HEADLINES OF THE DAY: ANOTHER 15,000 PEOPLE DIED YESTERDAY BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO POOR TO LIVE. THE RICH INCREASED THEIR WEALTH YESTERDAY BY $0.3 BILLION. THE 21st CENTURY VERSION OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IS ONE DAY NEARER.
“O Ye rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.”
Bahá’u’lláh
A preview of the unpublished book A CIVILIZATION WITHOUT A VISION WILL PERISH: AN INDEPENDENT SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH by David Willis at willisdavid167@gmail.com. CHAPTER 1: INDIFFERENCE TO POVERTY (Part 77). This blog is a continuation of the review of ENDING GLOBAL POVERTY: A GUIDE TO WHAT WORKS by Stephen C. Smith, published in 2005.
Poverty is hunger
By 2001, some 48% of the population was absolutely poor, living on less than $1 per day – the highest incidence of poverty in the world. Poverty is hunger. 17% of the world’s population is undernourished or suffering from chronic hunger. Chronic hunger is measured by a daily intake of less than about 1,700 calories and a lack of access to safe and nutritious food.
Poverty is pervasive poor health
Poverty is pervasive poor health and early death. Every day, about 30,000 children in developing countries die from preventable causes – almost 11 million this year alone. Most of these children die from dehydration from diarrhea; diseases for which there are inexpensive immunizations; and infections, such as pneumonia, treatable with antibiotics.
Poverty is early death
The under-five mortality rate is 126 per 1,000 live births in low-income countries, 39 in middle-income countries and 6 in high income countries. A woman dies in childbirth every minute; almost none of these women would have died if they had lived in North America or Europe. The incidence of drug-resistant malaria and TB are dramatically worsening.
Poverty is child labor
At least 180 million child laborers are either under 14 years of age or work in conditions that endangers their health or well-being. More than 100 million children have been unable to go to school due to their poverty.
Poverty is systematic exploitation
Poverty is powerlessness. It is the access to real markets that could offer a way out of poverty. It is the systematic exploitation, theft, and abuse not only by the rich but by government officials ostensibly there to help.
There has been progress against poverty
Contrary to popular impression, progress against poverty in the past few decades has been nothing short of extraordinary. The percentage of the world’s people living on less than one dollar per day has fallen significantly – from 29% in 1990 to 23% in 1999. While the world’s population has continued to grow – more than 42% between 1980 and 2004 – the number of those living in poverty has not significantly worsened; this is in itself an achievement given the large population increase.
The biggest success is China
The number of people with access to safe water is increasing steadily. The biggest success is China, where 58 million fewer people experienced chronic hunger in the late 1990s, largely due to spectacular growth of the economy. The biggest disaster was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which the number of the hungry increased from 12 million to 38 million in the late 1990s.
The problem is how to give the poor enough command over resources
2,807 food calories per capita were produced worldwide in 2001, in principle far more than needed for everyone to be well-nourished but there are more overweight people than people suffering from calorie-deprivation. The good news is that the world can produce more than enough food needed by its people. The problem is how to give the poor enough command over resources to meet their nutrition and other basic needs on a regular basis.
We have a moral imperative to end global poverty
There is a growing sense among the American people that we have a moral imperative to end global poverty. To cite just one of many polls, a bipartisan poll commissioned by the Christian lobbying group Bread for the World, released in July 2002, reported that 92.7% of likely voters now say that “fighting the hunger problem” is important to them; and 48.5% said it was “very important,” meaning it would affect their voting.
Renewed public interest in volunteering and social service
There has also been growing public interest in such topics as cutting the external debt owed by low-income countries, improving conditions of workers in sweatshops, reform of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and halting the worsening environmental degradation in developing countries. The increased concern about poverty in the developing world is part of a broader renewed public interest in volunteering and social service, in “giving something back.”
Part 1
This book has three main parts. The first explains poverty – what it means, what it is like in the words of the poor, and why it is a trap that a person or family often cannot escape by their own efforts alone. I then describe the eight “keys to capability” for escaping poverty traps.
Part 2
The second part of the book lays out strategies and programs (generally run by non-governmental/nonprofit organizations but sometimes sponsored by governments or companies) helping to build capabilities and assets among those in extreme poverty and leading to real improvements in the lives of the poor.
Part 3
The third and final part of the book offers a guide to the concrete steps we can each take, as individuals and groups, to help end global poverty. It shows how to be part of the solution, and how not to inadvertently contribute to the problem.