The Hepatitis C virus affects an estimated 180 million men, women and children worldwide. Patients in low to moderate income nations benefit from treatment at the same rate as those in developed regions. Yet, the high cost of this treatment prevents many from recovering.
One of the largest biopharmaceutical companies, Gilead Sciences, developed an $84,000 cure in 2013 with one pill priced at a thousand dollars. The total cost for a three-month regimen far exceeds most patients’ price range.
Solvadi, the pill, offers a solution to the pressing danger of this disease in developing countries. Egypt (22%), Pakistan (4.2%) and China (3.2%) rank the highest in disease prevalence, bearing most of the burden today.
How, though, can patients in these nations afford an $84,000 bill?
Gilead answered this question with a promising discount in sixty developing countries. Negotiating with generic drugmakers in India, the company plans to offer the treatment at 2 percent of the cost in the United States.
Rohit Malpani, a policy director at Doctors Without Borders, hopes for a more reasonable price. The company could produce Solvadi at a far lower cost, he contends. Malpani and other advocates estimate Gilead could cut the cost to $68 to $136 for a twelve-week treatment regime.
The company must revaluate how much the drug costs compared to patients’ ability to pay, Malpani asserts.
“If we want to see Hepatitis C treatment scaled up globally, we are going to need much lower prices in all countries with a high burden of the disease,” he remarks in a recent Doctors Without Borders statement.
Gregg Alton of Gilead reports future partnerships with three to five different companies. Gilead, he notes, plans to allow flexibility of price from the Indian companies. Alton also contends the starting point of $2,000 is “substantially less” that current costs in India – for inferior drugs. He promoted Solvadi in The Hindu Business Line, highlighting the drug as “more effective, less toxic…and without side-effects.”
Ideally, Alton remarks, the company signs voluntary licensing deals “in the next couple months” and market availability in two years. Last November, the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge(I-MAK) filed a legal challenge against its patent application.
I-MAK claims Solvadi relies on “on science” with a “known compound.” Voluntary licensure protects Gilead from patent problems, adds Malpani. These licensing agreements prevent generic companies from overturning patents. Without these agreements, the Indian manufacturers could sell Solvadi at any cost and without paying royalties to the company.
The company also plans to limit the scale of these licensing agreements, allowing generic drugmakers to sell in 60 countries. In contrast, Gilead sells HIV drugs in more than 100.
The pricing and limited access to this drug threatens the health of more than 180 million patients. Brook Baker, an advisor to the Health Global Access Project, sees delinkage as the solution. With this system, governments fund pharmaceutical research and development as a public service.
Today, pharmaceutical companies absorb about 60 percent of the total cost. Treating these drugs as a public good offers the most in need. And though these companies need to profit, Hepatitis C patients around the world also need treatment.
– Ellery Spahr
Sources: NPR, WHO
Photo: Don’t Trade Our Lives Away
Bolivia: Advocacy Against Child Labor
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has recently emphasized that the Bolivian government should reject proposals to lower its minimum age of employment below 14 years old. President Evo Morales has expressed support for proposals to abolish a minimum age for “independent work” and to lower the minimum age to 12 years old for all other jobs.
Jo Becker, children’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch (HRW,) stated that, “Child labor perpetuates the cycle of poverty. Lowering minimum age of employment is counterproductive and out of step with the rest of the world.”
Reductions in child labor are attributed to increasing access to education, strengthening national legislation and monitoring and bolstering social protection plans such as Bolivia’s Juancito Pinto cash transfer program.
The International Labor Convention stipulates a minimum employment age of 15 years old. Bolivia, along with 166 other countries, is a part of this. The only stipulation is countries whose economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed may under certain conditions have a minimum age of 14 years old. Bolivia has a reported 850,000 child laborers.
“Poor families often send their children to work out of desperation, but these children miss out on schooling and are more likely to end up in a lifetime of low-wage work,” Becker said. “The Bolivian government should invest in policies and programs to end child labor, not support it.”
Human rights across Latin America are struggling with a seemingly intractable dilemma, according to The Guardian. Countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador and Brazil hope to benefit from the commodity boom in global markets that are fueled by demand in China and other areas of the world.
Social movements across Latin America are helping to remold politics and political discourse. These countries democratization depend on the support of increasingly active social movements in both rural and urban areas.
