U.S. healthcare costs more than Cuba's and may not have an edge in helping people live longer, but Cubans often lack prescription drugs and over-the-counter remedies.
The average Cuban lives slightly longer than the average American, but the American's healthcare costs $5,711 a year while the Cuban's costs $251.
Those are the figures of the World Health Organization. Some experts question the accuracy of the Cuban numbers, but no one doubts the underlying revelation: There is little relationship between the cost of your healthcare and how long you'll live.
''Medical care is responsible for only a small portion of the variation in life expectancy,'' says Gerard Anderson, a Johns Hopkins professor specializing in health policy. ``Behavioral factors such as diet and exercise are much more important. The U.S., which spends much more than any other industrialized country on healthcare, is getting little value for much of the spending.''
Read the whole story on MiamiHerald.com
Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USA. Show all posts
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Do you speak toutes les langues ?
Depuis octobre 2006, l'armée américaine en Irak expérimente un logiciel révolutionnaire permettant la traduction orale et simultanée de l'anglais vers l'arabe. Cette technologie, conçue par IBM, a été imaginée pour que des soldats américains sans formation linguistique puissent communiquer avec leurs homologues irakiens. L'utilisateur parle dans un micro relié à un ordinateur, lequel reconnaît la phrase, la traduit puis la prononce en arabe. Selon le fabricant, chacun des 30 ordinateurs portables équipés connaît 50 000 mots anglais et 100 000 mots arabes.
L'utilisation de ce type de logiciels reste, pour l'heure, expérimentale. Mais la maîtrise des langues par machines interposées, qui relevait jusqu'à présent de la science-fiction, paraît désormais de l'ordre du possible. Début janvier au Consumer Electronics Show de Las Vegas, la société américaine SpeechGear a annoncé la commercialisation d'un logiciel de traduction vocale, utilisable sur PDA, pour une dizaine de langues. "On ne remplacera jamais l'humain. Mais, pour un coût très faible par rapport aux traductions professionnelles, on pourra à terme offrir des outils de compréhension de plus en plus précis et accessibles", pronostique Pierre Bernassau, directeur marketing de Systran, entreprise française, leader au niveau mondial.
Pour lire la suite :
L'utilisation de ce type de logiciels reste, pour l'heure, expérimentale. Mais la maîtrise des langues par machines interposées, qui relevait jusqu'à présent de la science-fiction, paraît désormais de l'ordre du possible. Début janvier au Consumer Electronics Show de Las Vegas, la société américaine SpeechGear a annoncé la commercialisation d'un logiciel de traduction vocale, utilisable sur PDA, pour une dizaine de langues. "On ne remplacera jamais l'humain. Mais, pour un coût très faible par rapport aux traductions professionnelles, on pourra à terme offrir des outils de compréhension de plus en plus précis et accessibles", pronostique Pierre Bernassau, directeur marketing de Systran, entreprise française, leader au niveau mondial.
Pour lire la suite :
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
In Somalia, a reckless U.S. proxy war
NAIROBI: Undeterred by the horrors and setbacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, the Bush administration has opened another battlefront in the Muslim world. With full U.S. backing and military training, at least 15,000 Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia in an illegal war of aggression against the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls almost the entire south of the country.
As with Iraq in 2003, the United States has cast this as a war to curtail terrorism, but its real goal is to obtain a direct foothold in a highly strategic region by establishing a client regime there. The Horn of Africa is newly oil-rich, and lies just miles from Saudi Arabia, overlooking the daily passage of large numbers of oil tankers and warships through the Red Sea. General John Abizaid, the current U.S. military chief of the Iraq war, was in Ethiopia this month, and President Hu Jintao of China visited Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia earlier this year to pursue oil and trade agreements.
The U.S. instigation of war between Ethiopia and Somalia, two of world's poorest countries already struggling with massive humanitarian disasters, is reckless in the extreme. Unlike in the run-up to Iraq, independent experts, including from the European Union, were united in warning that this war could destabilize the whole region even if America succeeds in its goal of toppling the Islamic Courts.
