| Topic: |
Science > Philosophy |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
27 Oct 2006 10:40:41 AM |
| Object: |
Millions of Starving Shame the World |
If the most powerful world leaders - were competent leaders - serving
"the people", nobody would be hungry in this world of plenty and our so
called "civilization" would be truly civilized.
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Millions of Starving Shame the World, U.N. Says
by Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - Since hunger and famine are still widespread in parts
of Africa and Asia, the international community is in violation of the
right to food as a basic universal human right, according to a new
study released by the United Nations.
Millions of Starving Shame the World
"Despite promises to eradicate hunger, there has been little progress
in reducing the global number of victims of hunger," said Jean Ziegler,
the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food and author of the
report. ...
"It is a shame on humanity that in a world that is richer than ever
before, six million children due of malnutrition and related illnesses
before they reach the age of five," Ziegler said.
the whole article is here:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1020-01.htm
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Quotes from Jean Ziegler:
"In a world overflowing with riches, it is an outrageous scandal that
more than 826 million people suffer hunger and malnutrition and that
every year over 36 million die of starvation and related causes. We
must take urgent action now."
Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur
In 2003, the international 'aid' received by 122 developing
countries totalled $54 billion; debt repayment from those developing
countries back to the donor countries was a massive $436 billion.
Forty years ago some 400 million people were permanently underfed.
Today, their number has more than doubled - to a staggering 842
million people.
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In Case you missed it:
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN
How the U.S. Uses Globalization to
Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
(A NY Times Best Seller!)
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=3D04/12/31/1546207
Watch/Listen to an hourlong interview with John Perkins, a former
respected member of the international banking community. In his book
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid
professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe
out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could
possibly repay and then taking over their economies. John Perkins
describes himself as a former economic hit man - a highly paid
professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of
dollars.
20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title,
"Conscience of an Economic Hit Men."
Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two
countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of
as kindred spirits - Jaime Rold=F3s, president of Ecuador, and Omar
Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes.
Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they
opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads
whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring
Rold=F3s and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the
CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.
John Perkins goes on to write: "I was persuaded to stop writing that
book. I started it four more times during the next twenty years. On
each occasion, my decision to begin again was influenced by current
world events: the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War,
Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes
always convinced me to stop."
But now Perkins has finally published his story. The book is titled
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
Watch and/or listen to the interview
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=3D04/12/31/1546207
read excerpt:
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/188
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The truth will set us free!
(from allegience to corrupt politicians who kiss the asses of the
obscenely rich while pissing on the peasants at home and abroad, and
all the horrificly miserable wars and poverty that they create).
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| User: "Immortalist" |
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| Title: Re: Millions of Starving Shame the World |
27 Oct 2006 02:19:44 PM |
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wrote:
If the most powerful world leaders - were competent leaders - serving
"the people", nobody would be hungry in this world of plenty and our so
called "civilization" would be truly civilized.
======================
The underlying causes of poverty and the elimination thereof are a
controversial, politicized issue. Those with right wing views may
consider that poverty results from personal choices or preferences, the
breakdown of "traditional values", lack of birth control, and
over-interference by government. They may also look to structural
factors that prevent economic growth, such as poorly protected property
rights, lacking credit system, crime, and corruption.
Those with more left wing views typically see poverty as the result of
many systemic factors unrelated to personal choices or preferences. For
instance, they consider that poverty is caused by lack of opportunity
(particularly in education), and that it is often the lack of
government intervention which results in more poverty. They tend to
believe that alleviating poverty is a matter of social justice and that
it is the responsibility of the wealthy to help those in need.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty
The term hungry is commonly used to mean having an appetite for food or
to be ready for a meal. After a long period without food, the mild
sensation of hunger associated with being ready for a meal becomes
progressively more severe, until it is acutely painful. As hunger
grows, most living things will experience some internal effects. In
humans and other animals, hunger can cause a gurgling sound with a
bubbling feeling in the small intestine (many mistakenly think the
stomach does this), and can shrink the stomach. Prolonged hunger will
drive people to eat substances with no nutritional value (such as grass
and soil) simply to fill their stomachs, but doing so actually has an
adverse effect on energy balance as energy is still required to digest
these substances.
