Current Issues

Below are current issues that Kakiat Scholars believe are affecting our world today.

Steps or Skips?

(The neglect of Guatemalan infrastructure since the first road was paved.)

By: Victor Zuniga

Guatemala is notorious for colonial cities, Mayan artifacts, landscapes, and even coffee! But the way to get there is rough; traffic in cities due to the large number of commuters and small amounts of streets pile up the amount of cars. While outside of cities most roads aren’t paved causing a domino effect that all leads to the game master: corruption, and the cause: less development. This prevents even just education! To half the population!

The Poor Initial Planning

Since the establishment of highways and connectors in Guatemala, their positioning never seemed to be correct. The purpose of many national roads was to boost the quality of life with inversions from companies due to the easy access. But when it came time to pave the roads, they always went through towns and cities beating the purpose. Although the 1900’s started the trend of moving to Guatemala City, the government decided to put the airfield smack in the middle of the city. Now this airfield is known as Guatemala’s most important airport: Aeropuerto Internacional La Aurora, the only connection via plane internationally. Because of this bad placement it takes a long time to get to the airport with highways and local roads due to the constant traffic of the city and the airport.

Start of Road Corruption

After the takeover of corruption in the presidential suite, politicians started finding ways to benefit themselves silently without Guatemala knowing with one of these ways being the roads. The government, when planning new roads, always put them in already connected places, reducing the cost of getting to the site since a highway was already next to it! This can be shown with places like the CA-9. This highway solely spans through cities like Jalapa, Sansare, and Snanarate, avoiding small towns with no prior connection. Another way politicians got their way economically-wise was when building the road. According to the Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure, and Living, highways should have at least 15 cm of concrete to reduce the amount of potholes in the future. But the government would claim those 15 cm for some part with proof, then place various speed bumps and reduce the amount of concrete and asphalt while still claiming the 15cm, thus leaving millions in corruption's pockets.

So now with all this, do you think after all this neglect there is a way to recover?

COVID-19 And Everything You Need To Know

By: Ana Moran and Dorian Martinez

As many cities and states are now lifting the mask mandate, many people ask themselves: “Is COVID-19 vanishing?” COVID-19 like many other viruses is not so easy to get rid of. Over the past two years, the virus, also known as Coronavirus or COVID-19 has tormented the world. As the world hopes and wishes for the deadly virus to leave, is it really going away any time soon? COVID-19 cases are dropping in the US by 58% percent, this could mean that COVID protocols are lifting soon. As the COVID mandates lift in states like Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and Utah, it can be noticed that COVID-19 cases are spiking at an alarming rate. For example, the article "Why Are States Seeing a Sudden Increase in Coronavirus Cases? Experts Have More Than One Answer” conjectures that Florida's first phase began on May 18, which reopened restaurants, retail, and museums at half capacity. Not only did the state fail to meet a two-week decline in cases, but it actually reported an increase in cases per day a week before reopening. According to Johns Hopkins data, Florida reported 594 cases on May 10. Five days later there were more than 800 cases. This demonstrates that as the COVID mandates are lifted, COVID cases soon increase. By June 5, 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ went on to phase two of reopening the State of Florida even though Florida’s COVID cases topped over 1,000 daily.

COVID-19 Vaccine

On Dec. 11, 2020, the COVID-19 vaccine was released to the public and right now, people ages five years or older can get the COVID-19 vaccine. Since the vaccine announcement, over 204 million people got vaccinated which is approximately 62% of the United States. World Wide, approximately 3 billion people have been fully vaccinated which is 49% of the global population. Like any other person, you might ask how the vaccine works. The article "Myths and Facts About COVID-19 Vaccines" states “The mRNA (COVID-19) vaccines do not contain any live virus. Instead, they work by teaching our cells to make a harmless piece of a “spike protein,” which is found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. After making the protein piece, cells display it on their surface. ”The article “FDA Authorizes Booster Dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for Certain Populations” states that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to allow for use of a single booster dose, to be administered at least six months after completion of the primary series in:

Individuals 65 years of age and older
Individuals 18 through 64 years of age at high risk of severe COVID-19
Individuals 18 through 64 years of age whose frequent institutional or occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2 puts them at high risk of serious complications of COVID-19 including severe COVID-19.

COVID-19 Variants

Like other global viruses, COVID-19 has other variants including the Delta Variant, Omicron Variant, Alpha Variant, Beta Variant, Gamma Variant, Epsilon Variant, Eta Variant, Iota Variant, Kappa Variant, Mu Variant, and the Zeta Variant. But how do variants work? Well, as viruses clone themselves, genes in the virus undergo a process called “copying errors.” Over time, the genetic mutation cannot be recognized by the antibodies and can enter the body again to infect cells and replicate itself. Variants like the Delta Variant can be deadly, but some variants aren’t as deadly and contagious. There are many more unclassified variants but there is no need to worry because they aren't as harmful. But, how are variants classified? Well, they undergo a process by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) where they carefully observe and analyze SARS-coV-2 or in other words, COVID-19. The virus is observed for any mutations that begin to develop. According to “SARS-coV-2 Variant Classifications and Definitions:

Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 continuously evolve as changes in the genetic code (genetic mutations) occur during the replication of the genome. A lineage is a genetically closely related group of virus variants derived from a common ancestor. A variant has one or more mutations that differentiate it from other variants of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses. As expected, multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been documented in the United States and globally throughout this pandemic. To inform local outbreak investigations and understand national trends, scientists compare genetic differences between viruses to identify variants and how they are related to each other.

COVID-19 still has other variants but we are not sure of them so far.

COVID-19 Prevention

Along with getting the COVID-19 vaccine, there are many ways to prevent getting COVID-19 in addition to getting the vaccine. Ways to assist you with the prevention of COVID-19 are to:

wear a mask to protect yourself and others
stay at least six feet away from others (two arm's length)
sanitize your hands and belongings often with disinfectant spray
wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
avoid people who are sick

Following these guidelines, along with getting vaccinated, will lower your chances of getting COVID-19 and will also help keep others safe as well.

Report abuse