Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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How World Rowing Is Changing Poverty

How World Rowing Is Changing Poverty

Clean water is a very important part of people’s lives. However, for many poorer nations and communities around the world, access to clean water is limited. Some people have to travel for several miles just to find drinkable water. Many individual people and organizations have tackled this problem, but there is no singular solution to having clean water.

In 2011, World Rowing, the international organization, for rowing began a project with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to give to disadvantaged people the vital thing that makes the sport of rowing possible: water. The alliance began as a way to educate people about the importance of clean, fresh water, not just for humans but also for the environment.

WWF and World Rowing further developed this movement to find an area where water was endangered the most by various threats to water security. Some such threats include the effects of pollution, industry, agriculture, flooding, damming, hydropower, other ecosystems and human consumption. The resulting location was the lower water basin of the Kafue River in Zambia. This basin is a key area for economic resources, but it is also an important home to wetland wildlife and the main source of clean water for locals.

The issue at hand is how to reconcile the importance of the water basin with the harmful environmental effects. If people were to stop using it for industrial and agricultural purposes, the area would lose a large portion of its economic support, which could throw more people into poverty. However, if industry pollution and pesticides continue to contaminate the water, then there will be no safe drinking water.

The project has two goals that, if reached, can help end water insecurity and poverty. The first is to create a world-class water research center at the Kafue River Center. The center will team up with universities and researchers from around the world. Here they can study the effects of pollution, various ways to clean water, the balance of industry and wildlife and much more. The results found here will be open to the public, so that all water sources can benefit from the research.

The center’s second task is to provide a meeting place for all the people involved with this water project and other similar projects around the world.

While the project will do work to clean up the water in the Kafue Basin and provide cleaner water for the people, the research done at this center will help the world. It is a local project with a potentially global impact that can help solve the issue of water resources and poverty by finding a balance for all of the uses of water. The research here will hopefully solve the problems of water usage and water access, problems that keep people in poverty. It will be a balance that can provide sustainability and allow people to bring themselves out of poverty.

– Katherine Hewitt

Sources: World Rowing, World News
Photo: International Water Security Network

Wind Power in Africa

Wind_Power

Construction has begun on the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, which will become Africa’s largest wind power farm. It is estimated to be finished by 2017 and the farm will produce a fifth of Kenya’s total energy. Additionally, Kenya Power has signed a contract to purchase energy from the farm for the next 20 years. The 40,000-acre farm has 365 turbines and will take advantage of a low-level jet stream known as the “Turkana Corridor Winds,” which blow year round.

Regarding the powerful wind speeds and the energy potential, Carlo Van Wageningen, director of the Lake Turkana Wind Project, states, “On average, we obtain 11.8 metres per second. Now, if you make a comparison with onshore wind farms in Europe, you’re looking at a good wind site being about 7.5 to 8 metres a second at best.”

Investors from the European Union have financed the USD $690 million project with the African Development Bank. The program is a milestone in a broader global effort to maximize Africa’s wind power production. Wind power has taken off already in many African countries, such as Morocco, Sudan and South Africa. More than two thirds of Africa’s total population does not have access to electricity. These efforts aim to provide universal access for impoverished Africans living in both urban and rural areas.

In January, a transmission line failure caused a power outage that left over half the country without electricity for four hours. It is absolutely necessary for a country of 4 million people to have a more reliable and accessible source of energy. While power interruptions are becoming increasingly less common, these blackouts can have severe implications for families living in poverty.

The wind farm’s completion is coming at a crucial time for the country. Approximately 80,000 South Sudanese have taken refuge in Kenya to escape their civil war. This massive migration has greatly increased the need for electricity, both for native Kenyans and for refugee camps. Less than 25 percent of Kenyans have access to electricity, but it is estimated that the farm’s energy will provide the majority of the population with access to electricity.

Additionally, the farm will provide temporary construction work for almost 2,500 Kenyans and will employ 200 full-time upon completion.

