El Salvador

April 30, 2013 – Jim O’Bright

Post 8:

A Full Comparison to the United States

During a class presentation over the South Africa blog the presenter spoke of the website, ifitweremyhome.com. I took a look for myself to see what information I could find for my own country, El Salvador. The website turned out to be very useful in comparing what it would be like to live in El Salvador as compared to living in the United States. It is full of many random, yet interesting facts about things like the country’s environment, mortality rates, and health care. Since this blog does not have any posts about an overview of El Salvador yet, I figured it would be better late than never.

THIS POST IS NOT FINISHED

This map shows the size of El Salvador in relation to the United States

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April 28, 2013 – Jim O’Bright

Post 7:

Controversy Over Drug Prices

An online news article from Pharmaceutical-Technology.com says that a new law in El Salvador has been passed that cuts prices of legal pharmaceuticals. It says, “prices for at least 6,200 medicines will be reduced by a minimum of 30%, and up to 60% for those most often prescribed.” Considering El Salvdaor has some of the most expensive drugs of any nation worldwide, I think this law will do a lot of good for the poverty-stricken country. It will allow more people the right to live, considered to be a basic human right.

The big pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer do not like this law, however. They are claiming the ratification of the new law is “a violation of the right to economic freedom.” The companies are saying they might not sell their drugs in El Salvador any more if the law is not changed. They are trying to pressure drug consumers into thinking that they are dependent on the big companies. People are not worried about this, though, with domestic drug companies that offer generic alternatives to the brand-name drugs.

This article really caught my eye because I found it interesting that basically the same war between the people and medical companies is going on in the United States. I would side against the prescription drug companies in El salvador, just as I would here in the United States for socialization of health care. People should be able to have treatments and surgeries for their ailments without being in debt the rest of their lives. I think people who disagree with that are just afraid that socializing one thing will turn us into a socialist nation. We can not live in the past i the shadow of the cold war. These steps being taken to change the way people pay for health care would save many lives and I think would improve the overall satisfaction of American and Salvadoran citizens.

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April 24, 2013 – Jim O’Bright

Post 6:

United States Intervention/Aid

According to El Mundo, a Salvadoran news journal has an article that states the “U.S. government through the Agency of the United States for International Development, USAID will invest in the country, the amount of $100 million in a plan to prevent crime and violence, in the next four years”

They say they plan to do this by funding the struggling nation in three different ways:

1. “increase the capacity of the Government of El Salvador in the prevention of crime and violence, consisting of training and technical assistance.”
2. “Strengthen Prevention municipal councils in 20 high-risk municipalities, through funding and donations to implement prevention activities.”
3. “Promote innovative ideas and other models that contribute to the prevention of crime and violence. Establish methodologies to prioritize and identify needs.”

The three-step plan they have released is not very in-depth about what they are actually doing. I am not really sure what implementing “prevention activites” means, or what promoting “innovative ideas and other models that contribute to the prevention of crime and violence” is. This makes me think about the corruptness of the Salvadoran government and how they might end up using this money in ways other than the real goal of this huge donation by the United States. I feel the plan they released should have been more detailed so the people getting the aid would know exactly what is being done in their country. The third step seems to be saying that they are introducing ways for parents to help their children make better decisions when it comes to violence.

Courtesy of http://sigueadelanteeducacion.blogspot.com/2012/03/drug-violence-and-education.html

“Ambassador Aponte voiced that violence must be fought in different ways, “there are many spaces and many different programs that can be developed … we have chosen the prevention, because we have the expertise in that because we are committed and we understand that [in the] long term, this is one of the strategies that pay off.”

The article also went on to say that they planned on using the money in the most violent, crime-ridden municipalities that they can. I agree with the way they are doing this because it will cut down the highest crime rates instead of neutralizing less-dangerous areas. Although the less-dangerous areas will still have their violence, this will make the nation look better from a statistical perspective because it will drastically cut El Salvador’s mortality rate.The article also says that this program will create jobs within said municipalites, which will decrease the desire/need for youths to join a gang.

As I stated in the first post of this blog, 90% of the murders in El Salvador are gang related. I think if they do actually have a plan for what they are going to use this money for, it could help out El Salvador tremendously.

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April 23, 2013 – Jim O’Bright

Post 5:

Political Corruption

Corruption can lead to many problems in any type of government in any nation of the world. According to Transparency International, as of 2012 El Salvador is currently ranked 83rd out of 176 in corruption among nations, and were in the 51st percentile among nations as of 2010.

According to the Global Corruption Barometer 48% of the Salvadorans surveyed claimed that from 2007 to 2010 they felt the level of corruption in their country had increased. In the same study 34% of the people surveyed claimed it had stayed the same, whereas 18% of them said that corruption had decreased.

