Mauritania

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Mauritania Essay, Research Paper

Mauritania is a poorly developed country with a low GDP (gross domestic products), which totally depends on agricultures and livestock, which have been lately demolished by droughts. It has a purchasing power partly of $2.8 billion, a GDP real growth rate of 4%, which is also low, and a GDP per capital of $1,200. Mauritania makes $390 million a year on iron ore, fish, and fish products. Mauritania imports $335 million a year and its commodities are foodstuffs, consumer?s goods, petroleum products, and capital goods. The inflation rate has been increasing making it difficult for anyone to afford many products. Mauritania’s few info structures are it’s single railed railways, highways, ports, merchant marines, and small airports.

Mauritania is located in Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Senegal and Western Sahara. The people speak mostly Hansaniya Arabic (official language), Pular, Soninke, and Wolof. It’s geographic coordinates are 20 00 N, and 12 00 W. It’s neighbors are Algeria to its northwest, Mali to it’s west, Western Sahara to it’s northeast, Morocco to it’s north, and to its south Burkina Faso. Its total area is about 1,030,700 sq miles and it’s land area about 1,030,400 sq miles, which is slightly larger than three times the size of New Mexico. It has land boundaries are Algeria, Mali, Senegal, Western Sahara which make up the 5,074 sq miles of it’s total land.Mauritania is made up of mostly desert and barren plains of the Sahara. There is only one rainy season from July to October, and it delivers about 25 inches of precipitation a year. Afternoon temperatures in the summer months exceed 100 degrees with daily highs around 115 degrees. The frequency of vegetation increases from north to south. The Sudanic Savanna, located in the Mauritania extreme south, is covered with palm trees and acacia trees. It is full of antelope, lions, elephants, gazelle, ostrich, warthogs, pant-hers, hyenas, and lynx with crocodiles in lakes and streams. A current issue right now is overgrazing, deforestation, and soil erosion aggravated by drought. The level of fresh water is being limited away from the Senegal River, which is the main river in Mauritania.

The info structures in Mauritania are very weak. Their railways only cover a total average of 704 km, they are single tracked, and are owned by the government. The mining company uses it the majority of the time leaving little or no room for passengers. The highways total about 7,496 km and only 1,342 km are paved. The roads aren’t updated like they are in the United States and they do not have the money to finish paving them. The ones that are paved are ruined by mass flooding and extreme hot weather. The waterways are more technology improved then the roads, which is why they receive their goods via the waterways. The Senegal River is used for ferry traffic. They have very important ports such as Kaedi, Nouadhibou, Nouakchott, and the Rosso. They have many airports but many are unpaved like the roads.

Mauritania has a developing mixed economy based largely on agriculture and mineral exports. The gross national product (GNP) is not growing as fast as the population, and the GNP per capital is still really low. Agriculture accounts for approximately one-third of the gross domestic products (GDP) and employs two-thirds of the work force, largely in substance-level farming. Millet, sorghum, rice, and other cereals are grown along the Senegal River. The production of livestock is the county’s most important agricultural activity. Cyclical drought conditions can drastically lower output, and the construction of the Gorgol irrigation project on the Senegal River was designed to improve this situation. Fish are also caught in the Atlantic and are sold domestically, which is also the main export. They also allow foreign vessels to fish in there territory in which they also get endorsements for it in return. One other main source is the production and export of iron ore. It accounts for 1/8 of the country’s GDP but employs less than 5% of the work force. A petroleum refinery that was completed in 1978 has recently opened and an old copper mine at Akjoujit has reopened. The iron ore supplies about 50% of the GDP total exports. The demand for the iron ore has dramatically dropped in the past 10 years however; this has produced cut backs in production. The first deepwater port opened near the Nuoakhott River in 1986 and is now almost extinct of fish. In recent years drought and economic mismanagement has resulted in a foreign debt.

Inflation rates which have shot through the roof in the past 6 years. They are too high to afford anything that is needed to live on. The unemployment rate is about 20%, which is not bad for a fairly less developed country. Mauritania’s trade partners are Japan, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. But the external debt is still at 1.9 billion a year.

Telephones are considered a necessary in which there are 17,000 homes and business equipped with phones. The system is poor and consists of cable and open wire lines; local villagers put in minor radio relay links. They only have one satellite communication station, which is used for the weather and the U.S.A.F. The radio broadcast is weak and short waved with only about 300,000 radios in the country with one broadcast system.

The branches of defense are Army, Navy, Airforce. National Gendarmerie, National Police, and Presidential Guards. But most are not used except for protecting the president and preventing riots. Mauritania has been one party military regime since a coup d’etat in 1978. The 1960 constitution was suspended and replaced by a provisional constitution made in 1980 by the military committee for National Salvation. This constitution was abandoned in 1981. In February 1980 Islamic principles were adopted as the basis for the legal system. Despite the official abolition of slavery in July 1980, it was reported by London based anti slavery society that at least 110,000 people still lived in slavery. Even though Mauritania is a poor country, its anti social welfare system provides elderly with good benefits. The benefits for unemployment and illness are reflected in its high infant mortality rates (about 127 per 1,000 live births) and its low life expectancies. Increasing students enrollment in primary and secondary schools have been rising steadily. Illiteracy is still reaming high though, at more than 70% of the adult population.

The food supply is considered adequate during normal years, but droughts create periodic ages of malnutrition, promoting the spread of disease as malaria, tuberculosis, measles, and influenza. The only major hospital is located in Nouakchott but there are not enough doctors to go around since the government has kept most of them in areas where they are not at risk of disease and death. Since Mauritania’s independence from France in 1960 it’s welfare and health has gone down dramatically and is now asking for the help of France once more but has got no real response from them. The capital of Mauritania, Nouakchott has suffered the most population increase for it was the closest to the water and food supply. Although it is a rather large city it has no real crime rate and the court systems are very basic. They have a three-tier system: Islamic courts, special courts, and state security courts in the process of being eliminated from lack of an organized process.

The people or Moors (mixed Arab and Sundanic blacks all speaking Hassaniyah, an Arabic-based language) make up the overwhelming majority of the population. The remainder is almost entirely black and consists of the Tukulor people, who live in the Senegal River Valley, the Fulani, who are dispersed throughout the south, and Wolof, who live in the vicinity of Rosso in southwestern Mauritania. The Tukulor and Flani speak Flufulde, and the other groups have retained their traditional languages

I feel that the way to improve this country is to get more involved with their resources and export more materials to get money. Then they must improve their economy and get more people involved with the improvement of their country and express more nationalism to their country. The people need to get together and make their schooling programs better and get the kids and teens involved as well. More roads need to be produced and reconstructed as well as paved to make transportation by vehicle much easier and more efficient. Also, more ports need to be built for coral is wearing out their old ones. These are just a couple things that Mauritania could do to help out their situation.

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