds them. They swim and fish in the lakes, graze their herds and pick wild strawberries all while being exposed to the poison lurking in the ground and air. However, the danger does not end there. The area will remain a bleak wasteland for millennia, poisoned with plutonium, strontium, and cesium, unfit for human habitation. Residents continue to graze their animals and collect contaminated scrap metal on the polluted land as the 7,065 square mile region is devoid of barriers, fencing, and warnings reminding people of its radioactive status.

Semey, once a thriving city, has suffered the brunt of the devastation. While acute blasts of radiation produced immediate harm, repeated modest doses of radiation over time can accumulate to cause great damage. The wind on the Kazakh steppe has brought the radioactive fallout to nearby settlements, amplifying the impact. The repercussions of nuclear testing have been passed down to future generations as a result of radiation-induced mutations in the population’s chromosomes. As a result, the region’s life expectancy is seven years lower than the national average due to a rise in the prevalence of cancer, thyroid sickness, and birth abnormalities. Tolkyn Bulegenov, Vice President of Semey Medical University, confirms that “in the zones adjacent to the test site, one can encounter 10 to 15% more malignant thyroid and blood malignancies - hematological blastoma, leukosis, lymphoma, and chronic leukemia - than in other regions of Kazakhstan.”

Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test, the effect of radiation on the fetus. Perrona Patrick André Perron.CC BY 3.0.

The late 1980s saw a glimmer of hope for the people of Kazakhstan. As the world was introduced to Gorbachev’s nuclear testing moratorium, the Nevada-Semey movement was born on Kazakh soil with a mission to shut down the Semipalatinsk polygon. Kazakhstan destroyed its inherited weapons testing infrastructure and disposed of the remaining vulnerable nuclear material with the cooperation of foreign partners, including the United States.

On August 29, 1991, President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the proclamation closing the test site, popularly known as the Polygon, which marked a watershed point in Kazakhstan’s recent history. As part of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, the United States collaborated with Kazakhstan between 1995 and 2001 to seal 13 boreholes and 181 tunnels at the test site. From 2012 to 2019, the National Nuclear Security Agency and the Netherlands led two major radiological security operations in Kazakhstan, securing approximately 13,000 radioactive sources from the National Nuclear Center and the Mangystau Atomic Energy Complex. Kazakhstan confirmed its commitment to a nuclear-free world in 2021, in accordance with the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Kazakhstan’s commitment to disarmament has allowed the nation to serve as an example of a responsible state that has relinquished its nuclear weapons, setting a global precedent for responsible statehood. Kazakhstan has created an environment conducive to the formulation of a multifaceted foreign policy by abandoning its nuclear weapons and closing the world's most extensively used nuclear test site, allowing the country to collaborate with China, Central Asia, Europe, and the United States. While each nuclear-armed state faces unique problems, Kazakhstan’s peaceful approach to disarmament has encouraged many, and its lessons serve as a guide for other countries seeking a similar path.

TO GET INVOLVED:

The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) is a nonprofit global security organization focused on reducing nuclear and biological threats imperiling humanity. You can learn more about NTI and its records on nuclear disarmament in Kazakhstan here.

Togzhan Kassenova’s Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave up the Bomb explains Kazakhstan’s denuclearization process in detail. Kassenova’s book explains how Kazakhstan’s leadership considered security interests as well as economic, political, and diplomatic priorities when making the decision to give up nuclear weapons. You can learn more about Atomic Steppe on Amazon here.

---

Hope Zhu

Hope is a Chinese international student at Wake Forest University in North Carolina studying sociology, statistics, and journalism. She dreams of traveling around the globe as a freelance reporter while touching on a wide range of social issues from education inequality to cultural diversity. Passionate about environmental issues and learning about other cultures, she is eager to explore the globe. In her free time, she enjoys cooking Asian cuisine, reading, and theater.

Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: What This Means for Regional Development

In the early hours of February 6th, Turkey and Syria were struck by a destructive earthquake that will have lasting implications for living standards.

Hatay, Turkey, 9 February 2023. CC BY 2.0

In the early morning of February 6, southeastern Turkey was hit by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, running all the way through most parts of Syria. About 9 hours later another 7.5 quake rocked the Turkey-Syria border, with over 200 aftershocks recorded. The seismic phenomena have left  over 33,000 dead, a number that is expected to rise, buildings turned to rubble, and a region on the brink of developmental disaster. Survivors have been left homeless in the streets in sub-freezing temperatures with no access to food or water, struggling to find their loved ones amid the remains. 

Sitting on the Anatolian plate between two major faults - the North Anatolian Fault and the East Anatolian Fault - Turkey is vulnerable to strike-slip seismic activity. The main earthquake that occurred on Tuesday morning had its epicenter in the city of Nurdaği, located in the Gaziantep province, which is home to many Syrian refugees who have escaped that country’s Civil War. A developing nation, Turkey struggles to implement legitimate housing laws that keep buildings up to safety standards. The nation’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has reported that poorly enforced regulations played a role in making earthquakes so damaging, as buildings quickly collapsed due to their already vulnerable state. In Syria 11 years of conflict have made it nearly impossible to enforce building standards, and most cities already host vulnerable living conditions, the war leaving buildings and areas unstable and unprepared for seismic activity. 

What are the long-term implications of such natural disasters on this region of the world? Sitting on such an active fault line, with Syria to the south on the Arabia Plate Tectonic, Turkey and its neighbor could experience more quakes. Buildings which have not collapsed from this earthquake are at risk if there is any more seismic activity. At the moment Turkey and Syria both face a deep humanitarian crisis, and will soon have to come up with the money to rebuild. Turkey, already facing a turbulent economic situation, must now spend billions of dollars in a rebuilding project, combined with upcoming elections on May 14. The nation’s economic growth for 2023 could now be up to 2 percentage points less,  leaving the nation behind in its development goals. 

