Displaying items by tag: society

Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford, has urged smartphone-free schools to promote healthier lifestyles for young people. Speaking in the House of Lords, he highlighted efforts by his diocese, which oversees 285 church schools, to educate students on the risks associated with smartphone use. He noted that in a school in his diocese, banning smartphones led to improved behavior, reduced bullying, increased concentration, and better academic performance. He argued that these changes foster healthier communities and higher levels of learning. His comments follow similar initiatives, including a top CofE school adopting 'brick phone only’ policies to encourage a balanced relationship with technology. While there is broad consensus on the benefits of smartphone-free schools, Dr Croft acknowledged the need for further discussions on implementing such measures across the board. The debate reflects growing concerns about the impact of smart devices on young people's well-being and development.

Nearly half of British teenagers feel addicted to social media, according to a recent study. This concern coincides with increasing scrutiny over the impact of big tech platforms on users, especially young people. The study, involving around 19,000 individuals born between 2000-2002 in the UK, found that 48% of respondents felt a lack of control over their social media usage. The data, revealing a higher proportion of girls (57%) than boys (37%) feeling this way, suggests a problematic relationship with these platforms. Researchers emphasise that feeling addicted doesn't equate to clinical addiction but indicates an unhealthy relationship with social media. The findings come amidst broader concerns about digital technology fostering compulsive behaviours, as evidenced by the WHO's recognition of 'gaming disorder' and the US surgeon general's warning about social media's risks to mental health. This study highlights the growing need to understand and manage the complex relationship between young people and digital technologies.

As gun violence increases and shootings make headlines every few days, the fear of getting caught in one is changing the lives of millions of Americans. The shops, the schoolroom, the teenager's house party have all suffered mass shootings in recent weeks. It feels as if it could happen anywhere. 60% of adults have talked to their children or other relatives about gun safety, according to a survey by an organisation focused on health policy. Gun violence has caused some to uproot their lives and move to a different neighbourhood or city. As it has worsened, there has been a surge in demand for bulletproof backpacks for children, says the owner of a self-defence item manufacturing company. Pray for more psychiatric help to be available for children growing up in areas where gunshots are frequently heard. Pray for all schools to have a wise safety plan and provide medical training for staff.

For three years no stable government has been established despite five elections. Currently a right-wing, religious government rules. But the opposition refuses to accept it. There are civil uprisings involving all sectors of society, even the military. Police usually crack down on right-wing and settler demonstrations. Now they are allowing protesters to shut down highways etc. Many say ‘Israel is being shaken to its very foundations’ and it’s getting worse daily. The conflict is a spiritual battle between secular and religious visions. Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion was never able to reconcile the opposing secular and religious sectors for Israel and finally gave up on the idea of formulating a foundational constitution or charter for Israel. He decided the state of Israel would be founded on the UN's general principles of human rights. Is Israel to be a state like all other nations, or does God have a different calling for Israel?

Lockdown, confinement, violence, and isolation is the daily reality for hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities around the world. Many are locked in sheds, cages, or tethered to trees and are forced to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate in the same tiny area, sometimes for years at a time. Why? Simply because they have a psychosocial disability (mental health condition). This inhumane practice called ‘shackling’ occurs because of the widespread stigma surrounding mental health, and a lack of access to adequate support services, both for those with disabilities and for their families. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children - some as young as ten - have been shackled at least once in their lives in over sixty countries. In 2020 #BreakTheChains published a ground-breaking report exposing the global scale of chaining, and in Kenya, achieved a ruling which found that this practice was inhumane and held the people responsible to account.

Over 220,000 people live in cramped subdivided flats in Hong Kong. These units are found across rooftop houses, space capsules, cubicles, and loft spaces, and are sometimes not even bigger than a single bed space. Tens of thousands of families live in the city's darkest places. There are 110,000 subdivided flats in dilapidated buildings. Most are rented by singles or couples, but occupants also include single parents and their children, and three-generation households. Housing shortage drives people into tiny spaces with as many as 40 occupants. The most notorious are ‘cage homes’, also known as ‘coffin homes’, where partitioned boxlike units are stacked from floor to ceiling, separated by thin wooden boards or wire mesh. Beijing wants the local government to rid the city of these tiny units by 2049. John Lee Ka-chiu, who has been sworn in as the city’s leader, has pledged to resolve Hong Kong’s housing woes.

Price increases are making it tougher for households to make ends meet, and unlicensed lenders offer loans to the desperate at astronomical interest rates. Last year the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) researched 3,363 people. One in forty were borrowing from unlicensed lenders. CSJ thinks there are about a million people in England doing this. ‘Overwhelmingly, people borrow when they're desperate. For everyday costs of living, like a gas or electricity bill, or a pram, and then they get exploited by those seeking to extort them for as much money as they can get out of them, offering arbitrary terms, little to no paperwork and an extortionate repayment rate.’ ‘It's just endless,’ one victim said: 'I went from a £150 loan to owing £6,000 in months'. The CSJ report highlights separate data from 1,252 victims, questioned last year by the Illegal Money Lending Team, which prosecutes loan sharks in England. The figures suggest the borrowers are among the poorest in society.

Joe Biden's first formal State of the Union speech came as only 40.6% of Americans are happy with his job performance. After describing his foreign policies on the invasion of Ukraine, Mr Biden confronted a host of domestic troubles dogging his presidency, from the enduring pandemic to soaring consumer prices, a wave of violent crime, and inflation hitting a 40-year high even though the jobless rate has sunk to 4%. The president sought to empathise with hard-pressed working families, saying ‘I get it.’ He promised a plan for ‘building a better America’ by boosting domestic production of cars and semiconductors, as well as rebuilding the nation’s roads and bridges. Republican response to the speech portrayed a presidency reflecting the late '70s ‘when runaway inflation hammered families, a violent crime wave crushed cities, and the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map’.

A legacy of brokenness endures from the days of Ceausescu’s regime. Every kind of social evil came to fill the moral space left after Communism ended. People struggle with substance abuse, prostitution, human trafficking, and abuse of children. Deep corruption led to economic instability and widespread unemployment. Membership in the EU has helped push Romania further along the path of economic progress and stability. Pray for leadership that has wisdom to follow the right path, and integrity to establish right policies. Romania is one of the world’s most Christian nations by percentage, but it is difficult to see this in society. Communism’s atheistic worldview persists. Weak faith, hypocrisy, and slandering other denominations cause problems for all Christian groups. Christ is not glorified and the Church is not built up. Church members and clergy mix faith with folk religious practices or the occult. Churches neglect poor people.

Many homeless people sleep outside in doorways, parks, bus shelters, or other unsuitable places. They often have complex physical and mental health needs with root causes that are complex - relationship breakdown, mental health issues, addiction or childhood trauma. These are not issues that can be tackled quickly; people will often need help and support for many years to ensure they never end up back on the streets. The Salvation Army warns that people risk dying on the streets this winter as the cold weather continues to bite, even though new government figures for England and Wales show a slight decrease in deaths of homeless people. When it is very cold, the Salvation Army works with local councils to keep people as safe as possible, putting the homeless up in communal spaces in Lifehouses and operating a number of night shelters run in partnership with local churches.