The outlook for the future is quite promising as well. Eight African countries have the most wind energy potential among developing world nations. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that sub-Saharan Africa alone could produce twice the energy that Africa as a continent currently consumes.

The IEA estimates that by 2040, wind power capacity in sub-Saharan Africa will increase by 12 gigawatts. There are one billion watts per gigawatt and a single LED light bulb requires approximately 15 watts. For a continent that is so severely energy-deprived, a seemingly basic amenity like a light bulb can make a monumental impact.

– The Borgen Project

Sources: QZ, AFKInsider, CNBC
Photo: Flickr

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Rozana Radio Gives a Voice to Syrian Civilians Facing War

Rozana_Radio

Propaganda is one tactic used to strengthen prejudice ideology and deliver false information. This unethical practice is emerging in Syria, where journalists are working at the cost of their lives report neutral and honest news. Giving the public accurate, unbiased, knowledgeable and hopeful information is one step in preparing for a peaceful resolution.

The Assad Regime and its opposition are suppressing freedom and sanctuary. President Bash al-Assad has formed a bias in the media by placing heavy regulations on anything that’s produced. In fact, death is optional for many journalists.

Lina Chawaf left Damascus after having been a journalist in Syria for 20 years. Her projects in those days was affiliated with fragile social problems. Her family moved to Canada, but she set up a radio station in Paris, France, called Rozana Radio. Her goal is to transmit independent, neutral reports and online information to Syria.

Though almost all foreign news channels have been blocked in the country, Rozana Radio uses different transmissions to bypass the interference. Each day she delivers two hours of news, comments and interviews through a satellite connection. It’s funded by French government agencies and nonprofit organizations across Europe.

Rozana’s website has had over 75,000 visitors in 2015. The information gathered for each report is researched and experienced by journalists who are using aliases to protect themselves. Over 70 journalists are working to produce findings to Rozana at the border of Turkey.

The training program for hidden journalists is called Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF). Their goal is to keep track of facts, data and daily struggles in Syria. Rozana’s news coverage is administered by five other Syrian journalists from thirty news networks with information across Syria.

The Syrian crisis includes shortening lifespan and is responsible for a large number of refugees. Journalists for Rozana are reporting why it is that the United Nation depicts Syria’s development as lagging behind. The station gives Syrians advice such as how to cope without electricity. It also works to inform parents how to care for their children without resources to food or warmth.

In an article written by Youssef al-Ahmad on Rozana’s website, the author highlights how emergency responses are being enhanced. Consequences to the opposition against the Assad Regime are hindering civilian livelihood.

Ali Diab invited defense leaders to democratically assign governmental members in a Board of Directors for a Civil Defense of Syria. In 2012, the Free Civil Defense corps began. The Civil Defense is primarily made of volunteers who train in Turkey. They have successfully protected 12,000 Syrians from violent disputes.

One other main topic Youssef al-Almad addresses is the involvement of women in Civil Defense efforts. They work with men as relief operators and increase productivity in rescue attempts. This type of information educates Syria and encourages equality, community activism and a morally neutral reporting tactic.

Though Rozana has been expected to support an “overseas agenda,” Chawaf makes it clear that her station’s mission is to undermine Assad’s grip on the media and deliver fair analysis of internal struggle and success. Since 20 percent of Syrians have internet access, Chawaf has to expose her station to multiple countries so word can reach Syrians quickly.

Many of those who have online access do not have stable power or service. Chawaf hopes to encourage ways to utilize other platforms to penetrate borders. She humbly admits in an article by Amar Toor from The Verge, “It’s not easy to control emotion if you’re seeing your own people getting killed. You have to be neutral, which is how we have trained them in Turkey.”

– Katie Groe

Sources: SIDA, ROZANA, Reuters, The Verge
Photo: Rozana.fm

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The AIDS Crisis in Thailand

The_AIDS_Crisis_in _Thailand
When many think of places most devastated by the AIDS crisis, usually Sub-Saharan Africa first comes to mind. However, the disease also has spread to parts of South and Southeast Asia, where it is perhaps not as destructive, but still a major public health concern. Countries such as Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Sri Lanka all have rising rates of HIV/AIDS deaths. Thailand is particularly afflicted by this auto-immune disease. In total, nearly 500,000 people live with HIV/AIDs.