President Erdoğan has continued to threaten Syria’s Assad regime on political matters, which include his habitual threats to attack Kurdish groups in the northern part of Assad’s domain. However, both nations have agreed to offer each other diplomatic assistance and aid after this disaster, and accept international help for the wellbeing of their citizens. This type of earthquake diplomacy is also paving the way for other states with bilateral tensions, such as the United States and Russia, to collaborate with one another and assist Turkey and Syria for the sake of supporting human life and future development in the region.  

TO GET INVOLVED:

UNICEF is accepting donations and financial contributions to help on-the-ground volunteers get aid to children and families affected in both Turkey and Syria. For more information on getting involved, click here.

Save the Children is accepting donations to help surviving children receive food and shelter. To get involved, click here.

CDP has opened a Recovery Fund to help in the reconstruction of buildings in Turkey and Syria, as well as provide aid and resources for survivors. To donate, click here.

---

Kimberly Hidalgo

Having obtained a MA in International Policy, Kimberly seeks to bridge the gap between global development and government legislation. Growing up between the United States and Spain, she believes that travel is the best way to discover yourself and understand the world. Her goal is to promote a deeper awareness of the effects of climate change in society and politics.

Food Deserts, Food Swamps and Food Apartheid

Around 2.2 percent of all U.S. households live in areas without access to inexpensive healthy foods, leading to higher rates of obesity. These “food deserts” stem from a history of racism and inequality. 

Food deserts are areas where residents don’t have easy access to healthy, affordable food. Instead, they may be overrun with fast food options. Mike Mozart. CC BY 2.0 

Approximately 23.5 million Americans live in areas with limited or no access to affordable, healthy foods—especially fresh fruit and vegetables. These areas are commonly known as “food deserts” and are disproportionately found in low-income, minority communities. 

Food deserts occur when there are few or no grocery stores within convenient distance; for example, a survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 2.3 million people live more than one mile away from a grocery store and do not have a car. In urban areas, the nearest grocery store might be a long trip away via public transportation, and not everyone is able to take time out of their day to make the trek, especially those in low-income neighborhoods who may be working more than one job. 

Despite common misconceptions, living in a food desert does not necessarily mean that a person is food insecure. In fact, food deserts are often flooded with food choices—just not ones that are both healthy and affordable. A food desert may have plenty of smaller stores to buy food from, but these stores typically have limited options compared to  grocery stores, specifically in the availability of fresh produce. Without  easy access to grocery stores, people living in food deserts must turn to more convenient and affordable options, namely fast food. 

Experts have coined the term “food swamp” to describe areas that are oversaturated with unhealthy food options. A study by the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that an average food swamp has four unhealthy eating options for every one healthy option. 

Because people living in food deserts and food swamps have easier access to unhealthy food than healthy options, these areas also suffer from higher obesity rates. Studies have shown that food swamps may be a more accurate predictor of obesity rates than food deserts. However,food swamps and deserts tend to occur in the same areas, and more often than not these areas are low-income, minority communities. 

The USDA has identified over 6,500 of what they refer to as “food desert tracts” based on census data and data about the locations of large grocery stores. In a 2012 study about the characteristics and causes of food deserts, the USDA found that areas with greater levels of poverty were more likely to be—or to become—food deserts. The study also concluded that “food desert tracts have a greater concentration of all minorities” than tracts that are not considered food deserts. 

Because of the way that food deserts disproportionately impact minority communities, some food justice activists, like Karen Washington, prefer the term “food apartheid,” as it better captures the racial and economic nuances of the situation. Washington points out that “food desert” brings to mind “an empty, absolutely desolate place” with no food to be found, but this is not what a community with poor access to healthy food looks like. Nina Sevilla, another food justice activist, notes that “desert” implies that these areas are naturally occurring, which is not the case. 

“Food deserts” are the result of decades of systemic racism that led to housing segregation; under the Federal Housing Administration starting in the 1930s, middle and lower-class white families migrated to the suburbs while minority families remained in urban housing projects. Redlining policies prevented minority groups from moving into what were seen as white neighborhoods. As white middle-class residents shifted to the suburbs, so did new supermarkets, leaving minority neighborhoods without easy access to a wide variety of food. 

The term “food apartheid” highlights how these racist policies shaped low-income minority communities’ access to healthy food. 

Since food inequality and so-called food deserts and food swamps are so rooted in racism, they are not an easy problem to address. However, there are many organizations working on different solutions to food apartheid, from championing policy reform to building alternative food systems, such as urban and small-scale farming and affordable organic grocery stores. 

To Get Involved: 

To learn more about where “food deserts” in the U.S. are located, look at  the USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas here.

For a comprehensive policy platform on food, visit the HEAL Food Alliance here.

---

Rachel Lynch

Rachel is a student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY currently taking a semester off. She plans to study Writing and Child Development. Rachel loves to travel and is inspired by the places she’s been and everywhere she wants to go. She hopes to educate people on social justice issues and the history and culture of travel destinations through her writing.

A Cycle of Dependency: How Donations Worsen Income Inequality

Regardless of the good intentions behind donations, the short-term gain experienced by poor communities often leads to the persistence of income inequality and an endless cycle of dependency. 

Secondhand clothing in Haiti. Vanberto. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

Donations are often associated with a positive image of helping destitute populations get the resources they lack. Yet, this short-term aid often results in far-reaching consequences detrimental to a country’s economy, which leads to the persistence of income inequality.

