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Joseph Barber offers recommendations for how graduate students can leverage artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT for exploring career options and pursuing opportunities.
All of a sudden, we appear spoiled for choice in terms of being able to access AI language models that seem smart enough to write essays, plan out exercise and diet plans, create weeklong agendas for professional development conferences, or even write your next résumé and cover letter. But is it helpful to leverage such tools as part of a job search?
Well, yes, absolutely—and also no. Actually, it will depend on how you are using these platforms and how you can integrate their immense brainstorming abilities as part of your own efforts. Having spent time playing around with some of the AI tools, here are some of my recommendations for how they can support graduate students exploring career options and applying for opportunities that they’ve identified.
Let’s first address some important assumptions about these AI models. They are still in their infancy, and the content that they provide—from wherever they acquire it, with or without permission—should not be assumed to be correct. In fact, I would go on the assumption that every statement involving facts and data is a lie—a confident, well-spun lie.
With this understanding of the limitations of AI tools, their benefit comes not from generating original content, like a whole new résumé or cover letter, or possible answers for common interview questions that you might get. Rather, they come from helping you reflect on your pre-existing materials or brainstorming with you some next steps take in your career-development process.
When you are in the job application phase, you can copy the text from a job description and ask the AI tools to identify the main skills or knowledge areas sought. You would want to combine the answer you get with real-world information you have gained from your networking just to be sure, but these tools are great at identifying trends and patterns in data.
Feeling stuck with writing a cover letter? You could start off by asking the AI tools, “How should I structure a cover letter for ABC type job in XYZ industry?” You are not just going to blindly follow the answer you get, but some of the ideas can help you get started and prompt your own thinking as well.
Additionally, you can paste the text from a first-draft cover letter into an AI tool and then ask it to make that draft sound more professional. The content is yours (and this takes a good amount of time to get into a first-draft state), but you can borrow ideas from the AI tools about how to present it best in your cover letter.
This approach is especially helpful for international students who want their cover letters to read more naturally, allowing the reader to focus more on the content (and all the great experiences, skills and knowledge that they have to offer). I wouldn’t use the suggested text exactly—sometimes it won’t be an improvement—but it can often help provide some good ways of sharing the information.
If you are looking to identify the type of questions that you might face in a job interview, your networking will be a key part of gathering this information. However, you can certainly ask the AI tools lots of questions about interviewing as a small part of your preparation. The answers you get are not going to be something you can use just as they are in your next interview, but they will give you an opportunity to reflect and brainstorm about what questions you might expect, as well as what stories you can tell from your own specific experiences to answer them.
“In conclusion, while AI language models have made incredible strides in generating content that can be helpful in many aspects of career development, it’s important to remember their limitations. Rather than relying solely on AI-generated content, the real value of these tools comes from using them to brainstorm and reflect on your pre-existing materials. From exploring different career paths to refining your résumé and cover letter, these tools can help jump-start your creativity and give you a fresh perspective. So don’t be afraid to try them out and see what kind of new ideas and insights they can bring to your job search!”
That’s not too bad, but mine would have been better.
Joseph Barber is the director of graduate career initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Graduate Career Consortium—an organization providing an international voice for graduate-level career and professional development leaders.
Resources for faculty and staff from our partners at Times Higher Education.
Credit: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2023/03/13/using-ai-most-effectively-develop-job-search-materials-opinionCredit: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2023/03/13/using-ai-most-effectively-develop-job-search-materials-opinion
ENND
Life and art merge for the Stranger Things star Noah Schnap, who officially came out as gay six months after confirming the sexuality of his character Will.
“I guess I look more like Will than I thought,” he captioned a TikTok video posted on Thursday, which read: “When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all". they said it was 'we know'”. Schnapp was lip-syncing to audio of someone saying, “You know what never was? So serious. It was never that bad. Frankly, it will never be that bad."
Schnapp, who is currently a freshman business student at the University of Pennsylvania, first addressed his character's sexuality over the summer. "He was always there, but you never really knew, is it just that he grows slower than his friends?" Schnapp told Variety about Will's lack of a romance story. “Now that he has aged, they made it very real and obvious. It is now 100% clear that he is gay and he loves Mike. [his best friend, played by Finn Wolfhard]. But before, it was a slow arc. I think it's very well done, because it's very easy to make a character suddenly gay."
Prior to the fourth season of Stranger Things, Schnapp had dodged questions about whether or not Will was gay, insisting that it "depended on the audience's interpretation." But that was all part of protecting the latest reveal of the Netflix show, the actor explained. “I mean, it's pretty clear this season that Will has feelings for Mike. They've been intentionally bringing that out the last few seasons,” he told Variety. “Even in the first season, they hinted at that and little by little that story grew. I think for season four, it was just me playing this character who loves his best friend but struggles with whether or not he'll be accepted, and it feels like a mistake and like he doesn't belong. Will has always felt that way."
