We’ve all heard the story; Child Star becomes famous, Child Star gets mixed up with drugs and alcohol, Child Star gets arrested, Child Star goes to rehab.  If they are lucky it ends there.  If they are not so lucky it starts a vicious cycle of relapse, rehab, relapse, rehab, relapse that continues until they finally “get it” or death gets them. 

Lindsay Lohan is no different.  She came into the spotlight at a tender age making movies such as The Parent Trap.  She was cute.  It all changed with the onslaught of the anorexia claims and partying ways that her late teens and early twenties would bring.

What does this have to do with Kombucha?

Fastforward a few years later and Lindsay Lohan is sitting in a Los Angelas, CA courtroom receiving a no alcohol order and being required to wear a SCRAM bracelet.  A SCRAM bracelet is an Alcohol Monitoring System which stands for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor. It is worn on the ankle and measures the subject’s blood alcohol level through perspiration on the skin. 

Knowing she cannot drink alcohol anymore and wanting to replace it with a healthier habit, Lindsay Lohan started drinking Kombucha.  Kombucha is a fermented beverage made of tea bacteria cultures. For over 2,000 years people in Asia have been drinking kombucha for its purported medicinal benefits which include: improving immunity, aiding digestion, and improving liver function. Because Kombucha is fermented, it does contain trace amounts of alcohol.

Apparently, this set off Lindsay Lohan’s SCRAM divice.  I don’t know about you, but I have to wonder if Lindsay went on a bender and is simply blaming the Kombucha for it.  However, it happened, it has caused an uproar in the industry.  Millennium Products Inc. has voluntarily pulled its products to determine what the exact level of alcohol in a typical bottle is.  Rumour has it that some of them contain as much as 1.5% alcohol by volume.  This, while still a relatively small amount, is high enough to require a government warning.  The government requires any product containing .5 percent or higher to carry the warning.  Currently most Kombucha products are labled as having “trace amounts of alcohol”, not a sufficient label if the amount is more than .5 percent.  Whole Foods Market has pulled all of it’s Kombucha products including Millennium’s GT and Coke’s Honest T varieties until this issue is resolved.

In the meantime, I’m stuck without my Kombucha Buzz.  I’m considering brewing my own.  Lindsay, you’ve ruined it for all of us.

Part 1.

This report outlines the progress of two MDGs in two regions.

MDG1; Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and MDG 4; Reduce child mortality are the examples used to asses changes and progress toward reaching the UN’s development goals.

This report focuses on two regions, Africa and the Pacific to assess and compare progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

Part 2.

Africa

Africa is the world’s second largest continent in which 920 million people live. With 53 countries and more than 1000 African languages it contains some of the poorest countries in the world.  Africa is the world’s poorest and most undeveloped continent in the world. There has been little growth in Africa due to a range of factors including many widespread diseases, corrupt governments, famines and civil wars. Many African countries have few natural resources and those that do such as Nigeria have been plagued with civil wars and poor economic and political management. Trade remains underdeveloped largely because Europe and the United States impose barriers to agricultural trade. The average poor person in Africa lives on 70 cents a day. 

Pacific

The Pacific consists of a number of small island states and territories which range in size from PNG (6.3 million population) and Fiji (840,000) to Nauru (13,000) and the Cook Islands (20,000) and Tuvalu (11,000).  Many of the states are fragile and have poor economies because of their small size and their remoteness from major trade and commercial routes.  Many have also suffered from poor government.  

Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Reduce Child Mortality

The goal is to reduce the number of under-five year olds that die by two-thirds, between the years 1990 and 2015. This is very important because early childhood deaths are a tragedy for the family and the community. Child deaths are also a break on economic growth because they reduce the number of productive people in the future.

Millions of children die each year from preventable causes such as pneumonia, diarrhoea malaria and the measles. For example Sub Saharan Africa accounts for half the worlds deaths of under five year olds. Although many children die some effort has been put into preventing illness such as Malaria. 18 million dollars was raised to buy nets for people in Africa. 

Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Poverty

The indicator used to measure poverty and hunger is the percentage of working people living below $1US per day.  In Sub-Saharan Africa where poverty is huge problem most workers fall short of making a dollar a day.  

In the Pacific region more than 3 million people are living in extreme poverty (Ausaid)

This graph shows the amount of employed people living under $1 PPP a day. In 1997 29.25% of Africa’s total employed work force was living under $1 PPP a day.  There has been improvement over ten years and in 2007 only 26.35% of Africa’s employed work force live under $1 PPP a day. Northern Africa only has a little more to go while Sub-Saharan Africa still has over 50% living on less than $1 PPP a day.  

Oceania has not improved much over the ten year period. In that time it has only improved 1.3% to 22.9% of working people earning less than $1 PPP a day.

In order for these regions to meet the 2015 deadline they will have to work much faster over the next 6 years.  

Hunger

Between 1990 and 2006 there has been an improvement in the proportion of under fives who are underweight in Africa from 21.5% of children to 17%  (average for the whole of Africa). The greatest drop in Africa however was in Northern Africa From 11% to 6%. Sub-Saharan Africa did not improve that much only dropping 4% from 32%.  This Graph doesn’t contain any information about the pacific region.