The donation of money that goes toward buying resources for impoverished communities often creates an endless cycle of dependency, especially if such service is repeatedly conducted through organizations or companies. First, the repeated nature of such service creates a false assumption among receivers that there will always be a supply of that resource without work, making them reliant on such aid. Moreover, the organizations themselves are indirectly relying on marginalized areas to promote their businesses’ charitable work. For instance, back in 2006, when TOMS started its “one for one” program, it would donate a pair of shoes for every pair that was purchased. Although the company’s motive seemed to be pure, it relied on underprivileged populations’ need for shoes to increase its business revenue. 

84% of unwanted clothing is thrown into landfills

When donations are consistently provided, those living in poverty often learn to become dependent on the donors as they see less reason to get out of their current situation. Local businesses also shut down, as the need to produce items goes away when high-quality donations are provided at a minimal price from external sources. Although that may come as great news for citizens of developing countries, most of the profit in this exchange goes to the exporters. A 2006 report found that, “textile and clothing employment in Ghana declined by 80% from 1975 to 2000; in Zambia it fell from 25,000 workers in the 1980s to below 10,000 in 2002; and in Nigeria the number of workers fell from 200,000 to being insignificant.” Such statistics imply that despite the good nature of external aid, it often comes at the expense of the receiving countries.

Haiti is a common dumping ground for secondhand clothing primarily from the United States, and due to its regular occurrence, locals have given this process the name “Pepe.” The Netflix documentary “The True Cost” elaborates on how Haiti’s textile industry is suffering due to the widespread popularity of Pepe, leading the country’s local clothing industry to disappear. For this reason, some countries have started to refuse the import of secondhand clothing, and more of it ends up in recycling facilities. Yet according to Newsweek, 84% of unwanted clothing is thrown into landfills. 

To combat waste, then, the fast-fashion industry needs to start recycling its own goods, minimize seasonal sales, make more durable products and normalize wearing recycled apparel. Additionally, governments need to start promoting the creation of more jobs for impoverished communities, so that all the necessary resources are available in the market at reasonable prices. Finally, donors should remember that regardless of good intentions, deprived communities may suffer long-term consequences due to misunderstood charity work.

---

Swati Agarwal

Swati Agarwal is a sophomore at University of California, San Diego, where she is studying Environmental Sciences and Theatre. Although born in India, she was raised in Tokyo, which gave her the opportunity to interact with diverse people from distinct cultures. She is passionate about writing, and hopes to inspire others by spreading awareness about social justice issues and highlighting the uniqueness of the world.

Structural Violence: How Societal Factors Affect Health

Income, race and geographic location are often weaponized against communities, preventing them from accessing and achieving health and wellness.

A routine doctor’s appointment may be rare for those living in poverty, causing them to not seek treatment for incipient medical issues. #PACOM. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Income, geographical location, climate and access to resources all affect people’s health in various ways. Indeed, it is rare to get malaria, a mosquito-borne disease in the Arctic. It is also comparatively easier for a wealthy person who has access to top-notch treatments to recover from cancer than a disadvantaged person who cannot afford a routine doctor’s appointment. These societal factors have a proven link to health outcomes, and they are usually not controlled by individuals. To fully foster public health, it is necessary to eliminate those societal factors that precipitate health concerns.

There are both biological and societal factors that affect health. Biologically, genetics can affect one’s health, as the causal relationship between genetics and diseases such as cystic fibrosis have been demonstrated through medical research. However, biological factors are not the only thing that affects health; societal factors do as well. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines social determinants of health as: 

The non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems.

Sometimes, the system itself is rigged against a substantial part of the population from attaining complete physical, social and emotional well-being. That is called structural violence. These arrangements are ‘structural’ because they are “embedded in the political and economic organization” of society, and they are ‘violent’ because they harm people, whether physically or not. 

Lowndes County, Alabama, where the low-income Black population suffers disproportionately from hookworm infections due to structural violence. jimmywayne. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

One example of these biosocial determinants and structural violence in play can be found in rural Alabama, where hookworm, a disease thought to be eradicated years ago, is making a resurgence in Lowndes County. That county is 72% Black and has a poverty rate of 21.9%, almost double the national average of 11.4% in 2020. Low-income Blacks in the county are more prone to hookworm because they live next to pools of raw sewage, the perfect breeding ground for the worms. 

Structural violence is also at play here, as the Black population live near the pools of raw sewage because they cannot afford proper sewage systems. The local and state government, in turn, perpetuates this problem by turning a blind eye on the issue and not providing any assistance to the residents. Through no fault of their own, Blacks in Lowndes County have a heightened risk for hookworm due to the circumstance in which society makes them live.

Cultural practices can also precipitate or hinder disease. West African countries that already had fragile healthcare systems were particularly affected by the 2014 Ebola outbreak because of cultural practices regarding funerals. In those cultures, funerals involve washing the dead body by hand before burial and paying respect to the dead through physical contact, both of which are exceptionally high-risk activities with regards to the spread of Ebola, since the virus is still present in the corpse. Controlling the Ebola outbreak must address these cultural issues.

Finally, around the world, food deserts are scattered around urban centers, usually located in areas of poverty. Food deserts are areas with a dearth of supermarkets and other sources of healthy foods, forcing people living there to travel further for quality foods or to settle for cheaper unhealthy foods. Since many food deserts are in areas of poverty, the people living in those areas usually have no choice but to buy cheap  foods with subpar qualities. The unhealthy diet of many in those areas lead to higher rates of obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Structural violence affects food deserts, as the economic disincentives for healthy food sources to serve low-income areas show that society does not provide adequate support to them. In northern Ireland, food deserts are especially pronounced since 32% of households do not have a car. Some food deserts are the result of years of neglect of marginalized communities. Failure of the UK government to provide adequate public transportation in northern Ireland demonstrates that neglect.

