Combating poverty drives innovation. In order to reduce the suffering from poverty, countries investigate cost effective methods of preventing poverty and reducing the negative effects of poverty, such as disease or malnutrition. Confronting public health concerns, like malaria, in developing countries inspires scientific innovations to end the problem in an efficient yet inexpensive way. In this way, controlling malaria outbreaks improves health care worldwide.
Malaria is preventable and treatable, yet the disease killed over 600,000 people in 2012. The Center for Disease Control reported that malaria outbreaks are the leading cause of death in many developing countries and disproportionately affects young children, pregnant women and travelers.
Malaria is both a symptom and cause of poverty. Impoverished people struggle to take preventative measures against malaria, and if individuals contract malaria, the cost of treatment and the inability to work burden them. Furthermore, countries must create and manage health facilities and treatments. The Center for Disease Control estimated the direct cost at $12 billion per year. This creates a cycle of poverty in which both people and nations are unable to escape.
Some of the solutions, though, destroy too many mosquitoes, which affects the environment. Many predators depend on mosquitoes as their primary food source, so the ecological effect of eliminating all mosquitoes would be significant.
Because of this, researchers are investigating effective preventive measures to target a specific type of mosquito. The Economist reports that Dr. Nikolai Windbichler and Dr. Andrea Crisanti found a method of killing only the mosquitoes of the Anopheles genus, or the ones that carry malaria. By ensuring that the mosquitoes no longer produce female mosquitoes, Dr. Windbichler and Dr. Crisanti ensure that the mosquitoes cannot reproduce or draw blood and spread the malaria parasite.
The researchers designed a protein called endonuclease, which erodes the X chromosome of the mosquitoes. Producing female offspring requires two X chromosomes, and the egg only holds X chromosomes. As a result, if the protein limits the production of X chromosomes in male mosquitoes, it will limit the amount of female mosquitoes produced. A male dominated species of mosquitoes would lower the population as a whole and limit the transmission of malaria.
However, the Economist notes that natural selection will eventually allow the mosquitoes to evolve past the protein, so this solution depends on the elimination of the parasite within the species.
Ecologist Phil Lounibos expresses some skepticism of this type of solution. He believes that eliminating or decreasing the population of one species will not affect the spread of the disease. In a study he led, multiple genus of mosquitoes would cross inseminate and spread the parasite to other types of mosquitoes.
Stalling the disease, though, could allow countries to divert funds from malaria treatment to increasing economic productivity and improving the lives of the country’s impoverished. Developing new methods of malaria control presents exciting possibilities for controlling and combating malaria.
Between 2000 and 2012, malaria interventions saved over 3 million lives, and scientific innovation could drastically increase this number.
– Tara Wilson
Sources: The Economist, Center for Disease Control, WHO, Nature
Photo: The Health Site
SA Fly Farms Help Protein Production
Fly larvae (or maggots, as they are so affectionately called) are considered some of the most disgusting forms of life on the planet today. Nevertheless, they are instrumental for fish and animal life, and are therefore important to all humans, in some way. Or at least, that’s the theory behind AgriProtein, a startup business based in Stellenbosch, South Africa that’s looking to create protein feed from an army of maggots.
The start up recently began building the world’s largest commercial fly farm near Cape Town this week, and the project will house over 8.5 billion flies in the coming years to produce dozens of metric tons of protein meal, oils and fertilizer. The business capitalizes on one of nature’s most economical bottom feeders, and hopes the venture will lead to a more sustainable system of protein production and waste recycling.
But how does the business “harvest” the money maggots? The business extracts protein feed, extruded oil and fertilizer from the engorged larvae in a process (and industry) they call nutrient recycling. The idea is simple: you gather a large group of flies, collect their eggs (leaving three to four percent of the eggs to hatch to maintain the population of the flies), put them in a pile, and let them eat to their hearts’ (or whatever organ they use) content.
The startup feeds fly larvae unwanted waste from animal byproducts, food scraps and manure (basically anything you can think of that’s absolutely revolting and useless) to produce metric tons of wet, engorged larvae—insects the business can use to produce a variety of nutrient stuffs. Jason Drew, a member of the startup’s executive team, says AgriProtein plans to convert 110 metric tons of waste per day to 17 metric tons of larvae by October 2014. “It’s about cleaning up waste locally and making the food chain sustainable,” Drew Said.