In the upcoming final season of Stranger Things, Schnapp said that the creators, the Duffer brothers, plan to "focus more on Will" and that he hopes for a "coming out scene" suitable for his character.
Credit: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/01/stranger-things-star-noah-schnapp-confirms-both-he-and-his-character-are-gay Fresh off the wide release this fall of DALL-E, the brilliant AI-powered text-to-image generator, the OpenAI team has done it again.
Six days ago, the AI research team introduced ChatGPT, arguably the most advanced and easy-to-use chatbot to break into the public domain. As more than 1 million users have already discovered, ChatGPT provides rich, intelligent, conversational text in response to complex user prompts.
ChatGPT can write lines of code, write a college-level essay, write responses in the voice of a pirate, and write a Mozart-style piano piece. For more examples of its amazing capabilities, just search for "ChatGPT" on Twitter and prepare to be amazed.
“There is a certain feeling that happens when a new technology adjusts the way you think about computing,” Box CEO Aaron Levie tweeted on Sunday. “Google did it. Firefox did. AWS did it. iPhone did it. OpenAI is doing it with ChatGPT.”
The appetite for ChatGPT has already been so great that OpenAI stopped new subscriptions. A notice on the site Monday morning read: “We are experiencing exceptionally high demand. Please wait while we work to scale our systems.”
ChatGPT is free to use and doesn't display ads, though OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted on Monday that "we're going to have to monetize it somehow at some point" due to "exorbitant" operating costs. (OpenAI launched in 2015 with $1 billion in funding from Silicon Valley luminaries, including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, and received another $1 billion from Microsoft in 2019.)
While ChatGPT remains in its naive incubation phase, its arrival heralds what could become one of the great disruptive events in modern technology.
As some industry insiders and members of the media have pointed out, ChatGPT performs many of Google's functions, and often does them better than the Alphabet unit. While Google simply gives you the links and tools you need to search for information, ChatGPT can answer elaborate questions, solve intricate problems, and converse in a human way.
How much of a threat could a technology like ChatGPT pose to Google? Considering that Alphabet earned $149 billion in revenue last year from Google Search and other web-based Google properties, the implications are huge.
“The potential for something like OpenAI's ChatGPT to eventually supplant a search engine like Google is not a new idea, but this release of OpenAI's underlying technology is the closest approximation yet to how it would actually work on a fully fledged system, and it should scare Google away,” TechCrunch US managing editor Darrell Etherington wrote on Friday.
For now, the idea of AI startups supplanting Google seems premature.
ChatGPT and lesser chatbots still generate incorrect, inconsistent, biased, or dangerously wrong answers at times, undermining trust in the product. (OpenAI willingly acknowledges these issues, calling them a necessary but unfortunate development cost.) Google, by contrast, largely avoids such traps by holding users accountable for examining the information and drawing their own conclusions.
“Search satisfaction is reputation business,” Delip Rao, an artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, tweeted Saturday. “Once people are disappointed by a search result in something critical, they will use that search interface less and less. For example, Twitter search at https://twitter.com/ sucks, so I use other options to search (sic) my own tweets." (He's right. Twitter's search function is horrible.)
Plus, Alphabet still has plenty of time and money to beat any would-be rival to Google.
Alphabet and its artificial intelligence subsidiary, DeepMind, are heavily invested in the big language models that underpin chatbots, as MIT Technology Review explored in September. And while OpenAI benefits from the massive buzz that comes with the introduction of an early prototype, Alphabet has little to gain by launching early, non-monetized projects that could damage confidence in the company or cannibalize existing revenue.
Even ChatGPT is skeptical about its ability to outperform Google. When The Independent asked ChatGPT if it could replace Google, the bot responded, in part: "It is unlikely that a single search engine, such as ChatGPT, could completely replace Google."
However, ChatGPT accurately noted that advanced language models offer unique features and a different user experience compared to Google. As the chatbot concluded: "Overall, ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize the way we search for information online."
Do you want to send thoughts or suggestions to the data sheet? Drop me a line here.
jacob carpenter
NEWSWORTHYFalling short in China. Tesla plans to cut production at its Shanghai plant by up to 20% as a result of disappointing demand for the company's electric vehicles in China, Bloomberg reported Monday. Sources familiar with the decision told Bloomberg that near-term sales forecasts led to the cut, although the Shanghai factory could return to growth if demand picks up. Tesla shares fell 4% in midday trading on Monday.
