Are frail Latin America democracies jeopardizing climate change commitments?

Posted on by Gina Vidal

Venezuela’s disputed elections (2013) Reuters/Christian Veron

From Mexico to Patagonia the region is plagued with economic, political, and social problems exacerbated by the global pandemic. Democracy seems to favour environmental discussion and support protective initiatives; fewer desirable features of this political system might hamper them.

By Gina Rodríguez-Prénovost

Inherent features of democratic institutions are known to be both beneficial and detrimental to countries’ commitments to solve environmental problems.

The healthy side will favour press freedom and freedom of expression to increase public awareness about climate change and help people make wiser ecological decisions, including choosing their political leaders and parties. Guaranteeing free, transparent, and fair elections, inherent to a democratic system, facilitate a more equitable representation of the electorate in politics. Freedom of association and equal electoral competition creates an opportunity for green organizations to participate in the political processes. Equally, space for civil society organizations facilitates them taking part in public life, run informative campaigns and consult decision-makers.

Democracies are also perceived as more involved in the international environmental agreement and comply with the international treaties.

However, some of the less desirable features that might hamper environmental commitments can be observed in Latin America democracies.

For instance, political leaders in democracies can be short-sighted and driven by an electoral agenda and can prevent them from allocating budget to implement long term policy projects such a climate change commitment.

Also, despite the pluralistic nature of democracies, strong corporate interest groups can influence political decision-making. Politicians and policy-makers are pressured to respond to these groups’ short-term interest and more likely against environmental protection.

The Global Ranking of Congressional Research Service (2020) on Latin American and Caribbean countries, makes a starks revelation on the state of Latin American’s democratic system. According with the research only five nations in the region live in a democracy in consolidation.

Ten other countries have a defective democracy, including Brazil and Mexico; four have moderate democracies, and Cuba and Venezuela are considered hard-line democracies.

The above information clashes with what was perceived in the region between 2005 and 2010 when Latin countries celebrated 18 presidential elections. These elections were examples of electoral democracy, which entailed free, transparent, and competitive elections accompanied by significant political and electoral mobilization.

According to a study of University of Notre Dame (2013), during the first decade of the 21st century, Latin America experienced the most widespread presence of democracy in its history (Democracy in Latin America. Between hope and despair. Ignacio Walker. PDF).

There was also a qualitative advance in democratization materialized by the elections of a union leader, Lula da Silva in Brazil; two women. Michelle Bachellet, Chile and Christina Fernandez, Argentina; an indigenous leader, Evo Morales, in Bolivia. Plus, Haiti “most democratic” presidential and parliamentary elections, in 2006.

Notwithstanding, the university study also reflects that the best evidence of the difficulties of consolidating a stable democracy (in clear contrast with the strength of electoral democracy) is that 15 of the elected presidents did not complete their constitutional terms.

This democratic weakness suffered a deeper sinking by the rising of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president, and the spread of his revolutionary movement across the continent which polarised the region even more.

The Climate Change compromise

Since the Paris Agreement signed by most countries in the region some progress have been shown towards achieving Climate Change big goal. Latin countries were the first in ratifying the landmark treatment in 2015 and to manifest their commitment towards reduction of carbon emissions. Despite this initial outburst of enthusiasm Latin America nations might not be able to comply with the treaty and be ready for the COP26 to be celebrated this November in Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Between 2015 and 2016 Latin American countries presented their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention in Climate Change secretariat but, apart from Costa Rica’s, they were evaluated as insufficient in helping to attaint de Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting temperature rise by 2°C, or ideally 1.5° by the end of the century. The NDCs are the core of the Paris treaty in fulfilling these long-term goals by embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Paris Agreement (Article 4, paragraph 2) requires each Party to prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that it intends to achieve. Parties shall pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving the objectives of such contributions.

According to the National Resources Defence Council (NRDC), in 2020 Chile became one of the first countries in the world to announce and updated its NDCs. In spite of not being considered compatible with the Paris agreement 2-degree and 1,5-degree scenarios it shows more ambition than the original one signed in 2015.

Chile complemented its new NDC with the proposal of Climate Change Law to institutionalize the country’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The country also has compromised with electrify all public transport and close all coal plants by 2040. As part of its offer, Chile is also carrying on with plant shutdowns ahead of schedule.

Colombian president Ivan Duque announced that its NDC will include a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030, a big improvement from its original 20% target. Duque Corredor said that Colombia will move forward with an energy transition, deploy clean transportation and combat deforestation. His list of environmental actions includes planting 180 million trees by 2022, protect Amazon and paramo systems and expand its Payment for Environmental Services system.

Similarly, Colombia is working on the incorporation of new themes in its NDC update. Among these, they highlight the gender approach, the just transition of the workforce, the human rights approach, a new commitment to black carbon to improve air quality, the quantification of co-benefits for air pollutants, links to improvements in public health, education, science, and financing.