This past May, the business “broke ground” on its first industrial scale factory and was even awarded the $100,000 Innovation Prize for Africa, a prize sponsored by the United Nations and the African Innovation Foundation. The award continues a recent stretch of international partnerships as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the German government and the University of Stellenbosch, a premier South African research institution, partnered with the budding startup.
Currently, AgriProtein has received much of its startup capital from international donors, and has attracted the interest of 43 different countries. Drew remains optimistic that the business will see tremendous success in the coming years, and cites returns of over 20% on initial investments.
With plans to build 38 fly farms, AgriProtein has ambitious goals to revolutionize global agriculture. Although the start-up is in its nascence, its inventive approach to the waste-loving insects shows promise for South Africa and the world over. It has the potential to provide animal feed at a lower cost (thereby increasing the ability of farmers worldwide to increase food production and reduce food insecurity) and offer a more sustainable replacement for traditional animal feed that can reduce global waste.
– Joseph McAdams
Sources: Agriprotein 1, Agriprotein 2, RawStory, The Guardian, Pub, Bloomberg
Photo: Rawstory.com
Compulsory Education in Venezuela
Like the educational system in the United States, the Venezuelan Ministry of Education mandates a certain number of years of formal schooling. In Venezuela, the government expects children to attend nine years of either public or private education. The results of such mandates have proved successful, as Venezuela has one of the most successful educational systems in South America.
Students in Venezuela attend six years of primary school, beginning in first grade and ending in sixth grade. After the first six years, students move on to a secondary middle education that lasts from seventh to ninth grade. These years make up the nine government mandated years of education.
Public, free education is available to all Venezuelan children, and is very popular at the primary level. More than 92 percent of Venezuelan children under the age of 11 attend school. Public education continues at all levels in Venezuela, including tertiary education. Private education is also an option, but it is more popular for secondary middle education or education beyond or before the compulsory years than it is at the primary level. About 25 percent of students attend private schools to complete secondary education in Venezuela.
After ninth grade, students have the option of continuing on to secondary diversified education. This level is much like the high school level of education in the United States, but the diversified element sets it apart. In Venezuela, pupils graduating from the secondary middle education who wish to further their schooling must choose between sciences and the humanities. Their choice defines the subjects that they will study during the two years of secondary diversified education.
The number of students that choose to continue with diversified education is a testament to the success of nine years of compulsory education. Because the government mandates years of formal school, education in Venezuela is at the forefront of many citizens’ minds. The desire to further the knowledge acquired for nine years is greater than it might be in a country that does not regulate schooling as much.
Many parents also choose to send their young children to school before they enter first grade. Preschools are very popular in Venezuela and help children acquire necessary social skills. These children can be at an advantage because they can focus on the information learned in classes without having to get used to a classroom setting.
Tertiary education, the equivalent to the American university or college level, is available to anyone wishing to pursue higher education in Venezuela. The Central University of Venezuela is just one of the almost 100 tertiary institutions in the country. There are approximately one million students enrolled for free at these institutions.
Another testament to the success of compulsory education in Venezuela is the country’s literary rate. 95 percent of citizens aged 15 years or older know how to read and write. This number is higher than all three neighboring countries’ rates. Columbia is a close second place at 94 percent while Brazil and Guyana have 90 and 85 percent literacy rates, respectively.
The educational system in Venezuela has not always been so successful. The number of students in primary schools has increased by more than seven million pupils since 1998. Additionally, the percentage of students that chose to pursue academics at the tertiary level rose from 28 to 78 in just one decade.
Former president Hugo Chávez made significant changes to the laws regarding education in Venezuela that account for this drastic leap in attendance rates. His reforms led to the creation of 13 Venezuelan universities and more accessible primary and secondary education in rural areas. By making education more accessible, the Ministry of Education could guarantee public schooling to all children and, therefore, feasibly mandate nine years of education.
Though education in Venezuela still needs more funding from the national budget, its policies are strong. The statistics regarding literacy and attendance rates from the last 15 years prove that compulsory education is beneficial to country’s educational system.
