Capitalism And Obesity

 Capitalism and Obesity

Simple but Hard
Obesity means having too much body fat. It is not the same as being overweight, which means weighing too much. A person may be overweight from extra muscle, bone, or water, as well as from having too much fat.

I stand to be corrected but fat people need no prefferential treatment. Apart from a clinically diagnosed disease such as hypothyroidism which is the condition of having an underactive thyroid which can lead to a slower motabolism meaning at takes longer than it would an average person to be broken down, Obesity is caused simply by a lack of excersise and over consumption of food.

There are children who die from mulnutrition, hunger and starvation yet we as a society give soo much attention to obesity invest soo much money on getting people to lose weight there are even television programs such as "The Biggest Loser", which is about contestants competing against each other to see who can lose the most weight, why isn't there a game show called "Feed the Children of the World",which can be about which countries can eleviate poverty the quickest and maybe educate the poor communities while they are at it .

Medical proffesionals everywhere will tell you time and time again the treatment for obesity is and always will be healthy eating and regular exercise that's it, simple. It's hard to put into practice but a simple concept none the less there is no miracle diet. When it comes to starvation on the other hand there is no food available that people can eat, and thats the problem, more money needs to go into agriculture people can't starve to death while money is wasted on getting fat people to lose weight, does this even make sense.

I believe that we are treating symptoms not the root causes here, there is an imbalance of recources countries with more recources that are overconsuming overusing and abusing recouces will have citizens with health problems but it will always be easier to make a gameshow about fat people because somehow we can tell ourselves we are trying to help improve the world, but making a gameshow about starving children with exposed ribs or inflated bellies and flies around their mouths trying to see which ones will gain weight the fastest is a different idea altogether, because then we would be facing the real problem the world would see how truly greedy and selfish and inhumane we are.

3rd world vs Developing

THIRD WORLD OR DEVELOPING

"The Third World is not a reality but an ideology." - Hannah Arendt

Who is Right

I had a brief dicussion with my lecturer where we where trying to define South Africa as either a third world or a developing country. I said third world and she said developing, but before we can say who's right or who's wrong we need to understand what the difference between these two concepts is or if there even is a difference.

The Difference

Countries such as the United States of America, Britain and Japan are seen a developed countries they are characterised by a strong economy,thats growing,they are self-sufficient, they have good infrustructure and a strong currency.

What about us, where do we fit in? John F Kennedy said: "The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning."

Lets Not Lie To Ourselves

Hey we are in the Southern half of the globe, we seek to end injustice tyranny and exploitation, we seek a new beginning, i really think thats us, we can all agree we are not developed so developing or third world that's the question.

The platinum produced in South africa accounts for 80% of the world's output, but still we are not developed. We produce the largest amount of one of the worlds most in demand minerals, and still we are not developed. Isn't that a characteristic of a 3rd world country? take Sierra Leone for example it's a country rich in diamonds, but it is still poor, to me there are no developing countries if a country has natural recources and it still is poor its a third world country.We can't change what we dont acknowledge. i'd love for South Africa to to be a first world, developing or even developed country but we just aren't lets not lie to ourselves.Just because we aren't living in poverty it doesn't mean a large majority of our people are not.



Developing countries don't burn people,

our people are frustrated and disillusioned.





South African citizens drinking stagnant water, very unfirstworld.



 

Overcrowded Prisons

The crisis our prison systems face

Overcroded Prisons in South Africa

THE IDEAL

Among the provisions in the South African Constitution is the right of "Every individual who is

incarcerated, including every sentenced inmate to conditions of detention consistent with

human dignity, including; The provision, at state expense, of suitable accommodation."

THE REALITY

this unfortunately is the ideal not the reality. According to the South African institue for race relations(SAIRR) South Africa has the second highest overcrowded prisons in the world. Society has been conditioned to believe that if you are in prison you deserve to be there and that the more crowded the prisons are the less criminals there are roaming the streets this is a misconception. Kerwin Lebone, a researcher at (SAIRR) says South Africa has the highest number of detained prisoners awaiting trial most due to the lack of funds needed to apply for bail. with an unemployment rate of 24,9% est.2010 and most of our inmates being unemployed and poor what do we expect.The magnitude of the situation might not seem that large but these potentially innocent individuals can he forced to join gangs for fear of losing their lives and end up taking part in illegal activities within the prisons, so even if they where innocent after enough time in the prison they'll be guilty. 

PRISONERS ARE PEOPLE

there are many dangers to having overcrowded prisions such as rioting, the spread of disease, a lack of food and sleeping space. In Honduras a fire killed 350 inmates the problem was attributed to overcrowding which didn't allow for a speedy enough exacuation.The questions we need to ask ourselves are first of all are our prisoners still human beings? If so why do we treat them like animals? and if not then lets all agree to not use the term correctional services but detention centres or concentration camps, are our correctional services just a excuse to to get rid of individuals that don't fit into society?



South African prison life



Source: http:www.csvr.org/docs/correctional/prisionovercrowding.pdf

http://index mundi.com/south_africa/unemployment.rate html

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