Simply treating disease without regard for the underlying causes of it will not eliminate the issue. To eliminate hookworm, proper sanitation services must be implemented. Containing Ebola means educating local communities about safe methods to bury the dead in a way that does not denigrate their culture. To eliminate obesity, focus should be on providing access to healthy foods instead of just telling people to change their diet. It is important to treat diseases as complex issues instead of having a singular focus on the cure. Removing societal barriers to good health is instrumental in ensuring the physical, social and emotional health for all.

To Get Involved

The organization Partners in Health serves to improve healthcare in developing countries through patient-provider partnerships. Partners in Health works to create sustainable healthcare systems that serve all, emphasizing healthcare as a human right.

Often, the best way to remove the societal factors that affect health negatively is by advocacy. Writing to your elected officials is a good way to draw attention to those issues, which may spur them to act on your recommendations. To find your representative in Congress, click here.

---

Bryan Fok

Bryan is currently a History and Global Affairs major at the University of Notre Dame. He aims to apply the notion of Integral Human Development as a framework for analyzing global issues. He enjoys hiking and visiting national parks.

The Influx of ‘Pisupo’: Food Colonialism in the South Pacific

Globalization has created an influx of unhealthy canned food in the South Pacific region, leading to a dependency on it and increasing health issues associated with an unhealthy diet. 

The influx of canned food in the South Pacific has led to a variety of problems. Salvation Army USA West. CC BY 2.0.

The legacy of colonialism has a lasting impact on the island of the South Pacific. Many of those islands have been colonized by Western powers, and some of them are still under the control of foreign countries. Due to this, Western influences are still pervasive throughout the region. 

One lasting legacy of Western imperialism in the South Pacific is the introduction of canned and processed food. The first canned food to be brought to the region was pea soup, and therefore, Samoan and a few other languages of the region, the word for canned food in general is “pisupo.” Today, the predominant type of canned food in the region is corned beef.

The prevalence of canned food in the South Pacific has changed the diets of the people living there and has caused a dependence on them. The new diets of the South Pacific Islanders are not necessarily an improvement from their traditional diets. However, as canned and processed foods are generally unhealthy and lacking in nutrients. That has resulted in an increase of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Between 1990 and 2010, the total disability-adjusted life years lost to obesity also quadrupled in the region.

The traditional diets of South Pacific Islanders provide the nutrients needed for a healthy life. whl.travel. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

In order to provide these new foods, livestock such as cattle and pigs have been introduced to the islands, causing ecological damage. The island ecosystems are fragile, and large-scale ranching can easily destroy them. The dependence on canned food introduced by the West has resulted in not only harm to health, but also harm to the environment.

The proliferation of packaged and processed food has affected other parts of society as well, not just the typical diets. In marriage and birthday ceremonies in traditional South Pacific cultures, people often exchange gifts. While in the past, common gifts included fine mats and decorated barkcloths, but today, canned corned beef is one of the more popular gifts at those events. The introduction of canned foods has even changed traditional practices and contributed to the prevalent unhealthy diets of the South Pacific Islanders.

“Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000)” is a piece of art by Michael Tuffery that critiques the food dependency of the South Pacific. Sheep’R’Us. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

The neocolonial nature of these developments has its critics. One of them, Michael Tuffery, offers a unique interpretation through his artwork, with one of the most notable being “Pisupo Lua Afe,” a sculpture of a bull made from canned corned beef. He says that his art addresses the impact that the “exploitation of the Pacific’s natural resources has wrought on the traditional Pacific lifestyle.” His choice of subject matter and the material show his thoughts on the influx of canned food in the South Pacific. Bulls were a common presence at the aforementioned ceremonies, and the fact that the bull is covered in canned corned beef represents the fact that more traditional practices. Tuffery laments the changes that globalization has brought to his traditional Samoan culture, which has led to a “decline of indigenous cooking skills.”

With so much waste being created in the making of “Pisupo Lua Afe,” Tuffery calls into question whether the physical and cultural costs of food dependence are worth it. Could the South Pacific do better without the influx of canned food? Tuffery argues that it could. But even if the South Pacific Islanders decide to shun the prevalence of canned food, hurdles remain to improve the health of both the land and people of the region.

---

Bryan Fok

Bryan is currently a History and Global Affairs major at the University of Notre Dame. He aims to apply the notion of Integral Human Development as a framework for analyzing global issues. He enjoys hiking and visiting national parks.

Why Explosive Population Growth Is Unsustainable

The world is experiencing massive population growth, most of it in the Global South. If nothing is done to slow the rate, repercussions will be felt in politics, the economy and the environment.

A crowded street in Nairobi, Kenya, which has one of the highest population growth rates in the world. rogiro. CC BY-NC 2.0.

The world’s population is growing at an alarming rate. In 1950, the world’s population was estimated to be around 2.6 billion. In 2022, it is almost 7.9 billion. While it is true that the world theoretically has enough resources to support the entire current global population with room to spare, the rate of population increase is a cause for concern. Most of the world’s resources are concentrated in the countries of North America and Europe, but most of the world’s population growth is located in the Global South, which can negatively affect the development of those countries.

When agricultural societies start to industrialize, the death rate usually drops due to advances in medical care. The birth rate stays high for a while until social changes encourage more women to join the workforce and have fewer children. Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are stuck in a demographic transition trap.

Current world population growth rate by country. Digital Dreams. CC BY 2.0.

