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Hunger in Ethiopia Essay

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How would you feel if your body slowly turns on you, devouring the cells that make up your very being? What would you do if you were so weak that you couldn’t even hold a loved one in your arms? How would you feel if you couldn’t think straight because the pain of hunger was so intense? What would you do..? Starvation results in a series of devastating events that can ultimately lead to death. When a person eats, the body extracts needed nutrients for cellular maintenance and repair. This requires energy which is provided for by the metabolism of the food. If we consume more than what is required at that time, our body stores the excess as adipose tissue or fat. This fat serves as a reserve of potential energy in times of a …show more content…

The location and geography of the country has caused the people to experience famine after famine, leaving many to die from starvation. A famine is in definition, “A great shortage or an extreme scarcity of food over an extended period of time” (Webster). There are several different types of famine that occur in different types of the world. The type that Ethiopia generally goes through is called a Ravallion. During a Ravallion famine, there are unusually large amounts of causalities with extreme shortages of food in certain parts of the population. There are many things that cause famine, whether it’s draught, plague, or civil disrupt. Right now, Ethiopia is experiencing a draught that has killed almost all of their crops. Because of the famines that Ethiopia experiences most every year, there is usually an increase in the amount of people malnourished. This year, 11to 14 million people are expected to go hungry leaving many to starve to death. Ethiopia has experienced many draughts like these, the worst however, being in 1983. This draught lasted two years and the draught alone killed over 400,000 people in one year, this doesn’t include the deaths that were due to starvation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983%E2%80%931985_famine_in_Ethiopia). Another factor that causes starvation in Ethiopia is its economy. Ethiopia is in and has always been in a very poor economic state. Crops account for 41% of the country’s GDP however; the

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