(토요모임) [21. Jan. 2017] Saturday meeting topic

[Scarlet]

Howdy ! 

It's me Scarlett !   

This week we have 4 topics. 

◈ Global Economics : Rising inequality threatens world economy, says WEF

◈ Future Education : 

------------------------------ 8 digital life skills all children need – and a plan for teaching them

------------------------------ Giving our children a great education: five lessons from South Korea

◈ Economics & Politics : 

------------------------------ The troubling charts that show young people losing faith in democracy

------------------------------ The global economy is broken. Inclusive capitalism can fix it

------------------------------ The Meaning of Inclusive Capitalism

◈ Healthcare & tech. : 

------------------------------ The promise of digital health

------------------------------ Scientists have found a drug that regenerates teeth, and it could reduce the need for fillings

 Hope you enjoy the topics. 

With luv 

Scarlett

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Rising inequality threatens world economy, says WEF

Income gap was behind Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s victory, 

says World Economic Forum risk report

Larry Elliott Economics editor/ Wednesday 11 January 2017 09.26 GMT

Rising income inequality and the polarisation of societies pose a risk to the global economy in 2017 and could result in the rolling back of globalisation unless urgent action is taken, according to the World Economic Forum.

Before its annual meeting in Davos next week, the WEF said the gap between rich and poor had been behind the UK’s Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election victory in the US.

And it warned that there were new threats to social cohesion from the robotics and artificial intelligence revolution. The organisation said fundamental reform of capitalism may be needed to tackle public anger.

The WEF’s annual global risks report – culled from 700 experts – found that rising income and wealth disparity, and increasing polarisation of sectors of society, were ranked first and third among the underlying trends that will determine the shape of the world in the next decade.

Climate change was considered the second most important underlying trend, with the WEF noting that environmental concerns were more prominent in the report than ever before.

Trump’s inauguration on 20 January coincides with next week’s Davos meeting and the founder of the WEF, Klaus Schwab, said 2017 would be a pivotal moment for the global community.

“The threat of a less cooperative, more inward-looking world also creates the opportunity to address global risks and the trends that drive them,” he said.

The WEF said the growing mood of anti-establishment populism meant economic growth was no longer enough to mend fractured societies and that “fundamental reforms of market capitalism” would now be needed.

The global risks report said Brexit, the US presidential election result and the referendum defeat suffered by former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi last month meant some people were now questioning whether “the west has reached a tipping point and might now embark on a period of deglobalisation”.

The US economist Dani Rodrik has coined the phrase “the globalisation trilemma” to capture the idea that countries cannot have democracy, national sovereignty and globalisation; they can only ever have two out of the three.

The WEF said recent events in Europe and the US suggested an “appetite for rebalancing towards democracy and national sovereignty”.

The WEF said it had been pointing out the dangers of rising inequality and political polarisation for more than a decade, but that the slow pace of recovery from the deep recession of 2008 had intensified income gaps within countries.

Emergency measures such as quantitative easing – the creation of money by central banks – had become permanent features of economic policy, and had exacerbated inequality by boosting the returns of those holding financial assets.

It added that the trends of recent years had come into sharp focus in 2016 with rising discontent and disaffection evident in the UK referendum and in the US with Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton.

“Urgent action is needed … to overcome political or ideological differences and work together to solve critical challenges,” said Margareta Drzeniek-Hanouz, head of global competitiveness and risks at the WEF.

“The momentum of 2016 towards addressing climate change shows this is possible and offers hope that collective action at the international level aimed at resetting other risks could also be achieved.”

The report warned that society was not keeping pace with technological change. It found that of 12 emerging technologies, artificial intelligence and robotics had the greatest potential benefits but also contained the greatest negative threats.

“Technology has always created jobs as well as destroying them, but there is evidence that the engine of technological job creation is sputtering,” the report said, citing evidence that only 0.5% of the current US workforce was employed in sectors created since 2000 compared with approximately 8% in industries created in the 1980s.

“Technological change is shifting the distribution of income from labour to capital: according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, up to 80% of the decline in labour’s share of national income between 1980 and 2007 was the result of the impact of technology.”

The WEF’s top five risks to the global economy for 2017:

1 Rising income and wealth disparity

Since the 1980s, the share of income going to the top 1% wealthiest citizens has increased in the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland and Australia – though not Germany, France, Japan or Sweden – says the WEF.

This group has shielded itself from austerity and the worst of the post-financial crash recession. Investments in new technology put a premium on workers with higher education and better skills, leaving the unskilled to languish on low pay, while globalisation has raised the incomes of the world’s poorer workers at the expense of those in the west.

The discontent this brings about “has now become an election-winning proposition” that demands action, says the WEF.

2 Changing climate

Climate change is ranked as the second biggest risk for this year, due in part to the increasingly frequent extreme weather that it heralds. While the end of the cyclical global weather phenomenon El Niño means 2017 is unlikely to top 2016 as the hottest on record, the Met Office forecasts it will still globally be one of the warmest ever.

