Gold and Diamond Mining of Africa Essay Example for Free

Gold and Diamond Mining of Africa Essay * Diamond mining in Africa Ever since the Kimberley diamond strike of 1868, South Africa has been a world leader in diamond production. The primary South African sources of diamonds, including seven large diamond mines around the country, are controlled by the De Beers Consolidated Mines Company. In 2003, De Beers’s operations accounted for 94% of the nations total diamond output of 11,900,000 carats. Nicky Oppenheimer, the current Chairman of DeBeers. * The life of the miners The search for diamonds is not exactly easy. Many miners and diamond diggers in sub-Saharan Africa travel great distances to find work and submit to gruelingly long hours for low wages – or sometimes no wages – in substandard conditions. Child labor has long been a problem in informal diamond mines, especially during times of war. Children have often been exploited to do excavation work because they are small enough to be lowered into small, narrow pits by ropes to dig out sacks of dirt, which is in turn washed by other children in search of diamonds. During Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war, children were often used as soldiers and workers in the rich Koidu diamond mines that funded the country’s rebels. USAID launched the Kono Peace Diamond Alliance in 2002 to try to improve the working conditions in the mines – particularly for children. But it is an uphill battle across Africa to get children who are either family breadwinners, or fending for themselves or conscripted into slave-like labor to stop working and go to school. A child solider in Africa Land is often cleared and vegetated areas dug up to create open pit mines in he rushed search for diamond deposits, leaving them unsuitable for other farming activities. Informal mining in hilly areas also leads to erosion – and, in turn, flooding. The salt, heavy minerals and chemical products from mining equipment can run off into rivers and pollute vital water sources for mining communities and people living downstream. * gold mining in Africa South Africa accounted for 15% of the worlds gold production in 2002 and 12% in 2005, though the nation had produced as much as 30% of world output as recently as 1993. Despite declining production, South Africas gold exports were valued at $3. billion USD in 2005. Almost 50% of the worlds gold reserves are found in South Africa. Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest pure gold miningcompany in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and four regional business units (RBUs) located in Australia, Africa, North America and South America. Barrick is currently undertaking mining and exploration projects in Saudi Arabia, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Canada, Dominican Republic, Australia, Peru, Chile, Russia, South Africa,Pakistan, Colombia, Argentina and Tanzania. For 2008, it produced 7. million ounces of gold at a cash cost of US $443/ounce. As of December 31, 2008 its proven and probable gold mineral reserves stand at 138. 5 million ounces. Peter monk, the wizard of gold mining * The life of gold miners The unknown factor in South Africa is the future of labor costs. The mines employ several hundred thousand miners underground: half the production costs are for wages. Most of the gold miners are members of the black National Union of Mineworkers, which is pressing hard both for political and social reform, and for better wages and working conditions for its members. But the long-delayed beginnings of political reform in South Africa in the late 1980s coincided with a slump in gold prices. The South African gold mines, many of them a century old, were by then the worlds deepest, and were technically very difficult and financially very expensive to operate even in spite of the low wages paid to the miners. The quality of the ore was slowly dropping: the average gold ore now averages less than 5 grams of gold per tonne. Winnie Mandela is on record as saying to black miners, You hold the golden key to our liberation. The moment you stop digging gold and diamonds, that is the moment you will be free. She could not be more wrong. If the gold mines close, the economic disaster will be visited most on the poorer section of society, the blacks. The South African reforms were predicated absolutely on a stable and healthy economy. In 1999, the price of gold dropped to a low point around $250/oz. This was very bad news for South African gold companies, South African gold miners, and the South African government. Gold companies scrambled to reorganize and streamline their operations. By the time the price again reached $290 again in early 2000, the gold industry had changed dramatically, in South Africa and globally. Health problems of gold miners who worked underground include decreased life expectancy; increased frequency of cancer of the trachea, bronchus, lung, stomach, and liver; increased frequency of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), silicosis, and pleural diseases; increased frequency of insect-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever; noise-induced hearing loss; increased prevalence of certain bacterial and viral diseases; and diseases of the blood, skin, and musculoskeletal system. These problems are briefly documented in gold miners from Australia, North America, South America, and Africa. In general, HIV infection or excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption tended to exacerbate existing health problems. Miners who used elemental mercury to amalgamate and extract gold were heavily contaminated with mercury. Among individuals exposed occupationally, concentrations of mercury in their air, fish diet, hair, urine, blood, and other tissues significantly exceeded all criteria proposed by various national and international regulatory agencies for protection of human health.

