“Mali country profile”
Did you know that Mali, a country in West Africa, is one of the continent’s biggest cotton producers? And did you know that although it produces a lot of cotton, it is also one of the poorest nations in the world? Mali, which is located where ancient West African empires used to thrive, is now a civilian government, and is controlled by a president who was democratically elected in 2002.
Mali has gone through a lot in the past years. In the mid-1800s, France conquered Mali, and only in 1960 did Mali become independent again. Also, between 1960 and now, Mali has endured “droughts, rebellions, a coup, and 23 years of military dictatorship”. This article also lists other basic facts about Mali like the population, which is 13 million; area: 482,077 square miles; capitol: Bamako; major languages: French, Bambara, Berber, and Arabic; major religions: Islam and indigenous beliefs; and life expectancy: 48 years (men), and 49 years (women).
This article actually kind of surprised me a little. In history class, we spent a lot of time discussing the ancient empires of West Africa, and Mali was one of the really important, successful ones. We talked about gold and salt trade in West Africa, and about famous rulers like Mansa Musa. However, I don’t think we covered present-day Mali at all. I never knew what kind of government Mali has now, or anything else that I read in this article—most of it was new information to me. I had known that some European countries had colonies in Africa and Asia up until the late 20th century, but I didn’t know that French was in control of Mali for nearly one hundred years.
One fact that really intrigued me was the life expectancy. Men are expected to live for 48 years, and women are expected to live for 49 years. In the United States, men are expected to live for 75 years, and women are expected to live for 80 years. That’s a big difference. I already knew before reading this article that a lot of places in the world do have a shorter life expectancy than the United States, but I didn’t know that the difference was 25 to 30 years! Obviously, people in the United States have more opportunities and resources than Mali—the United States is wealthier, we have good medicine, etc., so the fact that we have a higher life expectancy is logical. But, I never knew that the difference was that great.
I thought that this article was a good source to learn about Mali. It was very informational, and taught me a lot of things that I didn’t know. It was interesting to learn about Mali’s past and present, and I liked reading this article.
“Mali: Lab Confirms H1N1”
According to this article I found, six H1N1 infections in Bamako, Mali, have been confirmed at international laboratories. This may seem bad for an extremely poor country like Mali, but the Health Ministry’s Director of health services, Toumani Sidibé, said that the situation is under control, and that “the infected are in good health and appropriate steps were taken to limit to spread to those close to them.” Also, although there have been 6880 deaths in North America since January 3rd due to the H1N1 virus and only 131 in all of Africa, there have been no reported H1N1 deaths in West Africa.
The information is this article was very surprising. How is it possible that there have been many more deaths in North America than in Africa? Countries in North America are wealthier, and have better health care than Africa, so how does it make sense that more people have died in Africa?
Perhaps the answer lies in where the H1N1 virus originated. The first cases of H1N1 were reported in North America, so it is likely that is where the virus originated. Maybe it took a while for the virus to spread to Africa, and so in that time, more people in North America were in infected. Maybe in a couple of years, the number of deaths due to the H1N1 virus will even out between North America and Africa—maybe Africa will actually have more deaths, which is logical.
This article was very informative. I knew that H1N1 was spreading all over the world, but I never really knew statistics. Now I have an idea of what’s going in Mali, and even Africa. It’s good to hear that the situation is “under control”, which means that maybe the H1N1 virus isn’t as big of a deal that everyone thought it was a year ago.
“20 Killed in an Army Outpost in Mali”
About 14 months ago, Tuareg rebels attacked an army outpost in northern Mali, killing twenty people, and injuring many more. A rebel spokesman for the Tuareg Alliance for Change of Northern Mali posted a statement on their website saying that the incident was intended to “force the government into dialogue.” The president of Mali called for calm, and said that “no one can divide Mali”. There had been problems with these rebels in the past, and the leader of one faction in the Malian government wanted to “help the Tuareg minority, whose nomadic culture sets them apart from Mali’s southern ethnic groups”. So, negotiators from his group and the Malian government started meeting, working to make a deal that would “increase development in the north and increase government opportunities for members of the ethnic group”.
This article reminded me of the first article that I found about Mali, which discussed how there had been problems with the tribe of Tuareg rebels. However, it also ended saying that in early 2009, there were “hopes of a return to a peace process” after the Malian government achieved some military successes and several hundred rebels surrendered. This shows that this article (“Mali country profile”) was a better source to learn about Mali than the one I just found on foxnews.com (“20 Killed in Attack on Army Outpost in Mali”), because the “Mali country profile” was much more recent and updated than the fox news one, which was written in late 2008.
This article was interesting, mostly because it was like reading backwards. In the first article, “Mali country profile”, it pretty much wrapped up what was happening with the rebels in Northern Mali. In this article, “20 Killed in Attack on Army Outpost in Mali”, it wasn’t wrapped up at all. It just stated what their plan was to try to gain peace. But, while reading this article I already knew that there was a good chance that they would return to a peace process, because I had already learned what happened in early 2009 when I read “Mali country profile”. But, even though this article (“20 Killed in Attack on Army Outpost in Mali”) wasn’t exactly the best source—because it’s so dated—it was still interesting to read, and very informational.
Works Cited
“Mali country profile.” BBC 27 Jan. 2010
“Mali: Lab Confirms H1N1.” IRIN 13 Jan. 2010
“20 Killed in Attack in Army Outpost in Mali.” Foxnews 20 Dec. 2008
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