Read the rest of the article on The International Herald Tribune
As with Iraq in 2003, the United States has cast this as a war to curtail terrorism, but its real goal is to obtain a direct foothold in a highly strategic region by establishing a client regime there. The Horn of Africa is newly oil-rich, and lies just miles from Saudi Arabia, overlooking the daily passage of large numbers of oil tankers and warships through the Red Sea. General John Abizaid, the current U.S. military chief of the Iraq war, was in Ethiopia this month, and President Hu Jintao of China visited Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia earlier this year to pursue oil and trade agreements.
The U.S. instigation of war between Ethiopia and Somalia, two of world's poorest countries already struggling with massive humanitarian disasters, is reckless in the extreme. Unlike in the run-up to Iraq, independent experts, including from the European Union, were united in warning that this war could destabilize the whole region even if America succeeds in its goal of toppling the Islamic Courts.
Read the rest of the article on The International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Five years on - Afghanistan after the Taliban
What has been achieved in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted from Kabul?
PESSIMISM is something of an Afghan tradition. Yet the gloom that blankets Kabul ahead of the first snows of winter is as acute as it has been since the Taliban were ejected from the city on November 12th 2001. “Already the Americans are removing their troops. We fear that all the hopes and opportunities given to the Afghan people...will be taken away again,” says Jabar Haliq, a civil servant who lives with his family on a mountain beside the city.
There are in fact 40,000 NATO troops in the country, the highest number since 2001, and plans to reduce American forces have been postponed. Yet, like many of Kabul's generally moderate residents, Mr Haliq fears a resurgent Taliban are gaining the upper hand over foreign peacekeepers who seem to lack enthusiasm for their mission. American spending in the country has dropped this year, and few European NATO countries are eager to fight in the dangerous south of the country. Many Afghans also believe that Pakistan next door still supports the Taliban and wants, for strategic reasons, to see Afghanistan enfeebled. So far this year some 3,700 people have been killed, and the rate of insurgent attacks has sharply increased.
The high expectations some had in 2001 have not been realised. The government is, at best, a decade from being able to stand on its own feet. But efforts to stimulate the private sector and to levy taxes where none had been seen before are gradually showing results. Last year the government gathered revenues of roughly $350m, some 63% of its recurring costs—if you don’t count the billions that America and others have spent on security. Violence, a drought and chronic electricity shortages have all helped to slow the economy, which nonetheless ticks over at 8% a year. But sharp rises in the cost of living have left many lowly-paid civil servants reliant on graft to get by. Petty corruption is worsening too: it is increasingly common to be stopped by officials who ask for money in the streets of Kabul.
Read the whole story on the Economist.com
PESSIMISM is something of an Afghan tradition. Yet the gloom that blankets Kabul ahead of the first snows of winter is as acute as it has been since the Taliban were ejected from the city on November 12th 2001. “Already the Americans are removing their troops. We fear that all the hopes and opportunities given to the Afghan people...will be taken away again,” says Jabar Haliq, a civil servant who lives with his family on a mountain beside the city.
There are in fact 40,000 NATO troops in the country, the highest number since 2001, and plans to reduce American forces have been postponed. Yet, like many of Kabul's generally moderate residents, Mr Haliq fears a resurgent Taliban are gaining the upper hand over foreign peacekeepers who seem to lack enthusiasm for their mission. American spending in the country has dropped this year, and few European NATO countries are eager to fight in the dangerous south of the country. Many Afghans also believe that Pakistan next door still supports the Taliban and wants, for strategic reasons, to see Afghanistan enfeebled. So far this year some 3,700 people have been killed, and the rate of insurgent attacks has sharply increased.
The high expectations some had in 2001 have not been realised. The government is, at best, a decade from being able to stand on its own feet. But efforts to stimulate the private sector and to levy taxes where none had been seen before are gradually showing results. Last year the government gathered revenues of roughly $350m, some 63% of its recurring costs—if you don’t count the billions that America and others have spent on security. Violence, a drought and chronic electricity shortages have all helped to slow the economy, which nonetheless ticks over at 8% a year. But sharp rises in the cost of living have left many lowly-paid civil servants reliant on graft to get by. Petty corruption is worsening too: it is increasingly common to be stopped by officials who ask for money in the streets of Kabul.