Costa Rica The country known as a consistent leader on Climate change in Latin America (NRDC)made a commitment to carbon neutral by 2050 in 2019.

The council adds that Costa Rica realised a Decarbonization Plan which details how the government intents to achieve net-zero. Electrifying the public transport system, energy efficiency and the improvement of farming practices were few of the strategies outlined by the Central American nation.

NRDC remarks that like most countries, COVID-19 has slowed some progress. But with the leadership on climate that Costa Rica has already shown, they will most certainly grow back “green.” On the same note, the NRDC explains that other countries should consider a recent IDB analysis which projects that

implementing the Decarbonization Plan would bring $41 billion in net benefits from 2020-2050.

Latin American countries have few months to update their NDCs before the COP26 in Glasgow. So far it does not seem that many nations from the region will be able to update or comply with their commitments. Covid-19 aggravated the circumstances of an already fragile region. The lack of full commitment from Brazil and Mexico, the two major economics of the region, shadows the local efforts of Chile, Colombia, or Costa Rica to follow the Paris agreement. The party members of the landmark treaty will have to consider how to face the frailty of the democracies in Latin America if they want to consolidate their most needed commitments in order to preserve the world’s biodiversity and the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions to the atmosphere.

Covid 19 and climate change opens a slim opportunity for a better future, says UN

Posted on by Gina Vidal

Patricia Espinosa. UNFCCC

Recovering from C19 offers nations a chance to reorder policies and plans that will build resilience as well as cities and countries that are clean, green, healthy and sustainable

“I am talking about building forward towards the future. Respect the planet, respect the land, recognize the importance of biodiversity and our intricate relationship with it. I am talking about positive transformation at a global scale, a great human project”, the UN climate chief, said during a virtual presentation at the London School of Economics (LSE).

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said that never a generation has the opportunity to change so much in so little time. It will require an incredible amount of work to accomplish. We must move quickly, and we must get it right.

On a solid tone, Espinosa warned that 2021 is the most critical year for climate change since adopting the Paris agreement. “It’s time for nations to work their top, it’s time for society to stand by their decision, it’s time for intention to turn into action”.

During the virtual presentation, Espinosa underlined that COP26 must be a success for the planet, “for those who share it and those who will inherit it”.

Espinosa explained that success would depend on four main pillars. Firstly, promises made must be promises kept. The developed nation must mobilize 100 billion annually to developing countries by 2020. “This obligation can’t be ignored, and it is in the self-interest of the developed countries to fulfil these commitments.” Second, it’s time to implement. Getting an agreement on article 6, about emissions markets and other cooperatives approaches. Implementation must be crust cutting. “Just as climate change knows no jurisdiction with respect to its impact, efforts to address it must permeate all government departments and inform all policymakers at all levels, international, domestic and local”. Third, it’s time to lower emissions and raise ambitions. It’s time to close the gap between global expectations and political commitments. “When I talk about raising ambitions, we are not only talking about mitigation, but also increasing ambition in adaptation and resilience, and support developing countries”. Fourth, not goal or solution must be left behind. Inclusive multilateralism is the only way forward. “Everyone has a role to play, and everyone must be involved”. 

Espinosa ended her virtual presentation with a positive note. According to the UN chief, momentum is in favour of climate change initiatives. The international body is encouraged by Korea, Japan, and China’s announcements regarding their long term plans. Japan and South Korea have committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and China to sealed emissions peak before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

COP 26 will be held in Glasgow this year, and its main challenge will be to resolve some of the most pressing and outstanding promises of the Paris Agreement.

Senseless hatred and political ineptitude causes of Venezuela’s debacle

Posted on by Gina Vidal

There is no religious or economic war, there are no tanks on the streets, nobody is fighting against them and yet Venezuelans are engulfed in the worst crisis in their nation’s modern history.

When did everything start? With the polarisation of Venezuela at the hands of Commander Hugo Chavez Frias. In 1999, Chavez began a campaign of hatred and antagonism against the country’s middle and upper classes using the official government channel to fuel, during endless speeches, people’s social resentment.

Chavez’s political amateurism was noticeable from the very beginning of his mandate. His remarkable lack of political knowledge and his inability to bring the country together to work towards a better future was a common denominator throughout his time in Miraflores.

Chavez governed with his guts and this was reflected in every public appearance where he spoke for hours and took the opportunity to address any critic in an emotional manner, dismantling any argument against his government in a non-traditional and usually inflammatory way.

It seemed as if Chavez took his presidency as a personal vendetta and within a year of his mandate Venezuelans started to feel offended and aggravated by their Presidente. The tone of his political discourse never changed during his 13 years in power. On the contrary. Polarisation took over the daily lives of Venezuelans, dragging with it the country’s wealth and the people’s wellbeing.

Chavez attacked every productive industry in the country and in no time many businesses fled towards more stable markets taking with them their investment and leaving behind highly qualified workers and professionals.