As countries in the Global South start to industrialize, their death rates are falling, but their birth rates are not dropping to match the death rate, resulting in explosive population growth. This demographic trap occurs when “falling living standards reinforce the prevailing high fertility, which in turn reinforces the decline in living standards.” When developing countries do not make the necessary social changes to accompany industrialization, the birth rate stays high even as the economy transitions away from agriculture. These countries are slow to change their view on the ideal family size in light of emerging industrialization, and many are still engaged in labor intensive industries which reinforce the need for many children to provide free labor.

This explosive population growth has detrimental effects on both the developing country’s economy and environment. It leads to political instability, as the deluge of people overwhelm governments, causing states to fail. Governments likely cannot provide enough resources to the ever-growing population, trapping people in a cycle of poverty. Many families are impoverished due to using their resources for taking care of many children, perpetuating a cycle of poverty. 

The inability for a government to provide for its population results in a failed state. Of the 20 top failing states defined by the Failed States Index, 15 of them are growing between 2 and 4 percent a year. In 14 of those states, 40% or more of the population are under the age of 15. Large families are the norm in failing states, with women having an average of six children.

Not only does excessive population growth lead to failed states and economic problems, but it also leads to environmental problems as well. As the Global South develops, more and more people there are becoming consumers of energy and resources, contributing to climate change. In Madagascar, population growth has “triggered massive deforestation and massive species extinction.” The current rate of population growth is unsustainable in the long run economically, politically and environmentally.

However, previous efforts to decrease the birth rate in the Global South has led to the dehumanization of many women. According to Columbia professor Dr. Matthew Connelly, Americans developed programs to “motivate medical workers to insert IUDs [intrauterine devices] in more women” in South Korea and Taiwan, causing “untold misery” as there were not enough clinics to deal with the possible side effects of those procedures. Puerto Rico became a “proving ground for both the birth control pill and state-supported sterilization” due to American policy despite pushback from religious authorities. These efforts deprive women of their agency to plan their own families.

Interventions to limit population growth must ensure that families, and specifically women, have agency over their bodies. Comprehensive sexual education is an option to enable people to understand the reasons behind the different methods to decrease birth rates. Families must be able to make an informed choice on their family size, and such sexual education is a popular idea to achieve that in a humane and dignified manner.

---

Bryan Fok

Bryan is currently a History and Global Affairs major at the University of Notre Dame. He aims to apply the notion of Integral Human Development as a framework for analyzing global issues. He enjoys hiking and visiting national parks.

World Central Kitchen: Relief Through Food

World Central Kitchen is a relief program that sends food and cooks to areas affected by disaster, that recently had a base in Ukraine hit by a Russian missile. Read to learn more about World Central Kitchen and how to support its efforts. 

World Central Kitchen location in Charlottesville, Va. Rick Stillings. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

José Andrés founded World Central Kitchen in 2010 when Haiti was hit by an earthquake. The philosophy behind World Central Kitchen is that it isn’t simply food needed after a disaster, but chefs who are willing and able to cook food in the style that the people in the affected area are accustomed to, as a source of not only nourishment but also comfort. Ever since, World Central Kitchen has responded to disasters both environmental and humanitarian. 

While World Central Kitchen works to support any area in crisis, it has a specific Climate Disaster Fund. The fund is committed to spending $1 billion over the next ten years to combat climate change and assist those affected by extreme weather. It focuses on three areas: food provision for victims of climate disasters, investment in the communities most impacted by climate change and climate policy change. In terms of investing directly into communities, World Central Kitchen has a program called the Food Producer Network, which works directly with and financially supports independent farmers, fisherman and other food providers within these communities. The Food Producer Network provides grants and loans, as well as sending volunteers to work for these small businesses (if volunteers are desired). The Food Producer Network specifically operates in the Bahamas, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

World Central Kitchen/World Food Programme Volunteers in Beira, Mozambique. DFID - UK Department for International Development. CC BY 2.0.

World Central Kitchen recently received a lot of publicity because its base in Kharkiv, Ukraine was destroyed by a Russian missile on April 15. This is the first time that World Central Kitchen has set up a kitchen in an active war zone, and the kitchen was not the only place hit; residences and businesses in Kharkiv were hit as well, as the missile directly hit the building across the street from the kitchen. Despite several staff members being hospitalized as a result of the missile, World Central Kitchen intends to set up another location elsewhere in Ukraine. 

World Central Kitchen accepts monetary donations and trains volunteers in or adjacent to the places that they are currently serving. As of May 17, they are looking for volunteers in Poland, Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, The Bahamas and Guatemala. Some other food relief programs currently working to provide food (or money, through food) for the disaster in Ukraine are Cook For Ukraine, founded by Eastern European chefs working in conjunction with UNICEF, and Bakers Against Racism’s “Bake For Ukraine” campaign, which is an international bake sale program that has raised over $2.5 million for several global causes.

---

Calliana Leff

Calliana is currently an undergraduate student at Boston University majoring in English and minoring in psychology. She is passionate about sustainability and traveling in an ethical and respectful way. She hopes to continue her writing career and see more of the world after she graduates. 

Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease: The Countdown to Zero

Guinea worm disease is on track to be the second disease eradicated from the world, but there is still work left to be done.

Health workers explain how to use water filters. uncultured. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Guinea worm disease, also known as dracunculiasis, is an infection caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis. Larvae of the parasite are found in water sources in sub-Saharan Africa, and they can contaminate drinking water. Once consumed, the parasite stays inside the infected individual for up to a year as it grows into a worm until it removes itself from the human host, leaving through the skin. 

When the worm emerges from the human, it causes a painful skin blister, possibly resulting in a fever or secondary infection. There have been cases of people becoming crippled by a Guinea worm infection. The worm needs to be pulled out from the human body, several centimeters per day, by winding it around some gauze or a small stick. 