— Emily Walthouse
Sources: WENR, ClassBase, Axis of Logic, World Bank
Photo: Flickr
U.S. Threatens to Pull Aid from Afghanistan
Preliminary results of the Afghan election, reported by the Afghan Independent Election Commission on Monday July 7, threaten to create further chaos in the country. The situation prompted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to warn on Tuesday that “Any action to take power by extralegal means will cost Afghanistan the financial and security support of the U.S. and the international community.”
The results declared Ashraf Ghani in the lead of his opponent Abdullah Abdullah, sparking demonstrations from both parties claiming the elections to be marred by fraud. Repeated statements from election officials that the results are not final have done little to quench the protests.
Mr. Abdullah’s camp has spent the days since the reporting of the preliminary results building support for a parallel government. Claims that the election was engineered by Mr. Ghani, the election officials and current President Hamid Karzai have been made by allies of Mr. Abdullah.
“From this moment on, we announce our own legitimate government led by Abdullah Abdullah,” writes Atta Mohammed Noor, governor of Balkh Province, on Facebook.
Mr. Abdullah himself has urged his supporters to wait before taking action. He addressed a gathering of his leading supporters on Tuesday: “We are the winner of this round of elections without any doubt. I ask you to give me a few days to consult and speak.” This speech was delivered after a portrait of Hamid Karzai was torn down by his supporters while they cried: “Death to Karzai.”
The preliminary results threatens to inflame festering ethnic tensions. Mr. Ghani and many of his supporters are Pashtun, the majority-ethnic group that has historically been in power. In contrast, Mr. Abdullah derives his support from the Tajik ethnic group, which has been historically marginalized. Mr. Abdullah and his supporters feel they may never see political power, unless they take it by force.
Financial Times quotes Kate Clark, a senior analyst at the Afghanistan Analyst Network: “the election has thrown up ‘a lot of combustible material’ that both candidates had stopped just short of lighting.”
President Obama has personally phoned both candidates, telling them explicitly that violence or illegal action will cause the U.S. to withdraw all aid from Afghanistan. While both President Obama and Secretary Kerry have voiced their support for a thorough election audit, the threat of rescinding support makes clear the U.S.’s position on any action taken by either side outside the limits of the law.
The U.S. has been a strong financial and security backer for the Afghan government. The United States Agency for International Development is one of the agencies working to improve conditions in Afghanistan. In aggregate, since 2002, USAID has spent $13 billion on programs in the country. Economic growth has stabilized at nine percent per year, eight million children are enrolled in school—including 2.9 million girls—and 60 percent of the population lives within access of health services, since the fall of the Taliban.
U.S. aid is vital to the survival of a country where 50 percent of the population lives in poverty and 7.5 million are food insecure.
“America does have a stake in Afghanistan—and Afghanistan still needs America,” Kate Clark sums up the situation.
— Julianne O’Connor
Sources: First Post, The New York Times, Financial Times
Photo: Afghanistan Study Group
Somali Food Crisis to Intensify
The United States government recently acknowledged the presence of over 100 military advisors who have been secretly operating in Somalia since 2007. While they are not engaged in combat missions, they have routinely assisted the Somali government by providing their tactical expertise in the Somali effort to combat Islamist militants. Those militants comprise al Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked terrorist organization which most notably claimed responsibility for the September 2013 attack on a mall in Nairobi, Kenya which resulted in 67 deaths.
The African Union Mission in Somalia currently has 22,000 troops stationed in Somalia from various African countries and the United States has stated its intent to aid soldiers of the Somali National Army. However, Somalia is far from a stable country. On July 8 al Shabaab militants attacked Somali’s presidential palace in Mogadishu. They used a car bomb to blast open the gates and then proceeded onto the grounds. Their attack was eventually thwarted by Somali and AMISOM troops but the threat of violence in the nation’s capital still looms.
Despite the various armed conflicts taking place throughout the country, Somalia is faced with another pressing issue: the Somali food crisis. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recently disclosed the possibility of a worsening food crisis in Somalia. This crisis would be the result of a predicted water shortage following a lackluster rain season earlier this year, rising food prices in urban areas and dwindling humanitarian assistance in the country.
The food agency also acknowledged the presence of acute malnutrition in Mogadishu which requires intensified humanitarian aid over the coming months. The displaced populace in areas like Mogadishu where armed violence has become regular has served to exacerbate the food crisis. While it is clear that the Somali government is finally receiving the military aid it needs, the food aid it also requires has not yet occurred.
