Lack of nurses 'killing Africans'

07/5/25

SUMMARY

South Africa is struggling to cope with the Aids pandemic. But because of a critical shortage of doctors and nurses, people are dying unnecessarily from HIV/Aids. The World Health Organization's minimum standard is 20 doctors for every 100,000 patients but this standard is quite far from accomplishment. For example, Lesotho has five, Malawi has two and Mozambique has 2.6, MSF says. Most donors fund new health clinics but don't pay wages for nurses, so it's hard for them to work. In some areas, although drugs are available, there is nobody to administer them. Also there are many empty clinics - empty because at the end of the day there is no available treatment there, so patients prefer to stay at home and die there. The solution is to improve working conditions and give nurses the power to prescribe drugs that until now has been the exclusive responsibility of doctors. Of course it takes risks but there seem to be no choice in this time.

BY BBC NEWS 0f May 24, 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6689255.stm

Act now on climate change

07/5/18

SUMARRY

Climate change is a foreign policy issue. If we do nothing, the world's leading scientists are saying that we will face catastrophic change on an unprecedented scale and speed. For example, half-decreasing of the grain they do today in some African countries as soon as 2020, reducing of crops across Asia by one-third by the time our children are children are middle aged at the same time as the population has risen by a quarter. That is, our fundamental needs and life in peace are to be underminded. Climate change is a business issue too. An unstable climate means an unpredictable world. According to one of the biggest insurance companies in the world, by the end of the decade direct losses will be running at 150 billion dollars a year the impact on the global economy could be as much as 20 percent of global gross domestic product, a huge risk for business. But there is also a great opportunity, investing in new technology and reduceing their carbon emissions, will have a strong competitive advantage as the world tackles the climate issue. Now we need a partnership in which we change to a low-carbon global economy. If politicians and businessman work together, It would be able to solve the problem of climate change. Governments will need to set the frameworks--the right blend of regulations, incentives and investment. Business will have to respond by putting their money and dynamism into implementing change. Next week in Japan, the symposium designes to build that partnership between Britain and Japan. This has been organized jointly with the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), and it will be attended by some of Britain and Japan's biggest and most successful companies. They are already treating climate change as a strategic issue that affects their investment plans and business development.

BY MARGARET BECKETT

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp

Inspectors Cite Big gain By Iran on Nuclear Fuel

07/5/15

SUMMARY

According to the agenciy's top officials, May 14, Inspectors for the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a larger scale than before.Until recently, the Iranians were having difficulty keepiong the delicate centrifuges spinning at the tremendous speeds necessary to make nuclear fuel, and often were running them empty, or not at all. But now, those road blocks appear to have been surmounted.IAEA will report the present condition of Iran's nuclear activities to the united Nations Seculity Council by 23th. After that, the United Nations Seculity Council will start considering wether impose twice sanctions on Iran or not.Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the energy angency says that keeping Iranians from getting the knowledge to enrich uranium has been overtaken and now, the focus should be to stop them from going to industrial scale production.

BY DAVID E. SANGER

http://www.nytimes.com

Tropical cafe harnesses 'heat-island' effect

05/09/2007

SUMMARY

For its sweltering heat, Tokyo is now said to be a concrete jungle. But one man took advantage of that and lead his business to success. Fukushima, 52, is the owner of Vifu, a cafe in Shinjuku ward hit upon the idea of harnessing the so-called heat-island effect which exacerbates the humid summer heat of Tokyo's central business district. Rather than fight the heat-island effect, he opted to tap into it to create a steamy environment that is perfect for growing tropical foliage like crawling vines, leafy tropical fruits and etcetra. In tokyo, there is a Tokyo metropolitan government ordinance that obliges newly constructed condominiums to create space for greenery on the premises. Such greenery tends to focus on fairly bland trees that are planted instead of fences and barriers. Fukushima says if he could plant tropical trees instead, that would be more entertaining for the residents.

BY MAKOTO AKAMATSU, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200705020384.html

Smoke-free taxis on rise in urban centers

05/03/2007

SUMMARY

Around the country, the drive is in line with moves to tighten smoking regulations following legal steps taken in 2003 to prevent passive smoking at public facilities. On Tuesday, Nagoya became the first of the country's 17 major cities to make all its taxis smoke-free. Nagano and Oita prefecture's taxi association go entirely nonsmoking in June. And also in Kanagawa prefecture's in July, where the prefectural association of taxi operators decided to adopt an anti-smoking policy to improve services in return for approval to raise fares in April. Still, the change is slow in this nation. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastracture and Transport date, the number of nonsmoking taxis represented had risen to just 3.08% in 2006, compared to less than 1% in 2002. Because most prefectures have hesitated to ban smoking in cabs like Tokyo. There are some reasons why they can't ban smoking. For example, taxi operators fears getting into trouble with passengers, lower sales, and so on. Japan remains far behind the rest of the world while major cities in advanced countries banned smoking in taxis some years ago.

OPINION

Since smoking has been prohibited on public transportation systems and many other public facilities in 2003, smokers comparetively have few opportunities to smoke outside their homes. So, if all the taxis in Japan would be banned, although I really hate smoke, I may feel a little sorry about them because some of the heavysmokers would probably suffer from stress. But at the same time, I believe less smoking will be good for them in the long run. And for taxi oparators like me who hate smoke, increasing of smoke-free taxis may be welcomed so much.

BY HIROMI SAITO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200705020384.html