Homework For U AKA A+ For U: AFGHANISTAN RESEARCH PROJECT EVERYTHING INCLUDED

Afghanistan

Introduction

Afghanistan is located in the south of Asia landlocked by Iran to the west, Pakistan to the south, China to the east and Turkmenistan and other countries to the north. With about 647,500km2 and no water area, because it is surrounded by neighbouring countries, it is ranked 41^st in term of land size.

The capital city is Kabul, with other major cities like Heart, Kandahar, Mazari Sharif and more. There are a total of 34 provinces in Afghanistan, with Kandahar being the most populated, and the 3^rd largest locating on the eastern border.

The 2011 Census states that there are 29,835,392 living in Afghanistan, which is the 42^nd most populated country.

The main language spoken in Afghanistan is Dari Persian is the native and official language of Afghanistan, Pashto, which more than 9 million people use, Turkmen and Uzbek, which are considered as minor language as there are many ethnic groups in Afghanistan.

The currency used in Afghanistan is AFN, but before it was the official currency was AFA, which is 1000 times less than the AFA, so if you had 1000AFA it will convert to 1AFN. Also 1 US Dollar is 50AFN.

Economy

The economy of a country could be affected by many factors ranging from and geography of the country to the education of their citizens, this same applies to Afghanistan.

GDP stand for Gross Domestic product, which measures the market values of all the goods produced by the country, which can indicate the standard of living in the country. The current GDP ofAfghanistan is 29.9 Billion, but if it was to divided equally amongst their citizens, which is per capita the result is about $1207, which is relatively low, ranking 161 in the world GDP out of 181 countries in the world and is ranked last out of all the Asian countries. Statistics also shows that at least 35% of the total population are unemployed and due to unemployment 36% of the total population is below the poverty line which are people living with under $1.25 per day. But other employment for the citizens include agriculture 78.6%, industry 5.7%, services 15.7%, which is recorded in 2009. In order for a country to have high GDP, the must produce goods and the goods that Afghanistan produce include: small-scale production of textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, apparel, food-products, non-alcoholic beverages, mineral water, cement; hand-woven carpets; natural gas, coal, copper. To make these product people will be needed and this means that these jobs will provided people with money and a better future, but also to make money the country can export the products they produce to another country which requires it, and this will earn the country money. The totally earning for export is 571 million, and the goods export are opium, fruits and nuts, Afghan rugs, wool, cotton, hides and pelts, and gemstone and the countries that buys it include U.S. 29.1%, Pakistan 23.3%, India 7.6%, Russia 4.5%, Germany 4.2%.

Sometimes the country will require products from another country so they will import. The countries that Afghanistan gets the required products from include: U.S. 29.1%, Pakistan 23.3%, India 7.6%, Russia 4.5%, and Germany 4.2% this was recorded in 2010. The total earning is $5.3 billion and these goods include machinery and other capital goods, food, textiles and petroleum products; most consumer goods and they go to U.S. 29.1%, Pakistan 23.3%, India 7.6%, Russia 4.5%, Germany 4.2%.

The current international debt is 2.7 billion US dollars. The country that Afghanistan is in debt to is Russia - $987 million, Asian Development Bank - $ 596 million, World Bank - $435 million, International Monetary Fund - $114 million, Germany - $18 million, Saudi Development Fund - $47 million, Islamic Development Bank - $11 million, Bulgaria - $51 million, Kuwait Development Fund - $22 million, Iran - $10 million and Opec - $1.8 million, but this was recorded in 2011.

Due to the low GDP rate and many people in Afghanistan live under the poverty line. , It affects the nation’s life expectancy, child mortality rate and the adult literacy rate, because low GDP indicate that the country is poor.

Life expectancy at birth is also a measure of overall quality of life in a country and summarizes themortality at all ages. It can also be thought of as indicating the potential return on investment in human capital and is necessary for the calculation of various actuarial measures. The nation’s life expectancy rate is in 2011 is 45 years old, which is really comparing to a country with high GDP: 78 years old, it is literally 2 times the life expectancy of Afghanistan. As can see in this graph the life expectancy rate dropped dramatically in 2003 and by the end of 2004 the rate dropped to just over 42 years of age, this is due to the war that happened in Afghanistan in 2001. But in 2001 the life is still raising from 46 to 47 until 2003 it drop.

