Greetings,
I feel really bad that this blog has gone without management for so long. I was abroad, in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Peru, for three months and since then have had a hard time of it getting readjusted to the states and the old life I came home to in western New York. And sadly, I’m not here to say that I’m returning to activity here at this time, either. I’m only home for a week more and then I take off again. I’ll be in California in a media-free setting for a month, so clearly I won’t be posting from there. However, after that I’ll be going down to Bolivia for a 3 month period of working with a terrific project called Biblioworks (that’s a link) based in Sucre. I’ll be working with libraries and literacy workshops. It’s possible that at this time I’ll start contributing to this blog once more. It’s also possible that from there this blog will turn into a different thing, somewhat, and be mostly about the poverty/situation that I’m submerged in there. Either way, I’m not deleting the account for I may return in some form eventually. But if not, I’d like to say thanks to all 800 of you, or whatever, who’ve been following this blog. You’re all beautiful for people for being interested in the topic at all and I wish you all the best. My personal tumblr is here, and that is relatively active, and I’d love to talk to any of you if you care to be in touch. (plus it does have a considerable amount of poverty related posts between the music and personal hubbub) This topic, poverty, has become the driving question of my life and I’ve learned a lot by running this page and by getting out there and trying to make any difference that I can. I urge you all to follow your questions, they may just get you where you have to be. In fact, I doubt you’ll find yourself anywhere else. Godspeed.
—Joshua Murphy
This is bloody fascinating - Matternet will alleviate poverty and accelerate economic growth for the rising billion through a roadless transportation network.
(Source: vimeo.com, via lysscglobal)
Guatemala’s leaders face hunger crisis
Guatemala is one of the world’s most important producers of sugar bananas and coffee yet the country’s children suffer among the highest rates of malnutrition. Deborah Bonello reports on the causes and what needs to be done to eradicate hunger in the country.
(via lysscglobal)
Says Josue de Castro: “I, who have received an international peace prize, think that, unhappily, there is no other solution than violence for Latin America.” In the eye of this hurricane 120 million children are stirring. Latin America’s population grows as does no other: it has more than tripled in half a century. One child dies of disease or hunger every minute, but in the year 2000 there will be 650 million Latin Americans, half of whom will be under fifteen: a time bomb. Among the 280 million Latin Americans of today, 50 million are unemployed or underemployed and about 100 million are illiterate;half of them live in crowded, unhealthy slums.
—Eduardo Galeano, Introduction to Open Veins of Latin America (1973)
(Source: hand-me-downs-et-cetera)
Jacqueline Novogratz tells a moving story of an encounter in a Nairobi slum with Jane, a former prostitute, whose dreams of escaping poverty, of becoming a doctor and of getting married were fulfilled in an unexpected way.
Is India's government trying to tackle poverty itself or is it just trying to fix the country's image?
**click through for video: Al Jazeera Inside Story**
The Indian government has said that it will redefine the official classification of poverty, one day after a World Bank report said corruption has failed the country’s anti-poverty programmes.
The report said India spends more than two per cent of its gross domestic product on poverty alleviation but the programmes are beset by corruption, poor administration and under-payments.
For India to control poverty the UN report recommended a strategy that involved sponsored programmes to enhance rural livelihood, to improve casual workers’ access to healthcare and to provide subsidised food grains for the poor.
India is the world’s second-fastest growing economy after China. Some estimates suggest that as many as 77 per cent of its 1.2 billion people live below the poverty line.
A UN study released last year found more people living below the poverty threshold in eight states in India than in all of sub-Saharan Africa.
The Indian cabinet now wants to identify people living below the poverty line and to detail what constitutes poverty. Data on those living below the poverty line will include details on caste and religion for the first time since 1931.
Who is poor? How will the cabinet reclassify poverty? What will the process take into account?
