In the year 2040 . . .

Imagine the Green Generation

“Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one”

John Lennon

The color green has been associated with rebirth, growth, and success; consequently, the Green Generation received its name from the many strides it made to revive the environment, economy, true nature of democracy, and family structure. America has made many strides over the twenty-first century. The world is quite different from the year I took Global Peace and Conflict my sophomore year in college compared to today. This year of 2040 we have made much impact on the world around us.

The standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people and the way these services and goods are distributed within a population. Americans in the beginning of the twenty-first century were consuming about eighty percent of the world’s total resources, including labor as materials. The standard of living was high in our country while other countries had people who were not even able to fulfill the basic needs of life. While there was enough food on the earth to distribute to everyone, people in undeveloped countries starved. Americans realized if we continued consuming at such an alarming rate wars would be fought. In fact a couple were, i.e. the Iraqi Conflict which led to almost World War III. While America still consumes a great deal of resources, the waste is becoming more environmentally friendly. Slowly, our consumption is declining. We realized that we must significantly reduce the rate we use resources in order to slow down conflicts because of resources. Recycling legislature was passed so that most of what we consume can be reused again instead of thrown out.

Material wealth has changed drastically in the past thirty years. Sports utility vehicles that consumed great amounts of gas were a sign of status. Today vehicles are much more fuel efficient - getting around ninety to a hundred miles because of technology advances. In fact, the last generation has made great contributions to alternate energy supplies which are realistically ten to fifteen years away. Material wealth has increased in countries that were undeveloped around the turn of the century. For example, people in Ghana used to only have an abundance food one month out of the year; however, now thanks to agrarian reforms the food the people farm stays in the country to feed their peoples before being exported. Also, people in these undeveloped countries have benefited from low, affordable housing that was built in cooperation with the United Nations II and the Global Peace Corps. Now people can live in housing without paying steep prices due to no limits on rent in places like Ghana.

Emotional wealth has increased throughout the globe. As traditional gender roles fade, men have begun expressing their emotions in many faucets. In the early 21^st century, seeing a man cry was an unusual and shameful experience. However, today, people find this hard to imagine because men and women both express themselves in a range of emotions. Creative wealth is also on the rise throughout the globe. Workplaces in the past twenty-five years have begun including flexible hours. People can now work at home for more of their work. This allows for much more creativity.

The relationship between the standard of living and wealth has to do with money. More affluent societies have a greater standard of living and wealth. Money buys things. Also, money to a certain point actually can buy you happiness. Studies have shown that the more money a person has up to the national average does make a person happier. People who do not have to worry about housing or even where their next meal is coming from are going to be more emotionally stable. Also, positions tied with more money have the more creativity attached. For example, a professor has more creativity in his job than the cleaning-person. The more money a country has, the greater the standard of living and wealth one will find in that country.

The definition of comfort is the state of and conditions in which somebody feels physically relaxed. Comfort is being able to not worry about food, affordable housing, and job security. Comfort not having to worry one’s safety due to conflict in one’s home due to domestic violence; community due to gangs and police brutality; country due to war; ect. In 2040 the world has made great strides to reduce the causes of discomfort.

According to John Gaultung, an early student of peace studies there are several things necessary to humans to survive: clean air, water, food, a pleasant environment, latrines, clothes, shelter, quiet, space, and privacy. Unnecessary items would be more than what you need. For example, a home is necessary for shelter and privacy; however, for a family of four, a three-story house with a three-car garage is extravagant. Because of public transportation, it is unnecessary in most places, except rural areas, to have more than one vehicle. Clothes are necessary, but name-brands are not necessary for anyone’s survival.

In the early 21^st century, needs were met using homo-centric development, where human needs were given priority over nature. However, as this development occurred, earth’s resources were being depleted faster than they could renew. The air was becoming polluted and scientists were beginning to realize this caused global warming. Water was being polluted and fought over. Land was being stripped of resources haphazardly, which caused problems to the surrounding area.