The heat is also likely to be cooler in political circles after last year, which saw the Paris climate agreement ratified at breakneck speed and several other climate deals agreed.

This year governments must get on with actually delivering the carbon curbs they promised at Paris – as the WEF points out, the pace at which emissions are being cut is not yet fast enough to avoid dangerous global warming.

3 Increasing polarisation in societies

The WEF is concerned that democracy itself is in crisis. Policymakers and managers of public and private institutions have become divorced from their electorates both in terms of their cultural backgrounds and their pay and benefits.

Post-truth news media is undermining trust in pillars of the constitution, such as the judiciary. Austerity is hacking back at welfare provision for the vulnerable in society. And multiculturalism is under pressure from nationalism.

“This could be a pivotal moment in political history,” the WEF said, “and it requires courageous new thinking about how best to manage the relationship between citizens and their elected representatives.”

4 Rising cyber dependency

Amazon Echo’s virtual assistant Alexa adding unwanted items including doll’s houses to shopping lists is just one example of the problems arising from an ever more interconnected world.

An increasing amount of critical infrastructure relies, not just on information technology in general, but on the open internet in particular. This has brought great benefits but it also provides more opportunity for anyone hoping to wreak havoc through hacking attacks.

Beyond critical infrastructure, the developed world relies on the open net for a large proportion of economic activity. An estimated 10% of British GDP comes from the “internet economy”.

5 Ageing population

A quarter of Japan’s population is aged over 65, and the proportion is on track to reach 40%. Japanese people younger than 19 comprised 40% of the population in 1960, but are projected to make up just 13% of the population in 2060. The rest of the developed world, and much of the developing world, is heading in the same direction.

To fund welfare programmes, including a long-term care insurance begun in 2000 that ranks as one of the most generous in the world, Tokyo has run up a debt to GDP ratio of 240%.

This culminated in a plea for the fit elderly to look after the unfit, the disabled and ill. It could be argued that Britain’s current healthcare crisis is largely due to successive governments ignoring the lessons from Japan.

China is getting old at the point it gets rich, forcing it to address care and healthcare issues decades before western countries at a similar stage of development.

• This article was amended on 13 January 2017. An earlier version referred to Japan’s budget deficit where its debt to GDP ratio was meant.

Article Source : https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/11/inequality-world-economy-wef-brexit-donald-trump-world-economic-forum-risk-report

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<Questions>

Q1. What is the most principal reason for fractured societies in Korea? How could we mend it ?

Q2. What causes the rising income and wealth disparity currently in our society? 

Q3. What is the merits and demerits of market capitalism? This article suggested that we need fundamental reform of capitalism to tackle public anger. Do you agree with this perspective? 

Q4. What is the most critical risk to the global economy for 2017 among below 5 factors? 

1 Rising income and wealth disparity

2 Changing climate

3 Increasing polarisation in societies

4 Rising cyber dependency

5 Ageing population

Q5. According to an article, our society is fractured by technological development such as robotics and artificial intelligence revolution in a way. Do you agree with this point of view? If yes, how could you tackle these worries? 

Q6. What is the definition of 'Noblesse oblige'? Could noblesse oblige be realized in Korea? 

Q7. Have you ever heard about the 'Buffit rule'? What is it? How do you think about this system? 

*** Buffett Rule  

The Buffett Rule is part of a tax plan proposed by President Barack Obama in 2011. The tax plan would apply a minimum tax rate of 30 percent on individuals making more than one million dollars a year. According to a White House official, the new tax rate would directly affect 0.3 percent of taxpayers.

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffett_Rule

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8 digital life skills all children need – and a plan for teaching them

Written by Yuhyun Park/ Chair, infollutionZERO Foundation

Published Tuesday 6 September 2016

A generation ago, IT and digital media were niche skills. Today, they are a core competency necessary to succeed in most careers.

That’s why digital skills are an essential part of a comprehensive education framework. Without a national digital education programme, command of and access to technology will be distributed unevenly, exacerbating inequality and hindering socio-economic mobility.

 What’s your DQ?

The challenge for educators is to move beyond thinking of IT as a tool, or “IT-enabled education platforms”. Instead, they need to think about how to nurture students’ ability and confidence to excel both online and offline in a world where digital media is ubiquitous.

Like IQ or EQ – which we use to measure someone’s general and emotional intelligence – an individual’s facility and command of digital media is a competence that can be measured. We call it DQ: digital intelligence. And the good news is that DQ is an intelligence that is highly adaptive.

DQ can broadly be broken down into three levels:

Level 1: Digital citizenship

The ability to use digital technology and media in safe, responsible and effective ways

Level 2: Digital creativity

The ability to become a part of the digital ecosystem by co-creating new content and turning ideas into reality by using digital tools

Level 3: Digital entrepreneurship

The ability to use digital media and technologies to solve global challenges or to create new opportunities

 Why are we neglecting digital citizenship?

