What are the world’s problems?
The lack of equality in
terms of pay, education, health, and politics between men and women is still a
major problem in the world. Good news: in 2017, France was, among the G20
countries, the country that made the most progress in terms of reaching parity
between men and women.
Social disparity: access to
housing, education and cultural facilities, and political representation vary
depending on your age, gender, social category, income or diploma.
Children’s lack of education
in poor countries: approximately 60 million children in the world do not have
access to education, although school is compulsory in the majority of
countries. It’s in Sub-Saharan Africa that more than half of the uneducated
children live. In poor countries, the parents need their children as farmhands.
Wars over religion, resources,
power, or territory: the wars in Syria and Yemen, etc. make the world an
unstable place.
Dictatorships: Bashar
al-Assad continues to lead a dictatorship in Syria sowing terror and violence
in his country.
Child exploitation: there
are about 152 million children aged 5 to 14 in the world, of which 60 million live
in Africa; about 70 million children are in forced labor. There are also at
least 40 million adults employed as slaves.
Many people suffer from discrimination.
Judging another person or community based on demeaning stereotypes leads to misery
and social tension, even war.
The mistreatment of animals:
every day, a large number of cats, dogs and other animals suffer and die from
neglect by humans.
What are the possible solutions to the world’s problems?
We can contribute time,
energy, ideas, money to the numerous associations and charities fight for worthy
causes: children’s education, animal rights, an end to child exploitation and slavery,
anti-discrimination measures, etc.
We should encourage people
to help each other and to accept differences.
The best means to prevent
wars is educating people to be more peaceful.
Women need to continue their
struggle for greater equality with men. Children from the youngest age need to
learn that both women and men have the right to realize their dreams; it is not
because you are a boy that you cannot become a hairdresser or nanny, and it is
not because you are a woman that you cannot become a builder or even run a country.
Article by Camille, Elise & Noëllia, ISP Courpière (France)
Héléna adds:
This is a very interesting
question because it makes us think about society today and makes us want to
change it, to make it evolve in the right direction for a better world.
There are a lot of problems
in the world and I won’t be able to mention them all. But I will try to say as
much as I can and find solutions to these problems.
First of all, there is great
inequality in the world regarding distribution of wealth. According to a study
by UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, the
richest 20% have 69.5% of world income and the poorest 1.4 billion people have
only 2% of world GDP. To try to make this distribution of wealth more equal, it
would be plausible to give money to countries in need of development to boost
their economic growth. Unfortunately, this would take a long time and cost a
lot of money, but it would certainly give very good results.
Now let’s talk about gender
inequality. A large majority of women are overwhelmed by violence, wage
disparities and cultural persistence. Women are on the front lines of domestic
and sexual violence. In 2015, six times more women were murdered by their
spouses than husbands by their wives. 62,000 women were raped against 2,700 men
in the same year. Women’s wage income was on average 24% lower than men’s in
2014, according to the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic
Studies (INSEE). Only 72% of mothers have a job, compared with 85% of fathers,
and one-third (33%) work part-time, compared with only 4% of fathers on average.
To achieve greater gender equality, children should be better educated about
equality.
Environmental degradation is
the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as
air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the
extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defined as any change or
disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. Environmental
impact or degradation is caused by the combination of an already very large and
increasing human population, continually increasing economic growth or per
capita affluence, and the application of resource-depleting and polluting
technology. To reduce these problems, humans must try to reduce their
consumption. By doing this, there will be less pollution and waste.
War is one of those
phenomena that have accompanied humanity since its origins. War made and
defeated empires, enriched and ruined kingdoms, inspired the structuring and
destruction of legal, moral, religious norms, and contributed to the
development of arts and techniques, sometimes for better but too often for
worse. To prevent wars, everyone must learn where the boundaries between good
and evil are. To me, the line is crossed when you make a person suffer
physically or psychologically.
