Ethiopia+Debate+Speeches+(Written)

==Khadija Mohamed is a mother who has a 20-month-old baby. Just 8 months ago she was healthy and like any other normal child. Now her daughter is in desperate need of help due to starvation. She is slowly losing weight and lacking in proper nutrients that are vital to her survival. Khadija Mohamed used to feed her daughter 3 times a day, and now she is lucky if her daughter receives one meal every day. She is another Ethiopian that will watch her child die because she cannot find food or money to keep her child alive (UNICEF: "Worst Case..."). This is just one story of an Ethiopian that struggles everyday due to the drought in her country. In 1999-2004 there were 9,210,000 deaths in Ethiopia (“Estimated Number of…”). The drought has caused them to face starvation, poverty, and death because it is ruining their home. Our plan can solve this drought and rid the Ethiopians of these horrific problems. Ethiopians have been faced with these problems for many decades. Coming into the 20th century Ethiopia was becoming a run down country. They had poor rulers, and as the 60’s and 70’s were approaching, poverty and starvation had already struck and the biggest drought in African history approached (Ethiopian History.Com…). In 1985 nearly 8 million people faced starvation in Ethiopia (Ethiopian Drought History…). To solve the drought, which will in turn help with poverty and starvation, we have made the plan of setting up a desalination plant. A desalination plant is a system set up that goes through a process that removes salt and other minerals from water to make it pure, clean, and drinkable. The plant in Ethiopia will take the water they do have and purify it to make it usable for the Ethiopians. The water used in the plant will be coming from oceans, which will not effect other parts of Africa.. Once the water has been through the process of desalination, it will be transported around by means of trucks to all the areas of Ethiopia or there is the option of building pipelines to transport the water. These plants are expensive but America will not be the only country helping. Part of the plan is getting support from other Annex 1 countries. The cost of one plant is about 3.8 billion dollars (“Saudi Arabia Opens…”). This cost, split up between over 40 Annex 1 countries, will be a minor deficit to each country. This is not the simplest plan, but Ethiopia doesn’t have a simple problem. Ethiopia’s problem is not easy, but it is solvable with the plan of a desalination plant. This plan has three main advantages. It will reduce the impact of the drought, reduce poverty by re-growing the crops, and reduce starvation, which will save lives. Saving Ethiopian lives is a huge and rewarding accomplishment. The drought is the main cause of deaths in Ethiopia so fixing it will in turn lower their death rate and save many lives. An estimated three-quarters of the health problems of children including infectious diseases, and deaths, in Ethiopia, originate from the environment (Africa-Ethiopian’s Struggles.) Forming the country into a successful, healthy, and happier country will be a challenge. The desalination plant is a successful project that actually ha success right now. Saudi Arabia is using them, and it is their main source of fresh water and is highly successful. 70% of their fresh water comes from their 27 desalination plants set up all over Saudi Arabia. Since they have so many plants they need a way to transport the water to all the cities. They do this by means of more than 2,500 miles of water pipes. (“Saudi Arabia Opens…). Ethiopia getting a desalination plant will give them fresh water, to re-grow their crops. The crops they grow due to a desalination plant can be sold for money or traded for goods that they need. The drought is what put the country in debt; so solving it can stop the poverty and work to getting out of debt. Over 4.5 million people are in need of emergency food aid in drought-affected regions (Africa-Ethiopia’s Struggles.) The desalination plant will be able to solve this problem by giving Ethiopians the supplies they need to reproduce their crops again. This plan has many advantages but once again I want you to remember the three main ones, solving poverty, solving starvation, and saving lives. I also want you to remember my opening. I told you about Khadija Mohamed. Her story is tragic and almost unbelievable to us Americans, but to Ethiopians this is life. Most Americans wake up with a roof over their head and food in their cabinets. Ethiopians don't have a roof or cabinets, let alone food to put in the cabinets. Americans and other Annex 1 countries should want to help Ethiopia because they are less fortunate then we and desperately need the help. I want to leave you with a thought. Think about this for me, if you were Khadija Mohamed and just wanted your 20-month-old child to see another year, would you want help?==

**Negative Opening Speech**

 * There is a child that is being deprived of a chance for an education. This child is also living day by day off of very little to no food. The child didn’t even have a chance to get a successful job. This child is merely one of 1.5 million children in America that are homeless (Facts and Figures…). In America most cities have reported a 12% increase of homeless people since 2007 (Facts and Figures…). This is only one of many of America’s major problems. Why should we help Ethiopia when we have issues like these in America?