Getting back to normal. Foxconn believes that its Zhengzhou plant, responsible for assembling most of Apple's iPhones, will return to full production capacity within a few weeks after COVID-related and labor issues rocked the Chinese facility, Reuters reported on Monday. A Foxconn source told Reuters the company hopes to replace workers who left last month in late December or early January. Foxconn officials announced Monday that company-wide revenue fell 11% year-over-year in November, the period during which employees revolted over COVID-induced shutdowns and broken pay promises.
Waiting for the bill. European Union privacy regulators are expected to issue record fines on Monday against Meta for violating local laws related to the data of millions of users, Politico EU reported. European officials have not commented on the potential scope of the fines, but Meta's financial statements suggest they could be closer to $2 billion. Irish and French regulators have already fined Meta some $750 million this year for data and privacy breaches.
All good with Apple. Twitter owner Elon Musk said Apple has fully reinstated its ad buying on the platform, the latest sign of easing tensions between the two parties, Bloomberg reported. Musk, who criticized Apple last week for cutting its ad spending on Twitter, revealed the resolution during a Twitter Spaces chat on Saturday. Musk met with Apple CEO Tim Cook after his comment, later tweeting that they had a "good chat" and resolved some misunderstandings.
FOOD FOR THOUGHTBest of five. Former WarnerMedia boss Jason Kilar has some ideas about the future of streaming, and they're not good for fledgling platforms like Peacock and Paramount Plus. In a Wall Street Journal commentary, Kilar predicted that the largely unprofitable streaming industry will consolidate over the next two years, with just five platforms emerging from the crowd. Kilar, who stepped down in April ahead of WarnerMedia's merger with Discovery, said he believes three platforms will reach the scale needed to generate positive cash flows (he didn't name names, but Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max all have chances). -favorites). In the meantime, he suggested that Amazon Prime and Apple+, neither of which he expects their parent company to make big profits, will continue to operate.
From the article:
Despite the chaotic nature of the current moment, a reassuring global constant for decades to come will be our collective need for stories well told. I believe that Hollywood will continue to serve this fundamental human need, but to do so sustainably will first require dramatic change.
There will be multiple commercial casualties in the pay streaming wars and some commercial winners. Digital markets for industries that have high fixed costs and relatively low variable costs have tended to have a few unusually big winners, and I think that will be the case in entertainment.
IN CASE YOU MISSED ITSlack CEO Stewart Butterfield leaves Salesforce, by Kylie Robison
Elon Musk 'wanted to punch' Kanye West after calling the rapper's swastika tweet 'incitement to violence', by Steve Mollman
Bill Ackman denies defending Sam Bankman-Fried, calls FTX fiasco an 'egregious' case of 'gross negligence' to say the least, by Susanne Barton and Bloomberg
Crypto Billionaire Mike Novogratz Says FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried Will Go To Jail "If Events Turn Out As I Hope" by Steve Mollman
Meet the power players trying to make FTX clients feel complete, by Jessica Mathews
Circle pulls the plug on SPAC as stablecoin giant announces it's profitable, by Jeff John Roberts
These 10 employers are still hiring tech and financial talent like crazy, by Sheryl Estrada
BEFORE YOU LEAVEExposing age differences. Catfishers might soon have a harder time catching their prey on Facebook. Axios reported Monday that Meta is testing age verification technology on her Facebook dating site, with the goal of replicating the success of similar tools recently implemented on Instagram. Meta officials said some Facebook users looking for love will need to submit video selfies, which the company will feed through software that estimates a person's age, or upload a picture of their ID. Facebook Dating hasn't caught on since its launch in 2019, lagging far behind more popular apps like Match Group's Tinder and Bumble. But Meta officials hope the new steps will provide a greater sense of security and perhaps satisfy pesky European regulators in the process.
- The US Federal Reserve earlier this month announced the fourth consecutive three-quarter interest rate hike to cool record levels of inflation, another aggressive move that leaves economists fearing a recession ahead.
The Fed has hawkishly pledged to raise rates to fight inflation while standing by as the US economy turns around. The move is a political calculation to take advantage of the US dollar's dominance in the international monetary and trade system to shift domestic risks to the outside world and leave the United States unscathed.
Analysts noted that amid partisan bickering and other systemic flaws, the United States continues to introduce destructive policies that weigh on the global economy by driving up world prices, disrupting financial markets, and undermining the global economic and trade order.
RECESSION APPROACHING
US gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent, compared with falls of 1.6 percent in the second quarter and 0.6 percent in the third quarter, the Bureau reported. Economic Analysis at the end of October. However, growth in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of US economic output, slowed to a rate of 1.4 percent from the 2.0 percent pace in the April quarter. -June.
Given the economic contraction for two consecutive quarters, declining consumer spending and a weakening housing market, many experts believe a recession could be a piece of cake.