Along with the protesting and movements transpiring in Latin America, HRW joined the Global March against Child Labor and Anti-Slavery International on January 24. The group sent a letter to Morales completely opposing any sort of movement to lower the minimum age of employment. HRW explained that it would be extremely counterproductive to the Bolivian economy.
– Lindsey Lerner
Sources: Human Rights Watch, The Guardian
Photo: Bicultural Mom
Define Congress… Defining Can be Difficult
Politics can be very confusing to follow, especially if one is unaware of the basics, but a quick description of the functions and structure of Congress can help advocates of poverty reduction get a brief overview of the complex size and scope of the United States Congress.
Let’s define Congress. The U.S. Congress makes up the legislative branch of the U.S. government, meaning it has the power to write and make laws. Additionally, it has the ability to approve all government spending, collect taxes, declare war, regulate commerce and provide for the general welfare. Under the American democratic system of checks and balances, it shares governing authority with the executive and judicial branches of the government.
Structure
Congress is made up of two parts, or chambers. The lower chamber, the House of Representatives, has 435 members. The amount of members per state varies by the state’s population, but currently each representative typically represents approximately 700,000 constituents. Each state must have at least one representative who serves two-year terms.
The upper chamber, the Senate, has 100 total members. Each state has two senators, regardless of its population. Senators face re-election every six years; however, elections are rotated so that no more than one senator per state is up for re-election in a single election cycle.
Making Laws
A “Congress” lasts two years and begins on January 3 of odd-numbered years. Each year is considered a “session” of Congress. As of 2014, the 113th Congress is serving its second session. At the end of this year, elections will be held to decide the 114th Congress, which will meet from 2015 to 2017. Unapproved bills remain alive between sessions of Congress but do not carry over into the next two-year congressional term.
After a bill’s introduction in either house, it goes for review to the legislative committee that covers the subject of the bill. The committee may refer the bill to a subcommittee, which may hold hearings on the bill and amend it before recommending it for approval in a new form to the greater committee. Once the bill clears the committee process, it goes to the House or Senate floor for debate.
The House and Senate must each approve the bill in identical form before the President has an opportunity to sign it into law. Therefore, should differences exist between the House and Senate versions, the two chambers of Congress will form a conference committee to hash out any discrepancies. The president then has ten days to sign or veto the bill.
Shared Authority
The Senate and the House of Representatives share identical legislative authority with a couple of exceptions. First, the House of Representatives originates all revenue-raising bills, initiates impeachment proceedings against federal officials and has the final authority to choose the president if no candidate wins in the electoral college.
The Senate has the authority to confirm federal and judicial branch appointments and also the authority to ratify treaties. The senate also conducts impeachment trials after the House of Representatives has initiated them.
– Martin Levy
Sources: About, Congress Link, Census Data
Photo: OSG’s AP Gov. and Politics
10 Dalai Lama Quotes
The 14th Dalai Lama is a man with great wisdom and high morality. He is looked at in times of great need, times of compassion and times of guidance. He has given hundreds of words of advice, through speeches, books and interviews that people are able to reference for inspiration. Below are ten wise quotes from the Dali Lama that will bring clarity to the world around us.
10 Inspirational Quotes by the Dalai Lama
Hopefully, these ten inspiring quotes will bring peace and guidance to the world around. The eradication of global poverty, world, suffering, and senseless destruction of humanity is the core vision of the 14th Dali Lama.
– Amy Robinson
Sources: DalaiLama.com (1), DalaiLama.com (2), DalaiLama.com (3), DalaiLama.com (4), DalaiLama.com (5), Dalai Lama Quotes (1), Dalai Lama Quotes (2), Dalai Lama Quotes (3)
Photo: Oregon Herald
The High Cost of Treating Hepatitis C
The Hepatitis C virus affects an estimated 180 million men, women and children worldwide. Patients in low to moderate income nations benefit from treatment at the same rate as those in developed regions. Yet, the high cost of this treatment prevents many from recovering.
One of the largest biopharmaceutical companies, Gilead Sciences, developed an $84,000 cure in 2013 with one pill priced at a thousand dollars. The total cost for a three-month regimen far exceeds most patients’ price range.
Solvadi, the pill, offers a solution to the pressing danger of this disease in developing countries. Egypt (22%), Pakistan (4.2%) and China (3.2%) rank the highest in disease prevalence, bearing most of the burden today.
How, though, can patients in these nations afford an $84,000 bill?