History :: essays research papers

We have been taught that it is important to know history so that we can understand and learn from past mistakes to avoid repeating them in the future. Therefore, attending the Holocaust Museum should be mandatory because the museums unique interactive exhibits allows people to relive the inhumanity of the Holocaust and to have a hands on experience with the events leading to and ending World War II.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Holocaust Museum did a remarkable job of involving the visitors during the tour. It was as if we turned back time and actually relived the whole ordeal as first hand witnesses. Throughout the tour there were many exhibits recreating the crucial events leading to the Holocaust, and reenactments of meetings leading to the final decision to begin the execution of the Jews. The museum exhibits clearly gave everyone a better understanding and feeling of the struggles that the Jews went through during the war. Through old documents and pictures displayed on exhibits throughout the tour, the visitors were showered with horrific and heroic information that you simply don’t get from textbooks or films.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Hall of Testimony was an emotional exhibit where visitors watched films and listened to experiences of Jewish people who were involved in the concentration camps. The Hall of Testimony was a dark and gloomy room ironically representing a gas chamber. It gave people a sense of deeper understandment and fear of what was actually going on. It felt as if you were actually in a gas chamber waiting for your final hours of life. Watching dramatic videos of the Jewish people being stripped of their clothing and separated from their loved ones to enter the gas chambers became very emotional and hard to watch. It made everyone in the room both psychologically and physically aware of the actual sufferings that occurred during the Holocaust.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I don’t believe that I have ever been fully aware of the tragedies and sorrows that occurred during the Holocaust. Throughout many years of learning about the Holocaust in junior high, high school, and college, I still felt a sense of emptiness about the whole ordeal as I walked into the Museum of Tolerance. However, when I walked out of the museum I felt as if I was a new man. I began realizing how cruel the world can be and how much the people living in this world today can improve it by showing equality towards one another.

Health Care Innovation

Health Care Innovation Your name HCA/210 June 10, 2012 Theresa Brock Health Care Innovation We live in a world where everything is changing and improving rapidly. Health care is one thing that has changed for the better. New improvements to health care are being made every day among technology, medicine, and even health insurance. The average life expectancy has increased significantly over the last 100 years. One hundred years ago the overall average life expectancy in the United States was approximately 50 years old (Wikipedia, n. . ). Now, the overall average life expectancy is approximately 78 years old. One of the biggest reasons for this is health care innovation. Not only has the progress of technology and medicine raised this number, but insurance has a lot to do with this also. With the many different types of insurances that are offered today, people can get the care that they need. Years ago there was no health insurance. People would visit a doctor and pay just a couple o f dollars, or pay with food.Many people would not even go see a doctor simply because they could not afford to pay. Now, healthcare is one of our biggest debates. Essentially there are two types of healthcare insurance, Fee-for-Service and Managed Care. Both cover medical, surgical, and hospital expenses. Most cover prescription drugs and some offer dental coverage. With today's economy, many American's depend on Medicaid or Medicare for their healthcare needs (Progress in Insurance, n. d. ). The Obama Administration has set up healthcare exchanges under a new 2010 law.State-run exchanges will be launched in 2014, which opens a marketplace for private insurers to compete to offer health plans to the uninsured and to small businesses. If a state has not established a framework for the exchanges by 2013, the federal government will step in and run it (The Wall Street Journal, 11-29-11). This has become one of the biggest debates, other than the unemployment rate, during this election year with the presidential campaigns. Medicine has grown tremendously.In the old days, people would always receive an antibiotic shot with the same needle. People used home remedies such as: turpentine and sugar (now it is said that turpentine will kill you), sweet oil in ears for infection, milk weed for warts, lye soap for lice, and for a fever you were rubbed down in rubbing alcohol. There were no tetanus shots. Most people just soaked an infected area in epsom salt. Now, doctors usually only give antibiotics when absolutely necessary, there is laser treatment for warts, lice shampoo, and we now have tetanus shots.The medical device industry has brought us tremendous advances to the practice of medicine in recent decades, ranging from CT and Magnetic Resonance Imagining (MRI) machines, to laboratory diagnostic instruments and pacemakers. Much of our modern medicine relies on 3D imaging, which is fairly new (Progress in Medicine Staff, 6-6-12). Many years ago, ultrasounds, CT scan s, and radioactive/nuclear medicine for PET scans did not exist. They did have X-rays, but very poor images. Now, there are CT scans, PET scans, MRI machines, and X-rays are much more enhanced and show radiologists a great deal of information.Technology in health care has come a very long way, and continues to excel. The only negative impact that health care innovation can have on patients is costs. This could include doctor’s fees for treatment, or even copays and medicine. With the new technology, this makes health care spending go up. Therefore, this makes the costs of care that patient’s need go up. There are still people who cannot get insurance for different reasons. Some people may make just a little too much money to receive an insurance offered by the government, and others may just simply not be offered insurance by their employer.Overall, health care innovation has had a positive impact on patients. It is a natural part of life to grow. Things are always goi ng to get bigger and better, they always have. There will always be a new, better way to do things. Insurance, technology, and medicine will continue to grow, and the improvements will benefit the patients. References www. wikipedia. com. www. yahoo/progressinmedicinestaff. com. The Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2012. www. yahoo/progressininsuranse. com.

