Economic Growth

 Economic growth is the increase in value of the goods and services produced by an economy. It is conventionally measured as the percent rate of increase in real gross domestic product, or real GDP. Growth is usually calculated in real terms, i.e. inflation-adjusted terms, in order to net out the effect of inflation on the price of the goods and services produced. In economics, "economic growth" or "economic growth theory" typically refers to growth of potential output, i.e., production at "full employment," which is caused by growth in aggregate demand or observed output.

Economists draw a distinction between short-term economic stabilization and long-term economic growth. The topic of economic growth is primarily concerned with the long run.
The short-run variation of economic growth is termed the business cycle, and almost all economies experience periodical recessions. The cycle can be a misnomer as the fluctuations are not always regular.

The long-run path of economic growth is one of the central questions of economics; in spite of the problems of measurement, an increase in GDP of a country is generally taken as an increase in the standard of living of its inhabitants. Over long periods of time, even small rates of annual growth can have large effects through compounding (see exponential growth). A growth rate of 2.5% per annum will lead to a doubling of GDP within 28 years, whilst a growth rate of 8% per annum (experienced by some Four Asian Tigers) will lead to a doubling of GDP within 9 years. This exponential characteristic can exacerbate differences across nations. For example, the difference in the annual growth from country A to country B will multiply up over the years. A growth rate of 5% seems similar to 3%, but over two decades, the first economy would have grown by 165%, the second only by 80%.

Measuring growth

GDP increase since 1990, in major countries.

World map showing GDP real growth rates for 2007.

The real GDP per capita of an economy is often used as an indicator of the average standard of living of individuals in that country, and economic growth is therefore often seen as indicating an increase in the average standard of living.
However, there are some problems in using growth in GDP per capita to measure general well being.

• GDP per capita growth varies depending on the basket of goods used to deflate the nominal value or on the base year of measure.
• GDP per capita does not provide any information relevant to the distribution of income in a country.
• GDP per capita does not take into account negative externalities from environmental damage consequent to economic growth. Thus, the amount of growth may be overstated once we take environmental damage into account.
• GDP per capita does not take into account positive externalities that may result from services such as education and health.
• GDP per capita excludes the value of all the activities that take place outside of the market place (such as cost-free leisure activities like hiking).
• GDP per capita does not include activities of the informal sector of the economy in precise form. Only as approximate estimates.
• GDP per capita does not account for purchases on goods that were not produced in a given fiscal year, such as used cars or houses.
• GDP per capita does not provide any information about the appreciation or depreciation of goods already produced, which may reflect a change in standard of living. (dilapidation in residential buildings, for example)

Economists are well aware of these deficiencies in GDP, thus, it should always be viewed merely as an indicator and not an absolute scale. Economists have developed mathematical tools to measure inequality, such as the Gini Coefficient. There are also alternate ways of measurement that consider the negative externalities that may result from pollution and resource depletion (see Green Gross Domestic Product.)

Criticism

The real GDP per capita of an economy is often used as an indicator of the average standard of living of individuals in that country, and economic growth is therefore often seen as indicating an increase in the average standard of living.
Four major critical arguments are generally raised against economic growth:^[9]

1. Growth has negative effects on the quality of life: Many things that affect the quality of life, such as the environment, are not traded or measured in the market, and they can lose value when growth occurs.^{[citation needed]}
2. Growth encourages the creation of artificial needs: Industry cause consumers to develop new tastes, and preferences for growth to occur. Consequently, "wants are created, and consumers have become the servants, instead of the masters, of the economy."^{[citation needed]}
3. Resources: similar to the arguments made by Thomas Malthus, economic growth depletes non-renewable resources rapidly.^[10]
4. Distribution of income: growth may reinforce and propagate unequal distribution of income. The gap between the richest in the world and the poorest is growing.^[11]

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On Rewarding People for Talents and Hard Work

 
On Rewarding People for Talents and Hard Work

By Howard Zinn

There are two issues here: First, why should we accept our culture's definition of those two factors? Why should we accept that the "talent" of someone who writes jingles for an Advertising agency advertising dog food and gets $100,000 a year is superior to the talent of an auto mechanic who makes $40,000 a year? Who is to say that Bill Gates works harder than the dishwasher in the restaurant he frequents, or that the CEO of a hospital who makes $400,000 a year works harder than the nurse, or the orderly in that hospital who makes $30,000 a year? The president of Boston University makes $300,000 a year. Does he work harder than the man who cleans the offices of the university?

