Dr. Martin Luther King Jr will forever hold a place in the hearts of millions of people around the world. The immediate need for freedom from racism, discrimination and flat out brutality toward African Americans will forever be King’s message. However, Dr. King also used his platform to shed light on global poverty.
He expressed the need for poverty to be abolished and the need for nations to come together to combat this growing problem. Here are excerpts of Dr. King’s written documents concerning the dire need to end poverty.
Excerpts from Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize address in 1964:
“A second evil which plagues the modern world is that of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, it projects it’s nagging, prehensile tentacles in lands and villages all over the world. Almost two thirds of the peoples of the world go to bed hungry at night. They are undernourished, ill-housed, and shabbily clad. Many of them have no houses or beds to sleep in. Their only beds are the sidewalks of the cities and the dusty roads of the villages. Most of these poverty-stricken children of God have never seen a physician or a dentist.”
“So it is obvious that if a man is to redeem his spiritual and moral ‘lag,’ he must go all out to bridge the social and economic gulf between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’ of the world. Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life.”
“There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”
“The time has come for an all- out world war against poverty.”
“The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for ‘the least of these.'”
Excerpts from Dr. King’s “Let My People Go” speech. Human Rights Day December 10, 1965:
“Africa does have spectacular savages and brutes today, but they are not black. They are the sophisticated white rulers of South Africa who profess to be cultured, religious and civilized, but whose conduct and philosophy stamp them unmistakably as modern-day barbarians.
We are in an era in which the issue of human rights is the central question confronting all nations. In this complex struggle an obvious but little appreciated fact has gained attention-the large majority of the human race is non-white-yet it is that large majority which lives in hideous poverty. While millions enjoy an unexampled opulence in developed nations, ten thousand people die of hunger each and every day of the year in the undeveloped world.”
An excerpt from “Where do we go from Here: Chaos or Community” written in 1967:
Sadly this is Dr. King’s last book before he was tragically assassinated.
“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective – the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed matter: the guaranteed income.”
“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.”
Nearly fifty years after these words were breathed, they still reign true; especially since poverty continues to be a problem for millions of people in 2013. Let us not allow Dr. King‘s words to remain in the past. We must give them life again and continue to make this world a better place, as Dr. Martin Luther King did nearly fifty years ago.
– Amy Robinson
Sources: Nobleprize, RFKSA Film, Progress,
Photo: BAR Photography
The Selfless Selfie
Social networking sites have created platforms for individuals to engineer an online version of themselves, editing bits and pieces of their lives to portray to their friends or even to the world. Users are armed with an array of tools that give them an unending soundboard to voice everything under the sun relating to their lives, thoughts or opinions.
Along with this focus on ones self comes the infamous #selfie.
The Oxford Dictionary recently even deemed “selfie” as the word of the year, defining it as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” The dictionary’s word monitor indicated a 17,000% increase in the usage of the word “selfie” since last year.
Selfies have been used by a whole gamut of people, from everyday individuals to celebrities and politicians alike. Even United States President Barack Obama was caught posing for a selfie during Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, an image which the photographer says “seemed to get more attention than the event itself.”
While much focus on “selfies” seems a bit “selfish,” a couple of college students from Brigham Young University took the initiative to turn this popular craze into a force for good. Chas Barton and Dustin Locke developed the “Selfie Police” Initiative last year as part of a 24-hour creativity competition.
When discussing how they came up with the concept, Barton said, “It’s tricky because we’re such a selfish generation, so the question we asked was not how do we make our generation charitable, but how do we turn selfishness into charity.”
The way the initiative works is by “selfie violators” voluntarily turning themselves in and donating a dollar for each photo, or by friends of violators tagging the selfies on Instagram or Facebook with Selfiepolice.org or #selfiepolice and urging their friends to pay up. Since their launch a few weeks ago, the Selfie Police have raised $1,609.
According to their website, “one-hundred percent of funds raised by the #selfiepolice will be contributed to Vittana, an innovative organization dedicated to fighting world poverty by providing student loans to college aged kids in third world countries.”
In light of the self-absorbed tendencies cultivated by social networking, the founders hope that they can “create a culture of people who think of others, even when obsessing over themselves.”
– Rifk Ebeid
Sources: The Selfie Police, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, TIME
Martin Luther King Quotes on Poverty
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr will forever hold a place in the hearts of millions of people around the world. The immediate need for freedom from racism, discrimination and flat out brutality toward African Americans will forever be King’s message. However, Dr. King also used his platform to shed light on global poverty.
