Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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New World Bank Funding: Implications for U.S. Influence

New World Bank Funding Structure Has Implications for U.S. Influence
One proposal in a recent Center for Global Development (CGD) report focuses on restructuring multilateral institutions to better suit developmental needs. A new World Bank funding structure presented at the organization’s most recent replenishment conference aligns with CGD directives.

As more nations climb out of extreme poverty, the capacity in which foreign aid is needed evolves.

Experts stated in the Multilateral Development Banking for This Century’s Development Challenges report that “almost all developing countries now rely primarily on domestic resources to manage public investment.” This evolution renders the foundation of World Bank funding, which has historically relied on capital market failure, incongruous with the reality of global development.

Another issue is that major donor countries have most heavily funded health and education initiatives in the recent past. CGD scholars suggest that countries such as the U.S. redirect foreign aid funds to the development of strategic partnerships with recipient nations.

Such redirection is predicated on a donor country’s willingness to overhaul foreign aid policy.

Perhaps more complicated is the fact that the U.S., once a World Bank powerhouse, is now waning in its contributions to the International Development Association (IDA). This indicates that heavy foreign aid revision in the World Bank’s favor is unlikely. Still, the nation continues to play a monumental role in deciding where IDA funds are spent.

According to Scott Morris and Madeleine Gleave of the CGD, the U.S. is often defensive in its appropriation of aid funds. This strategy has global implications. Policymakers in the U.S. have a history of swaying World Bank investment, avoiding nations like Zimbabwe and Iran for its own interests.

As Morris said in his recent report, “Historically, the United States (and often the U.S. Congress) has exerted its will on issues like these by using the threat of withholding its IDA contributions in any given year.” Three years ago, IDA pledges from donor nations accounted for two-thirds of all World Bank resources. Today, it is estimated that they make up less than half. Threats to withhold become obsolete as such pledges hold less weight.

For that reason, a new World Bank funding structure that deemphasizes public-sector donation in favor of affordable lending and private-sector investment is significant. This new methodology took center stage at the World Bank’s most recent replenishment conference.

Reinvigorated partnerships with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are key. Such partnerships would allow the World Bank to leverage IDA funds more holistically. The goal is to lend money to more worthwhile causes in a way that’s free from donor country allegiances.

The next step is to incentivize private investors to contribute to infrastructure ventures, which focus on areas like climate and energy. CGD scholars suggest using MDB resources to decrease risk by bridging gaps between sovereigns and investors. Bridging those gaps could get subsidies and grants to developing nations in a system that does not force borrowers to bear full costs.

Many of these recommendations played into the replenishment, which resulted in some of the most dramatic financial reforms in World Bank history. By combining existing resources with donor funds and the capital debt market, the World Bank hopes to respond to developmental needs with greater agility.

One side effect of this new World Bank funding structure is, as Morris points out, a decrease in influence from countries like the U.S. and U.K. that have dictated spending in the past.

While greater multilateral investment from the world’s wealthiest countries would be ideal, this plan addresses the new reality of global development. The unprecedented move could be just what the developing world needs in a time of transition.

– Madeline Distasio

Photo: Flickr

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Syrian Mental Health

Syrian Mental Health
During a 2015 study, the German Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists found that half of Syrian refugees had mental issues, while nearly three-quarters of those affected have witnessed violence and 50 percent have been subjected to violence themselves. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cites that the most common clinical disorders regarding Syrian mental health are “depression, prolonged grief disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and various forms of anxiety disorders.”

A Chinese study found that children who experience the deprivation of parental care are at higher risk of intellectual and emotional struggles. Larger volumes of gray matter, which indicates “insufficient pruning and maturity of the brain,” appeared in children subjected to substantial parental absence.

Essential rights including education and access to health services are often absent among displaced refugees and children are more likely to be exposed to human trafficking. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Syrian refugees total 4.8 million and almost half of that number are children.