"A smaller trade deficit fueled the 2.6 percent annualized increase in US GDP in the third quarter," said Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman, quoted by Business Insider in an article published Oct. 28. .
Growth drivers will fade as the dollar's rise this year has made US exports less competitive, and recessions abroad could undermine demand for US goods, Krugman said.
He noted that the Fed's rate hikes since March are "the key reason" for a potential economic downturn, adding that "higher rates have created a trade hurdle by boosting the dollar and have affected finances and the ability of Americans to buy houses as mortgages rise. costs".
Jeremy Siegel, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, called the Fed's current monetary policy "the third worst in the Fed's 110-year history" at a September conference hosted by the Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center. Wharton's.
He told CNBC in early October that the Fed is "hitting the brakes too hard" with its continued rate hikes this year. "Recession risks are extremely high," he warned.
"Tightening monetary policy to combat inflation would add one kind of pain to another," said US billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio.
The Fed's latest huge rate hike brings its policy rate to a new target range of 3.75 to 4 percent, the highest level since January 2008. To reduce inflation, the Fed has raised interest rates six times this year for a total increase of 375 basis points and is much more likely to raise rates again in December.
However, the whirlwind has made little progress. The New York Times wrote in mid-October that "the so-called core index rose 6.6 percent, the fastest pace since 1982 and more than economists expected."
In late October, Yahoo Finance columnist Rick Newman said that "inflation's knock-on effect on living standards has pushed consumer confidence near record lows."
POLITICAL MYOPIA
On the 10th anniversary of the Fed's quantitative easing applied during the 2008 global financial crisis, J. Bradford Delong, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, noted in an article titled "The Unhistorical Federal Reserve" that the Fed has internalized none of the lessons that past economic developments have taught.
"The Fed's process of moving from a realistic view of the economy to appropriate monetary policy does not appear to be working entirely well," he wrote.
In fact, once the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the US economy, the Fed again resorted to aggressive easing. "Last year's shockingly irresponsible monetary policy led to most of today's inflation," US policy analyst Michael Busler wrote in mid-October.
In his book "Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country," American journalist William Greider noted that the central bank has regularly caved in to inflation, "failing to resist short-term political pressures for economic growth."
Added to the aggressive monetary policy of the Fed is the expansive fiscal policy of legislators in Congress who have served the short-term interest of US campaign policy to contain runaway prices.
"There is a possibility that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recessionary levels will trigger inflationary pressures of a kind we haven't seen in a generation," warned the former US Treasury secretary. US, Lawrence Summers, on inflationary risks in the past. February 2021.
But such risks have been downplayed by Washington and the Fed. It wasn't until December 2021 that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said it was no longer his view that "price increases are not particularly large or persistent."
In the late 1970s, then-Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, raised the Federal Reserve's interest rate significantly to rein in inflation, bitter medicine that led to not one but two recessions. in the country before prices finally stabilized. The world beyond the United States suffered the most when the interest rate shock triggered a debt crisis in Latin America and led to a global recession.
Now, many pundits think of Powell as "Volcker's second-coming wannabe" and worry about another Volcker Shock given the Fed's current aggressive moves, which, just as then, will come at a high cost in places outside the United States. Joined.
The rest of the world has already felt the pain. In October, inflation in the eurozone is expected to reach a new record of 10.7 percent. Japan's consumer price index rose 3 percent in September, marking the biggest gain in 31 years. Average inflation in Africa is projected to accelerate to 13.5 percent in 2022.
OVERALL TIGHTENING
On October 11, the International Monetary Fund forecast that global economic growth will slow from 3.2% this year to 2.7% in 2023, citing a long list of threats, including chronic inflationary pressures, energy prices and war-fuelled food and punitive interest rates. , many of which were induced by poisonous US policies.
Borrowers around the world are feeling the pinch as the Fed's dramatic rate hikes have boosted the value of the dollar and fueled higher borrowing costs. In an article titled "Strong US Dollar Is Wreaking Havoc in Nearly Every Country," Fortune magazine noted that it is "rising pressure" on other major central banks to raise interest rates. However, they have "limited" ability to "influence the strength of the dollar."
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde recently said that "a mild recession" is possible in the eurozone in late 2022 and early 2023. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development noted that around 90 developing countries have seen their currencies weaken against the dollar this year. , more than a third of them in more than 10 percent. The International Monetary Fund said that about 60 percent of low-income developing countries are already at high risk of debt distress.
The rate hikes in the United States are inhumanely affecting the Sri Lankan economy, said Samitha Hettige, an expert in strategic studies. "We have seen massive capital inflows to the US and larger outflows from the developing world. If you look at the Sri Lankan stock market, you can see this."