Health worker treating an infant with Guinea worm disease. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CC0 1.0.

In 1986, the Carter Center, the foundation of former president Jimmy Carter, began to lead the global campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease. When the campaign started, there were 3.5 million cases of the disease in that one year. In 2021, there were only 15 reported human cases worldwide. This dramatic reduction of cases was the result of several carefully planned interventions.

The program to eradicate Guinea worm disease is community-based and relies on extensive villager volunteers. This approach respects the dignity of the people affected and builds trust between the community members and health professionals. The Carter Center aims to work with ministries of health to provide comprehensive health education and maintain political will.

Surveillance and supervision is instrumental in containing the spread of the disease. In the Gambella region of Ethiopia, village volunteers try to ascertain possible cases among their peers every week. When a suspected case is found, an investigation occurs. A lab test is needed to confirm a case of Guinea worm disease. The infected person’s demographics and symptoms are also tracked, as is information about the water sources that the person used. There are also community meetings to inform them of those infected. This is why gaining the trust of communities is so important. Community participation, especially in light of the stigma associated with the disease, is vital in containing the disease, and it all depends on trust.

As Guinea worm disease is waterborne and is contracted by drinking water contaminated with the larvae, interventions that involve treating water before it is drunk is essential. The Carter Center has distributed pipe filters to affected populations and taught them how to use them to prevent the new cases of the disease. In some places, the pesticide abate is applied to water sources to kill the larvae that cause Guinea worm disease. These interventions have drastically reduced the prevalence of Guinea worm disease, but the fight is not over yet.

While great progress has been made in eliminating Guinea worm disease in much of the world, some challenges have arisen. Civil unrest and political instability in some places where Guinea worm disease is prevalent have prevented efforts to combat the disease. Ethiopia, which had some of the highest rates of the disease, is mired in a civil war, making it hard to reach everyone affected by Guinea worm disease. Recently, cases of Guinea worm disease have also started to appear in animals. Today, most cases of Guinea worm disease occur in other animals, not humans. Complete eradication of Guinea worm disease cannot be completed until the world is free of the disease in both humans and animals.

To Get Involved

While the Carter Center is the leader in the drive to eradicate Guinea worm disease, there are also other partners and stakeholders in the campaign who can be supported through donations and volunteering. Among them include the ministries of health of affected countries, UNICEF, WHO, Ethiopian Public Health Institute and the UNHCR.

---

Bryan Fok

Bryan is currently a History and Global Affairs major at the University of Notre Dame. He aims to apply the notion of Integral Human Development as a framework for analyzing global issues. He enjoys hiking and visiting national parks.

VIDEO: Growing Up in a Megaslum in Kenya

Joseph Djemba grew up in Kibera, Kenya, the largest urban slum in Africa. Djemba found himself there when his mother became unable to support her eleven children after the death of her husband. Djemba describes his childhood sleeping outside and begging for food, detailing the psychological impacts of living in poverty. He also notes the large gap between the rich and the poor in Kenya and discusses how impoverished people help each other survive. Djemba is the main character in “Megaslumming,” a book by Adam Parsons. In his work, Parsons explores how the settlement of Kibera came into existence and documents what life is like for those who live in slums. 

Get Involved:

Touch Kibera Foundation is a non-profit organization devoted to uplifting children who live in Kibera, Kenya through sports programs, sexual health programs, education support and mentorship opportunities. Donations are accepted online, and more information can be found here.

Polycom Development Project is a foundation which seeks to provide educational and athletic opportunities to girls and women in Kibera. The organization is also devoted to promoting sanitation and public health. Donations are accepted online, and more information can be found here.

St. Vincent de Paul Community Development Organization aims to provide support to orphaned and other vulnerable children in Kibera. The organization supports families and seeks to intervene on behalf of children at an early stage in their development. Donations are accepted online, and more information can be found here.

Half of South Korean Elderly Are Living in Extreme Poverty

The pension retirees receive is only a quarter of the amount needed for single households, causing many elderly to return to work. 

Elderly South Korean woman. Mctrent. CC BY-NC 2.0

South Korea is known for high rise buildings, luxury skin care and high tech devices. Yet with all of these advances, it has the worst senior poverty rate among developed nations. The population has been struggling to stay off the streets with only 35% of seniors receiving a monthly pension. Fewer than half of seniors receive government assistance and it is only a quarter of the amount needed to cover basic necessities. 

The Confucian tradition of children taking care of their parents is fading in South Korea. In previous generations the elderly turned to their children for financial assistance, often living with their children until their passing. However, the Census has shown that one in three Korean seniors live alone today and six out of ten elderly are supporting themselves. It has become difficult for children to help aging parents due to the expensive cost of living and the high unemployment rate. The country’s legal retirement age is 60, but many employees at private companies are pressured to leave around age 50 due to scarce executive or high-ranking jobs. When they retire at such a young age, they realize their pensions or severance packages are far below the cost of living and that the social safety net is insufficient. They are forced to re-enter the working world, but often in positions that are temporary or day-to-day, offering very low pay.

Retiree collecting cardboard boxes. Mariej55quebec. CC PDM 1.0

In order to make a living, many retirees collect anything that can be recycled and transported to the local junk yard using makeshift handcarts. Cardboard boxes are what they tend to collect most because they are the easiest to come across. Although prices vary, the average income per kilogram (2.2 lbs.) is 40 won ($0.33). On a 12 hour day, retirees earn about $6.68: a salary that’s far below the poverty line. South Korea is expected to become a “super-aged society” with more than 20% of its population aged 65 years and older by 2026. A fall in the fertility rate and rising longevity are the two fundamental contributors to the country’s growing ageing population. 