His relationship with Cuba came to make matters worse. Fidel Castro quickly recognised Chavez’s evident political ignorance and he immediately found a way to become his mentor. Cuba took every advantage it could from its relationship with the Venezuelan president and, in exchange; a democratic country was getting economic and political advice from a regime that had lived in the dark for decades.

The results cannot surprise anybody.

It was easy for Chavez to ignore people’s rights and manage the country as he wished when there was plenty of money to waste. He ignored human rights, misused the country’s resources, dismissed economists readings and warnings, all the while covered in a mythical aura fed by a voracious populism.

Hugo Chavez was a master of division, blatantly applying the age old divide and conquer strategy. Without any doubt, he excelled at this. However, Chavez went beyond basic political rule and destroyed the unicity and idiosyncrasy of the nation, creating a snowball reaction that is about to reach its end.

The demise of Hugo Chavez Frias did not bring any hope to a country already in crisis. His final and most damaging political decision was to leave in power, Nicolas Maduro. Chavez could use his undeniable charisma to hide or veil his lack of political knowledge, but Maduro can not make use of this ruse to cover up his.

A country with enormous natural resources, youth, highly qualified professionals and workers, and an enviable geographical location is enduring its deepest and fearfullest crisis. To survive it, all Venezuelans need to leave behind the hatred planted by Chavez and maintained by Maduro and reconcile themselves as a nation.

A penny for my thoughts? What about a pound

Posted on by Gina Vidal

I highly doubt that I am the only one who wonders how our thoughts can create a “physical” reality and provoke significant changes in our lives. Millions of people around the world believe in the practice of mindfulness meditation to improve their quality of life. However, the physical explanation of how the process occurs is nothing short of astonishing.

According to quantum physics, everything flows, nothing is stable or permanent, and our reality is forming continuously by our individual and collective thoughts. These thoughts are shaped by our interpretation of reality as perceived through our senses and our internal map which, itself, is formed by the collection of our life’s personal experiences.
“Our thoughts are linked to this invisible energy and they determine what the energy forms. Your thoughts shift the universe on a particle-by-particle basis to create your physical life.“

Is it just me or has this knowledge not been disseminated as much as it should have been? If we can change our reality by changing our way of thinking and exposing ourselves to different experiences, everybody who wants or needs to improve their lives at some level should have access to this information. But, despite recent advances, it has not quite reached society’s collective consciousness, has it? Not in a brainwashing manner, of course, that is always a risk, but in a physical way. 

Indeed, we don’t hear people talking about how it has been proven that our emotions, perception, and feelings result in different electromagnetic frequencies which are responsible for changing the state of an atom and subsequently altering our reality. “Studies have shown that positive emotions and operating from a place of peace within oneself can lead to a very different experience for the person emitting those emotions and for those around them.“

Personally, I think that schools should get involved in teaching children how to understand and manage their thoughts. Youngsters should be provided with this kind of tool and this knowledge. And we should start by explaining to them what their body are made of:

“Nine systems comprise the human body including Circulatory, Digestive, Endocrine, Muscular, Nervous, Reproductive, Respiratory, Skeletal, and Urinary. Then breaking down to what are those made up of? Tissues and organs. What are tissues and organs made of? Cells. What are cells made of? Molecules. What are molecules made of? Atoms. What are atoms made of? Sub-atomic particles. What are subatomic particles made of? Energy!”

Put another way, quantum physics should be taught at primary school level. How about that? It sounds grand but it should be our legacy to the new generations. The children will grow knowing something great… that they are energy, and they can create their own (and probably better) reality!

So, people, let’s drop the old adage “a penny for your thoughts“, they are way more valuable than that!

Can’t get rid of that chronic cold? Maybe some kindness could help

Posted on by Gina Vidal

By practising mindfulness meditation our sense of kindness increases and in return we can be the recipient of many health benefits

In my last post I wrote about how we can train our brain to do, or better said, to learn pretty much whatever we want, at any age in our lives. I also promised to explain how mindfulness can be used to increase our sense of wellbeing, both mentally and physically.

To get a good handle on this, a great place to start is Mindfulness, a practical guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman. Although this is not the only book about the subject, it is, in my opinion, the best resource on this subject in that it explains the underpinning concepts with great clarity.

When I started looking into this, I was after an understanding of how meditating can provide us with all the goodness that is so widely advertised. Fundamentally, I needed to grasp the mechanics of the process and to get a scientific explanation of how our brain is impacted by dedicating a few minutes a day to meditation.

Firstly, let me outline some of the most beneficial results of mindfulness according to Williams and Penman before explaining how these have been proven by different scientists around the globe.

First of all, Williams and Penman clarify, for those who may have some apprehension, that meditation is not a religion but a simple method of “mental training”. It does not take a lot of time to master but persistence is vital. It is uncomplicated and it is about helping you to see things with more lucidity, ultimately helping you to make wiser decisions.

“Mindfulness meditation is so beautifully simple that it can be used by the rest of us to reveal our innate joie de vivre“, the authors reveal.

