The rapidly changing state of the world makes planning in the face of complex interconnected problems a formidable challenge. Our ability to conceive adequate solutions and strategies is often undermined by our lack of understanding of the nature of problems in their wider context. The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential offers a radically different perspective to associations, policy-makers, social researchers and those concerned with development strategy. By clarifying the ways in which problems reinforce and sustain each other, the Encyclopedia shifts the level of attention from isolated problems to problem cycles, and thus to sustainable strategy cycles. This allows for a more holistic understanding of the environment in which global problems and strategies are situated.
The extent to which contagious and infectious diseases spread through human populations is highly variable. In a developed country a few hundred cases of typhoid or plague may produce anxiety or even mild panic, but the outbreak can usually be controlled by routine public health measures. Such an epidemic is not a threat to the survival of the community. In developing countries, diseases may be much more widespread and have a regular endemic character; in these cases, massive spread to the whole community is limited by a high degree of naturally acquired immunity, and public health measures may help. On the other hand, diseases (particularly new strains) like influenza or measles may attack a large proportion of a community, especially if it has acquired little immunity from previous exposure or by immunization. That some diseases (for example, influenza, measles and plague) are in fact capable of affecting a large part of a population in a highly disastrous fashion is a matter of historical fact.
A potential pandemic virus would have three hallmarks. It would be of a new type to which large numbers of people would have no immunity. The illness it causes would be serious and life threatening, and it would be capable of spreading quickly from person to person.
A major question is whether epidemics are rare accidents or whether they could be started deliberately. It is possible that, by a deliberate selection of mutants or through recombinants, highly virulent and spreading strains could be obtained. By 1998, research had shown that many new highly virulent forms of influenza arise due to antigenic shift. The antigens of the influenza change, either through mutation or through assembly of a new combination of animal viruses. Ducks can store both bird viruses and some forms of swine flu virus, and some of these in combination can infect humans, such as the modern H5N1 (Hong Kong 1968) virus. Thus epidemics can be due to accidents, but it is highly likely that such accidents will continue to occur frequently.
Corrupt practices in business include diversion of company funds, tax evasion, and the use of bribery, intimidation and fraud. High company officials involved in corruption or seeking to extend the power of the company may offer bribes to public officials in return for favours. Commercial pressures on companies to improve performance increase susceptibility to unethical behaviour. Establishing criminal liability in such cases is a matter of law and evidence, generally with the requirement that the manager should know of the wrongdoing or be willfully blind to actions by a subordinate.
Corporate crime differs from white collar crime in that the latter is solely for the benefit of the individual, whereas corporate crime serves the corporate entity, even though in some cases the interests of the company and an individual may be connected. Embezzlement of funds from your employer is white collar crime. Deliberate inflated invoicing, which siphons funds from your clients' into your company's accounts, could be either corporate crime or white collar crime or both, depending on whether the perpetrator is able to take personal gain from the action.
A distinction can be also be made between unethical corporate activity undertaken at the discretion of a company employee and that undertaken with the tacit encouragement of, or by instruction of, superiors. Examples include cases where pollutants are dumped illegally to save disposal costs. It is considered impractical for top executives to know all the decisions taken by subordinates. In some cases such executives make it clear that they do not care how a job is done, provided it gets done. In other cases they deliberately turn a blind eye, or implicitly agree to it. And without in any way condoning unethical activity, executives may reward those subordinates who do get a job done under difficult circumstances. In all such cases the executives remain shielded from the blame by plausible deniability, although several countries have introduced new legislation to ensure that directors of companies are held liable for the criminal activities of the company and its employees.
Air pollution is the result of the discharge into the atmosphere of foreign gases, vapours, droplets and particles, or of excessive amounts of normal constituents, such as the carbon dioxide and suspended particulate matter produced by the burning of fossil fuels. A growing body of evidence seems to show a consistent association between air pollution and health impairment of varying degrees. Such associations are found between acute pollution exposure and morbidity and mortality; chronic lower-level exposure and morbidity and mortality; exposure and impairment of function and performance; exposure and symptoms of sensory irritation; and exposure and other effects on well-being.
A relatively new feature of the effects of air pollutants is the association with long term global problems. Considerable uncertainty surrounds scenarios relating to the effect of increased levels of carbon dioxide, but some predictions are of major impact on climate. The most significant polluting substances are sulphur dioxide and the oxides of nitrogen produced by power stations burning coal or oil and motor cars. The phenomenon of acid deposition is widespread throughout northern temperate regions, and researchers have associated 'acid rain' with damage to wildlife and wildlife habitats, including freshwaters and forests. Both wet and dry acid deposition is associated with damage to artefacts and materials. More locally, environmental contamination has resulted from long-term use of materials such as asbestos and lead, whose full impact as air pollutants has emerged only recently.
Airborne toxic agents, including micro-organisms and other harmful agents such as respirable dust, may have long-term effects such as genetic damage, carcinogenesis, and shortened life expectancy. The effect on an individual of foreign substances in the ambient environment depends on his health and on the degree and duration of exposure. Symptoms may not be readily distinguishable and their medical assessment is not always easy. Practical difficulties also arise from the inadequacy of long-term sampling procedures and analytical techniques.
