1. Halving poverty (Taking each country's 1990 population and halving it by 2015).
Reducing the number of people living in the country on less than $1.
Making sure that children fall within a respectable height/weight ratio
2. Reducing Illiteracy (Compulsory Education to grade 12)
3. Gender Equality
4. Addressing Infant Mortality Rate ( having a doctor present at birth and pre post natal care)
5. HIV-AIDS (reducing the spread of HIV-AIDS and caring for those who do have it.)
6. I forgot to write this one down.
7. environment (reducing Greenhouse emissions)
8. Global Partnership ( The Development of assistance for developing nations is based on them meeting the above goals.)
Before the War, Iraq was the one country that was going to achieve all of the goals. Now it will achieve none of them.
Jordan will achieve most of the goals by 2015 but not all...
- 6% of the Jordanians are below the object poverty line. These people live on a breakfast of cold bread, falafal for lunch, and bread and salad for dinner. As Jordan takes care of these people, new ones arrive daily. There is no way that Jordan can continue to take care of all of these new people and achieve the first goal.
- For the weight to height ratio. Jordanians naturally have a B-12 deficiency. This has been determined to be because of a chemical in the water that blocks the absorbency of the vitamin. Therefore taking vitamin supplements will not help. Additionally, the poorer people think that any and all supplements are either birth control pills or poison from America and refuse to take them.
- 98% of the births are attended by a doctor, but the women in the poorer areas then do not come in for post natal check- up. The number of women who die in Jordan because of complications due to pregnancy and birth are very high, but an exact number cannot be stated since no one is exactly sure how many die because of complications and how many die from other causes.
Iraqi Refuges and Their Effect on Neighboring Countries
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in the first Gulf War the PLO took an oath of neutrality since there were Palestinian refugee camps in both Iraq and Kuwait. Kuwait saw this as the Palestinians being traders and so they kicked out 350,000 Palestinians. They all went to Jordan. Overnight poverty in Jordan increased by 10%.
Saddam Hussein was pro-Palestinian and so after he was removed in the second Gulf War, Palestinians were considered "pro-American" and were kicked out of Iraq. Lately Syria sees the Palestinians as pro-American also. (Ain't that a hoot?!)
The US continuously refuses to recognize the Iraqis as refugees since it now considers there to be democracy in Iraq. Therefore Jordan and Syria do not receive any help from the US to help them take care of any of the Iraqi/Palestinian refugees. Additionally, both the UN and the World Bank have labeled the Iraqi refugees as "passerbys" and refuse to help since they are not "refugees".
Sweden and Australia have taken the worst of the cases, such as children horribly crippled AND completely orphaned by the war, but the help is very limited.
Israel and Egypt have received millions of dollars in US aid to help support immigrants and people living below the poverty level in their countries, but neither have taken in Iraqi war refugees.
The New Iraqi democracy also has received millions of dollars in AID to help the poor and starving in their country even as 10,000 Iraqis continue to be killed each month. This money comes with "no strings attached" which upsets the Jordanians even more. What money they receive from the US for "Development Aid" comes with great strings attached; mainly 50 to 80% goes back to the US government. With any money they receive they must:
- contract to an American company,
- use only American workers, and American trainers
- use only American carriers
(Sounds like the No Child Left Behind Laws and the Reading First Grants to me!)
AIDS In Jordan
There are 385 recorded cases of AIDS in Jordan, but in reality the number is 10 times higher. This is because most of the cases come from married men having extramarital sex. Since Jordanians see themselves as a religious and pious nation and do not want to admit to anything otherwise. Therefore Jordanians see AIDS as predominately a "gay disease". Taking care of these AIDS patients costs the Jordanian Government $1000 American a month. More money is going into AIDS awareness, but since people don't want to believe it is actually possible for them to get it or give it, it is spreading.
Human Development Report
Looking at the average life expectancy at birth determines the "Standard of living" for each county.
To determine life expectancy they look at a country's average income, education, and life expectancy.
Out of 170 countries Canada and Scandinavia came in first. Jordan came in 70th.
Living Under Economic Sanctions
- When a country is placed under economic sanctions it can only import basic food and school supplies.
- Countries under economic sanctions cannot import more food, basic health supplies, or military parts.
Even though sanctions do allow advanced medical help, people end up dieing of basic problems because of the red tape.
- Water purification products are not allowed under economic sanctions and so people end up with diseases such as malaria and diarrhea. Since these diseases can be curred by basic health supplies which are not allowed under the sanctions people under sanctions end up dieing from these very curable diseases.
- There are documented cases where people are not allowed to import a piece for a dialysis machine since the same part could be used in military equipment.
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