Aug

13

The Displaced African on Ending Poverty

Filed Under Poverty, World | 3 Comments

Mwangi over at The Displaced African recently had a question and answer session. So I took that opportunity to ask the question “In your opinion, what is the best thing we can do to help prevent poverty in the world?”. A tough question to answer but his thoughts were very interesting.

My attempt at summarizing Mwangi’s main points:

  • Support free and fair trade.
  • Consume resources in a sustainable manner.
  • Support the World Social Forum.
  • Help people like the South African Shackdwellers.
  • Improve foreign aid programs.
  • Don’t try to force western ideals on other cultures.
  • Let people lift themselves out of poverty where possible by removing the barriers.
  • Love your neighbours.
  • Take advantage of modern media .

You can read Mwangi’s answer in full on his blog. Here’s a few quotes from his answer and my thoughts on the points he raises.

We can also try to affect policy within Western countries and get rid of subsidies and tarrifs. Aid is a sick pathetic joke. Tell me the day that a compound interest loan, the humiliation of having people of another country be in charge of your destiny and shove their way of life and ideas down your throat is charity and I will show you the day that a shower curtain is the perfect fashion accesory for any season.

- Mwangi

Regarding the loans, it does seem crazy to give compound interest loans to countries that are already struggling with debt. Perhaps a better idea would be to cancel existing debt or at least allowing suspension of loan repayments until the country can get back on it’s feet. Debt cancellation obviously has to be accompanied by a plan to prevent the debt from reaccumulating.

I believe ideas and technology from other countries can be very beneficial for helping countries that have high poverty. However countries generally should not be forced or coerced into adopting new practices, especially when it comes to cultural issues.

Mwangi also raises the issue of people taking responsiblity for the collective good.

Finally, as a species we need to raise our consciousness to a place where we can actually co-exist with each other, without always trying to dominate and control one another on the one hand and with all of us taking responsibility for the individual and collective good i.e. loving ourselves and loving our neighbour just as much and not only knowing that intellectually but making decisions daily that are guided by that principle.

- Mwangi

I think that loving our neighbour is a fundamental part of reducing poverty. If people look at the world more as a whole and love all people then we will make much better progress.

People and governments are too often reluctant to help, or actually do harm because they fear losing “the competition”. I certainly struggle with this at times; on one hand I really want to support charities that I think are worthwhile while on the other hand I’m worried that I will get behind in the little race that seems to be going on in society. You know the race I’m talking about, the one where you feel as if there is a need to amass more material wealth than those around you. This is one race that isn’t worth winning, the costs are just too high.

I would like to hear your thoughts too. Please join in with the conversation by leaving a comment.

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Aug

5

Water - Developing The World (Part 3)

Filed Under Poverty, World | Leave a Comment

Water is the most important resource that we have on the planet. Humans cannot live without water and it is used in all sorts of food production and manufacturing processes. Many people in the world do not have access to clean water.

This is part three of the series Developing The World which looks into the factors required for good quality of life.

Why Water Is Important

Starting with the obvious you need water to survive, with no water at all people cannot last much longer than a week even in ideal conditions (Packer 2008[1]). In extremely hot weather death can come as quickly as two days, this could be even faster if a lot of sweating is occurring through exercise.

There are also serious health side effects to chronic dehydration.

Water is also essential for food production whether growing crops or farming animals. Nothing will grow in places that don’t have water, you only have to compare a desert and rain forest for evidence of this.

In some areas collecting water takes up a significant amount of peoples time and energy each day. This is time that can’t be spent on education, farming, producing goods for sale.

If the only available water is polluted people will be forced to drink it. Consuming contaminated water can cause many different illnesses and diseases.

Do People Have Enough Water

There are over one billion people in the world that don’t have access to clean drinking water. Africa is one of the worst hit areas (Unicef 2007)[2].

Sanitation is a huge issue with many people getting sick when they have no choice but to drink polluted water.

Some people have to walk for several hours to get water each day. The amount time and energy spent doing this is time and energy that can’t be used for other important activities like child care, education, producing products for money and farming.

How Can We Improve

In many areas the biggest thing that can be done to increase access to clean water is reducing or stopping pollution. This pollution has many causes factories/mines that dump waste into rivers, innadequate or non-existant sanitation facilities. Anti pollution campaigns are important to prevent the pollution of water in the first place, while water treatment plants can be a great way to remove toxins whether they are naturally present or a result of pollution.

Some places though just have naturally low water reserves and the population has increased meaning there just isn’t enough water to go around any more. What can be done in places like this?

Certain areas have adequate water supplies running underground but people have no way of accessing them, digging wells in these areas can make provide a huge increase in the wellbeing of a whole community.

There is of course a vast water resource in the world … our oceans. Unfortunately the salt in it makes it unsuitable for consumption. This is where desalination comes in. Desalination is the process of removing the salt from water to make it more suitable for drinking. The main problem with desalination is that it is quite costly requiring large amounts of energy and expensive equipment. Hopefully improvements in technology can make the process less costly over time.

Reservoirs are another way to ensure a consistent water supply. There is a lot of debate over where reservoirs should be built and issues with displacement of people in the newly flooded areas, but there has been some success stories.

Take Action

There are a lot of charities that work to give people access to clean water. Many charities look to improve water supply as part of a whole package. Here are a few that focus specifically on water access issues.



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References

  1. Packer, Randall K. (Accessed 21.7.2008) How long can the average person survive without water?<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-long-can-the-average&topicID=3> ↩
  2. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
    Annual Report
    2007 http://www.unicef.org/wes/files/UNICEF_WASH_2007_Annual_Report_18_June.pdf    ↩