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Wednesday, May 8, 2019

World Poverty by Autumn Creech




World Poverty

            How much money do we spend everyday? Maybe we spend five dollars on a Starbucks on the way to school? Ten dollars on a salad for lunch? Thirty dollars on gas on our way home? Twenty dollars on that shirt we’ve been wanting? Or maybe we spend more? But, can you imagine living on $2.50 everyday (Eleven, 1)? For nearly half of the world, more than three billion people, this is a reality. But, can you further imagine that out of those three billion people, more than 1.3 billion live on $1.90 a day, the definition of extreme poverty (Eleven, 1). The epidemic of poverty affects all genders, ages, races, and ethnicities worldwide. According to Compassion International, poverty is defined as,
                        “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being
                        able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how
                        to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for future, living one day at a time.
                        Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is
                        powerlessness, lack of representation and fearlessness. (What, 1)”
Based on this definition, poverty is more than just a lack of money. It is a lack of basic needs. Let’s explore the reasons, conditions, and possible solutions for lack of food, water, shelter, education, and health care for people affected by the epidemic of poverty.
            Poverty has existed since the beginning. Although we see evidence of poverty in history, global poverty was not truly recognized until the 1940s after the Second World War (Development, 1).  It is hard to measure the exact levels of poverty from a historical standpoint since the price of goods and services is constantly changing. Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina give a good example of this in their article “Global Extreme Poverty” (Roser 1). In 1836, Nathan Rothschild was considered to be the richest man in the world, but he died from an infection that could be cured with an antibiotic that in today’s money would only cost a few cents (Overview 1). This example shows how different income and consumption was hundreds of years ago. Based on data from the past two hundred years, the chance of being born into extreme poverty has decreased drastically (Roser 1). The number of people not living in extreme poverty has risen from 117.44 million to 6.62 billion, and the number of people living in extreme poverty has decreased from 964.93 million to 733.48 million (Roser 1). While these statistics might look very encouraging, the number of people in the world has grown by 6.27 billion over the last two hundred years, so poverty levels have actually only decreased by approximately twenty seven percent (Roser 1).
Image result for poverty pictures
There are many different causes of poverty based on country and people group, but the most common causes are as follows: inadequate water and food, conflict, inequality, climate change, and lack of education (Nasden 1). Inadequate clean water and food can be causes and effects of poverty. If people do not have water and food, then they can not work. Likewise, if people do not have money, they can not buy food or water (Top 1). Conflict is another cause for poverty. People living in countries experiencing conflicts may experience oppression and violence causing them to be at a higher risk for poverty. For example, the country of Syria boasted low levels of poverty before conflicts ravished their country. Presently around seventy percentage of the Syrian population lives below the poverty line (Top 1). Inequality is another major cause of poverty. Whether it be social, race, gender, or tribal inequalities, these factors can  cause groups or individuals to not receive equal access to resources which can push them into poverty (Top 1). Climate change is a cause that people may not realize. Based on data from the World Bank, they estimate that climate change will cause 100 million people to be considered under the poverty level in the next ten years (Top 1). Most of the world that is considered to be in poverty relies on farming to live, so future droughts, floods, and storms could cause them to lose everything. Finally, poor education is a major factor in poverty. Most people that are in extreme poverty do not have an education (Impact 1). The United Nations determined that 171 million people could leave poverty behind if they learned basic reading skills. Just a small education opens up doors to more jobs, resources, and skills that are vital to a person in poverty (Top 1). Through this information, we can see that poverty has existed since the dawn of time, and there are many factors leading to poverty.
            Poverty affects every aspect of life from individuals to families to countries to the world. While hunger and lack of water are a major cause for poverty, it is also an effect. Currently, almost two billion people do not have access to clean water and 800 million will go hungry tonight (World 1). There are two different types of hunger: protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency (World 1). Protein-energy malnutrition is a deficiency of protein and calories which can lead to a lack of growth. Micronutrient deficiency is a lack of vitamins and minerals which can lead to diseases. Children are the major victims of hunger. Forty-five percent of all child deaths are caused by hunger (Kozacek 1). Hunger is not just an effect in underdeveloped countries, it is in our own backyard. Priscilla in El Paso, Texas, is a Navy Veteran and single parent. She has three small daughters and cannot afford childcare, so she must work only a part time job so she can take care of her family. Her family suffers from hunger on a regular basis (Real 1). Hunger and unclean water are both fatal effects of poverty.
Image result for poverty pictures
            Poverty affects the health of families. Sanitation is a major problem for people in poverty. Almost 10,000 children die everyday from infections caused by poor sanitation (Effects 1). One example of this is Girma Mihiretu and his wife Yeshi Ali. The family lives in Ethiopia with their six children with just a plastic sheet for a home. Girma Mihieretu recalls the living situation, “I lived in a small and dirty house. We didn’t have a toilet. We couldn’t help our children with money. Our children’s health suffered every day (Effects 1).” Poverty affects families physical and mental health.
