Yerdaddy
05-15-2006, 04:08 AM
<p>What do you guys think? Should we be proud of this? Ashamed?</p><p>Personally, I think we should be doing much better. I think we have some disadvantages, like our gigantic population - 3rd largest in the world - and diversity. However, those could be advantages if we wanted them to be. I think the problem is that we consider ourselves so free and so egalitarian that we have become intolerant of anyone who can't "make it" in America, and that has, in effect made us less free, and less egalitarian. We have one of the largest disparities of wealth in the world, and I think this is one of the results - we have a Third World country living inside a First World country.</p><p>I vote for shame. But, I could be wrong.</p><p>On the other hand, what happens over there is on you guys. I'm dealing with the worst of the worst. My new home made the bottom 10 and I'm going to have to report on that. Which means I'm going to have to look the poorest of the poor in the eye and try not to want to kill myself. I can tell you, the conditions in some places here are indescribable.</p><p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/08/mothers.index/" target="_blank">U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says</a></p><p>(CNN) -- An estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide and the United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate in the developed world, according to a new report.</p><p>American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found.</p><p>Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 live births, has a higher death rate for newborns than the United States, which is tied near the bottom of industrialized nations with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with five deaths per 1,000 births. </p><p>"The United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, but its newborn rate is higher than any of those countries," said the annual State of the World's Mothers report.</p><p>The report, which analyzed data from governments, research institutions and international agencies, found higher newborn death rates among U.S. minorities and disadvantaged groups. For African-Americans, the mortality rate is nearly double that of the United States as a whole, with 9.3 deaths per 1,000 births.</p><p>Sub-Saharan Africa remains the worst place in the world to be a mother or child, with Scandinavian nations again taking the top spots in the rankings by the Connecticut-based humanitarian group.</p><p><strong>Top 10</strong><br />1. Sweden<br />2. Denmark/Finland<br />4. Austria / Germany / Norway <br />7. Australia / Netherlands<br />9. Canada<br /><strong>10. United States</strong> / United Kingdom</p><p><br /><strong>Bottom 10</strong><br />125. Niger<br />124. Burkina Faso <br />123. Mali<br />122. Chad<br />121. Guinea-Bissau<br />120. Sierra Leone<br />119. Ethiopia<br /><strong>118. Yemen</strong><br />117. Central African Republic<br />115. Democratic Republic of Congo / Liberia </p><p><a href="http://www.savethechildren.org/" target="_blank">Full Report here</a></p>