Causes for the Problems Faced by the Children and their Food-Habit Formations in Singapore - Assignment Example

Causes for the Problems Faced by the Children and their Food-Habit Formations a. Who requested the report, when it was requested and who you are Mr. Huang Ho, the Director of our company, Research-R us, called me for a meeting on the 1st of last month. I am working as a Senior Research Associate in this company and I handle a workforce of thirty employees, including eighteen research assistants. The Director informed me that he has accepted the offer The Health Promotio n Board (HPB) which has engaged our company to examine the problems amongst Singapore school children over the past five years and provide viable suggestions to encourage students to have a healthy diet and lifestyle. HPB feels that a fuller and more realistic assessment of the problem is imperative. I have been given a month’s time to submit the report. b. The reason the report was undertaken with some specific background data This is not a statistical but an analytical report. Many schools have conducted their own surveys and implemented various measures, but there has been no concerted national level initiative to address the issue. The problems of the youth/children of Singapore are more or less the same as that of the problems of the youth/children in the advanced Nations with materialistic lifestyles impacted by the industrial and internet revolution. Erosion of the spiritual values, and don’t care attitude about morality, thoughtless food habits are the factors that have affected the standards of life of youth. The younger generation is in a hurry. The misunderstanding of the younger generation is in demanding instant results and financial gains. Nature doesn’t work that way. A baby born today will not turnout to be an Engineer or a Doctor tomorrow. A seed sown today will not become a sapling the next day and a tree the day after! An individual is not free in the matter of obtaining the fruit of his actions. When you are assured that the rewards are in proportion to the intensity and merit of your actions (this is a scientific statement) where is the scope for confusion or anxiety? The right thing will happen for you at the right time. You are bound to get what you deserve! Nothing more or nothing less! Even the die-hard rationalists and the scientists have now realised the price the humanity has to pay for gross violation of the immutable laws of nature. The problem of the era is the inability of the youth to live in harmony with Nature. “Your food is your grave,” says George Bernard Shaw. The root cause of majority of the diseases is wrong diet. Junk food and fast food have become the staple diet for the youngsters in Singapore. Gone are those good old days when the parents served food to the children, as per a schedule and the children followed diet-discipline. Advertising agencies and the market strategists now suggest to the children what is ‘good’ for them and their impressionable minds accept such ideas. “Children have basic needs for their healthy growth and development. These include food and nutrition, safety, a nurturing environment, protection from harm, secure emotional ties, and education. They provide children with a strong and healthy foundation for life. Services and programmes must therefore promote and support the child’s physical, social, emotional and intellectual development, functioning, and well-being.”(Protecting the….) The problem is not with the children as such. It is elsewhere at different layers of the society that are responsible for the upbringing of the children. "Our economic development had been fast," explains Dr. Wee Wei Keong, deputy director of clinical service at Singapore's Alexandra Hospital. "We could focus on other health issues, like lifestyle." One initiative was the government's Trim and Fit Scheme, which subjects schoolchildren from age 9 to regular weight and fitness checks through a standardized national test.”(Walsh, 2004) c. How the information was gathered The information for this analytical report was gathered from questioning and interacting with people belonging to different age-groups. Various surveys conducted in the past, articles and other literary sources. A detailed questionnaire was prepared for the purpose in view. The root causes for the problems faced by the children and their food-habit formations, originate due to various social factors. For example, “People’s views about education would affect how school systems should be structured.”(Keng, p.1) The objective of this survey is not statistics-gathering. It is to assess the broader issues that give rise to many problems of the younger generation/ students. Young students neither create problems nor do they solve problems. They are the victims of the circumstances in which they are placed and the ideals tendered before them by the society. “For both social planners and marketers, a better knowledge of the values and lifestyles of the people would be imperative in helping to devise more appropriate strategies to cope with the opportunities and challenges posed”(1). This observation concerns the younger generation to a great extent. d. My findings, while highlighting key factors: Notwithstanding the finest educational facilities that are made available to the modern youth, we find them directionless and destination less while facing the realities of life. Singapore has some special problems. “For example, there are significant differences found