....According to The Borgen Project over 800 million people across the
globe live in hunger. The condition is preventable and in September of
2000, the largest gathering of world leaders ever assembled met at a
summit in New York City and agreed to a plan to end it by 2015. Known
as the U.N. Millennium Goals, the plan to end world hunger has been
agreed to by every nation on earth, but has received limited attention
from the White House.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger
Starvation is a severe reduction in vitamin, nutrient, and energy
intake, and is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans,
prolonged starvation (in excess of 1-2 months) causes permanent organ
damage and will eventually result in death.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, more than 25,000 people die of starvation every day, and more
than 800 million people are chronically undernourished. On average,
every five seconds a child dies from starvation.
....Starved individuals lose substantial fat and muscle mass as the body
breaks down these tissues for energy. Catabolysis is the process
(medical condition) of a body breaking down the muscles and other
tissues in a body in order to keep vital systems such as the nervous
system and heart muscle working. Catabolysis will not begin until there
are no usable sources of energy coming into the body. Catabolysis will
break down muscle tissue before it breaks down fat.
Vitamin deficiency is common, often resulting in anemia, beriberi,
pellagra, and scurvy. These diseases collectively may cause diarrhea,
skin rashes, edema, and heart failure. Individuals are often irritable,
fatigued, and lethargic as a result.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation
Causes of poverty: Many different factors have been cited to explain
why poverty occurs. However, no single explanation has gained universal
acceptance. Some possible factors include:
* Poverty itself, preventing investment and development.
* Capitalism is seen by some as a source of poverty, and by others as a
solution. The former claim that unrestrained capitalism leads to
accumulation of power and wealth in the hands of an elite (a theory
that dates as far back as Karl Marx); While the latter claim that it
leads to general economic development, which is beneficial to the whole
population.
* Poor, failed, or absence of an infrastructure, lack of opportunities.
* Government corruption.
* Lack of functioning democracy.
* Lack of social integration.
* Crime.
* Natural disasters.
* Substance abuse, such as alcoholism and drug abuse.
* Natural factors such as climate or environment.
* Historical factors, for example imperialism and colonialism.
* Overpopulation. Note that population growth slows or even become
negative as poverty is reduced due to the demographic transition.
* War, including civil war, genocide, and democide.
* Lack of education.
* Lack of social skills.
* Exploitation of the poor by the rich.
* Even if not exploitation in the sense of theft, the already wealthy
may have easier to accumulate more wealth, for example by hiring better
financial advisors.
* Matthew effect: the phenomenon, widely observed across advanced
welfare states, that the middle classes tend to be the main
beneficiaries of social benefits and services, even if these are
primarily targeted at the poor.
* Cultural causes, which attribute poverty to common patterns of life,
learned or shared within a community. For example, some have argued
that protestantism contributed to economic growth during the industrial
revolution.
* Individual beliefs, actions and choices.
* Mental illness and disability, such as Autism, and Schizophrenia.
* Geographic factors, for example fertile land and access to natural
resources.
* Disease, specifically Diseases of poverty: AIDS, malaria, and
tuberculosis and others overwhelmingly afflict the poor, which
perpetuate poverty by diverting individual, community, and national
health and economic resources from investment and productivity.
Further, many tropical nations are affected by diseases like Malaria
and Schistosomiasis that are not present in temperate climates.
* Inadequate nutrition in childhood in poor nations may lead to
physical and mental stunting.
* Improper taxation, either due to taxes perceived as being too high,
or due to inherent unfairness in the fiscal system, which might place
an excessive burden on the poorest segments of society.
* Discrimination of various kinds, such as age discrimination, gender
discrimination, racial discrimination.
* Cost of goods for basic necessities.
-----------------------------------
Eliminating Poverty
In politics, the fight against poverty is usually regarded as a social
goal and many governments have - secondarily at least - some
dedicated institutions or departments.
Economic growth
World GDP per capita rapidly increased beginning with the Industrial
Revolution.
* The anti-poverty strategy of the World Bank depends heavily on
reducing poverty through the promotion of economic growth. However,
some consider this approach does not actively or directly work to
reduce or eliminate poverty. The World Bank argues that an overview of
many studies show that:
o Growth is fundamental for poverty reduction, and in principle growth
as such does not seem to affect inequality.
o Growth accompanied by progressive distributional change is better
than growth alone.
o High initial income inequality is a brake on poverty reduction.
o Poverty itself is also likely to be a barrier for poverty reduction;
and wealth inequality seems to predict lower future growth rates.
