QualityofLife

							 Quality of Life


       Social Studies 20
Interdependence in the Global
         Environment
    Quality of Life - Introduction

   Quality of life is a difficult concept to define.
   It includes aspects such as numbers of people, good
    health, food, cultural/political/economical aspirations,
    technological and spiritual goals, education, job
    opportunities.
   Each society has a unique quality of life due to
    different values and technological opportunities.
   Within each culture unequal distributions
    opportunities result in different qualities of life.
   Standards and features of quality of life vary
    because humans prioritize factors.
Quality of Life and Economic Development


   Disparity forces people to make choices, these
    choices effect quality of life
   Conflict over social goals and how to achieve them
    creates tension within societies
   The essential factors that sustain human survival
    are called basic needs.
   Basic needs are the main goal in economic
    development in all countries
Adequate Food as a Basic Need


   Food is the most important basic need.
   The poor especially children and women receive
    the least amount of food in developing
    countries, most men are better off no matter
    what age.
   The poor part of the population under consumes
    food and the rich over consume food.
   Unequal distribution of wealth creates
    imbalance in quality of life giving too much food
    to some and not enough to others.
Adequate Food as a Basic Need




   There are high-income inequalities in developing countries.
   Countries with low per capita national incomes have the
    highest increase in population creating a larger barrier
    between the rich and the poor.
   The first step in reducing absolute poverty is helping the
    poor become more productive.
   This requires effort and capital, improving basic needs:
    food production, health care, education, sanitary conditions,
    housing, water supply, landlord system and reforming
    beliefs and attitudes.
   Type of political system is not necessarily a factor which
    affects the ability to improve quality of life in developing
    countries.
Literacy as a Basic Need



   Literacy is the ability to read and write.
   In terms of improving quality of life "basic education" is
    considered a key factor. It is consists of communication,
    economical and living skills.
   The number of illiterate women is greater then the
    number of illiterate men in developing countries.
   Societies with high rates of illiteracy usually indicate that
    the entire female population has been deprived of
    education. i.e. All the women in that society are probably
    illiterate.
Literacy as a Basic Need


   Development of food production is set back when the
    women of a society are illiterate. This is because the women
    are primarily responsible for agriculture and they are key to
    any culture.
   Women that are illiterate don't readily accept new ideas.
   Improving literacy is effective in reducing poverty but in
    many developing countries, people do not have the money
    to spend on education.
   The desire to implement or improve education is not as
    greatly desired as industrial improvements in developing
    countries because the results are less apparent and are long
    term.
Literacy as a Basic Need


   Developing countries resist literacy because
    they view mass education as revolution or
    Western Imperialism.
   Investing in creating a literate population can
    be viewed as a capital investment because it
    increases economic growth.
   Education allows people to more readily adapt to
    change.
   UNESCO predicts a decline in rate of illiteracy
    internationally. However, due to global
    population growth, the real number of illiterate
    people will actually increase.
Good Health as a Basic Need


   Good health includes adequate food with proper nutrition as
    well as correct sanitation and a disease minimized
    environment (literacy is also needed).
   The most common measure of a nations wealth is its average
    life expectancy.
   Factors that cause short life expectancies include high infant
    and child mortality rates and adult diseases (numerous and
    varied). These factors are aggravated by population growth,
    overcrowding, lack of education, poor nutrition, unsanitary
    environments and other characteristics of extreme poverty
   ***DID YOU KNOW…*** 4/5 of diseases in the Third World are
    linked to dirty water or lack of sanitation?
Characteristics of Poverty
   Absolute poverty describes a
    quality of life characterized to an
    extreme degree by malnutrition,
    hunger, illiteracy, and disease.
    People are living at the very
    margin of survival and are
    concerned with the provision of
    basic needs.
   Relative poverty described a
    quality of life below the
    standards accepted by a
    particular society – state of mind.
Development Strategies to Raise the
Quality of Life


   There is considerable argument about the most
    appropriate development strategies to use, ranging
    from free market operation to centrally controlled
    planning (both can be successes or failures).
   “Bottom up” or “Top down” development?
   “Bottom up” development stresses that development
    should be aimed at the grass roots level and expand
    upward.
   The advocates of the “top down” theory feel that
    unless the powerful are involved in development,
    change will not occur.
Quality of Life and Levels of
Development: Three Examples


   Third World Development: Columbia
   New target areas are chosen more for
    their agriculture potential than their
    poverty.
   Columbia’s industrial output is increasing
    2-3% per year, slightly quicker than the
    population.
   Many Colombians do not value material
    wealth.
    Quality of Life and Levels of
    Development: Three Examples

   Second World Development: The USSR
   Developed part known as the Second World (of Communist
    Countries) operated in an economic collective called the
    COUNCIL FOR MUTUAL ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE
    (COMECON)
   Economic system is centrally planned
   Serious housing shortages
   Soviet industrial output is largely geared to capital goods and
    military needs
   Literacy almost 100%, one doctor for every 270 people, one nurse
    for every 100 people and an infant mortality of 10-15/1000
      Quality of Life and Levels of
      Development: Three Examples

   Women outlive men (life expectancy: woman-76 man-
    62)
   Political dissent discouraged; so called “dissidents” find
    themselves in prisons, exile
   Soviet Union lags 10-15 years behind capitalist
    countries
   Aim of building a socialist nation
   Soviet people’s standard of living is one of the lowest in
    the industrialized world (frequent food shortages, high
    infant mortality)
     Quality of Life and Levels of
     Development: Three Examples

