Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

[sharon sanders]

I would like our team to consider and document the unrest in several countries that is the result of economic hardship in order to explore possible solutions to a potential deepening of violence.

As everyone knows, FluTrackers is against all violence for the simple reason is that it harms people. Violence is never the answer to a problem. In fact, violence creates a permanent hostility.

In recent days the following events have taken place:


Greece: Violence erupts after memorial for suicide
The blood of an injured police man in Athens, Saturday, April 7 2012 from a protest march that followed a memorial service for man who committed suicide earlier this week.
(AP) ATHENS, Greece - Greek protesters marching in memory of a man who killed himself over financial woes that he blamed on the government attacked a policeman in Athens on Saturday, leaving him bloodied and stealing his bulletproof vest...


Two men torch themselves in Italy as hardship bites
ROME | Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:31pm EDT
(Reuters) - A Moroccan worker in Italy set himself on fire on Thursday in protest at not being paid for months, a day after an Italian businessman set himself alight over a tax dispute, police said.
The 27-year-old construction worker is recovering in hospital after dousing himself in petrol and lighting it outside Verona city hall in northern Italy, police said.
Police said the man told them he was desperate after not being paid for four months and running out of money...


In the US millions have suffered financially and some are calling for mass demonstrations:

99 Percent Spring: Occupy-Style Tactics Adopted By MoveOn, Labor Unions For Teaching
Posted: 04/ 9/2012 11:41 am Updated: 04/ 9/2012 11:52 am
WASHINGTON -- Boot camp is about to begin.
On Monday and extending throughout this week, a coalition of progressive organizations from across the country will be hosting more than 900 training sessions with the goal of educating 100,000 participants in old-fashioned, in-your-face, direct-action protest techniques. The week of teach-ins are part of what the coalition is calling the 99 Percent Spring. Roughly 50,000 people will be taught in person, and plans call for another 50,000 to be trained online...


So without getting into political discussions, what can be done to preserve and promote public health in this current climate?

 

[Giuseppe]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

This thread is welcomed, so, thank you Sharon for focusing attention on this issue.

Whether economic recession in EU and elsewhere is disarming health threat fight?

I think the answer is: definitely, yes.

Undiscriminate cuts in states' budgets are already starting to hit veterinary surveillance and epidemic control, and old foes such as malaria, tb and undernutrition reappeared in formerly wealthy western countries.

People can't afford sometimes to seek medical advice because of the costs (even in Italy, where there are fees to pay to access to A&E depts), and tend to not vaccinate children for lacking public health messaging and communications.

It is an alarming situation and the great improvements in extended lifespan and amelioration of livelihood for millions of individuals are on the brink of collapse, as seen briefly after the end of East European regimes in 1989, when the drastic 'cure' for ailing economies resulted in a disaster from a health perspective.

(IOH)

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

I think - first and primary to this discussion - is that all governments should implement all aspects of the Declaration of Human Rights as a reminder of their role in our lives:


PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.





Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.


Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.


Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.


Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.


Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.


Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.


Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.


Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.


Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.


Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.


Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.


Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.


Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.


Article 14.

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.


Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.


Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.


Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.


Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.


Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.


Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.


Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.


Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.


Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.


Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.


Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.


Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.


Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.


Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.


Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

Translated by Google

Excerpt:

Portugal

Monday April 02, 2012

The elderly, victims of the crisis

Mario Queiroz Lisbon InfoSud

The mortality rate has increased alarmingly during the winter. In the first line, the elderly. Beyond the cold wave, the experts see it as the collateral effects of austerity measures in the field of health care.

Nearly 11,600 people died last February, according to the Directorate General of Health Portuguese (DGS), or 10% more than the same period last year. Most victims were over 75 years.

For the DGS, the increase is due to unusually cold weather and seasonal illnesses like flu. An incomplete explanation for many doctors who denounce especially the growing inability of people to afford an adequate diet and appropriate health care.
...
In its edition of March 3, the Portuguese daily O Correio da Manh? quotes which summarize the dilemma that the elderly are now facing : "We can buy either food or medications, but not both."
...
All the medical experts interviewed have established a link between rising mortality rates, the crisis and cuts in public spending. Mario Jorge Santos, director of the Portuguese Association of Physicians of Public Health (AMSP), also abounds in this direction. He said many seniors, who are the first victims of hypothermia, tried to pull on their meager pension by reducing their consumption of heating. A fatal choice for many of them.

