Since the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took root in 2012, Europe has experienced a strange phenomenon: European-raised citizens leaving to become Jihad fighters in the Middle East. According to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR), 3,000 European citizens have joined ISIS since 2012, with Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden producing the highest number of citizens per capita to join the Jihadist cause. In response to this, a variety of methods have sprung up in Europe in order to prevent European citizens from leaving to join ISIS, and to deal with fighters once they have returned home.
In many European countries, such as the United Kingdom and Belgium, suspected ISIS recruits and returned Jihad fighters are treated with scorn and sent to court (in February, 46 suspected jihadists went on trial in Belgium). In stark contrast to these approaches, Denmark has pioneered an approach known as the “Aarhus Model,” which works to reintegrate returned fighters into Danish society using a soft-handed approach which treats returned jihadists “more like rebellious teenagers […] than hostile soldiers beyond redemption.”
The Aarhus Model was pioneered in 2007 after the 7/7 London metro bombings produced alarm in Denmark about the threat of the “home-grown terrorist.” The need for a better approach to dealing with poor, immigrant communities also became evident following the backlash produced by the controversial Muhammad cartoons in 2006, which produced unprecedented tension in Danish society between native Danes and Muslims. The Copenhagen shootings this year on February 14 by a 22-year-old Palestinian-born Danish citizen also solidified concerns about the threat of homegrown terrorism in Denmark, and the need for effective methods to counter this threat.
Indeed, Denmark, a country which provides generous welfare entitlements for all of its citizens and residents (including immigrants), has produced the second highest number of Jihadist fighters in Europe, after Belgium. According to ICSR 2015’s Report, 27 per 1 million Danish citizen have gone to fight in Iraq and Syria, while 40 per 1 million Belgium citizen have also joined ISIS.
Many Danish citizens, according to Preben Bertelsen, a professor of psychology at the University of Aarhus, have expressed confusion over why Denmark has produced such a high percentage of Jihadist fighters, expressing sentiments like “Why do they hate Denmark so much when we have given them so many opportunities?” But, according to Jacob Bundsgaard, the mayor of Aarhus, “it is obviously in part because we have failed […] in making sure that these people are well integrated into Danish society.”
Recognizing that the need to join ISIS stems from feelings of exclusion in Danish society, the Aarhus model aims first and foremost at helping radicalized youth to feel included. This includes making sure that immigrant youths—many of whom live in the poorest neighborhoods in Denmark and may feel socially excluded from their other Danish peers—have a vast network of help that they can depend upon. Individual counseling is provided for people who intend to travel to Syria or Iraq, with mentors (many of whom are returned, deradicalized fighters themselves) assigned to specific cases. Parents of at-risk children are also required to take part in self-help groups, in order to produce a network of elders that can disillusion radical youth with the ISIS dream. For returned fighters, (so long as they are found innocent of any war crimes) individuals are also offered counseling and the chance to become mentors for radicalized Danish citizens intending to leave the country to fight.
According to one young man’s testimony of his experience with the Aarhus model, after he had become increasingly radicalized following a family vacation to Mecca, the police contacted his family and had him brought into the station. Instead of punishing him, however, he exclaimed that the police “offered him a cup of coffee” and told him they would be assigning him a mentor who better understood his frustrations than they did. The young man, whose name was Ahmed, was successfully dissuaded from joining ISIS, and has since graduated from a Danish University and gotten married.
In addition to Aarhus, Copenhagen, other Scandinavian countries, and the Netherlands have since either adopted the Aarhus Model, or have adopted models that are largely based on the Aarhus example. Just days after the Copenhagen shootings on February 20, President Barack Obama also held a conference entitled “The White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism,” in which Bundsgaard, the mayor of Aarhus, was invited to share insight into his city’s innovative approach to fighting terrorism.
While the months since the Copenhagen shootings have produced concern over the supposed success of the model, police commissioner Jørgen Illum, based in Aarhus, has claimed that now, more than ever, it is important to make efforts to include radicalized youths and returned fighters into Danish society. Doing so, according to proponents of the Aarhus Model, is the best way to help prevent immigrant teenagers, who live in the poorest and most marginalized segments of Danish society, from turning to ISIS to give themselves a sense of inclusion, and purpose.
