Danielle Levy

Being seven million strong has renewed talk about the implications of an overpopulated world. The issues are not only providing enough food and water, but also the environmental consequences of being so numerous and growing. To some there’s human rights implications as well since more people could mean more abuses. Still some fear problems with the pace of development spelling a higher poverty rate. And yet there are those for whom a growing population is a boon. Some business newsletters advise taking advantage of population growth, of trying to see what the projected demographics indicate and adjust business opportunities accordingly. It’s important for businesses to be profitable, and the advice is sound, certainly based on fact. As long as business strategy is based in the present and near term, it would seem foolish not to use population growth to advantage. But, there’s a wide margin from this pragmatic point of view to encouraging population growth or being against measures that would curb it. Let’s hope business advocates stay on this side of it.

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.

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.