Even though Ethiopia has been devastated by the drought, they are not the only country that has been affected. Eritrea has been suffering through the same drought that Ethiopia has for years. Eritrea has not been able to produce any type of food for its people (In-Depth: Disaster…). In 2004, Eritrea only produced 15% of its annual food requirement (In-Depth: Disaster…). With these low numbers, two thirds of Eritrea’s population is starving (In-Depth: Disaster…). Eritrea has not been getting any kind of support that Ethiopia has gotten either. In 2005, Eritrea’s food aid had dropped a massive 94% from the year before (Eritrea Food Aid…).

Like Eritrea, Kenya has been facing similar situations. The drought has many Kenyans devastated leaving dead cattle and very little maize (In-Depth: Surviving). With these events happening Kenya has been facing poverty and famine. Only 4,000,000 out of 39,002,772 people have been given any sort of food aid (In-Depth: Surviving). Some Kenyans have to walk 50 kilometers to get to any source of water (In-Depth: Surviving). The way my opponent wants to make the desalination plant will be ineffective. The desalination by itself would be about 3.8 billion dollars, that’s not even talking about paving the rough terrain. Desalination plants can disturb the habitats of aquatic animals. If they do pave the rough terrain, they would disturb the natural habitats of animals. After they are done making the terrain fine, it’s going to be even more money for paving the terrains for roads. The desalination plant would be ineffective because the only body of salt water near Ethiopia is blocked off by Eritrea. More than likely, Eritrea will not let Ethiopia build a desalination plant, because of the wars in the past between the two nations. With all of this going on, who knows when this plan will go into effect?

With all these expenses how is America and other countries going to get the money? More than likely America will tax their citizens even more money to pay for this plan. Americans can’t afford to be helping Ethiopians because they are just getting by. With Americans losing their jobs at an alarming rate, they would not able to afford a desalination plant for Ethiopia. If America doesn’t tax the citizens though the country will be in even more debt than what it was before.

America isn’t the country that is not ready for this change though. The Ethiopian government would not be prepared either. One reason I say this is because, in 2008 the Ethiopian government deprived their people of food (Ethiopian Drought History…). The Ethiopian government kept the food for their military (Ethiopia Drought History…). The Ethiopian government also underestimated how bad the drought really was this shows how much the government needs to grow (Ethiopia Drought History…).

The desalination plant is too much of a disturbance to the natural habitat. That is why we should build man-made lakes and dams. An example of a man made lake is Lake Powell, which stretches from Arizona to Colorado (About Lake Powell…). It is a better idea than a desalination plant, because we wouldn’t have to keep the river up to date unlike the desalination plant. Since we don’t have to up keep the lakes we would save much more money than a desalination plant would save us. Both sides of the country would have water instead of just the one side. Egypt’s Aswan dam captures the water like this, which is an effective method for Egypt (Nile River. About…).

The dam would cost about 1 billion dollars. (Residents Fear Costs…) We could also start building wells and putting the water from the man-made lake into the wells for people on the other side of the country. To build Lake Powell it only costs $272,000,000 (Glen Canyon Dam…). Building the wells would only cost $14,000 which is much cheaper than building a desalination plant (Makivenzi Water Project…). Building the Lake and Dam would approximately take 17 years (Thing To Do…). What the dam would do is capture the water from the Nile River, and the man-made lake. Then we could take that water, and put it in the wells. With the new lakes, and wells being put in Ethiopians wouldn’t have to walk as far to get water. Not only does this provide water for Ethiopians, but it can also shelter aquatic life. This would also not only provide water for Ethiopians, but it might also bring tourists. The man made lakes would also be enough water that we could start planting crops in Ethiopia. It is a better idea than a desalination plant, because we wouldn’t have to keep the river up to date unlike the desalination plant. Since we don’t have to up keep the lakes we would save much more money than a desalination plant would save us. Both sides of the country would have water instead of just the one side. Egypt’s Aswan dam captures the water like this, which is an effective method for Egypt (Nile River. About…).