Pre-pandemic, soup kitchens were a social gathering place for many retirees. A popular one among the elderly was Angel Soup Kitchen. On average, they served more than 350 free meals three times a week: operating 26 centers across South Korea. Retirees would line up in the early hours of the day to guarantee a spot in line. It was a place where they could be among other seniors enjoying a meal. However, with the pandemic and the elderly being the most vulnerable, Angel Soup Kitchen closed and now distributes take home meals. With so many soup kitchens closing, Warm Chaeumteo was one of the few that remained open. They provide three meals a day, seven days a week. Due to the temporary closure of other soup kitchens, the center is getting approximately 100 more visitors a day, compared with the normal turnout before the outbreak. They receive just under 1,000 people per day. It is becoming harder to keep soup kitchens open with the decline in volunteers, many deciding they want to avoid face to face interactions.

Senior Koreans Playing Chess at a Park. Terence. CC BY-ND 2.0

The mental health of retirees has seen a spike in recent years. The disruption of the traditional family unit is a large reason why. Children often lose contact with their parents, leaving the retired elderly to feel lonely and isolated. A long term effect of these feelings will trigger depression, anxiety and loneliness. To socialize, retirees frequent parks and public areas, but with the restrictions of the pandemic, most areas are now closed. This forces the elderly into further isolation and a toll on their mental health. Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service reported that about 40% of the 684,000 Koreans diagnosed with severe depression were over age 60. With an aging population that will only continue to grow, countries with large elderly populations are facing an unprecedented issue: how to properly care for a large influx of elderly people, while still moving towards the future. Living longer is usually associated as being a hallmark of success, but current societal structures in many countries are not equipped to provide the social services needed. 

As South Korea and the globe try to figure out how to care for this large wave of retirees living longer, there are startups like EverYoung. A company that only hires employees aged 55 and older. Employees monitor blog content and detect sensitive information, as well as perform other IT tasks. There are 420 seniors from a variety of career backgrounds employed. Moreover, a mandated 10-minute break for every 50 minutes of work, and staff are rostered on four-hour shifts. Manager Kim Seong-Kyu told ChannelNews Asia that older employees have detail-oriented skills not common in the younger workforce, with distracting cell phones stored away during work time. Kyu said, “they are full of passion. The time that they have, and their interest in this work, are primarily why they come to work”.

To Get Involved:

The Korea Legacy Committee and Asian Boss have partnered to provide free meals every Sunday for the South Korean elderly. They aim to become a safe haven for impoverished seniors and expand the meal program around the country.  

To learn more about Korea Legacy Comittee click here.

To support the South Korean elderly during the pandemic click here.

---

Jennifer Sung

Jennifer is a Communications Studies graduate based in Los Angeles. She grew up traveling with her dad and that is where her love for travel stems from. You can find her serving the community at her church, Fearless LA or planning her next trip overseas. She hopes to be involved in international humanitarian work one day.

A Cage Home Away from Being Homeless in Hong Kong

Cage homes have become the dangerous solution to living in the most expensive housing market in the world: Hong Kong.

Man Living in a Cage Home. Pondspider. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Hong Kong is considered one of the most expensive cities to live in the world. The population of 7.4 million people live in a metropolis 110 times smaller than New York City.  Many struggle with the mounting housing prices which seem to keep rising. As a dangerous solution, low income individuals have developed "cage homes'' or “coffin homes” in which they reside. It consists of a bed-space, usually made of wood or wired boxes, large enough to only fit a bed and one or two personal items. An estimated 200,000 people, including 40,000 children live in cage homes in Hong Kong. The poor and elderly are the ones experiencing the effects the housing crisis Hong Kong has caused. 

Out of desperation, many people are deciding to live out of these cage homes in order to avoid living on the streets. These barbed wire “homes” were created in the 1950’s due to an influx of refugees coming from mainland China. They provided cheap labor for Hong Kong and, therefore, a demand for low cost bed space apartments. The apartment operators decided to make more profit by stacking bunk beds known as cages on top of each other, and the term “cage home” was created. Since then, the inhabitants have grown from immigrant workers to elderly men and women and children.

An average home in Hong Kong is about $1.28 million USD and a tiny “nano” apartment is on average $500,000 USD. Cage homes are approximately $230-$300 USD a month. They are the size of a parking space in the US, 7.5 feet in width and about 10 feet in length. They’re stacked on one another and there are approximately 30 cage homes in one room. All of the renter’s personal items are locked away at night or when renter’s go out for the day. Bathrooms are mostly communal and often there are no kitchens, just electric portable burners. While living in these homes, renters usually have no privacy or natural light coming in. Most windows are away from where the cage homes are placed. Many of the cage homes are in older urban districts, such as, West Kowloon, Sham Shui Po and Mongkok. 

The mental and physical effects of living in a cage home are concerning. The people who live in these spaces are dealing with depression, anxiety and stress due to their financial situation and cramped living space. Although they live among others, they often feel isolated and alone. Hygiene is also a big issue when living in these confined spaces. Up to a dozen people share bathrooms and kitchen areas, which are at times both in one room. In addition, there are poor safety regulations due to the buildings’ age and the number of people living in these tight spaces. The inadequate fire protection is a big risk many face when choosing to live in constricted spaces like these. Renters often have to deal with the infestation of rodents, roaches and bed bugs, which in turn affects their sleep and adds to health issues. There is poor air quality and no ventilation systems, with summer temperatures making it unbearable. Some elderly people have described their lives in their cage homes as “waiting for death.”