By using child mortality rate it indicates the countries’ health. The child mortality of child under five of Afghanistan in 2009 is 200 children in every 1000 birth, which is about 20% of all the birth, which is high, but comparing to child mortality under one it is 134 in every 1000 birth which is 13.4%. This could be caused by malnutrition, because more than 32.9% of the child under 5 years old is moderately underweight or severely underweight. So this means that more than half the child mortality rates under five years old are child under one year old.The literacy rate of Afghanistan of people over 15 years old is 28.1% which really low, due to fact that the country cannot even afford to eat so they will not be able to spend money on education. For the 28.1% of the people can read more are male than female, this could be because of their religion and other factors. In this graph see that from 2002 to 2010 only because in there was no data gather, but it referring to information for my research I believe tat in 2006 the GDP of the country would of drop dramatically, due to the fact that in 1996 rebels Taliban controlled most of the country, but before that the GDP would have been low, because after the Soviet Union left Afghanistan there were many internal conflicts. The GDP (PPP) rose from 12 billion to 27 billion dollars, but from 2003 to 2004 the GDP slightly dropped. This is due to the invasion of US in Iraq, which after the attack on 9/11, they were able to use the terrorist attacks to justify war with Iraq on this basis and exaggerated threats of the development of weapons of mass destruction. Due to the fact that Iraq was on the west side of Afghanistan, it also affected Afghanistan, because Afghanistan was also a coalition in the invasion of Iraq, which eventually ended in 2004. Then after 2004 the GDP started to stably rising until 2008, it rose more than ever before and then returning to a stable like from 2004 to 2008.

Environmental

Afghanistan is a landlocked nation, because other countries surround it and therefore it has no sea of its own. The land size is 677,500km squared, with 5,529 km of land boundaries. Because it is a landlocked country it has on coastline and no sea area. The arable land is 12.13%, permanent crop is 0.21% and other use is 87.66%, this was recorded in 2005. Irrigated land is 27,200 km squared.

The highest point in Afghanistan is the Noshaq, which is 7,492 meter above sea level. The lowest point is Amu Darya, which is just 258 meters above sea level.

The longest river is the Helmand River, which is 1150 km stretching from the northeast to the southwest side, it passes through desert as well and dams which supply water and provides flood control. As spring come the ice melt from the mountains and following the landscape it flow down to a reservoir.

Looking at this map we could see that there are rivers flowing through the country, but due to the fact that it is no close to a major sea but the Indian Ocean to the south. But to the northeast of the country there are snow-capped mountains, which are the highest point in the country. As we descend down towards southwest the altitude of the land gradually lowers to about 500 meter above sea level. The climate is typical of an arid, which is a lack in water and tends to lack vegetation as well or semiarid steppe, which is little rain, and high winds, cold winters and dry summers. The mountain regions of the northeast are subarctic with dry and cold winters.

Afghanistan has a harsh continental climate. Harsh winters are accentuated by high elevation. Summer is warm, except at high altitude. Much of the country is arid or semi-arid. Precipitation is light, falling mostly in the spring and winter. Almost no precipitation falls from June to October. Nearly half of Afghanistan is snowcapped for more than 100 days.

The terrain of Afghanistan is steep-sloped with mountains, the ranges fanning out from the towering Hindu Kush across the centre of the country. There are, however, within the mountain ranges and on their edges, many fertile valleys and plains. In the south, and particularly in the southwest, are great stretches of desert. To the north, between the central mountain chains and the Amu Darya (Oxus) River, which marks part of the northern boundary, are the highlands of Badakhshan with the finest lapis lazuli in the world, Afghan Turkistan, the Amu Darya plain, and the rich valley of Herat on the Hari Rud (Arius) River in the northwest corner of the country .The regions thus vary widely, although most of the land is dry. But in some parts of the country there are many valuable natural resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, uranium, gold, silver, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stone.

In this picture we could see that Afghanistan is on the borders of Eurasian Plates, with Australian-Indian Plate on its southeast border and the Arabian Plate on the southwest, but no where near Afghanistan’s border. There distribution of population is mainly on the eastern side near major cities like Kabul and the most populated province Kandahar. But even if the earthquake magnitude was quite low, but it would still affect the people, because of the poor housings, which are weak and will break in any conditions, killing up to more people than the same magnitude in a developed country.

Other natural disasters include: drought. Drought in Afghanistan is a major problem not only is there limited amount of water also cops will not grow poorly. This is due to the fact that if there was no rainfall, the country’s water supply will be all depend on the river, which flows for the high snow-capped mountain, but due to the fact that snow will only melt in spring and summer and the winter in Afghanistan is really dry, there will be limited amount of water. According to research 14 of the 34 provinces are already affected by the drought. This cause wells to dry up, forcing them to drink unclean water and risking the chance of catching diseases and many children to be malnutrition. It is said that in the past 11 years, 8 years the country has been suffering water and food shortage.

