What is poverty?
In this task,
I will be writing about poverty in general. I have found most of the texts below
from different websites, I will make sure to put the sources under.
We human
beings need water, food, medical care, etc. to survive. Poverty is about not
having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter.
However, poverty is much more than just not having enough money.
“Poverty
does not know your age, or the colour of your skin, he
does not even care about the poor state that you are in.
He does not want to know, if you are hungry, or you are cold, he just
keeps calm and quiet, while head bent.
Many, who have met him, are still with him today, not through
their own choices, but by him not giving way.
He knows you have little money, and this he never defends, he knows
you will have to borrow, from some of your friends.
He does not even blink an eye, when you are worse off than before, he
swears, that it is your own fault, you must have known the score”
Poverty
is a cycle for individuals and for countries.
Things that make you poor in the
first place create other disadvantages that keeps you in poverty.
The
World Bank Organization describes poverty in this way:
“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 or write. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one
day at a time.
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.”
In
addition to lack of money, poverty is about not being able to participate in
recreational activities; not being able to send your children on a day trip
with their schoolmates or to birthday parties; not being able to pay for
medications for an illness. These are all costs of being poor. Those
people who are barely able to pay for their food and shelter simply can’t
consider these other expenses. When people are excluded within a society,
when they are not well educated and when they have a higher incidence of
illness, there are negative consequences for society. We all pay the
price for poverty. The increased cost on the health system, the justice
system and other systems that provide supports to those living in poverty has
an impact on our economy.
While
much progress has been made in measuring and analysing poverty, the World Bank
Organization is doing more work to identify indicators for the other dimensions
of poverty. This work includes identifying social indicators to track
education, health, access to services, vulnerability, and social
exclusion.
There is
no one cause of poverty, and the results of it are different in every case.
Poverty varies considerably depending on the situation. Feeling poor in Canada
is different from living in poverty in Russia or Zimbabwe. The
differences between rich and poor within the borders of a country can also be
greatly different.
Despite
the many definitions, one thing that is certain; poverty is a complex societal
issue. No matter how poverty is defined, it can be agreed that it is an issue
that requires everyone’s attention. It is important that all members of
our society work together to provide the opportunities for all our members to
reach their full potential. It helps and shows all of us to help one another.
About 21,000
people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the
United Nations. This is one person every four seconds. Sadly, it is children
who die most often.
Yet there is
plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are
trapped in severe poverty. The lack of money to buy enough food to nourish
themselves and loved ones. They become weaker and often sick, when they do not
receive the care they need. This makes them increasingly weaker, less able to
work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral
often continues until death for them and their families.
There are
effective programs 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. This both nourishes them and builds infrastructure to end the
poverty. For children, there are “food for education” programs where the
children are provided with food when they attend school. Their education will
help them to escape from hunger and global poverty.
6 Billion
People in the World have and lose.
1
billion people live in countries where they have what they need for a long
quality life.
4
billion live in countries where they have the hope of getting what they need.
1
billion live in countries that have very little at all.
This
picture shows the top ten poorest countries in the world.
Being poor in a poor country is
different from being poor in a rich country.
A
very good example is Norway.
The
government in Norway always makes sure that their entire citizen always have
some money and food on the table. Their rules includes free schooling,
medical-care, food, clean water, and some extra pocket money for people who do not
have a lot.
This
is something many countries out there need to learn and take with them, the
system is very good and it keeps many people from falling into “poverty”. Of course, I am not saying Norway does not
have some poor people, but the numbers are very low.
Poor people in poor countries
face huge challenges. Even if they work hard. Poor countries are in lack of;
Education, Water, Food, Rule of law, Roads, Electricity and most important of
all, they are in lack of health care.
According to UNICEF, 22,000
children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the
poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of
the world. Being weak in life makes these dying multitudes invisible in Death.
Differences between The United States and Chad
United States 
Chad
• 5 children born per woman
• 1 in of 10 women die during pregnancy, childbirth
• 100 of 1000 babies die
• Life expectancy 47
• Average age 16
• 25% of adults
can read
• 27% live in urban areas
• 2 main + 120 languages
• Refugee destination
(https://graspglobalpoverty.wordpress.com/the-5ps-of-global-poverty-why-are-poor-countries-poor-in-the-first-place/)
As you can see the differences between The United
states and Chad is big, and it shows clearly. The population in The United
states is much larger than Chad’s. For people to survive they probably have to
follow some rules and regulations. Some of those who lives in The United States
have a lot of opportunity more than in Chad, but there are also many people
that are extremely poor, because of unemployment.
Chad on the other hand is a small country with not so
many population. And if as that is not enough, the government are far from
helping the country to become better. To find a job is probably very hard for
someone who lives there. And we all know without food, opportunity or money, is
hard to survive.
Finally, below some causes of why poverty still exists
today are introduced. Next, it will be explaining more closely how we can try
to stop it.
•
Unemployment
•
Lack of food
•
Lack of facilities
•
Illiteracy Historical reason
•
Access to Medicine
•
Access to Education
•
Debts
•
Lack of financial, investing and shares trading
knowledge
•
Overspending
•
Money
•
An economic system that excludes children, the elderly,
the young, the unemployed
•
Corruption
•
Labor standards -To attract investment,
poor countries enter a race to the bottom to see who can provide lower
standards, reduced wages and cheaper resources.
•
Lack of Control of Local Resources
•
Lack of democracy in a country
•
Lack of inclusiveness. Not including everyone in the
potential benefits of success in a country
•
Insufficient Law and order
•
Limited property and personal property rights
•
Not allowing businesses to keep most of their profits
•
Colonialism
•
Slavery
•
War
•
Conquest
•
History of slave trade
•
Colonial history
•
How were borders drawn
•
When did independence come
•
Outsiders meddling during Cold War
•
Chance to develop own leaders
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_poverty#Direct_Causes)
Causes of
poverty
Poverty has various
causes, while some of them can be removed by various measures, eliminating the most complicated underlying causes
remains a challenge for both developed and developing nations. Some of the
causes of poverty include changing trends in a country’s economy, lack of
education, high divorce rate which causes feminization poverty,
having a culture of poverty, overpopulation,
epidemic diseases such as AIDS
and malaria, and
environmental problems such as lack of rainfall.
It is hard to separate the causes of
poverty from the effects; there is no doubt that poverty is associated with
various economic and social ills. For example, overpopulation could be a cause
or a side effect of poverty.
Every one of us know the reason for
poverty, but most people are still sitting watching, especially when they know
they can join and help stop this disaster that has been happening for a very
long time now. Corruption has to stop between humans and countries. People will
be amazed of what they can do if they work together as a team to stop poverty.
Actually what I’m trying to say is that people have to stop being selfish, if you
know you have more than you need, try to help others. It is the only way to
overcome poverty.
This picture shows the percentage population living
on less than 1 dollar a day in the world
.jpg)