Scientifically Proven

The book identifies many positive effects achieved through mindfulness but as I was seeking to understand how deep meditation actually alters the structure of our brain, I will focus this post on the scientific explanation of the benefits of deep meditation.

According to Williams and Penman, it is possible to actually see the positive changes

occurring in the brain during mindfulness meditation. By using brain imaging, you can watch as “critical networks in the brain become activated, almost as if they were glowing and humming with renewed life”.

This realization is fairly recent, though. For many years, it was assumed that everybody had an emotional thermostat and some people were more inclined to happiness than others. “This emotional set point was presumed to be encoded in our genes or became set in stone during childhood. To put it bluntly, some people were born happy and others were not”.

This misconception was debunked several years ago by Richard Davison of the University of Wisconsin and Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. They found out that mindfulness training helps people to “escape the gravitational pull of their emotional set-point”.

According to both researchers, we may have the extraordinary possibility of altering on a permanent basis our “level of happiness for the better”.

This discovery has its foundation in Dr. Davison’s work on indexing (measuring) a person’s happiness by observing the electrical performance on different areas of their brain. This was done by placing sensors on people scalps to measure that activity or by using an fMRI brain scanner.

This procedure allowed Davison to find that when people are emotionally upset the right prefrontal cortex lights up more than the similar part of the brain on the left. Also, when people are in a positive mood, the left prefrontal cortex lights up more than the right.

After several experiments, Davidson and Kabat-Zinn concluded that “it was clear not only that mindfulness boosted their (people involved in the experiment) overall happiness (and reduced stress levels) but that this is reflected in the way their brain actually works”.

But it was Doctor Sarah Lazar, from the Massachusetts General Hospital, who found that as people continue practising mindfulness meditation over a period of years, these positive changes modify the physical structure of the brain itself!

This change in the brain’s circuitry is most pronounced in a part of the organ’s surface called insula, “which controls many of the features as we regard as central to our humanity”.

Lazar explains how becoming more empathetic towards others by increasing our sense of compassion and true loving-kindness, is a win-win situation.

“Empathy and feeling genuine compassion and loving-kindness towards yourself and others have hugely beneficial effects on health and well-being”.

The best news is that you can see and enjoy the benefits of mindful meditation after only a few weeks of daily practice. According to professor Barbara Fredrickson and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after only nine weeks of training meditation focusing on loving-kindness for the self and others, meditators developed an increased sense of purpose and had fewer feelings of isolation, along with decreased symptoms of illness as diverse as headaches, chest pain, congestion, and weakness.

If sitting for a few minutes, by ourselves, in a relaxed manner and in a comfortable setting can provide us with such a great benefits, what are we waiting for? Let’s cut a few minutes of TV a day and improve our lives. There is an array of wonderful sensations awaiting us.

In my next post I will explore the “weight” of our thoughts: A penny for my thoughts? How about a pound?

These are some useful links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEyaQ_iTBcs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQfKpPpOxBM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPlG_w40qOE

Be the “personal trainer”of your own brain!

Posted on by Gina Vidal

Brain cartoon

Our brain is trainable

Since an early age I was strongly against determinism.
I simply didn’t accept anybody telling me that things had to be done certain ways, at certain times and so on without making my own assessment first.
For instance, there were constant reminders that I had to have babies before I turned 30 or my chances of being a mother were going to be very slim or even non-existent or that after a “certain age” we would all become fat, regardless of our eating habits.
Although I understand that infertility may increase with age, I don’t think that our lives need to be driven by this fact, nor that we should just let our bodies go because that is the “way it is”. In reality, we do have a choice.
What fascinates me the most in this context is how we may be denying ourselves opportunities by believing in a set of determined facts – as determined, of course, by someone else’s experience. One of these opportunities is the chance to learn and acquire a set of new skills or abilities, including learning a new language, for example, at any age of our lives.
Curious about this process, and convinced that we can set our minds to do whatever we want, I began researching and following all sorts of think tanks that address the trends, investigations, advances and innovation in all areas of knowledge in our world, especially as they relate to discoveries about our brain.
This is how I came across a fascinating video of Ruby Wax. I need to confess here, because there is no point in lying to you or to myself, I didn’t know who she was at the outset. However, after watching her video about brain plasticity on the Big Think website I went straight to research everything I could find about her and her fascinating work.
Wax talks about how she adopted a proactive behaviour towards her depression and decided to investigate how to tackle it by understanding the functioning of her own brain. She explains that “depression is a sickness of the brain. When your lungs, liver, kidneys, etc., get sick you get sympathy. When your brain gets sick, they tell you to perk up”.
Wax did not simply read about our most complex organ, she took a Master in Neuroscience at Oxford University to get to the bottom of it!
So why have I veered into brain plasticity if I started talking about determinism? Simply because Wax says something deeply enlightening: Our brain can be rewired. And it keeps changing because it is dependent on experience.
“You are the architect of your own brain. You have the ability to rewire yourself, just by changing the way you think, by practising mindfulness”, says Wax.
So, if there are any doubts about the uselessness of preconceived ideas and determinism, there shouldn’t be. We have the knowledge now to fly as high as we are willing to try.
Inspired, I followed Wax’s initiative (not to the point of taking a Master at Oxford) and carried out my own research about this business of brain plasticity. Although there is tons of information about it, I would point to the research of Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco who in 2004 revealed during a TED conference that the “…brain retains its ability to alter itself well into adulthood — suggesting that brains with injuries or disease might be able to recover function, even later in life…”
Basically, Merzenich sustains that the brain is constructed to change and possesses an incredible power: an ability to actively rewire itself! Indeed, Merzenich researches ways to harness the brain’s plasticity to improve our skills and recover lost function.
One experiment shows how after a monkey repeatedly was taught how to use a spoon properly, its brain showed some physical growth in the area used to master the spoon skill. This represents a change on hundreds of billions of neurones in the brain.
“This is constructed by physical change and the level of construction is massive”, explained Merzenich. So, our brain is adaptable and flexible and allows us to learn until the last days of our lives.
So, back to determinism. Remember the old (very old indeed!) expression you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? We can leave that one where it belongs, in the book of archaic and antievolutionary thinking. The truth is that we can become the “personal trainers” of our own brain and help it to not only get into shape but to actually learn many “new tricks”. And we can continue to do that until the last days of our lives.
In my next blog I will write about mindfulness as a tool to rewire our brain. Hasta la próxima!

