Author: Sarah H
Clearly Africa is a land of extreme poverty. The media has always and continues to portray the African continent as a destitute and hopeless one. In fact the images of this once great nation are commonly used by charity organizations to illustrate the characteristics of human want and suffering. But precisely, how poor are African countries? And what does the accumulated data that the Western World Statistics Organizations really show?

Superficially many economists may argue that African Poverty Statistics can clearly highlight the state of their poverty. However, this may not be necessarily the truth! Structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are established based on the assumption that progress can be measured in terms of movements in the Gross National Product or the Gross Domestic Product. Governments internationally therefore estimate their performance based on changes in economic growth rates.

According to this set guideline established by international organizations, African nations are several decades behind developed nations. In 1996, the average of GNP per capita in the industrialized world was $27,086, compared with $528 in Africa. This therefore illustrates that industrialized countries are roughly 51 times wealthier than African nations. So that at an annual growth rate of a mere three percent it would take Africa roughly120 years to reach today’s level of wealth of the West. Of course, western nations are unlikely to stand still while this happens. Thus it seems that African societies striving to catch up with the west have an almost impossible task ahead of them.

For developed countries, almost every activity has been commercialized. Take for example, the national accounts of any western nation; these may include payments for personal beauty care, which for the United States is an amazing $60 billion a year. It is important to note that such an item would hardly feature in the accounts of African nations. However, this does not mean that African nationals do not enjoy ‘beauty’ treatments - it’s simply means that these activities are not as commercialized as in the Western Nations. In 1996 people in Britain spent some $33 billion on beer, wine and spirits, an amount that is larger than the GDP of most African countries. On the other hand the consumption of local spirits and other indigenous alcoholic brews in African countries is not incorporated in national accounts.

The standards that we use to justify the economic prowess of the world may not necessarily take into account the true essence of their economic strengths, as clearly is the case in Africa. GDP statistics of African nations and many other developing nations do not adequately reflect their cultural output, whilst cultural output forms a significant proportion of the GDP of western nations.

Author: Michael Russell
The consensus among researchers, child care experts and working parents is that there are inadequate child care arrangements for working parents. This problem is even worse for single parents who do not have a spouse to look after the children in emergency situations. Child care problems can be detrimental to employers. Employees are less productive when they have to deal with child care issues. They use a significant amount of company time making inquiries about possible child care providers or checking up on a sick child. Child care issues can also cause a person to be tardy or even miss several days of work. Studies indicate that one out of every three sick days taken by a working parent is due to an illness that causes a child to stay home from school. If you bring your child with you to work because your child care arrangements did not work out, then you may have to divide your attention between your work and child. Your coworkers may also find your child a distraction. Also, child care problems may cause a business to lose valuable employees because child care may be too expensive and too much of a hassle.

For the reasons mentioned above, businesses should develop suitable child care arrangements for their employees. This will increase employee productivity, help retain employees who otherwise would go to another company with the proper child care arrangements and help recruit potential employees. Businesses will find that these child care arrangements will save more money than any other employee benefit. These child care programs are also not that expensive since they are tax-deductible to businesses.

There are several child care assistance options that are available for businesses including on-site facilities, consortiums, salary reduction plans, reimbursement plans and outside referral agencies.

Of all of the options available, employees would most prefer an on-site child care facility because it will allow employees to visit their children during lunch breaks and they can avoid the complications of having to drop-off and pick-up their children at off-site facilities. An on-site child care facility can also be used to attract potential employees. However, this is also the most expensive child care assistance option. This is the reason why you will not see this type of facility at smaller businesses with limited resources. It requires significant up-front costs. Some states have certain qualifications that need to be met before a child care facility worker can be hired. This may require you to hire new personnel to work in the facility. The business may also have to pay more money for utilities and liability insurance. But the expense of an on-site child care facility can be deducted from your taxes.

A consortium is a very popular child care assistance option among small businesses with limited assets. A consortium is made up of several small businesses that combine their resources to pay for an off-site child care facility. Each business is only required to pay for a certain number of openings that they make available to their employees. If there are any unused openings, they can be made available to people who work for businesses that are not a part of the consortium.

A salary reduction plan allows employees to put a specified amount of their pre-tax income into a flexible spending account that is used to reimburse them for their child care expenses. A reimbursement plan requires that tax-deductible payments either be paid to the child care facility or to the employees by the business.