Seasonal flood in Afghanistan also affect many people, due to the warming weather and the rain, which will cause snow to melt and flood. It affects up to 300,000, because flash floods often destroy agricultural land, tree, livestock which are the main income of the rural population, and it will also destroy building, although the country has plans to develop irrigation system, which reduce the risk and frequent of flood, but it will need to improve the living of people first.

Avalanches are also a treat the Afghan people. On March 4, 2012, at least three avalanches struck the Badakhshan province, which is the northeast province, wiping out a whole village of 200 people, it is said that there was heavy rain and wind before the incident, and annually there are about 250 avalanches that happened in Afghanistan.

Although there are many natural disasters in Afghanistan but there are also a lot of man-made destruction. Deforestation is an example. As many people cannot afford heats, the people will burn firewood as an alternative, so people got to forest for firewood. In Badghis and Takhar province they have lost more than 50% of their forest. But other people also come to cut down expensive wood, although the logging is illegal, but profit is very high. Other man-made destruction include extinct of wildlife. Due to little discouragement of hunting animals, much of the country’s wildlife is at risk. Animal that are endangered snow leopard, wild goat, Marco Polo sheep, Black bear, Siberian Crane and much more.

There are many infectious diseases in Afghanistan, there are one of the major health problem that is causing the country’s health rate to drop, this is because the government does’t have enough money to spend on health issue, as there country already has lack in food. They don’t have vaccination, to prevent the disease and they don’t have the material needed to stop the spread of it. The major infectious diseases include bacterial and protozoa diarrhea, HIV/AID, hepatitis A and E, typhoid fever, malaria, rabies, Dengue fever, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and other infectious diseases. Many of these infectious diseases are contagious and are harmful to our body.

Conclusion

I believe that economy is the responsible for the poverty of the county, because economy that drives the world forward, without economy the world will not operate properly, even if there is a good government system, a good society. Without good economy the country will not be able to make trade with another country, and therefore less income for a country. Less income will lead to poorer lifestyle within the country, causing problem such as political, social, health, education and other major issue, which can affect the country’s future. But in contrast all the countries, which have high GDP all, have high adult literacy rate, import and export rate, health rate and other, which are beneficial for the countries.

Through my findings I found that all of the data gather for Afghanistan are all nearly at the bottom of the scale, which means that all the data gather it is ranked nearly last like GDP, literacy rate and so on.

Strategy

The strategy that could be put into place to overcome poverty in Afghanistan is to provide all the citizens of Afghanistan with

Education.

Strength

Data shows that the literacy rate in Afghanistan is the lowest out of 150 countries, with only about 18.16% of the totally population knowing how to read, write and understand the language. By providing education for every citizen, means that everyone in the country will be able to read, write and understand. This will make communication between people much easier. But they will not only learn about the language they will also learn about other stuff and professions. By doing this a country will be well educated and therefore there will be more opportunity for the people, meaning a better career. A better career will lead to better living conditions, which then will lead to a better country as everyone in that country has good living condition. But not only that people will be able to use what they have learnt and apply it to the real world and then this will benefit the country itself.

By providing education will also teach the citizens how to escape a natural disasters, which will decrease the amount of people killed, and teaching them about AID/HIV will also decrease the spread of AID/HIV which then will decrease the amount of people getting killed.

Weakness

By providing education for the citizen, means spending a lot of money to build schools, to hire teacher, to buy textbook and other expense. But right no the country is already lack in money. There don’t even have enough to feed themselves, and if they spend most of the money on education, they will not have money to provide themselves with food. Although the risk is big, but they benefits gain from it is great. So it is best that the teenage are the people getting educated, so the adult and the younger children can still help on the farm and therefore there will still be produce that are able to be sold.

Opportunities

If Afghanistan is educated then there will be more opportunities provided in a country, for example career. But to educate people they will require school, and therefore they will need builder and this creates opportunities for the builder that are jobs and then they will be able to earn money for their living. It will also create opportunities for the people and the teacher and most of all the country itself.

Threats

The threats that educating all the citizen is that the outcome is unknown. If what is to be achieved is not achieved then it will be a waste of money, which are hard t earn in a country that is in poverty.

Bibliography:

http://www.indexmundi.com/afghanistan/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Afghanistan

http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/AFG.html

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5380.htm

http://answers.encyclopedia.com/question/terrain-afghanistan-103256.html

http://www.afghanembassyjp.com/en/business/

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/88306/AFGHANISTAN-Seasonal-floods-warning

http://www.unicef.org/har09/files/har09_Afghanistan_countrychapter.pdf

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/afghanistan/cs-enviro.htm

http://www.afghanembassyjp.com/en/business/

http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/map/