Analysis

Thailand gave healthcare to its entire population and the results were dramatic

You only have to look at the highly politicised troubles around the introduction of the act known as Obamacare in the US to see how fraught overhauling a healthcare system can be. The country’s Affordable Care Act looks to tackle the issue of high insurance premiums, which have left many Americans at risk of having no coverage should they get sick. But it has split America along political lines. As a basic premise, the desire to ensure illness and injury do not drive people further into poverty might seem straightforward. But balancing that against the costs of providing a universal healthcare system giving cradle-to-grave care can become complex. This problem is even more acute in developing countries, where the financial burden of universal healthcare systems alone can be an insurmountable hurdle. Although it is not among the world’s richest economies, Thailand succeeded in introducing an affordable system that has had a dramatic impact on the health of its people. Sweeping reforms in which healthcare is funded through taxation have turned the country into a poster child for universal healthcare systems in emerging markets. Child mortality rates have been cut, while treatments such as antiretroviral therapies and renal replacement therapy have saved adult lives. Meanwhile, there has been a significant drop in “catastrophic health spending”, out-of-pocket payments (payments to healthcare providers at the time of use), and medical impoverishment. Caring for a nation Before the introduction of Thailand’s Universal Coverage Scheme in 2001, the insurance programmes in place had provided patchy and often unaffordable coverage. As a result, around a quarter of people in the country were uninsured. The UCS provides coverage to three quarters of the population (approximately 47 million people) and accounts for 17% of the country’s healthcare expenditure. Funded through taxes, it places the biggest cost burden on those that are most […]

The middle-class dream is moving beyond millennial reach

Do you feel like your cost of living is rising? If so, you’re not alone. Years of low income growth and increasing prices have made the “squeezed middle” a reality for many, with new research showing young people’s prospects are among the hardest hit. The middle class is shrinking in most countries and represents an out-of-reach dream for younger generations, according to the OECD’s report Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class. Just 60% of millennials – people born between 1983 and 2002 – are part of middle-income households in their twenties, compared with almost 70% of baby boomers. “The middle class used to be an aspiration,” the report says. “However, there are now signs that this bedrock of our democracies and economic growth is not as stable as in the past.” A healthy middle class matters, not just for equality and inclusion, but also because it propels consumption growth and investment and generates tax income that helps fund social safety nets 1The OECD defines middle class as a range around the median household income, which varies from country to country. In the US, that’s between about $23,000 and $62,000, whereas in Mexico it’s about $4,000 to $10,000. While the absolute amounts vary from country to country, the global patterns are clear: income growth is sluggish and the cost of goods and services associated with a middle-class lifestyle are increasing. One in five middle-income households spend more than they earn, and over-indebtedness is higher for them than for both low-income and high-income households, the report says. In addition, automation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution have destabilized the labour market, creating uncertainty around job prospects and opportunities for many people. These themes are echoed in the World Economic Forum’s Inclusive Development Index, which ranks economies using three pillars: growth and development, inclusion, and intergenerational equity and […]

The business case for diversity in the workplace is now overwhelming

We live in a complex, interconnected world where diversity, shaped by globalisation and technological advance, forms the fabric of modern society. Notwithstanding this interconnectedness, there is also growing polarisation – both in the physical and digital worlds – fuelled by identity politics and the resurgence of nationalist ideals. Not surprisingly, our workplaces tend to mirror the sociocultural dynamics at play in our lives outside work. Having built and scaled a multinational enterprise over nearly two decades, I’ve learned that diversity in the workplace is an asset for both businesses and their employees, in its capacity to foster innovation, creativity and empathy in ways that homogeneous environments seldom do. Yet it takes careful nurturing and conscious orchestration to unleash the true potential of this invaluable asset. In this era of globalisation, diversity in the business environment is about more than gender, race and ethnicity. It now includes employees with diverse religious and political beliefs, education, socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientation, cultures and even disabilities. Companies are discovering that, by supporting and promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace, they are gaining benefits that go beyond the optics. Business has the transformative power to change and contribute to a more open, diverse and inclusive society. We can only accomplish this by starting from within our organisations. Many of us know intuitively that diversity is good for business. The case for establishing a truly diverse workforce, at all organisational levels, grows more compelling each year. The moral argument is weighty enough, but the financial impact – as proven by multiple studies – makes this a no-brainer. Disruption and innovation The coming together of people of different ethnicities with different experiences in cities and societies is a key driver of innovation. The food that we eat every day is a result of this blending of cultures. […]

