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olivialum

Mental Health Care in West Africa Is Often a Product of Luck - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...s-often-a-product-of-luck.html

shared by olivialum on 12 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • A growing number of innovative groups have begun experimenting with a similar approach in Africa and Asia: providing therapy without clinics or doctors, relying instead on mobile nurses, cheap generic drugs and community support systems.
  • In impoverished parts of the world where psychiatry is virtually nonexistent, they say, it is the only way to begin reaching the millions of people in need.
  • “Here, if we had to wait for a psychiatrist, the people who desperately need treatment would never get it,”
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • slash rates of premature death from mental disorders by a third by 2030.
  • By one analysis, which includes Western countries and developing regions like West Africa, depression, drug abuse and schizophrenia are on track to be the three leading causes of lost economic output by 2030.
  • Among the successes have been group therapy for rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo, family and individual counseling for survivors of torture in Myanmar, and talk therapy and medication for people with depression in rural India.
  • But without reliable support, follow-up and medical supplies — particularly psychiatric drugs when needed — interventions can quickly lose traction, no matter how well trained and devoted the workers are.
  • One moment, she was dozing off during a rest period; the next, she felt the presence of strange men coming after her. She screamed at them to stop. “My shouting didn’t stop the men; they kept coming for me,” she said. “So, what did I do? I ripped off my school uniform and ran.”
  • The medical staff had little training in how to handle a psychotic break: the hallucinations and delusions characteristic of schizophrenia. They sent her home, where the sensation of being hunted seeped back into her thoughts.
  • Sometimes, she ran out onto the open savanna to escape the demons pursuing her.
  • Family members took turns keeping watch and exhausted traditional methods of healing. Precious animals were sacrificed to drive away the spirits disturbing her. Healers administered herbal powders, and one applied a pale dye to her face and body in an effort to purge demons.
  • Mental illness is a source of shame here, as in most of the world, and families do not advertise its presence. Yet each community has a chief or subchief responsible for keeping an eye out for the sick.
  • One is known as task sharing.
  • The second is community self-help.
  • The third is raising awareness
  • The evidence that a combination of these services can lead to lasting improvement for people with severe mental illnesses is thin, but a foundation is being laid.
  • “The key thing is that it’s not simply home-based care for people with schizophrenia,” Laura Asher, who is running the study, said by email. “It also involves awareness raising and community mobilization.”
  • the cost of these programs is minute compared with the cost of standard psychiatry
  • $8 per client per month on average, according to Peter Yaro, its executive director. In the United States, it costs $200 to $700 for a single appointment with a psychiatrist, depending on the provider, the type of care and the location.
  • In global cost-benefit terms, economists typically rate health care programs by the amount of disability they reduce per dollar. Historically, mental health interventions have scored poorly compared with efforts that save young lives, like neonatal care or treatment of diarrhea. A new analysis of mental health strategies in Ethiopia, for instance, found that treating schizophrenia with generic medications was about as cost-effective as treating heart disease with a combination of drugs, like aspirin and a statin — and much less cost-effective than treating depression or epilepsy. The findings, though preliminary, suggest that treating psychosis is relatively costly.
  • the studies do not take into account the effect of chronic psychosis on an entire family. “The person with psychosis becomes a full-time job for someone else in the family, and depending on how aggressive the person is, maybe more than one person,” said Dr. Simliwa Kolou Valentin Dassa, a psychiatrist in neighboring Togo
  • And if the disorder is seen as a result of a curse on the family, carried down through generations — a common interpretation here — the entire clan comes under suspicion.
Kay Bradley

COP26: Key Outcomes From the UN Climate Talks in Glasgow  | World Resources I... - 0 views

