-Caveat Lector- AIDS orphans turn to crime Jonny Steinberg CRIME levels will rise sharply during the next 20 years as the SA population grows more youthful and the AIDS epidemic leaves thousands of orphans without care and guidance, a new research report claims. The report, written by Martin Schönteich of the Institute for Security Studies, and published in the forthcoming edition of African Security Review, says that the majority of crime the world over is committed by teenagers and young adults. "The psychological impact on a child who witnesses his parent dying of AIDS can be more intense than for children whose parents die from more sudden causes," Schönteich wrote. He cited research which indicates that while SA had one million orphans in 1990 the figure would rise to 2,6-million in 2010. National Crime Prevention Strategy head Bernie Fanaroff said that the Strategy's research showed that the vast majority of homicide victims and offenders in SA was between 16 and 35. " If our population is indeed getting younger, it is likely to produce an increase in violent crime, unless steps are taken to deal with it." Fanaroff said. Responding to Schönteich's claim that SA's orphan population was about to swell, Fanaroff said: "The family is the single most important role model for young people. When homes are chaotic and violent, as many are in SA, children see violence as a norm. "If the orphan population does swell, there must be institutions to socialise them, to make them belong. Even if these are state institutions, the immediate community must be closely involved." Caring for orphans will place extreme financial pressure on their relatives, Schonteich said. "SA's older generation will be further impoverished, as will the rural poor. Many orphans will grow up in impoverished conditions which will increase their temptation to engage in criminal activity at an early stage." Schönteich is pessimistic about the government's capacity to tackle rising crime. "The coming decades are likely to witness an increase in the crime rate, irrespective of the state's response," Schönteich said. "Such a response will merely impact on the extent of the increase, not on the increase itself. http://www.bday.co.za/99/0621/news/n17.htm (The USA has the same 15/1 black /white aids ratio At the moment it is keeping crime in check by keeping 25% of its young black men in Jail. It is unlikly that this will continue to work , so the USA crime figures will start to rise in tandem ) 22 June 1999 'Only fittest will survive health delivery collapse' Stephané Bothma HEALTH delivery at four major greater Johannesburg hospitals is on the brink of collapse and government will have to make a political decision about which services to close down, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of patients each year, says Wits University health sciences dean Max Price. "We are talking about a process of natural selection during which only the fittest will survive," said Rhudo Mathiva, director of adult intensive care at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. The crisis at the Chris Hani Baragwanath, Johannesburg, Coronation and Helen Joseph hospitals (serving a population of at least 10-million people) has been created by a complete moratorium on the filling of posts for many months due to budget constraints. The medical advisory committee chairmen for the hospitals said yesterday Chris Hani Baragwanath alone had a shortage of about 2282 staff members, including more than 100 doctors. The situation was similar at other tertiary hospitals around the country. Khangelani Hlongwane, a spokesman for Health Minister Manto Tshabala-Msimang, said he felt the problem could be solved if communications were directed properly. "We allocate money to the provinces and do not dictate to them how to use the money." The doctors said a large number of posts at the hospitals would be vacated on June 30 as a result of normal rotations and contracts coming to an end. No permission had been granted for these posts to be filled. The first closure at Chris Hani Baragwanath would be the neonatal intensive care unit consisting of 12 beds, which would affect about 500 of the 15000 babies born at the hospital each year. "They will probably die without the respiratory assistance from the intensive care unit," said the head of child care at Chris Hani Baragwanath, John Pettifor. Twenty-four-hour paediatric emergency care would also no longer be available. The closure of the Chris Hani Baragwanath neonatal unit will have a ripple effect, resulting in the closure of the unit at Coronation and Helen Joseph hospitals. Other services that will be negatively affected include those to accident victims, terminally ill patients, AIDS patients and cancer patients. "We are in an era where the reality is that decisions will have to be made about who receives treatment and who gets turned away. We want guidance from government in this regard," Chris Hani Baragwanath medical advisory committee chairman Ken Huddle said. It was unfair that the responsibility of who should live and who should die was being shifted on to individual doctors and nurses, Price said. "If the answer from the finance department is that there is no money, then government must spell out clearly to those dependent on state hospitals which services are to be cut and who is to be deprived of care. Government might wish to confirm with the public that its priorities are indeed right." The crisis arose as government's primary health care programme was not successful, the doctors said. "Primary health care clinics are not manned by qualified staff and therefore patients stream to the tertiary institutions." Health care budgets were based on 1996 figures, which at the time were wrong, and still had not been adapted. The doctors demanded that the moratorium be lifted, that total clinical staff be restored to October 1997 levels and that proper management structures be put in place at hospitals. http://www.bday.co.za/ DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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