十个环境问答题

文章以莫桑比克未中心，回答了十个关于环境，政治，经济，外交等等的问题。

1. Describe the geography of your country. What is its location and size? Describe its climate and natural resources.
  (1)Mozambique, which is next to the Mozambique Channel, is located in the southeastern part of Africa. It also sits between South Africa and Tanzania. Mozambique covers an area of 799,380 square meters, which ranks 35 in the world. Its boarder countries include Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, consisting of a land boundary of 4,571 km. 

(2)Mozambique belongs to tropical and subtropical climate. However, central and southern provinces of Mozambique always suffer from drought, cyclones, and floods. Moreover, “a long civil war and recurrent drought in the hinterlands have resulted in increased migration of the population to urban and coastal areas with adverse environmental consequences”. 
  (3)Mozambique has abundant natural resources of coal, titanium, natural gas, hydropower, tantalum and graphite. Its renewable water resources have reached 217.1 cu km in 2011, with freshwater withdrawal reaching 0.88 cu km per year.

2.Briefly explain the history of your country in the space below. Identify when and how it became independent and other key events in the country’s development.
  It was for about five centuries that Mozambique became Portuguese colony. 
  In 1975, it won its independence from Portugal.
  In 1989, “the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) party formally abandoned Marxism” and “a new constitution the following year provided for multiparty elections and a free market economy”.
  In 1992, Frelimo and rebel Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) negotiated and signed a peace agreement to close the fighting.
  In December 2004, Armando Emilio GUEBUZA, the successors of Joaquim CHISSANO “promised to continue the sound economic policies that have encouraged foreign investment”.

3.Describe the structure of your country’s government. What type of government is in place? What are the duties of each branch of government? How are leaders elected? What key positions exist in the government?
  (1)Mozambique belongs to a republic government type. 
  (2)Its government is consisted of three branches: executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch.
    The main consisting parts of executive branch are president, who is the chief of state, prime minister, who is the head of government and cabinet. “President elected by popular vote for a five-year term”. Then president appoints the prime minister.
    The legislative branch of Mozambique is an unicameral Assembly of the Republic. It is responsible for making laws. It has 250 seats with its members directly being decided by popular vote and serving a five-year term.
  The judicial branch equals to the highest courts and subordinate courts. The highest courts include the Supreme Court which consists of the court president, vice president, and 5 judges, and the Constitutional Council which consists of 7 judges. “The Higher Council of the Judiciary is responsible for judiciary management and discipline”. Supreme Court president and vice president are appointed by Mozambique president. The other judges are elected by the legislature. One of the Constitutional Council judges is appointed by president, five by legislature, one by Higher Council of the Judiciary. Subordinate courts include administrative court, provincial courts,  district courts, customs courts, maritime courts, courts marshal, labor courts and community courts.
  Key positions in the government include president, prime minister, court president and so on.

4.Describe your country’s economy. What type of economic system does it have? What are the country’s key exports and imports?
  (1)Mozambique’s economy has greatly improved in recent decades. “At independence in 1975, Mozambique was one of the world's poorest countries”. Later, the mismanagement and unstable domestic situation has worsen the problem. Then after 1987, its government adapted macroeconomic reforms to improve the economy, which gained very good results. In the following years, attributed to the relatively stable domestic environment and assistance from foreign countries, Mozambique has achieved great improvement in economy. Its growth rate of GDP has reached 7% in 2013, ranking 19 in the world.
  (2) Mozambique implements market economy with diverse sectors of the economy.
  (3)The key exports of Mozambique include aluminum, prawns, cashews, cotton, sugar, citrus, timber; bulk electricity. The key imports of Mozambique include machinery and equipment, vehicles, fuel, chemicals, metal products, foodstuffs, textiles.

5.What is one major domestic issue currently impacting your country? Explain.
  One major domestic issue impacting Mozambique is that though it has achieved improvement in economy, it still remains in a relatively low level compared with the world and heavily relys on the assistance of other countries. According to the introduction, “in spite of these gains, Mozambique remained dependent upon foreign assistance for 40% of its 2012 annual budget and over half the population remained below the poverty line”. Moreover, many figures have reflected the true situation in Mozambique. Infant mortality rate is 72.42 deaths/1,000 live births, ranking 13 in the world. Life expectancy is 52.6 years, ranking 213 in the world. Death caused by HIV in 2012 has reached 76800, ranking 5 in the world. The living condition is far behind the world’s level. Therefore, there is a long way to go for Mozambique to really strengthen its economy and improve the living standard of its people.

6.What is one major foreign issue currently impacting your country? Explain.
  One major foreign issue affecting Mozambique is that “South Africa has placed military units to assist police operations along the border of Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique to control smuggling, poaching, and illegal migration”. This action means that the military forces of South Africa is indirectly threatening the safe of Mozambique. Territory and sovereignty are always the main focus of the leaders in a countries. Activities held in borders always arouse disputes and needs discussion. As a country, it never could easily make compromise. Therefore, there is destined to be confliction between South Africa and Mozambique.