www.wri.org/...comes-un-climate-talks-glasgow

shared by Kay Bradley on 01 Dec 21 - No Cached
  • The world still remains off track to beat back the climate crisis.  
  • ministers from all over the world agreed that countries should come back next year to submit stronger 2030 emissions reduction targets with the aim of closing the gap to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees
  • Ministers also agreed that developed countries should urgently deliver more resources to help climate-vulnerable countries adapt to the dangerous and costly consequences of climate change that they are feeling already —
  • ...46 more annotations...
  • curb methane emissions,
  • halt and reverse forest loss,
  • align the finance sector with net-zero by 2050
  • ditch the internal combustion engine
  • accelerate the phase-out of coal,
  • end international financing for fossil fuels,
  • “Not nearly enough” to the first question, “yes” to the second. 
  • 151 countries had submitted new climate plans (known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs)
  • To keep the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C within reach, we need to cut global emissions in half by the end of this decade.
  • these plans, as they stand, put the world on track for 2.5 degrees C of warming by the end of the century.
  • If you take into account countries’ commitments to reach net-zero emissions by around mid-century, analysis shows temperature rise could be kept to around 1.8 or 1.9 degrees C.
  • some major emitters’ 2030 targets are so weak (particularly those from Australia, China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Russia) that they don’t offer credible pathways to achieve their net-zero targets.
  • a major “credibility gap”
  • To fix this problem, these countries’ must strengthen their 2030 emissions reduction targets to at least align with their net-zero commitments. 
  • as well as ramping up ambition
  • the pact asks nations to consider further actions to curb potent non-CO2 gases, such as methane, and includes language emphasizing the need to “phase down unabated coal” and “phase-out fossil fuel subsidies.”
  • This marked the first time negotiators have explicitly referenced shifting away from coal and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies in COP decision text.  
  • this COP finally recognized the importance of nature for both reducing emissions and building resilience to the impacts of climate change,
  • Did Developing Countries Get the Finance and Support They Need? 
  • In 2009, rich nations committed to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 and through 2025 to support climate efforts in developing countries
  • developed countries failed to meet that goal in 2020 (recent OECD estimates show that total climate finance reached $79.6 billion in 2019).
  • The Adaptation Fund reached unprecedented levels of contributions, with new pledges for $356 million that represent almost three times its mobilization target for 2022. The Least Developed Countries Fund, which supports climate change adaptation in the world’s least developed countries, also received a record $413 million in new contributions.
  • COP26 also took steps to help developing countries access good quality finance options.
  • For example, encouraging multilateral institutions to further consider the links between climate vulnerabilities and the need for concessional financial resources for developing countries — such as securing grants rather than loans to avoid increasing their debt burden. 
  • COP26 finally put the critical issue of loss and damage squarely on the main stage
  • Climate change is already causing devastating losses of lives, land and livelihoods. Some damages are permanent — from communities that are wiped out, to islands disappearing beneath the waves, to water resources that are drying up.
  • Countries also agreed to operationalize and fund the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, established at COP25 in Madrid, and to catalyze the technical assistance developing countries need to address loss and damage in a robust and effective manner.  
  • International Carbon Markets.
  • negotiators agreed to avoid double-counting, in which more than one country could claim the same emissions reductions as counting toward their own climate commitments.
  • his is critical to make real progress on reducing emissions.
  • Common Time Frames. In Glasgow, countries were encouraged to use common timeframes for their national climate commitments. This means that new NDCs that countries put forward in 2025 should have an end-date of 2035, in 2030 they will put forward commitments with a 2040 end-date, and so on.
  • Transparency. In Glasgow, all countries agreed to submit information about their emissions and financial, technological and capacity-building support using a common and standardized set of formats and tables.
  • 100 high-level announcements during the “World Leaders Summit"
  • including a bold commitment from India to reach net-zero emissions by 2070 that is backed up with near-term targets (including ambitious renewable energy targets for 2030), 109 countries signing up to the Global Methane Pledge to slash emissions by 30% by 2030, and a pledge by 141 countries (as of November 10) to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 (backed by $18 billion in funding, including $1.7 billion dedicated to support indigenous peoples).  
  • Glasgow Breakthroughs, a set of global targets meant to dramatically accelerate the innovation and use of clean technologies in five emissions-heavy sectors:
  • power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture.
  • 46 countries, including the U.K., Canada, Poland and Vietnam made commitments to phase out domestic coal,
  • 29 countries including the U.K., Canada, Germany and Italy committed to end new direct international public support for unabated fossil fuels by the end of 2022
  • Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, led by Costa Rica and Denmark — with core members France, Greenland, Ireland, Quebec, Sweden and Wales — pledged to end new licensing rounds for oil and gas exploration and production and set an end date that is aligned with Paris Agreement objectives
  • Efforts were also made to scale up solar investment
  • new Solar Investment Action Agenda by WRI, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Bloomberg Philanthropies that identifies high-impact opportunities to speed up investment and reach ISA’s goal of mobilizing $1 trillion in solar investment by 2030.
  • Non-state actors including investors, businesses, cities and subnational regions also joined collective action initiatives aimed at driving economic transformation.
  • Over 400 financial firms which control over $130 trillion in assets committed to aligning their portfolios to net-zero by 2030
  • banks, asset managers and asset owners fully recognize the business case for climate action and the significant risks of investing in the high-carbon, polluting economy of that past.
  • 11 major automakers agreed to work toward selling only zero-emission vehicles globally by 2040, and by no later than 2035 in leading markets.  
  • In the year ahead, major emitters need to ramp up their 2030 emissions reduction targets to align with 1.5 degrees C, more robust approaches are needed to hold all actors accountable for the many commitments made in Glasgow, and much more attention is needed on how to meet the urgent needs of climate-vulnerable countries to help them deal with climate impacts and transition to net-zero economies.
Kay Bradley

Katharine Hayhoe - "Our future is still in our hands" | The On Being Project - The On B... - 0 views