Gilead answered this question with a promising discount in sixty developing countries. Negotiating with generic drugmakers in India, the company plans to offer the treatment at 2 percent of the cost in the United States.
Rohit Malpani, a policy director at Doctors Without Borders, hopes for a more reasonable price. The company could produce Solvadi at a far lower cost, he contends. Malpani and other advocates estimate Gilead could cut the cost to $68 to $136 for a twelve-week treatment regime.
The company must revaluate how much the drug costs compared to patients’ ability to pay, Malpani asserts.
“If we want to see Hepatitis C treatment scaled up globally, we are going to need much lower prices in all countries with a high burden of the disease,” he remarks in a recent Doctors Without Borders statement.
Gregg Alton of Gilead reports future partnerships with three to five different companies. Gilead, he notes, plans to allow flexibility of price from the Indian companies. Alton also contends the starting point of $2,000 is “substantially less” that current costs in India – for inferior drugs. He promoted Solvadi in The Hindu Business Line, highlighting the drug as “more effective, less toxic…and without side-effects.”
Ideally, Alton remarks, the company signs voluntary licensing deals “in the next couple months” and market availability in two years. Last November, the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge(I-MAK) filed a legal challenge against its patent application.
I-MAK claims Solvadi relies on “on science” with a “known compound.” Voluntary licensure protects Gilead from patent problems, adds Malpani. These licensing agreements prevent generic companies from overturning patents. Without these agreements, the Indian manufacturers could sell Solvadi at any cost and without paying royalties to the company.
The company also plans to limit the scale of these licensing agreements, allowing generic drugmakers to sell in 60 countries. In contrast, Gilead sells HIV drugs in more than 100.
The pricing and limited access to this drug threatens the health of more than 180 million patients. Brook Baker, an advisor to the Health Global Access Project, sees delinkage as the solution. With this system, governments fund pharmaceutical research and development as a public service.
Today, pharmaceutical companies absorb about 60 percent of the total cost. Treating these drugs as a public good offers the most in need. And though these companies need to profit, Hepatitis C patients around the world also need treatment.
– Ellery Spahr
Sources: NPR, WHO
Photo: Don’t Trade Our Lives Away
Congressional Black Caucus Fights Income Inequality
An event hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus has sparked a national effort to confront inequality around the world. As reported by the Baltimore Afro-American weekly newspaper, also known as the Afro, the National Day of Prayer to End Poverty and Income Inequality on February 6 was intended to bring awareness to high rates of poverty among African-Americans.
“The specter of poverty has long haunted communities of color,” reports the Afro. “Nearly 10 million African-Americans, including four in 10 Black children, live in poverty and almost 12 percent of African Americans are unemployed.”
While the event focused on African-Americans, 25.8% of whose income falls below the poverty level (just behind Native Americans,) it also investigated how global trends in wealth disparity negatively affects already disempowered communities around the world. The World Economic Forum’s “Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014,” published in November 2013, listed expanding income disparities as the second greatest trend facing the world today.
“Widening wealth disparity affects every part of our lives,” states the report. “It’s impacting social stability within countries and threatening security on a global scale [and] it’s essential that we devise innovative solutions to the causes and consequences of a world becoming ever more unequal.”
Oxfam Executive Director Winnie Byanyima underscores the importance of addressing global inequality and emphasized its relationship with reducing poverty.
“We cannot hope to win the fight against poverty without tackling inequality. Widening inequality is creating a vicious circle where wealth and power are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, leaving the rest of us to fight over crumbs from the top table,” she said.
“Without a concerted effort to tackle inequality, the cascade of privilege and of disadvantage will continue down the generations [and] we will soon live in a world where equality of opportunity is just a dream,” she added. “In too many countries, economic growth already amounts to little more than a ‘winner takes all’ windfall for the richest.”
– Emily Bajet
Sources: Census, Afro, World Economic Forum, Daily Mail
2014 Justice Conference in Los Angeles
Possibly the most globally conscious conference in the world, the Justice Conference brings together hundreds of equality minded people, humanitarian organizations, peace workers and charities alike.
This year, the speakers gather at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles in February to reach out to tens of thousands of viewers. Entrepreneurs, artists and speakers discuss issues of poverty, education, hunger, government policies and more. Inspiring and moving, viewers can learn about all of the issues facing the world today and how they can help to solve them.
The 2014 Justice Conference covers everything from organizations benefiting refugees of national disaster and war crimes to societies suffering from hunger and disease.