Read the whole story on the Economist.com
Over here and over there
The Economist.com Jerusalem correspondent looks at ties with America
AFTER several days immersed in the infinite and baffling diversity of New York it is strange to return to Israel, another of the world's great melting pots, and to realise how easy it is here to spot the phenotypes and guess at their stories. A blond, drawn-faced Russian sucks edgily on a cigarette outside the terminal as he waits for a relative from Moscow or Minsk. A black-coated Hasid bustles towards the taxi rank pushing a trolley laden with suitcases of stuff for the family, from Williamsburg or Brooklyn.
The yelling and gesticulating taxi drivers, or more likely their parents, will have immigrated a few decades ago from Iran and Iraq and Morocco, or more recently from Central Asia. My driver, whose abrasiveness softens when we switch from Hebrew to Russian, came from Uzbekistan when he was 15, and, of course, half his family is here while the other half is in New York. “They like it better here, but they earn better money over there.”
Read the whole story on the Economist.com
AFTER several days immersed in the infinite and baffling diversity of New York it is strange to return to Israel, another of the world's great melting pots, and to realise how easy it is here to spot the phenotypes and guess at their stories. A blond, drawn-faced Russian sucks edgily on a cigarette outside the terminal as he waits for a relative from Moscow or Minsk. A black-coated Hasid bustles towards the taxi rank pushing a trolley laden with suitcases of stuff for the family, from Williamsburg or Brooklyn.
The yelling and gesticulating taxi drivers, or more likely their parents, will have immigrated a few decades ago from Iran and Iraq and Morocco, or more recently from Central Asia. My driver, whose abrasiveness softens when we switch from Hebrew to Russian, came from Uzbekistan when he was 15, and, of course, half his family is here while the other half is in New York. “They like it better here, but they earn better money over there.”
Read the whole story on the Economist.com
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Etats-Unis : l'antiterrorisme va-t-il changer de visage ?
Si l’élection du 7 novembre semble avoir clos l’ère des victoires électorales du président Bush, la lutte contre le terrorisme international prendra-elle une inflexion nouvelle, aux Etats-Unis, en Irak ou en Europe ? Rien n’est moins sûr, car cinq ans après le 11-Septembre, l’antiterrorisme a déjà atteint un seuil et changé de niveau.
Lire l'article sur Telos
Lire l'article sur Telos
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Attenzione, caduta prezzi. In libreria "Effetto Wal-Mart"
La feroce determinazione a ridurre i prezzi, risparmiando sul lavoro e imponendosi ai fornitori, può avere effetti dirompenti se viene esercitata dalla più grande impresa del pianeta, racconta Charles FishmanAnche se sono guidati dalle migliori intenzioni i giganti, quando si muovono, devono fare i conti con le proprie dimensioni. La continua riduzione dei prezzi che Wal-Mart, la più grande catena di distribuzione del mondo, riesce a garantire ai propri clienti comporta effetti collaterali che mettono in allarme l’America e il pianeta intero.
Fondata nel 1962 a Bentonville, nel cuore rurale dell’Arkansas, Wal-Mart, con 1.800.000 dipendenti, è il più grande datore di lavoro del mondo. Con 6.100 centri in 15 paesi, 312,4 miliardi di dollari di vendite nell’anno fiscale 2006 e una feroce determinazione a garantire prezzi bassi tutti i giorni, è l’impresa che più di ogni altra ha contribuito a modificare il volto degli Stati Uniti, le abitudini d’acquisto degli americani e le filiere produttive dei beni che finiscono sui suoi scaffali.
Facendo la spesa da Wal-Mart, calcola Charles Fishman in Effetto Wal-Mart. I costi nascosti della convenienza (Egea, Milano, 2006, 274 pagine, 19 euro, da domani in libreria), gli americani risparmiano 30 miliardi di dollari l’anno, eppure ogni volta che apre un nuovo supercentro si accende il dibattito sugli effetti che avrà sulla vita dell’area circostante e sull’occupazione: un supercentro può dare lavoro a 500 persone, ma molti punti vendita di dimensioni minori sono costretti a chiudere.