onbeing.org/...r-future-is-still-in-our-hands

climate climate change environment faith action

shared by Kay Bradley on 15 Nov 21 - No Cached
  • I was talking with a pastor just recently, and he asked me very genuinely, he said, “How do I talk to people about climate change, when the only solutions that we are told that there are to climate change is to stop eating meat” — which is a very big deal in Texas, with those barbecues, it really is. It’s an identity issue. I’m not saying this facetiously; it is literally an identity issue — “and stop driving trucks, also an identity issue, stop traveling, stop having children, which is also an identity issue — basically, stop all these things that actually we often see as defining who we are?” And he said, “How am I supposed to tell people that we’re supposed to do this, when it’s as if I’m telling them, you know, we have to just” — and I think these were my words — “return to the Stone Age, unplug everything, and all the solutions are bad”?
  • And sadly, the way our human psychology is built, psychologists have shown that we, as humans, are much more averse to losing what we have than gaining something new.
  • I think there are some very smart people who have put those pieces together and deliberately communicated a message to us that we’re going to lose all we hold dear, instead of messaging the truth, which is, don’t you want to be more energy independent, rather than less? Don’t you want to have a car that is faster, that you never have to go to the gas station again — especially in the days of COVID — than the one that you have today, and that doesn’t produce air pollution that’s responsible for almost 9 million deaths a year? Don’t you want to grow food in a way that is healthy and good for the soil and for people and for the animals, too? Don’t you want to invest in nature, so it can protect us by purifying our air and our water and protecting our coastlines and providing habitat for animals and preventing zoonosis? When we actually start talking about real solutions  — and that’s the Yale survey that you referred to that I talk about in the book — when we ask people about real solutions, everybody’s on board. Everybody says, heck yes, I would love to do that. And so that is where we can directly address the fear, head-on.
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  • what you’ve been saying. “What we need to fix this thing is rational hope.” How do you instill rational hope? And I mean, how do you do that, right, when you’re out there?
  • And then the second thing is recognizing that we are already moving towards a better future. Now, it might not seem like that, because all the headlines are full of doom and gloom and bad news. But when we start to look for hopeful news — and sadly, we have to go out and look for it, because if you just go — I did an experiment the other day, where I went to the website of a major news organization, and I just paged down through 35 headlines. And about seven or eight were very neutral; like, they didn’t evoke any emotion in me. They were just neutral, factual headlines. And every single other headline was negative — every one. So when we go and we look, though, for the hopeful stories of people who are making a difference, that imbues us with a sense of efficacy, that, wow, there’s somebody over there who’s doing something.
  • And you’re talking about what I refer to as a muscular hope.
  • Nobody in Texas knows that we have the biggest army base by land area, in the U.S., Fort Hood, that is 43 percent powered by clean energy.
  • Nobody knows that the Dallas Fort Worth airport was the first large carbon-neutral airport in North America.
  • Nobody knows that the city of Houston, which is home to, of course, most of the headquarters of many large, multinational oil and gas corporations, that the city of Houston has — is going to be meeting its Paris targets, in terms of reducing its carbon emissions.
  • we think of climate action as a giant boulder sitting at the bottom of an incredibly steep hill, and it’s only got a few hands on it. It’s got, you know, Al Gore’s hands are on it, and maybe Jane Goodall, and maybe a couple other hands, but nobody else. And so there’s just no way we’re going to make it up that hill. Like, just forget it. Why even waste my time? That’s sort of mentally how we think.
  • But the reality is, when we start to look around and see that 90 percent of new energy installed last year, during COVID, was clean energy, and we start to see that cities all over the world are taking action on climate change, and big businesses, like Microsoft and Apple and AT&T — you know, they’re building the biggest solar farm in the U.S., outside of Dallas, to supply major corporations with clean energy. So really, that giant boulder, it is already at the top of the hill, and it’s already rolling down the hill in the right direction, and it already has millions of hands on it. It just doesn’t have enough to get it going faster. And when we think, well, maybe I could add my hand to that, because I could get it going just a little bit faster, that’s totally different than if we think it’s at the bottom of the hill, not budging even an inch. So I find tremendous hope from that.
  • Texas, if Texas were its own country, it would be the seventh-most prolific emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, it’s the number one emitter in the U.S. — and Texas leads the nation in wind generation, for example.
  • that, honestly, and here’s the crazy thing. When you look at how the world has changed before — and it has changed. I mean, you know, 200 years ago it was somehow completely socially acceptable to have other human beings in slavery. And 150 years ago, it was entirely acceptable to say that women’s brains were too small and too fragile to be educated, because they would overheat.
  • It is the verse in Timothy where it talks about fear, where it says, “God has not given you a spirit of fear.”
  • that verse goes on to say, is a spirit of power, which is kind of an old-fashioned word, but in modern parlance it means to be empowered; to be able to act.
  • Or “agency.”
  • Yes, agency. Exactly — a spirit of agency. I like that.
  • And that’s the opposite of being paralyzed by fear. And we also have a spirit of love, which means we can be thinking of and considering others, not just ourselves and our own needs
  • So caring about this issue and acting on it is not only consistent with who we are, but it enables us to more genuinely express what we truly care about
  • It’s about acknowledging that, to care about climate change, you only have to be one thing, and that one thing is a human, living on planet Earth.
  • But talk about why it matters to you. Talk about how you both ski, or you’re both parents and you’re worried about your kids and the playground being too hot for them, or the fact that you fish and you’ve noticed that the fish populations are changing, or the fact that your basement got flooded last time it rained. Talk about something that matters to you and to the person that you’re talking with, and then do your research, to learn about what real climate solutions look like, and share that information with people.
  • do you know what our city is doing? Find out what your city’s doing. Tell people. Do you know what your state’s doing? Do you know what your church is doing? And if you don’t know, ask, and then if they’re not doing anything, say, hey, here are some things that you could be doing. And I even have a list on my website, because people often ask me that. So I’ve got a list of, you know, what could your church do, what can you do at school — all of these different things you can do.
  • hope begins with fear or despair or anxiety, it begins, as the bible says in the Book of Romans, it begins with suffering. And that suffering produces perseverance, and that perseverance produces character, and the character produces hope
  • in the middle of the century, it was somehow acceptable to say that, depending on the color of your skin, you could or couldn’t enter certain buildings or sit in a place on the bus. So the world has absolutely changed before, and how did it change? It was when ordinary people of no particular wealth or fame decided that the world could and should be different, and they decided to not only take personal action, but to use their voices to talk about why it mattered, what could be done, and to advocate for change in every sphere in which they were.
  • Kay Bradley on 15 Nov 21
     
    "Well, we live, today, in a country, the United States, that is more politically polarized than it's been in either of our lifetimes, ever. And that just seems to be getting worse by the day." What Hayhoe and others are pointing to is another way of communicating about climate change.
Kako Ito

Public insurance and the least well-off | Lane Kenworthy - 6 views

lanekenworthy.net/surance-and-the-least-well-off

public insurance economics welfare poor nordic model universalism targeting redistribution income inequality

shared by Kako Ito on 27 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Public insurance also boosts the living standards of the poor. It increases their income, and it provides them with services for which they bear relatively little of the cost.
  • Critics charge that public social programs tend to hurt the poor in the long run by reducing employment and economic growth. Are they correct?
  • Does public insurance erode self-reliance? Is a large private safety net as helpful to the least well-off as a large public one? Are universal programs more effective than targeted ones? Are income transfers the key, or are services important too?
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  • Once again we see no indication that public insurance generosity has had a damaging effect
  • Note also that the employment rate increased in nearly all of the countries during this period. On average, it rose by nine percentage points between 1979 and 2013. That’s not what we would expect to see if generous public insurance programs were inducing large numbers of able adults to withdraw from the labor market
  • What we see in the chart is that countries with more generous public insurance programs tend to have less material deprivation.
  • With globalization, the advance of computers and robots, increased pressure from shareholders for short-run profit maximization, union weakening, and other shifts, wages have been under pressure. Couple this with the fact that many people at the low end of the income ladder have labor market disadvantages — disability, family constraint, geographic vulnerability to structural unemployment — and we have a recipe for stagnation in the market incomes of the poor.
  • here’s a good reason for these shifts: government provision offers economies of scale and scope, which reduces the cost of a good or service and thereby makes it available to many people who couldn’t or wouldn’t get it on their own.
  • Government provides more insurance now than it used to. All of us, not just some, are dependent on it. And life for almost everyone is better because of it
  • hese expenditures are encouraged by government tax advantages.22 But they do little to help people on the bottom of the ladder, who often work for employers that don’t provide retirement or health benefits.
  • To make them more affordable, the government claws back some of the benefit by taxing it as though it were regular income. All countries do this, including the United States, but the Nordic countries do it more extensively. Does that hurt their poor? Not much. The tax rates increase with household income, so much of the tax clawback hits middle- and upper-income households.
  • Another difference is that public services such as schooling, childcare, medical care, housing, and transportation are more plentiful and of better quality for the poor in the Nordic countries. Public services reduce deprivation and free up income to be spent on other needs. It’s difficult to measure the impact of services on living standards, but one indirect way is to look at indicators of material deprivation,
  • Targeted transfers are directed (sometimes disproportionately, sometimes exclusively) to those with low incomes and assets, whereas universal transfers are provided to most or all citizens.
  • Targeted programs are more efficient at reducing poverty; each dollar or euro or kroner transferred is more likely to go to the least well-off. Increased targeting therefore could be an effective way to maintain or enhance public insurance in the face of diminished resources.
  • “the more we target benefits to the poor … the less likely we are to reduce poverty and inequality.”
  • Korpi and Palme found that the pattern across eleven affluent nations supported the hypothesis that greater use of targeting in transfers yields less redistribution
  • The hypothesis that targeting in social policy reduces political support and thereby lessens redistributive effort is a sensible one. Yet the experience of the rich countries in recent decades suggests reason to question it. Targeting has drawbacks relative to universalism: more stigma for recipients, lower take-up rates, and possibly less social trust.44 But targeting is less expensive. As pressures to contain government expenditures mount, policy makers may therefore turn to greater use of targeting. That may not be a bad thing.
  • Public insurance programs boost the incomes of the least well-off and improve their material well-being. If such programs are too generous, this benefit could be offset by reduced employment or economic growth, but the comparative evidence suggests that the world’s rich nations haven’t reached or exceeded the tipping point.
  • Spending lots of money on social protection is not in and of itself helpful to the poor. Total social expenditures in the United States are greater than in Denmark and Sweden, because the US has a large private welfare state. But relatively little of America’s private social spending reaches the poor.
  • Public services are an important antipoverty tool. Their benefit doesn’t show up in income data, but they appear to play a key role in reducing material hardship. Services expand the sphere of consumption for which the cost is zero or minimal. And they help to boost the earnings and capabilities of the poor by enhancing human capital, assisting with job search and placement, and facilitating work-family balance.
  • Kako Ito on 27 Sep 15
     