* Research on the Global Competitiveness Report, Ease of Doing Business
Index, and Index of Economic Freedom and suggests that a set of
economic conditions which help increase growth and reduce poverty.
* Business groups see the reduction of barriers to the creation of new
businesses, or reducing barriers for existing business, as having the
effect of bringing more people into the formal economy.
Direct aid
* The government can directly help those in need. This has been applied
in most Western societies during the 20th century in what became known
as the welfare state. Especially for those most at risk, such as the
elderly and people with disabilities. The help can be for example
monetary or food aid.
* Private charity. This is often formally encouraged within the legal
system. For example, charitable trusts and tax deductions for charity.
Improving the social environment and abilities of the poor
* Affordable housing development and urban regeneration.
* Affordable education.
* Affordable health care.
* Providing help in finding employment.
* Subsidizing employment of groups that have difficulty finding work
otherwise.
* Encouraging political participation and community organizing.
* Community practice social work.
Millennium Development Goals
Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 is a Millennium
Development Goal. In addition to broader approaches, the Sachs Report
(for the UN Millennium Project) proposes a series of "quick wins",
approaches identified by development experts which would cost
relatively little but could have a major constructive effect on world
poverty. The quick wins are:
* Eliminating school fees.
* Providing soil nutrients to farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
* Free school meals for schoolchildren.
* Supporting breast-feeding.
* Deworming school children in affected areas.
* Training programs for community health in rural areas.
* Providing mosquito nets.
* Ending user fees for basic health care in developing countries.
* Access to information on sexual and reproductive health.
* Drugs for AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
* Upgrading slums, and providing land for public housing.
* Access to electricity, water and sanitation.
* Legislation for women's rights, including rights to property.
* Action against domestic violence.
* Appointing government scientific advisors in every country.
* Planting trees.
Other approaches
Most developed nations send some aid to developing nations. Polls have
shown that, on average, Americans believe that 24% of the federal
budget goes to development assistance. In reality, less than 1% of the
budget goes to this. According to The Borgen Project, the estimated
annual cost of eliminating starvation and malnutrition globally is $19
billion a year. Comparatively, Congress and the White House spend $420
billion on defense.
Some thinktanks and NGOs have argued, however, that Western monetary
aid often only serves to increase poverty and social inequality even
more, either because it is conditioned with the implementation of
harmful economic policies in the recipient countries, or because it's
tied with the importing of products from the donor country over cheaper
alternatives, what would constitute a form of corporate welfare hidden
in the form of international aid. This practice encourages political
corruption of goverment officials, instead of creating businesses that
contribute to economic growth. See also the resource curse.
Most developing countries have produced Poverty Reduction Strategy
papers or PRSPs.
Inequality can be reduced by progressive taxation, wealth tax, and/or
inheritance tax.
Some argue for a radical change of the economic system. There are
several proposals for a fundamental restructuring of existing economic
relations, and many of their supporters argue that their ideas would
reduce or even eliminate poverty entirely if they were implemented.
Such proposals have been put forward by both left-wing and right-wing
groups:socialism, communism, anarchism, libertarianism and
participatory economics, among others.
In law, there has been a movement to seek to establish the absence of
poverty as a human right.
In his book "The End of Poverty", world renowned economist Jeffrey
Sachs laid out a lucid plan to eradicate global poverty by the year
2025. Following his doctrine, international organizations such as the
Global Solidarity Network are helping end poverty working with
governments and partners to help eradicate poverty worldwide with
known, proven, reliable, and appropriate interventions in the areas of
housing, food, education, basic health, agricultural inputs, safe
drinking water, transportation and communications.
The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign is an organization in
the United States working to secure freedom from poverty for all by
organizing the poor themselves. The Campaign believes that a human
rights framework, based on the value of inherent dignity and worth of
all persons, offers the best means by which to organize for a political
solution to poverty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty
Kleptocracy (sometimes Cleptocracy) (root: Klepto+cracy = rule by
thieves) is a pejorative, informal term for a government that is
corrupt in its management of public funds in the sense that its
management is designed to primarily sustain the personal wealth and
political power of government officials and their cronies
(collectively, kleptocrats).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy
Philanthropy is the act of donating money, goods, time, or effort to
support a charitable cause, usually over an extended period of time and
in regard to a defined objective. In a more fundamental sense,
philanthropy may encompass any altruistic activity which is intended to
promote good or improve human quality of life. Someone who is well
known for practicing philanthropy may sometimes be called a
philanthropist. Although such individuals are often very wealthy,
people may nevertheless perform philanthropic acts without possessing
great wealth.
