[Global Poverty] Tsunami - injustice only begets more injustice

Excerpt taken from Who Was Behind the Tsunami Catastrophe -- God or Humanity?
by Dr. Mohamed Elmasry
...
But what about the longer-term failure of people in the area to prepare for and reduce the impact of such disasters on human life and property? Among those countries directly affected by the December 26 disaster India, with its high-tech industry sector and huge infrastructure, is considered the most developed. It also spends billions annually on its nuclear capability and advanced weaponry.

Along the Indian coasts, tsunamis repeatedly claim the lives of thousands of people, especially in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh. Then why has the Indian government, with all the resources at its disposal, not moved to develop Early Warning Systems to help save the lives of the poor in these densely populated fishing communities?

Even more desperate is the plight of poor coastal villagers in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Africa, whose countries lack the resources to provide the infrastructural means to prevent another calamity on the scale of this one.

In reality, the decision to fund projects such as tsunami and earthquake EWSs is controlled by the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). They control most of the available funds, and any policymaking expenditures. Of the two bodies, the World Bank has the most potential funding to support the installation of EWSs but is not interested. Its mandate is apparently to fit the agendas of affluent developed countries; it is looking for a quick buck, not better ways of saving human lives.

The UNDP's main task is to support small business infrastructures in developing countries, along with teaching the necessary skills to develop trained workers for employers. The UNDP is not interested in saving lives, but in making poor people skillful enough to be used as cheap outsourcing labour whenever the rich and powerful countries need them.

So if anyone imagines that the death toll over the last several weeks was inevitable, they are sorely mistaken.

The attitude of the world's people has been that there are more important things to spend money on -- like making more money so the rich can get richer -- or, worse still, making sophisticated weaponry to kill the poor and the weak. It is a vicious circle and it is upto us -- either we choose to suffer one way or another or choose to change for the good of ALL of mankind.

[Global Poverty] Demonstrators call for an end to world poverty

Jan 24, 2005 By Paul Dale Birmingham Post The Bishop for Birmingham joined entertainer Don McLean and hundreds of supporters at Birmingham's Bullring on Saturday in a demonstration against world poverty. In the first event of its kind in the UK, campaigners wrapped St Martin's Church in a white band - the symbol of the international Make Poverty History coalition. The Bishop, the Rt Rev Dr John Sentamu, hit out at Government policies which he said were failing to tackle global inequalities. Bishop Sentamu said: "Globalisation is a form of imperialism. It embodies a contemptible account of what it means to be human. It destroys our sense of being at home in the world and it poses a serious threat to the environment." Although he was in "critical solidarity" with the Government's objective to eradicate poverty, he could not support free trade, he said. People living in poverty did not need free trade but trade justice, the Bishop added. He urged campaigners to use 2005 to challenge the Government's commitment to free trade and liberalisation. Make Poverty History, launched on January 1, calls on world leaders to do much more to tackle poverty. The campaign claims that 30,000 children die every day and 800 million people across the world go to bed hungry because they are poor. Muhammad Imran of Islamic Relief, part of the Birmingham Make Poverty History coalition, said: "The tsunami disaster has focused people's attention on the consequences of poverty. "The impact of this horrific natural disaster was made so much worse as the countries and communities it hit were poor. "People must gather together to urge world leaders to do something about this and the poverty worldwide that creates its own disastrous death toll every week." Audrey Miller, of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, said Birmingham was an ideal place to launch the Make Poverty History campaign because the city had a strong history of social campaigning. "In 1998, 70,000 people gathered in the city for the G8 meeting and put debt on the international agenda. In 2005 we hope that thousands across the city and millions around Britain will join together to call for an end to international debt."

[MDGs] Microcredit a 'Practical' Way to Fight Poverty

Excerpt of report from Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)

by María Vega
Rome

Of the wide range of strategies identified for combating world poverty, the promotion of microcredits -- and other forms of financing for people with limited resources in developing countries -- has proven to be a highly effective tool, say experts from international agencies.

In fact, the success of these initiatives has led the United Nations to designate 2005 as the International Year of Microcredit.

"Microcredits are one of the most effective ways to fight poverty, and represent a tool that could contribute significantly to achieving the Millennium Development Goals," said Lennart Bage, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised U.N. agency.

Microcredit programmes can play an extremely important role in development strategies because they give small farmers and traders the possibility of increasing their earnings and improving their standard of living through the creation of small businesses, he said.

Bage cited the example of Egypt, where the establishment of "microenterprises" in the agricultural sector has led to encouraging results: "Crop production has increased by as much as 100 percent in some cases, in addition to other benefits."

There have been similarly successful experiences in Latin America, particularly in Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Bolivia, where 80 percent of the microcredit-funded initiatives are led by women.

Nevertheless, Bage pointed out, 70 percent of the world's poor still lack access to credit, savings and money transfer services, which are essential elements for the creation and management of small businesses.

IFAD has joined with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) -- two other Rome-based U.N. agencies -- in stating that it will be possible to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the established deadline of 2015 "if the developing and industrialised countries take action immediately" by implementing plans and projects, in which microcredit could play a major role.

Pedro Sánchez, who presented the Millennium Project report in Rome, remarked that in order to effectively combat poverty, there has to be a change in attitude on the part of leaders, governments and the international community, one that leads to concrete actions.

"We have to be realistic and confront the countries and leaders who opt to perpetuate poverty for political purposes. We must act to genuinely help those who live in a never-ending 'tsunami' of hunger, poverty and disease, like the countries of sub-Saharan Africa," said Sánchez, director of tropical agriculture at the Earth Institute of Columbia University, in New York.

According to Sánchez, everyone knows, in theory, what the most effective strategies for fighting poverty should be, but what is needed now is "greater political will and more commitment."