    Through this article I have gained a deeper insight in how public expenditures and public goods promote wealth equality in a society. "Public services are an important antipoverty tool."
  • ...2 more comments...
  • olivialum on 29 Sep 15
     
    This article really helped me deepen my understanding of redistributing wealth downwards. I never thought about it, but things like social security, affirmative action programs, and public education are actually insurances that attempt to provide everybody with more equality when it comes to living standards as well as basic human rights.
  • samoshay on 29 Sep 15
     
    Yeah, it is a very common argument to say that social expenditures disincentives workers; interesting analysis on how wealthy countries haven't reached the "tipping point." I am curious to see what happens to labor force participation and employment in the next decades as robots further divorce economic growth from labor supply/demand.
  • charlesleesohn on 29 Sep 15
     
    Cool theory in regards to "the tipping point". Interesting, and solid criticism of large social expenditures. Wonder how socialists view this, as opposed to free-market economists.
  • smowat on 29 Sep 15
     
    "Public services are an important antipoverty tool. Their benefit doesn't show up in income data, but they appear to play a key role in reducing material hardship." INteresting to see the statistics and how social expenditures help reduce poverty and the wealth gap.
Rachel Katzoff

EU enlargement: The next eight - 4 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-11283616

EU

shared by Rachel Katzoff on 12 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Rachel Katzoff on 12 Oct 10
     
    This article talks about the next eight countries trying to gain entry into the EU. The most likely country to join the EU is Croatia and they may be approved as early as 2011. Each of the countries that applied as some internal issues they have to work out before they will be admitted. The process of being admitted is interesting to me because the countries first have to submit and application, get confirmed as a candidate, and then they begin talks. In the case of Turkey, the process has been going on since 1987.
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Curtis Serrano on 14 Oct 10
     
    Its incredible what the EU requires of joining nations, turkey has been trying for over 20 years. Its also interesting that many of these countries seem to be denied based on organized crime problems.
  • Kay Bradley on 17 Oct 10
     
    If you refer to the graphic representation of national debt among EU nations, bookmarked above, you'll see that wealth disparities among member nations is a potential deal breaker too.
  • anonymous on 18 Oct 10
     
    I think it's fairly comical how the EU is really a gentlemen's club for the golden boys of Europe and how they are now fiercely attempting to reject their less desirable neighbors while maintaining this facade of being open and welcoming. Of course, it's hard to embrace someone when you're holding onto your wallet with both hands.
  • Rick Rodgers on 18 Oct 10
     
    I think the problems in Greece point to why the EU has to be careful about who is let and who is not. That being said, this process with regards to Turkey is taking way too long. It would be a big step if Europe could build strong ties with Turkey, as it is one of the most accessible means of diplomatic and cultural communication with the ME (Israel is useless). Perhaps in this case, it would be best for the EU to forgive Turkey some minor problems in Cyprus, recognize that they have made improves with the "Kurd problem" and just let them in the damn club already. Perhaps greater improvements with internal Turkish issues that don't appeal to the UN could be made even more easily once Turkey has already joined.
  • Catherine Binder on 18 Oct 10
     
    I had no idea that it was this difficult to become a member of the European Union - being confirmed as a candidate can take more than a decade. Poor Turkey began the process 23 years ago, and is expected to require at least 10 more years to be fully prepared for membership. What an endeavor!
  • Gregory Freiberg on 18 Oct 10
     
    I think this is very interesting and I cannot agree with Jack more. When these countries are thinking only with their pocket books it is hard to be genuinely welcoming to other nations. In my opinion, making Turkey wait 20+ years to join is far too long and a bit ridiculous especially when you compare it to the time other countries had to wait. Croatia joined in less than 5. Very unfair...
Kay Bradley

The Story of Catherine's iPod on Vimeo - 3 views

www.vimeo.com/17384632

shared by Kay Bradley on 03 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Kay Bradley on 03 Dec 10
     
    "The Story of Catherine's iPod"
  • ...10 more comments...
  • Curtis Serrano on 03 Dec 10
     
    I had heard about the conditions at foxconn, but I was surprised about how bad conditions are for the extraction of raw materials like tungsten.
  • Matthew Schweitzer on 03 Dec 10
     
    I would say that I was equally shocked to learn that the conditions for workers mining the metals put into the our Ipods; as I discovered while researching about flags, the products that have become quintessential parts of our consumer society harm those in other, less powerful countries.
  • Samantha Bishop on 05 Dec 10
     
    I was very surprised to find out about the rape attacks that are happening in congo in connection to the mines. The fact that our materials are coming from the places, I feel that in some way we are supporting these actions. These conditions are terrible and something needs to be done to improve them, but I don't see anyone working on this.
  • Harrison Lee on 05 Dec 10
     
    I had no idea that the minerals needed for Ipods were mined in the Congo, and I was appalled at the militarization of the area. This just shows how sensitive the corporations are about protecting their businesses. This ties in to the fact that the corporations make it impossible to accurately trace the materials to its exact source in the Congo. I am also wondering if mining has negative health impacts on the workers and to the manufacturers in China.
  • Arshia Surti on 05 Dec 10
     