An outside referral agency can be used by businesses to provide their employees with the rates, locations and openings at various licensed child care facilities. Parents will have to spend a lot of time trying to sift through all of this information on the various facilities. This is also the cheapest child care assistance option.

Author: Michael Russell
The very words “Child Care” can create a wealth of emotion when the subject is raised. Caring for a child is one of the most important things anyone can do. Taking proper care of a child can mean the difference in development between a well adjusted and mal-adjusted adult. Thousands upon thousands of words have been written on the subject of child care and today child care itself has grown into a huge industry.

Enormous changes have taken place over the last two generations concerning the way in which children are cared for. Years ago the child’s mother took sole responsibility for bringing up her child (apart from those children whose parents were wealthy enough to employ a nanny or a governess) whereas nowadays parents both work full time. In today’s world, it has become an economic necessity for both parents to work against a background of ever increasing costs plus a lifestyle, which our grandparents could never have begun to imagine. Child care is now extremely big business. Nurseries for babies and toddlers have mushroomed and, in some cases, parents have to put their child’s name down to attend a particular nursery soon after the child is born.

All parents think their children are special and they are. However, once a baby or toddler begins to attend nursery or nursery school that child has no choice but to learn and accept that attention from staff has to be shared between all the children. An only child has become used to being the focus of attention at home. It often comes as a considerable shock for an only child to realise the world doesn’t revolve round him/her. However, children are far more versatile and resilient than most parents realise and most children soon adapt to a new environment. This forced interaction with other children can in fact, be extremely beneficial, especially for only children. Many of these only children often have to cope, at some stage, with the arrival of brothers or sisters, which frequently creates jealousy on the part of an only child. Having learnt to share attention with others at nursery or nursery school prepares a child to accept a new member of the family far more easily than would have been the case had that child not learnt to interact with children of the same age.

Choosing a suitable nursery usually throws parents into a panic as they consider the implications. How will they recognise which nurseries offer excellent care? Will all the staff be fully trained? What is the percentage of staff to children? Are meals provided? What is the level of cleanliness, both in the nursery and in the kitchens? Is time set aside for babies and toddlers to sleep? How good is security at the nursery? Does bullying occur? What arrangements are in place if a child should become sick? Many parents feel overwhelmed and have no idea where to turn for advice. Nurseries which fulfil all the requirements needed to operate a successful nursery are normally registered with the local community which will be happy to supply details of these nurseries to anxious parents. One of the best ways of deciding upon a suitable nursery is, of course, by recommendation. Mothers whose children already attend nursery are generally are only too happy to advise other mothers which nurseries are particularly good as opposed to those which are merely satisfactory.

Another option for childcare is to employ a nanny who will work at the family home. This option has become something of a minefield due to fairly recent high profile cases in which a nanny has physically harmed a child in her care. Other cases have actually resulted in the death of the baby by the nanny left in charge. It must be emphasis ed that these cases are very rare indeed and are not representative in any way of the majority of child care undertaken by nannies. A reputable agency supplying nannies has strict rules in place for their selection. References will be required as to the nanny’s previous positions and will be scrupulously followed up. If the references are not satisfactory, the nanny will not be recommended for that particular vacancy or any other.

A section of childcare often taken for granted is that of grandparents who are happy to devote countless hours looking after their grandchildren. Grand parents offer one of the very best forms of childcare, simply because of the relationship between them and their grandchildren whom they look on as their own. In addition, this form of childcare usually comes free although some parents give financial payment for the time and effort expended on their children by doting grandparents.

There is no doubt that most babies and toddlers acquire confidence by attending nursery schools. A child who has never spent time away from home finds it tremendously stressful if he/she ever has to cope with the absence of a mother perhaps through hospitalization. On the other hand, a child who has learnt to adapt to a different environment will not be nearly as traumatized by the absence of a parent and will be able to deal with the separation far more easily.

Obviously, all children attending nursery school have to conform to certain rules, which amount to a form of discipline. It has long been acknowledged that children exposed to discipline welcome the fact that boundaries have been set which makes them feel more secure and, consequently, happier. Some children will always rebel but all children will be faced with some form of discipline as they grow up and will also be expected to comply with rules and regulations in the workplace. Without such rules, anarchy would reign. Quite simply, discipline is based on showing consideration for other people and their possessions.

By attending a good nursery or nursery school offers children the chance to interact with others, acquire confidence and accept some basic rules. Most of these children develop into successful, happy adults.