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=185155

 

[Emily]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

I think it's important to draw a line between violence and non-violent civil disobedience. Direct action and civil disobedience are a far cry from violent revolutions that only succeed in replacing one group of thugs or elitists with another variety of the same ilk most, if not all of the time in my opinion.

In the USA, at least, I wouldn't even be overly concerned by occasional street brawls between civilians with oppositional viewpoints. There was a lot of turbulence in the 1920's to 1930's, and the country survived.

http://depts.washington.edu/depress/radicalism.shtml

What worries me now is possible totalitarianism brewing. This is a place this country has never been before:

Q&A with Naomi Wolf: supreme court, strip searches and sexual humiliation

Fearfulness has led to this state we are, I think. I hope we can get out of it - again.

?Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself?: FDR?s First Inaugural Address

Our Documents: Franklin Roosevelt's Address Announcing the Second New Deal
October 31, 1936
"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me--and I welcome their hatred."

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IjSTQwamo8M?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IjSTQwamo8M?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

 

[Amish Country]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

I think the answer is: definitely, yes.

With economic hardship I suspect diseases caused by or related to malnutrition to reappear shortly; rickets, pellagra, scurvy, etc. Childhood mortality may rise also. Kids that are not getting enough good food maybe more susceptible to disease. If municipalities can no longer afford chemicals or trained personnel to run and properly maintain water treatment facilities waterborne diseases may rise as well. Some of the chemicals used in water treatment are more than just a little dangerous. I would not want someone who is unfamiliar with the safe handling of these chemicals messing around with them or trying to figure out how to use them by trial and error. Bad things could happen.

With less money to run and maintain infrastructure sanitation may become an issue. This could lead to uncollected or sporadic collection of refuse which could lead to infestations of rats and other disease carrying vermin.

Homelessness caused by foreclosures opens up even more problems. It is not hard to see where despair, want, hunger could influence the occurrences of stress related mental health issues and suicides.

In the past during economic hard times some governments actively encouraged people to grow vegetable gardens to help keep people busy and fed. I read somewhere that During WWII Victory gardens supplied 42% of the food consumed by the civilian population in the US.

Maybe we need a thread on suggestions for dealing with stress and other problems related to hard economic times?

 

[ming]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

Good debate, very true.:tiphat:

 

[JJackson]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

I was looking at the World Economic Forum 'Global Risks Report 2012' and noted an interesting change. The report collates risk data and graphs risks by plotting 'event likelihood' against 'event impact'.
If you look at page 12 you will see another graph giving the top five risks for each of the last 6 years. This year 'water supply crisis' has appeared for the first time and is placed No.2 by impact and No.5 by likelihood. Another first time entry is 'food crisis' at No.3 by impact.


If we leave aside the fact the 'experts' are supposed to be assessing risks over a ten year time scale - and seem to change their minds too rapidly.

Where they see risk is changing - now we have had a flu pandemic in 2009 I note they seem to think that makes the chance of another - of any stripe - not likely. The report is now increasingly focusing on wealth disparity and insecurity of supply of both food and water. The have nots are likely to begin to wonder why the haves have and they don't. I would argue the primary determinant as to which group you belong to is the accident of your location at birth. If you were born in a pretty village on the South Coast of England - as I was - your life is likely to have been significantly less precarious than had I been switched at birth with a baby from Gaza, Mogadishu or Lilongwe. Had I been switched I suspect I would want to know why others had it so much easier than me and would be looking to get a fairer share of the cake.
The report is worth a look, try this for a glimpse of grim but possible future (the intro to a case study from the report).