    In response to Catherine's essential question, often we feel powerless to stop such things. A few people boycotting Apple products isn't going to change anything. Education, really, is the best way to combat the terrible effects our consumer economy has on the world. If enough people are made aware of the conditions and care enough to give a voice to those workers in China and the Congo, then only will change occur.
  • Amara Plaza-Jennings on 06 Dec 10
     
    What really struck me after watching Catherine's video was the inescapability of these problems. I may not need an Ipod, but to get by in school I certainly need to use a computer. And even if this computer isn't made by Apple, the same problems still apply. I agree with Arshia that education is the best way to try to eliminate terrbile practices such as those that happen in the "rape capitol." Many people at the diversity conference I just attented agreed that education was the best way to solve those problems as well.
  • Nick Petru on 06 Dec 10
     
    I had absolutely no idea conditions for the "3 t's" mining was so awful and that the congo was such a hostile environment for women. This part of the video really puts an emphasis on how different our worlds are. I really like Arshia's point- I definitely agree- education is the key.
  • larkin smith on 06 Dec 10
     
    It was disturbing to learn that all the mines in Congo are militarized. Also, the crazy stickness of the factory in China struck me as disturbing.
  • anonymous on 06 Dec 10
     
    I, too, agree with Arshia on using education to help solve this problem and one's similar. Reading all the comments to this video, it's obvious that most of us had no idea of the brutal rape in the congo-- most of us probably also didn't know the details of China's brutal labor conditions before taking this class. It's scary to think that people are so obsessed about getting the newest gadget, but generally don't know about all the horrible practices that go into making it.
  • Gregory Freiberg on 06 Dec 10
     
    I was pretty shocked to hear about the origins of what you called the "Three T's." Like you, until you read the article in the Huffington post, i had no idea about where the IPod came from (i just assumbed "assembeled in china") but really, also like the Prius, much more of the world is involved. Great Video!
  • Heather Anderson on 07 Dec 10
     
    The disconnect here is so weird. It begins with people digging in the mountainside with sticks, and ends with a tiny, sleek, lightweight computer that makes images flick past at the swipe of your finger and makes music. It's like magic, except instead of the instead of using "toe of newt and eye of frog" the world is making these products by allowing people to be greatly mistreated. Beyond educating people, as Arshia and Alison said, it seems we must either: find other materials to make electronics out of (although that doesn't strike me as very likely?) or pressure companies (who have the money and the leverage) to enforce better regulation. To follow up on Catherine's video, I put three t's into google and got an article about an investigation into the mining in the Congo (maybe Catherine has already seen this): http://africarising2010.blogspot.com/2009/11/tracing-3-ts-from-congo.html. It says: "Even though they found that it is relatively easy to determine the source of minerals based on different coloration and texture based on the source mine, there is insufficient regulation to make this work....Export companies are required to register with the government, but their method of determining the source of minerals they buy is to merely ask the seller whether their goods are from conflict mines. There is no system of confirming what the seller says."
  • Rebecca Heller on 07 Dec 10
     
    This presentation kept shocking me. I was surprised to hear that basic parts of the iPod (the Three Ts) originate in the Congo rather than China. I was then shocked (and horrified) by the rape statistics. I had heard the statistics before, but not in relation to the acquisition of the Three Ts and production of products that we use. The story about the woman whose brother was ordered to rape her and then stabbed to death when he refused was particularly awful. I was also In summary, I was appalled at all the crimes that took place in the Congo- before the Three Ts even got to the factories in China that Catherine talked about. When Catherine started talking about the factories in China, I was again shocked at the working conditions- 100 workers sleeping to a room and clothes locked in a bucket with no visitors allowed (to protect the secrecy of Apple's product plans) while workers worked 15 hour days. The suicide reports from the FoxCon (spelling) factories were also shocking, as was the revelation that workers make just half of what they did in the 1800s. It was sad that the factory earns only $4 per iPod sold- while Apple earns $80. This presentation was very thought provoking- I had never assumed that Apple would be one of the "bad" companies with very questionable labor and humanitarian practices (a la Wal-Mart). Thanks for bringing it up, Catherine. I'm now thinking about it in a whole new light.
Kay Bradley

Samuel P. Huntington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 2 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Samuel_P._Huntington

Huntington clash of civilizations terrorism

shared by Kay Bradley on 11 Sep 11 - Cached
  • graduated with distinction from Yale University at age 18
  • he was denied tenure in 1959
  • he began teaching at age 23
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • completed his Ph.D.
  • associate professor of government at Columbia University
  • Deputy Director of The Institute for War and Peace Studies
  • invited to return to Harvard with tenure in 1963
  • co-founded and co-edited Foreign Policy
  • became prominent with his Political Order in Changing Societies (1968), a work that challenged the conventional view of modernization theorists, that economic and social progress would produce stable democracies in recently decolonized countries
  • In 1993, Huntington provoked great debate among international relations theorists with the interrogatively-titled "The Clash of Civilizations?", an extremely influential, oft-cited article published in Foreign Affairs magazine. Its description of post-Cold War geopolitics contrasted with the influential End of History thesis advocated by Francis Fukuyama.
  • Critics (for example articles in Le Monde Diplomatique) call The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order the theoretical legitimization of American-led Western aggression against China and the world's Islamic and Orthodox cultures.
  • Huntington's last book, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity, was published in May 2004. Its subject is the meaning of American national identity and the possible cultural threat posed to it by large-scale Latino immigration, which Huntington warns could "divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages".
  • In 1986, Huntington was nominated for membership to the National Academy of Sciences, with his nomination voted on by the entire academy, with most votes, by scientists mainly unfamiliar with the nominee, being token votes. Professor Serge Lang, a Yale University mathematician, disturbed this electoral status quo by challenging Huntington's nomination. Lang campaigned for others to deny Huntington membership, and eventually succeeded; Huntington was twice nominated and twice rejected
milesburton

Behind Putin's Combativeness, Some See Motives Other Than Syria - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...yria-russia-putin-kremlin.html

Budget Putin Russia Military nytimes economics economy

shared by milesburton on 15 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • milesburton on 15 Oct 16
     
    After the US walked away from discussions on Syria, President Putin stepped up his country's military activity, with an enormous mobilization of first responders and civilians on the home front. In addition, the President redeployed nuclear weapons, making sure to leave some in place for American surveillance satellites to see. Mr. Putin also suggested the reopening of Russian military bases in Vietnam and Cuba. However, many see this as a distraction from the Russian economy, which is showing the first dip in income for the country's citizens since Putin assumed the Presidency in 2000. The nation's budget is also being heavily slashed, with healthcare and the military losing 33% and 6% of their funding, respectively. People inside Russia commented that the new budget leaves money for the military and police, and little else. Further speculation is that Mr. Putin is using the same strategy he employed in the Ukraine, which is to ramp up Russia's military and leverage that in diplomatic conversation with other nations. Some of Putin's comments also suggest that he wants to push Russia as a concern of the US Presidential election, and make sure that whoever the next President is will see Russia as a force to be reckoned with.
Kay Bradley

Trade With China Essential Questions: Class List 11/2/10 - 0 views

1. Magnitude of trade: how has it changed over time? 2. Forecast? Will current trends continue? 3. Effects on small local business (define "small"; define "local.") 4. How critical is trade with Ch...