The International Medical Corps (IMC) found that Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) have extremely limited access to mental health facilities and 54 percent suffer from severe emotional disorders like depression and anxiety.

Refugee policies in Syria’s neighboring countries such as in Lebanon are also harmful to fostering Syrian mental health for refugees, such as the inability for the establishment of permanent refugee camps and forbiddance of Syrians to work in the country. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) found that 41% of Syrian youth in Lebanon have experienced suicidal compulsions.

However, during the Obama administration in the summer of 2016, Secretary Kerry announced a rise of an additional $439 million in humanitarian assistance for Syrians including increased access to mental health services. Emergency relief funding aims to support non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations and United Nations operations, especially those addressed in the eight billion dollars U.N. appeal of 2016 for Syrian aid. Included in the funding is $130 million to the UNHCR to provide mental health support and child protection for IDPs and refugees, while an additional $36 million to Turkey also provides mental health support through the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

– Amber Bailey

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About the Taiping Rebellion

Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a civil war fought in China between the Taiping rebels and the Qing Dynasty, beginning in 1851 and lasting until 1864. It was the second-deadliest war in human history after World War II.

Top 10 Facts about the Taiping Rebellion

 

  1. The Taiping Rebellion was led by an educated and disaffected peasant.
    Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping forces, was an educated man who failed the civil service examinations, the tests required to enter government service. His failure led to emotional trauma and a bout of delirium in which he dreamt of being instructed on how to exterminate demonic spirits. Following his conversion to Christianity, he understood these dreams to be a vision from God declaring him to be a brother of Jesus Christ and proceeded to rail against the opium use prevalent during that time. These experiences became the basis for the Taiping Rebellion.
  2. Poverty was endemic throughout China.
    Conditions in the Chinese countryside opened the people to the idea of rebellion due to a lack of food, land and jobs. As Dr. Stephen R. Platt, a scholar of Chinese history writes, “[o]ut-of-work miners, poor farmers, criminal gangs and all manner of other malcontents folded into the larger army, which by 1853 numbered half a million recruits and conscripts.” The economically downtrodden peasants were further burdened by the loss of the First Opium War and the subsequent proliferation of opium dens throughout the land.
  3. The population was booming.
    One of the causes of the shortage in food was the rapidly growing population, which had grown to 430 million by 1850, a 300 percent increase from the population in 1500.
  4. The movement had a populist message.
    Some of the primary plans of the Taiping Revolution were the establishment of collective ownership of property, gender equality and an eternal reward based on Christian doctrine. The foundations of the collectivist governing structure came from The Rites of Zhou, an ancient text which prescribed rules for equitable distribution of resources to each family.
  5. The movement was divinely-inspired.
    The full name of the kingdom once it was established was Taiping Tianguo, or Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. Hong Xiuqiang learned Christian principles from an American missionary and the movement found a home at Thistle Mountain, where its worshippers gathered. The religion drew from Chinese Confucianism, ideas from ancient Chinese texts, and Christian beliefs to create a unique religion.
  6. The movement was far-reaching.
    The Taiping leaders’ populist message enabled them to raise a massive army of over one million soldiers. This force went forth to conquer Nanjing, which became the kingdom’s capital, in addition to about a third of the entire territory of China.
  7. The Qing used foreign power to crush the rebels.
    The Qing government could attain the support of foreign governments, Great Britain and France, to fight the rebels. Such support allowed the Qing forces to outmatch their opponents using foreign weaponry and warships. One of the reasons for foreign governments’ backing of the Qing Dynasty was to continue the open trade policies secured with China following the First Opium War.
  8. Casualties were astronomical.
    It is estimated that some 20 million people died during the war, around three million more deaths than during World War I, some 64 years later. The fighting was brutal, including “beheadings, flayings, rapes, suicides, disembowelments, mass killings, and acts of cannibalism,” according to Dwight Garner in a book review of Dr. Platt’s Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War. In many cases, the entire population of cities was massacred.
  9. The fatal battle was in Nanjing.
    Nanjing would be the site of the fatal battle of the war. Here, Hong Xiuquan would die of disease, according to his son, or suicide, according to one of his generals. The city was then breached by the Qing forces and the remaining forces either fled or were executed, with the last of the generals executed in 1868.
  10. The Taiping Rebellion laid the groundwork for future revolutionary movements in China.
    The Taiping Rebellion drained the already weakened Qing Dynasty, which would collapse less than 50 years later. The causes of the Taiping Rebellion were symptomatic of larger problems existent within China, problems such as lack of strong, central control over a large territory and poor economic prospects for a massive population. The endemic hardship of a massive population in the countryside, which enabled the rise of Hong Xiuquan, would later enable the rise of Mao Zedong and the government that evolved into the China we know today. Today, with the continued outlawing of Falun Gong practice as an insurrectionist movement, the State would appear to have learned from history to avoid letting such a movement reach levels to rival the Taiping movement.

