Archive Posts

I recently offered free copies of my new book on brain health in return for a review. Guess what... over 70% of the respondents were women. A surprising result...? No not really!

Compared with men...

Women are more willing to ask for help and not afraid to admit if they don't understand something. Women like to do research, gather information and get to the facts. Women are less likely to require instant solutions and more prepared to do 'what it takes' to get the result they want. All-in-all women seem far more sensible and courageous than most men when it comes to confronting and addressing health issues!.

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Malnutrition has long been recognized as a consequence of poverty. It is widely accepted that higher rates of malnutrition will be found in areas with chronic widespread poverty (ADB, 2001). Malnutrition is the result of marginal dietary intake compounded by infection. In turn, marginal dietary intake is caused by household food insecurity, lack of clean water, lack of knowledge on good sanitation, and lack of alternative sources of income. It is also compounded by, inadequate care, gender inequality, poor health services, and poor environment. While income is not the sum of total of people's lives, health status as reflects by level of malnutrition is.

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The Kofi Annan's challenge above is a mean one; a clarion call to every citizen of the world to do their bit, their very best, in the quest for a poverty-free world. To us, Africans , the call must be taken seriously to guarantee better future devoid of deprivations of essentials of life. Yet we see the probability of eradicating poverty in Africa soon, most especially in sub-Saharan Africa, as a mirage based on daily worrisome happenstances around us. Let's for example examine two of these disturbing trends of events that are giving many of us sleepless nights: belief in witchcraft and witch-killing or witch-stereotyping.

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For if resources are which determine the richest of a people then African countries like Nigeria, Angola, Sudan, Tanzania, and DRC Congo would be some of the richest in the world and countries like Israel, Singapore or Hong Kong would be some of the poorest.

Empirical evidence  however demonstrates that it is the country that have embraced technology( the adequate exploitation of their mind resource), who have done  better than those even more endowed with oil, gold, diamonds and even platinum.

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A Small boy was wandering bare footed on the road, His Sparkling but innocent eyes were looking for something. As he has lost his some very precious thing. Suddenly his eyes stoped at the place full of garbage. he shouted with joy "Hey I GOT IT !!!!!!!!"Very next moment he has a rotten peace of bread in his hand which was covered with fungus.

On very next moment his emotions changed, A piece of bottle entered in his foot and now he was crying his innocent sparkling eyes turned into tears. This is the common sean often seen of our roads and satreests.

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Living In Poverty: Imagine, if you can, living in a one-room hut with a dirt floor, little or no shelter from the elements, no running water or electricity, in a community that has only dirt roads, no doctors or medical facilities, no police protection, no schools, no employment, where the average annual income is often as little as a dollar  a day, starvation and death are constant companions and grinding deprivation is so severe that parents are often forced to sell their children into servitude or prostitution, and infant mortality is extremely high. It’s truly a bleak picture.

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She was purchased for Rs 5,000 by a brothel-keeper's agent before being brought to city's notorious red-light area Ganga Jamuna just a year ago. The teenager was apparently sold off by her father who urged her to accompany the women who had made the payment to city where she was promised a job. Ironically she feels happy being at the brothel than face hardships at home.

Renu (name changed) had sneaked out of the brothel, along with two others, during a police raid in the locality last week. The three girls were spotted at Nagpur railway station under suspicious circumstances. Due to reasons unknown, only Renu was handed over to non-government organization by the police though all three were taken into custody.

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Rising poverty is forcing people to abandon their children, as an infant girl was found in a cradle outside the Edhi Centre in Korangi on Tuesday, officials told The News. The infant girl, ostensibly a year-old, according to the officials, was dropped in a ‘Jhoola’ placed outside the centre by her guardians who disappeared from the site without informing the authorities. Crying bitterly and dressed in tattered clothes, the unknown girl was then brought to the Edhi head office in Mithadar, where she is currently being sheltered.

Renowned social worker and head of the Edhi Foundation Abdul Sattar Edhi told The News: “Due to the skyrocketing inflation and increasing poverty, parents are unable to support their families and provide a square meal. With the rise in prices of essential commodities, a large number of people are now coming to the centre, seeking shelter and free food.”

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The General Office of China's State Council, the Cabinet, and the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee issued a circular recently, calling for more progress in the nation's poverty alleviation work.

Poverty alleviation work that targets old revolutionary base areas, ethnic regions, border areas and poverty-stricken areas has made great progress since it was started 24 years ago, the circular said. Future tasks are to focus on ensuring adequate food and clothing for people in need and helping them out of poverty via improving their capabilities for development on their own.

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An alliance of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) based in the Middle East Tuesday said that the worsening unemployment situation and poverty in the country pushes workers to work in war-torn countries like Afghanistan. Migrante-Middle East said that there are still a considerable number of migrant workers in Afghanistan and in Iraq despite the deployment ban imposed by the Philippine government.

“Millions of desperate Filipinos are willing to gamble just to land a job in war-stricken places than to see their families die of hunger and poverty in the Philippines,” Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said. “Why? The present wage earned by our local workers is not enough to compensate the high cost of living in the country,” he said.

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