Talent And hard work are qualitative factors which cannot be measured quantitatively. Since there is no way of measuring them quantitatively we accept the measure given to us by the very people who benefit from that measuring! I remember Fiorello Laguardia  (US Senator) standing up in Congress in the twenties, arguing against a tax bill that would benefit the Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, and asking if Mellon worked harder than the housewife in East Harlem bringing up three kids on a meager income. And how do you measure the talent of an artist, a musician, a poet, an actor, a novelist, most of whom in this society cannot make enough money to survive - against the talent of the head of any corporation. I challenge anyone to measure quantitatively the qualities of talent and hard work. There is one possible answer to my challenge: Hours of work vs. Hours of leisure. Yes, That's a nice quantitative measure. Well, with that measure,the housewife should get more than most or all corporate executives. And the working person who does two jobs -- and there are millions of them -- and has virtually no leisure time, should be rewarded far more than the corporate executive who can take two hour lunches, weekends at his summer retreat, and vacations in italy.

There is the second question: why should "talent and hard work", even if you could measure them, quantitatively, be the criteria for "rewards" (meaning money). We live in a culture which teaches us that as if  it were a truth given from heaven, when actually it serves the interests of the rich, especially since they have determined for us how to define "talent and hard work". Why not use an alternate criterion for rewards? Why not reward people according to what they contribute to society? Then the social worker taking care of kids or elderly people or the nurse or the teacher or the artist would deserve far more money than the executive of a corporation producing luxury sports vehicles and would certainly deserve more money than the executive of a corporation making cluster bombs or nuclear weapons or chemical pollutants.

But better still, why not use as a criterion for income what people need to live a decent life, and since most people's basic needs are similar there would not be an extreme difference in income but everyone would have enough or food, housing, medical care, education, entertainment, vacations....  Of course there is the traditional objection that if we don't reward people with huge incomes society will fall apart, that progress depends on those people. A dubious argument. Where is the proof that people need huge incomes to give them the incentive to do important things? In fact, we have much evidence that the profit incentive leads to enormously destructive things -- Whatever makes profit will be produced, and so nuclear weapons, being more profitable than day care centers, will be produced.

And people do wonderful things (teachers, doctors, nurses, artists, scientists,inventors) without huge profit incentives. Because there are rewards other than monetary rewards which move people to produce good things -- the reward of knowing you are contributing to society, the reward of gaining the respect of people around you. If there are incentives necessary to doing certain kinds of work, those incentives should go to people doing the most undesirable, most unpleasant work, to make sure that work gets done. I worked hard as a college professor, but it was pleasurable work compared to the man who came around to clean my office. By what criterion (except that created artificially by our culture) do i need more incentive than he does? 

Another point: even if you could show that talent and hard work, defined as stupidly as the way our culture defines it, should determine income, how does this relate to small children? They have not had a chance to show their "talent and hard work", so why should some grow up in luxury and others in poverty. Why should rich babies live and poor ones die (infant mortality strikes the poor much more than the rich)?

Okay, let's get practical. We are, as you point out, a long way from achieving an egalitarian society, but we can certainly move in that direction by a truly progressive income tax, by a government-assured minimum level of income, health care, education, housing for every family. For people (usually well-off people) who worry that everyone will get an equal income, you can ease their fears by saying absolute equality is neither possible nor desirable, but that the differences in wealth and living standards need not be extreme, but there should be a minimum standard for all, thinking especially of the children, who are innocent victims of all this high-fallutin philosophizing about property and wealth.

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The Health Benefits of Fasting

Will Carroll

There has been much contention in the scientific field about whether or not fasting is beneficial to one's health. Fasting is an integral part of many of the major religions including Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Many are dubious as to whether the physiological effects are as beneficial as the spiritual promoted by these religions. There is a significant community of alternative healers who believe that fasting can do wonders for the human body. This paper will look at the arguments presented by these healers in an attempt to raise awareness of the possible physiological benefits that may result from fasting.