            Poverty can fuel the fire of international terrorism and violence. Poverty causes tension and feelings of helplessness which can lead to violence and terrorist groups forming (Graff 1). One example of this is the country of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone was thought to be one of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita GNI of only $180 (Graff 1). Per capita GNI is a countries income per year in dollars divided by its population. In 1991, a civil war broke out among the people of Sierra Leone, resulting in the United Nations sending 17,500 soldiers and spending close to 2.8 billion dollars to keep peace (Graff 1). This is just one of many countries that were driven into conflict by poverty.
People propose solutions to global poverty almost daily, yet we still see poverty on a massive level. So what can be implemented to eliminate poverty? First, we must correctly identify the issues given location (Borgen 1). For example, the United States does not necessarily deal with a lack of clean water, yet people in Africa die every day from this. Once the problems have been identified, we can work to solve them. While each country and even city might deal with its own unique poverty issues, there are some solutions that can help lower global poverty.
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            The first step to fight poverty is to create problem specific international and local organizations to fight poverty (Borgen 1). These organizations can fight poverty with a clearly identified problem and solution in mind. For example, the organization Soles for Souls specifically focuses on providing shoes for people in poverty (About 1). Not only do we need to create these organizations, but we must support them. Whether that means financially, volunteering, or providing resources, these organizations need the help of people who want to stop poverty. But, we can’t just leave it up to the charities and churches to end poverty. Teva Sieniki, addressed this issue in a TED talk,
“We’ve regulated poverty work to the realms of the heart, to the Mother Teresas, to the do-gooders, to the charities and the churches. And heart is absolutely essential, but my beef with leaving poverty there is that it’s dismissive of  the seriousness and complexity of the problem we are trying to address. No matter how many cans of soup or warm beds we provide, we will not solve poverty without our brains as well. Too often we focus on the immediate human needs without addressing the issues that create them (Talks 1).
This shows that we must all join in the fight against poverty, not just wait on an organization to solve it (Talks 1). But, this also leads to the next solution: we must address the issues that create poverty. Each person that is in poverty deals with underlying problems that put them in poverty or are keeping them in poverty. Underlying causes can be anything from lack of education, drug or alcohol use, intergenerational poverty, or inequality (Muse 1). If a drug addict is living in poverty, and we give him money to help get him out of poverty, chances are a month later he will still be in poverty because of his addiction. Before we can even think about stopping poverty, we must break the hidden problems.
            One way to help end poverty is to break down the systems that created it. Countries try to help end poverty by offering foreign aid, but their mindset is wrong. Foreign aid should be offered with the intention of not needing it again (Concern 1). For example, if someone has a drug problem and goes through rehab, the point of rehab should be to end the addiction permanently not temporarily. The Administer of United States Agency for International Development, who is in charge of most federal aid, said “I believe the purpose of foreign assistance should be ending its need to exist. (Concern 3).” The very systems that are created to end poverty are playing a role in keeping it alive.
            Increasing the rate of educated individuals can drastically affect poverty. The Children International Organization said, “Education is one of the most powerful ways to reduce poverty and improve health, gender equality, peace and stability (Facts 1).” Education can help end poverty in many ways. First, if everyone had the same level of basic education, inequality problems would decrease. Second, an education leads to more job opportunities and increased wages (Borgen 6). Lastly, education helps end conflicts. Studies show that educated people are more willing to participate in the political process (Borgen 6). With all of these benefits from education, we should be attacking the education problem with brutal force. By sending more teachers, starting more schools and classes, and devoting more money to education, we can create a major dent in poverty. There are so many different and specific ways to help end poverty, but the main thing that needs to change are people’s hearts. If we all devoted our time and resources to stopping poverty and not just talking about it, we could truly end it. Nelson Mandela said, “Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. (Can 2)”
Albert Camus spent his life trying to answer the question, “What is the meaning of life?” Camus would think that solutions to poverty were absurd (Albert 1). Camus himself grew up in poverty and mentioned it in his writings and interview, “Poverty prevented me from judging that all was well in the world and in history, the sun taught me that history is not everything (Albert 1).” From this statement we might question if Camus’s childhood of poverty caused such a despairing outlook on the rest of life (Albert 1). Since he thought that life had no meaning, Camus would probably wonder why poverty was a problem and he might not think poverty absurd at all. Afterall, if life has no meaning, what’s the point of trying to end poverty or not if everyone is going to die without meaning anyway (Albert 1)? In Camus’s world, poverty is just another way that people live for a short time before they die without a purpose.
            In conclusion, poverty is a global problem that has affected every people group since the beginning of time. The main causes of poverty are lack of water and food, poor education, inequality, climate changes, and conflicts. Each of these affects people in different ways, there are many different solutions to help end these problems. While there are numerous solutions, the main way to end poverty is to change our mindset on the problem. If we all worked together to bring poverty to an end, we could actually stop the continuous cycle of poverty on the world.

 


Work Cited
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