Mechai Viravaidya, the former politician and activist who first began the campaign to fight AIDS two decades ago, has become vocal once again. He claimed that “The government has fallen asleep at the wheel” and that HIV has become a health crisis in Thailand.

The figures seem to confirm his decree. HIV/AIDS remains the number one cause for premature death in Thailand and HIV infections are now rising. Since 2011, the number of AIDS-related deaths has also been rising.

The burden of the epidemic has fallen heavily on certain high risk groups. One such group is young people; those aged between 15 and 24 accounted for around 70% of the annual sexually transmitted HIV cases.

Among young people, certain minority and marginalized demographics are even more likely to contract HIV. In Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, the percentage of gay men with HIV has risen drastically. While in 2003 an already shocking 17% of homosexuals living in the city had HIV, by 2011 those figures had risen to nearly 30%.

Two more marginalized groups, intravenous drug users and migrant sex workers, are also vulnerable. Unlike their counterparts in brothels, informal, migrant sex workers do not receive information or health services that would help them to avoid contracting HIV. Those who inject drugs are likely to receive inadequate government support for their addictions; the Thai government will only provide addicts with 11 sets of clean needles a year compared to the 88 needles deemed necessary.

Yet, as bad as the crisis is now, it was once far worse. From 1991 to 2003, Thailand experienced a 90% decline in the number of HIV infections. This trend, until recently, had continued; while in 2005 the annual total of new infections was around 15,000, in 2013 it fell nearly in half to only 8,000. Much of this dramatic decline can be contributed to comprehensive awareness campaigns and the widespread dissemination of condoms throughout the sex industry.

So, then, why has this progress stagnated in recent years?

The answer lies in generational changes that have taken place over the past 20 years. The advent of smart phones and the expansion of social media on the Internet have allowed people to connect and have sex without having to meet in public places such as bars, where many of the awareness campaigns took place. This shows in the data; according to a UNAIDS report, “There is no clear sign of improvement in knowledge, condom use and STI among general population and youths on the national scale.”

AIDS was once the number one cause of death in Thailand when the epidemic was at its peak. Today AIDS is the fifth leading cause of death. With renewed efforts, hopefully it can fall even lower on that list.

– Andrew Logan

Sources: Bangkok Post, Trust, UNICEF, UNAIDS, Voice of America
Photo: Flickr

5 Japanese Anime Series or Films that Talk About Poverty

Anime Series
Anime is a style of Japanese animation shown in anime series and animated films. This type of animation varies in categories, and it can be aimed at adult audience as well as a younger audience. Many anime series and films present characters that have Japanese customs that develop in cities or places from Japan, showing the audience some Japanese manners, customs, places and ideologies from the country.

Anime genres can vary depending on the plot of the series or films. Some of the genres that these animations have are adventure, action, comedy, drama, fantasy, harem (anime that involves one male character and many female characters), historical, horror, mystery, magic, kids, shoujo (anime for young girls), shounen (anime for young boys), slice of life (naturalistic anime), among others.

Listed below are anime series or films of different genres that talk about poverty.

 

Top Japanese Films and Anime Series Tackling Poverty

 

Binbou Shimai Monogatari (Poor Sisters Story)
This animation tells the story of two sisters overcoming poverty after the death of their mother and their father’s abandonment. Both sisters decide to support each other in order to fight for the betterment of their lives. Kyo, the oldest sister, studies and takes temporary jobs while Asu, the youngest sister, is in charge of household chores and managing finances. The story centers in the relationship and support that these sisters have for each other.

This anime series was first aired in 2006 and counts with 10 episodes of 24 minutes each. It is considered an animation for all ages.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! (Maid-Sama!)
This anime develops in a once all-boys school called Seika High School. After becoming a co-ed school, the female population is still a minority and it is hard for females to thrive in the school.