Fasting technically commences within the first twelve to twenty-four hours of the fast. A fast does not chemically begin until the carbohydrate stores in the body begin to be used as an energy source. The fast will continue as long as fat and carbohydrate stores are used for energy, as opposed to protein stores. Once protein stores begin to be depleted for energy (resulting in loss of muscle mass) a person is technically starving. (1)

The benefits of fasting must be preceded by a look at the body's progression when deprived of food. Due to the lack of incoming energy, the body must turn to its own resources, a function called autolysis. (2) Autolysis is the breaking down of fat stores in the body in order to produce energy. The liver is in charge of converting the fats into a chemical called a ketone body, "the metabolic substances acetoacetic acid and beta-hydroxybutyric acid" (3), and then distributing these bodies throughout the body via the blood stream. "When this fat utilization occurs, free fatty acids are released into the blood stream and are used by the liver for energy." (3) The less one eats, the more the body turns to these stored fats and creates these ketone bodies, the accumulation of which is referred to as ketosis. (4)

Detoxification is the foremost argument presented by advocates of fasting. "Detoxification is a normal body process of eliminating or neutralizing toxins through the colon, liver, kidneys, lungs, lymph glands, and skin." (5). This process is precipitated by fasting because when food is no longer entering the body, the body turns to fat reserves for energy. "Human fat is valued at 3,500 calories per pound," a number that would lead one to believe that surviving on one pound of fat every day would provide a body with enough energy to function normally. (2) These fat reserves were created when excess glucose and carbohydrates were not used for energy or growth, not excreted, and therefore converted into fat. When the fat reserves are used for energy during a fast, it releases the chemicals from the fatty acids into the system which are then eliminated through the aforementioned organs. Chemicals not found in food but absorbed from one's environment, such as DDT, are also stored in fat reserves that may be released during a fast. One fasting advocate tested his own urine, feces and sweat during an extended fast and found traces of DDT in each. (5)

A second prescribed benefit of fasting is the healing process that begins in the body during a fast. During a fast energy is diverted away from the digestive system due to its lack of use and towards the metabolism and immune system. (6) The healing process during a fast is precipitated by the body's search for energy sources. Abnormal growths within the body, tumors and the like, do not have the full support of the body's supplies and therefore are more susceptible to autolysis. Furthermore, "production of protein for replacement of damaged cells (protein synthesis) occurs more efficiently because fewer 'mistakes' are made by the DNA/RNA genetic controls which govern this process." A higher efficiency in protein synthesis results in healthier cells, tissues and organs. (7) This is one reason that animals stop eating when they are wounded, and why humans lose hunger during influenza. Hunger has been proven absent in illnesses such as gastritis, tonsillitis and colds. (2) Therefore, when one is fasting, the person is consciously diverting energy from the digestive system to the immune system.

In addition, there is a reduction in core body temperature. This is a direct result of the slower metabolic rate and general bodily functions. Following a drop in blood sugar level and using the reserves of glucose found in liver glycogen, the basal metabolic rate (BMR) is reduced in order to conserve as much energy within the body as can be provided. (2) Growth hormones are also released during a fast, due to the greater efficiency in hormone production. (7)

Finally, the most scientifically proven advantage to fasting is the feeling of rejuvenation and extended life expectancy. Part of this phenomenon is caused by a number of the benefits mentioned above. A slower metabolic rate, more efficient protein production, an improved immune system, and the increased production of hormones contributes to this long-term benefit of fasting. In addition to the Human Growth Hormone that is released more frequently during a fast, an anti-aging hormone is also produced more efficiently. (7) "The only reliable way to extend the lifespan of a mammal is under-nutrition without malnutrition." (5) A study was performed on earthworms that demonstrated the extension of life due to fasting. The experiment was performed in the 1930s by isolating one worm and putting it on a cycle of fasting and feeding. The isolated worm outlasted its relatives by 19 generations, while still maintaining its youthful physiological traits. The worm was able to survive on its own tissue for months. Once the size of the worm began to decrease, the scientists would resume feeding it at which point it showed great vigor and energy. "The life-span extension of these worms was the equivalent of keeping a man alive for 600 to 700 years." (8)

In conclusion, it seems that there are many reasons to consider fasting as a benefit to one's health. The body rids itself of the toxins that have built up in our fat stores throughout the years. The body heals itself, repairs all the damaged organs during a fast. And finally there is good evidence to show that regulated fasting contributes to longer life. However, many doctors warn against fasting for extended periods of time without supervision. There are still many doctors today who deny all of these points and claim that fasting is detrimental to one's health and have evidence to back their statements. The idea of depriving a body of what society has come to view as so essential to our survival in order to heal continues to be a topic of controversy.