– Lucas Woodling

Photo: Flickr

Ten Facts About the Afghanistan War

10 Facts About the Afghanistan War
Following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington D.C., President George W. Bush vowed to “win the war against terrorism.” This included the launch of a U.S.-led operative in Afghanistan, with the goal of toppling the terrorist groups Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Today, going into its 16th year, the war is the longest conflict the U.S. has ever been involved in and continues to inhibit the lives of thousands of civilians. Here are 10 facts about the ongoing Afghanistan War.

  1. The current volatile situation in Afghanistan is the latest in a long history of conflicts. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 came after over 20 years of war in the country. A Soviet Invasion in 1979 prompted opposition from several militant groups, called the Mujahideen. The U.S., Pakistan, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia all provided funding and arms to the Soviet opposition. These contributions stemmed from a desire to resist the Soviet spread of communism but ended up contributing to budding extremism and violence in militant groups.
  2. By 1985, half of the Afghan population was already displaced due to war and conflict with the Soviets. By 1989, the last of the Soviet troops left Afghanistan after peace accords were reached between the USSR, Pakistan, the U.S. and Afghanistan. However, the existing government quickly toppled and the country dissolved into a brutal civil war, resulting in the Taliban seizing Kabul and quickly enforcing their influence across the country.
  3. President George W. Bush signed a joint resolution into law on September 18, 2001, authorizing the use of force against those responsible for the September 11 attacks. The resolution was later cited as justification by the Bush administration for decisions such as the invasion of Afghanistan, eavesdropping on American citizens with the absence of a court order, and the operation of a detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.
  4. The movement in Afghanistan began covertly by the CIA on September 26, 2001. Just 15 days after the attacks in the U.S., the CIA backed Northern Alliance Liaison Team – codenamed JAWBREAKER – and was on the ground and operating in Afghanistan, thus officially beginning the Afghanistan War.
  5. The British invaded Afghanistan alongside the U.S. In October of 2001, the U.S. and British militaries began a bombing campaign against the forces of the Taliban. Other countries, like Canada, France, Australia and Germany pledged future support at the time the bombing began.
  6. On November 14, 2001, after the fall of the Taliban in Kabul, the UN Security council passed Resolution 1378, which called for the participation of the United Nations in forming a transitional administration and facilitating the growth and spread of stability. In December, several leaders from major factions in Afghanistan traveled to a U.N. conference in Bonn, Germany. The factions signed and an interim government was decided upon.
  7. Since the beginning of the conflict, more than four dozen countries have contributed troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
  8. In April 2002, President Bush promised: “By helping to build an Afghanistan that is free from evil and is a better place to live, we are working in the best traditions of George Marshall.” The statement was meant to invoke reconstructions similar to that of post-World War II. Soon afterward, the U.S. Congress appropriated over $38 billion in reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2009.
  9. In 2011, President Barack Obama pledged the gradual exit of American troops from Afghanistan. Unfortunately, due to continuously escalated situations with the Taliban, 8,400 U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan through 2017. “We have to deal with the realities of the world,” says President Obama.
  10. As of 2015, the U.S. committed over $685 billion to funding the war in Afghanistan. Along with the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War has been the most expensive in U.S. history.