Character and student Misaki Ayuzawa decides to make the school a better place for the female population. She becomes the first female student council president of the school, and the hope for various teachers and fellow female schoolmates. Notwithstanding, Ayuzawa works as a part-time maid in a café in order to support her family. One day, her male schoolmate Takumi Usui discovers her secret occupation and starts taking interest in her.

The series was first aired in 2010 and has 26 episodes, each 24 minutes long. It is an animation directed to an audience of 13 or older.

Tokyo Godfathers
This is an animated film about three homeless people (an alcoholic, a trans woman and a runway girl) living in Tokyo who find a baby while looking through trash on Christmas Eve. The three homeless companions look for clues and search through the city of Tokyo to find the newborn’s parent. During their search, the homeless have comforting memories about their almost-abandoned life.

The film was aired in 2003 and it is 1 hour and 32 minutes long. It is directed to an audience of 13 or older.

Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette
This is an anime based on the classic novel, “Les Misérables.” The story develops in an early 19th century France and is about a young girl named Cosette who travels with her mother who is struggling to find a job and a place to live. Once her mother gets a job, Cosette has to separate from her mother and ends up with a caretaker who later makes her an indentured servant. The mayor observes these situations and decides to take action.

The anime was first aired in 2007 and counts with 52 episodes of 24 minutes each. It is an animation suitable for all ages.

Flanders no Inu (A Dog of Flanders)
This anime series is about a poor orphan with a talent for drawing named Nello Tarth. Nello lives with his grandfather and helps him with milk delivery. One day, he finds and helps an abandoned and mistreated working dog that will later create a bonding friendship with Nello.

Nello has Alois Cojez, the daughter of the richest man in the village, as his best friend. During his adventure, Nello will have to experience rejection from people in the village and from Alois’s father, who believes he cannot make a living out of drawing, but Nellos perseverance will lead him to achieve his dream.

The series was first aired in 1975. There are 52 episodes of 26 minutes each, and it is a show for all ages.

– Diana Fernanda Leon

Sources: My Anime List 1, My Anime List 2, My Anime List 3, My Anime List 4, My Anime List 5, My Anime List 6
Photo: Entertainment Guide Film TV

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How a Saudi Prince is Saving Communities

How a Saudi Prince is Saving Communities - TBP
Saudi Arabia is a nation with one of the highest per capita GDPs in the world, coming in at around $55,000; however, it is still affected by a decent amount of poverty, with an estimated 12.7% of the population living in poverty. Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud is seeking to change this in his own nation and several others worldwide.

Prince Alwaleed made his fortune through expert investment in American, Middle Eastern and European companies and now has a net worth of around $32 billion, making him the 21st richest person in the world. However, rather than spend this fortune on himself, Alwaleed has pledged to donate his entire fortune to charity over the course of his lifetime.

This is a model based off of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: he is seeking good investments and strong organizations that can help him better the global community and increase the amount of respect for Saudi Arabia.

Prince Alwaleed has begun his charity work with a project that is very close to home. Understanding that much of the Saudi native population is struggling, he has vowed to provide his people with 10,000 homes and 10,000 cars over 10 years. According to Arabian Business, this gesture is “an expression of [the prince’s] gratitude to the Saudi nation and its people,” and this small step is truly evident of the greatness that is to come.

The self-proclaimed “Warren Buffett of Arabia” has decided to enact these goals in order to promote cultural understanding, empower women and provide vital disaster relief throughout the world. Alwaleed’s philanthropic organization, Kingdom Holding, is not just focused on building communities: it also has interests ranging from a new Disney theme park to Citigroup, with much more in between.

Prince Alwaleed has recently signed a treaty with France, thus creating a French-Saudi investment fund that is worth upwards of $400 million. He has also invested some of his fortune in Kingdom African Management, which is a Nigerian company focused on exploring alternatives to oil.

While the current investments have mainly been aimed at fostering monetary relationships with other nations, the prince has several other plans to make a difference in the world.

