Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Poverty in Nicaragua

poverty in nicaragua
Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, second only to Haiti. Most of the poverty in Nicaragua exists rurally (more than 80 percent,) but there are also very impoverished neighborhoods in the capital of Managua.  In fact, 43 percent of the Nicaraguan population lives in rural areas and 68 percent of them are trying to survive off just over $1 per day. Overall, 46.2 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

 

Implications of Poverty in Nicaragua

 

The poverty in Nicaragua has caused extremely poor health conditions. HIV and AIDS have been a big issue; there have also been frequent reports of violence against women. Many organizations have been working to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS and provide support for those with it, to empower women in their fight for freedom from violence and to empower the youth to encourage them to change their society.

Over the last 40 years, there has been extreme inequality and the country has had to overcome a cruel dictatorship, a gruesome civil war and multiple natural disasters. Another big problem is that the central government has historically marginalized the areas with large populations of indigenous people. The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has decreased to only one-third of what it was in 1977 because of the combined impact of continued civil strife, trade embargos, unsuitable macroeconomic policies and institutional changes that are leading toward an even and more centrally-controlled economy.

Unemployment across the entire country is at 12 percent, but among the poor rural families, it is over 20 percent, so many rural families are migrating to other countries or urban areas within Nicaragua to find work. Remittances are vital sources of income for one in every five families and account for 20 percent of the country’s GDP.

Fortunately, the Nicaraguan economy has been growing substantially and has recently received lots of attention, having grown 30 percent since 2006, when the Sandinistas came back into power. Also, the GDP per capita has increased from $1,239 to $1,582 in the past year alone. Also, the Nicaraguan government has signed a lucrative memorandum of understanding with a telecommunications company from China to fund and build an inter-oceanic canal that is said to rival the Panama Canal.

Nicaragua is presently importing oil from Venezuela at solidarity rates, so Nicaragua pays extremely low prices up front for the first half of the oil and then pays low-interest loans over time for the rest. The Central Bank has said that macro-business development and social programs are funded by 62 percent of the Nicaraguan oil revenue.

Because of all of this news in the last five years,  extreme poverty (measured by a familial income of less than $1.25 per day) in Nicaragua has fallen from 11.2 percent to 5.5 percent. In 2011, Nicaragua was reported to have an economic growth of 5.1 percent, which was the highest in Central America.  Despite all of this good news, a considerable amount of work still needs to be done before it can fully eradicate poverty.

– Kenneth W. Kliesner

Sources: World Bank, Rural Poverty Portal, Health Poverty Action, The Tico Times
Photo: Pacific Lots

So, You Think You Know Martin Luther King Jr.?

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The name of Martin Luther King Jr. is synonymous with the civil rights movement in the United States. Here are five interesting facts about him.

  1. Martin Luther King Jr. was actually born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929. The civil rights leader’s name was changed after his father traveled to Germany and was inspired by the Protestant Reformation Leader Martin Luther. His inspiration resulted in his father changing both his own and Jr’s names.
  2. King excelled in school. He entered college at age 15, attending Morehouse College graduating with a degree in sociology. King earned a divinity degree from Pennsylvania’s Crozer Theological Seminary, and he also attended Boston University where he received his PhD in 1955.
  3. King was jailed 29 times over the course of his life. Most of the reasons he was jailed were for acts of civil disobedience, and utterly ridiculous charges including driving 30mph in a 25mph zone- evidence of the time.
  4. Martin Luther King Jr was the first African American to be named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. King was also the youngest person, at the time, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the civil rights movement.
  5. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech held at the Lincoln Memorial was at the time one of the largest demonstrations in Washington history. More than 250,000 people attended the speech. The speech took place during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  The iconic speech, however, was not King’s first at Lincoln memorial. He delivered his first national address at the monument, where he spoke on the topic of voting rights.

– Caitlin Zusy 

 

 

Sources: CNN, History
Photo: Seattle Times

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Services Sector Slows China’s Economy

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China’s economy, the services sector in particular, appears to be slowing down, according to statistics.

According to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)/Markit Services, the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of China dropped to 50.7 in January. “The slower expansion of services activities in January reflected soft manufacturing growth and the impact of Beijing’s latest measures to curb official extravagance,” said Hongbin Qu, Co-Head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC.

Although Qu said services would rise again in the next few months, he also said “a meaningful improvement relies on stronger growth of manufacturing sectors and the implementation of reforms to boost service sectors.”