Stability in Afghanistan has made significant strides in the past several decades. The country’s GDP grew an average of 9.4% per year from 2003 to 2012. Life expectancy in the country has increased by nearly 20 years in the past decade. In 2002, less than a million children were enrolled in school, while now the number surpasses eight million. When the U.S. first invaded the country, only six percent of citizens had access to reliable electricity, while the number now reaches more than 28 percent.

Despite the country’s advances, basic amenities such as infrastructure and access to healthcare and education are still severely lacking. The length of the Afghanistan War and U.S. airstrikes, drone presence and ground troops have devastated the country’s ability to develop independently, and the Taliban continues to terrorize much of the country, causing thousands of Afghan refugees to continue to flee persecution.

– Peyton Jacobsen

Photo: Flickr

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Ten Facts About Hunger in Chad

Hunger in Chad

Hunger in Chad is a huge issue – so huge that in 2016, the country had the second-highest Global Hunger Index, after the Central African Republic. Relative to the strides the world has taken to lower GHI levels, the hunger in Chad is all too prevalent and must be addressed – here are some things you should know:

    1. Chad is an arid, low-income and landlocked country in Central Africa with a population of nearly 15 million. Of this predominantly rural population, 87% is surviving on US $1.25.
    2. One in three people in Chad are undernourished, and nearly 40% of children under 5 are therefore stunted in their growth.
    3. Hunger in Chad is largely due to various conflicts during its 40 years of independence, mainly consisting of tensions between ethnic groups in the north and south.
  1. Poverty and food insecurity prevent people from getting an education, leaving Chad with an average literacy rate of less than half of the population.
  2. In 2015, more than 2.4 million rural Chadians have become food insecure, of which 428,000 people are classified as severely food insecure.
  3. Both the country’s landlocked location and its desert climate contribute to chronic food deficits and inhibit economic development.
  4. The maternal mortality rate, while improving, remains high at 980 deaths per 100,000 live births.
  5. Nearly 500,000 refugees and internally displaced persons reside in Chad because of ongoing violence in the region, mainly from Sudan, Central African Republic and Nigeria.
  6. The Office of Food for Peace (FFP) partnered with the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) and the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to provide emergency food and nutrition assistance to vulnerable, food-insecure Chadians and refugees from CAR, Nigeria and Sudan, providing over US $56 million dollars in 2016 alone.
  7. UNICEF provides ready-to-use therapeutic food to treat children with severe acute malnutrition.

Hunger in Chad is one of the biggest problems today, especially in the effort of reaching the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 2: to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.” Though the malnutrition and poverty are dire, much is being done to help those in need and help lift the region out of its slump.

– Mayan Derhy

Photo: Flickr

Indigenous Farming Techniques Help Combat Climate Change in Peru

Climate Change in Peru
Harvests in Laramate, Peru have suffered from drought and severe rainfall, creating food insecurity and poor nutrition throughout the area. In response, local female farmers turned to techniques of their indigenous ancestors. Utilizing these techniques has yielded widespread benefits and helped combat the effects of climate change in Peru.

Mirroring ancestral techniques, farmers select healthy seeds and rotate the crops to maintain soil fertility and proper irrigation. In this practice, the women of Laramate have eliminated the use of agrochemicals. Instead, farming practices respect for the land and use only natural resources. As a result, harvests not only yield more crops but also produce more diverse, nutritious and climate-resilient crops.

Women often play significant roles in preserving local, ecological and cultural knowledge across generations. However, indigenous women are also often the most neglected in political processes. According to a report by the U.N. Forum on Indigenous People, indigenous women are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including food insecurity. Empowering indigenous women can help them achieve financial prosperity and boost self-esteem while also unveiling valuable resources from a largely underrepresented demographic. As seen in Peru, empowering indigenous women has widespread positive impacts.