Identity Autobiography on Class - 792 Words

Identity Autobiography I come from two very different cultures Russian and American. Moving to the United States at age fourteen, I could recognize the differences in classes and gender in both of the cultures. But there is one fact, you can’t tell class difference by appearance. In reality class always matters and it shapes our interests in life. We all come from different background and ethnicity. I believe that class is shaped mainly by income and occupation. However, many people think if a person is wealthy, therefore, he belongs in the upper class. But there are other factors that define class and it is more than just how much money you have. It can be the network of people that surrounds, traditions, and academic status that can also define class. Many of it has to do in which family you have been born and network that creates it. All of my family members have been born and raised in Russia; they completed universities, got jobs, and had enough income to support a family. â€Å"Each of us is born into a family with a particular class identity and class history—sometimes it is a mixed or hybrid identity—but almost always it is part of a network of other relationships—to other families in a community, to work and jobs, and to instit utions† (Zandy 112). In Russian standards it is possible for everyone to achieve a higher education without ending up with a lot of loans to the government because most of education is free. For that reason, many people in Russia have bachelorShow MoreRelatedAmerican Architecture : Constructing An Identity1434 Words   |  6 PagesAmerican Architecture: Constructing an Identity Throughout American history, people have been categorized based on what gender they are, and what their race is. 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Autobiographies were not considered a form genre in the literary field at the time it was published in 1789 and few books that had been produced in America gave such garish, solid and adventurous narratives. Equiano s narrative was well known because it containedRead MoreRoth: The Stain of Mankind Essay1589 Words   |  7 Pagesout more about Silk than any other character in the novel. Coleman was a dean at Athena College and later stepped down to teach. For five weeks, two students failed to attend Coleman’s class. Coleman started his lecture on the sixth week by inquiring the whereabouts of these two â€Å"mystery† students asking the class, â€Å"Does anyone know these people? Do they exist or are they spooks†(Roth 6). After he said that, it was found out that the two students were black. Coleman was brought in front of the boardRead MoreThe Book The Complete Persepolis 1634 Words   |  7 PagesIn the graphic autobiography, The Complete Persepolis, the theme of identity is displayed throughout the novel, from the opening chapter, up until the last. The autobiography depicts the life of Marjane Satrapi from childhood to adult years, during and proceeding the Islamic Revo lution. Throughout the novel, Satrapi overcomes many personal and physical obstacles, but none more prominent than her discovering her identity. As a child, Satrapi was forced to grow up faster than the average child becauseRead MoreFifth Business: Search for Self Identity Essay863 Words   |  4 PagesBusiness: Search for Self Identity In Robertson Davies novel Fifth Business, the author uses the events that occurred in Deptford as a Canadian Allusion to reveal character identity. 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