To provide an updated understanding of what is affecting the private sector economy, the PMI tracks variables such as sales, employment and prices. Moreover, Markit states in its website that businesses as well as governments rely on its data to make better monetary decisions and shape policy.

“The HSBC China Services PMI is based on data compiled from monthly replies to questionnaires sent to purchasing executives in over 400 private service sector companies,” noted Markit on a press release. “The panel has been carefully selected to accurately replicate the true structure of the services economy.”

For China, the PMI score of 50.7 indicates the output growths at manufacture companies and service providers are weakening. It also indicates that these entities are beginning to cut the prices of what they are trying to sell.

A Reuters article states that China’s economy is still above the 50-point level in which anything below it signifies contraction. In a nutshell, the current score means that the Chinese economy is slowly growing, but it is also on the verge of contraction.

In terms of GDP, the economy of China is the second-largest in the world, according to the World Bank. Based on the Chinese government’s official poverty line, poverty in the nation declined dramatically. However, despite past achievements, many people in the rural areas of China remain impoverished.

“Since the international standard is somewhat less severe than China’s official poverty line, it indicates greater numbers of poor in all years, and that by end-1998, a much larger share of the rural population – about 11.5 percent or some 106 million people – remained in poverty,” said the World Bank.

Once again, it is anticipated that China’s services sector will eventually pick up in the coming months. Only time will tell what direction it will take as the economy that once proved to be a miracle.

– Juan Campos

Sources: Market Economics, Reuters, World Bank
Photo: Business Week

That Awkward Moment When Technology Took Your Job

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Over the past the decade the presence of technology in our everyday lives has been increasing exponentially. 10 years ago, the idea a small portable phone will be the central hub people use to interact with other people, as well as businesses and media, was far-fetched.

Smartphones today are now more advanced than the shuttles used to propel man to the moon during the Apollo missions. If the current advancement of technology continues its pace, we will soon face significant shifts in terms of how humans operate within our society.

Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee write in the Huffington Post of the Second Machine Age. They argue that after tectonic corrections in the market, innovations tend to cascade into our society.

Both point out that the 1930’s was one of the most innovative decades in American history. And 30 years after the Great Depression, growth, productivity and living standards skyrocketed.

Comparisons between the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the Great Recession of 2008 lead these two to believe that we are on the cusp of a technological epoch.

So why is technology advancing so rapidly now? They point to three reasons.

First, the computational power of technology has been increasing at breakneck pace. They offer the ASCI Red Supercomputer as an example. It was the size of a whole tennis court and had the computational power of one teraflop. Now the Sony PS4 is a fraction of its size and possesses twice the computational power of the Red.

Secondly, digital information is widely available to almost anyone. Digital products are able to be transmitted in mere seconds and are able to be copied endless amount of times.

And finally, the nature of digital technology allows it to be combined in different ways so as to create more value out of products.

The steady pace of technological innovation present at the moment will present numerous opportunities to many individuals. But some think it will also be disruptive of the current order of society.

Machines can do what humans can do but more precisely, faster and without rest. The reality of technology’s effectiveness could jeopardize many jobs; particularly for the middle class.

The Associated Press conducted a study in which it discovered most of the jobs that are being replaced by technology fall within the middle class wage range of $38,000 to $68,000. For example, between 2000 and 2010, 1.1 million secretaries left the workforce.

In North Carolina State University, a new library was unveiled completely devoid of librarians where robots retrieve books upon request. The books no longer are placed on shelves but in metal bins where they occupy a fraction of the space.

Meter readers for electricity companies are being pushed out of existence in favor of digital meters.

As technology advances, so will the livelihoods of millions, but its advancement can be quite disruptive. What happens when humans find themselves suddenly replaced by machines that can do the job more efficiently and lack the ability to complain to HR?

– Zachary Lindberg

Sources: The Huffington Post, NY Daily News
Photo: hplusmagazine

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Buycott: App that Advocates Against Global Poverty

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Human rights? There’s an application for that. Launched in May 2013, the free application called ‘Buycott’ is revolutionizing the way social justice is approached by providing consumers with a detailed background into company ethics before making a purchase. Now 10th in the App Store, advocacy is trending with the use of popular technology.

After one scans the barcode, Buycott will trace the product or brand’s owning company and crosscheck it for ethical injustices within a matter of seconds. To make it easier to organize the user’s philanthropic goals, the application enables searches around specific personal conflicts such as human trafficking, labor rights, genetically modified organism labeling, animal welfare and more.