China Industrialized Democracies Less Developed World:

started by Kay Bradley on 02 Nov 10 no follow-up yet
nicksandford

Britain's new Prime Minister Liz Truss faces some big challenges: Brexit, Ukraine, and ... - 1 views

apple.news/AUBrh0CKSTHGbV2qizSwqxg

shared by nicksandford on 07 Sep 22 - No Cached
  • nicksandford on 07 Sep 22
     
    Britain's new PM is considered a foreign policy hawk, which could mean stronger relationship with US when facing challenges with Russia and China. Also has no apparent plan to solve economic issues at home, and much of her policy similar to that of Boris Johnson.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • alecstein on 07 Sep 22
     
    I wonder what this means for other oil exporting countries throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Will some of the more dictatorial countries face a thaw in relations with the UK, US, and Europe more broadly? We have already seen a let up in tensions with Saudi Arabia, and even a bit with Venezuela.
  • slavatalanov on 08 Sep 22
     
    "She has pledged to deliver an emergency budget, and promised that there would be no new taxes on Britons." It's so tragically funny how she can promise to keep letting things get worse and worse. Hey, hopefully this means Northern Irish repatriation and Scottish independence in the coming years. The UK will keep rotting away unless the Tories are unseated.
  • Kay Bradley on 17 Sep 22
     
    Ouch, Slava! (And yes). The UK is in a perilous situation and, as with the Brexit vote a few years ago, the country is split between isolationists and internationalists. Seems like the more diverse Britain's urban population becomes, the more conservative those with a lot of wealth and the mostly anglo-ethnic people who live in villages and rural areas become. Similar to the US?
Kay Bradley

Candidates and the Truth About America - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...d-the-truth-about-america.html

america exceptionalism statistics world rank nytimes com

shared by Kay Bradley on 21 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • dismal statistics on child poverty, declaring it an outrage that of the 35 most economically advanced countries, the United States ranks 34th, edging out only Romania
  • educational achievement, noting that this country comes in only 28th in the percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool
  • 14th in the percentage of 25-to-34-year-olds with a higher education
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • infant mortality, where the United States ranks worse than 48 other countries and territories,
  • the United States trails most of Europe, Australia and Canada in social mobility.
  • America is indeed No. 1, he might declare — in locking its citizens up, with an incarceration rate far higher than that of the likes of Russia, Cuba, Iran or China
  • in obesity, easily outweighing second-place Mexico and with nearly 10 times the rate of Japan
  • in energy use per person, with double the consumption of prosperous Germany.
  • This national characteristic, often labeled American exceptionalism, may inspire some people and politicians to perform heroically, rising to the level of our self-image
  • Democrats are more loath than Republicans to look squarely at the government debt crisis indisputably looming with the aging of baby boomers and the ballooning cost of Medicare
  • the self-censorship it produces in politicians is bipartisan, even if it is more pronounced on the left for some issues and the right for others.
  • epublicans are more reluctant than Democrats to acknowledge the rise of global temperatures and its causes and consequences.
  • An American politician who speaks too candidly about the country’s faults, she went on to say, risks being labeled with that most devastating of epithets: un-American.
aleishaallen

The US has put down its cards and walked away from Syria - CNN.com - 3 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

syria at risk US pulls out Russia Assad

shared by aleishaallen on 09 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • aleishaallen on 09 Oct 16
     
    The US has decided to pull support for Syria. They are not able to come to agreements with Russia, and after both the US and Russia have dropped bombs that have killed civilians, the ceasefire is "at risk". It is possible that with this the war will be over sooner rather than later with the rebels losing, but it will not be a peaceful end.
  • gtgomes17 on 10 Oct 16
     
    I found it interesting how both sides believe the other is "the bad guy" in this situation: US thinks Russia is helping Syrians attack civilians, and Russia is upset that the US 'accidentally' dropped a bomb. I hope that the ceasefire will hold out and that the war will be over soon. I wonder if there is something that can be done for the end to have a chance of being peaceful.
Kay Bradley

The Challenges of A Transnational Organization - 3 views

www.ieee.org/...index.jsp

EU

shared by Kay Bradley on 15 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Kay Bradley on 15 Oct 10
     
    An interesting perspective on what transnational means from the IEEE, world's oldest association of electrical engineers!
  • ...3 more comments...
  • Nick Petru on 17 Oct 10
     
    I really appreciate the IEEE's philosophy and I think this is the proper outlook that our military should follow in Pakistan- not taking matters into our own hands so actively and instead conforming to the Pakistani's laws.
  • Rachel Katzoff on 18 Oct 10
     
    I think it is interesting how many difficult questions must be asked when trying to understand how a transnational organization should act ethically. A transnational organization has to pay close attention to all of the different countries that it works with and understand all of the customs and laws. When trying to work with 100+ countries this is a difficult task. If you think about all of the trouble domestic companies have with laws, permits, etc., I can only imagine how much work it would take to run a transnational organization.
  • Catherine Binder on 18 Oct 10
     
    I think that the writer touches on the theory of transnational organizations perfectly - that its members should adhere to the transnational vision but remain sensitive to nations' interests and needs. But this is, after all, a theory. I'm doubtful as to whether transnational organizations will ever operate as they are supposed to. Many claim to work ethically with transnational organizations, but the reality is that everyone has egos and political agendas.
  • Harrison Lee on 18 Oct 10
     
    This article intelligently reveals the difficulties of bridging many different countries, which vary politically and culturally, under one goal or line of thought. The specific laws within each country (and each region of each country) must hinder uniform implementation to a notable extent, but I admire the organization's dedication to its vision. However, I wonder if, with the various global regions and political orientations into which the IEEE is divided, interpretations, and not just implementations, of the organization's vision may be different. With that in mind, can implementations change not only according to local laws, but also according to personal biases?
  • Amara Plaza-Jennings on 19 Oct 10
     