People realized humans needed to find more of a homo/nature-balance, in which human needs could be filled without destroying the environment at such an alarming rate. The Air Treaty of 2015 was put into effect. It calls for all countries to reduce the emission of green house gasses yearly. Also, countries began using China’s circulating, indoor water system as a prototype. In this system, water sent to treatment plants is heavily treated and sent back to the homes. This reduces pollution because the waste is not sent into the rivers, causing algae growth. Once each country has gathered enough water into their system, water does not need to be continuously taken from the rivers. The circulating, indoor water system decreases tensions in regions where water is scarce. Also, technology has made process of treating salt-water and making it drinkable less expense than previously thought possible. Stricter legislation has been enforced around the globe in relationship to mining and timbering. Gold, copper, and diamond mines are being investigated. Different nonprofit corporations have working with undeveloped countries in which illegal timbering is an issue. They are trying to create jobs in which the people do not have to cut down trees to farm and survive. Harsher punishments are being imposed on corporations who are imposing international laws.

The relationship between men and women has changed. Gender roles are becoming more equal. Women have made great strides. Americans have elected two women vice presidents into office. In the upcoming election the only candidates who are still in the running are females, ensuring that America will have their first female president. Also, women have fought to truly make wages equal and break the glass ceiling. Men help out more equally in families, helping do the housework and to take care of the children. Also, gay rights have been given. People no longer can be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.

Globalization has begun to structure the world and decrease the power of nation-states. Countries cannot sustain themselves, but must trade among themselves to have everything they need. America cannot sustain itself. We need to import oil and other products to survive. We outsource jobs so that we can buy materials for less. Nations in the Core have been slowly integrating the Gap to have the Core’s rule sets. However, some religions and various groups have been resisting these rule sets that the Core has forced upon them. Since the Core is so powerful, the Gap has to fight war in innovative ways. Yet, the Core deems these groups that want to be left alone to their own rule sets as terrorists.

America is run by the power elite both on a local and national scale. On the local scale business and financial leaders in the community have substantial way in the way a community is run. The power elite – top figures in the government, military, and corporate world – make great decisions that impact the country. While the United States is a democracy, hidden agendas of the power elite have a surprising impact on laws. In the last few decades, laws have been passed that attempt to equal the political playing field. America is trying to have each person’s vote truly only count once. Instead of becoming a money-raising race, elections are becoming more about the issue. Each party is given an allotted time on television at no cost to air their platform. There is a cap on the money each party is allowed to raise.

Klare believed that conflict is caused by resources. War and other conflicts have occurred because of water, oil, diamonds, copper, timbering, ect. A large oil reserve was found in Antarctica. Combined with new technology that has made it possible to drill there, World War III was averted. Alternative energy sources are just around the corner.

The job market shifted from manufacturing to services. Outsourcing occurred and went into countries that would make products for less. Today we have more service related industries – everything from doctors to McDonalds. Capitalism is here to stay in America.

Education has become more federally funded, which means the government has begun to take over schools. The government realized how standardized testing has a testing bias towards white, upper-middle class children. Also, metal detectors are mandatory in each school and college building to reduce violence that occurred frequently in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. To decrease violence in school peer mediation, natural helper, and other student training has occurred in middle and high school.

Social movements have been effective expressions of anger and rage which have brought about change. Since Gandhi, social movements have been used to impact history. Social movements in the 2030s brought about agrarian reform in undeveloped countries. They brought important issues into view. Ghana, which has a lot of farming, used to export their food crops while the rest of the people starved. However, social movements of the poor brought this issue into global light and helped legislation pass to right this wrong. Also, the social movement in Ghana helped bring about reasonable housing for the average citizen. In the early 21^st century, there were no caps on rent. Many people lived in slums because they could not afford a place to live.

In June 2027 Americans in the lower class protested minimum wage and welfare being cut. Workers in the food, retail, and other service sectors went on strike. Much chaos ensued as the strike went on for fifteen days. Upper-middle class people could not go without their morning Starbucks or evening meal out. It was even hard to find a grocery store that was open. Legislature held emergency meetings to pass legislature that increased minimum wage and reinstated welfare. However, welfare has changed greatly. It includes programs that help people on welfare to learn a specific trade that will enable them to secure a better paying job. Also, programs were created that help lower-class people learn everyday skills to be successful.

The cost of medicine is being lowered as boards review patents. Prices of medicines to help treat AIDS, tuberculosis, and other life-threatening illnesses that are prevalent in undeveloped countries are being lowered. Also in medicine, there is a controversial drug trying to be approved by the FDA which has been proven to reduce aggression in males. Some believe these drugs should be given to men who were imprisoned for violent acts. Those in favor of the drug say it will reduce violence in society; however, the other faction says we should focus more on how children are raised. They question if the drug is ethical. People believe that children should be raised to never hit back in retaliation.

