Poverty

Poverty

Sociology 201

April 14, 2008

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Poverty is the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. (http://www.merriam-webster.com)

Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Is it enough to blame poor people for their own predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been solely responsible for their plight? What about their governments? Have they pursued policies that actually harm successful development? Such causes of poverty and inequality are no doubt real. But deeper and more global causes of poverty are often less discussed.

Behind the increasing interconnectedness promised by globalization are global decisions, policies, and practices. These are typically influenced, driven, or formulated by the rich and powerful. These can be leaders of rich countries or other global actors such as multinational corporations, institutions, and influential people.

In the face of such enormous external influence, the governments of poor nations and their people are often powerless. As a result, in the global context, a few get wealthy while the majority struggle. (http://globalissues.org)

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 the 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 freedom. (http://www.worldbank.org)

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Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and the wealthy alike -- a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.

According to the United Nations World Food Program, about 25,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. (WFP 2007) This is one person every three and a half seconds; unfortunately, it is children who die most often. While there is enough food in the world for everyone, the problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. There are effective programs out there to break this spiral. For adults there are “food for work” programs where the adults are paid with food to build schools, dig wells, make roads, and so on. For children, there are “food for education” programs where the children are provided with food when they attend school. (WFP 2007)

Other than hunger, the World Health Organization lists several other severe problems with poverty. The list includes AIDS, which is now second only to Black Death for the largest epidemic in history. AIDS kills more than 2 million people per year. (Avert.org para 3) AIDS is a preventable and increasingly treatable disease through proper education. Pneumonia kills more than 2 million children in poverty stricken countries. There are often no doctors, or no health care facilities in these poor countries. (WHO) Diarrheal diseases such as cholera and dysentery kill about 1.6 million people each year, almost all of them children. Diarrhea is most often a result of unclean water, unsafe sanitation, or poor hygiene. The treatment for diarrhea is surprisingly simple. Called Oral Rehydration

Therapy, it is a mixture of water, salt, and sugar that replenishes the lost fluids in the body. The basic treatment has helped reduce diarrheal deaths by about two-thirds in the last 25 years. (WHO) In the entire history of humankind, it is believed that tuberculosis has killed more people than any other disease. Tuberculosis is highly contagious and spreads through the air