The prince has a rough timeline of what exactly he wishes to do with his fortune, but this is subject to change as the state of the global community changes. Ultimately, it is an impressive and extremely altruistic goal that will allow for mountains of change and hope in the world.

With an increasing number of celebrities and wealthy individuals using their fortunes to do good, there is no telling where the world will be in a few years. The world has long existed in a state of haves and have-nots, but when people realize that society cannot progress without a little help, and are then willing to do what they can to help, it will become a better place and a stronger community because of that.

– Sumita Tellakat

Sources: The Huffington Post, Al-Jazeera
Photo: DW

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China’s First World Bank Trust Fund

World Bank
On July 16, 2015, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei signed an agreement creating a $50 million trust fund to help alleviate global poverty. This agreement will set in motion new investments and organizations that will provide immediate assistance to third world countries all over the globe. The fund also serves to reaffirm the World Bank Group’s relationship with China.

According to the WBG itself, “The trust fund, which is expected to start later this year, aims to enhance the cooperation between China and the WBG and leverage financial and knowledge-based resources to help developing countries achieve inclusive and sustainable development. It will finance investment projects, operations, knowledge development and human-resource cooperation at both global and regional levels.” With the financial support of China’s super economy, the Bank is poised to make real changes for people in poverty.

China’s renewed partnership with the WBG represents a major step forward in the fight against global poverty. This new partnership will begin in late 2015 and continue throughout the upcoming years. WBG President Jim Yong Kim was quoted as saying, “China is a strong partner in development and a strong partner for the WBG, and we share the commitment to ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity.” The marriage between China and the World Bank Group is all the more significant considering that the two were part of a controversy earlier this year.

It was reported by Outlook India that the World Bank Group redacted a criticism of the Chinese economy in a report made on July 3 of this year. An excerpt from the Outlook India article reads, “The World Bank today refuted claims that it withdrew a report critical of China’s financial sector under pressure from the Chinese government and said the economic fundamentals of the country are sound despite the recent equity market volatility.” For any meaningful reform to come out of the new $50 million trust fund, China and the World Bank must find themselves on the same page.

– Diego Catala

Sources: World Bank, Outlook India
Photo: Thanhnien Newsk

How Selling Solar Energy in India Will Benefit All

Solar-Energy-in-India
In the developing world, when reliable power sources are not available, the poor may use relatively archaic, expensive and dangerous methods of cooking and illuminating their homes, like burning coal or kerosene. According to the World Health Organization, these practices kill up to 2 million people per year. Providing basic energy services to the poor is both a developmental and public health goal. It is also a huge, untapped market that requires a creative combination of financial innovation, social enterprise and old-fashioned legwork in the form of solar energy.

In India, up to 400 million people lack access to reliable electricity. Selling solar energy in India would help alleviate this problem but would be a huge leap forward in terms of economic development. In 2009, then-prime minister Manmohan Singh proposed a plan to increase Indian solar energy capacity to 20 gigawatts by 2020, where almost none had existed before.

While the plan was somewhat overly ambitious, it brought attention to the idea that international support is necessary to help develop the energy sector in low-income countries. The idea is that already-developed nations had the advantage of polluting, using coal and oil during their growth, and should now subsidize the clean energy projects of the developing world to help them keep pace with clean energy requirements, such as those set forth in the Kyoto Protocol.

International backing (in the form of foreign aid) would thus be a huge boom to India to escape what has been a developmental catch-22 for some of the poorest countries: assuaging accusations that it is not doing enough to curb emissions, while still providing critical infrastructure and basic energy services to its poorest citizens.

The first draft of the aforementioned solar energy plan involved a $20 billion subsidy by the Indian government, which Prime Minister Singh envisioned would be at least partially financed by international donors. Leena Srivastava of the New Delhi-based TERI energy research institute pointed out that the “Indian government expects international financing as well as technology at an affordable cost.”