El Salvador’s levels of corruption are caused by multiple factors. Its lack of a good system of education allows corrupt officials to perform illegal acts rights before their people who are too uneducated to know how the government is supposed to work. Citizens’ levels of education also effect who and why they vote for during elections, which can cause them to vote for the wrong candidate who is corrupt. El Salvador’s current literacy rate is now at around 84%, which is low compared to the United States’ 99%. El Salvador’s literacy rate has been increasing by a significant amount over the past 6 years, however.

Low levels of economic development are also connected to political corruption. With less amounts of money for the government to work with it can become dependent on making illegal deals with other organizations. As I stated in the second post from this blog, El Salvador ranks a 2 out of 10 in health of public finances. This could have a big deal to do with El Salvador’s current high level of courruption.

As I have also said in this blog before, to escape its problems El Salvador must increase its overall education system. But with such a corrupt (and poor) government it might be already dug in a hole it can’t get itself out of. With no education, El Salvador developed a rotten political system, and with such a corrupt political system the country will not have funding for education. This nation is stuck in a loop and it is hurting the people who live there.

Citation:

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

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March 13, 2013 – Jim O’Bright

Post 4:

Environmental Issues

Deforestation:

One of the biggest problems in El Salvador that has come up in recent years is deforestation. The second most deforested country in Latin America (after Haiti), El Salvador has lost 85% of its forests since 1960. This has caused storms to produce huge landslides that have killed people and have destroyed thousands of homes. The wood that is there is being cut down and burned for fuel, even endangered tree species. This is happening even in protected forests, yet the government is unable to defend them due to lack of funding.

Despite the Salvadoran government’s lack of management, will, and resources to protect its forests, some people are working toward a solution for this problem. El Salvador is beginning to turn its focus on geothermal electricity, an underutilized way of turning the Earth’s heat into electricity. The current technology for this process is unimpressive in its output, but “a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study concluded that if the United States were to invest US$1 billion in geothermal research and development over the next 15 years, the country could increase its generating capacity” twenty fold. (ENN.com) Central America is located on a ring of volcanoes, giving its countries a very high potential to turn to geothermal energy. Because of this El Salvador has quickly become one of the world’s leading nations in the tapping of Earth’s internal energy.

Polution:

Pollution is also an issue in El Salvador. Many endangered species of the area are being threatened because of things like villagers throwing their trash directly into the rivers, and businesses dumping their toxic waste.

El Salvador gets nearly six inches of rain per year, but as soon as it hits the ground it becomes contaminated. Donors have tried buying and installing expensive water treatment systems but they offer no help or funding for maintenance when they break, leaving the citizens of El Salvador back where they started. The solution the nation’s people has come up with is digging very deep wells under the earth where the contaminated water lies. This does not seem like a true fix for the problem, but at least they are getting the water they need to survive. Maybe some of these environmental problems have to do with the way Fareed Zakaria says that nations tend to ignore their natural environment in order to westernize, or maybe its just the people having no energy to stay warm and no place to put their trash.

Citation:

http://rainforests.mongabay.com/20elsalvador.htm http://www.countriesquest.com/central_america/el_salvador/land_and_resources/environmental_issues.htm http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/El-Salvador-ENVIRONMENT.html http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/45454 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4983325 http://livinggreenmag.com/2012/01/24/mother-nature/drowning-in-plastic/

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February 19, 2013 – Jim O’Bright

Post 3:

Nationalism, Westernization, and Human Rights

As for those in any country, the people of El Salvador deserve their basic human rights that the UN has declared for the world. But because of El Salvador’s state of poverty and corruption the nation is still not at a level where it could deem its citizens’ basic rights safe.

Even though the truce between some El Salvadoran gangs has caused the murder rate to drop, man people’s basic rights like the right to live and enjoy one’s own life. The lowering death rates from random- and premeditated killings are still absurdly high (highest in Latin America). There are even recent reported cases of police officers murdering people unlawfully.

Child labor is also a big current issue. Big companies like Coca-Cola are purchasing the cane sugar harvested by children in El Salvador who are given machetes and other sharp tools to cut the sugar stalks without supervision. The Salvadoran government needs to do more to stop this so its people can live normal lives.

So what can El Salvador do to change the status of their human rights for the better as a nation? I would suggest that its government model what the United States has been doing. In The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria stresses the importance of westernization, and also that it is necessary to side with the United States. During the early 1980’s while Ronald Reagan was in the white house there was a terrible civil war where a situation similar to El Salvador’s current human rights issues was happening.

The military was fighting guerilla forces, children were being kidnapped, and thousands people were being killed. In an event known as the “El Calabozo Massacre” 200 men, women and children were murdered in northern El Salvador by the Salvadoran army. Other similar massacres also occured during the war. The United States ended up stepping in and giving aid to El Salvador in the end.