He expressed the need for poverty to be abolished and the need for nations to come together to combat this growing problem. Here are excerpts of Dr. King’s written documents concerning the dire need to end poverty.
Excerpts from Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize address in 1964:
“A second evil which plagues the modern world is that of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, it projects it’s nagging, prehensile tentacles in lands and villages all over the world. Almost two thirds of the peoples of the world go to bed hungry at night. They are undernourished, ill-housed, and shabbily clad. Many of them have no houses or beds to sleep in. Their only beds are the sidewalks of the cities and the dusty roads of the villages. Most of these poverty-stricken children of God have never seen a physician or a dentist.”
“So it is obvious that if a man is to redeem his spiritual and moral ‘lag,’ he must go all out to bridge the social and economic gulf between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’ of the world. Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life.”
“There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”
“The time has come for an all- out world war against poverty.”
“The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for ‘the least of these.'”
Excerpts from Dr. King’s “Let My People Go” speech. Human Rights Day December 10, 1965:
“Africa does have spectacular savages and brutes today, but they are not black. They are the sophisticated white rulers of South Africa who profess to be cultured, religious and civilized, but whose conduct and philosophy stamp them unmistakably as modern-day barbarians.
We are in an era in which the issue of human rights is the central question confronting all nations. In this complex struggle an obvious but little appreciated fact has gained attention-the large majority of the human race is non-white-yet it is that large majority which lives in hideous poverty. While millions enjoy an unexampled opulence in developed nations, ten thousand people die of hunger each and every day of the year in the undeveloped world.”
An excerpt from “Where do we go from Here: Chaos or Community” written in 1967:
Sadly this is Dr. King’s last book before he was tragically assassinated.
“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective – the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed matter: the guaranteed income.”
“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.”
Nearly fifty years after these words were breathed, they still reign true; especially since poverty continues to be a problem for millions of people in 2013. Let us not allow Dr. King‘s words to remain in the past. We must give them life again and continue to make this world a better place, as Dr. Martin Luther King did nearly fifty years ago.
– Amy Robinson
Sources: Nobleprize, RFKSA Film, Progress,
Photo: BAR Photography
White House Releases Strategic Human Trafficking Plan
On January 14, the United States government took a strong step toward combating modern-day slavery. The White House released its Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking 2013-2017 in the United States — the first of its kind — on Monday. The Plan’s release is a timely one, as January marks National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
According to White House blog writer Cecilia Munoz, the Plan “describes the steps that federal agencies will take to ensure that all victims of human trafficking in the United States are identified and have access to the services they need to recover and to rebuild their lives.” The federal government anticipates increased coordination, collaboration and capacity across multiple agencies over the span of five years.
More than 15 federal agencies were involved in developing the Plan, with public feedback from concerned stakeholders; the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security spearhead the efforts.
While the ultimate aspiration – identification of and access to services for all trafficking victims – is ambitious, the Plan is broken down into four more succinct goals: align efforts at the federal, regional, state and local levels, improve understanding through amplified research and data evaluation, expand access to services via outreach and training and improve both short- and long-term outcomes for victims.
Concise methods and action steps for achieving these goals are delineated throughout the document.
Victim sensitivity and empowerment are the cornerstone of the government’s action plan. “Meaningful engagement with survivors,” states to the Plan’s core values, “in all aspects of program development, implementation, and evaluation is critical in order to develop effective service networks.”
Furthermore, the Plan will focus on increased public awareness and sustainable solutions for trafficking survivors.
Reiterating the importance of a victim-centered approach, President Obama offers an encouraging and personal sentiment in the opening pages of the release: “To those who are suffering and have suffered the horrors of human trafficking, our message remains: We hear you. We insist on your dignity.” This statement sets the tone for the goals of the Federal Strategic Action Plan and carries a message of justice to activists, advocates, victims and survivors across the country and the globe.
– Mallory Thayer
Sources: White House Blog, Office for Victims of Crime
Photo: News One
Poverty in Mexico City Persists
Although Mexico has the 13th largest economy in the world, poverty in Mexico City remains commons.
According to an article by The Huffington Post, poor people in Mexico make up half of the country’s population. “While the number of people living in extreme poverty fell… many more Mexicans are now worse off than they were when former President Felipe Calderon entered the last two years of a six-year term in which poverty swelled by nearly 3 percent”, the article states.