Indeed, by many accounts, the Aarhus Model is not only an innovative approach to tackling jihadism, but a successful one that has produced encouraging downward trends in the number of Danish citizens leaving the country to fight.
While thirty Danish citizens traveled to Syria in 2013, only two have traveled to Syria in the past year, while only one traveled in 2015.
– Ana Powell
Sources: BBC, The Guardian, Newsweek, The Washington Institute
Photo: Newsweek
Effect of Expulsion Plans on Hispaniola’s Poorest Citizens
On the island of Hispaniola, evenly split down the middle and home to both the Dominican Republic (D.R.) and Haiti, there has long been cross-over between the two countries, with an estimated 450,000 Haitian migrants currently residing in the D.R., a richer country.
In recent weeks, however, the Dominican Republic’s President Danilo Medina announced plans to register migrants and expel undocumented Haitians (or those of Haitian descent) from the country. President Medina’s expulsion plans, which come on the heels of his re-election campaign, have been enormously popular domestically, with many Dominican Republic residents claiming that Haitian migrants drain resources from what is already a very poor country. Systemic racism also plays a part, as many D.R. residents regard their darker, French-speaking and poorer Haitian neighbors as intruders who have put a strain on the country’s weak public system.
As part of the plan, President Medina’s government also proposed the Amnesty Plan – migrants were required to register with the government by June 17, 2015 or face deportation from the D.R. However, according to Celso Perez, a fellow at Human Rights Watch, the government has accepted less than 2 percent of applicants for regularization of Haitian immigrants. Officials also say that the paperwork process carries hidden costs and is frustratingly bureaucratic, which makes it hard for the less educated and the well-off to successfully complete the process. Applicants, for example, must pay RD$1,000 to 1,5000 (US$23 to US$35) to get documents signed by a notary public. For applicants who have to travel to cities where they used to live, the expense can also become compounded. Costs of attorneys, who can help ensure all the paperwork is in order, can also cost up to RD$15,000 (US$350) – an insurmountable cost for applicants who earn low salaries. John Thomas, a D.R. police officer working in Sabaneta, stated that “a lot of the Haitians who have paid fees but keep having to pay more and submit more documents feel like they are being robbed.”
According to officials, only 290,000 of the estimated 450,000 migrants eligible to apply for naturalization completed the application process before the June deadline. These people, who lack sufficient documentation proving ties to the D.R., now must live in a state of uncertainty and fear of sudden expulsion from the country.
President Medina’s plans have had the biggest impact on the D.R.’s poorest migrants; many of whom came to the country in order to escape horrible levels of poverty in Haiti (which has still not recovered economically from the 2010 hurricane). Unable to pay the application fees, and faced with a complicated application process, these poor migrants now live in uncertainty and anxiety of being woken up in the middle of the night by D.R. police and forced to leave. Many mixed families, cities and villages throughout the country now find themselves living in fear of suddenly being ripped apart.
For those who have not been forcibly expelled, many have started to regard leaving the country of their own volition as their best option. According to government figures, more than 31,000 Haitians have left the country so far, with many carting their belongings over the border in the middle of the night in order to avoid police-mandated expulsion.
For now, however, it seems that pressure placed on the D.R. government by human rights organizations and the international community have been effective in stopping what many feared would be a mass exodus of migrants from the country and a ‘human rights catastrophe.’ However, according to Laurel Fletcher, a human rights professor at University of California, Berkeley, it is now more critical than ever that the United States and international community continue to maintain pressure on the Dominican Republic and scrutinize President Medina’s plans to expel undocumented Haitians from the country.
– Ana Powell
Sources: Huffington Post, The New York Times,,US News
Causes of Child Mortality in Developing Countries
According to the World Health Organization, 9.2 million children under the age of 5 die every year, many from preventable conditions that could be treated with simple healthcare interventions. The majority of these deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where the child mortality rate is 175 per 1000 (compared to 6 per 1000 in industrialized countries).
