The lifestyle of a diver is not sustainable,especially not with the conditions in which they're doing it in. Over the last century the price per pound that the divers get paid has be substantially decreased. In the video “my village,my lobster” it describes the life and working conditions of the divers and their families that have no choice but to live with them.
The people of Puerto Cabeza were making three fifty a Pound until it was cut almost in half,this only further limits their ability to provide for their family. In comparison to the other three found groups that we have read about the divers make more and have slightly better Living conditions however,all four are still living below the poverty line. When their wages were cut,unlike the south Americans, the people of Nicaragua and Puerto Cabeza protested to demand a fair living wage.
Many of the divers turned to Commercial diving in hopes that it would increase living standards with higher pay. Hundreds of the miskito diver have died,become injured,or even paralyzed due to poor work conditions. Many of them are not provided with proper gear to dive or care to help them after they resurface. Diving is one of the most dangerous jobs to have considering all of the extremely possible occur occurrences such as shark attacks,oxygen tanks cutting off,getting disease such as the bends and the men that risk their lives are not treated for.
This is not by any means a sustainable lifestyle,the average Nicaraguan live of off two cents a day. Two cents a day is not enough for anyone to live,eat,or survive, economically it took a turn for the worse in 2008 which in turn cut divers payments in have by over fifty percent. Due to the low income divers are forced to leave their families for long periods of time to make as much money as possible,which still won't be enough for them to live, while they work on the Boats where they don't eat or sleep well many of them starve,get sick and are poorly clothed. They will soon lose their only way of making ends meet due to the depletion of the lobster population which means that the two cents that they live off of now will soon come to an end. Most of these men will not be able to find another job or make a better life for themselves or their families because of the neurological damage that Timmerman mentions briefly that makes it hard for them to function. This is not a life anyone would as for,diving over a hundred feet fifteen times a day,suffering from mental and physical Ailments that go uncared for. This life is no good and although there seem to be no solutions people still need to work around the negatives to find a plausible solution that'll benefit the people and uplift the economy.
This is a solid informative post.
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