References

1)"Dr. Sniadach – True Health Freedom 3

2)fastingforbetterhealth

3)"Ketosis by Sue Reith"

4)"Nutriquest, March 11th, 2000 – Ketosis and Low Carbohydrate Diets"

5)"WebMD – Detox Diets: Cleansing the Body"

6)"Fasting"

7)"Fasting – Good Morning Doctor"
8)"The health Benefits of Fasting"

How To Stay On Your Fast

Ron Lagerquist

Here is an honest confession: more often than not I have failed to complete the intended length of a fast. So, there you have it. A few years ago I would never have admitted to such weakness under the false pretence that perfection was a prerequisite to instructing others. Yet as I began to move into people’s lives I discovered a curious thing. People have a greater interest in my failures than my successes. They do not want another perfect suit and tie teaching how to run their lives. The kindest healer is one who has been sick. One learns as much about themselves face-first in the dirt as they do flying high above the clouds.

Albeit, still tormented with a perfectionist nature, what has changed for me today is that I am okay with failing. Why? Forty years on this earth has taught me success is not in the finishing, but the starting and not giving up. And starting after failure takes more courage than those who, unlike myself, seem able to float across the finish line without a care. For the crippled of soul, success is a journey full of failure, not a momentous event where we magically arrive and never fail again. Greatest of all, I have learned God never grows tired of new beginnings. Never!

Here is a riddle: the harder it is to fast, the greater the blessing. This is true with many things in life. Our greatest challenges are our greatest teachers. If you have hidden issues, fasting will root them out. Old wounds ache afresh. Forgotten memories are remembered like they happened yesterday. Tough stuff. Tough, but vital to wholeness. I say bravo to those who fast even one day of their 30-day goal. You have taken a bold step. If you fail, take no time for self-indulgent guilt. Do not allow self-doubt to hold you down. Welcome yourself to the human race; then get up with God’s grace and start again.

I have stopped asking people if they ever tried fasting. The inevitable response is a coy, “well, I tried fasting years ago but . . .”

I do not know what percentage of people complete the length of the fast they set out to achieve, but my experience is many fail in misery, only reaffirming what they believed in the first place: I have no self-discipline. This is why few attempt stepping out of their comfort zone; the greatest discomfort is the thought of failure.

Let me go deep for a moment. The foreboding of failure is rooted in a common fear that our entire life is a well-contrived disguise, hiding the loser we really are inside and failure is when our true self peeks through. Not everyone carries this spiritual wound; I have known those who bulldoze through failure only to grow stronger. But they are rare. For the rest of us, we balk and hesitate. Yet ironically, we “failures” are attracted to the narrow path of fasting because it creates an environment of healing.

Goals are necessary. I write a list of them every day and, once complete, love the feeling of crossing them off. But goals are not laws. I have found there are larger goals that govern the smaller ones, like remaining in peace. Not being ruled by guilt. If I fail to get the dishes done or complete ten days of a 30-day fast, or restart a fast five times before completing it, I am okay with this. Besides, if I remain in peace and do not beat myself up with guilt, I am far likelier to eventually succeed. Guilt turns goals into laws.

Failure takes courage. In fact, the information in this article has been borne out of failing, and afterward asking the question why. Here are some helpful points.

You Will Eat Again

I recall my first 30-day fast. I was 20 days deep, up to my ears in a 48-hour cleansing crisis. It felt like I had not eaten for years. Tried to remember the experience of eating and could not. Then, this wild thought came out of nowhere. What if on day 29, a Great Depression falls over the entire globe creating massive food shortages, just in time for me to quit my fast? Shelves cleared of cinnamon danish, topped with sour cream icing. The ones I was forced to watch a co-worker eat every lunch and fantasized about at night. I’m not overstating when I say I began to panic. Weighed the possibilities, checked the paper, paged through some prophecy books, reread Revelation¾a food shortage was imminent. Called a friend for the umpteenth time—help! He assured me that my emotions were running wild, and I would eat again and in fact enjoy eating more than ever before. Crazy stuff happens in the mind when fasting. I almost quit my fast over some inane fear.