Many of the diseases that kill children younger than 5-years-old are caused by lack of access to healthcare facilities, improper hygiene and sanitation, unclean water and not enough food, and low levels of education and information. The top three causes of child mortality are:
1. Pneumonia
About 15 percent of child mortality deaths are caused by pneumonia. In 2013, pneumonia killed an estimated 935,000 children under the age of 5. Pneumonia occurs when the air sacs in the lungs, the alveoli, are filled with pus and fluid. This makes breathing difficult, and does not allow the infected person to intake enough oxygen. Those who are malnourished have weaker immune systems and are therefore at a higher risk of dying from pneumonia. Pneumonia is also more likely to affect those who have pre-existing illnesses such as HIV, who live in an area where levels of indoor air pollution are high because of cooking with biomass fuels like wood or dung, who live in crowded homes, or those who have parents who smoke. While pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics, only one third of the children infected with pneumonia get the antibiotics necessary to cure them.
2. Diarrhoeal Disease
Each year, diarrhea kills 760,000 children under the age of 5. It is caused by unclean drinking water, contaminated food or person-to-person contact and poor hygiene. Malnourished children are more susceptible to diarrhea, and children in developing countries are likely to contract at least three cases of diarrhea each year. Since diarrhea leads to malnourishment, those who are already weakened by the disease are likely to contract it again. Diarrhea then leads to severe dehydration, which leads to death. It can be treated with rehydration zinc supplements. A good method of preventing diarrhea is decreasing levels of malnutrition, therefore making children less likely to be infected with the disease.
3. Malaria
In Africa, a child dies every minute from malaria, a disease caused by parasites. These parasites are transmitted to people from mosquito bites. The symptoms are first expressed as fever, chills and vomiting, and can then progress to severe illness and death if not treated within 24 hours. Malaria is preventable through the use of mosquito nets and levels of deaths caused by malaria are decreasing. Malaria related mortality cases in Africa have fallen 54 percent since 2000.
Child mortality is also high in countries that have a high Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR). More than a third of child mortality deaths occur in the first month of life and are related to pre-term birth, birth asphyxia (suffocation), and infections. In order to reduce Child Mortality, Maternal Mortality rates also have to decrease. This can happen with increased access to healthcare facilities and increased prenatal visits.
Child mortality rates are decreasing, but there is still work to be done. Vaccinations, adequate nutrition and increasing education will all help to decrease the levels of child mortality.
– Ashrita Rau
Sources: WHO 1, WHO 2, WHO 3, WHO 4
Photo: Flickr
China’s Modern Tactics to Address Domestic Poverty
China, as the world’s most populous country with the second largest economy, faces a hushed issue on an epic scale. Nearly 70 million Chinese citizens live in severe poverty, most of them in the country’s expansive rural areas. Recently, President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of poverty reduction within China as a means for economic and social growth.
China seeks to eradicate domestic poverty by 2020. Between 1978 and 2014, the country successfully lifted 730 million impoverished citizens above the poverty line. However, there is still much work to be done—a sentiment that is at the heart of President Jinping’s domestic policy. He called for “high precision” in governmental policy.
The government is implementing time-tested tactics to address the issue, such as subsidies and work programs, but President Jinping’s policy also calls for the use of information age strategies and tools. In 2014, an internal database was complied of all Chinese citizens who are considered impoverished. The data complied included income levels, employment status and location. The government then hired top data analysts to determine, in the most empirical way possible, the causes of poverty in certain areas and the best respective solutions.
Big data has long been used by technology firms, but this marks its first major wide-scale usage in terms of humanitarian causes. The data collected will lead to the swift and accurate remedies that President Jinping seeks. China’s experiment in using numbers and analysis in addition to money and support may prove to be revolutionary and help the country reach its goal before 2020.
– Joe Kitaj
Sources: Global Times 1, Global Times 2, The Economist
Photo: Al Jazeera America
African Urbanization: Economic Boom or Crisis in Waiting?
More and more young Africans are picking up their possessions and leaving their rural villages for lives in the big city. And while this influx of migrants is creating a new wealth of potential laborers for Africa’s generally growing economy, the sheer number of new residents is causing housing prices in cities to skyrocket.
According to an article by Gant Daily, a CNN News affiliate, UN-Habitat estimates that by the year 2030, more people in developing regions will live in urban than rural environments. The UN-Habitat report specifically highlighted Sub-Saharan Africa as an affected region.