Children are being raised to be responsible for their actions. Boys as well as girls are being taught that it is acceptable to cry and not to hit back. Character education is being taught in elementary schools. Conflict resolutions skills are also being taught to children from preschool to high school. They are being taught to recycle and that less can be more.

While I did not become a radical social activist, I still played a part in the change our world has seen from the early 21^st century to now. I started recycling my sophomore year in college. I married in 2014 to a man I met in graduate school. We participated in the social movement of 2027. We went to Ghana together on a two-year stint in the Peace Corps. My husband and I equally share household chores and make financial decisions together. We raised our two children to not be violent or hit back. We gave our boy dolls to play with and our girl trucks. My husband and I did not buy our children name-brand clothes. When I realized a man at my workplace who had the same job I did made more money than me I spoke up. I voted for the president who had a female as a running mate. I voted for the second woman president who ran, but she lost. I have written my share of letters to state senators asking them to pass agrarian reform here in the United States and to stop buying exports from countries that were made in sweatshops.

The world has gone through significant changes in my lifetime. In my 52 years, I have seen the standard of living change and the meaning of wealth in America become redefined. The Iraqi oil conflict has come to and end. Environmental issues have come to the forefront of American legislation as scientist realized the impact of the manner in which we were consuming resources. Global corporations have shifted the structure from geopolitics to geo-economics. Conflicts have arisen throughout my lifetime. The manner in which children are raised has changed. And --- I can say that I played a part.

Way Out for Poor Farmers

Agrarian reform is redistribution of the agricultural resources of a country. Traditionally, agrarian, or land, reform is confined to the redistribution of land; in a broader sense it includes related changes in agricultural institutions, including credit, taxation, rents, and cooperatives. While agrarian reform can result in lower agricultural productivity, especially if it includes collectivization, it may increase productivity when land is redistributed to the tiller. Pressure for modern land reform is most powerful in the underdeveloped nations.

Three-quarters of the world's 852 million men and women suffering from hunger are found in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their survival. Most of them are landless farmers or have such tiny or unproductive plots of land that they cannot feed their families.

For many of these poor farmers, new development opportunities in rural areas would allow more equitable access to basic land and water resources while offering an escape from hunger and poverty.

There are five main themes to agrarian reform:

• policies and experiences that have improved resource access by the poorest people;
• improving local natural resource planning and management capabilities;
• identifying new development opportunities to strengthen rural communities;
• combining such concepts as agrarian reform, social justice and sustainable development;
• the primary role of food sovereignty and its contribution to more equitable resource access.

Tying agrarian reform into my country, African agrarian reforms have included distribution of excess land, nationalization of all land, abolition of all land titles to be replaced by rights of occupancy, and promotion of farming collectives. These reforms occurred with limited success.

Encyclopedia.com

Agrarian Reform: A way out of hunger and poverty for millions of impoverished small farmers

*Correction to Per Capita Income

Dollar Amount Per Year: US $450 (World Bank, 2006)

Country Profile: Ghana

Life in Ghana: An Overview

Life Expectancy: Males can expect to live 58.07 years , while females can expect to live 59.69 years.

Infant Mortality Rate: 55 deaths per 1,000 live births

Health Issues: The effects of excess mortality due to AIDS, which result in lower average life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex.
Also, the risk for other infections diseases is extremely high. Food or waterborne diseases, such bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever; vectorborne diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever; water contact diseases, such as schistosomiasis; and respiratory diseases, such as meningococcal meningitis are prevalent.

Education Issues: Only 74.8% of people age 15 and over can read and write (male: 82.7% female: 67.1%; note the discrepancy between males and females). Ghana has 12,130 primary schools, 5,450 junior secondary schools, 503 senior secondary schools, 21 training colleges, 18 technical institutions, two diploma-awarding institutions and five universities for thier population of 22 million. Primary- and middle-school education is tuition-free, but is not mandatory because there are not enough teachers and facilities available to accommodate all the students. After basic school, pupils may enter Senior secondary (or technical/vocational) schools for a three-year course, which prepare them for university education.At the end of the three year senior secondary course, students are required to sit for the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). Students who obtain aggregate 18 or better (six is best) can enter one of the five universities.Entrance to universities is by examination following completion of senior secondary school. School enrollment totals not quite 2 million: 1.3 million primary; 107,600 secondary; 489,000 middle; 21,280 technical; 11,300 teacher training; and 5,600 university.

