Definition of a Global City - Research Paper Example

? Geographies of disease/health- What is a “global ” Global as the word rightly means a dedicated or a central nodal point providing global economic activity creating a hub for financial and economic growth. Global city manages a disproportionate amount of economic activity compared to other economies and thereby serves more economic interest for various sections of society. Some of the major criteria that helps emerge a Global City are the: Economic, Political, Socio-cultural and infrastructural aspects. The Economic Aspects involves the headquarters of global conglomerates, stock market activity, global trading hub (exports and imports), huge purchasing power of local consumers, and robust revenue growth across various sectors of business. Political aspects involve influence and participation of International events, membership with International Organizations, and stability across political community, standard of living on various indices (Human development index, Corruption level). Socio-Cultural aspects like well known educational institutions, better to high level standard of living, media influence, entertainment centers, and strong cultural background. Infrastructural aspects include skyscrapers/ tall buildings with modernized facilities, well developed transport and communication facilities (Metro rail / Underground rail), airport services, connectivity etc. Taking all this into consideration Hong Kong (see figure 1 below) is rightly eligible to be a member of elite class of Global Cities (World Bank , 2010). Source: Lonely Planet, 2011 Hong Kong is considered as the global hub for economic activity from Far East Asian regions apart from Singapore or Malaysia. With a population of more than 7 million, this city is having a greater composition of urban class situated in Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong Island and New territories. HK a capitalist economy, is also called as an International Financial Centre, provides low taxation and free trade zone between nations. HK Dollar is the ninth most traded currency in the world. The industry is flooded with service sector companies contributing to 80-90% of GDP. HK is ranked second in terms of Ease of Doing Business Index (World Bank, 2010) and ranked eighth among most expensive cities for expatriates (Mercer, 2010). Total work force participation in HK is around 3.65 million which is over 60% of the total population. The monthly household income report shows an income of $17,500-20,000. In terms of healthcare, they have some of the best healthcare practices especially after SARS breakout in 2003. The Private hospitals are considered as one of the best in the world with universities tied up with public sector hospitals with strong public health systems in place. There are around 15-20 private hospitals and 50 public hospitals in HK city. With a culture of East meets west, it is a mix of British Colonization with Chinese roots. A bird’s eye view on Kowloon and Harbour shows how well the city is developed in terms of infrastructure facilities. The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) provides extensive rail network for the entire territory. HK lately faces more health and pollution issues compared to many other cities in the world. This research paper will discuss on the various health issues in HK and its primary reasons for outbreak. HK in terms of health facilities provides highest standards with close association among hospitals, Police forces and Doctors. Customers get specialized service either from local medical practitioners or from westernized medicine practices. After the SARS outbreak in 2003, the city has been more vigilant in health and sanitation issues. The problem of overdose even though curbed to a great extent still is quite prevalent in HK among local medical practitioners. After SARS outbreak in 2003, some of the major outbreaks happening across the cities including HK are Scarlet Fever, E Coli, communicable diseases and other digestive and respiratory disorders (Binder et al, 1999). Scarlet fever is a typical disease affecting children between the age group of 2-8 years. The disease has already taken two lives and more than 400 cases have been reported till date. This disease becomes harsh as at later stages this can lead to complications to kidney and heart. The disease is curable and is caused by mutation of Streptococcus Bacteria. People are more skeptical especially after SARS outbreak which killed almost 300 people (Donnelly et al, 2003). Other major health risks are caused due to habituary aspects like smoking, and drinking. According to Survey by Centre for Health Protection on 2000 samples, around 12% are daily smokers and 2.7% are daily drinkers (Cameron, Rainer, Mak, 2004). This comes under behavioral risks, apart from television watching, lack of physical activity, food contamination etc. (Centre for Health Protection). Other major diseases leading to mortality are Cancer, strokes, heart diseases, and motor accidents. The overall hypertension among working population is around 22% taken together for both the sexes. lung cancer is often caused due to severe cases of smoking (active and passive) and pollution (Wang et al, 2009). The city congestion due to population has led to increased demand for vehicles even though majority of the population uses public transport. The ever-growing population is also a major cause for communicable diseases to spread over mainland region and later on spread to other parts of China and Macau. Travelers outbound are warned about outbreaks and disease origination countries which they have advised to avoid. The Security Beareu of Hong Kong has advised travelers from restraining travel to countries like Philippines and Syria, Middle east countries like Lebanon, Bahrain, Egypt and parts of Japan as Security measures again communication of diseases. Outbound are one of the major carriers of communicable diseases in HK region. Meanwhile public awareness has to be improved as it takes a toll on lives of the young generation who are confined to electronic mediums and the elderly population. The latter section is deprived of nutrition and proper diet leading to other ailments. Lack of proper health education programmes are taking lives of people in Hong Kong. Energy and protein rich diets supplemented with