Entrepreneurs are popular at this conference especially now that business is currently being considered as a real solution to ending poverty. Mutually beneficial business practices that supply a market of poor people with a way to increase their income could increase the quality of life of billions of people.
Guests can participate in both the conference and the accompanying film festival taking place at a hotel nearby. Documentaries about those suffering from poverty and oppression are featured as well as films about the people who help them.
The conference is slightly religious and has a base in theological justice. Their values and mission are to promote global justice and bring together like minded organizations to better the societies both in the United States and all over the world. Educating and collaborating with artists, businesses, charities and other foundations to help solve the world’s problems are the main issues discussed at the conference.
Ideas are generated and complex concepts of hunger, health, and equality are discussed in depth.
The Justice Conference Twitter shares tweets, articles and videos from appearing artists and more. Inspiring articles and videos filled with facts about social inequality are common among the Twitter feed. Anyone with a desire to learn about problems facing the world today, including causes and effects as well as potential solutions, should tune into the Justice Conference of 2014.
The next generation can eradicate poverty for good. Knowledge is power, and the more people know and understand about what works and what doesn’t in the fight against suffering and corruption, the more help they can lend and the quicker things can get done.
Talking only does so much, it is the actions of everyone involved that truly matter.
– Kaitlin Sutherby
Sources: The Justice Conference, Facebook, Twitter
Photo: The Justice Foundation
Powerful Women That Have Overcome Poverty
Women have overcome many obstacles since the beginning of time. Gaining equal rights, balancing career with children and battling insecurities with self-image and self-worth are just a few of the battles that women continue to fight. It is no secret that women are strong and capable of changing not only the path of the world, but their own paths. The stories of these three powerful women that have overcome poverty could belong to any woman.
Oprah Winfrey
Winfrey grew up in the small town of Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her family was extremely poor and Winfrey sometimes had to wear potato sacks because of lack of clothing.
After living in Mississippi with her grandmother, Winfrey was sent to live with her mother in an even more extreme state of poverty. During her time there, she was subjected to child abuse and rape. She also became pregnant. However, her baby boy tragically died due to complications after she gave birth.
Winfrey eventually went to live with her father, where her life improved. She attended college and pursued journalism. Her television career soon took off with a job as an anchor; after this, she hosted her own TV show. Through all of Winfrey’s trials in life, somehow she was able to persevere and overcome poverty. Winfrey is quoted saying, “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future merely by changing their attitude.”
J.K. Rowling
The billionaire author of the iconic “Harry Potter” series struggled with finances at one time. Living in a two-bedroom house with her daughter, the newly-divorced Rowling struggled to survive on state assistance.
“…I was jobless, a lone parent and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.”
However, through this time of great struggle, Rowling pushed through and decided she would make her dreams a reality on her own terms. She reflects on this time during a documentary with ITV. “I feel I really became myself here, in that everything was stripped away, I’d made such a mess of things. But that was freeing, so I just thought, well, I want to write, and I wrote the book. And what is the worst thing that can happen? It gets turned down by every publisher in Britain, big deal.”
The determination and fight to never give up led Rowling out of poverty. At a commencement address to Harvard graduates Rowling states, “Poverty entails fear, stress and sometimes depression. It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty on your own effort that is on which something to pride yourself…”
Sonia Sotomayor
The first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, grew up in the housing projects of South Bronx. She was repeatedly witness to drug deals and gang crimes. Having an emotionally detached mother, Sotomayor learned to entertain herself with books. Despite with her love of stories and knowledge however, she still found herself slightly behind educational standards.
Again, this set back did not stop her determination. She studied and learned around the clock in order to be on top. Needless to say, Sotomayor continued to fight her way out of poverty. She fought hard to overcome obstacles thrown her way due to her poor upbringing.
Hopefully these women will inspire people that are fighting their own way out of poverty today. These stories reveal hope and highlight the importance of determination, while revealing the crucial community obligation to ensure that all have the opportunity to overcome poverty.
– Amy Robinson
Sources: The Telegraph, Harvard Magazine, Biography Online, Indian Country Today, NPR
Photo: The Telegraph
Development in Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is home to the world’s fifth largest estimated natural gas reserves but despite its gas wealth, many of Turkmenistan’s people remain poor.
The country is still recovering from its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The economy remains undeveloped because many foreign investors keep their distance. Turkmenistan produces about 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year and about two-thirds of its exports go to Russia.