7.Identify some major characteristics of the people who live in your country and their culture. What language(s) is spoken in your country? What is the dominant religion? How are individuals educated? What is some key demographic data? Is there any other interesting information about the culture of the country?
  (1)One major characteristic of people who live in Mozambique is that they are from variety ethics. “Groups include the Makua, Thonga, Shona/Ndau, Sena, Nyungwe and Yao. Mozambicans often move around to find work and as in most countries, people are used to intermingling”. Therefore, people here speak different languages.
In Mozambique’s culture, dance and song is a major highlight. There are hunting dance of Chopi, hopping dance, nyanga and Nyau Gule Wamkulu Dance.
  (2)According to census in 1997, 25.3% of the population speaks Emakhuwa, 10.7% speaks Portuguese, 10.3% speaks Xichangana, 7.5% speaks Cisena, 7% speaks Elomwe, 5.1% speaks Echuwabo, 30.1% speaks other Mozambican languages , while the rest of 4% speaks other.  
  (3)The dominant religion are Christianity and Muslim Islam. According to the data in 2007, “Roman Catholic 28.4%, Muslim 17.9%, Zionist Christian 15.5%, Protestant 12.2% (includes Pentecostal 10.9% and Anglican 1.3%), other 6.7%, none 18.7%, unspecified 0.7%”.
  (4)The school life expectancy for people in Mozambique is about ten years. It includes primary school, middle school, secondary school, vocational school and tertiary school. “In Mozambique, children now have a much better opportunity to learn than before. Today, 100 per cent of the children are enrolled in primary school, up from 69 per cent in 2003”.
  (5)Key demographic data includes the followings. Infant mortality rate is 72.42 deaths/1,000 live births, ranking 13 in the world. Life expectancy is 52.6 years, ranking 213 in the world. Death caused by HIV in 2012 has reached 76800, ranking 5 in the world. All these data reflects the fact that situation of people’s life remains worrying in Mozambique.
  (6) There is another interesting thing in Mozambique. “In southern Mozambique, groups such as the Thonga are patrilineal, where families trace their descent through the male line.But in northern areas of the country, many groups are matrilineal. This means males trace their ancestry back through their mother. In these groups, it is common for husbands to live near their wife’s family”.

8.How does your country’s government compare with the United States? Provide and explain specific differences and similarities.
  (1)Similarities: Both United States and Mozambique have three branches in government: legislature branch, executive branch and judicial branch. Both president in United States and Mozambique are the chiefs of the state.
  (2)Differences: United States is a constitution-based federal republic country, while Mozambique is a republic country. There is no prime minister in United States, but a vice president appointed by president. In Mozambique, president is directly selected by popular vote, while in United States, “president and vice president elected on the same ticket by a college of representatives who are elected directly from each state”. In Mozambique, the legislative branch of Mozambique is an unicameral Assembly of the Republic. However, in United States, the legislative branch is the congress held by the Democratic party and the Republican party. Moreover, the consisting parts of highest courts is different. In United States, Supreme Court includes the chief justice and 8 associate justices, while Supreme Court in Mozambique includes the court president, vice president, and 5 judges.

9.Select one of the following countries(Great Britain, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia and China), and compare/contrast their governments with your country.
Great Britain is selected to compared and contrasted with Mozambique in terms of government.
  (1)Mozambique is a republic government, while UK belongs to constitutional monarchy and Commonwealth realm.
  (2)Different from Mozambique, though queen and prince is the chief of the state, they have no real executive rights. In UK, prime minister is also the head of government and he is the person who has the real right. In Mozambique, president is elected by popular vote, while in UK, “the monarchy is hereditary”. Moreover, in UK, prime minister is usually the leader of the majority party. There is big difference in Mozambique’s and UK’s legislative branch. In UK, it is bicameral parliament including House of Lords and House of Commons.
  (3)Both UK’s and Mozambique’s judicial branch consists of highest courts and subordinate courts. However, the further consisting parts are different. The Supreme Court in Mozambique consists of “12 justices including the court president and deputy president”.

10.Overall, what did you dislike about the government and economy of your country? What could the United States learn from this country and incorporate into its government?
  (1)The biggest disadvantage of Mozambique’s economy lies in that it heavily depends on other countries’s assistance and investment. Mozambique does need breakthroughs in this aspect. Though accepting other countries’ assistance, leaders of Mozambique should actively put forward policies to strengthen its economy and reduce its dependence on others. Moreover, they should explore more resources or pillars they can rely on to enhance their economy. As for its government, I have no opinion on it.
  (2)There is some differences in the ways of counting ballots between United States and Mozambique. In United States, when voting president, tickets are calculated by states, which means that in one state, once the ballot for candidate A is more than candidate B, then it equals to that this state votes for candidate A. This voting method in some sense results in unfairness. Therefore, government in United State can make some improvements in this aspect.

  Reference
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mz.html
http://www.our-africa.org/mozambique/people-culture
http://www.unicef.org/mozambique/education.html
http://www.classbase.com/Countries/Mozambique/Education-System

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