Even though the modern world has many advances and developments, there are still places that require help in social and personal lives of people. One of such places is Tanzania and the local communities. Implementation of social order has seen some positive results, but the vicious cycle of negativity still continues.
The community that is shown does not have the necessary tools, both moral and physical, to enhance their interaction with the environment. Everything begins with the social make-up and lack of knowledge in survival and family matters. Because families have a lot of children, they must increase their resources and provide for a greater amount of people.
As such, they are forced to cut down more wood in order to prepare more food. Also, the abuse of the sea is shown through over fishing. People use dynamite and poison to catch as much fish as possible, as the local population is on a constant grow (Healthy People Healthy Environment). Slowly, the nature is getting deprived of its resources and does not have time to restore itself.
As mentioned in the “Vicious Circles”, these sorts of conditions are evident in many parts of the world. The poorer countries do not have a strong infrastructure, thus they have to rely on agriculture to support their communities. As a result, droughts become predominant in a location (Vicious Circles). Unfortunately, it is a process that leads to more problems.
Even if a small area of the forest or other plantation is made unusable, it will spread to the nearby areas. The circle continues when people begin suffering from health problems (Vicious Circles). Children require proper nutrition and because parents are unable to adequately cook the food or simply provide enough, children’s organisms become weakened and susceptible to illness.
The close interdependence between economic factors, environment, the use of resources and social set-up, are all parts of the system that drag each other down. Even the makeup of social values and norms was very weakened by the abuse and absence of development.
The fact that women had no rights and could not own a business brought about unnecessary hardships. They were deprived of an opportunity to find any other way to support and contribute to the family matters (Healthy People Healthy Environment).
One of the innovations that were brought about to the home scene was the use of a more efficient stove. Previously, more wood had to be chopped and used to start the fire. Also the smoke was being inhaled in great quantities. With the new stove, the amount of used wood was cut down more than in half, and the amount of smoke was minimal.
This led to bettering families’ health and providing more food. As it now took less time to cook, the people could organize other parts of their community (Healthy People Healthy Environment). The education provided for an effective managing of medication and contraception; it taught people to plan ahead.
The mere fact that they were participating in communal meeting and had a chance to voice their opinions and listen to others, created a unity that was much needed. People got a chance to learn from each other and this is evident from their testimony. The social programs and volunteers who took part in the changes added optimism and hope.
Even though there are advantages and the life of the people is getting better, they are still limited by the country’s resources and political make-up. It took many years for a certain regime to get set up and become supported by those in power. Unsafe water quality and food that had little nutritious value had affected the genetic information of the population.
This led to the organism being predisposed to certain weaknesses. An article titled “Global challenges in water, sanitation and health” provides an example of the amount of water that was in the past and what is happening as of right now.
Water is key to survival and in the dry areas of the planet, they are increasing in size. From the diagram it is possible to see that Tanzania is one of the affected areas, so the problem will not go away easily, perpetuating the cycle. Another problem is that irrigation and the reuse of water requires technology.
In order for the technology to evolve or at least be transported to hard to reach areas, financial resources are needed (Moe & Rheingans, 2006). All the current efforts are going towards people and communities that are experiencing most immediate threat. This is where money is needed most, so it would be difficult to plan years ahead and implement new techniques and technology.
A moral part of the problem is that people are realizing that things are not changing fast enough. Even though they are trying, there are many factors at play that slow the process down. Many things that are absolutely out of their reach are environmental changes and distribution of world resources.
With the increased use of fuels and inability to find a resource that would be cheap and accessible to all, remote places have no choice but to drag behind. An interesting point is brought up in an article by Michael Ross titled “The Natural Resource Curse: How Wealth Can Make You Poor”.
Africa is sited as one of the major countries where the natural resources have been taken advantage of to the benefit of those with wealth and power. Precious metals and drug trafficking add to the problem, and the needed finances are pocketed by the grim side of the nation. Also, since the continent is so vast and decontrolled by a central system, African states have a problem organizing a unified action (Ross, n.d.).
Currently, there are technologies that have already proven to be important in clean energy production. Electric power and other energy sources have shown great potential. Nuclear energy may be much more beneficial to people and environment but it must be used with great care. All these problems make innovation slow and unattainable.
References
Healthy People Healthy Environment. Web.
Moe, C. & Rheingans, R. (2006). Global challenges in water, sanitation and health. Journal of Water and Health. Web.
Ross, M. The Natural Resource Curse: How Wealth Can Make You Poor. Web.
Vicious Cirle. Web.