With so many young people uprooting themselves for city life, it appears to be a good sign that the African economy is growing and more jobs are consistently being created to retain the influx of immigrants. Unfortunately, most major Sub-Saharan economies are facing a serious housing shortage. Some cities, according to a survey by the Ministry of Lands and Housing, are estimated to face a housing deficit of two million units in the next 10 years.
This high demand and low supply has made city slums an even bigger issue than before. And even among nicer accommodations, living and office space is in such high demand that landlords can demand exorbitant prices.
The upwardly mobile youth are not just moving to cities seeking better jobs and improved housing conditions. As the average income of African youth increases, educated and career-focused individuals are moving to cities looking for ways to spend their disposable income. This means that, in addition to an increased demand for additional housing, there is also a demand for better infrastructure and better retail and commercial opportunities, according to an article by AFK Insider.
While the dramatic housing deficit facing rapidly burgeoning African economic centers could be a recipe for disaster, it also presents an excellent economic opportunity for investment in the real estate and development sectors.
According to AFK Insider, Africa as a whole saw a 46% increase in investment in the construction, transportation and energy projects sectors in 2014; Central Africa alone experienced a 117% increase in the value of construction projects.
Investment in constructing additional affordable housing, improving infrastructure and expanding business opportunities stimulates the economy through job expansion and the creation of a wider consumer marketplace. It is a proven trend that, as people’s quality of life improves, they spend more, thereby inject more money into the economy.
Africa’s urbanization boom may soon lead to its largest economic boom in centuries, and to a new and better quality of life for Africa’s poorest.
– Gina Lehner
Sources: Gant Daily, AFK Insider
Photo: NEO
Jordan: A Refugee Haven
The Middle East—in the north, Syria’s civil war between rebel forces trying to overthrow the dictator Bashar al-Assad rages. To the west, the perpetual conflict between Israel and Palestine continues. And with the rise of ISIS in Iraq to the east, there is no shortage of refugees.
Caught in the middle of this chaos is Jordan. The country has opened its borders for floods of refugees since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. An estimated 1.4 million Syrians have crossed into Jordan during the war, making it the highest concentration of refugees globally. In an interview with 60 Minutes last September, Jordan’s King Abdullah said that welcoming the refugees is the right thing to do: “Where else can the Syrians go? They are in dire straits.”
The situation in Jordan is a microcosm of a troubling trend. There are approximately 60 million refugees globally, averages that have not been seen since the end of World War II. Whether it is war, like in the Middle East, or a changing climate, people seek normalcy where there is food security and educational opportunity.
Unfortunately, assimilating refugees into a host country’s culture so that they may become working members of society is very costly. King Abdullah says that absorbing so many people has put a tremendous economic strain on his country. He does not know how long Jordan can continue.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has been an essential cog in the machine supplying Syrian refugees. Formed by the United Nations in the early 1960s, the program feeds 80 million people in 75 countries annually. The United States pays a third of its $4 billion annual budget.
Their largest operation ever has been at a United Nations refugee camp just inside Jordan. Housing an estimated 130,000 people, this city in the desert has become home to many.
The WFP has set up grocery stores in the camp. Instead of receiving three meals a day, each refugee gets a voucher of $29 dollars a month. This gives them the dignity of cooking for themselves, said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. In an interview with 60 Minutes last Thanksgiving, Cousin explained that this is a gesture of respect. “Many of these people had led normal, working lives,” she said. “The war took that from them.”
The organization has also been active in Syria. A portion of the 45,000 metric tons of food that is devoted to Jordanian refugee camps goes into Syria as well. Throughout the war, Assad’s forces have blockaded Syrian cities suspected of supporting the rebels. In Homs, the encirclement lasted more than 600 days before the WFP was able to negotiate a ceasefire with both sides to bring in vital food supplies.
The embattled civilians requested that the children, women and sick be evacuated before food was brought in. The WFP left Homs with 1,300 refugees and took them to the safety of Jordan. They left with a month’s worth of food supplies.