L’effetto Wal-Mart è però molto più ampio e a pagare “l’alto costo dei prezzi bassi” non è solo il vicinato, sostiene Fishman, il giornalista di Fast Company che ha sviluppato il libro a seguito delle furiose reazioni a una sua inchiesta sul tema.
L’autore analizza i pochi studi accademici sull’effetto Wal-Mart, che indicano una leggera riduzione di posti di lavoro e un aumento della povertà nelle zone in cui si insediano i suoi centri, ma segue, soprattutto, la vicenda di chi ha incrociato la strada dell’impresa più potente del mondo.
Cinque dei 10 maggiori fornitori di Wal-Mart nel 1994 sono oggi falliti o sono stati rilevati per evitare il fallimento. La pressione sui fornitori da parte di quello che è quasi invariabilmente il loro primo cliente è tale che la maggior parte di essi è costretta a cedere alle continue richieste di riduzione dei prezzi, beneficiando i clienti di Wal-Mart, ma innescando un processo dalle conseguenze imprevedibili. “Ci stiamo comprando la nostra disoccupazione”, sostiene il presidente di un’industria tessile. All’inizio la riduzione può essere raggiunta grazie a qualche recupero di efficienza e alle economie di scala garantite dal grande cliente, ma è un processo che non può andare avanti all’infinito: quando l’impresa “finisce per dipendere dagli alti volumi garantiti da Wal-Mart come dalla cocaina”, dice un ex imprenditore, vengono inevitabilmente compromesse la qualità del p! rodotto e il trattamento dei lavoratori e infine viene il turno della delocalizzazione in Cina o della chiusura.
Alcuni dei prezzi di Wal-Mart sono troppo bassi per essere realistici. Per spiegarli Fishman ripercorre la filiera del salmone fino agli allevamenti in Cile e scopre che possono fornire il pesce a quei prezzi solo grazie al totale disinteresse per i danni che apportano all’ambiente. Risale agli impianti tessili che lavorano per Wal-Mart nel Bangladesh e descrive condizioni di lavoro insostenibili.
L’analisi di Fishman è tanto più preziosa per la riservatezza della cultura aziendale di Wal-Mart e per la presa dimostrata su dipendenti e fornitori nel far rispettare la consegna del silenzio. L’autore aggira l’ostacolo affidandosi ad ex manager dell’azienda e a dirigenti in pensione delle imprese fornitrici. Tutti gli altri preferiscono tacere.
Il libro rispecchia l’ambivalenza degli americani per la catena di distribuzione. Wal-Mart non può essere considerata un gigante egoista alla stregua di altre grandi imprese. Anche se viene accusata di sottopagare i lavoratori, il suo profitto di 6.400 dollari per dipendente (Microsoft ne guadagna 200.000) verrebbe totalmente annullato da un aumento dei salari di 3 dollari l’ora. E se, da una parte, finisce inevitabilmente sotto accusa una politica del lavoro che ha portato a migliaia di cause per straordinari non pagati, l’utilizzo di immigrati irregolari e la pratica di chiudere i dipendenti a chiave nei supermercati per avere un maggiore controllo, dall’altra l’autore riconosce il fascino di una cultura aziendale che porta ogni manager a sentirsi parte dell’impresa. Uno di essi (in pensione, naturalmente), per spiegare che cosa li spinga ad arredare gli uffici con le sedie dei campionari dei fornitori e a risparmiare sulle man! ce durante le trasferte, sostiene: “Puoi dire che Wal-Mart guadagna 10 milioni di dollari l’anno, ma non è il modo di pensare di chi ci lavora. Se spendevi un dollaro, la domanda era: quanti dollari di merce devi vendere per recuperarlo? A noi ne servivano 35”.
Charles Fishman
Effetto Wal-Mart
I costi nascosti della convenienza
Milano, Egea, 2006
274 pagine, 19 euro
Fonte: ufficio stampa Bocconi
(Questo articolo è stato postato anche sul Leggio)
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