How young people are shaping the future of sustainable fashion

Young people around the world are working to clean up a dirty fashion industry. The $2 trillion industry is responsible for 10% of the global carbon footprint, negative environmental effects including water pollution, the use of toxic chemicals and high levels of textile waste, and poor working conditions for millions of workers, primarily women. The World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers community is taking a grassroots approach to address these issues on local and regional levels while promoting a global dialogue about how to encourage sustainable transformations in the industry. “Fashion, as an overarching term for the apparel, footwear and textiles sector, is a huge global industry that touches us all (physically!) and employs millions of people,” says Holly Syrett, 32, a Global Shaper in the Amsterdam Hub. “But it is simultaneously a very dirty business that has long hidden how it works.” This year more than 30 Global Shaper hubs worldwide are participating in Shaping Fashion, an initiative that organizes activities and projects during Fashion Revolution Week to raise awareness of the sustainability challenges of the fashion industry and empower local communities to pursue sustainable fashion solutions. The projects include clothing swaps, film screenings and roundtables – each designed to meet the local community’s needs and inspire sustainable fashion efforts year-round, says Syrett, who is a co-founder of the initiative. For example, the Amsterdam Hub in the Netherlands is bringing together two groups, Sustainable Apparel Coalition and Fashion for Good, to discuss the importance of transparency in the fashion industry with members of the local community.F7 The Lusaka Hub in Zambia is organising a thrift market to promote the consumption of second-hand clothing and a panel discussion to examine what sustainable fashion looks like in Africa. There is opportunity for the African fashion industry to draw from lessons around the world but also form a unique approach to sustainable fashion that honors each local […]

Add to the picture

Ten years ago, I started The Mirror, a magazine for creative thinking, politics, the environment, great reading…a magazine which was to be a positive experience for the times in which we live. And now, of course, there is The Mirror website which is well supported and widely read. I dont start publishing activities to ‘keep up with the Jones” but to be part of a world network of people who, like me, want to inspire and be inspired. So this is a small note to ask readers to communicate their realities, pictures for the future (think climate change, globalisation) and feed into a bigger picture we all can share to enlighten and inform each other. Regards, Doug Green, Publisher

Press freedom in Myanmar requires real reform

Myanmar’s president has released more than 6,000 prisoners, including two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists imprisoned for reporting on a military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who work for the news organisation Reuters, were arrested in 2017 and, after a corrupt trial engineered by the military, sentenced to seven years in prison. While the presidential pardon is welcome, there are still a number of serious, ongoing issues for freedom of expression and democracy in Myanmar. The influential military and its supporters in the government continue to work against press freedom in particular, waging what a UN human rights report referred to last year as a “political campaign against independent journalism.” Mishal Husain✔@MishalHusainBBC This is the extraordinary reporting for which Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-rakhine-events/ …1,2236:22 PM – May 7, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacyMassacre in Myanmar: One grave for 10 Rohingya menReuters uncovers how Myanmar forces burned, looted and killed in a remote village.reuters.com1,079 people are talking about this Why did the government release the prisoners now? The pardon coincides with traditional New Year in Myanmar, which started on April 17. It is customary for government officials to release prisoners around this time. It was also a way to at least partly ease the increasing international pressure on the Myanmar government. Foreign governments, NGOs, and international organisations have heavily criticised the government for its failure to protect freedom of the press, its record on human rights, the Rohingya crisis, and its scant progress on meaningful democratic reform. A\nother way to look at the president’s decision to pardon Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo is as a balancing act. The ruling National League for Democracy must toe a careful line in terms of dealing with pressure from the West and appeasing the powerful military and the Burmese ethnic majority, who overwhelmingly […]

Zucked:Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe

By Roger McNamee This is the dramatic story of how a noted tech venture capitalist, an early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg and investor in his company, woke up to the serious damage Facebook was doing to our society and set out to try to stop it.If you had told Roger McNamee three years ago that he would soon be devoting himself to stopping Facebook from destroying democracy, he would have howled with laughter. He had mentored many tech leaders in his illustrious career as an investor, but few things had made him prouder, or been better for his fund’s bottom line, than his early service to Mark Zuckerberg. Still a large shareholder in Facebook, he had every good reason to stay on the bright side. Until he simply couldn’t. Zucked is McNamee’s intimate reckoning with the catastrophic failure of the head of one of the world’s most powerful companies to face up to the damage he is doing. It’s a story that begins with a series of rude awakenings. First there is the author’s dawning realisation that the platform is being manipulated by some very bad actors. Then there is the even more unsettling realisation that Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are unable or unwilling to share his concerns, polite as they may be to his face. And then comes Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, and the emergence of one horrific piece of news after another about the malign ends to which the Facebook platform has been put. To McNamee’s shock, Facebook’s leaders still duck and dissemble, viewing the matter as a public relations problem. Now thoroughly alienated, McNamee digs into the issue, and fortuitously meets up with some fellow travellers who share his concerns, and help him sharpen its focus. Soon he and a dream team of Silicon Valley […]

