Return to the Quest

Over the past month, I have been in the process of moving. I have been really sick the past week. I have acute tonsilitis and now some unexplainable chest pain/tightness. I am praying that I will be well soon. But I have felt extremely bad about not being able to continue on with the quest.

Day 11: Today was the challenge to research a country that is amongt the poorest in our our world. I found the top 10
1. Zimbabwe
2. Congo
3. Burundi
4. Liberia
5. Guinea- Bissau
6. Somalia
7. Central African Republic
8. Eritrea
9. Niger
10. Sierra Leon
These figures were based on GPA per capita


I am curious to find out how and why these 10 countries are the most vulnerable. I am intrigued to find out what missionaries and humanitarian aid workers are doing in these places to provide comfort, aid, and the GOOD NEWS.

Amongst the nations, that fall under the above mentioned prerequisite, the first criteria for judging is the standard of living, which includes life expectancy, calorie intake per capita, school enrollment rate and overall literacy rate. The next criteria is, how vulnerable is the nation's economy, which depends mainly on the agricultural production, export and import.So accordingly, the poorest country in the world is Zimbabwe. This southern African nation is the world's poorest country by a long way. Its GDP - per capita is less than $250. Political unrest and a totally collapsed economy are the main reasons for the failing of this one as a well to do nation. Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, was a British colony until, as late as 1980, when it gained independence. Current President Robert Mugabe was the one who pioneered the freedom movement in the 1970s and has held the country's highest office, till date. At the time of independence, Zimbabwe had a substantial white population. Even though blacks made up more than 90% of the population, whites held more than 80% of the top authoritarian posts and 70% of the country's commercially viable and highly fertile land. Mugabe earned a lot of black support, post independence, when he promised to redistribute the land amongst the majority race. This plan failed to materialize for almost two decades, until in 1999 when a rising unrest against Mugabe's regime forced him to take up the issue of land redistribution seriously. This was the beginning of Zimbabwe's decline. In 2000, Mugabe began to redistribute land to the blacks, adopting a compulsory land acquisition policy. The legality and legitimacy of this policy has time and again been challenged in the High court and Supreme Court of Zimbabwe. And in spite of several court rulings, the law implementing agencies have seldom acted according to the rulings on these issues. This acquisition of the cultivable land, continuous droughts and void of inputs and financial aid. This led to diminishing agricultural exports, which was traditionally a leading sector of Zimbabwe's exports. This resulted in Zimbabwe experiencing a severe hard-currency shortage, which in turn led to a sharp rise in inflation and continuous shortages of imported oil, coal and consumer goods. In 2004-05, the Mugabe regime initiated "Operation Murambatsvina", a purposeful effort to bring down the illegal markets and slums that had sprung up, mostly in towns and cities. This action was widely criticized by the opposition and international human rights bodies, who alleged that, this drive left a significant section of urban poor, homeless. The Zimbabwe government countered this allegation by describing it as an attempt to provide decent housing to the poor, although they failed to deliver any new dwelling to those who were forcibly evicted. Allegations of rampant rigging during a general election and the above mentioned operation led to Zimbabwe being suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations on charges of human rights abuses during the land redistribution and creating a non-democratic environment.Zimbabwe is currently facing deep economic and food crisis, described by UN observers as one of the worst since its independence. It has been widely attributed to the government's price control policies and land confiscations, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and a persistent drought engulfing the region have also made matters worse. Life expectancy has dramatically declined since the 1990s, for males, it has dropped from 60 to 37, and for females is even lower at 34 years which happens to be the lowest in the world. Consequently, the infant mortality rate has mounted from 53 to 81 deaths per 1,000 live births. According to an estimate, currently there about 1.8 million HIV +ve Zimbabweans.

http://www.financialjesus.com/interesting-economics/top-10-poorest-countries-in-the-world-2010/
Here is a link about some of these countries. Wow. In our little worlds we are so off base with what is reality..Lord God help me to be more sensitive to the plights of these your children.