    I found the part about regulations in certain countries especially interesting. It seems ridiculous that a country would ban the import a technical journal. The fact that the author never gives specifics about which country he is referring to further backs his points about what it means to maintain a transnational organization. And while I'm sure that the IEEE is committed to its goal, I am not sure how committed its members might be and if they might bring about international disputes despite the IEEE's best efforts.
Njeri Kamau-Devers

Arab Spring Movements - Describes importance of social media - 15 views

I am glad that the Arab Spring movement is largely being led by the resident youth in the Arab nations.The US has been notorious for imposing their ideas of democracy onto the Middle East such as w...

started by Annie Wanless on 07 Sep 11 4 follow-ups, last by Njeri Kamau-Devers on 08 Sep 11
jacquelinec56

Gender Scripts and Age at Marriage in India - 0 views

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...PMC3000052

shared by jacquelinec56 on 21 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • Rational decision making theories imply that parents respond to economic incentives and constraints as they choose optimal marriage timing for their daughters. In different parts of Asia, availability of wage work for women increases the returns from daughters and may lead to delayed marriage
  • esearch on Indian labor markets has documented a high degree of underemploymen
  • mong women aged 15 and older, only 16% of rural women and 11% of urban women claim wage work as their primary activity.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • A number of studies have recorded a sharp increase in dowry expectations, with a dowry consisting of both cash and expensive household goods,
  • Increased expenses associated with a daughter’s marriage may lead to postponement of marriage as parents struggle to accumulate resources in order to provide appropriate dowry and pay for the wedding (
  • we expect that in areas where women have a greater role in making decisions about different aspects of their lives,
  • women’s empowerment is negatively associated with age at marriage. Age at marriage may also be related to women’s autonomy through another channel: because younger brides are more likely to be docile, in areas where parents-in-law seek to limit women’s power in the household, they may have a preference for younger brides.
  • a woman’s autonomy may be manifest through her control of major resources, such as having her name
  • on a housing title or rental agreement, as well as through control of minor resources, such as having cash on hand for household expenditures. A number of studies have also suggested that the ability to m
  • Results suggest large differences in age at marriage by education, with women with higher secondary and college education marrying 4.9 years later than less-educated women. While the causal direction of this relationship is far from clear (obtaining a higher education could delay marriage, or delayed marriage may provide a greater opportunity to complete one’s education),
  • contrast, the neighboring state of Haryana has an average age of marriage that is 2 years lower, and about 30% of women get married by age 16. These states have similar educational and economic profiles, which is not surprising given that Haryana was carved out of Punjab. However, they differ in cultural traditions. Punjab contains a large number of Sikhs, and even Hindus are influenced by Sikh culture. Haryana shares cultural traditions with the central plains, so the two states differ substantially in the way gender is articulated.
Kay Bradley

Police Reform Is Necessary. But How Do We Do It? - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...police-reform.html

shared by Kay Bradley on 27 Aug 20 - No Cached
  • The United States spends more on public safety than almost all its peer countries and much less, relatively speaking, on social services
  • Now we’re having a conversation that’s not just about how black communities are policed, and what reforms are required, but also about why we’ve invested exclusively in a criminalization model for public safety, instead of investing in housing, jobs, health care, education for black communities and fighting structural inequality.
  • Budgets are moral documents, reflecting priorities and values.
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • Garza: In 2018 and 2019, my organization, Black Futures Lab, did what we believe is the largest survey of black communities in America. It’s called the Black Census Project. We asked more than 30,000 black people across America what we experience, what we want to see happen instead and what we long for, for our futures.
  • the No.1 issue facing them, and keeping them up at night, is that their wages are too low to support a family.
  • Imagine that you have a tool chest for solving social problems. It gives you options. Then you lose the tool of mental-health resources. You lose the tool of public education. They take out the tool of job placement. And then all you’ve got left is this one rusty hammer. That’s policing.
  • Simply defunding the police cannot be a legacy of this moment. I want to hear about investing in black communities more than I want to hear about defunding.
  • There has been such a massive disinvestment in the social safety net that should exist to give black communities an opportunity to thrive, whether it’s access to health care or housing or education or jobs.
  • They cause others to be armed, out of fear, who shouldn’t have to worry about defending themselves
  • The dispatcher would route calls that aren’t about crimes or a risk of harm to social workers, mediators and others.
  • In many cities, the police spend a lot of time “on traffic and motor-vehicle issues, on false burglar alarms, on noise complaints and on problems with animals,”
  • When a police report leads to criminal charges — only a subset of the whole — about 80 percent of them are for misdemeanors. Friedman argues that we should hand off some of what the police do to people who are better trained for it.
  • A tiny percentage of people are the ones destabilizing communities
  • There are a host of things that the police are currently responding to that they have no business responding to.
  • If you have a car accident, why is somebody with a gun coming to the scene?
  • Or answering a complaint about someone like George Floyd, who the store clerk said bought a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill?
  • Similarly, if you have a homeless man panhandling at a red light and you say to a cop, “Go fix it,” he’ll arrest the man. And now he has a $250 ticket. And how does he pay that? And what does any of this accomplish?
  • domestic disputes. They’re the subject of 15 to more than 50 percent of calls to the police
  • But might we get further in the long run if someone with other skills — in social work or mediation — actually handled the incident?
  • The women were deeply wary of the police in general, but 33 of them had called them at least once, often for help with a teenager. “Calling the police on family members deepens the reach of penal control,” Bell wrote. But the mothers in her study have scant options.
  • hey knew that if they called the police that real harm could come, and they didn’t want that.
  • When I did investigations for the Justice Department, I would hear police officers say: “I didn’t sign up to the police force to be a social worker. I don’t have that training.” They know they’re stuck handling things because there is a complete lack of investment in other approaches and responses.
  • In Eugene, Ore., some 911 calls are routed to a crisis-intervention service called Cahoots, which responds to things like homelessness, substance abuse and mental illness. Houston routes some mental-health calls to a counselor if they’re not emergencies. New Orleans is hiring people who are not police officers to go to traffic collisions and write reports, as long as there are no injuries or concerns about drunken driving. I’m borrowing these examples from Barry Friedman’s article. The point is that some cities are beginning to reduce the traditional scope of police work.
  • One of the most interesting studies about policing is a randomized comparison of different strategies for dealing with areas of Lowell, Mass., that were hot spots for crime. One was aggressive patrols, which included stop-and-frisk encounters and arrests on misdemeanor charges, like drug possession. A second was social-service interventions, like mental-health help or taking homeless people to shelters. A third involved physical upkeep: knocking down vacant buildings, cleaning vacant lots, putting in streetlights and video cameras. The most effective in reducing crime was the third strategy.
jalene2021