Of the three, digital creativity is the least neglected, as more and more schools attempt to provide children with some exposure to media literacy, coding and even robotics, all of which are seen as directly related to future employability and job creation. Likewise, there are major education initiatives – from America’s code.org to Africa’s IamTheCode.org – that promote access to coding education.

Digital entrepreneurship has also been actively encouraged, particularly in tertiary education. Many top universities have adopted and developed new courses or initiatives such as technopreneurship and entrepreneurship hackathons to encourage a culture of innovation. We’re even starting to see global movements that nurture social entrepreneurship among children through mentoring programmes – such as the Mara Foundation – and school programmes, like with the Ashoka Changemaker School.

But digital citizenship has often been overlooked by educators and leaders. This is in spite of the fact it is fundamental to a person’s ability to use technology and live in the digital world, a need which arises from a very young age. A child should start learning digital citizenship as early as possible, ideally when one starts actively using games, social media or any digital device.

 The digital skills our children should learn

Educators tend to think children will pick up these skills by themselves or that these skills should be nurtured at home. However, due to the digital generation gap, with generation Z being the first to truly grow up in the era of smartphones and social media, neither parents nor teachers know how to adequately equip children with these skills.

Young children are all too often exposed to cyber risks such as technology addiction, cyberbullying and grooming. They can also absorb toxic behavioural norms that affect their ability to interact with others. And while most children encounter such challenges, the problematic exposure is amplified for vulnerable children, including those with special needs, minorities and the economically disadvantaged. They tend to not only be more frequently exposed to risk, but also face more severe outcomes.

So what skills should we be teaching our children as part of their digital citizenship? In the research we’ve done on this matter, we’ve identified eight in particular.

     

1. Digital citizen identity: the ability to build and manage a healthy identity online and offline with integrity

2. Screen time management: the ability to manage one’s screen time, multitasking, and one’s engagement in online games and social media with self-control

3. Cyberbullying management: the ability to detect situations of cyberbullying and handle them wisely

4. Cybersecurity management: the ability to protect one’s data by creating strong passwords and to manage various cyberattacks

5. Privacy management: the ability to handle with discretion all personal information shared online to protect one’s and others’ privacy

6. Critical thinking: the ability to distinguish between true and false information, good and harmful content, and trustworthy and questionable contacts online

7. Digital footprints: The ability to understand the nature of digital footprints and their real-life consequences and to manage them responsibly

8. Digital empathy: the ability to show empathy towards one’s own and others’ needs and feelings online

 What a quality digital education looks like

A quality digital citizenship education must include opportunities for assessment and feedback. The assessment tools should be comprehensive as well as adaptive in order to eval‎uate not only hard but also soft DQ skills. Ultimately, such assessments should serve as a means of providing feedback that gives children a better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, so that they may find their own paths to success.

Ultimately, national leaders need to understand the importance of digital citizenship as the foundation of digital intelligence. National education leaders should make it a priority to implement digital citizenship programmes as part of an overall DQ education framework.

Most importantly, individuals should initiate digital citizenship education in their own sphere of influence: parents in their homes, teachers in their classes, and leaders in their communities.

There is no need to wait. In fact, there is no time to wait. Children are already immersed in the digital world and are influencing what that world will look like tomorrow. It is up to us to ensure that they are equipped with the skills and support to make it a place where they can thrive.

This post is a follow up to the 8 digital skills we must teach our children

Article source : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/8-digital-life-skills-all-children-need-and-a-plan-for-teaching-them?utm_content=buffer6d09e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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Giving our children a great education: 

five lessons from South Korea

Written by Harry A. Patrinos/ Manager, The World Bank

Published Wednesday 14 December 2016

Watch the Asia Takes the Lead session from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2017 here.

Education is one of the most powerful instruments for reducing poverty and inequality. It also lays the basis for sustained growth. Better schooling investments raise national income growth rates. In nearly all countries, though to varying degrees, educational progress has lagged for groups that are disadvantaged due to low income, gender, disability or ethnic and/or linguistic affiliation. However, there is an on-going education revolution occurring.

More people are in school now than ever before. Globally, in 1900, the average level of schooling was less than two years. It was just over two years in 1950, more than seven years in 2000, but it is projected to grow to 10 years by 2050. This is a more than five-fold increase in a century and a half.

This tremendous demand for schooling makes sense from an economic point of view. The returns are high around the world. 

Yet, despite this revolution, there is a crisis in learning and a financing gap, to go along with the need for innovation. Too many children are yet to enroll in school – 124 million – and a staggering 250 million are in school but not learning. It will take considerable national and international effort to address these issues. Development assistance can only do so much since most education spending is domestic. Better allocation of resources is needed and innovative ways to use it are called for.