While working to offset the consequences of climate change in Peru, the women of Laramate are also working to empower indigenous women across the country. The Organization of Indigenous Women of Laramate and the Centro de Culturas Indigenas del Peru, a grantee of the U.N. Women’s Fund for Gender Equality, provide training and assistance programs to indigenous women in Laramate to help improve their economic opportunities. Between 2014 and 2015, these programs helped over 400 women in Peru by increasing women’s participation in public spaces and their ability to influence policy.

Comprising a mere 20-25% of the renewable energy workforce and approximately 12% of environmental ministers, women are largely underrepresented in environmental sectors. However, there is increasing recognition that climate change disproportionately harms women and international efforts to improve gender equality when addressing climate change.

In 2016, the Annual Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention on Climate Change committed to gender equality in climate change solutions efforts. Additionally, UN Women launched programs that bring women’s participation and leadership to the forefront of climate solutions.

Efforts to include women in climate solutions have widespread benefits. Women’s participation in politics often elicits greater responsiveness to citizens’ needs and increases cooperation across party and ethnic lines. Conversely, when women are not represented, policies can increase inequality and be less effective.

Recent international and local efforts are promising for the inclusion of indigenous women in climate solutions. On the local level, female indigenous farmers are directly combatting climate change in Peru while promoting efforts to include women in political spheres. By empowering indigenous women, communities in Laramate are creating a model of equal representation and sustainability for the world to follow.

– McKenna Lux

Photo: Flickr

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Education in Serbia

Education in Serbia
Since Serbia transitioned to democracy in 2000, its education system has faced challenges in regard to access, equity, quality and financing. However, in recent years the country has made major efforts to rebuild and improve its education system.

Access

The distribution of schools in Serbia does not correspond to its population. Although the gross enrollment rate (GER) for preschool education is 98% overall, the GER is as low as seven percent of children in rural areas. These children sometimes have to walk between three to 10 km on way to school.

Serbia adopted the Law on Foundations of the Education System in 2009 to address this issue. This law was meant to provide opportunities for the marginalized, economically disadvantaged and internally displaced students in Serbia.

Equity

A major inequity gap exists for children with special needs. According to a 2010 statistic, only 1% of children with disabilities have access to pre-primary education. These children are also more likely than non-disabled peers to drop out of school. Resources are particularly scarce for students with physical impediments.

In 2008, UNICEF signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy to address inequity. The goals in the Memorandum were to establish a foster care system for children with disabilities as well as establish new standards for accountability and protection of child rights.

Quality

Serbia’s learning outcomes are below the region’s international average. This low performance is due in part to the school system’s failure to address the psychosocial needs of children emerging from conflict. School safety, drinking water and restroom sanitation also need improvement.

A “School without Violence” (SwV) initiative has been implemented across the nation to improve school quality and yield safer school environments. It includes the development of plans for crisis situations, a parent’s manual and the promotion of fair play in sports.

Financing

Although the level of government spending on education in Serbia (3.8%) is comparable to other European countries, its outcomes are poorer. This is due in part to Serbia’s inefficiently small classrooms.

To increase efficiency, the World Bank suggests consolidating under-enrolled classes by shifting students to other classes in the same school. This would reduce education costs by 10%.

According to Minister of Education M. Srđan Verbić, education in Serbia needs to be broad and flexible with its curriculum. This will provide students with the skills necessary for any job in the global workforce.

The Education Reform Initiative of Southeast Europe (ERI SEE) has the potential to establish one such framework for educational qualifications. It will also better distribute funds for education in Serbia. This cooperation in the education sector will cumulatively optimize school networks and increase school readiness and quality, ensuring equal access and high-quality education to all children in Serbia.