On the other hand, despite Mexico City being home to historical monuments and rich neighborhoods, another reality exists in which almost half of the city’s inhabitants are poor. Another article published by the BBC in 2006 argues that 40 percent of the city’s population lives below the line of poverty.
“This is a place of homeless street kids, piracy, pollution, crime, and 100,000 street vendors. At the same time, the rich live in a world of gated communities, rooftop swimming pools, and commuting by helicopter,” stated the author.
It is estimated that approximately 15,000 children live on the streets of Mexico City. Many children prefer such a lifestyle due to family disintegration and physical abuse, which are symptoms of poverty itself. Poverty in Mexico City causes devastation at home and cause arguments. But, sometimes these arguments become violent.
To make some pesos here and there, children would dress like clowns and entertain traffic at stoplights.
If drivers were impressed they would give them some money. Most of the time, however, drivers tend to ignore these children. With 15,000 children living in the streets, the working class in Mexico City has probably become desensitized to such an image.
On the national level, the number of Mexican children living in poverty is more absurd. According to a report by Fusion, the United Nations Children’s Fund “estimates that more than 20 million children and adolescents live in poverty in Mexico with more than five million living in extreme poverty.”
Whether people live in the streets or not, the BBC states, “at least 40% of the economy in the city is informal – people who do not pay taxes, and who make a living based on selling small amounts of things, from children’s books to luminous stars.”
These articles combined serve to show that despite Mexico’s progress throughout history, poverty is one of the many social issues that the country struggles to defeat. They also suggest that the poverty in Mexico City is bad, but not as bad as the poverty on the national level.
– Juan Campos
Sources: BBC, The Huffington Post
Photo: Nick Rain
10 Facts about Poverty in Italy
Poverty in Italy remains a problem. The ongoing economic recession, affecting many countries around the globe, has hit Italy especially hard. For the first time in 16 years, poverty rates have risen, along with the general jobless and youth unemployment rate. Overall, the number of full-time contract workers declined to 10.2 million in 2013, a 1.3 percent reduction from 2012.
The news was even worse for younger generations as youth unemployment reached an all-time high of 41.2 percent.
Although the first month of the New Year has yet to end, Italy remains hopeful to see results and move on from past adversities. Listed below are 10 facts about some of those adversities, as well the consequential effects the economic crisis has had on Italy over time.
Poverty in Italy Facts
– Jeffrey Scott Haley
Sources: Financial Express, ANSAmed
Photo: Kay Kanat
Not Impossible Foundation
The impetus for the trail-blazing Not Impossible Foundation took place when Mick Ebeling befriended the gifted street artist Tony “Tempt One” Quan, who was suffering from the onset of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Lou Gehrig’s would eventually paralyze his entire body, stripping Tempt of his ability to communicate through artistic expression or any other means of expression other than the careful movement of his eyes.
Moved by the tragedy of Tempt’s situation, Ebeling recruited a team of talented individuals from Graffiti Research Lab, Free Art and Technology Lab and other hackers to create a device that would enable Tempt to create artwork again. In April 2009, after seven years of laborious research, experimentation and refinement, Ebeling and his team presented Tempt with their creation, the EyeWriter. The EyeWriter is an astonishingly innovative device that allows paralyzed individuals to communicate using only his or her eyes.
Recounting his perseverance in creating the EyeWriter, Ebeling said, “When I feel a spark, I commit wholly to the idea, without necessarily having a sense of how, or if, I will be able to complete it…when presented with a challenge, I find it incredibly hard to back down.”
Not surprisingly, after the launch of the EyeWriter, Ebeling and his team were soon the recipients of multiple honors in the technological world. For instance, Time Magazine honored the device by declaring the EyeWriter as one of the 50 best inventions of 2010. The recognition that Ebeling and his team received after Time’s illustrious title enabled the launch of Ebeling’s next endeavor, the Not Impossible Foundation.
The Not Impossible Foundation provides a self-description so to-the-point and succinct that it is composed of a mere six words. The Foundation Having establishes itself as a technology-oriented lab by breezily describing itself as “technology for the sake of humanity.”
Adhering to the standard of innovation and promise of the 2009’s EyeWriter, Ebeling and his team is tackling the previously impossible by working to create smart canes for the blind along with 3D-printed prosthetic limbs for amputees. The Not Impossible Foundation strives to construct new yet affordable technology to revolutionize healthcare.