Housing Issues: A brief history of the housing of Ghana.
Ghana struggles to accommodate all of the returning nationals who worked in the cocoa plantations and escaped rebel fighting in Côte d'Ivoire.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to which the Ghana government is a signatory, in Goal 7, Target 11, commits governments to achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020; however, judging by the pace of progress in the delivery of housing in Ghana, it is doubtful that this goal would be achieved.
Currently, experts in the building industry say the government does not appear to have any housing policy. Most of the housing needs of the country are being provided by the private sector, and these come at exorbitant cost, beyond the reach of many workers. In fact, there is no laws to regulate rent in the country. The high cost involve in acquiring decent accommodation in the cities, is cited by analysts as a major reason more and more people are putting up unauthorized structures that invariably result in slums.

Conditions for Women and Children: In Ghana women face domestic violence and sexual abuse that gets swept under the door and witch hunts. Incidents of violence in Ghana often occur at home and that they are generally viewed as “family matters”. The social structures in which domestic violence is rooted, support the concept of men having power over women and of adults having power over children. Violence is tolerated in this context – particularly if exercised by the husband or used to control children’s behaviour. According to the data, 33 percent of Ghanaian women become victims of physical violence. Sexual abuse is experienced by 27 percent, while 27 percent likewise suffer psychological abuse at home. The study also showed that the victims rarely speak out about their experiences, and that, at most, ten percent of them report domestic violence to the authorities. The police tend to brush aside such complaints and pending court proceedings are often cancelled “as mutually agreed between families”.
1998, the government had begun setting up Women and Juvenile Units (WAJU) in the police force. They are meant to deal with violence against women and children. However, the skills of these units remain limited – as do their resources. Nonetheless, the WAJUs serve as strategic partners for civil society organisations fighting domestic violence. Some organisations inform victims about their rights and provide counselling services. It is a challenge to build up the human resources needed for this purpose. It is important to protect those women and children who are at risk. The Ark Foundation, a gender advocacy and human rights organisation, started setting up provisional shelters for victims and later became a refuge for abused women and children. This facility was the first of its kind in Western Africa. Personal safety has the utmost priority, and those in need can stay as long as necessary. However, Ghana’s inadequate institutional structures make issues of funding, professionalisation and rehabilitation a huge challenge.
Also in Ghana there is no foster care system for children. The Ark Foundation faces huge problems when children are born as a result of violence or incest because of this. Unfortunately this makes it hard to find families who areable to take in an unrelated or even traumatised child. Adoption procedures are troublesome and the authorities often lack the necessary skills.

Dollar Amount per Year: $2,600

Hunger: It is said that the world today produces enough grain alone to provide every human being on the planet with 3,500 calories a day; however despite being a farming region, northern Ghana bears the brunt of hunger and malnutrition as demand quickly outstrips supply. Almost forty percent of children under five in the region are malnourished. The harvest of the early millet in July usually attenuates the six-month long hunger season, which lasts from January to June. Then in October, groundnut, the basic ingredient for making soups of all types to go with any kind of meal, is harvested in earnest across the district. There are also sweet potatoes and yams. In the central part of the district where an irrigation facility exists, rice is being harvested to make room for growing tomatoes, one of the main cash crops in the district. Leftover of the district's main meal can be found in the morning in even some of the poorest homes. But food is not always in abundance in the Kassena-Nankana district nor does the season of feasting last more than a few months in northern Ghana. Unfortunately, even in a good year there is never enough food to last the long dry season.

Refugee Issues: 38,684 (Liberia), 14,136 (Togo) People are escaping rebel fighting in Côte d'Ivoire and seeking refuge in Ghana.
Armed conflict in Liberia and the western zones of Côte d’Ivoire has caused large numbers of Liberian refugees to flee to Ghana. The refugee population has risen from 3,000 to 52,820. These new influxes have placed enormous pressures on limited infrastructure and resources available to refugees, particularly in Buduburam Settlement, located some 30 kms from the capital, Accra. As well as adopting a generous asylum policy towards these refugees, Ghana has remained at the forefront of regional and international initiatives to find political solutions to the crises in Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, both of which have threatened stability in the subregion.