– Liliana Rehorn

Photo: Flickr

How to End Poverty by Improving Economic Governance

How to End Poverty
How to end poverty? In Paul Collier’s thought-provoking TED talk presentation, he hypothesizes the best ways to improve the lives of the most economically deprived billion people of the world. A majority of these people live in commodity-rich countries in Africa.

He believes in mobilizing the international community by creating an alliance between compassion and enlightened self-interest. Hoping that one’s compassion for people gets you started and one’s enlightened self-interest helps you get serious about helping the world’s poor.

He talks about how foreign aid is being trumped right now by the recent influxes in commodity prices. This is bringing unprecedented wealth to countries that have never experienced such things. He states that the problem with short-term economic growth tied to one commodity is that it is often short-lived. And in most scenarios, the country is worse off once the price of that commodity declines to previous levels.

Collier is not the only one to identify this problem. Larry Diamond of Stanford University has said that “there are twenty-three countries in the world that derive 60 percent of their exports from oil and gas and not a single one is a real democracy.” He observes that there is a strong correlation between energy dependence and authoritarianism. Authoritarian governments will use their profits from commodities to enrich those close to power and not spread the wealth amongst the entire country.

Collier believes that the only way to sustain the gains of short term commodity-driven economic growth is by developing international standards of economic governance. By establishing procedures and requirements for governments to enact when they are experiencing a boom, they have a much better chance of improving the quality of life in their country.

One example he provides is establishing public auctions for drilling rights. Most commodity deals right now are agreed upon behind closed doors between a representative from a large private sector western firm and a local magistrate. More often than not the western firm gets a far better deal than that of the magistrate because the magistrate is not aware of the actual value of the commodity he is selling rights to. By creating public auctions, you are allowing market forces to drive up the price of the contract which allows the country in which the commodity resides to gain more wealth from the deal.

This is just one aspect of the international economic governance reforms he would be interested in enacting. But such a small tweak in the way business is currently done could pay huge dividends in the effort to end poverty.

The international norms he would establish would be adopted on a voluntary basis. The ultimate goal would be measured on two fronts.

One, to improve the lives of the indigenous people by establishing funding requirements with commodity profits for clean water, healthcare, and education. This would lay the foundation for non-commodity fueled sustained economic growth and answer the “how to end poverty” question.

Second, to remind the Western democracies of our enlightened self-interest. A potential billion more people in the marketplace will create an increase in global demand that will be realized amongst all economic sectors.

To the question of how to end poverty, Collier believes the countries that are home to the world’s poorest billion have all of the resources at their fingertips. They just need guidance from the international community on how to improve the economic conditions of their people.

– Brian Faust

Photo: Flickr

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Ten Facts About World War II

World War II
World War II was an expansive war fought between the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) and the Allied power (Great Britain, Russia and the U.S.) that lasted from 1939 until 1945. With such a complex narrative, here are only 10 facts about World War II.