International financing is relatively cut-and-dry; funding solar energy projects in India and elsewhere might take the form of traditional developmental aid. The U.S. might pursue such a strategy with the Electrify Africa Act of 2015, which is currently being discussed in the House. This plan directs the president to develop a strategy to increase the energy capacity of sub-Saharan Africa in order to drive economic growth and lift people out of poverty.

So, if aid is one pathway to providing basic energy needs to relieve poverty, what would a commercial solution look like? The answer might just be businesses like Ajaita Shah’s Frontier Markets. Frontier Markets, established in 2011, aims to sell solar energy products to rural, impoverished Indians who lack basic power services; it has moved about 20,000 solar units since its inception. The challenge is providing solar panels and lighting systems at price points that the poor can afford, as well as convincing them of the usefulness of clean energy and the health risks of traditional forms of energy. Shah points out that many other poverty reduction efforts are not possible without basic energy services, saying that “you cannot study at night without a light, you cannot run a shop without power, you cannot run a clinic with power [and] you cannot use innovative tools.”

The market potential for selling to those at the base of the economic pyramid is substantial, and so are its challenges. Bringing solar power to the estimated 114 million poorest customers in India is no easy task, and requires some socially conscious business practices. Traditionally, selling to the rural poor involved employing itinerant salespeople, which Shah argues isn’t sustainable or scalable. Rather, Shah distributes products to local retailers on credit and also employs microfinance techniques to make her products affordable for her customers.

If broad international poverty reduction efforts and socially conscious businesses such as Shah’s can find a way to reach the poorest in the developing world, they might turn them into the next largest emerging market for clean energy products.

– Derek Marion

Sources: The Guardian 1, Frontier Markets, The Guardian 2, Ogunte
Photo: Freedom

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Safe Surgery: A New Focus for Global Health

Safe Surgery
In 2010, 16.9 million people in developing countries died from surgically treatable conditions. If 2015 is anything like 2010, the death toll this year will be higher than that of malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined.

According to a study done by The Lancet in 2012, about two-thirds of the world’s population do not have access to even basic surgery. Where the average amount of surgeons per 100,000 people in the United States is 35, the average in developing nations typically lies anywhere from 1.7 in Bangladesh, to 0.1 in Sierra Leone (before the Ebola outbreak). Even those countries that have access to the surgeons are often lacking in anesthetic and sanitation, which opens up an entirely new world of problems including infection and psychological trauma.

President of the World Bank Jim Young Kim and Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, are calling surgery “the neglected stepchild in global health.”

Surgery’s subservient status is turning commonplace conditions into killers. Complications like obstructed labor, hernias, and cataracts—the cures to which are readily available in any surgeon’s toolkit—will take over 28 times more lives than cancer this year.

“People are dying, and living with disabilities that could be avoided if they had good surgical treatment,” said Andy Leather director of the King’s Centre for Global Health in the United Kingdom during an interview with the BBC.

While surgery may still be the “neglected stepchild” in a global health family that includes AIDS and Ebola, the problems facing surgical conditions in the developing world are much more straightforward than finding a vaccine for Ebola or a cure for AIDS. Researchers Halie Debas, Richard Gosselin, Colin McCord, and Amardeep Thind have outlined four “surgically significant interventions” which could reduce the preventable death toll overnight. They recommend focusing efforts on providing “competent initial surgical care to injury victims,” dealing with obstetrical complications (like obstructed labor), competent management of abdominal life-threatening conditions (like Peritonitis), and providing services for simple surgical conditions like cataracts and clubfoot.

In addition to these four areas of interest, the World Health Organization has compiled a “safe surgery checklist” to help reduce mortality caused by unsafe surgery. Complied in three parts, the checklist provides sets of instructions for the pre-anesthetic procedure, pre-incision procedure and proper sanitation. This checklist was developed by doctors from the WHO in collaboration with surgeons and anesthesiologists from Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In general, the local experts agreed that the checklist addressed the poor organizational culture, lack of effective communication and negative personal attitudes that have acted as barriers to safe surgery in Africa, specifically. The checklist has been administered to 198 facilities in Africa and is looking to expand its dissemination in the coming months.