The World Factbook
Education In Ghana
Social Watch: Ghana's Housing Sector, Who Cares for the Poor
Ghana: Protecting Women and Children
Ghana: The Paradox of Hunger in the Midst of Plenty
UNHCR Global Appeal 2005

UNHCR gets set to repatriate Togolese refugees in Ghana

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR on Thursday signed an agreement in Lome with the governments of Togo and Ghana paving the way for the repatriation of Togolese refugees in Ghana. The accord defines protection and security measures aimed at stepping up the voluntary repatriation of Togolese, who fled political violence in their country in 2004. The UNHCR resident representative in Ghana, Mrs Aïda Hailo Mariam, who signed the agreement, the number of Togolese refugees in Ghana is estimated at 12,326, 63% of whom are women. The UNHCR signed a similar agreement with Togo, Benin on 3 April 2007 for the repatriation of some 20,000 Togolese refugees in neighbouring Benin.

http://www.republicoftogo.com/central.php?o=2&s=724&d=3&i=545

Barely one month after the government unveiled the draft of a 10-year development plan that is supposed to make Ghana a middle income country with a per capita income of US$1,000 by 2016, a prominent economist has advised the government to reconsider the figure and focus instead on human development as a means to improving living standards in Ghana.
In an interview with The Business Chronicle last week, Dr. Nii Moi Thompson explained that the government's medium-term development plan, the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS2) quotes the World Bank figure of US$965 as the "line" which separates low income countries from middle income ones.
He said on the basis of that measure, "even countries earning US$1,000 per capita today are only US$35 removed from being low income, how much more $1,000 in 10 years."
The eminent economist noted that US$1,000 in 10 years at a "conservative" international inflation rate of 3.5% would be worth "only about US$710 in today's prices". He said this is lower than the US$965, which means that even if Ghana attains the $1,000 in 2016, it will still be a low-income country.
Dr. Thompson said for Ghana to be at the "threshold of middle income status" in 10 years, the country's per capita income will have to be about US$1,333.00 in 2016, but, he said, "this will put us as the low extreme of low-middle income. The difference will be marginal."
He however advised government to worry less about per capita income and concentrate instead on human development issues, such as education and training. He pointed out that part of the reason Ghana's per capita income remains low is that majority of the labour force are either illiterate or semi-literate, adding that a well-educated labour force will lead to increased productivity, higher incomes, and a fall in poverty. "Let the government focus on education, training and productivity and income levels will take care of themselves," he explained.
Dr. Thompson cited Gabon, as an example that middle income status alone will not lead to poverty reduction. He said the country's per capita income of $5,000 is about 10 times the per capita income of Ghana, but life expectancy there is "roughly the same as in Ghana."
On the current energy crisis, Dr. Thompson said the time had come for us to "talk less about macroeconomics and macro-stability and deal more with institutional economics, which covers issues of leadership and how they affect economic management and national development."
He said the energy crisis was created by a "leadership crisis at all levels of government, from the presidency to the ministerial level to the level of technocrats," adding that "the president seems to be missing in action in this our hour of need."
He urged the president to "take charge" by setting up a "war room" at the Castle and directing solutions to the crisis. "The public needs to see that the president cares and he's in charge, not detached," he said, adding that how leaders deal with crises often define the legacies they leave behind.
Asked to elaborate his views on how the president has handled the energy crisis so far, Dr. Thompson accused the president of being insensitive to the plight of Ghanaians.
He asked: "What is the point of having lunch with the Queen in far away England and having it broadcast all day long on national TV at a time when some people don't have electricity to run their business much less watch TV? Is it to show how the president and his entourage were enjoying themselves while we were sweating it out here, literally," the frustrated economist asked. He described the event as "tasteless and unfortunate" and said he hopes that the president's handlers will be "more sensitive to our sufferings in the future."
He said a key element of good leadership is "empathy" or "the willingness of leaders to identify with the suffering of their people and work with them for solutions". When empathy is absent, "leadership becomes self-serving and counter-productive" he added.
Dr. Thompson, who is also a vocal critic of "cabinet reshuffles", urged the president to learn from what is happening in the energy sector, which has had four ministers in six years and "promote a culture of stability in political appointments."
The prominent economist said a new minister every one-and-a-half months "is unhealthy and disruptive" and makes it difficult for ministers to provide the kind of long-term leadership needed by their subordinates and their ministries.
He said it takes time for new leaders to understand the institutions they head and provide the needed leadership, so that if ministers are moved around "haphazardly" even before they have fully acquainted themselves with their ministries, those ministries suffer. "Unless a minister is involved in corruption or is grossly incompetent, leave them alone and let them work," he advised the president.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200704130816.html