Family ties and social media

Among US teens surveyed this summer as part of Gallup’s Familial and Adolescent Health Survey, 37pc report spending five or more hours per day across seven popular social media apps, while the average number of hours spent on social media was 4.8 hours per day. Gallup’s latest insights show that 26pc of teens who routinely spend at least five hours per day on social media report feeling a lot of sadness the previous day, compared with 19pc of those who spend less than two hours on social media. When teens report having a strong, loving relationship with their parents or caretakers, their level of social media use no longer predicts mental health problems. Across all categories of social media use, mental health outcomes are much worse for teens who report a weak parental relationship than those who report a strong one. What’s more, the strength of the parent relationship — in addition to parental supervision and regulation of screen time — also predicts much less time spent on social media.

(Adapted from “Parenting Mitigates Social Media-Linked Mental Health Issues,” by Jonathan Rothwell, published on October 27, 2023, by Gallup)

Living wage debate

The armies of people who make clothes for Western brands — some of the lowest-paid factory workers in the world — are protesting for better wages, a sign that the era of ultracheap labour, and ultracheap clothes, on which many companies rely is increasingly under strain. Garment workers in Bangladesh make as little as $3 a day, or about $75 a month. In recent days, tens of thousands have refused to work, calling for the minimum wage to be raised to nearly three times that amount. Demonstrations have spiralled, with factories set ablaze and machines smashed. Some three hundred factories stopped operations. The core of the protests, that workers need higher wages to make even a basic living, has drawn widespread support, including from fashion giants H&M, Gap and Zara-parent Inditex, which source from the country. Factory owners in Bangladesh say that for them to hike wages in a big way, Western brands that are their top buyers need to pay more for clothes.

(Adapted from “The Workers Who Make Your Clothes Want Higher Pay. Who Should Pony Up?” By Jon Emont and Refayet Ullah Mirdha, published on November 6, 2023, by The Wall Street Journal)

Saudi’s tourism plans

A hospitality company that was once best known for Burning Man-style tents is planning a trio of otherworldly, towering structures jutting out of rocky mountains in northwest Saudi Arabia. The newly announced projects are part of the kingdom’s trillion-dollar push to open up its borders and economy to tourists. Each of the 40-room properties will have a different focus: adventure, wellness and nature. The funding will be anchored by the Saudi Tourism Development Fund (TDF), which was established in June 2020 with an initial pot of 15 billion riyals to finance the industry’s growth. The kingdom’s goal is to more than double the number of tourists to 100 million annually by 2030, including domestic travel, and increase tourism’s share of the economy from 3pc to 10pc, according to a document on the fund’s website.

(Adapted from “Saudi Arabia plans $400m expansion of Burning Man-Born Habitas,” by Sarah Rappaport and Lisa Fleisher published on June 16 2023, by Bloomberg)

Adulterated haldi

Turmeric, a flowering plant of the ginger family, has long been prized in Ayurvedic medicine for its anti-inflammatory properties and in Asian cuisines for its earthy flavour and vibrant hue. But for the millions of South Asians who habitually consume it, turmeric’s skin-staining yellowness can be deceptive and deadly. To heighten their colour, the rhizomes from which the spice is extracted are routinely dusted with lead chromate, a neurotoxin. The practice helps explain why South Asia has the highest rates of lead poisoning in the world. The heart and brain diseases it causes — to which children are especially susceptible — accounted for at least 1.4m deaths in the region in 2019. The economic cost is crippling; that year lead poisoning is estimated to have lowered South Asian productivity by the equivalent of 9pc of GDP.

(Adapted from “How To Stop Turmeric From Killing People,” by The Economist, published on November 2, 2023, by The Economist)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, November 13th, 2023