In most countries, education systems are not providing workers with the skills necessary to compete in today’s job markets. A mastery of skills early on is needed.

The role of ‘official development assistance’ 

Official development assistance is a term coined by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure aid. Given the high returns, significant learning gaps, and the number of children out of school, the priority is to invest in relevant skills. These include problem-solving skills, learning skills, communication skills, skills for self-management, and social skills.

The problem however is that one in four young people in developing countries are unable to read. Moreover, Official Development Assistance (ODA) is limited – about $160 billion a year.

Therefore, ODA efforts need to be focused, catalytic and innovative. Investment needs to be focused and evidence-based. A good, healthy start is needed. Invest early, on early childhood development, but also early reading programs. 

What can we learn about education financing from Korea and apply to ODA programs? Here are five great ideas from Korea that the world can learn from:

As Korea did many years ago, countries need to get the fundamentals right.

That means investing in basic education. In two generations, Korea went from being a country with mass illiteracy to becoming an economic and educational leader. These are important lessons for the rest of the world, particularly countries grappling with poor reading skills. 

So, step one would be to scale up early reading programs that work. There are cost-effective interventions out there that can improve reading rapidly. In Tonga, community play groups lead to significant reading gains, on average 0.24 standard deviations in just one academic year, at a cost of only $67 per child. 

This results in a benefit-cost ratio – eval‎uated only with future labor market earnings – of almost 5:1. In Papua New Guinea, a reading intervention program boosts reading scores by 0.51 standard deviations at a cost of $60 per child.

Public financing of private provision can lead to significant gains in a cost-effective manner.

For decades, the Korean government has been supporting the private sector at the secondary school level. This has helped contribute to creating one of the most successful education systems in the world. Korea ranks high in international student assessment rankings such the OECD’s PISA. 

The private sector has been growing worldwide, but especially in developing countries. Over the last two decades, enrollments in private schools have more than doubled in low income countries. There are different ways of delivering education services. If other countries leveraged their private sector to advance public sector goals in education, we would reach international targets much sooner.

High private returns for tertiary education calls for innovative financing mechanisms

that will expand access and effective demand for enrollment, especially among the poor. High private returns could be used to justify cost-recovery, but also income contingent loans and human capital contracts. 

Income contingent loan programs use future earnings to finance current education spending. Korea is a pioneer in this arena as well. Income contingent financing programs expand higher education and promote equity. Given the high private returns to higher education worldwide, another lesson from Korea would be to implement such innovative financing programs.

To get workers ready for jobs, industry links for skills formation are needed.

Employer led training is an effective mechanism in Korea. Skills development has played a central role in driving Korea’s rapid economic development. The Korean government has invested in improving the quality of vocational training based on future skill needs. Schools are encouraged to collaborate with industry. Employers play a strong role in supporting skills development.

Use multilateral loans to finance post-secondary education and training. 

Another example in technical education from Korea is how higher education was financed. Using a World Bank loan in 1980 (the $100 million Sector Program on Higher Technical Education), the Korean government on-lent funds to private institutions. 

Not only was it the Bank’s first sector operation in education, it was also one of the first public-private partnerships in education. The objective was to improve Korea’s higher technical education system to cope with increasingly sophisticated demand for labor. In total, 50 colleges were supported. 

In contrast to earlier projects and most other higher education projects of this period, the project covered “the whole sub-sector, public and private.” This was truly an innovation and 36 years later would still be an innovative approach to financing technical skills.

Article source : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/giving-our-children-a-great-education-five-lessons-from-south-korea/?utm_content=buffer69747&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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<Questions>

Q1. What’s your DQ(Digital intelligence)?

Q2. According to an article, we need to be involved in education initiatives for our future employability and job creation. In this point, are you join any kinds of programs to develop digital creativity? For instance, media literacy, coding and robotics? 

Q3. This article suggest 8 skills should be trained by us to be a successful digital citizen. How many items did you acquire from the belows? 

1. Digital citizen identity: the ability to build and manage a healthy identity online and offline with integrity

2. Screen time management: the ability to manage one’s screen time, multitasking, and one’s engagement in online games and social media with self-control

3. Cyberbullying management: the ability to detect situations of cyberbullying and handle them wisely

4. Cybersecurity management: the ability to protect one’s data by creating strong passwords and to manage various cyberattacks

5. Privacy management: the ability to handle with discretion all personal information shared online to protect one’s and others’ privacy

6. Critical thinking: the ability to distinguish between true and false information, good and harmful content, and trustworthy and questionable contacts online

7. Digital footprints: The ability to understand the nature of digital footprints and their real-life consequences and to manage them responsibly

8. Digital empathy: the ability to show empathy towards one’s own and others’ needs and feelings online

     

Q4. Do you have any friends or acquaintances who have issues in terms of screen time management or digital citizen identity? 

Q5. Do you think our education system have assessment and feedback procedure for students' better understanding of their strength and weaknesses? 

