(목요모임) [18 Aug. 2016]Thursday meeting topic

[주영이]

Topic 1) [Editorial] Elderly crime

Tighter safety net needed for seniors

 

It may be normal for the number of elderly crimes to increase in an aging society. Korea is no exception to this phenomenon, with the proportion of aged people in its population rising at the fastest pace in the world.
What differentiates Korea from other societies is that it has seen a sharp increase in felonies by the elderly.

Over the past decade, the number of robbery and rape cases committed by senior citizens has grown fourfold,

government figures show. Arson and murder have also increased by 2.7 times and twofold, respectively.
Another alarming statistic is that about 60 percent of elderly offenders did not have criminal records before committing their crimes.

The issue of elderly crime drew attention again last month when two men aged 81 and 71 were arrested separately for setting fire to a provincial nursing home and a subway train in Seoul. Experts attribute the increase in elderly crime here largely to financial difficulties and a feeling of isolation. Better physical conditions are also cited as a reason for the growing number of offenses committed by senior citizens.

The poverty ratio of people aged 65 and above stands at 48.5 percent in Korea, the highest in the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In a possible reflection of their hardships, the suicide rate of elderly Koreans is also the highest among major advanced nations. More than 80 out of 100,000 people aged 65 and older committed suicide here in 2010, compared with an OECD average of 20.9.

Given that the reasons cited by experts are common in most aging societies, one wonders why Korea has seen particularly high levels of felonies and suicide among elderly citizens.

An explanation is that Korean elderly men are especially frustrated with and have more difficulty adapting to the rapid demise of the patriarchal culture amid the collapse of the traditional extended family system. This phenomenon, coupled with their short-tempered nature and anger with what they consider to be improper treatment, may cause some aged people to take extreme actions.

But the more fundamental factor behind elderly problems here may be the lack of an effective social system to provide support for them at a time when traditional family roles cannot be relied upon.

The senior citizens being driven into a corner today were the ones who made it possible for the country to ascend from the ruins of the 1950-53 Korean War and become a major global economic power. As their contributions helped bring about its current prosperity, Korean society has the obligation to do all it can to help ease the predicament of the elderly.

More serious efforts should be made to implement a set of policies to tighten the social safety net for impoverished and ailing senior citizens. True, expanding benefits for the elderly in an aging society with a decreasing workforce may be easier said than done. The country’s ratio of older dependents aged 65 and above to the working-age population aged 15-64 is forecast to increase from 15 percent in 2010 to 38 percent in 2030 and further to 70 percent in 2050.

Building a sustainable system of support under this demographic constraint requires effective policies to boost the overall productivity of the economy and accept more skillful immigrant workers. Well-designed programs are also needed to provide senior citizens with more opportunities to land jobs in which they can use their experience.

Article source : http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140618000807

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< Questions >

Q1. In this article, under the condition of fast paced changing society, youngsters have tendency to

       ignore the old generations who were used to the confucianism based society and that cause

       the troubles with old generations such as anger management issues causing crime and suicide.

       Do you think what could be the solutions for senior crime or suicide?

       To tackle those troubles among society members, what can be prepared by the government,

       nongovernmental organization and every member of society?

Q2. Compare to the young generations, what are the strength and weakness of senior groups?

       Generally speaking, the eldely have more wisdom than the young. And some said that  we can 

       take advantage of their practical experiences to troubleshoot tricky social issues.

       Do you agree with this opinion? If you have any detailed cases plz share with us on that.

Q3. Do you know any social welfare system focusing on senior citizen?

       Plz share with us. Are you preparing for your old days? 

       If not, do you have any plans to prepare in the near future?

Q4. It is obious that everyone is getting old. Oneday I will be the elderly. But if there is no social

       system to support me or no place to hire me, that will make me feel gloomy. 

       To construct virtuous life circle between the old generations and the young generations,

       what is required ? 

Topic by 스칼렛

Topic2) Is Secondhand Smoke Child Abuse?

Doctors have been warning for years that secondhand smoke leads to many types of illness. However, many children around the world live in areas where adults regularly smoke.

A journal called Annals of Family Medicine recently published an article calling for doctors to start treating children's contact with secondhand smoke as abuse. In that case, contact to secondhand smoke would be viewed much like physical abuse or neglect.

The author of the article is a professor at University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Adam Goldstein says secondhand smoke causes many diseases in children. These diseases include asthma and pneumonia. He adds that no amount of secondhand smoke is safe.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree that secondhand smoke can cause serious health problems in children. They say that compared to children who grow up in homes without smokers, children with parents who smoke have smaller lungs and more illnesses.

However, several organizations for smokers’ rights in the U.S. say people have the right to smoke in their own homes. These same organizations say that many studies done on the effects of smoking on health, including studies on secondhand smoke, do not use good science.

Fight against tobacco companies

The article about secondhand smoke and children comes at the same time the World Health Organization is increasing calls to fight against tobacco companies.

Dr. Margaret Chan is the director-general of the organization. She says she believes tobacco companies are trying to avoid and even weaken anti-tobacco laws.

Speaking in March at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Chan warned the fight against tobacco companies is going to be difficult. But, she added, "We should not give up until we make sure the tobacco industry goes out of business."

Other leading public health researchers who spoke at the conference called for the sale of tobacco to end by 2040.

A spokesperson for the Altria Group -- which includes Philip Morris, the leading cigarette manufacturer in the U.S. -- did not want to comment on the issue.

Will smoking soon be a thing of the past?

Those who want to see a tobacco-free world wrote about their ideas recently in the British medical journal The Lancet. They say they hope that in thirty years “only five percent of adults around the world will still smoke.”

The lead author of the article is Robert Beaglehole from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Mr. Beaglehole said, "A world where tobacco is out of sight, out of mind, and out of fashion -- yet not prohibited -- is achievable in less than three decades from now.”

He says such a world will need the full commitment from governments, civil society and international agencies.

Smoking trends around the world

A man smokes a cigarette at Moscow's Red Square June 1, 2013. Russia has banned smoking at schools and universities, museums, sports facilities, hospitals and on public transportation.

A man smokes a cigarette at Moscow's Red Square June 1, 2013. Russia has banned smoking at schools and universities, museums, sports facilities, hospitals and on public transportation.

New research released by Kenji Shibuya from the University of Tokyo, Japan and colleagues shows that overall rates of smoking are slowly declining.

However, the use of tobacco is expected to rise over the next few decades in some countries, most notably in Africa and the Middle East.

The number of smokers is also on the rise in New York City in the United States. Numbers from the New York Department of Health show that in 2013 there were more than one million adult smokers in New York City. That is a 14 percent increase from 2010.

By 2015, researchers expect one billion people to be smokers.

About one billion people are also expected to die from smoking and other forms of tobacco over the next century. Most of these deaths will be in low-to-middle-income countries.

reference: http://esl-bits.net/

1. Do you smoke? Have you ever smoked cigarettes?

2. If you smoke, how much do you smoke in a day?

3. If you smoke, why did you start? What was the reason?

4. What do you think about the second hand smoke?

5. What are the advantages of smoking, in your opinion?

6. Are you be attracted to people who smoke? Why or why not? How do you feel about women smoking?

7. What is the youngest age that a person should be allowed to smoke?

Topic by 수잔나

[Jina]

토픽 올리느라 고생이 많아욤 !! 땡큐땡큐 ㅋ

[Bradley]

감사합니다 ~