Day: February 6, 2019

UN Sees Poverty Hope in African Uptake of Child Welfare Payments

By Uponbiz | | No Comments | Business

The spread of state welfare for children around Africa has the potential to make a major dent in global poverty, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Children account for the majority of those around the world in extreme poverty, living on less than $1.90 per day, with half of them in Africa, where social security systems are weak.

Globally, about a third of children are covered by social protection programs, but it ranges from 88 percent in Europe and Central Asia to 16 percent in Africa, said a new study by two U.N. bodies.

The evidence shows clearly that social protection benefits, and cash transfers in particular, have a positive impact on poverty, food security, health and access to education — thus helping to ensure that children can realize their full potential, breaking the vicious cycle of poverty,” it said.

Cash on its own was not a magic bullet and needed to be part of broader policies, supported by other benefits such as school meals, said the study by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and children’s agency UNICEF.

In sub-Saharan Africa, expected to have 90 percent of children in extreme poverty by 2030, 40 out of 48 countries have some form of cash transfer program, but most pay too little and overall only 13.1 percent of children receive them.

“They aren’t all huge programs but it’s been a real growth in the region and it’s moving very, very quickly,” David Stewart, UNICEF’s head of child poverty, told reporters.

Children up to the age of 14 make up 42.9 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, where public spending on child welfare amounts to only 0.7 percent of GDP, compared to 2.5 percent in Europe, which has far fewer children.

Several African countries were to discuss expanding their coverage at a conference in Geneva this week, Stewart said.

Isabel Ortiz, head of social protection at the ILO, said South Africa was making massive progress but still did not offer universal coverage, while Ghana was reallocating fuel subsidies towards child benefits and Zambia was increasing tax on mining, showing some of the options if governments were willing.

“Just saying we don’t have the budget is not good enough,” she said.

The ILO-UNICEF study also warned about the re-emergence of poverty in Europe, where some governments are cutting back child benefits due to austerity.
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Watch Your Language: Tasty Words ‘Luring’ People to Healthier Foods

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Rich and zesty or low fat and vegan? Clever marketing with mouth-watering words can boost sales of plant-based dishes by more than 70 percent, experts said Tuesday, amid a drive to cut meat intake to improve human and planetary health.

Describing sausages as “Cumberland-spiced” rather than “meat-free” and promoting a soup as “Cuban” instead of “low fat vegetarian” increased sales in British and U.S. cafes, found research by the World Resources Institute (WRI) think tank.

“Right now, the predominant language is ‘meat-free’, ‘vegan’ and ‘vegetarian’ and that doesn’t have associations with deliciousness,” said Daniel Vennard, head of WRI’s Better Buying Lab, which aims to get people to eat more sustainable foods.

“Language isn’t a silver bullet, but it’s going to have a key role in reframing the food and luring in a whole new set of the population,” he told Reuters.

Many people in the United States and Europe eat more than double the recommended levels of meat for their health and experts say reducing consumption of animal products would be a relatively easy way to tackle climate change.

Scientists unveiled in January what they said was an ideal diet — doubling consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables and legumes, and halving meat and sugar intake — which could prevent 11 million premature deaths and cut planet-heating emissions.

But vegans are often seen as weak hippies and consumers dismiss vegetarian meals as bland, the WRI’s two-year study found, urging restaurants and retailers to emphasize instead the provenance, flavor, look and feel of food.

Language such as “low fat,” “reduced-sodium” or “lighter choice” also tends to lessen enjoyment of food in the United States and Britain because people believe healthy food is not tasty, the researchers said.

“The findings can help the world move toward a more sustainable diet by making plant-based foods to be more normal and more appetizing,” Vennard said. “Our challenge on moving the world to a sustainable diet is about getting the masses … the omnivores out there … engaged in this.”
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Hospital Radiologists Can Help Detect Domestic Violence, Researchers Say

By Uponsci | | No Comments | Science

Radiologists, who typically interact little with patients, can play a key role in identifying victims of abuse by spotting patterns of injuries that point to domestic violence, researchers said Tuesday.

Abuse victims, most often women, have more face, skull and arm fractures than other patients, combined with high rates of asthma, chronic pain and suicide attempts, a team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston reported.

The signs of abuse can be detected by radiologists, who specialize in interpreting images such as X-rays, given that such victims undergo four times more emergency-related imaging exams than other patients, the researchers said.

The abuse can be physical, sexual and psychological, they said.

“There’s a wealth of information that’s available to us as radiologists,” said Dr. Elizabeth George, chief resident in the department of radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a lead researcher of the report.

“There might be indications on the prior imaging, and if you see a pattern, that could alert you to something else going on in this case, such as violence.”

The World Health Organization reports that one in three women experiences physical or sexual violence in her lifetime.

The Violence Policy Center, a research and advocacy group focused on gun violence, reported that more than half the women murdered in the United States last year were killed by current or former romantic partners.