It is estimated that 6 million Syrians do not know where their next meal will come from. In the interview with 60 Minutes, an anonymous Syrian described how dire food shortages have become. His hometown just outside Damascus was sealed off. Despite the continued shelling and the exposure to nerve gas, he said hunger broke the town.
“No one thought we could starve to death in 21st century Syria,” he said. “The sad thing is that people are starving when food and aid is just minutes away, outside the blockades.” As the Syrian civil war continues and instability steadily dots every other corner of the region, Jordan has become the only option for refuge for many people.
Expanding humanitarian aid will allow Jordan and the WFP to help the millions who are still displaced today.
– Kevin Meyers
Sources: USAID, Business Insider, CBS 1, CBS 2
Photo: Flickr
The Aarhus Model: How Denmark Prevents Jihad Fighters
Since the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took root in 2012, Europe has experienced a strange phenomenon: European-raised citizens leaving to become Jihad fighters in the Middle East. According to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR), 3,000 European citizens have joined ISIS since 2012, with Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden producing the highest number of citizens per capita to join the Jihadist cause. In response to this, a variety of methods have sprung up in Europe in order to prevent European citizens from leaving to join ISIS, and to deal with fighters once they have returned home.
In many European countries, such as the United Kingdom and Belgium, suspected ISIS recruits and returned Jihad fighters are treated with scorn and sent to court (in February, 46 suspected jihadists went on trial in Belgium). In stark contrast to these approaches, Denmark has pioneered an approach known as the “Aarhus Model,” which works to reintegrate returned fighters into Danish society using a soft-handed approach which treats returned jihadists “more like rebellious teenagers […] than hostile soldiers beyond redemption.”
The Aarhus Model was pioneered in 2007 after the 7/7 London metro bombings produced alarm in Denmark about the threat of the “home-grown terrorist.” The need for a better approach to dealing with poor, immigrant communities also became evident following the backlash produced by the controversial Muhammad cartoons in 2006, which produced unprecedented tension in Danish society between native Danes and Muslims. The Copenhagen shootings this year on February 14 by a 22-year-old Palestinian-born Danish citizen also solidified concerns about the threat of homegrown terrorism in Denmark, and the need for effective methods to counter this threat.
Indeed, Denmark, a country which provides generous welfare entitlements for all of its citizens and residents (including immigrants), has produced the second highest number of Jihadist fighters in Europe, after Belgium. According to ICSR 2015’s Report, 27 per 1 million Danish citizen have gone to fight in Iraq and Syria, while 40 per 1 million Belgium citizen have also joined ISIS.
Many Danish citizens, according to Preben Bertelsen, a professor of psychology at the University of Aarhus, have expressed confusion over why Denmark has produced such a high percentage of Jihadist fighters, expressing sentiments like “Why do they hate Denmark so much when we have given them so many opportunities?” But, according to Jacob Bundsgaard, the mayor of Aarhus, “it is obviously in part because we have failed […] in making sure that these people are well integrated into Danish society.”
Recognizing that the need to join ISIS stems from feelings of exclusion in Danish society, the Aarhus model aims first and foremost at helping radicalized youth to feel included. This includes making sure that immigrant youths—many of whom live in the poorest neighborhoods in Denmark and may feel socially excluded from their other Danish peers—have a vast network of help that they can depend upon. Individual counseling is provided for people who intend to travel to Syria or Iraq, with mentors (many of whom are returned, deradicalized fighters themselves) assigned to specific cases. Parents of at-risk children are also required to take part in self-help groups, in order to produce a network of elders that can disillusion radical youth with the ISIS dream. For returned fighters, (so long as they are found innocent of any war crimes) individuals are also offered counseling and the chance to become mentors for radicalized Danish citizens intending to leave the country to fight.
According to one young man’s testimony of his experience with the Aarhus model, after he had become increasingly radicalized following a family vacation to Mecca, the police contacted his family and had him brought into the station. Instead of punishing him, however, he exclaimed that the police “offered him a cup of coffee” and told him they would be assigning him a mentor who better understood his frustrations than they did. The young man, whose name was Ahmed, was successfully dissuaded from joining ISIS, and has since graduated from a Danish University and gotten married.
