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Poverty Endemic in UK
One in four older people in the UK are so worried about the future that it is making them ill, according to a report which finds that poverty and loneliness are endemic among pensioners.
The annual Spotlight report by Help the Aged says 11 percent of UK pensioners--1.2 million people--were living in severe poverty, on less than half of typical earnings, in 2005-06.
Nearly double that number--21 percent, or 2.2 million people--were classified as living in poverty, with incomes less than 60 percent of average earnings, according to the Guardian.
In the past year, things have got worse for an additional 200,000 pensioners plunged into fuel poverty, with 1.5 million now spending at least 10 percent of their income on fuel, mostly to stay warm.
Help the Aged says the government has reneged on its promise to end fuel poverty by 2010, and has admitted that by that date there will still be 1.2 million struggling to afford to heat their homes.
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Some 11 percent of UK pensioners were living in severe poverty in 2005-06.
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The report shows that life is worsening in many respects for pensioners, says Help the Aged. “It’s appalling that we live in a society where older people feel sick with worry about the future,“ said Paul Cann, director of policy and external relations.
On the positive side, 9 percent of pensioners say their life has improved in the last 12 months, compared with 7percent last year.
But more people say they are not receiving the help they need to get out of the house--290,634, compared with 210,000 last year.
The proportion who say they are not treated with dignity in hospital remained at 22 percent. “The government has an enormous job to do to improve the lives of older people,“ said Cann.
Americans Worry About Retirement
Meanwhile according to AP, Americans worry that inflation and the rising cost of health care are increasing the risk that they will run out of money in retirement, according to a study.
The survey by the Society of Actuaries found that people already retired were most worried about inflation and affording long-term care. Pre-retirees, meanwhile, ranked affordable health care as their top concern, followed by inflation and long-term care coverage.
Overall, pre-retirees showed greater worries than those already in retirement, the study found.
Anna M. Rappaport, a consulting actuary based in Chicago and supervisor of the biennial report, said that one theory for the difference in the levels of concern could be that “for the pre-retiree, retirement is still an unknown.“
Concerns about health care costs, inflation and nursing home care expenses rose strongly in 2003, after the economy went through a recession and the stock market fell sharply, she pointed out.
“Now they’re not as concerned as we think they should be,“ Rappaport said. “It’s kind of out of sight, out of mind.“
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Iraq at Bottom of Peace List
The second annual Global Peace Index, a survey on the harmoniousness of the world’s nations, has been released. Iceland has been named the world’s most peaceful country and Iraq its least.
If you don’t like conflict, then maybe you should consider moving to Reykjavik-- that’s the message from the Global Peace Index, Deuche Welle reported.
Iceland headed the rankings of the survey, which is drawn up by a non-governmental initiative called Vision of Humanity. It evaluates 140 nations with respect to 24 criteria, including numbers of deaths from organized conflict, levels of violent crime and proportions of GDP used for military expenditures.
Denmark was deemed the world’s second most peaceful country, followed by Norway, New Zealand and Japan.
“The world appears to be a marginally more peaceful place this year,“ index founder and Australian philanthropist Steve Killelea said in a statement. “This is encouraging, but it takes small steps by individual countries for the world to make greater strides on the road to peace.“
At the other end of the index, war-torn Iraq was adjudged to be the most violent country on the globe.
It was followed by other perennial hotspots of conflict -- Sudan, Afghanistan, Israel and Chad.
Somewhat more surprisingly, Russia ranks very low on the list in 131st spot. The United States is also in the bottom half of the table in position 97.
Meanwhile, China ranks 67, and Germany a respectable 14.
The nations that made the biggest jumps in the table were Angola, Indonesia, India and Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, owing to violence following last December’s presidential election, Kenya suffered the steepest decline.
The index is pitched at governments as a means of self-evaluation and at commerce.
“You ultimately can’t have business where you have conflict,“ said Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, a major supporter of the survey. “So it is in the nature of self-interest to promote the kind of circumstances and the kind of environment where you can carry out your business.“
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Oldest Climber
A 75-year-old Japanese skier, Yuichiro Miura, bidding to be the oldest person to climb Mount Everest left base camp on Tuesday, aiming to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak on May 26.
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Food Shortage, Climate Change Key Health Threats
Insufficient food, climate change and pandemic flu are global crises which could unravel progress in public health, the World Health Organization’s director general said.
“These three critical events, these clear threats to international security, have the potential to undo much hard-won progress in public health,“ WHO director general Margaret Chan told delegates from 193 member states at the WHO’s annual general assembly, AFP reported.
Two of the three are beyond the control of the health sector, but human health “will bear the brunt“ for all three, she said.
WHO has already identified 21 hot spots around the world which are experiencing high levels of acute and chronic under nutrition, said Chan.
She pointed out that poor families spend up to 75 percent of disposable income on food, saying that with food costing more now, even less funds would be channeled to health care.
Likewise in climate change, the hardest-hit would be the poorest, she said.
Greenpeace Calls for Deforestation Fund
Greenpeace urged industrialized nations to set up an international fund to fight deforestation but warned it would require at least $30 billion a year to work.
The plan would see rich nations give poorer ones money to preserve their natural forests instead of felling trees to create farmland, Greenpeace’s Roman Czebiniac told an 11-day UN conference on biodiversity in Bon, AFP reported.
He said the fund would need 20 to 27 billion euros ($31 to 47 billion) a year to halt the rapid destruction of forests, but billed it as the only plan on the table “to protect both biodiversity and the climate.“
“At the moment, the rainforests are disappearing at a rate of the equivalent of a football field every two seconds,“ he warned.
Put differently, deforestation accounts for 20 percent of the greenhouse effect blamed for global warming.
Greenpeace asked that its proposal--dubbed the “Forest for Climate Plan“--be made part of a blueprint for fighting deforestation in negotiations for a post-2012 climate deal.
The pact, being negotiated under UN auspices, would succeed the current provisions of the Kyoto Protocol.
Germans Moving AbroadIn Record Numbers
Despite an improved economic situation, more Germans relocated outside the country in 2007 than in any year since reunification in 1990, raising concerns over a demographic crisis in the near future.
Figures by the Federal Statistics Office showed that 165,180 German citizens migrated elsewhere last year, an increase of nearly 10,000 from 2006. The top destinations were Switzerland, the United States, Poland and Austria, Reuters reported.
A total of 111,291 Germans returned from abroad in 2007, resulting in a net loss of 53,889 citizens, the third straight year in which more Germans have left the country than returned.
Both the number of Germans leaving the country and the net loss of German citizens were the highest since reunification in 1990, adding to concerns that Germany is heading towards a demographic crisis. Population experts have long been warning that Germany’s ageing, shrinking population will be detrimental to Europe’s largest economy in future.
Mexico Attracting Foreigners Seeking Euthanasia
At least 200 terminally-ill people from Australia, Britain, New Zealand and the United States have visited Mexico since 2001 to buy a cheap, widely available euthanasia drug, a newspaper has said.
The Mexican newspaper Reform cited Exit International, a pro-euthanasia non-profit organization from Australia that promotes Mexico as a destination for patients seeking to end their lives.
“On the basis of Exit research, the best places to visit are the 20-odd (US-Mexico) border crossings, from Tijuana in California through to Matamoros on the Gulf of Mexico,“ the group says on its website.
The organization says that, nembutal, a drug usually used to put down animals, is “widely, cheaply and legally available, not only in Mexico but in many other South American countries.“
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