When you are feeling trapped by the fast, remember, you will eat again! In fact most of your waking hours will be filled with eating. So, relax and enjoy a holiday from the rigors of eating—the cooking, cleaning dishes, grocery shopping and fighting to remain on a healthy diet. Enjoy the few days of fasting; the world of eating will come far too quickly and, like a great vacation, the fast will be one of many pleasant memories recalled later in life.

The Detox Blues

Many times, during a heated instant with one of my daughters, I have had to command my legs to walk away. I knew the next words out of my mouth would end in stinging regret. What I felt justified to say in anger would be totally wrong in the cool reason of later. Walk away, take some breaths of objectivity, calm my emotions, then come back and confront with a clear mind.

There are times we simply cannot trust our judgment, impaired with distorted emotions running crazy. It is not only women who battle with up and down cycles. Flesh is fickle, and it is a wise man that is acquainted with his own weakness.

When singing the Detox Blues, never ever quit a fast! You simply cannot trust emotions and thinking when detoxifying. During detox, melancholy can come on through increased sensitivity. Exercising authority over emotions during detox will develop maturity.

You cannot believe in the way you are feeling. Do not empower depression with faith. Establish your faith on Christ. Unlike emotions, thinking and the wind, He is unchanging. The Detox Blues will pass, leaving you better for the experience, possessing a greater knowledge of your human feebleness. Knowledge is strength.

Change Modes

Watching TV while on a spiritual fast will become increasingly ridiculous. In every commercial you are being tempted with food. Most of all, it destroys your Christ-focus. Heavens, it’s not going to kill you to turn off the TV and radio and stop buying the newspaper for a few weeks! The world will continue happily along without your inspiring analysis. Of the many times I have broken a fast, I can usually trace it back to allowing myself some form of earthly distraction.

When I first start a jog I feel uncomfortable and irritated. After about 15 minutes I get into the zone. A rhythm. It is a healthy, altered state and man, does it feel great. The world literally fades away, thoughts clarify. Some of my best stuff happens in the zone. Fasting has a zone. Allow yourself to get there. Create a healthy distance between you and the world for a period of time.

Even a short fast has many different stages. Fasting speeds up emotional states to the point where, one moment you will have a sense of closeness to God with a feeling of well-being and the next moment, the bottom falls out and you feel empty and cold. Remember that a tug-of-war is going on in the soul between the flesh that is being inflicted, and the spirit that is being strengthened.

You are the most vulnerable when you’re feeling deprived. That is the time when you must be aware of the temptation to find an escape. Let God be your entertainment. Turn to Him when you feel deprived.

Look for your Bible, not the TV converter!

Avoid Needless Temptation

The smells and sight of food can be difficult during a fast. As you continue along the path of fasting, all five senses will increase in sensitivity. When the next door neighbor opens a jar of fresh peanut butter, you will know it. Every desire to draw closer to God will be obscured in the wonderful smell of peanuts. All you can imagine is the smooth, delicious flavor of peanut butter melting on freshly browned toast.

During a fast, you will be surrounded with the hostile world of food, especially in a country that has become addicted to eating. Do all you can to separate yourself from temptations. Of course your children need to eat. Do your best to arrange a schedule where your spouse is able to do the cooking. This also can be an excellent situation for your children to experience a sense of responsibility in the home. You can plan meals for the next five, 20 or 30 days, or however long you decide to fast. They may not want to, but once your family sees that your decision is firm and that this is important to you, they will support you. You are displaying a powerful example they will never forget.

Why should the IPL be globally managed?




Kerry Packer didn't ask the world's cricket boards if he could subsidise them for the trouble they had taken to raise the players he was buying for his pirate league © The Cricketer International
Some six years ago I wrote an article speculating about a world in which domestic cricket in India would be organised around commercial franchises and clubs on the football model, not the territorial principle on which the Ranji Trophy is based. With the IPL, this has (sort of) come to pass. I can't lay claim to prescience because I was dreaming of franchised first-class cricket, not a Twenty20 league.