The recommendation of maximum permissible limits for international adoption is a complicated procedure. Countries vary greatly in the amount of airborne known toxic and harmful agents workers may be exposed to so that one country may allow exposure to a toxic agent to be up to 90 times greater than the exposure permitted in another country. Permissible limits are normally based on an exposure of eight hours a day for five days a week. Different considerations must apply when people are exposed briefly to high concentrations, when working periods are longer than normal, or when workers are subjected to additional stresses such as high temperatures or poor nutrition.
Cancer, which is not a single disease but a spectrum of diseases that includes more than 100 kinds, is characterized by the unrestrained growth of cells. Cells naturally grow and multiply, but in a healthy body this growth is controlled by a complex series of regulatory mechanisms. Cancer occurs when this regulation fails and cell division goes haywire. In most cancer cases, unrestrained growth leads to the formation of tumours which spread into and often kill normal tissue. When not attended to, such a tumour (which is called malignant) ordinarily leads to death, but there can be a long delay between its onset and the appearance of obvious symptoms.
In connective tissues (such as bone, cartilage, tendon, muscle) cancers are called sarcomas; in epithelial tissues (such as skin, bladder, lung, breast) they are called carcinomas; and in cells of the blood system they are named leukaemias.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the industrialized world and is rapidly becoming a major disease in the Third World as well. Though the aetiology is still undetermined, certain cancers are linked to certain environmental and lifestyle factors such as carcinogenic substances in the work environment, cigarette smoking, excess exposure to the sun, alcohol, diets high in fat and low in fibre, and stress.
Speculating about the origins of cancer, many oncologists describe a cancer personality - repressed and depressed - and draw attention to the loss or bereavement which commonly precedes the onset of the disease. Lung cancer patients are most often people unable to express strong emotions. Cancer of the cervix occurs most often among women with a tendency to helplessness or a sense of hopeless frustration derived from some unresolved conflict in the preceding six months. Overall, the most important factors in the development of malignancy are: a loss of raison d'être; an inability to express anger or resentment; marked self dislike and distrust; and most significantly, loss of an important emotional relationship.
Corruption is a debasement or subversion of integrity or purity and may occur in ideology or personal morality, culture, commerce, civil service (including police) or in politics. It constitutes a barrier to progress, and promotes conflict as a result of frustration and alienation; instability as a result of apathy; violence and crime. It may lead to social, ethnic, political, national and ideological disintegration and possibly revolution.
Corruption feeds on itself. People involved in petty corruption become increasingly involved in more and larger amounts. Corruption has many victims. Public corruption offenses affect all citizens directly and personally, particularly those at the lower end of the income scale. Building inspectors paid small amounts of money to approve shoddy work results in dangerous construction, substandard electrical wiring, and inferior building materials, usually in the poorest areas of town. Judges and lawyers who line their pockets result in criminals set free to victimize citizens. Taxpayers pay for corruption. When officials are bribed to award construction contracts the cost of the bribe goes into the cost of the construction often with interest. In a corrupt system, good people avoid public service. Honest contractors refuse to bid on government contracts; honest lawyers refuse to become prosecutors or judges; honest citizens avoid participating in politics either as voters or candidates.
Corruption has been highly detrimental for development. It introduces an element of irrationality in all planning and plan implementation by distorting the actual course of development plans. A common method of exploiting a position of public responsibility for private gain is the threat of obstruction and delay; hence corruption impedes the processes of decision-making and execution at all levels. It increases the need for controls to check the dishonest official. Thus it tends to make administration cumbersome and slow, and prohibits rational delegation of authority. Corruption and the widespread knowledge of corruption counteract the strivings for national consolidation and in particular, decrease respect for and allegiance to the government.
In its most evident form, corruption affects dealings of the public with government bureaucracy and political hierarchies whereby money or favour is given in exchange for a benefit from the official. This extends to dealings between business enterprises and the bureaucracy and politicians. But corruption may also affect any transactions, notably with or between businesses, even where no governmental or political body is involved. In its simplest form corruption consists mainly of bribery and tipping. Generally bribes are negotiated payments made before a transaction, whereas tips, reflecting gratitude are paid afterwards based on the evaluation of the donor with regard to short-term and long-term interest in the relationship.
The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential is a unique, experimental research work of the Union of International Associations. It is currently published as a searchable online platform with profiles of world problems, action strategies, and human values that are interlinked in novel and innovative ways. These connections are based on a range of relationships such as broader and narrower scope, aggravation, relatedness and more. By concentrating on these links and relationships, the Encyclopedia is uniquely positioned to bring focus to the complex and expansive sphere of global issues and their interconnected nature.
The initial content for the Encyclopedia was seeded from UIA’s Yearbook of International Organizations. UIA’s decades of collected data on the enormous variety of association life provided a broad initial perspective on the myriad problems of humanity. Recognizing that international associations are generally confronting world problems and developing action strategies based on particular values, the initial content was based on the descriptions, aims, titles and profiles of international associations.
The Union of International Associations (UIA) is a research institute and documentation centre, based in Brussels. It was established in 1907, by Henri la Fontaine (Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1913), and Paul Otlet, a founding father of what is now called information science.
Non-profit, apolitical, independent, and non-governmental in nature, the UIA has been a pioneer in the research, monitoring and provision of information on international organizations, international associations and their global challenges since 1907.