美国之困：肥胖症和基础设施.doc

肥胖症和基础设施 / Obesity and Infrastructure Obesity and Infrastructure I just returned from a trip to Canada, the U.S. and Mexico with fresh traveller’s memories: passing through airports, immigration, customs and security, and the inflight experience. About two years ago, my college roommate asked me to name the single biggest change I had noticed in America since moving to Asia nearly 40 years ago. I said that was an easy question. The answer was the dramatic growth in obesity. Not just the numbers, but the scale of extremely overweight adults and children. Just recently, following years of debate, the American Medical Association formally defined obesity as a disease. Part of the debate was focused on the definition of obesity. There is controversy surrounding the current definition, which is based on Body Mass Index (BMI), because many large-boned but fit people are defined as obese under this system. Apart from the stigma involved, there are huge implications with regard to health insurance coverage, premiums, etc. The main driver behind the AMA’s decision was to encourage physicians to pro-actively counsel their patients about the risks associated with obesity, such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, etc. Apart from obsesity, I would now nominate a second category of dramatic change in America, which is the decline in quality of almost all aspects of the air travel experience. That includes the timeliness of service, service attitudes among airline as well as uniformed airport personnel, and the state of basic airport infrastructure. I remember when air travel used to be fun and imbued with a spirit of excitement and adventure, just like it was portrayed in the airline and destination advertising of the day. Those are now very distant memories, like sepia toned photos in the museum archive. America’s tourist destinations and resorts are fortunate to be experiencing continued growth, despite the serious decline in the quality of the “getting there” e