– Phoebe Pradhan
Sources: Atlantic Meets Pacific, Not Impossible Labs, Mick Ebeling, BBC
Photo: Facebook: Not Impossible Fund
Public Health Crisis in Nepal
Nepal finds itself in the midst of a public health crisis for a sizable number of its female citizens. The crisis has its roots in poor preventative measures, but it mostly stems from the intolerable gender discrimination that many Nepalese women endure on a daily basis.
For instance, uterine prolapse, a condition that occurs when the uterus falls out of its normal position, is plaguing millions of women in the small nation. This condition is extremely painful and prevents many women from doing basic household duties.
In fact, its ubiquity is staggering: over 10% of 13.4 million women are affected by uterine prolapse.
The condition prevents many women from lifting heavy items which leads many to be ostracized within their own families. Since they are unable to do any intensive physical labor, they are seen as “lazy” by their families and therefore looked down upon.
Unfortunately, uterine prolapse can be traced to even greater gender discrimination pervasive within Nepalese society as a whole. Women generally have no say in when they marry, when to have children and how many children they desire to have. They are also denied basic birth control.
Bearing too many children in a short period of time is heavily associated with early onset of the condition. Generally, uterine prolapse is experienced by older women.
However, because of the lack of choice in having children at an early age, the condition in Nepal has been seen in women in their early 20’s. In a society that treats women as second class citizens, it is hard to imagine the number of avenues women are able to take in order to prevent uterine prolapse.
The government of Nepal has taken notice of the problem and was compelled to address the crisis once the Supreme Court mandated it in 2008. Unfortunately, the government response has been woefully inadequate.
There is a serious dearth of preventative measures in the government’s strategy. The main focus has been providing surgery for those who are already affected by the condition, which has done nothing to ease the discrimination responsible for its prevalence.
The quality of the government’s response to the crisis should not come as a surprise since the government has been in a state of flux since the monarchy was deposed in 2008. Since then, an interim constitution has been created to govern the country.
Political bouts within the government have left many stuck in a cycle of poverty. In fact, over one-quarter of the Nepalese population survives on just $2 per day.
The situation underscores how institutionalized discrimination leads to more than just decreased social stature in one’s society. There may be other examples around the world illustrating the health effects discrimination has on powerless individuals.
Hopefully an effective governing body can be solidified to aid the women of Nepal.
– Zachary Lindberg
Sources: Reuters, Amnesty International
Photo: Merlin
A Picture of Polio
Since 1979 the United States has been free of the disease that at one point crippled 35,000 people per year. Although Polio has now been stopped in the United States, several countries continue to suffer from the Polio virus. This infectious disease spreads rapidly to the spinal cord and can ultimately lead to paralysis. Unfortunately there is no cure for the disease but thanks to the Polio vaccination, its spread is better controlled. Many are unaware of what causes Polio so an overview including symptoms will be presented.
“Polio” is short for Poliomyelitis which is caused by a virus that infects the nervous system. Though the virus is usually transmitted through person to person contact, 95% of those infected don’t have any symptoms. The virus tends to remain inside the human body, reaching the environment through either a fecal or oral route. Infection is rampant in areas that are extremely unsanitary and where children are exposed to the fecal material of other infected people. Since the Poliovirus enters humans, for the most part, through the mouth or nose, it is inclined to spread easily. Once in the throat, the virus multiplies until reaching the bloodstream, possibly even infecting the nervous system. Complications that arise from the virus include the following:
Several treatments in developing nations have been adopted to help counteract these symptoms including antibiotics for infections, painkillers for muscle pain, physical therapy and surgery for muscle complications. Additionally, the Polio immunization prevents the spread of the virus in over 90% of the population though cases in which the spinal cord and brain are not involved have a positive outlook from the start. This vaccination has proven to be extremely effective as illustrated through the fact that global immunization campaigns have diminished thousands of cases worldwide. Polio outbreaks are, however, still seen in Asia and Africa, but several organizations are continuing to campaign for vaccine accessibility.
– Maybelline Martez
Sources: Centers for Disease Control, Mayo Clinic, NIH,
Photo: Foreign Policy
The Knowledge Drive to Africa’s Future
Embedded within southeastern Africa, Malawi is a developing nation that borders Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania. As a country that is already lacking resources and electricity, it should come as no surprise to know that schools are also a rarity in the nation’s public infrastructure.