   First World Development: The USA
   Operate independently under a system of market
    planning.
   World’s chief producer of food and industrial goods
   Life expectancy of 75 years, 100% literacy
   Minorities are encouraged to join the mainstream on
    the melting-pot principle, but are not forced
   Racial prejudice and violence are problems
   Individual poverty characterized most by urban slums
    and in rural pockets throughout the states
Environment and Quality of Life

   People depend on their environment as a provider of
    resources.
   Industrialization began 200 years ago and accelerated
    human impact on environment.
   Environment forced to provide more resources than
    ever before and to deal with the increasing quantities
    of waste products generated.
Some Non-Industrial Environment Concerns

   Degradation of non-industrial environments is a massive problem and its
    effects on the quality of life are severe.
   People forced by survival needs to destroy the natural resources that give
    them life.
   Burdened by rapid population growth, people clear and plant land
    unsuited for farming.
   The degradation of environment causes the life support base to be further
    eroded, lowering even more a quality of life already sinking under
    combined pressures of disease, malnutrition and population growth.
Deforestation
   The consumption of forests increases with increasing
    population growth. This means that existing forests
    will be gone by 2025, unless reforestation and
    conservation practices are introduced globally.
   Deforestation  soil erosion  increased silting of
    river beds (hindering navigation) and reservoirs
    (restrict their capacity to hold irrigation waters).
   Oxygen-producing cycle of Earth endangered.
   Impact of initiatives for conservation are small, but
    they are a beginning.
Desertification
    Process in which productive land is turned into a
     desert
    Food and fuel shortages

    "Drought and desertification
    threaten the livelihood of
    over 1 billion people in more
    than 110 countries around the
    world."

    Kofi Annan
Contamination of Water
Supplies
   Water can be contaminated by insect pests, human
    and animal wasted and agricultural chemicals
   Vector-borne diseases have a considerate impact,
    aggravates malnutrition by driving people through
    fear of disease (example: malaria) from the more
    fertile lands.
   Human and animal wastes in water lead to a number
    of parasitic diseases in developing countries.
   Agricultural wastes in water affect fish and birds,
    wildlife and people in developed countries.
Destruction of Crop Land

   Erosion is a natural process; it is usually balanced
    by deposition of soil elsewhere. Soil eroded from
    higher land is deposited in river lowlands or
    deltas.
   Soil erosion and desertification is a world wide
    concern.
   The USA is losing about 100 000 000 tons per
    year of topsoil through soil erosion. Canada’s rate
    is similar.
   Most soil erosion is a product of ignorance or
    laziness.
Some Industrial Environmental
Concerns


   Pollutants are those materials that either by
    quantity or by quality cannot be handled by the
    natural cleaning action of the various
    environmental cycles.
   Examples of environmental pollutants are
    inadequately tested drugs, improperly dumped
    poisons, and incompletely processed residues.
   Some countries see the cost of control of these
    pollutants as uneconomic in terms of the
    demand for more production.
Some Industrial Environmental
Concerns


   Brazil has been called the “World’s Worst
    Polluter” by the United Nations.
   USSR is “first” among Europe’s polluter because
    of its desire for industrial production. Similar
    situations in India and southwest Asia.
   North America also experiences serious industrial
    pollution but due to public pressure, they have
    begun to install pollution controls.
Some Industrial Environmental
Concerns

   There is a debate over the effect of acid rain. Some
    say that the rain kills trees, others say that it has
    never been shown to be a principal cause of any
    environmental problems of which it is accused.
   Dioxin is regarded by many as one of the most serious
    environmental hazards produced by industry. It is
    produced by burning almost anything, thus created by
    many electricity generating plants.
   During the Vietnam war, soldiers were exposed to
    dioxin and suffered from a variety of health problems,
    and in 1984 were collectively awarded US$250 000
    000 as compensation.
Case Study: Women and
Development


   In almost all societies, women have the
    lowest quality of life. The extent of
    the gap between men and women varies
    from society to society. It is generally
    the smallest in most developed
    countries.
   In countries around the world, baby
    boys are preferred over baby girls.
    Boys are perceived to offer status, a
    greater potential for work and
    potential security in old age.
Case Study: Women and
Development
   In rural China, the official government birth
    control program until 1986 strongly recommended
    only one child per family, driving many people
    secretly to kill or abandon first-born baby girls in
    the hope of having a boy later.
   Most poor women suffer from more malnutrition
    than most poor men do because the women eat less
    than the share of their family food, providing
    more for the men and boys in the family.
   Poor women suffer far more from illiteracy than
    poor men do.
Case Study: Women and
Development

   A World Bank study of 29 developing nations showed that each
    additional year of schooling for girls meant on average 9/1000
    fewer infant and child deaths. Improved literacy had also been
    shown to improve overall life expectancies (both female and
    male).
   AMUL (Anand Milk Union Limited) Dairy Cooperative in India,
    where women have traditionally gained income from caring for
    dairy animals and selling milk. AMUL has enabled women to sell
    as a cooperative, eliminating middlemen and generating higher
    incomes for themselves.
   With more women working, most societies face some new
    problems associated with childcare.
Conclusion


        Quality of life is an elusive concept, open to
    many different interpretations. As individual
    lifestyles is made up of a number of features and
    this life is said to be “rich” if it holds a variety of
    interesting experiences.
   For example, the degree of crowding or amount
    of open space available can affect a person’s
    quality of life significantly, but not always
    predictably; some like open spaces and others
    abhor them, while some like crowds and others
    do not.
Conclusion
   Industrialization may be perceived as a
    benefit by some and a danger by others.
    At the same time quality of life is
    profoundly influenced by factors that are
    difficult to describe specifically among
    them political climate, moral attitudes,
    intellectual freedom and religious
    tolerance.