The new coronavirus pandemic has made it extremely difficult to live in these confined spaces. The cage home inhabitants find it impossible to quarantine safely as they do not have any walls or personal space. Most of them have to wear masks to sleep in order to avoid contracting the virus from others in their room. Many who live in the cage homes used to escape their reality by spending the day in parks, librairies or jungle gyms, however the pandemic has forced all public areas to close. Now cage home dwellers pass the time by, napping, listening to music or watching TV. Volunteers visit the people living in these spaces and bring food to donate, while also spending time with the residents to ease their loneliness.

Panorama of Hong Kong. CC BY-NC 2.0

The reason for the rising costs in the housing market is Hong Kong’s dense population, in which only seven percent of the city’s land is used for residential living. The pace of land supply and creation has slowed down in recent years. With low supply and high demand for living space, Hong Kong’s housing prices have no chance to come down. Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam has proposed a variety of measures to boost the number of homes in the residential market. Her plan includes an aggressive target to turn the remote northern part of the city into a “metropolis” for 2.5 million people, a project that will take decades to complete. In July, Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Xia Baolong set a city goal to eliminate its ‘infamously small apartments’ by 2049. This refers to less than 500 square foot apartments many residents live in. The Hong Kong government legally recognised cage homes, but did so under the label “bedspace apartments,” which are defined as “any flat in which there are 12 or more bed spaces occupied or intended to be occupied under rental agreements.” The United Nations has taken notice and calls the poor conditions present “an insult to human dignity”.

---

Jennifer Sung

Jennifer is a Communications Studies graduate based in Los Angeles. She grew up traveling with her dad and that is where her love for travel stems from. You can find her serving the community at her church, Fearless LA or planning her next trip overseas. She hopes to be involved in international humanitarian work one day.

The World’s Electronic Waste is Ending Up in Ghana’s Landfill

While new tech gadgets launch every few months, the buildup of electronic waste is being sent to Ghana and damaging the citizens’ health. 

Location, Ghana. Fairphone. CC BY-NC 2.0

The capital city of Accra in Ghana is home to the largest e-waste landfill, Agbogbloshie. Electronic waste or e-waste is waste material with any battery or power cable. It ranges from everyday appliances to laptops, circuit boards, lamps, phones, etc. If these items are not disposed of properly, they can become harmful to the environment and people. An estimated 250,000 tons of electronics are sent every year to the dumpsite. The site not only houses e-waste, but about 40,000 Ghanaians inhabit the area alongside livestock. 

The e-waste arrives in Ghana through the Port of Tema, about 20 miles east of Agbogloshie. Most of the items in the container ships are from the United States or Western Europe. The electronics are secondhand and sent to Ghana with the idea of being refurbished then sold.  The majority of the items cannot be fixed and become e-waste, which is then taken to Agbogbloshie. Once the electronics arrive at the dumpsite, there is an entire process the electronics go through. First, small collectors sell the items to scrap dealers known as “masters.” The scrap dealers then have their workers, known as “boys,” use their bare hands, hammers and other tools to break apart the valuable metals inside. At times insulated wires are bundled together and taken to the “burner boys” they’re in charge of burning the plastic off of the wires. In doing so, they’re able to retrieve valuable metals. The metals include copper, aluminum, zinc, silver and others. Once the metals are recovered, they are weighed and sold for instant cash. 

PCBs Used to Extract Metals. Fairphone. CC BY-NC 2.0

The supply and demand is what fuels the toxic pollution in Agbogbloshie. As soon as the bulk of metals and wires are sold, they are exported out of Ghana and reused to produce new devices. The men and young boys who do this harmful labor are usually from rural northern cities searching for work to provide for their families back home. A “burner boy” will make about $40-50 Ghanaian cedis a day (US$6-8). Living in extreme poverty and barely making enough to move further up the chain, along with paying the ultimate price with their lives. They work arduously with no protective gear and no government regulations. At times, these young men and children have multiple health issues due to the toxic fumes and chemicals that leak from the electric waste. They face chronic nausea, debilitating headaches, skin diseases, burns, respiratory problems, infected wounds and cancer among others. All these issues are brought on by the toxic work environment, pollution and lack of regulations. Most people know that this line of work is debilitating to their health. However, the desperation for survival is the driving force. 

The people who work and live in Agbogbloshie are not the only ones suffering; the livestock is, too. The toxins are entering the food chain as cattle roam and graze the dumpsite freely. This is concerning as the Agbogbloshie area is home to one of the largest food markets in Accra. Most of the cows and chickens are slaughtered and eaten by the residents, which then ingest the high-level toxins. In addition, the water is also being contaminated as Agbogbloshie is situated on the Korle Lagoon. This lagoon is filled with piled-up waste of all sorts and links to the Gulf of Guinea, the Northeastern part of the Atlantic Ocean. 

Goat Freely Roaming. Fairphone. CC BY-NC 2.0 

Agbogbloshie is known to many of the locals as Sodom and Gomorrah. These biblical cities are synonymous with Agbogbloshie’s difficult living conditions. Although harsh, the people of this slum depend heavily on electrical waste in order to make a living. The Ghanian government has condemned the activity that’s taking place here. However, it has not lessened. As of now, change might be taking place in the near future. The German agency, GIZ, is in the middle of delivering a $5.5 million project for the people of Agbogbloshie. The plan is to build a sustainable recycling system and a health clinic and football pitch for workers. Much more will need to be done to keep the people’s health intact and away from this harmful environment. However, this is a start in bettering the status quo.

---

Jennifer Sung

www.jennwanders.com

Jennifer is a Communications Studies graduate based in Los Angeles. She grew up traveling with her dad and that is where her love for travel stems from. You can find her serving the community at her church, Fearless LA or planning her next trip overseas. She hopes to be involved in international humanitarian work one day.