In order to stop children starving you have to reduce the total amount of people in the country who have insufficient food. In the whole of Africa 20% of the population was living on insufficient food in 1990 but that has been reduced to 18.5% in 2000. Northern Africa did not help to reduce this percent at all it did not change over the ten years while Sub-Saharan Africa dropped 3%. Both areas of Africa have to improve a lot more before 2015.  The progress could be halted due to the economic crisis and the rising food prices which in turn could result in not reaching the 2015 deadline.

Reduce Child mortality

Despite progress, deaths of under five children remain unacceptably high

(UN Progress Report)

Africa has the worst child mortality rates for every 1000 children in the whole of Africa in 2000 107 will die. There has been good progress made over 6 years and in 2006 only 96 of every 1000 will die. Northern Africa is set on task and is presumed to meet the goal by 2015 while Sub-Saharan Africa is falling behind horribly with still a long way to go. While Oceania has been improving but needs to work a bit harder to reach the deadline of 2015.

Many things have been done such as raising money for anti mosquito nets and giving measles injections (which reduced measles deaths by 68%).

In 2006 84% of children aged between 12 months and 23 months received a measles injection a dramatic improvement from the year 2000 where only 74% of children received the injection. Improvement was also made in the Oceanic region from 68% in 2000 to 70% in 2006.

     Part 4.

Analysis

Will the regions meet their goals?

Goal 1 Eradicating Poverty and Hunger

According to the UN’s 2008 MDG Progress Chart, Northern Africa is well on its way to meeting the deadline of 2015. Northern Africa has low poverty and very low hunger if it keeps up the same pace it will meet the deadline.

On the other hand Sub-Saharan Africa’s poverty remains very high and it still has very high hunger. This region is unlikely to meet the 2015 deadline if this trend continues.

Oceania complies to the level of moderate hunger on its path to reducing hunger by half by 2015. However if the current trend continues it will not reach the deadline of 2015.

Goal 4 Reduce Child Mortality

According to the UN’s 2008 MDG Progress Chart, Sub-Saharan Africa is still rated as having a very high child mortality. If the current trend persists the goal of reducing mortality by two thirds will not be meet by 2015. This is an improvement however from previous progress reports where there was a deterioration or reversal in progress towards meeting the goals.

Northern Africa is likely to reach its targets by 2015 recording a low mortality rate.

Oceania has improved from previous progress reports from a high mortality to a moderate mortality rate. Although there has been improvement Oceania is      still not likely to meet the 2015 deadline.

Why Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania will not meet the 2015 deadline and what can be done to improve.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the least developed and poorest region in the world. It began the Millennium Development Goals with the highest mortality rate in the world. Despite some improvements to poverty rates, the UN estimates by 2015 as much as 426 million Africans will live in Absolute poverty.

 The main reasons why progress is slow in Sub-Saharan Africa is because of HIV/AIDS, Conflicts, Corruption and Economic stagnation.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic kills many children and adults. Many students (mainly girls) are forced to withdraw from school to care and treat sick relatives.

Conflicts have also slowed growth because more money is put into defence rather than development. Health and Educational services are destroyed forcing many families to become refuges.

Jobs provide little relief from poverty because of low pay. Most workers earn less than $1 a day.  Corruption and Economic stagnation make investment and development difficult.

All of these have left Africa with fewer resources to invest in development and overcome natural disasters and global economic crises.

The African Development bank reports that the countries that are making the fastest progress towards their MDGs are those that have good economic discipline, made market reforms, reduced corruption and strengthened democracy and their legal systems.

The Pacific region is lagging. More than 3 million people are living in extreme poverty and as many as one million children are not in school. Poverty is concentrated in Kiribati, PNG, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

Many countries in the Pacific region face growing health problems and increasing environmental threats including global warming. Some countries are recovering from conflicts i.e. the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste while others like Fiji have had political instability. The region experiences natural disasters for example earthquakes and cyclones. Many of the countries have trouble delivering basic services such as Education, Health, Water supply and Sanitation to the poor. There is a lack of management skills to insure resources are used wisely especially in small countries. Melanesian countries of PNG, Vanuatu and The Solomon Islands make up more than 70% of the pacific population. These countries are growing strongly which may improve poverty and the MDGs.

To help eradicate extreme poverty and hunger countries will have to increase food aid, promote school feeding programs and support improvements in agricultural technologies. Governments need to promote new jobs for all people including women and young people, develop infrastructure and upgrade slums.

To improve reduction in child mortality to meet the MDGs countries should improve immunization programmes and promote breast feeding and general hygiene. Governments need to treat diseases and provide health care especially to women. 

Sources

·        http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/reports.shtml

·        http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/gti.htm#goal1

·        www.wikipedia.org

·        http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

·        www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec

·        www.ausaid.gov.au

·        UN department of public information factsheet – DPI/2517J – September 2008

·        UN department of public information factsheet – DPI/2517G – September 2008

·        www.islandbuiness.com

·        Pacific Economic Survey 2008

·        All graphs from various Millennium Development Goals Reports

·        http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/ultimate_in_unfair.htm