I've no idea whether the IPL will work in the long term or not and I'm as surprised as anyone at the money that's been bid for the players. But it seems like an interesting experiment that might create a following for the game at a sub-national level. I'd like Twenty20 cricket to mutate into a four-innings format, like Test cricket in miniature. It's an idea that Chris Cairns once mentioned in a discussion in a television studio. It's a feasible format because even with each side batting twice, the 80 overs would take less time to bowl than the 100 overs of one-day cricket. The sports channels would love it (more time to flash commercials in) and the limited-overs game would be invested with some of the magic of Test cricket: the thrill of another chance, the prospect of the stirring fight back, the shot at a second-innings redemption.

I can see the reasons why people are anxious about the IPL: the fact that it’ll clog up an already crowded calendar, the fear that wads of easy money might devalue Test cricket and the possible disruption of domestic cricket seasons elsewhere in the world. Also, as a middle-aged fan, I wouldn’t trust Lalit Modi and Sharad Pawar as far as I could throw an elephant when it comes to protecting the long game which, for me, defines cricket.

What I can't understand is the chorus of voices - represented on Cricinfo by Ian Chappell and David Lloyd in discussion with Sanjay Manjrekar - asking that the BCCI ought to cut other cricket boards into the money (or that the ICC ought to collect an IPL cess and distribute it among other boards) and, even more bizarrely, that the IPL ought to be jointly managed by representatives of the cricket world's national boards.

County cricket in England is staffed by professional players from England and the rest of the world. Individual overseas players are paid for their services. I've never read or heard people arguing that the West Indies cricket board ought to be compensated by the ECB for lending it the services of players that the WICB has nurtured and developed. Individual players have historically arrived at contracts and understandings with their county managements that allow them to balance the responsibility of playing for their countries with the need to make as good a living as possible. Coming to Lloyd's point that the IPL would be seriously disruptive, it's worth pointing out that the county season lasts considerably longer than the proposed duration of the IPL, which is meant to last for all of two months.




Why is it bad for a properly constituted national board to organise a credibly franchised cricket league when it's okay for a solitary TV moghul to set up a circus wholly owned by one person? © AFP
Chappell and Lloyd press for the IPL to be 'globally' managed because that way it wouldn't be the BCCI going off on a tangent and selfishly disrupting world cricket. This is more than a bit rich coming from Chappell, who was once part of World Series Cricket, a circus dreamt up by a thwarted television magnate with the quite deliberate intention of holding every Test-playing nation to ransom. Given that he and his team-mates were enthusiastic participants for the duration of the WSC adventure, I'm surprised to hear him being sanctimonious about the BCCI not having the best interests of cricket at heart. I don't recall Packer asking the world's cricket boards if he could subsidise them for the trouble they had taken to raise the players he was buying for his pirate league. The BCCI, like the WSC, is run by a businessman who sees cricket as a cash cow. I can't see why it's bad for a properly constituted national board to organise a credibly franchised cricket league when it's okay for a solitary TV moghul to set up a circus wholly owned by one person. Lloyd and Chappell are having some difficulty coming to terms with the fact that this little circus isn't owned the ECB or Cricket Australia. I sympathise; it isn't easy to like or trust the BCCI. But then lots of crusty administrators and journalists didn't like Packer and much good came of WSC. Something similar might happen here.

The worst that could happen is that no one turns up to watch the games, the television ratings don't draw the eyeballs necessary to sustain the league, and the whole thing collapses. Who cares? The franchise owners don't need our sympathy and at least there'd be a bunch of players with their retirements taken care of. At best it could create a commercially viable tier of competitive cricket and, as Chappell suggests, new hybrid formats for the future of the game. I'll tell you what won't happen, though: having supplied the venues, the audiences, the franchise owners and the structure, the BCCI isn't about to hand the IPL over to the United Nations to run. I don't think Chappell advised Packer to share the goodness then; I'm not sure why he's asking the BCCI to do it now.