In addition to Aarhus, Copenhagen, other Scandinavian countries, and the Netherlands have since either adopted the Aarhus Model, or have adopted models that are largely based on the Aarhus example. Just days after the Copenhagen shootings on February 20, President Barack Obama also held a conference entitled “The White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism,” in which Bundsgaard, the mayor of Aarhus, was invited to share insight into his city’s innovative approach to fighting terrorism.
While the months since the Copenhagen shootings have produced concern over the supposed success of the model, police commissioner Jørgen Illum, based in Aarhus, has claimed that now, more than ever, it is important to make efforts to include radicalized youths and returned fighters into Danish society. Doing so, according to proponents of the Aarhus Model, is the best way to help prevent immigrant teenagers, who live in the poorest and most marginalized segments of Danish society, from turning to ISIS to give themselves a sense of inclusion, and purpose.
Indeed, by many accounts, the Aarhus Model is not only an innovative approach to tackling jihadism, but a successful one that has produced encouraging downward trends in the number of Danish citizens leaving the country to fight.
While thirty Danish citizens traveled to Syria in 2013, only two have traveled to Syria in the past year, while only one traveled in 2015.
– Ana Powell
Sources: BBC, The Guardian, Newsweek, The Washington Institute
Photo: Newsweek
Gwyneth Paltrow Reflects on Her Experience with Hunger
In April 2015, actress Gwyneth Paltrow accepted the #FoodBankNYCChallenge, which required her to live on a food budget of $29 for one week. Now she reflects on her experience with hunger and the challenge.
Celebrity chef and founder of the challenge, Mario Batali, says, “For one week, walk in someone else’s shoes. Knowledge is power, and by truly understanding what our friends and neighbors are going through, we will be better equipped to find solutions.”
Concerned with the cuts Congress was making to food stamps, Batali sought to encourage people around the United States to experience the difficulty of living on a miniscule allowance.
In addition to nominating Gwyneth Paltrow, he nominated celebrities Sting and Deborah Harry, neither of which participated but donated to the World Food Bank.
Soon after accepting the challenge, Paltrow snapped a picture of her purchases for the week. The caption read, “This is what $29 gets you at the grocery store—what families on SNAP (food stamps) have to live on for a week.” The picture showed brown rice, black beans, a carton of eggs and vegetables.
Her food choices received criticism, especially because the items did not offer the average person’s weekly worth of calories. However, her picture showed how difficult it is to eat healthy while living on food stamps.
Chief marketing and communications officer for the Food Bank of New York City, Silvia Davi, says, “Serving fresh produce is a very big part of what our program offers to families. What we distribute on a regular basis is fresh produce, a lot of the things that were in her image and in her photo.”
Paltrow admits that within four days she quit the challenge and ate chicken and fresh vegetables.
Reflecting on her four-day experience with hunger, Paltrow says, “My perspective has been forever altered by how difficult it was to eat wholesome, nutritious food on that budget, even for just a few days—a challenge that 47 million Americans face every day, week, and year.”
By walking in the shoes of the millions who survive on food stamps, Paltrow is grateful that she can afford to feed herself and her children healthy food.
She says, “I know hunger doesn’t always touch us all directly—but it does touch us all indirectly.”
Most importantly, Paltrow recognizes that hunger impacts millions of people around the world. She declares, “Let’s all do what we can to make this a basic human right and not a privilege.”
In addition to participating in the challenge, Paltrow contributed $75,000 to the Food Bank of New York City.
– Kelsey Parrotte
Sources: Daily News, Upstart Business Journal, Huffington Post, E News, Food Bank for New York City, The Wrap
Photo: ABC Today
Addiction and Poverty Connected
It is common knowledge that poverty and substance abuse tend to exist in tandem. The direction of causation is unclear, but the link between addiction and poverty is certainly to be considered.
A study by the National Bureau for Economic Research studied the relationship between poverty and drug abuse, specifically marijuana and cocaine. The study found that there was a positive relationship between poverty and substance abuse, even when controlling for various familial factors—implying that substance abuse may even be a casual factor of poverty. A limitation of the study was that it could not account for the drug usage of the homeless and others, which further strengthened the case that drug usage may be a causal factor of poverty.