— Taylor Dow
Sources: HORSEED Media, Daily Times, Fox news, CNN, Reuters
Photo: World Vision
10 Facts About Global Health
Global health issues are being addressed now more than ever, here is a list of 10 facts about global health that show how far the world has come and how much more progress needs to be made.
1.
Around the world, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death. They account for approximately 30 percent of all deaths. At least 80 percent of these deaths that occur prematurely could be prevented by adhering to a healthy diet, getting regular physical activity and avoiding use of tobacco products.
2.
Improving sanitation, water supply, personal hygiene and management of water resources could prevent nearly 10 percent of diseases and 6.3 percent of all deaths around the world.
3.
Currently, approximately 6.6 million children under the age of 5 die annually. By the year 2025, it is estimated that there will still be five million deaths among this age group. Ninety-seven percent of these deaths will occur in developing countries, and most will be a result of infectious diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea or malnutrition.
4.
Sixty-five percent of people around the world live in a country where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight.
5.
It is estimated that 39.5 million people worldwide are living with HIV or AIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about 70 percent of the cases.
6.
There are about 200 million women around the world who do not have access to effective family planning methods, like reproductive information and care services, despite the desire to use these resources. If these resources can be more widely accessed, unplanned pregnancy rates would drop, unsafe abortions would become less frequent and maternal and infant deaths would be reduced significantly.
7.
Preterm birth, birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is the most common cause of infant mortality globally. Fifteen million babies are born preterm every year and more than one million of them will die.
8.
The global average life expectancy has increased significantly over the past 20 years. The overall average is now 70 years; in low-income countries it is 62 and in high-income countries it is 79.
9.
Eight hundred women die everyday due to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.
10.
The global population today is made up of 613 million children under age five, 1.7 billion children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 19, 3.1 billion adults between the ages of 20 and 64, and 390 million elderly over the age of 65.
— Hannah Cleveland
Sources: WHO 1, WHO 2, Facing the Future, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Photo: WHOIAA
Rats Detecting Tuberculosis
Rats are commonly thought to carry disease, but what if they diagnosed disease instead? In fact, they do. Contrary to popular belief, rats are highly intelligent creatures that can be trained to sniff out specific odors with incredible accuracy. They have already been used in warzones to sniff out landmines; now, a research center in Tanzania has rats detecting tuberculosis in patients’ saliva.
The giant rats being trained are especially successful at distinguishing an affected person’s saliva because they can smell “in stereo,” meaning that with one sniff they can differentiate two different odors. One out of every 100 rat genes is dedicated to their olfactory abilities – in humans, only one of every 1000 genes has to do with our capacity to smell. Rats’ superior noses allow them to diagnose a TB patient in only seven minutes. Diagnosis by human physicians can take all day.
Working to make TB diagnosis easier and more accurate is especially important for low- and middle-income countries, where 95 percent of all TB-related deaths occur. If caught early, TB can be treated with a course of antibiotics. Because TB is a bacterial disease, its symptoms may not present for long periods of time; the bacteria, which are spread through the air when affected individuals cough or sneeze, can lie dormant in the body before they begin to cause more severe symptoms. Because rats use the smell of the bacteria rather than a patient’s symptoms to diagnose TB, they can diagnose patients much earlier than doctors can.
Though the equipment and expertise necessary to train these rats can be somewhat expensive, this method has the potential to save over a million lives and prevent illness in nearly nine million more every year. Foreign aid could be useful in providing trained rats to health centers in developing countries or assisting in the training of rats abroad.
Seeing rats as agents of health rather than disease is the first step to eliminating TB altogether. By bringing these intelligent animals into our health centers and our hearts, we can prevent the transmission of one of the world’s deadliest diseases.
– Elise L. Riley
Sources: World Health Organization, BBC
Photo: Flickr
The Hard Knock Life of Syrian Children
Try to imagine back to when you were in elementary school. Most children are happy living without major troubles, or at least children in the United States. Many do not have much to worry about. Most American children are going to school and are living stress-free lives. They are enjoying themselves, playing outside with their friends or playing video games, but the same could not be said for the children of Syria.
Millions on children have been affected by the conflict going on Syria for past three years, 6.5 million, to be exact. Over 2.8 million children are no longer attending school and more then one million are refugees in nearby countries. They no longer live their normal stress-free lives; they do not have “normal” childhoods.