vitamins and micronutrients are to be provided to ensure proper wellbeing along with physical activities to smoothen the metabolic process among old age population. Once the general state of health is affected leading to reduced levels of immunity they can become prey to communicable diseases spread via air (Lee Shiu Hung,1999) Infectious diseases are the leading cause of mortality among developed nations and among Global cities in a micro context. The H5N1 infection outbreak is one such similar cases which spreads from poultry infected with the virus. Hence, slaughter of poultry infected with this disease and other regulations in food production can contain the spread of communicable diseases. According to the survey conducted by World Health Organization (WHO), in developed markets the main cause of death is due to High Blood pressure, use of tobacco, obesity and Alcohol consumption. Use of alcohol not only leads to internal diseases leading to death but also accidents thereby causing injury / death of the consumed person as well as the counterpart. The survey lists out major air pollutants which are wide spread in developed cities especially HK including Lead, Sulphur Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, and Nitrogen Dioxide, when on exposure leads to severe pulmonary and respiratory infections. This happens due to severe emissions from power plants, vehicular traffic and industrial pollution (Cameron et al, 2004) Recently, there has been a new wave of strokes happening among the obese, children and elderly – Heat stroke. This happens when the outside environment is too hot for the body to with stand and there by resulting in heat exhaustion. This happens due to dehydration in the body and substances causing dehydration to happen. As far as motor vehicle deaths are concerned HK has improved predominantly as compared to accident rates and the total population. Moreover, Alcohol is not considered as major reason, it is the pedestrians and light buses which are victims to the maximum accidents that take place. This can be contained to a great extent by increasing awareness on road traffic, and discipline among pedestrians. Some of the major challenges/opportunities involved in tackling public health issues involve proper commitment from governmental agencies and ministries in providing policy support and adequate resource availability to tackle issues. The speed of public health programmes have slowed down due to the recent economic recession and promotion of community involvement and self help groups to support and implement the programmes are a great challenge. Meanwhile close coordination of sectors namely, housing, agriculture, industrial, transport and environment is required to reduce diseases of all kinds and increase mortality rate (Woo, 1998) One of the major challenges involved in evaluation of STD’s is the opening up of Mainland China to Hong Kong which leads to frequent travel of people ( labourers for work) and transportation of vehicles, invariably leading to spread of such diseases which add to the vigorosity. Here are a few more aspects we need to consider in overall health system prevailing in HK. This section explains much about the mental health condition of the growing population. The mental disorders in HK are dominated by diseases by schizophrenia and depressive psychosis. The root cause of this is said to be depression. The high transition levels reflected in high and middle income groups leads to change in disorders from physical to mental. Other forms of mental disorders include dementia, domestic abuse, juvenile conduct problems etc. this cluster of disorders have been brought about due to rising demographic and socio-cultural changes (Lee, 1999). The economic slowdown and unemployment which swept the developed cities including HK has served as a prominent reason for mental disorders among various sections of the society. The study has also revealed that post natal depression affects 12% of recently delivered women (Riley et al, 2003). As first line of treatment, antidepressants are given in small doses and it is always advisable to go for counseling sessions and get cured. Even modern day practice of traditional Indian training of Yoga can be a good cure for these non-cyclical mental disorders. Moreover the cost of treatment is quite huge that a normal middle class family cannot afford the costs involved which are what is happening in developed economies like US. Hence, a good lifestyle coupled with a selfless mental attitude is required among citizens to have mental peace, and this is one of the major roles of government to thrive and put forward actions in place (S Lee,1999) Hence, the report states that, the above listed health issues, both mental and physical are basically rooted towards rapid change in human needs and wants, thrive to attain goals at faster pace and changing needs of society ranging from political and economic to socio-cultural and demographic ones. All this coupled with growing needs of society and thirst for more wealth has indeed taken a toll on many lives is it mentally or physically. A well organized and developed mental and life skills education system is highly inevitable for a high growth global city like Hong Kong to move forward and maintain the same status throughout. REFERENCES REFERENCES Binder, S., Levitt, A.M., Sacks, J.J., Hughes, J.M. (1999). Emerging infectious diseases: Public health issues for the 21st century. Science, 284 (5418), 1311-1313. Cameron, P.A., Rainer, T.H., Mak, P. (2004). Motor vehicle deaths in Hong Kong: Opportunities for improvement. Journal of Trauma-Injury Infection & Critical Care, 56 (4), 890-893 Donnelly, C.A., Ghani, A.C., Leung, G.M., Hedley, A.J., Fraser, C., Riley, S., AbuRaddad, L.J., Ho, L.M., Thach, T.Q., Chau, P., Chan, K.P., Lam, T.H., Tse, L.Y., Tsang, T., Liu, S.H., Kong, J.H.B., Lau, E.M.C., Ferguson, N.M., and Anderson, R.M. (2003). Epidemiological determinants of spread of causal agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Hong Kong. The Lancet, 361 (9371), 1761-1766. Lee, S. H. (1999). Public Health Issues in Hong Kong and China. HK: Department of community and family medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lee, S. (1999). Metal health problems in transition: challenges for psychiatry in Hong Kong. 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