The All Share Price Index, one of the main stock indexes on the Colombo Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka, fell from over 13,000 points in mid-January to around 8,000 points in mid-November.
Meanwhile, as the United States turned to protectionism and deglobalization to boost its domestic industries, it raised trade costs and worsened international relations.
CNBC said in early November that the EU has "serious concerns" about the US Inflation Cut Act, a sweeping tax, health and climate bill passed by US lawmakers in August. , as it violates international trade rules. The Financial Times noted in late October the growing threat of a trade war between the EU and the US over the act.
To maintain its hegemony, the United States has been busy fanning the flames of instability amid geopolitical tensions, affecting investment intentions and paralyzing economic activities.
Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, wrote in late October that the escalation of the Ukraine crisis "will fuel ongoing deglobalization and decoupling," causing supply and commodity crises and burning companies with import risks. and price crises.
"America's problems are problems of bad policy," wrote former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and The Economist writer Adrian Wooldridge in the book "Capitalism in America: A History."
“US policy has taken a populist turn,” they said. Final product
(Reporters Xu Chi in Geneva and Che Hongliang and Rahindra in Colombo also contributed to the story.)
- The US Federal Reserve earlier this month announced the fourth consecutive three-quarter interest rate hike to cool record levels of inflation, another aggressive move that leaves economists fearing a recession ahead.
The Fed has hawkishly pledged to raise rates to fight inflation while standing by as the US economy turns around. The move is a political calculation to take advantage of the US dollar's dominance in the international monetary and trade system to shift domestic risks to the outside world and leave the United States unscathed.
Analysts noted that amid partisan bickering and other systemic flaws, the United States continues to introduce destructive policies that weigh on the global economy by driving up world prices, disrupting financial markets, and undermining the global economic and trade order.
RECESSION APPROACHING
US gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent, compared with falls of 1.6 percent in the second quarter and 0.6 percent in the third quarter, the Bureau reported. Economic Analysis at the end of October. However, growth in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of US economic output, slowed to a rate of 1.4 percent from the 2.0 percent pace in the April quarter. -June.
Given the economic contraction for two consecutive quarters, declining consumer spending and a weakening housing market, many experts believe a recession could be a piece of cake.
"A smaller trade deficit fueled the 2.6 percent annualized increase in US GDP in the third quarter," said Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman, quoted by Business Insider in an article published Oct. 28. .
Growth drivers will fade as the dollar's rise this year has made US exports less competitive, and recessions abroad could undermine demand for US goods, Krugman said.
He noted that the Fed's rate hikes since March are "the key reason" for a potential economic downturn, adding that "higher rates have created a trade hurdle by boosting the dollar and have affected finances and the ability of Americans to buy houses as mortgages rise. costs".
Jeremy Siegel, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, called the Fed's current monetary policy "the third worst in the Fed's 110-year history" at a September conference hosted by the Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center. Wharton's.
He told CNBC in early October that the Fed is "hitting the brakes too hard" with its continued rate hikes this year. "Recession risks are extremely high," he warned.
"Tightening monetary policy to combat inflation would add one kind of pain to another," said US billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio.
The Fed's latest huge rate hike brings its policy rate to a new target range of 3.75 to 4 percent, the highest level since January 2008. To reduce inflation, the Fed has raised interest rates six times this year for a total increase of 375 basis points and is much more likely to raise rates again in December.
However, the whirlwind has made little progress. The New York Times wrote in mid-October that "the so-called core index rose 6.6 percent, the fastest pace since 1982 and more than economists expected."
In late October, Yahoo Finance columnist Rick Newman said that "inflation's knock-on effect on living standards has pushed consumer confidence near record lows."
POLITICAL MYOPIA
On the 10th anniversary of the Fed's quantitative easing applied during the 2008 global financial crisis, J. Bradford Delong, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, noted in an article titled "The Unhistorical Federal Reserve" that the Fed has internalized none of the lessons that past economic developments have taught.
"The Fed's process of moving from a realistic view of the economy to appropriate monetary policy does not appear to be working entirely well," he wrote.
In fact, once the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the US economy, the Fed again resorted to aggressive easing. "Last year's shockingly irresponsible monetary policy led to most of today's inflation," US policy analyst Michael Busler wrote in mid-October.
In his book "Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country," American journalist William Greider noted that the central bank has regularly caved in to inflation, "failing to resist short-term political pressures for economic growth."
Added to the aggressive monetary policy of the Fed is the expansive fiscal policy of legislators in Congress who have served the short-term interest of US campaign policy to contain runaway prices.
"There is a possibility that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale closer to World War II levels than normal recessionary levels will trigger inflationary pressures of a kind we haven't seen in a generation," warned the former US Treasury secretary. US, Lawrence Summers, on inflationary risks in the past. February 2021.