Even more impressively, it encourages grassroots political activism. Users can freely create their own campaigns, which are then incorporated in searches throughout the application and available for others to join. By combining a goal with a problematic company to target, anyone with a Smartphone can inform the world of which products should be avoided.

Many of the popular campaigns today demand opposition to major companies such as Monsanto, Koch Industries, Coca-Cola or Johnson & Johnson. Buycott also has a large presence of positive campaigns, in support of socially conscious companies. For example, Starbucks Coffee Beans made an early appearance on the application for its political support of marriage equality and for its fair trade initiatives.

Sadly, today’s global economy often functions off inhumane sweatshop labor to put cheap products on the shelves of wealthy nations. Sweatshops are known for their poor working conditions, unfair wages, lack of benefits, unreasonable hours and physical abuse. It is estimated that several hundred millions individuals worldwide, mostly women and children, are currently working for wages as low as 13 cents per hour.

Although they are present everywhere, sweatshops are more prevalent in developing nations, such as those in Southeast Asia and Central America, due to an absence of unions and labor laws. Some items most commonly produced through the sweatshop abuses of human rights are shoes, clothing, toys, chocolate, coffee, rugs and bananas.

Sweatshop labor and economically unjust institutions make it next to impossible for surrounding communities to rise out of a state of poverty. They are not truthfully increasing the number of jobs available for local people because the wages earned are too minuscule to provide a family with financial stability. Additionally, they are contrary to more beneficial, sustainable development efforts, stalling any real economic advancement.

Boycotting, or ‘Buycotting’ products manufactured under these contexts supports the broader fight against global poverty, by confronting companies with the injustices they promote and the demand for changed business practices.

 – Stefanie Doucette

Sources: Forbes, ABC News, Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, PBS, Buycott
Photo: Sydney Morning Herald

Court Orders Gang Rape in Rural Bengal Village

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A 20-year-old woman, accompanied by her mother, entered her local police station in Labhpur, India last week to report having been sentenced to gang rape by her tribal leader when she was unable to pay an arbitrary fine.

Her village of Birbhum, devoid of electricity or a operating school, is one of the small communities where Bengal’s Left government made an attempt to allow civil disputes to be handled by local leaders. This endeavor has resulted in cases of kangaroo courts (known as “shalishi sabhas”) where the villages fall under the power of corrupt leaders who have no regard for the law.

Allegedly, the young woman had fallen in love with a young Muslim man from another village. When he came to visit the family on Monday evening, he was taken by members of the community and kept until the next morning, when the couple was dragged out and tied to separate trees while the ‘court’ (made up of nearly all the males in the village, including children,) held a trial before the rest of the village.

It was decided that the couple would each owe the ‘court’ 25,000 rupees (roughly $396) for breaking tribal tradition, to be paid immediately. The young man was released when he promised to pay, but when the girl’s family explained that they didn’t have the money the community head, referred to as the ‘moral,’ told the members of the court, “If the family does not pay up, go and enjoy yourselves.”

The girl’s helpless parents and 15-year-old brother were confined to their home 50 meters away while the girl was raped by 13 members of the community, including the moral. When she was allowed to return home, her family took her to the block hospital in Labhpur for preliminary treatment. Her mother then took her to the police station, where she was admitted to a district hospital that later verified she had indeed been violently raped.

A slow response to this claim has called up a similar case in March 2013, when a 16-year-old girl was gang-raped, resulting in heightened laws for sex-related crimes. Memory of this recent embarrassment spurred government officials to take action in punishing these new perpetrators to avoid criticism for further negligence.

Police have met with denial and obstinacy from the village whose women defend their men, saying they are innocent and being framed as part of a conspiracy. None of them will testify to seeing the rapes; they claim the girl was simply asked to leave the village.

One woman, whose husband was among those arrested, said angrily to police, “It is this under-construction school that has brought shame to our village. It’s here that the two met. She has brought disrespect to our community.”

Hambram, a graduate from India’s Institue of Technology, agrees that this case has brought shame on the small village, but for different reasons. “In our tribal community, the will of a woman is respected. What happened in Birbhum is a crime. No tribal custom advocates brutality like rape.” What happened in Birbhum was clearly outside the jurisdiction of the village court and contrary to the model of rural life in Bengal.

-Lydia Caswell

Sources: Daily Mail, First Post, IBM Live, The Telegraph
Photo: India

The Impact of Flooding in Bolivia

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The deluge Bolivia is experiencing since November 2013 has claimed 38 lives from nonstop flooding. Medicine, food and other supplies have recently been delivered. Humanitarian packages are meant to alleviate hunger and provide warmth while combating the disease that floods bring. Malaria and infections that result in diarrhea and topical infections have been reported.

