ShmoopTube

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And here's your shmoop du jour brought to you by sub-saharan

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Africa a great place to see lions and if you're not careful a great place to be [Man on the back of a Jeep with binoculars]

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eaten by lions okay here's the question countries in

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sub-saharan Africa have simultaneously the highest total fertility rate TFR and [Question being typed out]

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the lowest life expectancies because of what, and here are the potentially answers

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(Reading through answers quickly) Jeez that doesn't sound like a great situation we guess not all

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problems can be solved by just singing a chorus of Hakuna Matata [Man runs away from animal]

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alright let's start with answer A it'd be nice if this situation were just a

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matter of bad data fixing low life expectancies with better [Man in hospital]

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spreadsheets would make everyone happy but alas there were some real non [Doctor typing on a laptop]

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spreadsheet based problems in sub-saharan Africa so A is not right

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what about B well again this isn't right youths getting on buses doesn't lower life [Bus pulls up at a bus stop]

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expectancies it might heighten the ambient volume

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level of buses but that's not what we're looking for so B is gone how about D

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That's a definite no colonialism has lots of bad effects exploitation of

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people, exploitation of resources, introduction to jerks to local [Man ordering workers around]

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populations but making bad parents that's one charge colonialism isn't guilty of

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That means D is out though we can't help colonialism with all those other charges [D is crossed out]

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well hopefully it has a good lawyer... What about E it is true that the AIDS

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epidemic continues to have a disproportionate effect on the region

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and that lowers life expectancies there isn't exactly a silver lining to an [A storm over Africa]

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active AIDS epidemic or a bronze one or really any kind of lining however that

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doesn't really tell us anything about the high total fertility rate so E's not [Kids in a play room]

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good enough which leaves us with C while there may be more babies due to women's

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unequal access to birth control education or jobs the children often

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don't make it to their fifth birthday when kids and babies die they lower the

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average life expectancy which is one really sad and two

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C is our answer and we doubt this kind of knowledge will save you from a lion [Man on the back of a Jeep appears again]

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attack but if you go on safari armed with only your knowledge of human [Lion jumps on the car]

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geography well that's kind of your problem... [Man runs away]

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