Turkmenistan opened major gas pipelines to China and Iran, thus breaking Russia’s monopoly on its exports.
The Turkmenistan government wants to make its country stronger in the areas of investment, innovation and entrepreneurship. Small and medium-sized enterprises have already seen the financial benefits of efforts by the government to enact poverty-reducing legislation. Further, legislation in the public sector will also contribute to development in Turkmenistan.
The Asian Development Bank’s strategies for Turkmenistan focus on two main aspects: 1) the development of transport and energy infrastructure to enhance regional connectivity; and 2) policy and capacity building technical assistance, including clean energy and finance sector development.
The ADB and the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) have supported various projects for development in Turkmenistan including a regional railway project.
The North-South Railway Project will make it possible for Turkmenistan to capitalize on its potential for natural gas exports. ADB is considering financing The Afghanistan-Turkmenistan Regional Power Interconnection, which aims to quadruple electricity exports from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan by 2028.
The Bank also supports the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-
Gas used to be free for Turkmenistan’s people but President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov is now going to have meters installed in households to regulate the amount of free gas. The president said he hopes the meters would encourage people to consume energy more efficiently.
Households will receive 50 cubic meters of gas per person per month, with any additional usage being charged at the equivalent of about $7 per thousand cubic meters. The elimination of these gas subsidies is not a popular idea among Turkmenistan’s people, but it will help add to the national GDP while Turkmenistan is working to open more pipelines to export its gas to other countries.
– Haley Sklut
Sources: BBC, Asian Development Bank, Business News Europe
Photo: USAID
Neil Gaiman Reads Dr. Seuss for Charity
Many describe author and writer Neil Gaiman as a new age rock star of the literary world. Not only is he married to activist and punk princess Amanda Palmer, but Gaiman is responsible for creating one of the most influential comics books series of all-time, Sandman, and is also the author of two best-selling novels, “American Gods” and “Anansi Boys”, which are currently being adapted into television shows.
There is little that Neil Gaiman hasn’t accomplished and recently, Gaiman used his celebrity status to help raise money for Heifer International through Worldbuilders, a collective power of readers, authors, and fellow book lovers who care about making the world a better place.
Joining forces with founder and fellow fantasy author Pat Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman recorded himself reading a live version of Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham in playful voices as a reward for those who helped Worldbuilders raise $500,000 through Heifer International.
“Heifer International is my favorite charity. It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world. They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear and eggs to eat,” said Rothfuss.
Fellow fantasy authors contributing in raising awareness and donations for Worldbuilders included Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear, and John Scalzi. Other musicians and actors also supported the cause including Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Amber Benson who will record herself and Rothfuss reading urban fantasy fiction if the charity raises $700,000 by the fundraisers end.
The money received through Worldbuilders will be used to empower families and their communities on a “teach a man how to fish” philosophy which aims at ending poverty through increasing opportunities. Heifer International’s core model, Passing on the Gift, sets out to bring sustainable agriculture and revenue to areas plagued by years of poverty.
By providing animals to communities and teaching their members how to utilize such resources, Heifer International works to help the recipient benefit from the knowledge and products the project and animals produce. After specific techniques are learned, the recipient than becomes the donor and teaches other members of the community the same values they were taught.
After that training is passed on, so is the first female offspring of the original gift, which starts the cycle all over again. Nearly 70 years later, this process is not only a success, but is also creating opportunities for building schools, creating agricultural collaborations, and boosting the local economy.
– Jeffrey Scott Haley
Feature Writer
Sources: Patrick Rothfuss, A.V. Club, World Builders, Heifer International
Photo: Entertainment Weekly
20 Influential MLK Quotes
As an influential leader and a revolutionary of the Civil Rights movement, the various wise words of Martin Luther King Jr. still ring among us today. His actions were an aiding pendulum that help set in motion the equal rights of all races.
50 years following his “I Have a Dream” speech, the words still resonate a powerful meaning amongst society, and the effects of his speech are felt even to this day.
Comprised below is a list of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quotes:
1. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
2. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.”
3. “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
4. “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
5. “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
6. “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
7. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
8. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”
9. “We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely being to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.”
10. “Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.”
11. “Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”
12. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
13. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
14. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”
15. “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
16. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
17. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
18. “We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.”
19. “The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.”
20. “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
– Samaria Garrett
Sources: MLK Day, Parade
Photo: Seattle Times