The Wall Street Journal-20080123-The Informed Reader - Insights and Items of Interest From Other Sources
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The Informed Reader / Insights and Items of Interest From Other Sources
Latin America:
Growing Tensions on Mexico's Other Border
Mexico's southern border is by many accounts more fraught with danger and misery than the more famous frontier to the north.
The pace of illegal migration over the border separating Mexico and Guatemala has accelerated in the past decade, as Central Americans seek to escape unrelenting poverty at home. Some of those migrants eventually make their way to the U.S., while others remain in Mexico or are deported.
The hundreds of thousands of people who attempt to cross the border illegally every year face the risk of robbery, violence, disease and encounters with corrupt border officials. Meanwhile, many Mexicans who live near the Guatemalan border talk of immigrants stealing jobs and undermining community values, echoing complaints heard in the U.S.
The Mexican government has taken some steps to stem the flow of traffic across the border. A deportation station has been expanded in the border town of Tapachula in Mexico's southern Chiapas state. Every day, buses ferry illegal migrants back south of the border. A fear of being stopped by immigration officials has prompted some migrants to attempt to cross the border in more lawless regions of Chiapas or in the neighboring state of Tabasco, reports Cynthia Gorney in National Geographic.
But there are contradictions in the official response. Even as some officials look to deport illegal immigrants, another team of roving government employees is charged with protecting them from robbers and illness. And street hawkers selling migrants rickshaw rides and supplies for the road ahead work with impunity next to official border guards.
Not all the migrants are U.S.-bound. In Chiapas, undocumented Guatemalan workers provide crucial labor for the coffee, banana and mango harvests. An unnamed former official in Chiapas tells Ms. Gorney that he doubts Mexico could ever stop the flow of migrants. "You can put all the control measures down there that you want, but it's not going to be fixed," he says. "The solution is to eliminate poverty."
-- National Geographic -- February
Health:
Earlier Puberty in Girls Poses
Concerns on Several Fronts
Is earlier puberty among girls a cause for concern?
Recent research shows that the average gap is growing between puberty's first stage, breast development, and its final one, menstruation. One study found that the gap widened by a year and a half between the 1960s and the 1990s, to about three years.
Meanwhile, the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society has lowered the age at which breast development should raise the alarm to 7 years old for white girls and 6 for African-American girls, from 8 years old for all girls previously.
For a century or so, the earlier onset of puberty has been a marker of healthier living -- better nutrition, cleaner sewers and the reduction in infectious diseases. But now some scientists fear that more malignant factors are behind puberty's earlier onset. These might include rising obesity, inadequate exercise, increased stress, or estrogen in the environment.
The biggest medical worry raised by earlier puberty is the increased lifetime exposure to estrogen, which in turn raises the chances of breast cancer. But some doctors point out that the early onset of puberty only rarely indicates the child has serious medical problems. "Maybe we shouldn't be worrying so much about those girls," says Paul Kaplowitz, chief of endocrinology at Children's National Medical Center in Washington.
Within the family, earlier puberty also means many parents end up discussing sexual issues with children who are still focused on dolls and dress-up games. "These are children who are learning the most fundamental facts in school," says Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families. "Imagine trying to teach that child the fundamentals of sex. They're not even playing Monopoly yet. They're still playing Candy Land."
-- Los Angeles Times -- Jan. 21
Personal Finance:
Favoritism Doesn't Always
Drive Inheritance Decisions
Parents who leave a bigger inheritance for one child over another aren't always acting out of favoritism, or spite, say Money magazine ethicists Jeanne Fleming and Leonard Schwarz.
Some parents hate the idea that the estate they have built up will be squandered in the next generation. When writing their wills, the ethicists say, parents may take into account the money-management skills of each child.
Of course, sometimes favoritism is at work. Economists Audrey Light of the University of Ohio and Kathleen McGarry of the University of California, Los Angeles, found that some parents favored children in their wills who had been attentive to them or with whom they felt closest. Parents also left less to adopted children or stepchildren. And sometimes, say the economists, parents leave more to the child they think will most need help.
-- Money -- February
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