 

Interesting links:

http://www.ted.com/read/ted-studies/neuroscience

hhtp://www.ted.com/talks/paola_antonelli_previews_design_and_the_elastic_mind

Inconclusas sospechas de efectos de la carne y el cáncer

Posted on by Gina Vidal

La Organización Mundial de la Salud ha sido forzada a clarificar que las carnes rojas y procesadas no son altamente cancerígenas como se aseguró inicialmente,  luego de la intensa reacción internacional  de parte de los productores y consumidores de estos productos, muchos de los cuales consideran que los resultados del informe de la Agencia Internacional de Investigación del Cáncer, es una farsa.

La OMS enfatizó que las recientes declaraciones están basadas en las recomendaciones que se hicieran en el 2002 sobre la ingesta de carnes rojas y procesadas y su incidencia en la salud de los consumidores. La entidad mundial asegura que un consumo moderado de estos productos no son necesariamente nocivos para la salud.

La Agencia Internacional de Investigación del Cáncer, entidad de la OMS,  incluyó al jamón y las salchichas en el Grupo 1 de los carcinógenos, donde además de encuentran los formaldehidos, los rayos gamma y los cigarrillos.

Ante este anunció productores y consumidores de carnes rojas y procesadas expresaron su desacuerdo público y mostraron su respaldo al consumo de estos productos alimenticios a través de las redes sociales.

Los defensores argumentan que las carnes rojas son excelentes fuentes de proteínas, hierro, vitamina B12 y zinc, ingredientes esenciales para la salud, mientras que los detractores de su consumición aseguran que son altas en grasas saturadas y que el consumo de más de 50 gramos al día de carnes rojas o de dos tiras de tocinetas,  incrementa el riesgo de cáncer de colón en 18%.

“Estas denuncias son confusas porque fueron hechas a pesar de que nunca se ha llevado a cabo ningún seguimiento para comprobar como afectaría a una persona la ingesta diaria de 50 gramos de carne procesada, es decir, de dos tiras de tocineta, cinco tajadas de salami, media salchicha de perro caliente o 1.7 albóndiga, por día. Sin un seguimiento científico no se puede concluir que A es la causa de B”, explica un nutricionista consultado por el Daily Mail en Londres.

La doctora Teresa Norat, del Imperial College de  Londres y una de las asesoras en el reporte de la OMS, asegura que son muchos los factores que producen el cáncer de colón.

“Las personas deberían limitar la ingesta de carne roja y evitar la consumición de las procesadas, pero también deben seguir una dieta rica en fibra, proveniente de frutas y vegetales y mantener un peso corporal sano así como litar la consumición de alcohol y mantenerse físicamente activas”.

Por su parte, la organización asesora de la industria de la carne (Meat Advisory Panel) dice que “evitar las carnes rojas en la dieta no es una estrategia de protección contra el cáncer y asegura que está se debería focalizar en el alcohol, el fumar y el peso corporal”.

Aunque todavía parece no haber un estudio conclusivo sobre a qué punto las carnes rojas se tornan nocivas para la salud, si parece haber un acuerdo tácito sobre lo efectos adversos de las carnes procesadas sobre la salud de los consumidores. Sin embargo, la aparición, en este caso,  del cáncer de colón, también podría deberse a otros aspectos tales como el estilo de vida o de una ingesta baja o insuficiente de fibras provenientes de frutas y vegetales.

 

Getting Married? What about a Fairtrade ring?

