Greece and Cambodia: Comparative Essay
Greece and Cambodia have many differences and some similarities. The land area of Greece is around 130,000 square kilometres located in Europe and is bordered by Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Turkey. Cambodia is around 176,000 square kilometres and is located in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Both countries are located in the northern hemisphere.
Greece’s summers are usually hot and dry, and winters cold and wet while Cambodia is warm to hot all year round with alternating wet and dry seasons as it is closer to the equator. The graph shows that Cambodia’s temperature is hotter than Greece with Cambodia’s lowest temperature during the day is 30 degrees celsius while Greece is 14 degrees. In Cambodia, around 4 million people do not have access to safe drinking water as most of the population live in rural areas where clean water does not get transported. So the health standards in Cambodia is not as high as Greece. Greece is very mountainous while Cambodia is mostly flat terrain making Cambodia’s land more suitable for crops.
The population of Greece is around 11 million as of 2019. There growth rate is decreasing by 0.46% as they are experiencing a decline in births because couples simply cannot afford a family. The population of Cambodia is 16.5 million which is annually increasing by 1.5%. Since the genocide in Cambodia which you can see in the dip, there was a big baby boom from 1980 to 1985. Due to this, the median age in Cambodia is 24 while Greece, it is 44. As Cambodia is a poor country, the increasing population could mean that they have more children to help the family earn income. Greece is among the world’s healthiest people with one of the highest life expectancies which is due to the health care cost in Greece cheaper among the European Union. Emergency service is even free of charge in public hospitals, but they are underfunded, meaning that relatives have to supply food to the patients. Advanced healthcare in Cambodia is limited so if you fall ill or get badly injured, you would have to be airlifted to places like Singapore or Bangkok, to get better quality care. In the images, Cambodia lacks equipment and privacy in their hospitals compared to Greece. As they are not a wealthy country, they have poor sanitation and their hospitals are generally understaffed.
The GDP of Greece was worth around $323 billion Australian dollars while Cambodia is significantly lower, only worth $33 billion dollars. Even though Greece’s GDP is higher, Cambodia is increasing at a higher rate than them showing that Cambodia’s economy is getting into better shape which would lead to the government having more money to take better care of their people. As you can see in the graph, the unemployment rate of Greece is 17.2% while Cambodia’s unemployment rate is 0.23%. Even though they do have a lower unemployment rate, they still do not get a lot of money as their wages are low. For example, working in sweatshops where only the very minimum pay is given to them.
Corruption affects both Greece and Cambodia due to the ineffectiveness of officials. Greek companies face a moderate risk of corruption while Cambodia faces a high risk when dealing with the police as they are not entirely confident in the reliability of police services. As you can on the map, Cambodia is 20% clean of corruption while Greece is 45% clean demonstrating that the execution of the laws are more enforced in Greece. The Greece government is a parliamentary republic where their president is elected by parliament and appoints the prime minister who will serve as the head. In Cambodia, their it is a constitutional monarchy with multiparty democracy. The king is the chief of state while the prime minister is the head of parliament. This shows that the people in Greece have more freedom than the people in Cambodia.
In conclusion, Cambodia has less money and less funds to better look after their people’s well-being unlike Greece who has more materials and wealth, meaning that Greeks live more comfortably than them. Both countries have many environmental, social, economic and political similarities and differences that influence their wellbeing.