Q6. How do you keep abreast with the cutting-edge knowledge or skills in your fields? 

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The troubling charts that show young people 

losing faith in democracy

Written by Alex Gray/ Formative Content/ Published Thursday 1 December 2016

More and more people in the West are losing faith in democracy. And the younger they are, the worse the trend.

Harvard lecturer Yascha Mounk and Roberto Stefan Foa, a political scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, have published a study which looks at decades worth of data on attitudes towards democracy, revealing some alarming results.

People aren’t as supportive of democracy as they used to be

This chart, published in the New York Times, shows a systematic decline in the percentage of people who think that it is essential to live in a democracy, depending on what decade they were born in.

How essential it is to live in a democracy, by age range  Image: New York Times

It shows that those born in the 1930s believe in democracy much more than those born in the 1980s. Some 72% of those born in the 1930s in America think democracy is absolutely essential. So do 55% of the same cohort in the Netherlands.

But the millennial generation (those born since 1980) has grown much more indifferent. For example, only one in three Dutch millennials says the same; in the United States, that number is slightly lower, around 30%.

“Over the last three decades, trust in political institutions such as parliaments or the courts has precipitously declined across the established democracies of North America and Western Europe. So has voter turnout,” say the authors of the study in an earlier paper.

Authoritarian rule

Younger people are more open to the alternatives to democracy, such as military rule.

Overall, more people thought democracy was a bad way to run a country in 2011 than in 1995. In 1995, only 16% of Americans born in the 1970s believed that democracy was a “bad” political system for their country.

In 2011 that figure went up to 20% – or one fifth.

Those born in the 1980s were even less enamoured with democracy – 24% of U.S. millennials considered democracy to be a “bad” or “very bad” way of running the country in 2011.

Europe showed a similar trend. In 2011, 13% of European youth aged 16 to 24 expressed such a view, up from 8% among the same age group in the mid-1990s.

 Beliefs in democracy   Image: Mounk/Foa 2016

Young people were also more willing to express support for authoritarian alternatives.

43% of older Americans do not think that the military should be allowed to take over when the government is incompetent or failing to do its job.

Amongst younger people the figure is much lower at 19%.

In Europe, the generation gap is somewhat less stark but equally clear, with 53% of older Europeans and only 36% of millennials strongly rejecting the notion that a government’s incompetence can justify having the army “take over”.

Young people aren’t as interested in politics

But young people are also increasingly less interested in politics than their older counterparts, as this chart shows.

 The Widening Political Apathy Gap   Image: Journal of Democracy

As people get older their interest in politics increased, but the opposite happened to the younger generation, which means the gap between them has increased.

The generation gap between older and younger Americans between 1990 and 2010 has widened from 10 to 26 percentage points. Among European respondents, the gap between young and old more than tripled between 1990 and 2010, from 4 to 14 percentage points.

Why are young people fed up?

What frustrates over half of 18-35 year olds about government leaders in their country, according to the World Economic Forum Global Shapers survey, is the abuse of power and corruption.

Levels of bureaucracy and administrative barriers and lack of accountability bother almost a third of young people. Insincerity and lack of action trouble a quarter of young people. One fifth felt that the government doesn’t understand them.

 Percentage of unique votes   Image: New York Times

Are democracies safe – for now?

The New York Times article concludes that, ultimately, like most forms of research, this is just one theory: “And the researchers’ approach, like all data-driven social science, has limitations. It is only as good as the survey data that underlies it, for instance, and it does not take into account other factors that could be important to overall stability, such as economic growth.

“At least one prominent political scientist argues that Mr Mounk’s and Mr Foa’s data is not as worrying as they believe it to be,” says the newspaper.

The authors, in their earlier paper, agree that much more research needs to be done to figure out what’s really happening to democracy.

However, they also warn that: “If we take the number of people who claim to endorse democracy at face value, no regime type in the history of mankind has held such universal and global appeal as democracy does today.

“Yet the reality of contemporary democracies looks rather less triumphant than this fact might suggest. Citizens of democracies are less and less content with their institutions.”

Article Source : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/charts-that-show-young-people-losing-faith-in-democracy?utm_content=buffera9ca6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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The global economy is broken. Inclusive capitalism can fix it

Written by Andrew Liveris/ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Dow Chemical Company

Published Wednesday 18 January 2017

This article is part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017

The great 19th-century chemist Louis Pasteur once said, “Science knows no country because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.” The innovative technologies and ideas sweeping the globe today are proving Pasteur right in ways he could not have possibly imagined. Indeed, the advances that are driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution belong to all of humankind.

While the impact of innovation is global, it affects different populations in dramatically different ways. For some, rapidly changing realities have brightened their economic outlook; for others, who are left behind by this progress, they cast a darkening shadow of dissatisfaction with the global economy. For those of us who believe – based on history and experience – in the power of innovation to advance opportunity and prosperity around the world, it is time to redouble our efforts to forge a more inclusive capitalism where the benefits are experienced by everyone.

