Happiness and Personal Gain: A Personal Perspective

Charles Yan

I think a sense of happiness and fulfillment and some personal gain in the form of wealth or fame are not mutually exclusive. That is, one does not have to choose between the two.

What I mean is that one should first choose to do something that gives one a sense of happiness and fulfillment. For some, this means the personal satisfaction of doing something they are happy doing regardless of the outcome in terms of wealth or fame, whereas for others, it means the personal satisfaction of doing something that has the potential to give them wealth and/or fame. That is, a sense of happiness and fulfillment for some is wealth or fame, whereas for others, it is just the action of doing something enjoyable.

I think Warren Buffet, one of the most famous investors in the world, finds happiness and fulfillment in making money. Because he enjoys making money, his work is no longer “work” but something pleasurable. I am certain that this is the reason why he makes so much money. On the other hand, Buddha found happiness and fulfillment in trying hard to do absolutely nothing.

So a sense of happiness and fulfillment is a core part of both Buffet and Buddha. The only difference is that they found it in different things.

I believe that everyone should pursue their own sense of happiness and fulfillment by doing sething that makes them happy. Some people are happy when they have a lot of money or are famous. Others are happy doing absolutely nothing. Who are we to say what is happiness or not for others? What we can say is that everyone deserves to be happy and fulfilled and that each individual has his or her own unique way of defining and achieving a personal sense of happiness and fulfillment. 

Temple Mind Part 2 (2014 Korea)

by

K. Song

Kumar Ray

Poor nutrition is a leading cause of death of children in many developing countries. Nearly 49% of the 10 million children under the age of five who die every year is because of poor nutrition and hunger, worldwide.  In the year 2013, 6.3 million children of five years and less died due to hunger, which comes to about 17,000 children dying every day. In Africa, especially the sub-Saharan region, one-third of all child deaths are attributed to hunger and malnutrition. The added burden of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis among African children makes them even more vulnerable targets.  23 million children in Africa attend schools and classes in a hungry state.

The major reasons for hunger in Africa is poverty, lack of food security due to erratic environmental conditions and war. Nearly 1.4 billion people live in absolute poverty, which is defined by living on less than 1 USD per day per person. Poverty drives the lack of resources to obtain food and when this situation is combined with political conflicts and socioeconomic problems, the result is chronic hunger. The World Bank describes this as a vicious cycle because poverty drives hunger, which in turn results in unhealthy individuals who lose up to 10% of potential earnings had they been healthy. This in turn can impact an entire country since it loses its potential economic labor force. Child hunger is under more focus than adult hunger because children are the future of any society. And if they are malnourished and hungry, the subsequent generation will simply comprise of stunted individuals with low intelligent quotients, poor health and limited mental abilities.   

Implications of child hunger in Africa

The implication of hunger in children is stunting, muscle wasting and poor immunity. Females who remain malnourished all through their childhood and into child-bearing years would give birth to children who are malnourished as their mothers. Child hunger is widely associated with micronutrient deficiency of vitamin A, zinc, iron, vitamin B12 and iodine that cause a cohort of otherwise completely avoidable diseases such as blindness, cognitive impairment, spina bifida and pernicious anemia. It would be difficult to contain the spread of infectious diseases if there are a plethora of hosts with poor immunity to aid the spread.

Ways to tackle child hunger in Africa

Studies by Remans and coworkers has suggested that by implementing an integrated, multisector intervention program, it would be possible to reduce stunting by as much as 43%. With help from world organizations such as the WHO, UNICEF and the UN, it would be possible to reduce and even eradicate child hunger in the world.

References

Bain, L. E., Awah, P. K., Geraldine, N., Kindong, N. P., Siga, Y., Bernard, N., & Tanjeko, A. T. (2014). Malnutrition in Sub–Saharan Africa: burden, causes and prospects. Pan African Medical Journal, 15(1).

Mayne, R. (2006). Causing hunger: An overview of the food crisis in Africa. Oxfam Policy and Practice: Agriculture, Food and Land, 6(2), 97-135.

