One of the words in the dictionary that many perhaps wish never existed because its corollary unpleasantness is worry simply defined as “thinking about problems or fears or showing concern because you think that something bad has happened or could happen.”
Worry has attached itself to every imaginable situation possible, from unpaid taxes, children arguing, images of horror from terrorism and a host of others. The big “W” is a burden that we put too much weight on more often unnecessarily.
The Americans and the Filipinos are undoubtedly worlds apart in many things, but the same worry has successfully ingrained itself into both cultures as members of the human race. What kinds of things make living worrisome for both?
There are a lot of issues in modern America for the public that to worry about the most, according to a survey by Gallup poll.
One of the biggest changes in American perspective of major problems has been the view of race relations in this country with 17 percent of the people surveyed saying that the subject on “race relations” is a great concern following sordid events that occurred and hugged the headline almost in daily frequency.
Climate Change: Communities came together to help victims of a calamity in the Philippines put their lives back as “apparent victims of climate” changed personified by Typhoon Yolanda which let loose its fury in the Philippines. File photo shows the local executives of Tacloban in a fundraising event with a local Fil-Am organization for the typhoon victims.
Also, the matter of immigration has also concerned many Americans were those surveyed spent time thinking about it. The possibility of future terrorist attacks is another matter that the Americans worry about.
Expectedly, the Americans worry less about the economy as it related to the affordability of energy and health care. Those concerned about the economy as a whole have declined.
After all what things worry Americans? Based on the poll, these are some of the top issues that concern them – income and wealth distribution were close to 50 percent think of the matter as a well-founded one with the wealth disparities between the rich and the poor “growing more and more dramatic for decades now”.
The other worrisome things include the size and power of the federal government, the Social Security System which has been in the headline so far lately, possible terror attacks, the economy and health care. Hunger and homelessness, crime and violence, drug use and climate change.
What about the Philippines, what worries are they burdened with?
A recent international survey of Pew Research Center shows that Filipinos perceive climate change as the biggest global threat. As a matter of fact, they are “very concerned” even beating out the concerns for tensions with China over the West Philippine Sea which came in second place of concerns.
The survey also concerned on varying levels about the global economic stability, cyber attacks, the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Climate change turns out to be “the most widespread concern” of all the issues in the survey with 19 out of the 40 countries surveyed with respondents “deeming climate change as the most worrisome threat”. Of the 10 countries most concerned about climate change, the came in sixth. The other countries are Burkina Faso, Brazil, Peru, Uganda, India, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile and Venezuela.a