Signs of abuse can be easily missed in a busy hospital emergency department, George said.

The researchers also said hospital records may not identify or report certain injuries as abuse.

“Survivors need someone there who knows what’s happening,” said Ruth Glenn, head of the Colorado-based National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

“That alone can plant the seed to find safety. The medical field is perfectly set up to do this.”

Turning the findings into action to help victims will require a coordinated effort among radiologists, social workers, emergency room doctors and others, George told Reuters.

More than 96 percent of U.S. victims of violence at the hands of an intimate partner are women, and the highest rates occur among black and Hispanic women, according to the report, published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America.
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Former Guatemalan Soccer Head Fined $350,000 in FIFA Scandal

By Uponent | | No Comments | Entertainment

Brayan Jimenez, a former head of Guatemalan soccer’s governing body, was sentenced Tuesday to time served and fined $350,000 after pleading guilty for his role in the FIFA corruption scandal uncovered by U.S. prosecutors.

Judge Pamela K. Chen issued the sentence during a 70-minute hearing in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Jimenez faced up to 40 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy, and while Chen explained that federal guidelines called for a sentence of 41 to 51 months, she concluded Jimenez’s cooperation and remorse mitigated the situation.

Chen noted Jimenez had been held in custody for 50 days and spent four to five months under home detention and about three years in Miami living under a court-ordered curfew.

Jimenez is now subject to two years of supervised release. The sentence included a lifetime ban from holding any position in professional soccer — he previously was banned by FIFA.

His lawyer, Justine A. Harris, said Jimenez intends to leave the United States and return to Guatemala within 30 days. He already has paid $100,000 of the fine and will pay 10 percent of his monthly income after resuming his dental practice to cover the remainder. The $350,000 matches about what Jimenez received in bribes, assistant U.S. attorney M. Kristin Mace said.

Jimenez was president of the National Football Federation of Guatemala from December 2009 until May 2015.

‘Tormented’ by mistake

“There are no excuse and no justification for my actions,” he told the court, his words translated from Spanish. “My actions have brought shame to the world of football.”

Jimenez said that at the time of the crime, he had been a longtime alcoholic. He said he had been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, undergoing counseling and had been sober for 1,118 days.

“Every day I’ve had to fight in order to not fall off a cliff,” he said.

His wife and three children watched from the front row, and a woman in his family delegation broke into tears and made the sign of a cross when Chen read the sentence.

Jimenez dabbed his eyes with a tissue and blew his nose while reading his statement.

“In accepting these payments, I violated my moral principles, my honesty and my honor,” he said. “I’ve been tormented by this great mistake I made.”

He was charged in November 2015 as part of the second wave of indictments in the Justice Department’s investigation into soccer corruption. He pleaded guilty in July 2016 to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of wire fraud conspiracy. Each count carried a possible sentence of 20 years to be served either concurrently or consecutively. The other seven counts against him were dismissed Wednesday.

Jimenez’s sentence showed the benefit of cooperation with prosecutors.

‘Rampant’ corruption

Juan Angel Napout, a former president of Paraguay’s federation and the South American governing body CONMEBOL, was sentenced to nine years in prison last summer after being found guilty at trial. Jose Maria Marin, a former president of Brazil’s soccer federation, also was found guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison, ordered to forfeit $3.3 million and pay a $1.2 million fine.

Hector Trujillo, the former secretary of Guatemala’s federation, pleaded guilty and received an eight-month prison term in 2017 in the first sentence in the case.

Chen said there was a “rampant nature of bribery and corruption in FIFA” and its constituents.

Jimenez said he arranged to obtain bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for himself and another federation official during negotiations with the Miami-based company Media World, later known as Imagina US. He said the money was wired from Media World in the U.S. to other people’s accounts in Guatemala, and his share was then distributed to him. Jimenez said the payments were in exchange for media rights for Guatemala’s home World Cup qualifiers in 2018 and ’22, and for giving two individuals the right to organize exhibition games involving Guatemala’s national team.

“This is a very serious crime or crimes,” Chen said, noting Jimenez had taken an extra $200,000 bribe that he kept secret from his co-conspirators.

Jimenez, a member of the FIFA committee for fair play and social responsibility, was banned from soccer for life in April 2017 after the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee said he violated the FIFA code of ethics’ articles on general rules of conduct; loyalty; duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting; conflicts of interest; and bribery and corruption.

Imagina US, majority owned by the Spanish company Imagina Media Audiovisual, pleaded guilty on July 18 to two counts of wire fraud conspiracy in connection with the participation by two of its executives in more than $6.5 million in bribes to officials of the Caribbean Football Union and four Central American national federations. Imagina US agreed to forfeit $5,279,000 in proceeds, of which $790,000 was restitution to Guatemala’s federation. In addition, Imagina Media agreed to pay a fine of $12,883,320 on behalf of Imagina US as part of a non-prosecution agreement. 
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