The smallest country in South America, Suriname is one of the world’s poorest countries, with more than 20% of its population living below the poverty line. While the country has seen some economic growth in recent years, its tumultuous political history explains many of the current causes of poverty in Suriname. Ending the 1996 Adjustment […]
Western Ireland does not have much in common with the Kurdish regions of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. It lacks the mountainous sanctuary that harbored the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the Kurds, as well as the constant ethnic battles. What Carrick-on-Shannon, a small town in the west of Ireland, does have is Kurd-owned businesses, Kurdish […]
Mountains draw people to the European microstate of Andorra, which offers the best skiing and resorts in the Pyrenees. Prior to World War II and the modernization of Andorra, subsistence agriculture was the dominant industry, even though its mountainous geography is not conducive to large agricultural gain. After the war and the integration of Europe, […]
What are the causes of poverty in Monaco? This is a difficult question to answer. As of 2009, according to the World Health Organization, Monaco does not have any percentage of its population living below the national or international poverty line. So, there are essentially no causes of poverty in Monaco. Monaco, a microstate located […]
The quality of education in the Bahamas has been improving since the late 1950s. These improvements have been spurred on by leaders of the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT), which has recognized the failures of the previous education system. The Education Act, which was revised in 1996, is the primary education law governing the Bahamas today. It […]
In Armenia, the law requires schooling from the ages of six to 16. Education plays a central role in the lives of Armenian families, with students receiving abundant amounts of homework and classes lasting between four and six hours. Teachers are said to become a type of extended family, as parents give them a lot of respect for […]
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Muslims from Myanmar’s Rakhine State have been fleeing to Bangladesh with the hope of finding shelter from the extreme violence they have had to endure. As the minority group of Myanmar, the Rohingya Muslims are the populations facing discrimination and persecution from the Buddhist majority, which is defined by U.N. […]
Growing up, Mona Kareem was not a victim of childhood torment because of her nationality—but, rather, her absence of nationality. She is a member of Kuwait‘s stateless population. From an extremely young age, Kareem knew she did not quite belong. Her fellow students, and even her teachers in Kuwaiti’s free, public schools seemed to treat […]
Saint Lucia is a small island nation in the Caribbean with a population of about 165,000 people. The citizens have a life expectancy of about 78 years. Although life expectancy is comparable to Jamaica and the United States, common diseases in Saint Lucia still have an impact on the population. Noncommunicable Diseases The most common […]
Micronesia is a nation in the western Pacific totaling 270 square miles, but its roughly 600 islands are spread out over an area nearly five times the size of France. Due to the unique geography of Micronesia, it faces special challenges– social, economic and governmental. In the mid-1980s, Micronesia and the United States negotiated a Compact of […]
