POLITICS IN POVERTY

POLITICS IN

POVERTY

☻“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” – Dom Helder Camara

☻ “We will spare no effort to free our fellowmen, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.” – United Nations Millennium Declaration, 2000.

☻ “The coincidence of severe and persistent poverty and hunger indicates the presence of poverty traps – conditions from which individuals or groups cannot emerge without the help of others.” – International Food Policy Research Institute, 2007.

☻ If the misery of the poor be not caused by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. – Charles Darwin

Every leader talks about poverty elimination but they leave office most times leaving the poor worse off. Not that they didn't try to help. No, most did. But it seems the people are just given some fishes to eat for the moment and to clap hands for the leader. There is hardly a grand plan to let the people have access to the river and learn to fish? Poverty is a curse. It degrades physically and mentally. Some studies have found that poverty (with its worries) directly impedes cognitive function (i.e., the ability to reason about issues and solve problems – Mani and others, 2013). The governments of the world must undertake a holistic and three-stage (alleviation-reduction-elimination) program in order to make poverty history.

They have to assist the poor to make the necessary decisions and take the right actions to climb out of poverty. Alleviation is food for the moment to keep body and soul together; reduction is giving the poor access to the water to find fish for themselves; elimination will come through holistic empowerment by removing the systemic causes of poverty, not just the symptoms. Amartya Sen, the Indian economist and Nobelist, popularized the concept of entitlement and access. These bother on equity and justice.

The poor cannot help themselves; they need support and inclusion, not rhetorical speeches. Multi-faceted interventions to support food production, social protection, and the legal right to food must be put into immediate action. Uncountable entrepreneurial programmes with micro-lending are already operating in several countries but these are still make-shift answers because most of the operators remain hand-to-mouth survivors.

Sources: (1) Anup Shah, Poverty Facts and Stats, Global Issues, Updated: Jan.07, 2013 (2) World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2008, 2010. Human Development Report (HDR), UNDP, 1999, 2006, 2007 (3) MDG’s Report, 2007 (4) UNICEF (1999, 2005) (5) Luisa Kroll and Allison Fass, The World's Richest People, Forbes, March 3, 2007 (6) World Bank (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries), 2008 (7) Todaro, M. and S. Smith (2011). Economic Dev. 11th ed: Essex, England, Pearson. (8) Mani, Anandi; Mullainathan, Sendhil; Shafir, Eldar; Zhao, Jiaying (2013). "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function". Science. 341 (6149): 976–980.

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