These countries have the highest minimum wages

Minimum wages offer a route out of poverty, but they aren’t without controversy. Where should workers move to in order to earn the best minimum wage? The answer is Australia or Luxembourg, according to data from Germany’s Wirtschafts-und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut (WSI), which compared pay in different countries on a purchasing-power basis. The hourly rate in Australia yields the equivalent of 9.47 euros (US$10.78) of purchasing power, according to the report, almost six times that of Russia’s, which is worth only 1.64 euros ($1.87) in purchasing power terms. European nations made up the rest of the top five; while Brazil, Greece and Argentina were among the lower earners. Image: WSI data, World Economic Forum Supporting low-paid workers is a key objective for governments around the world, particularly after the financial crisis exacerbated inequality in many countries. While minimum wages offer one route out of poverty, they aren’t without controversy, often sparking politically charged debates and generating headlines. Recently, Spain’s government said its minimum wage will jump by 22% in 2019, the biggest annual increase in more than 40 years, while French President Emmanuel Macron said his nation’s threshold will increase as well. Even in Australia, which has one of the highest levels, there’s tension between the Fair Work Commission, that sets the rate, and the unions who want more. Those in favour say businesses have a responsibility to pay their workers enough to live on, while those against argue that a high minimum wage destroys jobs and hampers entrepreneurship. A report earlier this year by the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that a rise in the living wage could expose more jobs to automation. Academic studies have been mixed, calling into question long-held ideas that minimum pay thresholds lead to job cuts and fewer hours offered to employees, while also harming small businesses and pushing up prices. “Thirty […]

Why the latest inter-Korea summit matters

The detente between North and South Korea continues, with South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) pushing on regardless of the United States. -Benjamin Habib, Lecturer in International Relations, Department of Politics and Philosophy, La Trobe University. Last week’s fifth inter-Korean summit provided another round of iconic moments in a year of extraordinary drama in Korean Peninsula politics. From Moon Jae-in’s address at the Arirang Mass Games to the leaders’ photo-op on the shores of the crater lake at Paekdusan, the three-day summit produced plenty of symbolism. More importantly, it increased the detail and scope of confidence-building measures agreed in the earlier Panmunjom Declaration. Much of the commentary in the wake of the summit has focused on what the Pyongyang Declaration means for the potential denuclearisation of North Korea. To view the summit through the narrow lens of nuclear politics would be to overlook the significance of deeper patterns that are emerging from inter-Korean détente. Filling in the details The first notable feature of the Pyongyang Declaration is the increased depth of military-to-military confidence-building measures, as articulated in its attached annex. One of the questions emerging from the Panmunjom Declaration related to how that document’s vague commitments to cooperation would be fleshed out in detail. In the Pyongyang Declaration are measures for increased conflict management procedures and greater operational level consultation. This includes a series of measures along the demilitarised zone (DMZ) and Northern Limit Line maritime boundary to reduce the risk of confrontation. A holistic approach to security There is a clear human security focus in the breadth and depth of the Pyongyang Declaration that has moved inter-Korean engagement well beyond denuclearisation. Human security is about protecting individuals and communities from threats to their well-being and survival. This might be from traditional security threats of war or persecution, or from […]

Why talking about yourself in the third person could help control your emotions

Andy Henion, Postdoctoral Researcher, Michigan State University. During stressful times, talking to yourself in the third person—silently—could help you control your emotions. This method doesn’t take any more mental effort, say researchers, than talking to yourself in the first person, which is how people normally talk to themselves. The study in Scientific Reports indicates that such third-person self-talk may constitute a relatively effortless form of self-control. Say a man named John is upset about recently being dumped. By simply reflecting on his feelings in the third person (“Why is John upset?”), John is less emotionally reactive than when he addresses himself in the first person (“Why am I upset?”). “Essentially, we think referring to yourself in the third person leads people to think about themselves more similar to how they think about others, and you can see evidence for this in the brain,” says Jason Moser, associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University. “That helps people gain a tiny bit of psychological distance from their experiences, which can often be useful for regulating emotions.” The study involved two experiments that both significantly reinforced this main conclusion. In one experiment, at Moser’s Clinical Psychophysiology Lab, participants viewed neutral and disturbing images and reacted to the images in both the first and third person while an electroencephalograph monitored their brain. When reacting to the disturbing photos (such as a man holding a gun to their heads), participants’ emotional brain activity decreased very quickly (within 1 second) when they referred to themselves in the third person. The researchers also measured participants’ effort-related brain activity and found that using the third person took no more effort than using first person self-talk. This bodes well for using third-person self-talk as an on-the-spot strategy for regulating emotions, Moser says, as many other forms of emotion regulation, such […]

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