There is no question that, historically, innovation and global commerce have been tremendous forces for progress. According to the latest available data, the global economy is more than five times larger than it was half a century ago, and global per capita GDP has more than doubled over the same period. These numbers represent more than higher profits for corporations: they also amount to millions of jobs created and billions of lives improved. In 2015, the World Bank estimated that the share of the global population living in extreme poverty had fallen below 10% for the first time – down from over 40% barely three decades ago.

It is also evident, however, that the global economy is not serving everyone equally. In fact, many people believe it is not serving them all – and with good reason. In July 2016, the McKinsey Global Institute released an extensive report on incomes in 25 advanced economies worldwide, finding that between 65% and 70% of households were in income segments whose average incomes stagnated or declined between 2005 and 2014.

       Image: McKinsey Global Institute

That figure is even more staggering when compared to the 12 years leading up to 2005, when less than 2% of households were in segments with flat or falling incomes. It should not surprise us, then, that a majority of citizens in several of these countries say the global economy is no longer a force for good.

This widespread frustration is clearly warranted. But in order to drive progress, we must take steps to fix what is wrong with the global economy while actively participating in it. In the UK, for example, the Office of Budget and Responsibility projects that leaving the European Union will reduce Britain’s economic growth by 2.4 percentage points by 2020. Without decisive and inclusive action, the economic risk will only continue to grow. And while governments have an indispensable role to play, leadership from the private sector is no less essential.

Today, the private sector has a real opportunity to advance a new kind of capitalism – inclusive capitalism – that does not just generate profits for corporations, but truly creates opportunity and prosperity for everyone. Of course, this will not be easy to achieve. It will require individual enterprises, particularly those with global reach, to take on responsibilities traditionally outside their missions and beyond their balance sheets. Companies will need to do more to maximize the value they create for all the people and communities their business affects. In these essential ways, we can – and we must – redefine the role of business in society.

This is not to suggest that corporations should become charities. Quite the contrary: the businesses that grow and succeed in this volatile environment will be the ones that create the most value for society as a whole. The companies that define the 21st century will recognize that their license to operate is not simply granted by shareholders or governments; it is also earned through the solutions they provide, the jobs they create, and the role they play in communities around the world.

Inclusive capitalism is ultimately about re-embracing the purest purpose of business: solving problems and improving people’s lives. Especially in an era of uncertainty – with so many great, global challenges to solve – it is the only way to ensure that the progress achieved over the past century continues for the next century and beyond.

Article source : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/the-global-economy-is-broken-inclusive-capitalism-can-fix-it

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The Meaning of Inclusive Capitalism

01/06/2016 10:26 am ET | Updated Jan 06, 2017

By Ignacio S. Galán, Chairman and CEO of Iberdrola

Inclusive capitalism must be focused on long-term value creation, always building on principles such as ethics and transparency. It can be defined as a more responsible form of capitalism which puts people at the heart of decision making, with the aim of fostering confidence, creating jobs and, more generally, ensuring the well-being of citizens.

It is the essential responsibility of corporations to materialize this concept. This duty derives from our wide involvement in society: We create and support jobs, promote investment, purchase from our suppliers, contribute to public finances, foster innovation and protect the natural environment.

In order to take full advantage of this potential and to ensure that the principles of inclusive capitalism become the driving force of the economy, companies require stable and predictable regulatory frameworks. Such frameworks allow them, in turn, to design and implement responsible and sustainable business models.

We at Iberdrola are convinced that it is possible to do business differently and that this new capitalism — based on the values of honesty, effort and responsibility — is possible. Our model rests on a long-term vision, ethics and transparency. We believe in the integration of people and cultures and sharing the economic benefits we generate with all our stakeholders.

True to these principles, we serve the communities in which we operate by making annual investments of 4 billion euros and annual purchases from suppliers totaling 5.4 billion euros. We also contribute 5.5 billion euros per annum to public finances through tax payments.

We offer our customers innovative solutions and, around the world, we have directly or indirectly created 350,000 jobs. We provide hundreds of scholarships to young graduates each year and promote personal and professional development amongst our employees, providing each with more than 40 hours of training annually.

Inclusive capitalism can be defined as a more responsible form of capitalism which puts people at the heart of decision-making. The meaning of inclusive capitalism I would also like to underline the company’s policy on equal opportunities and gender equality. In recent years the share of women in Iberdrola’s workforce has increased at all levels, and we are now among the top European companies for the proportion of women involved in company governance: our Lead Independent Director and the chairs of all Board subcommittees are women.

We are also implementing different measures to improve personal and professional life balance for employees.