among the three ethnic groups in some other values, life satisfaction and lifestyle activities….” (235) The lifestyles adopted and practiced by the students will continue in their later life. Diet is the most important issue for a growing youngster, but in actual practice it has turned out to be the most neglected one. The youngsters eat more refined foods like white bread, sugar, rice, noodles and flour products. Their uniform response on the body of the youngster is the same –storage of fat. Instead of eating fresh vegetables and fruits, children take to cookies and fried chips. Negativities in the life of youngsters are growing in every direction, like the octopus. For some, the youngsters are directly responsible; some are thrust upon them. Even the so-called natural foods are not so natural in the present times. The modern farming methods have contributed much to rob the vitamin and mineral contents in fruits and vegetables. The drop is reported to be about 10-40 %, depending upon the mineral. Another simple but important aspect of the lifestyle of the youngsters is their distaste for walking. Even for visiting the ice-cream parlor 50 meters away, one is not inclined to walk and prefers the vehicle. High grade premium petrol and luxury cars! The junk food remains as filth in the body, without being expelled in proper time and gives rise to various types of diseases. Of late, the heart attacks have become the privilege of the youngsters. Premature deaths of youths by stroke and other diet-related issues are common place. Collapse during the routine PT exercises, fainting in the class rooms, sudden blood pressure variations—the root cause of all these are one and the same! Wrong diet and faulty lifestyles! We dump into the stomach, something accepted as tasty by the taste buds without understanding its food value and future impacts on the body. Taking food and balanced diet at home is a rare event and visit to the shopping malls, fast food outlets, and online gaming and net-surfing form the schedule of the youngsters. Such hobbies are devoid of physical activity. The recommendations: The concept of Healthy Living needs to be properly understood and followed. The trend followed by the youngsters towards dieting is worrying. In their over anxiety to remain slim, there are chances that they invite great damage to the vital organs and functioning of the body as a whole. Being overweight and underweight-both are risky. A healthy eating program, with ample scope for vegetables and fruits is the answer. School-wise surveys and hair-spitting arguments to come to conclusions are not important to Singapore now. Here before, “to further enhance our understanding of values and lifestyles of Singaporeans, semi-structured interviews were used as a complementary research tool.”(p.218) The present needs is, one intensive survey in specified geographical area, not only related to students but in which the elderly community will provide comprehensive details into Singaporeans’ values, personal as well as social aspirations and ambitions, present satisfactions in life, how do they spend the leisure time, media habits and above all the most important issue related to the modern younger generation-the Internet usage! My recommendations in short are: This is not a localized problem concerning a particular area or a school. The survey needs to be nationally representative and form a source of panel data. Awareness is the watchword. With the avalanche of fast food items in the market, natural food has taken the backseat unfortunately. Of late, with the increasing awareness, there is an increase in demand and availability of organic foods. Government, as a mater of policy should encourage this trend. Organic food is costly. But just because it is cheap, human beings can not consume poison! Fruits and vegetables daubed in pesticides and artificial additives are highly harmful. Think of the doctor’s bills which one eventually has to pay. Human beings have caused enough damage to the Planet Earth and are paying a heavy price. A separate Authority should be created and empowered to deal with environmentally unfriendly activities and encourage the friendly ones. I entirely agree with the observation of Kau Ah Keng and he writes, “The five shared family values that would enhance the well-being of families and under gird the progress of Singapore… (1 love, care and concern (2) mutual respect (3) filial responsibility (4) commitment and (5) communication.” (p.17)These are great family values that have the intrinsic strength to mitigate all sorts of social and economic and health related maladies concerning the younger generation. Children have a right to healthier lifestyles. It is the duty of the government to incorporate in the syllabus, the health-related issues, to teach them to maintain the standard of life! ****************** References: Keng, Kau Ah, (Author), Tambyah Siok Kuan (Author), Tan Soo Jiuan (Author), Jung Kwon (Author), Ah Keng Kau (Editor):Understanding Singaporeans: Values, Lifestyles, Aspirations And Consumption Behaviors; World scientific Publishing Company,2004 [PDF] PROTECTING THE CHILDREN IN SINGAPORE: Article: Research and Advocacy Standing Committee, Singapore Children’s Society. File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View - Retrieved on September 10, 2009 Walsh, Bryan. TIMEasia Magazine: Singapore Shapes Up Diet and lack of exercise are immediate causes; November 1, 2004; 20:00 – Cached, Retrieved on September 10, 2009 Read More