No, you're not a 'young adult'

 

 

Parents are abdicating their responsibilities towards children aged 11 to 16

Libby Purves

Surveys must be taken cautiously, especially when attached to a book launch. Jacqueline Wilson, a teen-read bestseller, says that modern children grow up too fast: "Parents are well-meaning but they need to set boundaries." She speaks out for simple family pleasures such as picnics, and her publisher releases an ICM poll on attitudes to childhood.
Parts of it are pointless: the figure of 71 per cent of parents giving under-18s alcohol at home makes no distinction between a well-governed child allowed a glass of wine and a poor brat getting senseless on alcopops while its parents shoot up.
It does seem odd that more than half of under-16s are allowed out after 11pm, given that two-thirds of parents then claim to be worried about the company they are keeping: perhaps they just enjoy worrying. But the key finding is that 55 per cent "think childhood is over at the age of 11".
Now that is interesting, and worryingly believable. Eleven is not very old: five years must elapse before the child can legally make love or earn a living. Even at 14 the brain is physiologically changing, experience of life is minimal, sexuality confused, emotions chaotic. Even if puberty strikes early, these are still children.
But it suits adults for them not to be. Despite the chattering-class perception that we overprotect, secondary school at 11 all too often heralds a kind of parental abdication. The weaselly expression "young adults" kicks in. When my eldest first went to "big school" he found the jostling lunch queue so frightening that he stopped going in at all, and hid hungrily in the library. Nobody noticed. When we found out after some weeks and remonstrated with the idiot head of year, she replied gaily: "Oh, it's not a primary school, we don't police their day, young adults make choices."
His next school took a saner view, but looking around I recognised the "young adult" mindset everywhere. Once primary school cosiness is over, the child is seen as having stepped into a wider world and joined a tribe of peers with new customs. Adults, nervous and preoccupied, may take the opportunity to step back farther than they should.
There are plenty of reasons. Parents could be holding down two jobs or more, because of the absurd price of homes and government's droolingly incompetent failure to plan for a rocketing immigrant population and the fallout from council house sales.
Family life and family meals suffer under heavy work pressures: how could they not? Besides, adults are tired and it takes energy and resolution to say no to beloved teenagers. Simpler to give them their "choices" as "young adults" and disguise emotional neglect as respect. A disastrous misunderstanding of the Children Act has made adults frightened of exerting authority, and even professionals talk nonsense. One would-be adopter, asked by the inspecting social worker if she would ration TV, said yes, an hour a day. Wrong answer. She was sternly told that this would violate the child's "human right" to "participate fully in the culture".
Even when financial and time pressures are light, cultural values militate against looking after children properly. It was interesting on Mothering Sunday to follow, parallel to the usual soppy blether, a whine about how tough it is to be a mother and how it drains your "selfhood". It is as if we wanted to be the children ourselves, petted and admired and given playtime and toys. Men also are encouraged to embrace a permanent adolescence of gadgets and treats. Children get in the way of this, especially when they stop being sweet and cuddly and believing everything you say.
Surprisingly often they become resented: I have heard a mother say, vindictively, of her 12-year-old: "That kid never brought me no luck."
Further up the social scale parents may be less frank, and just push the awkward-aged child into expensive activities and tutorings outside the house rather than ignoring it. But the same feeling of petulant, disappointed unwillingness to engage with a child's troublesome reality is sometimes discernible. Oh yes it is.
So into the vacuum comes a rush of alternative parents, greedy for the children's money: television and internet, celebrities, showbiz dreams, gadgets, fashionable must-haves, social websites, computer-game illusions. Where there is no money, out on the meaner streets, gangs become surrogate families offering leadership and protection and rules to live by. Not good rules, not at all - but they fill the gap.
There is an opposing force at work too, and that is the desire to suck up to youth and annex its more desirable qualities - energy, smooth skin, skinny thighs, big-eyed winsomeness, freedom. Stars dress like teenagers, grown men write drivel about pop, queenly Nigella Lawson goes on Desert Island Discs to express hip-hop kinship with Dr Dre of Niggaz With Attitude.
If I really wanted to upset you I would call this phenomenon cultural paedophilia. The late Alan Coren summed it up beautifully when he said that in his youth in the Fifties he sought to attract girls by dressing in broad-shouldered George Raft suits and trying to look 40 - but no sooner had he succeeded, than in the blink of an eye the Sixties arrived and the sexual norm of male desirability became "a skinny kid in a tattered Donald Duck T-shirt".
Very perceptive. There you go. Half the time we admire late childhood as cool and sexy, the other half we ignore it as awkward and spotty. Either way, we find it easy to treat it as a different but equal "culture". And it isn't. It's childhood. Someone has to be the grown-up round here, and I'm afraid it's us.

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HOW TO FAST

Physical preparation
Although fasting is primarily a spiritual discipline, it begins in the physical realm. You should not fast without specific physical preparation.