Posted on by Gina Vidal

Initially, I was as surprised as I would expect you to be when reading this.  I have always associated Fairtrade products with bananas, coffee and chocolate.

However, when I met my friend Suzanne for drinks last week and she informed me that she and her soon-to-be husband had purchased wedding bands from a Fairtrade provider, I was puzzled.  She explained that she is a strong believer in a fair market, but also in the integrity of the suppliers of everything she consumes, from her milk to her cleaning products.  I have always known that she is very caring of the environment and of the world around her but I never suspected that that it would extended to her choice of wedding rings.

I instantly became curious about the whole concept and asked her how she found out about the rings.  As it happens, she buys a lot of the Fairtrade products online and, while browsing the site, she landed on the gold and jewellery page.

We finished our drinks and, as soon as I got home, I walked straight to my laptop to check the site.

I also care deeply about the environment and every time I buy something I do my best to choose a product which is produced in a manner that respects and protects our environment, as well as the people involved in producing it.  When I started browsing through the Fairtrade website I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have a vast array of products that range from coffee to flowers to jewellery.

I was intrigued mostly, however, by its gold story and found out that, according to its website, Fairtrade certified gold “is the world’s first independent ethical certification system for gold”  (http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/en/buying-fairtrade/gold).

Indeed, the Fairtrade organisation guarantees that by buying such certified gold we can have an important and positive impact on the lives of the miners, their families and communities.  Also, the organisation states that if you buy Fairtrade gold “you know the small scale and artisanal miners were paid a fair price, giving them financial security”.

While encouraged by these words, I wanted to further understand how this could be as I come from a gold-rich place and I am all too aware of the nefarious conditions under which independent miners work around the world, as well as the way they can damage and poison our natural resources.

So how do Fairtrade help achieve financial security of the miners and protection of the environment? According to Fairtrade Gold, “miners receive a guaranteed Fairtrade Minimum Price and Premium ($2,000/kg) to invest in improving their business or in community projects such as education, clean water and healthcare”.

By becoming Fairtrade certified and meeting Fairtrade Standards for gold, miners elevate their operation to a level which helps their mining as well as their business practices.

For Fairtrade Gold the latter includes strict Standards which cover the working conditions of everybody included in the mining process, health and safety, handling chemicals, women’s rights, child labour and protection of the environment.

I have no doubt that my friend Suzanne read about all of this before making her choice. I’m also certain that she threw some Fairtrade flowers in her shopping basket for the sake of having as “fair” a wedding as possible!

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¿Estará en las manos de una mujer el destino del nuevo Premier Inglés?

Posted on by Gina Vidal

La escocesa Nicola Sturgeon se engrandece en elecciones del Reino Unido. 

David Cameron y Ed Miliband nunca previeron que sería Nicola Sturgeon el personaje político que los pondría en trés y dos. Los candidatos Conservador y Laborista tenían otros planes al comienzo de la campaña general por las elecciones parlamentarias de hoy, pero enfrentarse a la líder escocesa no era uno de ellos.

El revuelo alrededor de la líder nacionalista se acentuó después de su actuación en el debate televisivo donde por primera vez los candidatos de los partidos minoritarios tuvieron participación.

Trajeada de rojo vivo, Sturgeon lucía serena y en su ambiente. Después de una introducción formal y nada espectacular, la líder escocesa empezó a mostrar su garra política y su total dominio sobre el debate público. ¿El resultado? Las encuestas llevadas a cabo durante las dos horas del evento televisivo  la colocaron en el tercer lugar después de Cameron y Miliband, y delante de los entonces favoritos Nick Clegg, del Partido Liberal y Nigel Farage del UKIP.

Desde ese momento la figura de Sturgeon se ha engrandecido en el panorama político británico, ayudada por la ausencia de liderazgo de Cameron y Miliband. La campaña electoral del Partido Conservador, ha sido vista como una de las peor manejadas en la historia electoral reciente. Por su parte, Miliband, acusado por sus opositores de débil y extraño, ha aprovechado los errores estratégicos de los Tories, pero no lo suficiente para darle un liderazgo sólido de cara a las parlamentarias.

Como era de esperarse, una vez que Sturgeon, mostró su liderazgo político los ataques comenzaron. Durante esta campaña la líder de 44 años, ha sido considerado como la “mujer más peligrosa del mundo”, “Lady Macbeth” y hasta el “Rey Herodes”,  y la derecha inglesa la ve como una amenaza para la unidad británica.

Tan preocupados están los Tories por el crecimiento en la popularidad de Sturgeon, que el Partido Conservador trajo a la campaña al ex premier, John Major, quien en un llamado público explicó con detalle los peligros de una alianza con la escocesa. Los conservadores insisten en que el PNS utilizará una alianza con el Partido Laborista, para chantajearlo en favor del separatismo. El ataque Torie ha calado en parte del electorado produciendo un leve descontento hacia  el partido Laborista. Mientras tanto, Miliband sigue negando con ahínco la potencial alianza.

