As you prepare to settle in to watch the latest generation of Olympians and Paralympians display their incredible athletic abilities, the irony is unlikely to escape many, especially if you're watching with your kids.
In May, the World Health Organisation reaffirmed that the majority of young people around the world do not get enough exercise, with children in England and Wales being the most physically inactive in the world. As with so many other issues, screens are often the ones to blame here, but as some of our special issue on physical activity highlights (see 'How much exercise do kids really need, and what kind?'), the reality is more complex.
It's true that time spent in front of TVs, iPads, and other devices competes with opportunities for physical activity, and we know that spending time outdoors, in nature, and interacting with others has many benefits that kids who are glued to their screens miss out on. But there are plenty of other reasons why kids are inactive, and often these are easy problems to fix.
Earlier this year we reported that school uniforms may be contributing to the problem by being too restrictive, but this could be easily fixed by simply changing uniform policies. Meanwhile, the emphasis on competitive and elite sport in schools takes the fun out of physical activity and causes many children to lose interest.
This is especially true for girls, whose gender gap in physical activity emerges early in life and widens dramatically in the later grades. The fun gap These include issues with periods, embarrassment about performing in front of boys, etc. Providing separate sports sessions for boys and girls, with an emphasis on activity and play rather than competition, can be a big help.
So while events like the Olympics and Paralympics are inspiring, our conversation should focus less on competitive sport and exercise and more on fun, accessible activities that are easy to incorporate into everyday life for everyone.
IIn 1956, a man TK “Ken” WhitakerAn Irish civil servant by training as an economist, he was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Treasury in Dublin at the relatively young age of 39. From his vantage point as the head of the national treasury, the outlook was bleak. The Republic of Ireland was in deep economic and social crisis. It had no natural resources, little industry, and was in deep depression. Inflation and unemployment were high. Ireland’s main export was young people, who fled by the thousands each year in search of work and a better life. The proud dream of Irish independence produced an impoverished nation of priests on the verge of collapse.
Mr. Whitaker quickly assembled a team of young officials to critically analyze the country’s economic failures and devise a series of policies to remedy them. As a result, a report titled “First Plan for Economic Expansion” was published in November 1958, and subsequently Sean Lemas He was elected Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 1959 and became Ireland’s survival strategy.
At its heart were several important proposals. Ireland will have to embrace the idea of free trade. That would mean boosting competition and ending the protectionism that had been a feature of Irish economic policy under Lemas’s predecessor Airmon de Valera (whose economic philosophy was once described as “non-British”). But most importantly, the strategy requires that Ireland must welcome foreign capital in the future, which essentially means being nice to national companies, giving multinationals generous tax breaks, giving them help finding land to build on, and generally being responsive to their needs.
Whittaker’s strategy was bold, but it worked. (Of course, joining the European Economic Community in 1973 didn’t hurt either.) The republic moved from a state of deep socio-economic problems to an apparent paradigm of neoliberal prosperity. I have transformed. Foreign companies (mainly American companies) flooded in. German crane manufacturer Liebherr was an early entrant. In 1980, he was followed by Apple, and then came pharmaceutical companies. (Perhaps Viagra is manufactured in Ireland, once the holy land of Catholicism.) Then along came the big technology companies, many of which now have their European headquarters in Dublin.
If any of these behemoths had any doubts about coming to the Emerald Isle, two things would have reassured them. The first is Brexit. These companies had to join the EU. The second was how the republican government rushed to the rescue of one of its compatriots, Apple. When the European Commission concluded in 2016 that the company had been unfairly granted €13 billion in tax exemptions by Irish authorities, Apple not only successfully appealed this decision in 2020 but also had a similar ruling in 2020. was lowered. The republican government did it.. Think about it for a moment. A small country is refusing to accept her 13 billion euro payment. (Incidentally, the Commission has appealed this decision, and it appears Apple may still have to pay an additional €1.2 billion in interest. This money is currently held in an escrow fund with the Irish government.)
But the subconscious message to corporate bosses was: “If you run into trouble with the EU, we will support you.” This message may have reached Beijing as well. In any case, it is interesting to learn It comes just as the US and EU are considering cracking down on TikTok (whose owner ByteDance, coincidentally, is based in Dublin), and the Irish government is considering cracking down on popular e-commerce app Temu and other companies. It says that it welcomes Chinese-funded companies. Shein, and tech company Huawei.
I might regret this for the rest of my life, but for now, isn’t that all the treble? Only up to a certain point. On the one hand, the influx of foreign capital into Ireland was transformative. Tax revenue from resident high-tech companies is, on paper, making the country richer. The government is paying out of its ear. surplus
Meanwhile, Ireland faces some difficult problems. For example, corporate wealth has done to Dublin what Silicon Valley did to San Francisco, turning a once livable city into a highly unaffordable metropolis. There is a huge lack of affordable housing. A related homelessness crisis: around 12,000 people are in emergency accommodation, with an average monthly rent of €1,468. Add to that a creaky public health service (along with lavish and expensive private health services).
There is a paradox here. Mr. Whitaker’s strategy is to build enough affordable housing to build all the affordable housing the country needs, to fund a world-class public health system, and to build a mass transit system that frees up the nation’s capital. It brought in tax revenue and created a society that was clearly richer than his wildest dreams. Traffic congestion, electrification of everything, etc. Nevertheless, it is ruled by a coalition government that appears unable to look ahead to the next election. Perhaps it is true that we are getting the government we deserve.
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