But such risks have been downplayed by Washington and the Fed. It wasn't until December 2021 that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said it was no longer his view that "price increases are not particularly large or persistent."
In the late 1970s, then-Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, raised the Federal Reserve's interest rate significantly to rein in inflation, bitter medicine that led to not one but two recessions. in the country before prices finally stabilized. The world beyond the United States suffered the most when the interest rate shock triggered a debt crisis in Latin America and led to a global recession.
Now, many pundits think of Powell as "Volcker's second-coming wannabe" and worry about another Volcker Shock given the Fed's current aggressive moves, which, just as then, will come at a high cost in places outside the United States. Joined.
The rest of the world has already felt the pain. In October, inflation in the eurozone is expected to reach a new record of 10.7 percent. Japan's consumer price index rose 3 percent in September, marking the biggest gain in 31 years. Average inflation in Africa is projected to accelerate to 13.5 percent in 2022.
OVERALL TIGHTENING
On October 11, the International Monetary Fund forecast that global economic growth will slow from 3.2% this year to 2.7% in 2023, citing a long list of threats, including chronic inflationary pressures, energy prices and war-fuelled food and punitive interest rates. , many of which were induced by poisonous US policies.
Borrowers around the world are feeling the pinch as the Fed's dramatic rate hikes have boosted the value of the dollar and fueled higher borrowing costs. In an article titled "Strong US Dollar Is Wreaking Havoc in Nearly Every Country," Fortune magazine noted that it is "rising pressure" on other major central banks to raise interest rates. However, they have "limited" ability to "influence the strength of the dollar."
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde recently said that "a mild recession" is possible in the eurozone in late 2022 and early 2023. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development noted that around 90 developing countries have seen their currencies weaken against the dollar this year. , more than a third of them in more than 10 percent. The International Monetary Fund said that about 60 percent of low-income developing countries are already at high risk of debt distress.
The rate hikes in the United States are inhumanely affecting the Sri Lankan economy, said Samitha Hettige, an expert in strategic studies. "We have seen massive capital inflows to the US and larger outflows from the developing world. If you look at the Sri Lankan stock market, you can see this."
The All Share Price Index, one of the main stock indexes on the Colombo Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka, fell from over 13,000 points in mid-January to around 8,000 points in mid-November.
Meanwhile, as the United States turned to protectionism and deglobalization to boost its domestic industries, it raised trade costs and worsened international relations.
CNBC said in early November that the EU has "serious concerns" about the US Inflation Cut Act, a sweeping tax, health and climate bill passed by US lawmakers in August. , as it violates international trade rules. The Financial Times noted in late October the growing threat of a trade war between the EU and the US over the act.
To maintain its hegemony, the United States has been busy fanning the flames of instability amid geopolitical tensions, affecting investment intentions and paralyzing economic activities.
Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, wrote in late October that the escalation of the Ukraine crisis "will fuel ongoing deglobalization and decoupling," causing supply and commodity crises and burning companies with import risks. and price crises.
"America's problems are problems of bad policy," wrote former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and The Economist writer Adrian Wooldridge in the book "Capitalism in America: A History."
“US policy has taken a populist turn,” they said. Final product
(Reporters Xu Chi in Geneva and Che Hongliang and Rahindra in Colombo also contributed to the story.)
- More than 11,200 patients in the United States were hospitalized with the flu in the past week, the highest rate in the same time period since 2010, according to data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). from USA
Seasonal flu activity is elevated across the country, the CDC said.
Five pediatric deaths associated with influenza were reported in the week ending November 19. According to the CDC, a total of 12 pediatric deaths from influenza have been reported so far this season.
The CDC estimates that, so far this season, there have been at least 6.2 million cases of flu, 53,000 hospitalizations, and 2,900 deaths from flu.
Of the influenza A viruses detected and subtyped this season, 78 percent have been influenza A (H3N2) and 22 percent have been influenza A (H1N1), according to the CDC.
Thanksgiving holiday gatherings have increased the spread of viruses like the flu, coronavirus, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Both RSV and the flu are at high levels for this time of year.
"We've seen, in some regions, RSV numbers start to trend down. Flu numbers continue to rise. And we're concerned that after the holiday gatherings, a lot of people gather, that we might see increases in numbers." cases of COVID-19 as well," said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
The US's top infectious disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, warned that RSV could become a public health emergency in the United States.
"In fact, in some regions of the country, we're seeing the pediatric hospital system on the verge of being almost overwhelmed," Fauci told CBS News on Sunday.
The CDC said that an annual flu shot is the best way to protect yourself against the flu. Vaccination helps prevent infection and can also prevent serious outcomes.