To solve the nations current issues, El Salvador should not rely on the United States to give aid, but should instead follow the way human rights issues are handled so they are able to solve their own problems.El Salvador is still working on cleaning up the mess from the civil war to this day. Sources say El Salvador has “recently seen some positive historical decisions and convictions in several countries across the Americas to ensure justice for the disappeared and their relatives”. (Amnesty.org)

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Citation:

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130224/NATION/302240316

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

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/enforced-disappearances-americas-are-crime-present-2012-08-28

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February 17, 2013 – Jim O’Bright

Post 2:

Economy and History

This first article I read titled “We Are Headed for a Fiscal Crisis Due to Lack of Historical and Current Health” is from elfaro, a Salvadoran economic news website. The article discusses how poor El Salvador is as a nation. The author states that on a scale of 0-10 the health of El Salvador’s public finances is currently at a 2. This is because the country is not paying its debts for its operations (much like the USA). Their expenses are exceeding their revenue and their economy has very slow growth which is pushing the impoverished nation to collapse, much like Greece is. One way the article talks about solving this problem is taxing certain goods to make more money for the government, much like the USA has been doing with tobacco.

The second article I read is called “[President] Funes Proposed 10% Increase to the Minimum Wage”. It is about how the president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, has proposed an increase of the country’s minimum wage in order to increase economic activity and growth. This increase in spending pushes money around in the country and allows businesses to keep running.

El Salvador ranks 53rd among nations in overall economic rating according to the Heritage Index of Economic Freedom 2013. “Funes has failed to reduce growing public indebtedness, reverse the upward trend in food prices, or attract foreign investment. High levels of crime and violence continue to threaten social development and economic growth.”

El Salvador’s economic rating has decreased substantially since 2010.

According to Tony Judt’s book, Ill Fares the Land, in economies as poor as these, “The poor stay poor…  Economic disadvantage for the overwhelming majority translates into ill health, missed educational opportunity, and—increasingly—the familiar symptoms of depression”. This does not look good for El Salvador, for it has shown no increase in growth as of late and nothing they have tried has been working to fix their economic problems.

The income inequality has gone down in El Salvador, yet it is still higher than the world average above nations. According to Judt, income inequality causes decreased social mobility (the ability to move up in one’s social class) and increased health and social problems, as well as murder rates and mental instability.

I think that the Salvadoran goverment should invest more in education in order to pronounce a better middle class. With more people educated, the upper and middle classes could help the poor and bring more stability to the nation. I am no economist, but it could increase more than just economic stability, but also everything else that comes along with it (stated above).

El Salvador was a conquered nation. They were descended from the Aztecs who were conquered by the Spanish in the 1500’s. Since then they have had many political disputes involving corruption, and now have strong disagreements between their (mostly) two party system. As Zakaria states in The Post-American World, the nations of the world are influenced by “three forces: politics, economics, and technology”. I believe this to be true, and I think that once El Salvador can figure out its political issues, and use the technological advances and new economic studies, its economy will take a turn for the better. Zakaria also says that nations need to choose their priorities, as opposed to trying to fix everything at once. The poverty and slowing economy of El Salvador are what they really need to be focusing on, because it is apparent that this is the biggest issue the nation currently faces.

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February 8, 2013 – Jim O’Bright

Post 1:

Gang Violence

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20402216

This article from BBC News talks about how the truce between two large rival gangs in El Salvador’s capital, San Salivador, and how it has changed the lives of many Salvadorans for the better. Before this truce the Mara Salvatrucha (MS) and the 18th Street Gang had been killing each other for many years. El Salvador’s homicide rate had been around 13 or 14 deaths per day, but since the truce has been activated it has dropped to about 5 per day. 90% of the murders are said to be gang related, but the gangs tired of their friends and family members dying so quickly and frequently.

Both of the gangs began in Los Angeles, California in the 1980’s, but as members were deported back to El Salvador, their violence continued there.

Mara Salvatrucha leaders in Cuidad Barrios prison meet to decide whether or not to speak to the BBC.

The stoppage of violence has led to more happiness for the peaceful civilians of San Salvador, for they are now able to go out at night and walk around on the streets with less fear of being shot. The problem with the truce, however, is that because of the decrease in deaths, the gangs’ populations may start to grow rapidly, creating larger gangs that could turn into powerful cartels.

I believe that the gangs will grow larger and eventually break their vow of peace, which will lead to an ever bigger rivalry between the gangs, causing more war. Gangsters can’t stay peaceful with each other forever. But at least the ceasefire gives some of the city’s residents happiness for the time being, which is probably hard to come by in the poor nation of El Salvador.