Many Syrian children have endured horrible health issues due to poor sanitation and many are also malnourished. Many also face diseases such as measles and polio due to lack of proper immunizations.
Parents often turn to marrying their daughters off at early ages, as early as 13 years old, so that they do not get molested. Syrian refugee children are more vulnerable to rape and other acts of sexual violence.
In Syria, three million children no longer attend school, mostly because their schools have been destroyed, teachers have left and families are now using schools as homes. Other children quit school to work so that they could help make income to support their families.
The Lebanese government has been trying to help by setting up schools for child refugees but there have been problems such as overcrowding, language barriers and cost of transportation.
UNICEF has been helping since day one and partnering up with others to help. The organization has also immunized more than 20 million children when there was a polio breakout, supplied safe drinking water and provided psychological support.
Save The Children is another organization that has been getting involved and helping child refugees. Anyone could help through UNICEF or Save the Children. Just remember that you would not your children having to go through such horrible living conditions on a day-to-day basis.
– Priscilla Rodarte
Sources: Save the Children, World Vision, UNICEF
Photo: World Vision
Controlling Malaria Outbreaks
Combating poverty drives innovation. In order to reduce the suffering from poverty, countries investigate cost effective methods of preventing poverty and reducing the negative effects of poverty, such as disease or malnutrition. Confronting public health concerns, like malaria, in developing countries inspires scientific innovations to end the problem in an efficient yet inexpensive way. In this way, controlling malaria outbreaks improves health care worldwide.
Malaria is preventable and treatable, yet the disease killed over 600,000 people in 2012. The Center for Disease Control reported that malaria outbreaks are the leading cause of death in many developing countries and disproportionately affects young children, pregnant women and travelers.
Malaria is both a symptom and cause of poverty. Impoverished people struggle to take preventative measures against malaria, and if individuals contract malaria, the cost of treatment and the inability to work burden them. Furthermore, countries must create and manage health facilities and treatments. The Center for Disease Control estimated the direct cost at $12 billion per year. This creates a cycle of poverty in which both people and nations are unable to escape.
Some of the solutions, though, destroy too many mosquitoes, which affects the environment. Many predators depend on mosquitoes as their primary food source, so the ecological effect of eliminating all mosquitoes would be significant.
Because of this, researchers are investigating effective preventive measures to target a specific type of mosquito. The Economist reports that Dr. Nikolai Windbichler and Dr. Andrea Crisanti found a method of killing only the mosquitoes of the Anopheles genus, or the ones that carry malaria. By ensuring that the mosquitoes no longer produce female mosquitoes, Dr. Windbichler and Dr. Crisanti ensure that the mosquitoes cannot reproduce or draw blood and spread the malaria parasite.
The researchers designed a protein called endonuclease, which erodes the X chromosome of the mosquitoes. Producing female offspring requires two X chromosomes, and the egg only holds X chromosomes. As a result, if the protein limits the production of X chromosomes in male mosquitoes, it will limit the amount of female mosquitoes produced. A male dominated species of mosquitoes would lower the population as a whole and limit the transmission of malaria.
However, the Economist notes that natural selection will eventually allow the mosquitoes to evolve past the protein, so this solution depends on the elimination of the parasite within the species.
Ecologist Phil Lounibos expresses some skepticism of this type of solution. He believes that eliminating or decreasing the population of one species will not affect the spread of the disease. In a study he led, multiple genus of mosquitoes would cross inseminate and spread the parasite to other types of mosquitoes.
Stalling the disease, though, could allow countries to divert funds from malaria treatment to increasing economic productivity and improving the lives of the country’s impoverished. Developing new methods of malaria control presents exciting possibilities for controlling and combating malaria.
Between 2000 and 2012, malaria interventions saved over 3 million lives, and scientific innovation could drastically increase this number.
– Tara Wilson
Sources: The Economist, Center for Disease Control, WHO, Nature
Photo: The Health Site
Five of the Most Common Killer Diseases
The Global Post has drawn up a list of the world’s biggest killers by using information from the World Health Organization. Below are a list of some of our most common killer diseases per country.