The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get a flu shot annually.
For half a century, scientists have been trying to develop a vaccine that protects against the most dangerous flu viruses.
Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are investigating experimental flu vaccine targets to target 20 influenza viruses in a single vaccine.
Seasonal influenza vaccines offer little protection against pandemic influenza virus strains. It is difficult to create effective pre-pandemic vaccines because it is not clear which subtype of influenza virus will cause the next pandemic, according to a paper published by the researchers in the journal Science.
Researchers developed a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (mRNA) lipid nanoparticle vaccine that encodes hemagglutinin antigens from all 20 known influenza A virus subtypes and influenza B virus lineages.
This multivalent vaccine elicited high levels of cross-reactive and subtype-specific antibodies in mice and ferrets that reacted to all 20 encoded antigens, according to the research. ■
- More than 11,200 patients in the United States were hospitalized with the flu in the past week, the highest rate in the same time period since 2010, according to data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). from USA
Seasonal flu activity is elevated across the country, the CDC said.
Five pediatric deaths associated with influenza were reported in the week ending November 19. According to the CDC, a total of 12 pediatric deaths from influenza have been reported so far this season.
The CDC estimates that, so far this season, there have been at least 6.2 million cases of flu, 53,000 hospitalizations, and 2,900 deaths from flu.
Of the influenza A viruses detected and subtyped this season, 78 percent have been influenza A (H3N2) and 22 percent have been influenza A (H1N1), according to the CDC.
Thanksgiving holiday gatherings have increased the spread of viruses like the flu, coronavirus, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Both RSV and the flu are at high levels for this time of year.
"We've seen, in some regions, RSV numbers start to trend down. Flu numbers continue to rise. And we're concerned that after the holiday gatherings, a lot of people gather, that we might see increases in numbers." cases of COVID-19 as well," said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
The US's top infectious disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, warned that RSV could become a public health emergency in the United States.
"In fact, in some regions of the country, we're seeing the pediatric hospital system on the verge of being almost overwhelmed," Fauci told CBS News on Sunday.
The CDC said that an annual flu shot is the best way to protect yourself against the flu. Vaccination helps prevent infection and can also prevent serious outcomes.
The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get a flu shot annually.
For half a century, scientists have been trying to develop a vaccine that protects against the most dangerous flu viruses.
Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are investigating experimental flu vaccine targets to target 20 influenza viruses in a single vaccine.
Seasonal influenza vaccines offer little protection against pandemic influenza virus strains. It is difficult to create effective pre-pandemic vaccines because it is not clear which subtype of influenza virus will cause the next pandemic, according to a paper published by the researchers in the journal Science.
Researchers developed a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (mRNA) lipid nanoparticle vaccine that encodes hemagglutinin antigens from all 20 known influenza A virus subtypes and influenza B virus lineages.
This multivalent vaccine elicited high levels of cross-reactive and subtype-specific antibodies in mice and ferrets that reacted to all 20 encoded antigens, according to the research. ■
The population of Somalia is estimated at around 16.8 million people; however, to serve your mental health needs, there are only 82 professionals in the entire country.
Idil Awil Elmi is one of them.
With the country rebuilding after decades of civil war, and still dealing with the impact of Al-Shabaab violence and ongoing humanitarian crises, she and her counterparts have their work cut out for them.
The challenges are such that, for example, in the Somali language there is no specific word for 'depression' and there is still a lot of social stigma associated with mental health.
“Now more than ever, Somalis need mental health support.
As a resilient society, Somalis have borne the effects of protracted conflict and one health emergency after another,” the UN World Health Organization representative in Somalia, Dr. Mamunur Rahman Malik, has said in the past.
Providing that support is a challenge that Ms. Elmi, a clinical psychologist, has been tackling for over a decade and enjoys.
My father's advice Ms. Elmi was born in 1984 in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, which meant that she was a girl when civil war broke out in the 1990s and devastated much of the country, both in terms of physical damage and in terms of The mental well-being of Somalis.
Getting an education was no easy task in the midst of the conflict, but Ms. Elmi persisted.
She started at Imam Shafi'I Primary School and then completed her secondary education in 2004 at Mogadishu Boarding School.
Throughout her early education, she was unsure of what vocation to pursue.
Her father's advice was conclusive in this regard.
He pointed out that there were few psychologists working in the country and, knowing her daughter's people skills, encouraged her to pursue this career.
“As a teenager, sometimes you have a hard time finding your way.
My father suggested that he study psychology and he was right,” she says.
Mrs. Elmi took her father's guidance seriously.
In 2005, she went to Sudan for undergraduate studies at Ahfad University for Women, Omdurman, from which she graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 2010.
