Exercising is good
advice to anyone and that goes too for the very diverse population of
Africa. Many people would think that
Africans would not need to exercise with how the continent is displayed though
the various venues of social media, but what really is happening is the
opposite. Yes, a vast majority of the
continent is extremely rural, but the urban areas are where the population
grows due to the availability of jobs. These
jobs are not just those that are available to the poor, but blue collar jobs
that would normally be very few to come by.
“Also, there is a rise in industries that improve standards of living.
These range from transportation to fast food companies.” It has been displayed in times past when
Africans travel west to the more developed countries and get absorbed in their
culture. They begin to rely on the conveniences
of western civilizations and forget that health is not just a hereditary
aspect, but a physical maintenance one as well.
The benefits of exercise far out way the very few adverse effects that exercise
can have on the body and those who have migrated from Africa have begun to
realize that. Lauretta Ashu, a native to
Cameroon, grew up in Africa, was educated in the United States and has started
a blog to try and bring about the positive effects of exercise to the African
continent. She realizes that with the
globalization of western society emerging itself onto the continent, the
population needs to start now to prevent the adverse effects that what westernization
can bring fast food. There are already
so many health issues associated with the continent, due to its lack of heath
care systems, the last thing the populace needs is to have issues with obesity
and diabetes, which will cost more money that a vast majority does not have. Ms. Ashu encourages all peoples to exercise
at least thirty minutes a day, four days a week, which is pretty close to what
many health institutions in the United States say. Besides exercise, eating the right foods in
the proper quality and quantity is another way of preventive medicine to avoid
certain foreseeable health problems from occurring.
Globalization is only
making the world smaller by making what we think, as Americans, as everyday
readily available items to those who can only dream of them. Corporations that are able to manipulate the
push of globalization are the larger, wealthier ones. The ones that can afford to not only take
advantage of the local population in the country being exploited, but as well
as bring a product that is marketable, convenient, and “new” or “western”. Unfortunately, these products only show up in
the growing urban environments where many people have to move to, to locate a
line of work to support them. This may
not seem fair, but when talking about products that could have long term negative
effects on health, something that is already a concern within the African
continent, may not be a bad thing that it is isolated to those living in the
urban environment. The problem then
comes in that these products also prey on the poor because they are cheap and
convenient, just another way that the people of Africa can be exploited. They were exploited for their land and
resources during the colonization period, now they are being exploited still
for their resources, but cheap labor too, and now large corporations are
attempting to procure every last piece of money by selling them products that
will cause them long term health problems.
Health problems that could eventually become another concern, globally,
that will cause more aid to be sent to the continent for something that could
have been prevented in the first place.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/diaspora/artikel.php?ID=265507
Matt Partridge
02/21/2013 at 7:12 pm
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