Back to January 2021 Newsletter
Theme for this month January 2021:
Global Civilizational State: the application of the Scale of Global Rights to the most important global issues threatening humanity's survival worldwide.
- Global Issue 9: sections 1,2,3,4,5, and 6 affected: Issues threatening the health and future of children and of the next generations. Climate change, ecological degradation, migrating populations, conflict, pervasive inequalities, predatory commercial practices, and the rampant spread of Covid-19 threaten the health and future of children in every country. What is even more worrisome and fearful is that children stand on the precipice of a climate crisis. Wealthy countries are threatening the future of all the children in the world through carbon pollution.
Short explanation of global issue 9.
Text of the speech in the Video about global issue 9 to be published in February Newsletter 2021.
Full explanation concerning all nine (9) global issues.
Because of the pandemic, parents, grandparents, and children spend much more time together within their houses. This might have led to new familial relationships, understanding and responses including conflicts when children might have learnt new things about their parents and vice-versa during the extra ordinary length of lockdown time. It could be both positive and negative with respect to the family dynamics. Because of Covid-19, the lock down and the confinement within homes initially were difficult. It led to considerable release of negative emotions which were addressed through the social media in the form of both panic-inducing. There is a tendency among people which is can be called as the ’not me’ attitude. It is a belief that the coronavirus infection may not affect them and they are outside the pandemic circle or have nothing to do with it. The sudden rush of people on to the streets when there is some relaxation is partly due to this syndrome but also due to a need for ‘jail break’. The pandemic has also transformed the thinking and worldview of people when they started seeing others as potential carriers of infection. The pandemic has significantly influenced the social and psychological fabric of society where everyone is fearful of getting infected despite the ‘not me’ syndrome.
Despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over recent decades, today’s children face an uncertain future. Successful societies invest in their children’s futures and protect their rights. However, many politicians and governments in the world still do not consider such an investment as a priority. Even in rich countries, many children, especially in marginalized groups including indigenous people and ethnic minorities still suffer from hunger or live in conditions of total poverty.
Data show the largely negative impact the commercial sector on the well-being of children in all countries, with companies promoting “addictive or unhealthy commodities,” such as fast food, sugar-sweetened beverages, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and social media. Companies make huge profits from marketing products directly to children and promoting addictive or unhealthy commodities, all of which are major causes of non-communicable diseases. The commercial sector’s profit motive poses many threats to child health and wellbeing, not least the environmental damage unleashed by unregulated industry. Children around the world are enormously exposed to advertising from business, whose marketing techniques exploit their developmental vulnerability and whose products can harm their health and wellbeing. Children’s large and growing online exposure, while bringing benefits in terms of information access and social support, also exposes them to exploitation, as well as to bullying, gambling, and grooming by criminals and sexual abusers.
Industry self-regulation does not work, and the existing global frameworks are not sufficient. A far stronger and more comprehensive approach to regulation is required. Children must be protected from the marketing of tobacco, alcohol, formula milk, sugar-sweetened beverages, gambling, and potentially damaging social media, and the inappropriate use of their personal data. Even in rich countries, many children go hungry or live in conditions of absolute poverty, especially those belonging to marginalized social groups — including indigenous populations and ethnic minorities. Too often, the potential of children with developmental disabilities is neglected, restricting their contributions to society. Additionally, many millions of children grow up scarred by war or insecurity, excluded from receiving the most basic health, educational, and developmental services.
Wealthy countries generally have better child health and development outcomes, but their historic and current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions threaten the lives of all children. The ecological damage unleashed today endangers the future of children’s lives on our planet, their only home. As a result, our understanding of progress on child health and wellbeing must give priority to measures of ecological sustainability and equity to ensure we protect all children, including the most vulnerable. The poorest countries have a long way to go towards supporting their children’s ability to live healthy lives, but wealthier countries threaten the future of all children through carbon pollution, on course to cause runaway climate change and environmental disaster. Not a single country performed well on all three measures of child flourishing, sustainability, and equity.
The rights and entitlements of children are enshrined within the CRC. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC is a human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children.ratified by all countries, except the USA. The report recommended that the CRC adopt a new protocol to protect children from commercial harm. The world’s countries agrees to leave future generations with a cleaner and healthier world. Early investments in children’s health, education, and development have benefits that compound throughout the child’s lifetime, for their future children, and society as a whole. Successful societies invest in their children and protect their rights, as is evident from countries that have done well on health and economic measures over the past few decades.
Decision makers need a long-term vision. Just as good health and nutrition in the prenatal period and early years lay the foundation for a healthy life course, the learning and social skills we acquire at a young age provide the basis for later development and support a strong national polity and economy. High quality services with universal healthcare coverage must be a top priority. Social movements must play a transformational role in demanding the rights that communities need to care for children and provide for families. Government has a duty of care and protection across all sectors. Countries that support future generations put a high priority on ensuring all children’s needs are met, by delivering entitlements, such as paid parental leave, free primary health care at the point of delivery, access to healthy — and sufficient amounts of — food, state funded or subsidized education, and other social protection measures. These countries make sure children grow up in safe and healthy environments, with clean water and air and safe spaces to play. They respect the equal rights of girls, boys, and those with nonconforming gender identities. Policy makers in these countries are concerned with the effect of all policies on all children, but especially those in poorer families and marginalized populations, starting by ensuring birth registration so that the government can provide for children across the life course, and help them to become engaged and productive adult citizens.
Countries might provide these entitlements in different ways, but their realization is the only pathway for countries to achieve the SDGs for children’s health and wellbeing, and requires decisive and strong public action. Since threats to child health and wellbeing originate in all sectors, a deliberately multisectoral approach is needed to ensure children and adolescents survive and thrive from the ages of 0–18 years, today and in the future. Investment in sectors beyond health and education — such as housing, agriculture, energy, and transport — are needed to address the greatest threats to child health and wellbeing. We give our children loving care, but it makes no sense to do so unless we do everything in our power to give them a future world in which they can survive. We also have a duty to our grandchildren, and to all future generations.
Child labor is undesirable because it prevents children from receiving an education. Furthermore, when parents regard their children as a source of labor or income, it motivates the to have very large families, and our finite earth, unlimited growth of population is a logical impossibility. Population growth increases the threat of large-scale famine as well as ecological catastrophe. Child slavery is unacceptable, as is any form of slavery. Forced marriage, and very early marriage of girls as young as 9 in some countries are also unacceptable practices. The international community has a duty to see that existing laws against these practices are enforced.
Moratorium on world population and the fertility rate, and ending population warfare. Population warfare: use of a very high fertility rate to conquer a nation, and that could mean as many as or more than 2.11 children per family. It is a form of cultural and/or religious aggression and invasion by having a much too high number of new born babies. For instance, there has been a rapid increase in population among Muslims to the extent that in fifty years all of Europe and North America are expected to be mostly Islamic. The influx of Latino immigration into the western states of the USA will also have the effect of a population warfare. Clearly the environmental challenges facing humanity in the 21st century and beyond would be less difficult in a world with slower population growth or none at all. Population is a critical variable influencing the availability of each of the natural resources considered here. And access to family planning services is a critical variable influencing population. Use of family planning contributes powerfully to lower fertility, later childbearing, and slower population growth. Yet policymakers, environmentalists and the general public remain largely unaware of the growing interest of young people throughout the world in delaying pregnancies and planning their families. In greater proportions than ever, girls want to go to school and to college, and women want to find fulfilling and well-paid employment. Helping people in every country to obtain the information and services they need to put these ambitions into effect is all that can be done, and all that needs to be done, to end world population growth in the new century.