The Ministry of Defense’s aid convoy and evacuation of the local populace in hard-hit regions cannot hinder the continued problems of the flood-filled country. One of South America’s poorest nations, Bolivia has taken a huge hit in infrastructure, roads and most importantly of all, homes. The continuing inundation has disrupted and displaced over 150,000 lives.

Beni, a region taking the brunt of the storm, has over 4,000 displaced families. Livelihoods of farmers have also taken a huge hit. Agricultural products such as corn and wheat are ruined by the torrential season.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has declared a state of emergency for his storm-stricken nation.The charismatic leader has otherwise high hopes and plans for Bolivia. In early January, Morales announced that he plans on building a nuclear reactor, the first in his country.

Before the start of the 2014, Bolivia launched Tupak Katara, its first telecommunications satellite, which was named for a national hero who combated Spaniards during colonial times. The satellite, according to Morales, represented the country’s movement away from foreign assistance regarding communications. Despite such claims, China aided the country in its venture.

Moreover, the coca leaf, the source of cocaine, has been an important platform in Morales’ presidency, particularly its removal from the international list of banned drugs. The coca leaf is a primary product in the livelihood of 40,000 Bolivians—a large part of Morales’ constituency. Since recently assuming the chairman of the Group of 77 nations, Morales vows to reinstate the coca leaf.

Among such accomplishments and claims is the never-ending stream of flooding, with weather reports stating that heavier rainfall will most likely continue for weeks to come. With climate change an ever-present feature in many countries, Bolivia, too, is far from unaffected.

– Miles Abadilla

Sources: BBC, Crossmatch Christian Post, Fox News, Fox News, Reuters, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Photo: The Guardian

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#NotaMartyr: Lebanon’s New Twitter Revolution

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Social media is proving itself once again a vital medium for advocacy.  In a movement reminiscent of the 2011 Arab Spring, the younger generation of Lebanon is organizing on Twitter around the mantra #notamartyr. The online phenomenon was sparked by the death of 16-year-old Mohammad Chaar, a bystander in Beirut.

The December 26, 2013 explosion was targeting former Lebanese ambassador to the United States, Mohamad Chatah. It killed Chaar instead, who was hanging out with friends nearby. The press and government authorities immediately transformed him into a figure of patriotic martyrdom, as is customary in such cases.

According to the subsequent outcries from Lebanese activists, the glorification of martyrs is a problem in their culture and disrespectful to Chaar’s memory. They are adamant that he was a victim, and not a martyr. #Notamartyr is a promotion of pacifism and the choice of life. It also demands that the Lebanese government to be held accountable for violent harms perpetrated against their citizens.

Recent times in Lebanon, and especially in the capital city of Beirut, have seen a lot this type of martyrdom. The country still feels a degree of political and economic instability in the wake of their 15-year civil war, which ended in 1990. Violent spillover and ethnic tension from their neighbor Syria has significantly increased this. Beirut has seen six fatal bombings in the past six months, averaging one per month.

Violence has only resulted in breeding further problems for Lebanon, which is quickly declining into an economic crisis. Limited job opportunities have forced more and more Lebanese youth to reluctantly leave their home country.

The #notamartyr movement has now developed into a means of voicing a wide range of dissatisfaction, along with resolutions for the future. Poverty, corruption and human rights violations are just a few topics highlighted. It is also consciously challenging negative media misrepresentations of Lebanese culture.

As the accompanying Facebook group states, “We can no longer desensitize ourselves to the constant horror of life in Lebanon. We refuse to become martyrs. We refuse to remain victims. We refuse to die a collateral death.”

Tweets from Lebanese activists:

@LebaneseVoices: I’m tired of head counting my family every other week to check if they have survived explosions #notamartyr #انا_مش_شهيد #لبنان #Lebanon

@Akananmariam: I want my hijab to represent my faith and my love of peace, not my political affiliation or party.

@Safran3: I want to raise my kids in Lebanon #notamartyr #lebanon

@Hamedleila: I would like to hold my boyfriend’s hand without being afraid of the police #notamartyr

– Stefanie Doucette

Sources: Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN
Photo: Huffington Post

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Vertical Farms Will Shape Future Food Security

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As developing countries slowly modernize, a whole new set of challenges await them. One of those challenges is increased urbanization.