During a famine in 2002, three-quarters of the population of Malawi (over seven million people) were on the brink of starvation. Such difficult times affected many, a prime example being a boy named William Kamkwamba who was living in Malawi with an impoverished family of nine, knowing full well that school was not a viable option for him at the time. He was merely 14, however, when he traveled to a nearby library, which changed everything.
Motivated by his curiosity, William dove into a book on energy and articulated a plan to build a windmill to power his home—and surprisingly, he was successful in doing so. Currently, William is 22 years old and is working to not only refine his own windmill model, but to build more of them to power other communities.
On the other side of the world, a Cornell University student named Andrew Grauer founded the company Course Hero in 2008. Andrew’s purpose was to allow greater access to educational resources in an affordable and universal manner. He was able to compile a substantial amount of academic resources and promoted the website at various universities.
Course Hero eventually went on to expand throughout campus communities across America and has now become one of the leading online learning platforms. Some key investors in Course Hero include the founders of YouTube, StubHub, Google AdSense as well as some of the earlier investors of Twitter, Foursquare and PayPal.
In November 2010, Course Hero partnered with Books for Africa to establish The Knowledge Drive and invest in the future of Africa’s youth.
As a result, Course Hero decided to donate one book to Books for Africa for every 10 academic documents that are uploaded to the website. With the help of the academic community across the globe, they have been able to donate over 100,000 books—and are continuing to do so.
Access to education is a human right though millions of people across the globe are still left out. Although there are many people working to make an educated world a possibility, there is still much to accomplish.
Course Hero is an exceptional example of what is possible when the values of universal and affordable education are spread. After all, a book is much more than it seems to be—it allows for the power to positively influence communities as in William Kamkwamba’s case, which is something that the nation of Malawi and Africa needs altogether.
– Jugal Patel
Sources: Moving Windmills, Course Hero Knowledge Drive, BBC
Photo: Foctha
Rwanda 20 Years Later: Genocide to Development
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, so it is necessary to compare the country then and now. Today, the Rwandan population is estimated at 12,012,589 people, which is the 74th biggest population in the world. But just 20 years ago, before the genocide, there were estimated to be anywhere from 500,000-1,000,000 more people alive (just under 20% of the population at the time). This number has such a large range because there are still investigations going on to find how many perished that year.
The whole genocide was originally sparked by an ongoing ethnic competition for power between the Hutus and Tutsis. In 1959, the Hutus (the majority ethnic group) overthrew the Tutsi king in power, started the slaughter of thousands of Tutsis and forced them to take refuge in surrounding countries. Then in 1990, the offspring of those exiles formed a rebellion called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and initiated a civil war. This war goaded the tensions between these two ethnicities, and in 1994 led to genocide by the Rwandan government against civilians (three-quarters of which were Tutsi). The genocide ended when the RPF defeated the national army and almost 2,000,000 Hutu people fled the country (most of which have returned today) fearing a possible retribution of the Tutsis.
Since the end of the genocide, things have been drastically improving in Rwanda, particularly with regards to governance. In 2003, they had their first post-genocide legislative and presidential elections. Then in 2009, Rwanda joined the Commonwealth after it was able to restore diplomatic relations between Kinshasa and Kigali, with the help of the Congolese Army. Last year they were able to assume a nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the first time for this 2013-2014 term.
Rwanda has also progressed significantly in its services to the poor. Rwanda is the very first country in sub-Saharan Africa to introduce dual measles-rubella vaccines to its people. These types of immunizations are incredibly important because they are a cost-effective and successful way to save children’s lives, which is obviously a great accomplishment, but it also reduces overpopulation since child mortality rate and child birthrate are directly proportional.
Rwanda is fully embracing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), being one of the few African countries that are actually on track to achieve seven of the eight. Recently, the poverty rate in Rwanda has dropped almost 12 percent, from 56.7 percent in 2006 to 44.9 percent in 2011. This decrease comes from a number of reasons: the Rwandan government encouraging all of its citizens to take part in community development, the slowing of population growth, improved national infrastructure and agricultural production.
The percentage of people with safe drinking water in 2011 was 74.2 percent and is only improving. Also, maternal mortality has dropped drastically, being at 1071 deaths per year in 2000 and 487 in 2010. Today, over 90 percent of children in Rwanda are vaccinated and living healthy lives. UNICEF has been a driving force behind all of this and has helped Rwanda over the last 20 years to go from genocide to development.
– Kenneth W. Kliesner
Sources: CIA World Factbook, UNICEF, UNDP
Photo: Paul Kagame