Health officials have warned that as disease prevention becomes more advanced, a new focus of global health initiatives must be dealing with these easily preventable deaths. There is no reason that clubfoot, which can be easily cured by surgery, should kill more than AIDS, an illness where a cure may be years in the making.

– Emma Betuel

Sources: WHO 1, BBC, The Lancet, WHO 2, The Irish Times, National Center for Biotechnology Information
Photo: Flickr

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What Iceland Can Teach Us about Financial Recovery

iceland_financial_crisis
During the financial crisis seven years ago, while many countries were struggling to stay afloat, Iceland was already at the bottom of the sea. A tiny country with a population of only 320,000, Iceland experienced near-total bank failure in the span of three days and a 95% decrease in stock. While monetary policies in the United States and Europe let large amounts of cash flow into the economy, Iceland let enormous amounts of dollars flow through. When the Icelandic krona crashed in 2008, the country’s three biggest banks had amassed wealth more than 10 times the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As a result of this “loose money” policy, 85% of the economy tanked. The lack of cash flow regulation in the economy led to its downfall and hindered the rebuilding process.

Iceland’s attempts at becoming an international banking powerhouse also factored into its demise. With very high interest rates, international investors could borrow dollars at 5%, exchange them for krona, and buy Icelandic stock at 9% interest. They would profit off the difference in interest rates. Without any governmental controls on the flow of money, all cash could have exited the country, further depressing the economy. However, with help from the International Monetary Fund, the Icelandic government began to impose strict capital controls, barring krona from leaving the country or residents from buying foreign currency or international stock. In the years immediately following the crash, the government raised taxes and provided debt relief to mortgage holders, but not to social services.

It also did something most developed countries have failed to do: jail bankers.

International hedge funds purchased claims for pennies at the height of the crash. Once financial recovery started, their assets grew, giving them a large share of power over the financial system. Due to continued cash control policy, this control affected the lives of Iceland’s residents as well. Residents were especially limited in the amount of foreign cash they could spend, which became a problem when traveling abroad or investing in international stock. “You have a feeling that there’s a system watching you and telling you what you can do with your money,” noted Gudmundur Kristjansson, a fisherman.

However, cash flow restriction and the devaluation that resulted posed some benefits for the economy as well. Exports became cheaper and imports more expensive, allowing residents to produce more goods rather than depend on foreign manufacturers. Devaluation caused wages to fall, so unemployment did not reach the soaring heights it did in Europe. Tourism increased as more people began to travel to Iceland for its cheap prices and its currency independence from less developed European countries.

However, the bars that once held Iceland in restricted success must soon be lifted. “We are enjoying the longest sustainable growth period in recent history,” commented Minister of Finance Bjarni Benediktsson, but cited lacking international investment and competing foreign companies as reasons for lifting the restrictions that helped foster the country’s success for so many years. “[Such controls] are not a sustainable situation for an economy,” said Prime Minister David Gunnlaugsson.

Today, unemployment in Iceland is at 4%, GDP is expected to grow by 4.1% in 2015, and tourism is a flourishing industry. Despite the uncertain future of the country’s economy, it is certainly faring better than other European countries that suffered under the crash. For Greece, whose citizens voted against a deal with creditors and potentially face a future of exiting the Eurozone and financial security, tight monetary restrictions would not be a likely solution. It has a population of 11 million to Iceland’s 320,000, and a GDP 16 times that of the tiny island. When Iceland was preventing its people from spending money, Greece was throwing it around in all directions. Yet Iceland serves as an example of how unorthodox financial practices—controlling the cash flow, granting influence to international hedge funds—can unfreeze a nation and help it rebuild. Restoring a country to financial security is a process of understanding its government, citizens and industries. For Greece and other struggling countries, it will be a struggle, but not a failure.

– Jenny Wheeler

Sources: IMF, New York Times
Photo: The Automatic Earth