Muthayya, S., Rah, J. H., Sugimoto, J. D., Roos, F. F., Kraemer, K., & Black, R. E. (2013). The global hidden hunger indices and maps: an advocacy tool for action. PLoS One, 8(6), e67860.

Remans, R., Pronyk, P. M., Fanzo, J. C., Chen, J., Palm, C. A., Nemser, B., … & Mensah-Homiah, J. (2011). Multisector intervention to accelerate reductions in child stunting: an observational study from 9 sub-Saharan African countries. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 94(6), 1632-1642.

Sanchez, P. A., & Swaminathan, M. S. (2005). Hunger in Africa: the link between unhealthy people and unhealthy soils. The Lancet, 365(9457), 442-444.

Schönfeldt, H. C., & Hall, N. G. (2012). Dietary protein quality and malnutrition in Africa. British Journal of Nutrition, 108(S2), S69-S76.

UNICEF. (n.d.). Goal: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.html

Weinreb, L., Wehler, C., Perloff, J., Scott, R., Hosmer, D., Sagor, L., & Gundersen, C. (2002). Hunger: its impact on children’s health and mental health. Pediatrics, 110(4), e41-e41.

Global Economy and United States

The global economy will meet significant challenges this year as central bank of the United States and the most powerful financial institution in the world initiates its financial tightening. The stable GDP and employment growth has been restricted by poor productive effort and since there’s no carrying of high living standards, United States could encounter decades of “unhealthy economic populism,” according to American Enterprise Institute’s James Pethokoukis. The U.S. is regarded to maintain their position as the world’s largest economy based from a recent study by U.K.-based Centre for Economics and Business Research. However, for more than succeeding sixteen years, the aspect of global economy is believed to change from where they positioned today. Even though U.S. is believed to keep a mark among the Group of Eight body consist of world’s largest economies by the year 2031, some members will probably have not as much luck. The role of U.S. in global economy is important to developing countries because U.S. doesn’t really trade but purchases strong distribution instead. U.S. also invests and purchase commodities worth hundreds of billions of dollars, manufactured by developing countries. Since U.S. is a reasonably secure and safe place to invest, it gives large shelter for foreign capital investments. The revenue produced by investments in the U.S. is generally utilized by foreign investors to begin and develop their businesses in their native country. U.S. is like a generator, supplying energy to the global economy. The accomplishment of U.S. is not because of their natural resources or growing population but their systematic process enabling many market players to make their own options, with minimal government interruption. Finally, U.S. takes the responsibilities as the world’s largest economy. By providing entry to its domestic markets and encouraging other countries to extend businesses with them, U.S. serves a central contributor for the growth of developing countries.

Jingqian Zhang

Falling through the Cracks of China’s Health-Care System

The health insurance of China is very helpful to almost all citizens in the country since ninety five percent of the 1.34 billion population benefits from it.

Since the year 2009, the Chinese government already spent a total amount of three trillion yuan for the health insurance. Economists say that the action is very critical, to turning China’s publicly economical savers into consumers by giving them support to spend rather than using emphasis to money that were gone for health crisis.

However, millions are still breaking out especially immigrant laborers who carried slowly from rural areas in China. They work in urban areas and most of them are factory workers.

The government leaders in China are doing their effort to raise the insurance. In the month of May, there was rise in health insurance for those people living in rural areas to decrease the value of private medical care. For the past years, medical officers expanded the quantity of sickness that entitles the compensation of the seventy percent fee.

The health care system in China is somehow the same with U.S. About forty percent and above Chinese citizens were given medical assistance through an account by employers. Many of the rest belonged to a different system intended at the expansive population in rural areas.

A survey that was released by researchers emphasized the 300 immigrant laborers from four universities that only a third could tap assistance of medical insurance. On the other hand, the Chinese government conducted their own survey last year which said only eighteen percent of immigrant workers had obtained the system of employment. The problem for most of them is between the workplace and the location of where they are expect to live under China’s occupancy or the household registration system.

L. Qi