Seeds of Dystopia
The word “dystopia” describes what
happens when attempts to build a better
world unintentionally go wrong. This case
considers how current fiscal and
demographic trends could reverse the gains
brought by globalization and prompt the
emergence of a new class of critical fragile
states – formerly wealthy countries that
descend into lawlessness and unrest as
they become unable to meet their social and
fiscal obligations. Such states could be
developed economies where citizens lament
the loss of social entitlements, emerging
economies that fail to provide opportunities
for their young population or to redress rising
inequalities, or least-developed economies
where wealth and social gains are declining.
This case shows that a society that
continues to sow the seeds of dystopia – by
failing to manage ageing populations, youth
unemployment, rising inequalities and fiscal
imbalances – can expect greater social
unrest and instability in the years to come.

 

[Laidback Al]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

. . . Where they see risk is changing - now we have had a flu pandemic in 2009 I note they seem to think that makes the chance of another - of any stripe - not likely.

While there is a clear periodicity to influenza pandemics based on limited historical records, novel pandemic outbreaks are independent events. We are now beginning to understand the genetic make up influenza viruses. The fact that we had an A/(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic in 2009 does not increase or decrease the chance of A/(H5N1) or some other HxNx combination from becoming a pandemic strain in the near future. A pandemic is still a global health risk.

 

[JJackson]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

While there is a clear periodicity to influenza pandemics based on limited historical records, novel pandemic outbreaks are independent events. We are now beginning to understand the genetic make up influenza viruses. The fact that we had an A/(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic in 2009 does not increase or decrease the chance of A/(H5N1) or some other HxNx combination from becoming a pandemic strain in the near future. A pandemic is still a global health risk.

Agreed, and we should also not get too locked into thinking flu. There are plenty of other pathogens with zoonotic potential and plenty of old enemies causing concern. Resistance emergence in Malaria is very scary again if it gets into Africa and then we do not seem to have an answer to TB or MRSA and friends.

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

Side effect: Crisis in Greece hits mental health

Posted on 5 June 2012 - 05:37am

ATHENS (June 4, 2012): Greece is not feeling well.

One in four men, and one in three women, has endured recent bouts of depression. As the grinding economic crisis continues to batter people's nerves, suicides and psychosomatic illness are both on the increase.

In April, a 77-year-old retiree, explaining in a note that he could no longer scrape by, went to a public square in the middle of Athens and put a bullet into his brain, a shot that echoed throughout the country.

While politicians and economists argue about how to pull Greece out of the quagmire of debt that has kneecapped its economy, there can be no doubt that the crisis -- once again threatening to eject the country from the eurozone towards an unknown fate -- is taking a devastating toll on the mental health of its people.
...
"My patients are clearly much more on edge and stressed," said Dimitri, an osteopath in Athens with a varied clientele. "Their incomes are dropping. Their day-to-day relationships are fraying at the edges. Those who do have work are afraid of losing it, and show telltale signs of musculoskeletal tension."

Before the crisis really took hold, he added, half of his patients came for fine-tuning sessions, or for a minor realignment. "Now many arrive in a state of acute crisis. Their backs are blocked, or they can't even walk."
For Dimitri, there can be no doubt as to the culprit: the no-end-in-sight debt crisis that has plunged Greece deep into recession, ravaged its employment statistics and gutted social services.

The human body, he says, absorbs all these shocks like a spring.

Full text:
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/398082

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Increased Unrest in the World due to Hard Economic Times - A Public Health Threat?

Greek crisis creates medicine shortages

AFP Jun 6, 2012, 04.19PM IST

ATHENS: Greece's highly uncertain future has forced businesses into a quasi hand-to-mouth existence, with one of the most alarming effects a shortage of medicines, including for the seriously ill.

"Pharmaceutical companies are no longer interested in selling to Greece where hospitals and pharmacies are in debt," said Kostas Lourantos, head of the pharmacies' association in the Attica region that includes the capital Athens.

"This is the case with Roche, Bayer, Novartis and Sanofi" and other big pharma companies, he said. "Drug prices are also very low compared to other European countries."

He added that there are currently shortages of medicines such as antibiotics, antidepressants and insulin for diabetes sufferers.
...

Full text:
http://articles.economictimes.india.../32078829_1_pharmacies-greek-crisis-medicines