College Football's Pandemic Playbook: Fewer Fans, No Tailgating, No Bands - The New Yor... - 4 views

www.nytimes.com/...ge-football-fans-stadiums.html

shared by jalene2021 on 27 Aug 20 - No Cached
  • jalene2021 on 27 Aug 20
     
    This article discussed the plans for reopening college football within the United States amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. I was drawn to the article because I was interested in learning about the guidelines and restrictions the United States was using to reopening recreational activities, such as college football. Through reading the article, I thought it was interesting that there was no coherent reopening plan, like with the NBA, but rather that different states and universities had very differing plans regarding what guidelines and restrictions will be in-place for reopening this activity. I would be interested in taking a deeper look into how other countries have attempted to reopen recreational activities and how their methods were different from those taken here.
  • ...3 more comments...
  • theos2022 on 29 Aug 20
     
    While the prospect of successfully opening the fall football season this year isn't very encouraging, many teams have decided to take the leap of faith (I'm assuming to save their athletic programs --many of which have been disbanded due to lack of funding). While 2 large major conferences, the big 10 and pac 12, have decided to postpone their season many large sports schools have chosen to reopen their stadiums while attempting to heed covid regulations. The truth is, scientists still have a lot to learn about how the virus behaves in large open areas.
  • astas2021 on 29 Aug 20
     
    Unfortunately, based on the way things went with MLB, I am incredibly pessimistic about this, given the fact that there's no specific opening plan and that the players don't seem to be required to quarantine from others. Baseball went poorly and put others at risk, and there weren't even fans in the stadium. I worry that major outbreaks will come from this and set us back as a country significantly. I would like to see, however, how other countries are handling this, specifically the ones who have had a better grasp at the COVID situation than the US.
  • aaronfink on 31 Aug 20
     
    A topic that the article did not discuss which I think is important is the size of football teams and the personal that comes with them. A college football team can carry a max of 125 players. Many do not have that many, but the rosters are large. That number does not count for the vast coaches, trainers, and managers that come with the team. This summer the NBA pulled off "the bubble," and so far no one in the "the bubble" has gotten Covid. However a NBA team has a fraction of the personal. If and when college football starts, that quantity of players interacting without strict quarantine guidelines seems like a virus super spreader eating to happen.
  • lukegentry on 31 Aug 20
     
    Following up to the other comments on this post, I am curious how these universities expect to pull off this bubble, since there have been many outbreaks in colleges due to parties and general disregard for safety. I think this will only make an outbreak within college teams more likely and it is extremely worrying that there is not a unified plan to address these issues.
  • stephens2021 on 01 Sep 20
     
    I agree with what Luke and Aaron have said. I think that attempting to create a "bubble" won't work for such large teams and at the college level. It's irresponsible of the officials to attempt to move forward with the season and risk the lives of the students. In my opinion, they should just scrap the entire season because they have no unified plans.
Kay Bradley

Is America's 'Summit for Democracy' really about democracy? - 0 views

www.trtworld.com/52487

Turkey democracy

shared by Kay Bradley on 01 Dec 22 - No Cached
  • Kay Bradley on 01 Dec 22
     
    "Some democratic countries like Turkey, which has a growing relationship with China, were not invited to the gathering, while democracies with authoritarian tendencies like far-right Jair Bolsonaro's Brazil and Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi's India, which has antagonistic ties with Beijing, were included.  Turkey is both a NATO ally and the Middle East's most powerful democracy. But for Washington, it is not Turkey's democratic system but the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's more independent political mindset - which sees no problem acquiring Russian S-400s against Washington's protests due to Turkey's air defence needs - that is a problem. "
gtgomes17

Latin America and the Caribbean - 4 views

www.worldbank.org/...lac

economy Less Developed World: Brazil World Bank

shared by gtgomes17 on 02 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • gtgomes17 on 02 Nov 16
     
    Illustrating how the Bank's role in Latin America and the Caribbean has evolved in recent decades, countries in the region now turn increasingly to the institution for more than direct lending, including such services as risk insurance, commodity swaps, and climate adaptation finance.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • gtgomes17 on 03 Nov 16
     
    From my last visit to Brazil, and what I heard from my family there, I can definitely see how the economy is shutting down. Reais are valued less than a dollar, so you can't get much with them. I am really hoping that, with help from the world bank, the Latin American economies are doing better.
  • Kay Bradley on 03 Nov 16
     
    The region is doing worse. "Latin America and the Caribbean finds itself in the fifth year of an economic slowdown and the second consecutive year of GDP contraction. Worsening external conditions coupled with domestic challenges have reduced expectations for regional growth to -0.7 percent in 2015, with economic activity projected to drop to -1.3 percent in 2016." But also, Mexico and the Caribbean are experiencing 2% growth, while South America is declining 1.7% or more. Why?
  • gtgomes17 on 03 Nov 16
     
    I think it is because (and this is just a theory, I do not know for certain) Mexico and the Caribbean have a direct relationship with the USA, which gives them extra economical assistance outside the World Bank.
Katie Despain

Ukraine's Gas Deal With Russia Reflects Shifting Pressures - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...-shifting-pressures-1411762998

ukraine russia

shared by Katie Despain on 29 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Katie Despain on 29 Sep 14
     
    Months after the Ukraine crisis, Ukrainian officials still rely on Russia for gas sources. Interestingly, the economic fighting between Russia and Ukraine allows Russia and rebels in Ukraine to shift the focus of negotiations with Kiev from securing the border between Russia and Ukraine to the current economic problem. The pro-Western government in Kiev is forced to compromise with Moscow in order to receive essentials for the upcoming chilly winter. The deal shows that the Kremlin is switching from a military to an economic strategy to fight Ukraine's efforts to align itself with the West. Russia now imposes a trade war threat. Ukraine is the transit route for Russian gas supplies to 28 other countries. Ukraine cannot afford an economic shock from fuel shortages, because its economy is already expected to shrink this year by 7 percent.
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