Finally, as an energy company, we understand that fighting climate change is one of the pillars of our corporate social responsibility. Over our 150-year history, Iberdrola has always been focused on clean energy sources such as hydroelectricity and wind, such that we are now the leading wind energy generator in the world. Accordingly, we produce 30% less CO2 emissions per kWh than the European average and we have already met our 30% emissions reduction target for 2020. But we want to go further than this: we have committed to reduce our CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 (from 2007 levels). Our goal is to become carbon neutral by 2050.

All in all, Iberdrola is firmly committed to our customers (continuously meeting their service expectations), to our suppliers (involving them in our responsible and ethical practices) and to the shareholders who have placed their confidence and trust in us (we create sustainable value for almost seven hundred thousand people, many of whom are pensioners). This is our way of bringing inclusive capitalism to life.

Article source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/inclusive-capitalism/the-meaning-of-inclusive_b_8922230.html

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<Questions>

Q1. What is the definition of democracy? 

Q2. What is the definition of inclusive capitalism? How about inclusive growth? 

Q3. What is the most interesting political issue currently? 

Q4. What frustrates you the most about government leaders in your country(presidents, prime-ministers, ministers, governors, mayors, etc.)?

- Abuse of power/ corruption  - Bureaucracy and administrative barriers - Lack of accountability - Lack of action  - Lack of understanding of citizens - They do not represent my society.

- Special treatments - Salaries and benefits - Arrogance/ ego - They sound like typical politicians.  - Inaccessible

Q5. Do you have faith in democracy? What is reason for your answer? 

Q6. Do you think that inclusive capitalism can be a solution for our troubles? 

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The promise of digital health

Written by Ann Aerts/ Director, Novartis Foundation

Published Wednesday 4 January 2017

Africa has changed remarkably, and for the better, since I first worked as a young doctor in Angola some 20 years ago. But no change has been more obvious than the way the continent has adopted mobile technology. People in Africa – and, indeed, throughout low- and middle-income countries – are seizing the opportunities that technology provides, using mobile phones for everything from making payments to issuing birth certificates, to gaining access to health care.

The benefit of mobile technologies lies in access. Barriers like geographical distance and low resources, which have long prevented billions of people from getting the care they need, are much easier to overcome in the digital age. And, indeed, there are countless ways in which technology can be deployed to improve health-care access and delivery.

Of course, this is not new information, and a growing number of technology-based health initiatives have taken shape in recent years. But only a few have reached scale, and achieved long-term sustainability; the majority of projects have not made it past the pilot phase. The result is a highly fragmented landscape of digital solutions – one that, in some cases, can add extra strain to existing health systems.

The first step to addressing this problem is to identify which factors breed success – and which impede it. Here, perhaps the most important observation relates to how the solution is linked to the reality on the ground. After all, technology is an enabler for the innovation of health-care delivery, not an end in itself.

Solutions that focus on end-users, whether health practitioners or patients, have the best chance of succeeding. Fundamental to this approach is the recognition that what users need are not necessarily the most advanced technologies, but rather solutions that are easy to use and implement. In fact, seemingly outdated technologies like voice and text messages can be far more useful tools for the intended users than the latest apps or cutting-edge innovations in, say, nanotechnology.

Smartphone users worldwide Image: Pew Research Center

Consider the Community-based Hypertension Improvement Project in Ghana, run by the Novartis Foundation, which I lead, and FHI 360. The project supports patients in self-managing their condition through regular mobile medication reminders, as well as advice on necessary lifestyle changes. This approach is successful because it is patient-centered and leverages information and communication technology (ICT) tools that are readily available and commonly used. In a country where mobile penetration exceeds 80% but only a few people have smartphones, such simple solutions can have the greatest impact.

For health practitioners, digital solutions must be perceived as boosting efficiency, rather than adding to their already-heavy workload. Co-creating solutions with people experienced in delivering health care in low-resource settings can help to ensure that the solutions are adopted at scale.

For example, the telemedicine network that the Novartis Foundation and its partners rolled out with the Ghana Health Service was a direct response to the need, expressed by health-care practitioners on the ground, to expand the reach of medical expertise. The network connects frontline health workers with a simple phone call to consultation centers in referral hospitals several hours away, where doctors and specialists are available around-the-clock. From the outset, the project was a response to an expressed need to expand the reach of medical expertise, and was fully operated on the ground by Ghana Health Service staff, which made this model sustainable at scale.

To realize the full potential of digital health, solutions need to be integrated into national health systems. Only then can digital technology accelerate progress toward universal health coverage and address countries’ priority health needs.

Collaboration across the health and ICT sectors, both public and private, is essential. Multidisciplinary partnerships driven by the sustained leadership of senior government officials must guide progress, beginning at the planning stage. Intra-governmental collaboration, dedicated financing for digital health solutions, and effective governance mechanisms will also be vital to successful strategies.

Digital technologies offer huge opportunities to improve the way health care is delivered. If we are to seize them, we must learn from past experience. By remaining focused on the reality of end-users and on priority health needs, rather than being dazzled by the latest technology, we can fulfil the promise of digital health.

