Assignment Task:
Below is an article by Cadrene Heslop, published 11/14/2022 by Newsbreak, titled Humans Burned Alive in Unfortunate Event in Freetown. This is an unfortunate result of poverty in some third-world countries.
Poverty is a multi-faceted social issue requiring a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving. While many policies, both foreign and domestic, contribute to poverty, there are ways governments can work to decrease the effects of poverty, locally and nationally. After reading the article, below (hyperlinks are left active), please discuss the following:
- What are the main issues to be addressed?
- What policies have contributed to the problem, and how?
- What policies could be imposed to alleviate loss of life?
Poverty causes millions to experience hardships each year. Unlike America, some countries do not have the resources to help their citizens. These residents have to find unique ways to aid themselves. The outcome is sometimes tragic.
In 2021, the world had a sad look at the effect of poverty. Two days before Christmas, the deputy mayor of Cap-Haitien increased casualty numbers to 95. This figure represented the Haitians who burned alive. It occurred on December 14 after an overturned tanker caught fire and exploded. About 100 locals gathered around the overturned truck to help themselves to fuel. It is unclear how the fire started. But the liquid ignited. The vehicle flipped near Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown. Sierra Leone is 6,617 kilometers from Haiti. (source)
The year saw many more of these events. Haiti faced extreme energy poverty. The country is one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. The above tragedy was one of four in Haiti that year. (source)
A few months before December, Kenya had a similar event on July 17. BBC reports described the site. "People had rushed to the scene with jerrycans. They planned to siphon off fuel from the overturned tanker before it exploded." The initial casualty count was 13. But was later increased to 20. About a month later, another accident happened in Lebanon. It occurred in the midst of a severe economic and energy crisis. According to Reuters, the Lebanese army "had seized a fuel storage tank hidden by black marketeers. They were handing out gasoline to residents when the explosion occurred." The incident took out 33 people and injured another 80. (source)
In 12 months, the frequency and size of the explosions took out 263 people. The affected countries were Haiti, Sierra Leone, Kenya, and Lebanon. It shows how desperate people get to gain the energy they need to improve their lives. These areas are some of the world's poorest locations. More than 3 billion people live where per-capita electricity consumption is less than the energy used to power an average American's refrigerator. (source)
Please provide sources used.