Urbanization is a symptom of modernity that is usually accompanied by a decrease in overall poverty.

As countries implement 21st century medical care and sanitation systems, populations have increased in well-being and life span, which can result in overpopulated cities. As cities become more and more populated, resources will become more scarce. This is especially true for food availability.

Luckily, a new brand of farming is coming to fruition that will help address the problems associated with increased urban populations; it’s called vertical farming.

Vertical farming removes the farms from traditional fields and places them in warehouses several stories high. This allows producers to place farms directly in the cities and away from the drought and disease that normally threatens reliable crop yields. Utilizing hydroponic water systems and LED lighting, the farms provide the ideal environment for plant growth. The LED lights further allow the farmers to dial in the specific spectrum of light ideal to that plant. Fluorescent lights were initially used but proved to be too inefficient.

As LED lights have become more cost effective, they have created the ideal environment for vertical farms. Farmers are even able to program the light to change throughout the day, mimicking the movement and intensity of the actual sun.

The efficiency of LED lights is not where it could be, however. Many farms currently use lights that operate at about 28% efficiency though engineers are developing LEDs that operate at 68% efficiency.

For example, in the Netherlands, engineers at Phillips have successfully created an LED that operates at 150% efficiency.

The beauty of vertical farms is their ability to be greener, more cost efficient and sustainable. Imagine a world where India has vast swaths of its cities dedicated to vertical farming; the amount of relief that could provide to impoverished individuals is staggering.

An example of vertical farming’s potential can be found in Scranton Pennsylvania. Soon, it will have the world’s largest vertical farm composed of a single story building with racks consisting of six levels. The farm will be able to house 17 million plants.

When one considers the challenges urbanization will bring to developing nations, vertical farming presents itself as a panacea.

The U.N. predicts that by the year 2050, there will be 6.25 billion people living in cities. As such, food production will have to increase 70% globally to sustain 2.3 billion people.

The U.N. also predicts that reliance on traditional, “resource-intensive” agricultural products will continue to grow, consisting mainly of livestock and dairy products.

Vertical farms present an opportunity for the world community to truly address hunger. With billions of people expected to occupy world cities in the coming decades, the demand for food will only increase. Vertical farms growing food locally, in a sustainable environment has a chance to provide food for millions who otherwise would go hungry.

– Zachary Lindberg

Sources: BBC, New Scientist, World Bank
Photo: Amazon

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Popinjay Purses Prevent Poverty in Pakistan

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How can a purse prevent poverty anywhere, let alone Pakistan? Good question. The answer is Popinjay, a high class handbag company that employs Pakistani women to embroider their products. The company is committed to providing fair salaries and safe working environments for their Pakistani employees. Their handbags are made with expensive leather and silk that is stitched by hand.

Saba Gul is the founder of Popinjay, formerly known as the non-profit organization BLISS. Gul is Pakistani and attended school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before landing a high-paying engineering job. Gul left this job to create Popinjay and simultaneously offer a way out to young female Pakistanis. Popinjay’s founder knew first hand that youths in Pakistan were known to abandon their education in favor of working for whatever wages they could secure.

Gul’s decision to turn BLISS from a non-profit company into a for-profit luxury business was extremely smart both for her and for her employees. Her mission was to make a difference in the lives of Pakistani women; by using economics and business savvy, she has accomplished that more effectively than her non-profit tactics ever have.

Business methods as the solution to poverty is an idea that is gaining more and more momentum in the fight against poverty today. Instead of just giving handouts and donations, people and companies are seeking to use innovative tools and product sales that allow people struggling with poverty to increase their own incomes. Gul researched excel and investor information so she could take meetings with potential donors and shareholders to launch Popinjay in the Pakistani fashion market.

One of Gul’s investors connected her to a high end tannery where she gets the leather for the handbags. Since raising over $200,000 for Popinjay, Gul is now backed by a team of marketers, designers and sales professionals. She is able to give her female Pakistani employees wages two times higher than what they were earning at BLISS and great quality of life through their employment. Gul and Popinjay prove that business ventures can vastly improve the lives of those fighting poverty.

The Popinjay website describes how the fashion brand is a voice in the market for global justice. There is a page on the website specifically dedicated to spreading knowledge of how Popinjay is committed to changing the world for the better through helping their employees. Glamour and fashion aside, it is safe to say that Popinjay does a lot more in the struggle against inequality than an average handbag vendor.

– Kaitlin Sutherby

Sources: Popinjay, CNN, Spades and Silk
Photo: Spades and Silk