The United States shouldn’t get involved with Ethiopia’s problems because we have yet to deal with our own problems such as homelessness, unemployment, and debt. Ethiopia’s government isn’t prepared for this either because they have deprived their people in the past. No one is for if the government would do it again. If we have set up some sort of water system though I would set up a man- made rivers, wells, and dams instead of a desalination plant. The system described beforehand is much cheaper, and doesn’t have as much maintenance. Setting up desalination plant in Ethiopia in general would be pointless, since the few bodies of water in Ethiopia are all fresh. The only body of salt water near Ethiopia is at Eritrea who Ethiopia has bad blood with. The desalination was set up to fail in Ethiopia, unlike man-made rivers, wells, and dams.**

**Affirmative Rebuttal Speech**

 * People that are against helping Ethiopia could have many legitimate arguments. Some of the arguments they could present is why should we help another country when we have enough of our own problems like our debt. They could also say that Ethiopia and their government aren’t ready yet. Another argument is that there are other countries in need. I’m sure that there are countries that are arguably in worse condition than Ethiopia. These arguments are very good, but we do have counters for those arguments.

The argument that our country is already in tons of debt, and we shouldn’t get involved with spending money on other countries is very good. I agree that making a desalination plant isn’t smart to do on our own, but with the help from other Annex 1 countries would cut the cost down a lot. Today there are over forty annex one countries that could help pay for the expensive desalination plant (List of Annex…). So even if America were in over twelve trillion dollars in debt it wouldn’t cost too much with the help of the other countries to make this plant (How Much Do…). If we can convince other annex one countries to pitch in and help Ethiopia making a desalination plant would be very possible. To convince the other countries to join in on this plan is the example of Saudi Arabia. They were having issues with water, so they put in the world’s largest desalination plant. It cost 3.8 billion dollars, which may seem like a lot at first, but if all the countries would pitch in it wouldn’t be too much after all. This desalination plant isn’t just another experiment either. Saudi Arabia’s plant supplies 70% of their drinking water (Saudi Arabia Opens…). That is just one example of how a desalination plant successfully worked. Also a desalination plant would solve the problem of people dying. They would have water to drink and to use to make crops. That would also solve the problem of starvation. The desalination plant may cost a lot, but America doesn’t have to do it alone.

Some might say that Ethiopia isn’t ready for these big changes, or that the government might not be able to handle this sudden change. Ethiopia is tired of being starved, dying, and being in poverty. Today, 6.2 million people in Ethiopia are starving and could possibly die because of starvation. Of those 6.2 million people 270,000 are children (Million Starved in…). The Ethiopian government was not the best either. Before the drought one of the only problems in Ethiopia was the government. They made it hard to trade and do a lot of things. When the drought came it finally did big damage to Ethiopia. With the combination of a bad government and a natural disaster like drought the country went down hill fast (Ethiopian Famine: Bad…). The citizens couldn’t do too much about the disaster in Ethiopia, but the government could have. Ethiopia is defiantly ready for some help whenever they can get it.

The final argument that people could make about helping Ethiopia is why should we help Ethiopia. They could say and show that there are other countries that are in worse condition than Ethiopia. Ethiopia is in the top ten poorest countries in the world (Poorest Countries in…). Ethiopia isn’t the poorest country in the world, but it is at nine. Ethiopia has had a huge drought too, but so have other countries. Ethiopia has had the worst drought out of all the other countries. Ethiopia has had estimated around 8 million people affected by the drought. Other countries like China, Afghanistan, and Sudan have had droughts as well, but not as bad as Ethiopia. Ethiopia may not be the worst in every category, but it is still one of the tops in each.