Para Sturgeon las declaraciones de Major “son una afrenta a la democracia”. También se refirió a las palabras del torie como “tontas y exageradas y que no lo hacen lucir bien”.

Lo cierto es que Sturgeon goza de la admiración del público británico en general por su autenticidad, entusiasmo y tenacidad política. Cualidades ausentes en el resto de los candidatos.

De acuerdo a Piers Morgan, del Daily Mail  “ella hace que los otros políticos se vean sosos y débiles… ha estremecido las bases más profundas de la maquinaria política británica.”

Nicola Sturgeon también tuvo que enfrentar preguntas sobre su vida personal, especialmente la relacionada al hecho de no tener hijos. La escocesa considera la pregunta sexista. “Este tipo de preguntas no se las hacen a los hombres”. Casada con el director ejecutivo del PNS, Peter Murriel, Surgeon confesó que Margaret Thatcher fue la razón por la que ella decidió entrar en la política. “Pero no por las razones que la ex primer ministro hubiera querido” confesó al Daily Mail.

A lo largo der toda la campaña, Miliband aseguró una y otra vez en que no negociaría con el PNS y denunció que el Partido Conservador estaba arriesgando la Unión al tratar de poner Inglaterra en contra de Escocia. De acuerdo al líder laborista, Cameron juega a apoyar al PNS en Escocia para restar votos al Partido Laboral.

Los Conservadores y Laboristas están muy cercas en las encuestas y se prevé que el resultado electoral podría generar un parlamento suspendido donde nadie cuenta con la mayoría. Para evitar unas nuevas elecciones los dos partidos con mayor cantidad de votos se tienen que aliar con partidos minoritarios para lograr la mayoría comicial. Los partidos a saber son el UKIP, el Liberal Democrático y el PNS.

Sturgeon ha dejado claro que el PNS apoya las propuestas que los laboristas han presentado y que la respaldarán sonora y vigorosamente. Sin embargo, dijo que le entristecía el hecho de que los laboristas insistan en una fallida agenda de cortes presupuestarios, para ser vistos como los Tories.

“Esto es erróneo, la política de los Tories ha fallado y cuando una política es incorrecta no se continúa, se cambia. Quiero que el PNS vaya a Westminster como una voz para mejores políticas, el tipo de políticas que se enfrentan a la austeridad de los Tories”.

Las predicciones electorales muestran que el Partido Nacionalista Escocés podría ganar 57 de los 59 puestos escoceses reduciendo de esta manera al Partido Laborista en Escocia a un escaño. Conservadores y laboristas tendrán que negociar una mayoría parlamentaria o repetir las elecciones.

Cualquiera que sea el resultado electoral de hoy, la realidad es que el PNS es en este momento el tercer partido más fuerte del Reino Unido, gracias a su líder Nicola Sturgeon. Entonces la pregunta que hay que hacerse es ¿cómo manejarán Cameron o  Miliband esta nueva realidad política después de las elecciones?

¿Es nuestro estilo de vida pro cáncer?

Posted on by Gina Vidal

Casi la mitad de los casos de cáncer en el Reino Unido están vinculados al estilo de vida. Se trata de más de 130.000 casos al año, que podrían ser evitados con cambios en los hábitos y costumbres diarias de las personas. Los factores de mayor incidencia sobre la aparición del cáncer son el tabaco, el alcohol, la dieta y la falta de ejercicios. La proporción es mayor en los hombres (45%) que en las mujeres (40%). Esto se debe a la relación que ambos sexos tiene con el cigarrillo.

De acuerdo a la Revista de Investigación del Cáncer Británica (British Journal of Cancer), el tabaco es el mayor culpable y causa el 23 por ciento de cáncer en los hombres y el 15.6 por ciento en las mujeres.

La baja ingestión de frutas y vegetales por parte de los hombres y el exceso de peso en las mujeres, es la segunda mayor causa de aparición de cáncer en la población, según al estudio.

El doctor Max Parkin, uno de los autores líderes de la investigación sostiene que ” muchas personas creen que el cáncer es parte de nuestro destino, o que se encuentra en nuestros genes, o simplemente es mala suerte…” Sin embargo, el investigador asegura que de acuerdo a las pruebas que maneja  “está claro que el 40% de todos los cánceres es causado por cosas sobre las que poseemos el poder de cambio”.

Según el estudio, para los hombres el mensaje es claro: comenzar a comer más frutas y vegetales y reducir su ingesta de alcohol. Para las mujeres, el primer consejo es dejar de fumar y el segundo reducir el peso corporal.

Parkin reveló que los investigadores no esperaban encontrar que el hecho de comer frutas y vegetales fuese tan importante para proteger a los hombres de cáncer. “Y entre las mujeres no esperábamos que el sobre peso fuese un factor de más alto riesgo que el alcohol”.

14 hábitos y estilos de vida a evitar

En total, la combinación de 14 estilos de vida y factores ambientales, tales como dónde vivimos y el tipo de trabajo que realizamos, causan unos 134.000 cánceres en el Reino Unido cada año.