And yet, it still isn’t that simple. The study had other limitations. The drug usage was self-reported, the population studied was highly biased (mostly poor already), and assumptions on preferences and educational effects (among others) could not be proved. Nonetheless, it seems that there is a definitive relationship between drugs and poverty, and perhaps even some causal effect.
Poverty and Addition: Directly or Inversely Related?
But could the causal effect also run the other way? Quite possibly. A study from Duke University found that economically stressed children later in life experienced higher rates of tobacco usage (but not binge drinking or marijuana). The researchers attributed this effect to poverty’s impact on self-control. Although the study did not find increases in marijuana usage or other drugs, the causal chain between poverty and eventual drug usage was established.
Although evidence seems to suggest that, to some degree, drug usage can “cause” poverty, extending this logic to an extreme would be absurd. Substance abuse is not the sole driving force behind the worldwide phenomena of poverty; people born into poverty cannot have been driven to poverty by drug usage. There must be more to explain the relationship that clearly exists.
Another research paper suggests that literacy, education, poverty, income equality and unemployment are factors that lead to drug abuse, further complicating the relationship.
Conflicting papers do lead to an obvious but important point. Poverty and addiction are interlinked. Conjoined at the hip, both issues feed off each other and their effects strengthen their respective feedback loops. Poverty leads to mental states which can lead to drug abuse which leads to addiction, which begets crime, which leads to worse employment prospects. A flow diagram to show the effects and directions that these two conditions could lead to would be a huge circular mess, with arrows flying in all directions.
The question then becomes, how does a government fight poverty or substance abuse? Based on existing evidence, perhaps the best answer is that one problem cannot be adequately addressed without also attending to the other.
– Martin Yim
Sources: NBER, Duke Medicine, International Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences
Photo: The Province
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3 Lessons Learned about Eye Care in Rwanda
Rwanda is one African country poised to dramatically improve visual healthcare for its citizens. Since the 1990s, it has improved its mortality rate caused by infectious diseases, doubled its life expectancy and experienced significant economic development. Rwanda created a national vision plan in 2002 when it signed the World Health Organization’s VISION 2020 initiative. The aim of the initiative is to eradicate preventable and treatable blindness by raising awareness, securing resources and facilitating the planning and implementation of the initiative.
Of the 285 million people in the world who are visually impaired, 87% live in low- and middle-income areas. With 32,700 per million people living with visual impairments, Africa is one of those areas. Still, almost 80% of visual impairments—that often lead to blindness if untreated, such as cataracts, glaucoma, trachoma as well as refractive error (myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia and astigmatism)—can be prevented or treated. If not, blindness throughout the world will double by 2020, and the developing countries will shoulder the burden, according to WHO.
Visual impairments reduce the quality of life and people’s productivity. Eye care is part of a comprehensive primary healthcare plan that helps to reduce injuries, and improve educational outcomes and access to employment opportunities. All these improvements contribute to economic growth and development.
Recently, WHO examined the national plan for eye care in Rwanda, focusing on progress made, as well as current and future needs. The result was a reflection of three lessons learned.
First Lesson: A single national plan optimizes the provision of eye care.
The Ministry of Health coordinates all partners’ efforts to align with the national vision plan. The Ministry makes certain that providers complement each other’s resources and strengths. International nonprofit partners coordinate with each other and private eye care clinics and hospitals to ensure accessibility to a variety of services across the country.
Some of the work that the nonprofit partners provide is funding for disease burden studies, building eye care clinics, supporting scholarships to train eye care specialists and standardizing the eye care curriculum for nurses.
Examples of coordination of services include:
Second Lesson: Better access to primary eye care and vision insurance has increased the demand for more advanced eye care at the secondary and tertiary levels.
Most of the population is currently enrolled in the Rwanda Community Based Health Insurance Policy set up in 2010. This policy provides affordable eye care and reimbursement for consumable products.
As Rwandans benefit from accessible primary eye care through insurance, awareness of further eye care needs to grow. Now, there are more instances of cataract operations and treatment for glaucoma.
Treatment for eye diseases, such as trachoma, has risen dramatically in the last five years. In 2009, treatment for eye diseases was not among the top ten reasons for seeking eye care. In 2014, it was the second leading cause of treatment.