I hope that you can now see that Ethiopia is defiantly in need of some help. They have needed it for many years. America maybe in a lot of debt, but we don’t have to help alone. With the help of other countries it won’t be that expensive. Ethiopia and its government is defiantly ready for some help as well. They have had millions of people affected by the drought in multiple ways. Ethiopia should be chosen for the help of America because it is one of the most devastated countries in the world. Ethiopia is in dire need for our help and we should and can give it to them.**

**Negative Rebuttal**

 * Just as Dalton said, there are many other countries out there not getting the resources they need, such as Eastern Africa. Eastern Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world. These people are being taken advantage of and this is not fair. They have been fighting disease, starvation, dehydration, and many other causes of death. Just as the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, "Water, water everywhere- but not a drop to drink" (Garry Brown). This perfectly describes Ethiopia because they have the Gulf of Aden on the Northeast part of the country, but it is not freshwater. So Ethiopia has water all around them, but they are still in a drought and very little to drink. **


 * Courtney and Mason's plan is to take saltwater from the ocean and desalitize it. They would then take the new freshwater and dump it into different places around Ethiopia. The tools to do this process would cost millions of dollars. On top of that there would be an additional cost to transport the water from the ocean throughout the country of Ethiopia. There are only 5 countries out of 195 that are not in debt (List of Countries...). The countries are Niue, Brunei, Liectenstein, Macau, and Palau (List of Countries...). These countries already have their own problems to worry about. To help another country already in debt can be bad for any of them. I believe that this plan will also disturb the envrionment and all of the animals that live in these environments. To follow up with this plan, they will need to build d****esalination** plants around Ethiopia. Not including that, it will cost around $3.8 billion (The Cost Of...) . The US is already in debt and cannot afford to be giving out more money than they need to (US and Foreign...). I am about to present a different plan that will be easier, more beneficial, and a lot cheaper. **If you don't know the first couple hundred miles of the Nile river runs through Ethiopia. Our plan is to build canals off of the Nile and lead them to new man-made lakes. We would build these lakes throughout Ethiopia, as the lakes would fill with the freshwater from the Nile. The cost of building the canals varies between $10,000 and $20,000 per mile (Road Companies). It costs around $2.50 per cubic yard to build a lake in America (Pond and Lake...). Another part of the plan is to dig for water and create wells underground for water storage (Digging Wells In...). This will even help Ethiopia improve their unsanitary sewage systems. Even though this plan has a lot more benefits and advantages, it won't nearly cost as much as Courtney and Mason's plan. It will place ponds and lakes throughout the whole country at the lowest cost. ** **The process of building these canals for water has been done before. An example is Lake Powell. This lake stretches from Arizona all the way to Colorado (Lake Powell). It will benefit more than just giving water to the country, but also electricity. It is better than the desalination plan because that plan is more costly and won't provide as many benefits as our plan will. Our's will even be able to happen in a shorter amount of time. As in Lake Powell, the lake attracts many tourists and saves money on electricity, while getting a lot of water. If a project like this is done in Ethiopia, it will raise money from the tourists, saving money on electricty, and save or preserve more water. This could take Ethiopia out of their drought, and maybe even debt. ** **If the US would make the investment to build the canals and lakes in Ethiopia, they can earn money to help with their own debt and any other problems. They would earn money from all of the tourists that want to go sightseeing. But if they use to much money just as in the d****esalination plan, this could start riots within the country, as the US already is already in debt and is dealing with their own problems (US and Foreign...) . While using our new plan, this could help cure diseases, starvation, dehydration, and it will also help the habitats of the environment. The lakes could give them new and better surroundings, while Courtney and Mason's plan will destroy the environment in the process of building the d****esalination plant. Our new plan will also provide water and electricity at a lower cost while it may make profits for anyone who donates the money towards this plan.**

Affirmative Summary Speech
==So far in this debate you have heard both sides of this plan. You've heard negatives of the plan of a desalination plant and you have heard positives of a desalination plant. I would like to reinforce to you that the positive points of this plan in the end can weigh out the negatives. The plan of this desalination plant will be saving lives and over all the country of Ethiopia. Yes it is expensive and we've heard that argument but we do have a solution. Our plan involves splitting up the cost of this plant between many if not all Annex 1 countries. Doing this will make each countries cost a minor deficit. Money cannot always determine a decision. There is no price put on someone’s life so how can money stop us from saving lives? Ethiopia needs our help, not because they made mistakes and messed up, but because they are dealing with a natural disaster, something no one can, or could have controlled. Their natural disaster is causing them to be faced with the problem of starvation. UNICEF has been trying to send over food to Ethiopia to assist them. They even have a program that raises money just to send food over to Ethiopia, but this is still not even close to solving their problem (Africa-Ethiopian’s Struggles.). Another negative you might be thinking about is that the US as a country is definitely not perfect and has many of our own problems, so why are we reaching out to help Ethiopia when we kind of can't help ourselves? My answer to that is why not? Ethiopia needs our help. They have woman and children fetching water for multiple hours in a day and at times the weight of the water is 70% of their body weight (Africa-Ethiopian’s Struggles.). Helping Ethiopia and seeing them have success due to our help could possibly spark inspiration in the people of America to want to change and fix us as a nation. If the US could help fix a country in as bad of shape as Ethiopia, then there is no limit on what we can do. These are just a couple main negative points I've heard that have positive solutions for them. The desalination plant can work and can have success for Ethiopia.== = = = = =**Negative Summary Speech**=