If you plan on fasting for several days, you will find it helpful to begin by eating smaller meals before you abstain altogether. Resist the urge to have that "last big feast" before the fast. Cutting down on your meals a few days before you begin the fast will signal your mind, stomach, and appetite that less food is acceptable.

Some health professionals suggest eating only raw foods for two days before starting a fast. I also recommend weaning yourself off caffeine and sugar products to ease your initial hunger or discomfort at the early stages of your fast.

MAINTAINING NUTRITIONAL BALANCE

I know the prospect of going without food for an extended period of time may be of concern to some. But there are ways to ensure that your body is getting the nutrients it needs so you can remain safe and healthy during your fast.

For an extended fast, I recommend water and fruit and vegetable juices. The natural sugars in juices provide energy, and the taste and strength are motivational to continue your fast. Try to drink fresh juices, if possible. Off-the-shelf juice products are acceptable, as long as they are 100% juice with no sugar or other additives.

If you are beginning a juice fast, there are certain juices you may wish to avoid and certain ones that are especially beneficial. Because of their acid content, most nutritionists do not advise orange or tomato juice (these are better tolerated if mixed with equal portions of water). The best juices are fresh carrot, grape, celery, apple, cabbage, or beet. They also recommend "green drinks" made from green leafy vegetables because they are excellent "de-toxifiers."

Fruit juices are "cleansers" and are best taken in the morning. Since vegetable juices are "restorers" and "builders," they are best taken in the afternoon.

I usually dedicate a portion of my 40-day fast to a special liquid formula, which I have found to be effective over many years. A few recipes and my comments are on this page, as well as a helpful schedule.

One gallon distilled water
1-1/2 cup lemon juice
3/4-cup pure maple syrup
1/4-teaspoon cayenne pepper.

The lemon juice adds flavor and vitamin C, the maple syrup provides energy, and the cayenne pepper-an herb-acts to open small blood vessels which, I believe, helps the body as it cleanses itself of stored toxins. (A word of caution: although I use this formula with no ill effects, cayenne pepper could cause severe physical reactions in persons with a specific allergy to this herb.)

My favorite juice is a mixture of 100% pure white grape juice and peach juice. The juice is available in frozen cans under the Welch label. Most knowledgeable nutritionists recommend:

* Watermelon-just put it in the blender without adding water.
* Fresh apple juice
* Green juice-blend celery, romaine lettuce, and carrots in equal proportions. (Vegetable juices like this one are important, for they supply the electrolytes necessary for proper heart function!)

Some nutritionists recommend warm broth, especially if you live in a colder climate. You may find their recipes helpful:
Boil sliced potatoes, carrots, and celery in water. Do not add salt
After about a half-hour, drain off the water and drink.

Gently boil three carrots, two stalks of celery, one turnip, two beats, a half head of cabbage, a quarter of a bunch of parsley, a quarter of an onion, and a half clove of garlic
Drain off the broth and drink up to two or three times daily.

You may find the following daily schedule helpful during your fast. I recommend you print it and keep it handy throughout your fast.
# 5:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.
Fruit juices, preferably freshly squeezed or blended, diluted in 50 percent distilled water if the fruit is acid. Orange, apple, pear, grapefruit, papaya, grape, peach or other fruits are good.
# 10:30 a.m. - noon
Green vegetable juice made from lettuce, celery, and carrots in three equal parts.
# 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Herb tea with a drop of honey. Make sure that it is not black tea or tea with a stimulant.
# 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Broth from boiled potatoes, celery, and carrots (no salt).

I suggest that you do not drink milk because it is a pure food and therefore a violation of the fast. Any product containing protein or fat, such as milk or soy-based drinks, should be avoided. These products will restart the digestion cycle and you will again feel hunger pangs. Also, for health reasons, stay away from caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea, or cola. Because caffeine is a stimulant, it has a more powerful effect on your nervous system when you abstain from food. This works both against the physical and spiritual aspects of the fast.

Another key factor in maintaining optimum health during a fast is to limit your physical activity. Exercise only moderately, and rest as much as your schedule will permit (this especially applies to extended fasts). Short naps are helpful as well. Walking a mile or two each day at a moderate pace is acceptable for a person in good health, and on a juice fast. However, no one on a water fast should exercise without the supervision of a fasting specialist.