Third Lesson: A comprehensive strategy, one that includes prevention of eye disease and a supply chain of glasses and lenses, is still needed.
Rural areas are still underserved. Almost 50% of the population lives in rural areas of poverty and are unable to afford private eye care services. In any case, rural areas still do not have adequate eye care services as most eye care resources are situated in the capital of Kigali. Another startling fact is that for the 10.5 million people in Rwanda, there are only 18 ophthalmologists and most of them live in the capital.
Task shifting is one solution to the lack of trained professionals through the Rwandan three-year ophthalmic technician training course, but more trained eye care professionals will be needed.
The demand for eye care services may be increasing not only due to more awareness and accessibility to services but also due to an aging population, as the life expectancy doubled since the 1990s to age 63. Among the eye problems associated with age is presbyopia, which usually requires prescription lenses such as bifocals.
WHO feels confident that these lessons learned will provide a basis to overcome barriers to progress and continue to improve the planning, implementation and provision of services to meet the eye care needs of the people of Rwanda.
– Janet Quinn
Sources: WHO 1, WHO 2, WHO 3, Vision for a Nation, CBM, Hollows
Photo: The Fred Hollows Foundation
Ferries Between Cuba and Florida Set to Begin
For the first time in half a century, diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S. are being restored. Ferry operators in Florida are quickly receiving the approved licenses to begin offering transit to and from Havana. It is estimated that as early as this coming fall, the once popular U.S. travel destination will no longer be off limits for tourists after more than half a century.
During this time, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have attempted to brave the 90-mile ocean journey between Cuba and Florida. In lieu of proper aquatic vessels, many of these migration attempts have been made on makeshift rafts and old converted cars.
Since the renewing diplomatic discussions, there has once again been a recent surge of Cubans attempting to make the voyage to the U.S. This past year alone, the U.S. Coast Guard detained almost 4,000 Cubans in the waters off the coast of Florida. In fact, during the past two years, the number of Cubans attempting the journey has doubled.
In 1965, Fidel Castro opened the port of Camarioca, which allowed almost 3,000 Cubans to flee, before he suddenly announced its closure and revisited restrictions. Once more in 1980, Castro opened the port of Mariel, and a mass exodus of over 125,000 Cubans took their chances in the open water.
In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, a severe economic downfall in Cuba happened. This resulted in hundreds of thousands fleeing the country and making the perilous sea journey. This influx of immigrants and detainees caused President Clinton to amend the Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) in 1994.
The revisions effectively limited asylum to refugees who were not intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard. Refugees who made it to dry land were allowed to stay; all others were detained and sent back to Cuba. This distinction became known as the “wet foot-dry foot” policy.
In 2013, Cuba altered its own travel policy, allowing Cubans to travel and work abroad for up to two years without losing their citizenship. While this policy provided leeway, it did not provide transportation due to the travel ban, and Cubans were also subject to the “wet foot-dry foot” policy in the U.S.
For a long time, hopeful refugees had been left with few options: brave the seas themselves in homemade water crafts or rely upon human smuggling networks who charge upwards of US$10,000. Since Cuba’s annual GDP is approximately US$6,000, the former option proved to be the most common. Cubans had to wait for months to save enough money to buy parts and to build their own makeshift water crafts.
Like migrants from many poor countries, Cubans have been fleeing their country in efforts to find economic opportunities and escape Communist oppression. Many also have been seeking to provide for their families who still reside in Cuba. These severe risks that come with the journey combined with the adverse conditions clearly state the desperation of Cuban citizens. These ferry services offered are symbolic of the new era of cooperation and could signal the end to a tragic side effect of the 50-year standoff.
Renewed relations between the two nations will provide Americans a chance to visit Cuba, but, more importantly, desperate Cubans will have the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families. One-way tickets will be starting at around US$150. The combination of the relatively inexpensive ticket price coupled with Cuba’s reformed travel policy provides desperate Cubans better chances of economic opportunity.
– The Borgen Project
Sources: Daily Signal, BBC, Miami Herald, The New York Times
Photo: Tampa Bay Times