A life opportunity is something that could change your life or something that you could do. It is a favourable chance or opening offered by circumstances. An example of a life opportunity could be a job offering or a chance to travel the world. But not all people have many or any life opportunities. On this page we will discover the difference in life opportunities between Cambodia (a developing country) and Finland ( a developed country).
What is the changing relationship between the two indicators over time?
What we can gather from the graph above is that a lot has changed over time (especially for Cambodia). What we can see is when the life expectancy increased so did the amount of people completing primary school (most of the time). At first Cambodia's percentage of people completing primary school went down by about 25% while the life expectancy kept going up. For Finland it seems as though the percentage of people completing primary school was inconsistent however it was always in-between 95 and 105, meanwhile the life expectancy continued to rise over time. The similarities between the two countries is that the life expectancy is continuing to increase over time.
Why do people in Cambodia and Finland have such different life opportunities?
One of the main reasons I think Finland and Cambodia have
such different life opportunities is because of the economy of the country. For
example Finland is a developed country and has enough money to support the
population with all of the goods and services to live a good life and has potential
to offer great life opportunities. Where as in Cambodia they don’t have enough
money to provide these things leading to malnutrition, poverty, lack of
education, bad health and the population is left with limited life
opportunities. This is only one of the reasons why the two countries have such
different life opportunities.
Another reason would be cultural and religious differences. In Cambodia life for many is based upon Buddhism. Every town has a temple which is considered ‘the spiritual heart of the community’ DK (2013, pp. 22-23). Therefore much of Cambodian life revolves around religion. In Finland only 4% of the population go to church weekly. 84% of Finns say that they are Lutherans and 1.1% says they are Russian Orthodox, Symington (2006, pp. 32-33. These different beliefs can impact the life opportunities available because a job may go against one of the religion’s faiths making some of the opportunities unavailable.
Gender inequality is also another reason. In Cambodia men and women are not treated as equals. Some females are not allowed to go to school for reasons such as being scared to walk home alone. According to Wikipedia only 6% of the female workforce is paid and many can’t have jobs just because they must be educated even though they weren’t allowed to attend school. On the other hand in Finland women are treated with a ‘high degree of equality’ Symington (2006, p. 33). Women have the opportunity to go to school and then later get a job. In Finland there has even been a female Prime Minister. The life opportunities are therefore different because in Cambodia men are more favoured in the workforce and in Finland there are more jobs for both genders.
In Finland everybody has the opportunity to attend school and get a good quality education. … Symington (2006, p. 32) says that ‘Finns are among the world’s most educated people’. Compared to the Cambodian statistics, we discovered that 87.10% of Cambodians complete primary school. We also discovered that only an average of 73.9% of Cambodians can read and write. This can largely impact on the type of jobs that a Cambodian can get if they can’t read or write compared to the Finns who can and are some of the smartest in the world. The life opportunities would therefore be more based around logic in Finland and about more physical jobs like making clothes, farming, etc in Cambodia.
My last point is rural life versus urban life. In Cambodia the majority of the population lives in rural villages. This means that they may work as farmers, look after livestock, etc. This is a different way of life compared to the urban lifestyle that the Finns have. In Finland the majority live in urban areas and get all of the benefits of a developed country. They have access to clean water, sanitation facilities, technologies, resources, etc. This opens up more job opportunities and can improve their standard of living.
Another reason would be cultural and religious differences. In Cambodia life for many is based upon Buddhism. Every town has a temple which is considered ‘the spiritual heart of the community’ DK (2013, pp. 22-23). Therefore much of Cambodian life revolves around religion. In Finland only 4% of the population go to church weekly. 84% of Finns say that they are Lutherans and 1.1% says they are Russian Orthodox, Symington (2006, pp. 32-33. These different beliefs can impact the life opportunities available because a job may go against one of the religion’s faiths making some of the opportunities unavailable.
Gender inequality is also another reason. In Cambodia men and women are not treated as equals. Some females are not allowed to go to school for reasons such as being scared to walk home alone. According to Wikipedia only 6% of the female workforce is paid and many can’t have jobs just because they must be educated even though they weren’t allowed to attend school. On the other hand in Finland women are treated with a ‘high degree of equality’ Symington (2006, p. 33). Women have the opportunity to go to school and then later get a job. In Finland there has even been a female Prime Minister. The life opportunities are therefore different because in Cambodia men are more favoured in the workforce and in Finland there are more jobs for both genders.
In Finland everybody has the opportunity to attend school and get a good quality education. … Symington (2006, p. 32) says that ‘Finns are among the world’s most educated people’. Compared to the Cambodian statistics, we discovered that 87.10% of Cambodians complete primary school. We also discovered that only an average of 73.9% of Cambodians can read and write. This can largely impact on the type of jobs that a Cambodian can get if they can’t read or write compared to the Finns who can and are some of the smartest in the world. The life opportunities would therefore be more based around logic in Finland and about more physical jobs like making clothes, farming, etc in Cambodia.
My last point is rural life versus urban life. In Cambodia the majority of the population lives in rural villages. This means that they may work as farmers, look after livestock, etc. This is a different way of life compared to the urban lifestyle that the Finns have. In Finland the majority live in urban areas and get all of the benefits of a developed country. They have access to clean water, sanitation facilities, technologies, resources, etc. This opens up more job opportunities and can improve their standard of living.