Unos 100.000 (34%) de los cánceres están vinculados al fumar, la dieta, el alcohol y el exceso de peso. Uno de cada 25 casos de cáncer está relacionado con el lugar o tipo de trabajo. Otros factores de riesgo están bien establecidos, como por ejemplo, el cáncer de pulmón con el fumar.

Sin embargo, otros casos son menos reconocidos.

Por ejemplo, en el caso del cáncer de seno una décima del riesgo proviene del sobrepeso o la obesidad, sobrepasando el hecho de si la mujer amamantó o no, o sí consume alcohol.

En el cáncer estómacal, un quinto del riesgo proviene de una alta consumición de sal.

Otros cánceres como el de boca y garganta son causados casi enteramente por hábitos de vida.

La exposición a las camas solares son la causa de 3.5% de los casos de cáncer en el Reino Unido.

La obesidad es la causa de cáncer más prevenible

La organización Mundial de la Salud asegura que el sobrepeso y la obesidad son las causas de cáncer más prevenible, después del consumo de tabaco.

Algunos investigadores estiman que el sobrepeso y la obesidad son responsables de unos 17.000 resultados positivos de cáncer en el Reino Unido cada año. Científicos estiman que entre el  7% y el 15% del cáncer de seno en países desarrollados es causado por la obesidad.

Dos grandes investigaciones llevadas a cabo por Cancer Research Uk y el Million Woman Study, han encontrado que las mujeres obesas tienen un 30% mayor de riesgo de cáncer de seno post menopausia, que las mujeres con un peso sano.

Esto se explica porque antes de la menopausia los ovarios producen la mayoría del estrógeno de una mujer y el tejido adiposo produce una mínima cantidad de la hormona. Después de la menopausia (cuando los ovarios dejan de producir estrógeno), la mayoría del estrógeno de la mujer proviene del tejido adiposo. Poseer más tejido adiposo (grasa corporal) después de la menopausia incrementa los riesgos de cáncer de seno porque aumenta los niveles hormonales. A este riesgo se agrega el hecho de que las mujeres con sobrepeso tienden a tener altos niveles de insulina en la sangre y este fenómeno está vinculado con ciertos tipos de cánceres, incluyendo el de seno.

Cantidades excesiva de grasa en el área de la cintura también afecta el riesgo de cáncer de seno, más que la grasa acumulada en las caderas o muslos. Los investigadores creen que las células grasas en distintas partes del cuerpo cuentan con diferencias sutiles que pueden explicar este fenómeno.

De acuerdo a la Sociedad Americana de Cáncer (American Cancer Society), para reducir los riesgos de cáncer de seno, un adulto debe realizar entre 150 y 75 minutos de ejercicios entre moderados y de alta intensidad a lo largo de una semana. Caminar 10 horas a la semana reduce los riesgos de cáncer aún más.

Pero no sólo el cáncer de seno es una de las potenciales consecuencias del exceso de peso, los cánceres de útero, riñones y de esófago también están directamente vinculados con la obesidad y el sobre peso.

Otros cánceres relacionados con la dieta, aunque no con el sobre peso, pueden generarse como consecuencia de un deficiente consumo de frutas y vegetales (5% de los casos), excesivo consumo de comida procesada y carnes rojas (3%) , o de comer mucha sal (1%). Estas tres tendencias alimenticias pueden incrementar los chances de cáncer del pulmón, próstata, intestinos y senos.

Cambios necesarios en nuestro estilo y hábitos de vida

(Estadísticas de cánceres prevenibles en el Reino Unido)

  • Dejar de fumar. Podría prevenir 64.500 casos de cáncer por año en el Reino Unido
  • Mantener un peso sano. Podría prevenir 18.100 de casos de cáncer por año en el RU.
  • Consumir frutas y vegetales. Podría prevenir 15.100 casos de cáncer por año.
  • Consumir menos alcohol. Podría prevenir 12.800 casos de cáncer por año
  • Protección de los rayos solares. Podría prevenir 11.500 casos de cáncer por año
  • Reducir consumo de comidas procesadas y carnes rojas. Podría prevenir 8.800 casos al año.
  • Consumir alimentos altos en fibra. Podría prevenir 5.100 casos por año.
  • Estar activo. Podría prevenir 3.400 casos al año.
  • Consumir menos sal. Podría prevenir 1.700 casos al año.
  • Reducir riesgos laborales (evitar trabajar con asbestos). Podría prevenir 12.100 casos por año.
  • Reducir infecciones, tales como los virus del papiloma humano. Podría prevenir 10.600 casos al año.
  • Reducir exposición innecesaria de rayos x. Podría prevenir 6.100 casos al año
  • Amamantar, si es posible. Podría prevenir 2.700 casos por año.
  • Reducir exposición a tratamientos hormonales. Podría prevenir 1.700 casos al año.