She then returned to Somalia and worked as a part-time teacher at institutions in Mogadshu, including the University of Benadir, Jazeera University and the Modern University of Science and Technology.
“The first thing I did when I returned to Somalia from Sudan was to think about where to apply the knowledge I had acquired.
Psychology is my passion, and positions at all three universities helped me spread it to students,” she says.
The mother of three children supplemented her work with an online master's degree in psychology from Unicaf University from which she graduated in 2020.
Last year, she joined Dr. Osman Fiqi Hospital in Mogadishu as a counselor.
“I started working in the hospital to help my people and serve them in a different capacity than in the universities,” says Ms. Elmi. New Initiative Throughout her 11 years of teaching and working, Ms. Elmi noted that the years of conflict had affected the mental well-being of her compatriots, either directly or indirectly.
“Each tragic event affects those who survive and the families of the victims, creating anxiety and stress,” says Ms. Elmi. She sought to do more, beyond the workplace and the classroom.
In 2021, the 38-year-old started an initiative called 'Please smile!' focused on monthly meetings with groups of young women and men dealing with mental health issues.
Its goal is to help them find fulfillment in everyday life, build a sense of community, and fight the stigma associated with mental disorders in Somalia, much of which is related to the tribulations that the country and its people have endured along the way.
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to peace and stability.
Seeking to change negative narratives often caused by traumatic events, the monthly meetings are based on the principles of positive psychology, which is the scientific study of the factors that allow people and communities to thrive, according to the Center for Psychology Positive from the University of Pennsylvania.
“Suffering and well-being are part of the human condition and psychology must concern itself with each one.
Human strengths, excellence, and flourishing are as authentic as human anguish.
People want to cultivate the best version of themselves and live a meaningful life.
They want to increase their capacities for love and compassion, creativity and curiosity, work and resilience, integrity and wisdom,” the Center states on its website.
During the meetings, the participants share their emotions and experiences in a safe environment and practice mindfulness.
“The meetings focus on youth and students from schools and universities who are impacted by unsafe environments even before they are born.
I met people who had forgotten the feeling of happiness, as well as many students who were rushing through life in search of high grades, a degree or a job, and had forgotten to live in the moment and seek satisfaction”, Ms. Elmi says.
Inherited trauma With 'Please smile!' the clinical psychologist has a special focus on trying to break the transmission of trauma from one generation to another, a particular problem in Somalia due to years of conflict coupled with the country's growing young population.
“In the long term, I would like to see future generations free from mental problems, but right now the most important aspect of my focus is to help people find contentment and let go of all negative ideas and experiences, or at the same time.
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at least lighten and balance their lives,” she observes.
The participants of the meetings have been mainly young people who have received previous psychological counseling.
As one of the participants in the meetings, Faduma Ali Abdi, says: "The meetings helped me not to be a guest of my happiness."
“For me, it was a valuable session as I understood more about how to manage stress and stay calm in difficult times,” says Mohamed Dahir Ali, who attended a meeting earlier this year.
Held every month in different places, such as schools, universities and hospitals, the 'Please smile!' initiative has attracted some 150 attendees.
Ms Elmi hoped to be able to introduce similar sessions in the country's federal Member States in the future.
Social stigma Ms. Elmi takes pride in the fact that there is a growing acceptance of the importance of mental health among Somalis.
Apart from her father, when she first started her career, some of her friends advised her to work in the sector because they believed that there was no room for it in Somalia.
“Many people here may believe that psychological counseling is not important, but that is not true.
I can personally attest to that,” she says.
“Our young people are ready for change and need to gain a better understanding of their lives,” she adds.
"Sure, the challenges are constantly present, and most of them come from a person's culture and beliefs, such as the belief that psychology is not a real science."
The mother of three can speak from personal experience: she practices what she preaches.
Due to the traumatic nature of the experiences she faces, she also receives psychological counseling.
"Sometimes I meet people who tell me scary stories.
Some of the stories make me anxious and overwhelmed.
Then I find a counselor.
I listen to what's on my mind and relax," says Ms. Elmi. Mental health In February 2022, the International Journal of Mental Health Systems published a study on the mental health situation in Somalia, indicating a compelling need to prioritize the prevention and treatment of mental disorders in the country.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Atlas 2020, of the estimated total of 82 mental health professionals in the country, only four are psychiatrists.
It also shows that the area needs data and research, while programs such as suicide prevention or the fight against stigma and discrimination are non-existent.
On last year's Mental Health Day, which is celebrated annually on October 10, WHO and the Ministry of Health of the Federal Government of Somalia issued a joint statement in which fl noted that they had been working together to develop a strategy mental health for 2019-2022 and that the latter finalized a mental health policy.
