Mexico is reforming its constitution to recognize the right to food. The UN said that with this reform Mexico joins a select group of countries whose constitution already includes that right. As an idea, the right to food is so perfect, until one realizes that without legislation to implement it so that the right becomes a reality, the declaration remains an ideal without much impact on the daily life of people. Food prices have been rising in Mexico, as in many other countries, even at times leading to food riots, and according to a recent UN study food prices are slated to rise at least into the next decade. All this does not lessen the importance of the reform to articles 4 and 27 of the Mexican Constitution, but it does let us know that the right to food is more than fine sounding words.
October 2011
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Adapting Technnologies
When we’re done with old equipment and other technological devices, we give them to third world countries, usually feeling proud of ourselves for having helped them. Often though we’re not helping them, we’re just being thoughtless. The lack of electricity, spare parts or trained operators often means that technology developed in the US or Europe is not suitable in Africa or certain parts of Asia. According to the World Health Organization some three quarters of the medical devices given by rich countries to developing nations remain unused. Such a fact makes the project of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers all the more noteworthy. At its London headquarters, it is calling for the development of technologies better suited to the developing world and showcasing some of the results. One example is a solar powered hearing aid that overcomes the need for expensive batteries, a stethoscope that can be connected to a mobile phone so that doctors can monitor hard to reach patients in remote areas, a nipple shield for mothers who are HIV positive so that those who breastfeed not transmit the virus. Many of the new innovations are still at the prototype stage and still need testing in the field and funding before they can reach the people they are to help. Nevertheless, it’s good to know there’s a group working on adapting technologies to the needs of countries which need them.
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Worldwide Electricity by 2030
Sometimes a statistic really does what it is meant to do and hits a reader with the reality behind its number. Twenty percent of the world’s population has no access to electricity, and 95% of those live in sub-Saharan Africa. Those of us who live in the West depend on electricity for any number of what to us are necessities. We can comprehend that a few in remote areas would have electricity, but 20% or one in five speaks of a wide discrepancy. That is why UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon attending a meeting on how to improve the availability of energy, called for universal access to be implemented by 2030. Besides the obvious benefit of having available energy, Mr. Ban sees it as a means of revitalizing global economy. The lack of energy means that 2.7 billon people are without clean cooking facilities, not to speak of the fact that as a result of this lack 1.5 million people die each year from respiratory diseases. Let’s hope government and the private sector get together as Ban suggests and remedy what ought not to be given the possibilities of today’s world.