5. Cirrhosis of the Liver
Caused by excessive drinking, the disease is unique to Mexico as the only place in the world where it is the primary cause of death. Yet the disease is nothing to roll your eyes at: caused by healthy liver tissue being replaced by scar tissue, the scar tissue blocks the flow of blood, nutrients and other important proteins through the liver. Cirrhosis of the liver is the 12th leading cause of death by disease in the world — except for in Mexico, where it’s number one.
4. Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is often thought of as a disease of the past, but it is still affecting millions of people around the world. In fact, it’s on the rise — the World Health Organization reports around 500,000 new TB cases each year, and it is second only to AIDS as an infectious killer worldwide. A bacterial infection that can spread through the lymph nodes and blood stream to any other part of the body, TB is the leading cause of death in areas such as Pakistan and North and South Africa.
3. HIV/AIDS
Despite the enormous progress made at slowing down the spread of HIV/AIDS, it is still the leading cause of death throughout most of Africa. Just two years ago, around 25 million people — roughly 70 percent of the global total — were living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, and an estimated 1.6 million new HIV infections and 1.2-million AIDS related deaths were reported that same year. In areas such as South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, the percentage of HIV-prevalence is as high as 26.5 percent.
2. Cancer
It would be hard to find someone not somehow directly affected by cancer. As the second-leading cause of death in the world, cancer has certainly taken its toll — especially in areas such as France, the Iberian peninsula, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark, where cancer (primarily lung and throat) is the leading cause of death. Classified as the rapid growth of cells, there are more than 100 types of cancer that we currently know about.
1. Heart Disease
It’s no surprise that heart disease tops the list as the world’s deadliest killer, but it is a little shocking to see the massive list of countries where heart disease outranks all other diseases. These countries include Canada, the United States, Russia, Australia, most of South America and part of Africa, to name a few. From first- to third-world countries, heart disease continues to remain the deadliest disease in the world.
– Nick Magnanti
Sources: International Business Times, WebMD 1, WebMD 2, The New York Times, Medical News Today, AVERT, CDC
Photo: Diseases-Causes-Cure blog
Germany Battles Over Minimum Wage Law
Ending months of negotiations, Germany’s legislature voted on a minimum wage law mandating $11.61 an hour. The vote passed despite opposition from both trade unions and businesses calling out the program’s potential flaws.
The vote is considered to be a piece of landmark legislation for Germany, as in the past wages were set via agreements between employers and employees. Before this vote, Germany was one of a group of seven countries in the European Union who did not have a national minimum wage.
Opponents of the legislation, however, are outraged over some changes to the legislation in the eleventh-hour before the vote. Citizens under the age of 18 do not fall under the protection of the new law. Opponents claim that having a minimum wage would prevent younger citizens from being able to hold an apprenticeship.
For the first six months after the law is enacted, those who have been without employment for a long period of time will also fail to be covered by the law. Supporters of this restriction claim that if the long-term unemployed were paid $11.61 from the point of the law’s enactment, it would just make it more difficult for the unemployed to find jobs.
Compulsory work placement, something which mainly affects students, will also not be covered by the new minimum wage law, along with newspaper publishers for two years.
According to the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers, around 160,000 newspaper sellers will be affected by the lack of pay and the total number of people who won’t be covered by the new law is approximately 3 million.
There are around 7.1 million people in part-time employment in Germany, according to a 2012 report. The report also stated that around 4.8 million people were unemployed.
“These exemptions hit the most vulnerable in the labor market, of all people,” said Frank Bsirske, the head of the white-collar trade union Ver.di. “Millions of people will continue to be exposed to the arbitrariness of starvation wages.”
The bill has also drawn criticism from the European Union executive body. According to László Andor, the European Social Affairs Commissioner, the European Commission requires that countries who are members of the E.U. have a minimum wage that includes everyone in order to prevent citizens from falling into poverty even though they may be employed.
German economists and lobbyists for many of Germany’s businesses have argued against the minimum wage bill as well; stating that a rise in the minimum wage may run the risk of driving prices up for consumers and could potentially end thousands of jobs in the weaker regions of Germany.
Supporter of the bill argue, however, that having a period of time to allow businesses to adapt is necessary.
“This has dominated the political debate in our country for ten years,” said Labor Minister Andrea Nahles, one of the supporters for the bill. “It’s coming now and that’s reason to celebrate. Millions of employees in this country will finally get a fair wage.”
– Monica Newell
Sources: World Socialist Web Site, The Wall Street Journal
Photo: Arab News