Once again my main points are that the Ethiopian government is too immature to handle this kind of power. America has to face their own problems such as homelessness, debt, and getting the employment rate up before dealing with another country’s issue. A desalination plant would be ineffective in Ethiopia because there is no salt water in Ethiopia, and is too expensive. there are other countries like Ethiopia that also need are help. My opponents plan may work in other countries but would not work in a central African country like Ethiopia. The desalination plant is also just too expensive for America who’s debt is over $12,000,000,000,000. The Ethiopian government is not prepared for this type of power. For they have deprived their people in the past and underestimated the drought. Eritrea has been just as devastated as Ethiopia has been, and this country doesn’t have the Nile River running through it like Ethiopia does. Eritrea has little to no help with food support. Like Ethiopia Eritrea has had problems growing their crops for years and has really effected their people. With no food coming in it has left two thirds of the population starving. America can’t afford to keep taxing their people because Americans have been losing their jobs at an alarming rate. As I have mentioned though the US is in debt by $12,000,000,000,000. Building the canals man-made lakes and wells is a much cheaper price, and it doesn’t harm animals unlike the desalination plant. Our plan doesn’t have as much maintenance as my opponents plan. This means overall it’s also a much cheaper price. In conclusion our plan is much cheaper and more efficient than our opponents plan. Shouldn’t we help the other countries in the eastern region of Africa going through the same issues that Ethiopia is? America’s economy would plummet. And Ethiopia’s government making poor decisions. This leaves me to think, is Ethiopia reallt prepared for this type of responsibility?

Affirmative Final Focus Today, we have debating about the topic of helping Ethiopia. Each side has presented many topics and argued about many topics. One of the topics presented is America should help build a desalination plant in Ethiopia to solve the problem of no water. Another topic discussed is why should America pick to help Ethiopia. There are other countries that are arguably in worse condition. These were the two main topics that were discussed in today’s debate and we believe that these are a non issue because of the information we presented. The issue of America being in debt could be easily solved. We could get the help from other Annex I countries around the world. There are over forty Annex I countries, and we would only need the help from a few of them to build this desalination plant (List of Annex…). America doesn’t have to do this alone. America should pick to help Ethiopia. Ethiopia isn’t the poorest country, but it is in the top ten (Poorest Countries in…). Ethiopia has had the most amounts of people affected by the drought as well. Million have suffered and died because of this drought. Thousands of children have died as well (Country-by-country…). Ethiopia has had many problems and it is time that someone gives them some help. Today’s debate has presented tons of information about Ethiopia. Obviously Ethiopia is having many issues right now. The problem is how should we help them or should we even help them. I am a strong believer that we as a country should help these poor people affected by this drought. I hope that our team has presented enough information to make you feel the same way as well.

**Negative Final Focus**

 * As you can see, we have proved that building man-made lakes and canals off of the Nile River is cheaper and more efficient than the desalination plan. As they would need to build desalination plants, and then go through the actual process of turning the saltwater into freshwater would cost way to much money. But before they go through the actual process, they would have to transport the water to these plants which will cost additional money. Our plan is better because it is millions of dollars cheaper than theirs and will also provide a lot more. Even though both our plans benefit disease, starvation, and dehydration, it doesn't benefit one of the most important factors. That factor is a better environment or habitat for any animal that lives in the area. I hope that you have noticed that our plan is a lot cheaper and more beneficial to Ethiopia while theirs is more costly and doesn't provide as many benefits.**