AuH20
07-08-2014, 11:49 AM
Interesting read and we're simply located too close to the eye of the storm.
http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/07/07/inenglish/1404744546_180000.html
El Salvador, with a population of 6.3 million according to official data, has GDP of around $43 billion and per capita income of just under $3,800 a year. Poverty affects 29 percent of the population. It is the fourth-most-dangerous country in the world, with a homicide rate of more than 40 per 100,000 inhabitants and growing. That is 12 homicides a day.
Aguilar feels that youths are “the main targets of many of these groups, especially the gangs, who because of their greater control over the territory in many communities, have increased their violence against youngsters.” Young people are the ones who die in gang wars, and they are the ones pressured into joining them.
Meanwhile, in Guatemala, thousands of children are making their way to the United States, driven by extreme poverty, crime and the dream of family reunification.
In 2013, a child under five died every two hours of preventable causes such as diarrhea or pneumonia. Yet Guatemala is the Central American country that invests the least in children and teenagers. While Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua earmark over six percent of GDP to minors, Guatemala only invests 3.1 percent. This, in a country where 48 percent of the population is made up of children and teens.
“The state is co-perpetrator of this extermination through the systems of exclusion and inequality […]. Every two days a child dies of malnutrition, while an undetermined number suffer chronic malnutrition that stunts their physical and cognitive development,” reads a report on the state of Guatemala’s children published by the Office of Human Rights of the Archbishopric of Guatemala (ODHAG).
Guatemala is the Central American country that invests the least in children and teenagers
Meanwhile, economic rights are faring no better. The bishops’ report notes that six out of 10 working minors suffer workplace exploitation, with 82 percent of boys and 75 percent of girls denied access to social security.
“The only thing our economic model does is maintain poverty levels,” notes the analyst Gustavo Berganza. “Since 2001 the economy has grown an average 3.4 percent, while demographic growth has been 2.4 percent. There isn’t even a remote possibility of reducing poverty in these conditions.”
Guatemala is not an attractive country for investors: the average worker is malnourished, unqualified and lacks a quality education. Effecting change is difficult in a country with the lowest taxes on the continent where any attempts at reform are vigorously rejected by the country’s economic powers.
Meanwhile, the homicide rate among males aged 13 to 29 grew 70 percent in one year, up from 29.9 per 100,000 inhabitants to 42.2 in 2013.
Honduras:
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/desperate-journey-crime-poverty-drive-honduran-kids-u-s-n150011
Honduras' homicide rate was 90 slayings per 100,000 people in 2012, the worst in the world and six times the global average. The U.S. State Department warns that a corrupt and toothless police force means "criminals operate with a high-degree of impunity throughout Honduras."
Crushing poverty underlies the violence. Nearly two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line, according to UNICEF. One in three infants is malnourished, and children in rural areas get an average of four years of schooling.
In the end, it may cost less to send in our armed forces and clean up their countries as opposed to the manifestation of this slow, deliberate humanitarian crisis. That's how incredibly bad this situation is on all fronts.
http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/07/07/inenglish/1404744546_180000.html
El Salvador, with a population of 6.3 million according to official data, has GDP of around $43 billion and per capita income of just under $3,800 a year. Poverty affects 29 percent of the population. It is the fourth-most-dangerous country in the world, with a homicide rate of more than 40 per 100,000 inhabitants and growing. That is 12 homicides a day.
Aguilar feels that youths are “the main targets of many of these groups, especially the gangs, who because of their greater control over the territory in many communities, have increased their violence against youngsters.” Young people are the ones who die in gang wars, and they are the ones pressured into joining them.
Meanwhile, in Guatemala, thousands of children are making their way to the United States, driven by extreme poverty, crime and the dream of family reunification.
In 2013, a child under five died every two hours of preventable causes such as diarrhea or pneumonia. Yet Guatemala is the Central American country that invests the least in children and teenagers. While Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua earmark over six percent of GDP to minors, Guatemala only invests 3.1 percent. This, in a country where 48 percent of the population is made up of children and teens.
“The state is co-perpetrator of this extermination through the systems of exclusion and inequality […]. Every two days a child dies of malnutrition, while an undetermined number suffer chronic malnutrition that stunts their physical and cognitive development,” reads a report on the state of Guatemala’s children published by the Office of Human Rights of the Archbishopric of Guatemala (ODHAG).
Guatemala is the Central American country that invests the least in children and teenagers
Meanwhile, economic rights are faring no better. The bishops’ report notes that six out of 10 working minors suffer workplace exploitation, with 82 percent of boys and 75 percent of girls denied access to social security.
“The only thing our economic model does is maintain poverty levels,” notes the analyst Gustavo Berganza. “Since 2001 the economy has grown an average 3.4 percent, while demographic growth has been 2.4 percent. There isn’t even a remote possibility of reducing poverty in these conditions.”
Guatemala is not an attractive country for investors: the average worker is malnourished, unqualified and lacks a quality education. Effecting change is difficult in a country with the lowest taxes on the continent where any attempts at reform are vigorously rejected by the country’s economic powers.
Meanwhile, the homicide rate among males aged 13 to 29 grew 70 percent in one year, up from 29.9 per 100,000 inhabitants to 42.2 in 2013.
Honduras:
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/desperate-journey-crime-poverty-drive-honduran-kids-u-s-n150011
Honduras' homicide rate was 90 slayings per 100,000 people in 2012, the worst in the world and six times the global average. The U.S. State Department warns that a corrupt and toothless police force means "criminals operate with a high-degree of impunity throughout Honduras."
Crushing poverty underlies the violence. Nearly two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line, according to UNICEF. One in three infants is malnourished, and children in rural areas get an average of four years of schooling.
In the end, it may cost less to send in our armed forces and clean up their countries as opposed to the manifestation of this slow, deliberate humanitarian crisis. That's how incredibly bad this situation is on all fronts.