Many countries lack integrated transportation system plans and infrastructures which would coordinate all means of transport to satisfy the needs of development. Road and rail networks are inadequate; and if inland waterways exist their use may be primitive if they are used at all. In developed countries, the proportion of road to rail transport is not always economical; and in the large metropolitan areas, public passenger transportation systems do not meet the needs of the increasingly densely populated and trafficked urban centres.

The level of alcohol consumption that qualifies as alcohol abuse varies considerably. In Canada in 1991, it was consumption of more than 15 alcoholic drinks per week, a puritanical figure in the eyes of some Canadian physicians. A 1993 American study labelled a woman's consumption of 4, and a man's consumption of 5 alcoholic drinks in succession as a drinking binge.

Europe takes a more tolerant view. A 1996 study viewed moderate drinking as imbibing 2 to 4 glasses of wine or small glasses of beer a day. A 1997 French study claimed that 3 to 4 glasses of wine a day greatly reduced development of Alzheimer's disease, without making any inference about the dangers of alcohol abuse.

A practical definition is that an alcoholic seriously abuses alcohol and drinks intoxicating amounts of alcoholic beverages several times a day on a regular basis. Alcoholics are excessive drinkers whose addiction to alcohol has attained such a degree that there is noticeable mental disturbance or interference with their bodily or mental health, their interpersonal relations, and their smooth social and economic functioning, or they are those people who show the signs of such development. They are unable to recognize the deleterious effects of their habit or, recognizing them, are nonetheless unable to curtail their alcohol consumption and continue in an almost compulsive way to drink heavily.

Alcohol abuse can be distinguished from chronic alcoholism -- which is morbid dependence on alcohol with an easily awakened craving for alcohol, as well as loss of control (shakes and sweating) -- in that the physical and mental complications of the latter only occur in a minority of alcoholics. The complications of alcohol abuse occur primarily in the social sphere. The alcoholic takes alcohol as a mood-altering drug. He/she very early comes to rely more and more on defence mechanisms including, as well as outright denial and rationalizations, the mechanism of projection, namely the ascribing of his own defects to others; thus everything and everybody is wrong, particularly his family who may already suffer at the alcoholic's hands at a time when friends still think him to be a decent and reasonable person. Children's personality development may often be significantly affected by the alcoholic's unpredictable attitude and behaviour, leading to disturbed emotional relations with parents. Complications also occur at work. Alcoholism releases aggression which may be directed against others in anti-social and criminal acts, as well as in traffic accidents.

The covert collection of information about a rival or an ally may concern social, military, industrial or political data and may occur between different countries and ideologies or between rival firms or rival political groups in the same country. Highly sophisticated technological means are often used.

A feeling of alarm caused by the expectation of danger, pain, disaster or other calamities, fear may lead to aggression and violence including war and conflict of all kinds. It may also lead to discrimination, conformism, inertia, alienation, delusion, dependency, lack of participation, corruption, injustice and inequality. Fear may exist in the form of general anxiety which has no object. Fear may also be phobic, that is, very specific to a particular object, condition, environment, etc, such as claustrophobia. Fear of grievous physical injury or death in the face of a real threat may cause tremor, sweating, heart palpitation, and involuntary passing of urine or faeces. Fear itself can be a cause of death, by shock or heart attack. Fear can grip whole armies or civilian populations.

Malaria is a parasite of red blood cells and the world's number one infectious disease. It is caused by infection of the liver with parasites of the genus Plasmodium, transmitted by the bite of infected anopheline mosquitoes Anopheles bifurcatus. The parasites cause the rupture of red blood cells and, in its worse cases, life-threatening anaemia, coma or death. The disease is characterized clinically by recurrent paroxysms of chills, high fever, seizures, sweating and prostration. It can lead to anaemia, kidney failure or rupture of the spleen. In man, malaria is produced by four specific parasites: Plasmodium vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. falciparum. Falciparum malaria is the most life-threatening and has a fatality rate in untreated cases of 25%; it is transmitted by its African mosquito vector Anopheles gambiae.

Malaria is worsening in many parts of the world. It is a major threat to health and development, is primarily an environmental and socio-economic problem. Past reliance on narrow strategies is increasingly seen as the reason for the resurgence of this debilitating disease. The P. falciparum] parasite has continued to evolve resistance to almost all drugs in use (chloroquine, sulfadoxine/pyramethamine, and mefloquine). In areas of mosquito control, research with bed nets impregnated with pyrethroid insecticide offers hope of at least partial control of transmission of the disease in certain epidemiological situations. However, many people cannot afford the mosquito nets, which cost $5-10. Patients can usually be saved if they receive prompt medical treatment, but many of them cannot afford doctor's fees or the cost of travel, in total often less than $20.