Think Global: Sub Saharan Africa

  Mali has a population of over 19 million people, including 13 national languages and dozens of different ethnic groups (The World Factbook, 2018). It is easy to assume that there is a large variety of interests and characteristics within this country, which may cause problems. Mali has been experiencing instability and conflict and the government has struggled to keep the civilians under control.   “A coup in 2012, ensuing military intervention in the north, and regular uprisings by rebel and extremist groups throughout the country have left the nation of about 19 million people vulnerable” (Reid, Kathryn, 2020). Conflict in Mali continues as violence between armed groups and state forces are rampant. After 8 years from the initial rebellion, attacks and ethnic killings are routine, with large swaths of the country still outside of government control (Al Jazeera, 2020). Mali’s president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, was recently forced to resign due to mass protests, alleged cor...

 By Halie Schuster [ Tewodros Square, a busy roundabout in Ethiopia's capital city Addis Ababa]      The modern world is heavily tied with technology. In fact, it is hard to even imagine a world independent of technological outputs like cell phones, the internet, computers and other hardware and software technologies. Ethiopia too is taking advantage of these new technologies and is well on its to becoming one of the major tech hubs on the African continent. While the country’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors have previously driven the progressive transformation of Ethiopia’s economy, present Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, has his sights set on improving technology in the country.       Tech-led growth is an exciting prospect for Ethiopia. And Ethiopia has a substantial advantage in regard to its growing technology sector – a large number of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) educated graduates are beginning to enter the j...

By Halie Schuster Authors and journalist Nicholas Kristof detail the history, present state, and even specific accounts of gender equality and oppression in  Half the Sky . For example, they begin by telling the story of Meena Hasina. Meena is an Indian Muslim has been prostituted by a brothel controlled by the local sex trade for many years. She was kidnapped at the young age of nine and was kept at a rural house until she was old enough to attract clients. After being sent to the brothel, she experienced rape, violence, and drugging. Unfortunately, Meena’s story is not an uncommon one. Kristof makes the assertive claim that force prostitution, such as what Meena experienced, is essentially modern-day slavery. He writes that “it is not hyperbole to say that millions of women and girls are actually enslaved today” and that “the term that is usually used for this phenomenon is ‘sex trafficking’, a misnomer” (pg. 9). Although Kristof’s belief may initially controversial, his judgment...

          In Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the story starts off with the story of a girl named Rath. In the story Rath goes to Thailand to try and find work. A job agent after they had been washing dishing for a couple months took them deep into Thailand where he turned them over to some gangsters. The girls then stayed in a tenth-floor high rise apartment where they were sent back and forth with guards from a karaoke lounge that operated as a brothel. There, the men told Rath and her friends that the men paid lots of money for them and they were going to have to pay the money back and then he would send them home. They weren't sure how they were going to pay the money back but that became clear very quickly when Rath was locked in a room with a customer who tried to force her to have sex with him. When she refused the man came in the room and beat her telling her that he'd kill her if she refused to have sex with the custome...