#31 – August 14th 2007

Statistics…

The African Heart boys are constantly asking me about Canada. About the climate, the landscape, the economy, the people. I am constantly embarrassed by how little I know, and by how much more they seem to know than me. Surprisingly, they do an entire section in Geography and Agriculture on Canada. They even do a chapter on British Columbia. On David’s geography exam last week he had to label a map of B.C. I couldn’t believe it. I was helping one of the boys study yesterday and he asked me the factors that favored fishing and forestry in my province. I stammered and stumbled through an answer, silently cursing my younger self for apparently sleeping through grade 9 social studies. In order to avoid similar embarrassing situations I have since undertaken heavy research of my country, my province, my people. As a international political science and history major one would expect me to know something about my own nation. For those of you that are interested, I’ve summarized some basic facts about Uganda and Canada, placing them side by side in order to do a small comparison. The results raise intriguing questions and provide an interesting contrast between a ‘developed’ and a ‘developing’ country.

GEOGRAPHY

Area

U: 236,000 sq km (Uganda fits into Canada 42 times!)

C: 9,984,670 sq km (second-largest country in world)

Natural Resources

U: copper, cobalt, hydropower, limestone, salt, arable land

C: iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, potash, diamonds, silver, fish, timber, wildlife, coal, petroleum, natural gas, hydropower

Current Environmental Issues

U: draining of wetlands for agricultural use; deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; water hyacinth infestation in Lake Victoria; widespread poaching

C: air pollution and resulting acid rain severely affecting lakes and damaging forests; metal smelting, coal-burning utilities, and vehicle emissions impacting on agricultural and forest productivity; ocean waters becoming contaminated due to agricultural, industrial, mining, and forestry activities

PEOPLE

Population

U: 30 million

C: 33 million

Age Structure

U:

0-14 years: 50.2%
15-64 years: 47.6%
65 years and over: 2.2%

C:

0-14 years: 17.3%
15-64 years: 69.2%
65 years and over: 13.5%

Population Growth Rate

U: 3.57%

C: 0.86%

Infant Mortality Rate

U: 67.22 deaths/1,000 live births

C: 4.63 deaths/1,000 live births

Life Expectancy at Birth

U: total population: 51.75 years
male: 50.78 years
female: 52.73 years

C: total population: 80.34 years
male: 76.98 years
female: 83.86 years

Total Fertility Rate

U: 7 children/woman

C: 2 children/woman

People Living With HIV/AIDS

U: 530,000 (2001 est.)

C: 56,000 (2003 est.)

Literacy

U: 66.8% literacy

C: 99.0% literacy

ECONOMY

Economy Overview

U: Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, and sizable mineral deposits of copper and cobalt. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, employing over 80% of the work force. Coffee accounts for the bulk of export revenues. Since 1986, the government - with the support of foreign countries and international agencies - has acted to rehabilitate and stabilize the economy by undertaking currency reform, raising producer prices on export crops, increasing prices of petroleum products, and improving civil service wages. The policy changes are especially aimed at dampening inflation and boosting production and export earnings. During 1990-2001, the economy turned in a solid performance based on continued investment in the rehabilitation of infrastructure, improved incentives for production and exports, reduced inflation, gradually improved domestic security, and the return of exiled Indian-Ugandan entrepreneurs. In 2000, Uganda qualified for enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief worth $1.3 billion and Paris Club debt relief worth $145 million. These amounts combined with the original HIPC debt relief added up to about $2 billion. Growth for 2001-02 was solid, despite continued decline in the price of coffee, Uganda's principal export. Growth in 2003-06 reflected an upturn in Uganda's export markets.

C: As an affluent, high-tech industrial society in the trillion-dollar class, Canada resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and affluent living standards. Since World War II, the impressive growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. The 1989 US-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which includes Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US. Given its great natural resources, skilled labor force, and modern capital plant, Canada enjoys solid economic prospects. Top-notch fiscal management has produced consecutive balanced budgets since 1997, although public debate continues over how to manage the rising cost of the publicly funded healthcare system. Exports account for roughly a third of GDP. Canada enjoys a substantial trade surplus with its principal trading partner, the US, which absorbs about 85% of Canadian exports. Canada is the US' largest foreign supplier of energy, including oil, gas, uranium, and electric power.

GDP (Purchasing Power Parity)

U: $52.93 billion

C: $1.178 trillion

GDP (Per Capita)

U: $1,900

C: $35,600

Labour Force by Occupation:

U:

Agriculture: 82%
Industry: 5%
Services: 13% (1999 est.)

C:

Agriculture: 2%,

Manufacturing: 14%,

Construction: 5%,

Services: 75%,

Other: 3% (2004 est.)

Public Debt

U: 29.3% of GDP

C: 65.4% of GDP

Agriculture Products

U: coffee, tea, cotton, tobacco, cassava (tapioca), potatoes, corn, millet, pulses, cut flowers; beef, goat meat, milk, poultry

C: wheat, barley, oilseed, tobacco, fruits, vegetables; dairy products; forest products; fish

Industries

U: sugar, brewing, tobacco, cotton textiles; cement, steel production

C: transportation equipment, chemicals, processed and unprocessed minerals, food products, wood and paper products, fish products, petroleum and natural gas

Electricity Production

U: 2 billion kWh

C: 573 billion kWh

Electricity Consumption

U: 1.6 billion kWh

C: 522.4 billion kWh

Oil Consumption

U: 10,890 bbl/day

C: 2.2 million bbl/day

External Debt

U: $1.4 billion

C: $684.7 billion

Telephones – Landlines

U: 100,800

C: 18.2 million

Telephones – Cellular

U: 1.5 million

C: 16.6 million

Disputes – International

U: Uganda is subject to armed fighting among hostile ethnic groups, rebels, armed gangs, militias, and various government forces that extend across its borders; Uganda hosts 209,860 Sudanese, 27,560 Congolese, and 19,710 Rwandan refugees, while Ugandan refugees as well as members of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) seek shelter in southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Garamba National Park; LRA forces have also attacked Kenyan villages across the border. 1.7 million people in Internal Displacement Camps.

C: managed maritime boundary disputes with the US at Dixon Entrance, Beaufort Sea, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and around the disputed Machias Seal Island and North Rock; US works closely with Canada to intensify security measures to monitor and control legal and illegal personnel, transport, and commodities across the international border; illicit producer of cannabis for the domestic drug market and export to US; use of hydroponics technology permits growers to plant large quantities of high-quality marijuana indoors; increasing ecstasy production, some of which is destined for the US; vulnerable to narcotics money laundering because of its mature financial services sector

THE END

~Nicole