Philanthropy is a major source of income for artistic, musical,
religious, and humanitarian causes, as well as educational institutions
ranging from schools to universities (see patronage).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philanthropy
Egalitarianism is any belief that emphasizes some form of equality
between morally-significant beings (usually meaning humans, but
sometimes expanded to include certain animals as well). Such views hold
that political, economic, social, or civil equality should prevail
throughout human society. One can best understand various types of
egalitarianism by asking, "Who is supposed to be equal?" and "In what
respect are they supposed to be equal?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egalitarianism
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| User: "tooly" |
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| Title: Re: Millions of Starving Shame the World |
27 Oct 2006 07:19:48 PM |
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"Immortalist" <reanimater_2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1161976784.094589.37220@f16g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
2BClear@gmail.com wrote:
If the most powerful world leaders - were competent leaders - serving
"the people", nobody would be hungry in this world of plenty and our so
called "civilization" would be truly civilized.
======================
The underlying causes of poverty and the elimination thereof are a
controversial, politicized issue. Those with right wing views may
consider that poverty results from personal choices or preferences, the
breakdown of "traditional values", lack of birth control, and
over-interference by government. They may also look to structural
factors that prevent economic growth, such as poorly protected property
rights, lacking credit system, crime, and corruption.
Those with more left wing views typically see poverty as the result of
many systemic factors unrelated to personal choices or preferences. For
instance, they consider that poverty is caused by lack of opportunity
(particularly in education), and that it is often the lack of
government intervention which results in more poverty. They tend to
believe that alleviating poverty is a matter of social justice and that
it is the responsibility of the wealthy to help those in need.
Now people, this is not a bad assessment given by immortalist...though I'd
replace 'right wing' with classical or traditional here. But reading these
paragraphs, can one not see the 'essence' of the second description to be
that of the 'socialist' mind? To the socialist, government is the end all,
the solution to human misery, a tool to 'TAKE' certain varying portions of
output from healty producing people and 'GIVE' it to people who are not
creating output.
In the extreme, socialism becomes communism which is to take ALL output and
redistribute as the goverment sees fit. No one owns anything. Incentive is
almost totally destroyed, though shallow leftists will always argue that
some sort of magical 'altruistic' motivation toward the 'community' will
continue to drive us.
Socialism sounds 'humantarian', but it IS NOT. Time and time again studies,
observation, analysis...all have shown that INCENTIVES MATTER, and
socialism destroys incentives.
The problems in the third world are many fold. No one wants to see people
suffer. But there is the 'responsible' attack to solutions...and then there
is the simplistic, often 'flighty' emotional attack that we so often see by
liberals today [who themselves probably sit in luxury behind gated
communities moralizing for the rest of us, a.k.a. Hollywoodtonian mindsets].
The third world needs to tackle deep seeded social issues internally.
If you want to help, believe me, there are plenty of people who suffer right
in your own culture's backyard, who with a little investment, might have a
fighting chance at a real life. BEWARE THIS UNITED NATIONS; IT HAS BEEN
CORRUPTED.
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| User: "tooly" |
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| Title: Re: High birth rates shame the world!!! |
27 Oct 2006 02:42:54 PM |
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Impoverished third world regions of the world continue to have high birth
rates, driven by backwards attitudes toward women and STD's, thereby
ensuring high levels of human misery in widening population pyramids. Such
pyramids result in a disproportionate number of dependent members relying on
the product of too few true real producers where, combined with low
incentives, undeveloped infrastructure, and stagnant urbanization, such
regions guarantee their impoverishment.
Such misery manifests itself in a new world wide political push, fronted by
the United Nations, to push for redistribution of wealth from the high
output industrial states, toward the burgeoning impoverished third world.
Well over 90% of ALL NEW WORLD POPULATION in coming years will be in these
impoverished regions. A ground swell of political fervor for new worldwide
social welfare to bolster these regions has been well predicted for decades
now. By 2050, the world should hit around 12 billion people, over twice
what now exists on the planet. This political ground swell could grow to
tsanmi proportions. The UN has already been corrupted, it's purpose of
peace keeping being usurped by this new role as 'world social welfare
advocate'.
Global Social welfare is anti-capitalist, anti-free world, anti-west.
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