Thursday, May 24, 2007

In working on sustaining food, creativity, knowledge and creativity, I like to think the underlying factor is a focus on individuals and families over time. A recent report by UNICEF measured the well being of children in 21 of the wealthiest nations in the world. The United States and Britain scored as the worst two places for the well being of children. Out of six categorie, the United States scored the lowest for “Health and Safety” and the second lowest in “Behaviours and risks” and “Family and peer relationships.”

At one point, there is an insinuation that that the wealthiest nations having such poor performance in caring for children may be a neglect that abuses children’s rights:

Pointing out that the Convention on the Rights of the Child calls on all countries to invest in its children “to the maximum extent of available resources”, Ms. Santos Pais said that international comparison was a way of testing this commitment - “A country cannot be said to be doing the best it can for its children if other countries at a similar stage of economic development are doing much better – and that’s what the league tables are designed to show.”

Many people are happy to have as much wealth as they do. Living in the wealthiest nation sometimes blinds us towards how we spend and where we focus that money. Political campaigns are run on the basis of how policy affects big business and we ignore how it affects our children and future generations.

The full report: An overview of child well-being in rich countries

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