  1. World War II was not only fought in Europe.
    In the North African Military Campaigns between 1940 and 1943, the Axis powers attempted to cut off Middle Eastern oil supply to the Allies. These campaigns took place in Western Egypt, Eastern Libya, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Ultimately, the Axis powers did not achieve their goal and the Allied powers neutralized the German threat. World War II was also fought in the Pacific. On December 4th, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor damaging the American Pacific fleet. Japan went on to conquer the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and Burma. However, after 1943, American forces slowly removed the Japanese from power in the pacific front. Full Japanese surrender came after the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
  2. In total WWII claimed the lives of approximately 60 million people.
  3. The Holocaust claimed the lives of six million Jews.
  4. World War II was a continuation of World War I.
    At the end of WWI, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. The treaty placed most of the blame on Germany, requiring them to pay large amounts of reparations and forcing the country to disarm. This greatly angered and humiliated the German people. Hitler used the German discontent to run as German Chancellor in the 1930s in which he promised to restore Germany.
  5. The immediate cause of WWII was the German invasion of Poland.
    Although facts about World War II show a multitude of causes for the war, the invasion of Poland was a crucial event. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded and within weeks successfully conquered Warsaw. Germany annexed West Prussia, Poznan, Upper Silesia, and the former Free City of Danzig. As a response to the invasion, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
  6. The U.S was involved in WWII before the Pearl Harbor attack.
    At the start of WWII, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the U.S. would practice neutrality. However, on March 11, 1941, the Lend-Lease Act passed which allowed the U.S. to provide military aid to allied nations during WWII.
  7. Stalingrad was a major turning point in the war.
    On July 9, 1942, Hitler ordered the capture of the Soviet Union city of Stalingrad. As a response, Stalin deployed the armed forces to defend Stalingrad and prohibited the civilians from leaving the city. Multiple counter-offensive attacks lead to Soviet victory.
  8. The Japanese used Kamikazes aircrafts.
    Kamikazes aircrafts were manned by Japanese soldiers who were instructed to crash into Allied ships. In total, kamikazes destroyed more than 300 U.S. ships which resulted in 15,000 casualties.
  9. Germany surrendered in May of 1945, while Japan did not surrender until September.
  10. The Marshall Plan gave aid to Europe to rebuild after World War II.
    The Marshall Plan gave $12 billion to Western European countries in economic turmoil caused by WWII.

World War II is still a popular topic today because it was one of the most violent and complex wars in history. These 10 facts about World War II only give a very brief overview.

– Karla Umanzor

Photo: Flickr

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China Boosts Pakistan, Venezuela with Remote Sensing Satellite

China Boosts Pakistan
Recently, nearly 200 scientists, researchers and officials from the space industry participated in the Symposium on Space International Cooperation, promoting the economic and social development of the developing world. The symposium, held in November, in Beijing, was a joint effort put together by the International Academy of Astronautics and the China International Exchange Center for Astronautical Science and Technology.

During the symposium, Hiroki Matsuo, Vice-President of the International Academy of Astronautics confirmed China’s commitment to collaborating with developing countries in the areas of space-based navigation, manned and robotic space flights and data applications—namely with Pakistan and Venezuela. Matsuo declared, “Preparation work for the Venezuela Remote Sensing Satellite II project is proceeding according to schedule.” He also verified that a similar remote sensing satellite, to be used by Pakistan, would be finished in 2018.

Remote sensing satellites are dedicated to accumulating data about the earth’s surface and can help survey resources on land, monitor nearby oceans and forecast weather — something essential to crop planning and resiliency in the aftermath of natural disasters.

Both the Venezuelan and Pakistani remote sensing satellites are being developed by the China Academy of Space Technology. The company is also dedicated to expanding its services to other countries in the developing world, especially to countries in the Middle East that are new to the space market. To date, 11 satellites, developed in China, have been completed and exported to nine different countries, including Laos, Nigeria and Bolivia. The successes of the China Academy of Space Technology in working with the developing world can be attributed to their commitment to providing more than just the design and manufacturing of remote sensing satellites. They also incorporated launch, operations and training services into their business model.

Hu Zhongmin, the Director of the International Cooperation Department at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the parent company of the China Academy of Space Technology, is excited about further collaborations between China and other countries. Zhongmin and his company understand that multi-national exchanges of space technology can greatly benefit the developing world.

When it comes to manufacturing and launching satellites, China has had a long-running relationship with Venezuela. In fact, the Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite II, to be completed later this year, is the third collaborative effort between the two countries. The first was a communication satellite, launched in 2008 and the second was the Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite I, which was launched in 2012.

Pakistan is also a veteran to the world of space technology, establishing the Space Sciences Research Wing to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1961. The original project from the program, Rehbar-I, was launched in 1962 and became only the tenth of its kind in the world. Data from this original Pakistan Space Sciences Research project helped officials study weather, cyclones and cloud formations above the Arabian Sea.

– Ashley Henyan

Photo: Flickr