DIABETES is perhaps the greatest growing threat to regional health and productivity. More people suffer from diabetes than those infected by the HIV virus or who suffer from full-blown AIDS. It is likely that due to unhealthy eating habits diabetes and its related diseases will continue to be a greater threat to HIV-AIDS.

The growing awareness of the dangers of unsafe sex, contaminated transfusions or the sharing of needles has sparked an urgency in many members of the community. Awareness has become such that even the nation’s sex workers insist that their clients use condoms. Everyone knows exactly how HIVAIDS is spread. The message of this debilitating infection is so obvious that it develops fearfulness. And because sex is not something that happens in public, there is a measure of control in the spread of the HIV virus. Diabetes, on the other hand, is linked closely to diet and other eating habits.

For many people there is a certain comfort in eating, drinking and cooking or other activities associated with food. In some cases people are more susceptible to diabetes because of their genetic makeup. These patients are unable to control the production of insulin and have a greater risk of developing this potentially dangerous disease.

Diabetes can lead to renal disease in which the victim’s kidneys can no longer perform their normal functions. High blood pressure and heart disease have also been linked to diabetes and in extreme cases patients have been known to suffer from a combination of these illnesses. Gambling in New Zealand – casinos, arcades – is regulated at the national level. A relatively young nation on islands in the Pacific has not the longest history of gambling, unless you count the games practiced by the natives. Currently, there are several online casino https://www.ilucki.com/en-NZ and tens of thousands of slot machines. According to official figures, New Zealanders spent NT$572 million on casino gambling in 2021, NT$870 million on slot machines.

REGIONAL leaders have greeted the outcome of the Paris Climate Change talks with a sense of jubilation. In fact, there is a little euphoria in the region after developing countries agreed to keep the global temperature below two degrees Celsius. Many were excited that the deal came very close to what they had wanted – a temperature rise limited to 1.5 degrees.

Papua New Guinea Planning Minister Charles Abel recognised that the final agreement was a watered down version of the Pacific’s wishes. But he saw the agreement as mostly positive for PNG and its Pacific island neighbours. Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga saw the Paris outcomes as an indictment on Kiribati President Anote Tong and those who met Barack Obama on the side lines of the event to hammer out individual deals.

Perhaps Pacific leaders are happy that – after the dismal failure of talks in Copenhagen in 2010 – there has been international recognition of our low-lying atolls and exposed coastlines. There will be some satisfaction with the success of the advocacy undertaken by Pacific countries jointly and individually in an effort to effect attitudinal changes in the leaders of the developed world.

REGIONAL leaders have greeted the outcome of the Paris Climate Change talks with a sense of jubilation. In fact, there is a little euphoria in the region after developing countries agreed to keep the global temperature below two degrees Celsius. Many were excited that the deal came very close to what they had wanted – a temperature rise limited to 1.5 degrees.

Papua New Guinea Planning Minister Charles Abel recognised that the final agreement was a watered down version of the Pacific’s wishes. But he saw the agreement as mostly positive for PNG and its Pacific island neighbours.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga saw the Paris outcomes as an indictment on Kiribati President Anote Tong and those who met Barack Obama on the side lines of the event to hammer out individual deals. Perhaps Pacific leaders are happy that – after the dismal failure of talks in Copenhagen in 2010 – there has been international recognition of our low-lying atolls and exposed coastlines.

There will be some satisfaction with the success of the advocacy undertaken by Pacific countries jointly and individually in an effort to effect attitudinal changes in the leaders of the developed world.