Globesity Fats Frontier and the Ngozi

Okonyo

The videos at YouTube, Globesity Fats Frontier and the Ngozi Okonyo- How to help
Africa? Do business there, brought the two important topics of concern in a much scrutinised
manner. The two are very significant in the social context as they are purely meant for the
people and for the betterment of the society. The discussion in both the videos showed that
the clear motive behind the both, was to actually make the people think and relate the present
concerns of the society and to actually relate to them. The facts that I could get after viewing
the videos be it related to growing obesity around the world or the African economy; with
respect to the first video it can be said that the documentary actually sensitizes the me to save
myself and spread awareness about the facts and figures which have lately been increasing
with respect to obesity in the four countries worldwide and that how it can affect the
neighbouring countries. In the second video it was a moving speech by Ngozi Okongo the
Finance minister of Nigeria, the way she wants people to think beyond Africa as backwards
and that really points to the realistic growth of the African economy today.

The video Globesity Fats Frontier, talked that it is not only the richer countries who spend
more on food, in fact it is the poorer countries who are spending so much on food and along
with that they are paying for their health. The facts astonished me that world is actually
shifting in its malnutrition count where it was 700 million two decades ago and in the year
2000 it became 100 million. By the year two 2010, there were 500 million people who were
malnutritioned and therefore they were wither driven to hunger or obesity. Obesity is the
problem which is most prominent among the emerging countries; it is the passion for food
and the laziness to remain active and work-out that is making people fat and fatter with each
passing minute of the day. My understanding of obesity was only limited to only one fact that
they probably some people have an extra liking for food that is something which drives them
to eat more, but the ways the economy and the investors in the market have been coming up
with their business tricks to tempt people to eat the food products is something very shocking.
The video was helpful in even making me personally prepared about the consequences of
being overweight. The countries which topped the list were Mexico, Brazil, China and India,
with Mexico topping the list of growing obesity (Hellmich, N 2012).

The video showcases the case of Louis who has already been operated once or the stomach
reduction and again he is going up for the second operation because of the obesity. Also, in
the another shot it is shown that the mothers day is being celebrate where the children are
drinking excessive amount of coca-cola in that age when they should only be put to drink
milk. According to the fact it really amazed me to know that an average Mexican intakes 1.5
litres of beverage (carbonated drink) in a day (Romo, R 2011). In china, the oil consumption
is the greatest of the all the countries worldwide, the population is majorly dependent upon
the fried foods, with huge amounts of sugar and the oil in it. According to the nutritionists,
one is not consuming food but only the food products. The way the Chinese fast food joints
were populated by the people was shocking and it showed that how the population of china is
so much into the same. In fact I was surprised to know that the biggest weight lose program is
being run in China which I earlier did not know. It is even estimated that around 380 million
Chinese are obese.

The case in Brazil is such that more than 50% adults are obese and even children are highly
being affected by the same. The facts enhanced my knowledge about the food products and in

fact I am cautioned now because I learnt that sugar and the vegetable oil contain twice of the
energy density than the normal food. According to the facts, the supermarkets are the ones
who are indulged in the blind availability of the food products which people are so happy to
buy and consume. The supermarkets provide processed and the packaged food, to the public
and that is a shift from natural to artificial according to me. The villages of the Brazil who are
away from the central supermarkets also have an easy access to the food products as boat is
set for the visit to the villages and thus people are exposed to such food products all over the
globe. In fact it is seen that that big companies like the coca-cola, Kraft, Mc. Donalds,
Pepsico, earn their business out of North America and that they are even buying smaller
companies who are indulged into the distributorship (The Harvard School of Public Health
2012). In Brazil, the obesity related illness causes the expense of $US 2.1 billion/year. India
also is the one country which is increasingly being dependent upon the food products which
have huge amount of oil, sugar and starch in them, thus it has been the one factor that causes
Type II diabetes in the Indians and this in fact has been fatal lately. It is shocking to me to
know that around 100 million people in the country would be falling prey to diabetes in the
next two decades if the same trend of eating goes on. According to the thinker in the video it
is believed that the factor of food marketing never can lead people to think critically.

The second video Ngozi Okonyo- How to help Africa? Do business there, was quite
interesting in my point of view as that has helped me to get a better picture of Africa as a
political continent. The video was a straight-forward account of the allusions which the other
countries have of Africa. The Finance minister breaks those stereotypes when she brings that
the African land if yet only know that it is the land of HIV, malaria, poverty, conflict and
Disaster, but she says that it can be so as the Africans have worked real hard to come up with
a abetter economy. According to her the other countries have never given Africa a thought
about changing its total scenario or by providing the country any opportunities because again
the same has been seen as the land of corruption. This actually made me raise a question to
myself that how such a treatment could is given to a continent on some baseless allusions.
The long history of dictatorship on Africa has actually taught its people to fight and therefore
she put all the claims that there is no reason to call African continent a backward one and
should not only b categorised in terms of only being corrupted as there is a lot which the
African countries have achieved and also the potential that it retains to achieve (South
Africa.info
n.d.).

Thus she invite the other countries to break the typical mindset which they have for Africa
and to come and invest for raising employment in the country, which should be the charity
but the assistance to the country in a progressive way. The first is the decision to privatise the
business in Africa, the second step that has been is the democratisation of the elections

(multi-party system) and the third has been the management of the finances. I personally felt
so happy to see that how the country has grown up with respect to the facts that were
provided, that is since she has been the finance minister the GDP of the Africa has gone up
from 2.5 to more than 5, the economic reserve has experienced the boon from 7 billion to 30
billion. This is indexical of the countrys growth and the continent should get the fair chance
for taking up business in collaboration (Dugan, E 2012. There is a great scope for investment
in agriculture, the solid minerals, housing and real-estate etc. These facts and the emotional
content of the speech by Ngozi Okongo, raised important question which need to be
answered for the healthy growth of the economy which is necessary for a healthy future of
the nation.