Article source : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/the-promise-of-digital-health?utm_content=buffercf19d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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<Questions>

Q1. What is the concept of digital health? 

Q2. Have you ever heard about appropriate technology? Could you explain the definition of this word?

Q3. According to an article, digital health fundamentally recognize that what users need are not necessarily the most advanced technologies, but rather solutions that are easy to use and implement. Therefore, 'digital health' concept persue to support patients in self-managing their condition through regular mobile medication reminders, as well as advice on necessary lifestyle changes. How do you think about this idea? Do you agree with this stance? 

Q4. When you are using mobile phone, what do you usually your mobile phone for? 

Q5. Do you know any technology-based health initiatives? 

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Scientists have found a drug that regenerates teeth, 

and it could reduce the need for fillings

Fingers crossed./ JOSH HRALA 10 JAN 2017

Researchers have identified a drug that can regenerate teeth from the inside out, possibly reducing the need for artificial fillings.

The drug was previously used in Alzheimer’s clinical trials, and it now appears to improve the tooth’s natural ability to heal itself. It works by activating stem cells inside the tooth's pulp centre, prompting the damaged area to regenerate the hard dentin material that makes up the majority of a tooth. "The simplicity of our approach makes it ideal as a clinical dental product for the natural treatment of large cavities, by providing both pulp protection and restoring dentine," said lead author Paul Sharpe from King’s College London. "In addition, using a drug that has already been tested in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease provides a real opportunity to get this dental treatment quickly into clinics."

After a tooth is damaged by things like trauma or cavities, the soft pulp at its centre can be exposed, increasing the risk of infection.

To prevent that, our bodies create a thin layer of dentin - the hard, calcified tissue that makes up the bulk of a tooth - which helps block outside material from making its way inside.

But this process is not enough to stop large cavities from exposing the vulnerable pulp, which is why dentists drill out the cavity, and then pack the area with artificial fillings - a treatment that's worked in the past, but isn’t ideal.

"The tooth is not just a lump of mineral, it’s got its own physiology. You’re replacing a living tissue with an inert cement," Sharpe told Hannah Devlin at The Guardian.

"Fillings work fine, but if the tooth can repair itself, surely [that’s] the best way. You’re restoring all the vitality of the tooth."

Sharpe and his team found that they could use the Alzheimer's drug Tideglusib to stimulate the stem cells inside a tooth to actually create more dentin than usual, regenerating the whole structure without needing to add any foreign substance at all. In other words, no fillings. To figure this out, the researchers used Tideglusib on damaged teeth in mice to see how it promoted stem cell activation. The drug was applied to the cavity using a biodegradable collagen sponge soaked in Tideglusib molecules, and then everything was sealed up inside.

After several weeks, the team saw that the collagen sponge had degraded, and the teeth had regenerated enough dentin to fill the gap. The process itself is very similar to a normal cavity filling, but instead of putting in an artificial filler, doctors are encouraging the growth of natural dentin, leading to healthier teeth in the long run. "Dentistry is not only about filling and drilling, but also about keeping the teeth healthy," oral cell biologist Ben Scheven from the University of Birmingham in the UK, who was not involved with the study, told The Guardian. "Especially since it’s an accessible and cheap treatment, I can imagine this being used in the clinic."

Considering the technique has so far only been tested in mice, there's a lot more research to be done to confirm‎ if the results can be replicated in humans, so we can't get ahead of ourselves just yet. The team plan on moving to rats next, and if those results are positive, human trials could be on the cards. The good news is that Tideglusib and the collagen sponges used in the procedure have both passed clinical trials for other treatments, which will likely speed up the process if the technique does make it to human testing.

This isn't the only effort to improve how we perform fillings - in 2015, another team in the UK announced that they're developing a 'pulp cap' that can be inserted in a tooth to stimulate stem cells and trigger similar dentin growth. And another study from 2015, this time by researchers in Australia, found that tooth decay could be reversed with a high-concentration fluoride varnish before cavities form, possibly lowering the amount of treatment needed to begin with.

We still have a long way to go before these options will be available at our local dentist, but researchers are determined to make oral care less horrible in the future, which should be good news to millions of people who fear the drill.

The study was published in Scientific Reports.

Article source : http://www.sciencealert.com/this-new-drug-can-regenerate-teeth-possibly-reducing-the-need-for-man-made-fillings

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<Questions>

Q1. How often do you go to dental clinic?  

Q2. How do you feel about visiting dentist's and drilling your teeth? 

Q3. If you can use this drug that can regenerate teeth from the inside out, would you apply it into your teeth? 

Q4. If this tech. turned out to be successful, what would happen to our eating habits and life style? 

Q5. Thanks to the newly developed tech., there might be no more grandparents who puts dentures(false/artificial teeth) in her/his mouth in the future. How do you think about this idea?