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Details of the current state of world health - and of the different medical
problems which confront various societies - can be found on the World Health
Organization web site:
http://www.who.int/home-page/
It is clear that while western society has made almost unbelievable progress
in preventing and dealing with many illnesses, it has generated its own
particular life-threatening problems. Many of these are directly related
to our wealth and over-consumption. Older students might find a way into
this issue by reflecting on this adage by Frederick Douglass, the 19th century
slave-turned-abolitionist: "Food to the indolent is poison, not
sustenance".
Never before has so much food been so readily available, while at the same
time there is tremendous pressure on young people for their body to conform
to excessively thin patterns. Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis of
Obesity and Anorexia, would students prefer life in the Middle Ages where
there was only starvation and plague to contend with? The UK's Eating Disorder
Association website, at:
http://www.edauk.com/default.htm
includes some interesting poems by young people, which might provide another
way in to reflect on this particular issue.
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What other health problems seem to be caused by modern living in western
societies? Gather reports in the newspaper on the causes of illnesses
such as lung and other cancers, asbestosis, stress etc.
For two games (one for secondary, one for primary) showing the effects
of modern life on the individual's wellbeing, see the REEP (RE and Environment)
website
http://www.reep.org/
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