INTRODUCTION
The year 1996 was the ‘International Year of Poverty Eradication’. But the evil of poverty is as potent as ever posing an unceasing threat to humanity. We are no more shocked to hear and read that ‘two people out of every three are hungry’. According to 1997 World Bank statistics 1,644 die from malnutrition each day. The issues of poverty are no more internal affairs but have become international affairs. Terms such as Global Economy, World Poverty are becoming increasingly popular day by day. This essay will discuss about this burning issue of ‘How to eradicate World Poverty?’
DEFINITION OF POVERTY
It is vital to define poverty before we could take the right course of action to eradicate it. Poverty can be defined a follows: Poverty consists of lack of the basic needs of life. This definition of poverty is an arbitrary one. Because we must spell out what these basic needs are, which leads us to two types of poverty. 1.Absolute Poverty - concerned with those needs indispensable for survival such as: air, water, food clothing shelter. 2.Relative Poverty - concerned with those needs reflecting the prevailing standard of living in the community such as: Electricity, Radio, Television, Car, etc. As far as this essay is concerned, by poverty we refer to the ‘Absolute Poverty’.
ETHICAL DIMENSION OF WORLD POVERTY
‘Absolute Poverty’ is not only an issue of economics and politics but also of Ethics and Morality. Every human being has right to freedom, life and property, which in turn reflects that every other human being has duty towards the other. If someone is failing to enjoy these rights then someone else is infringing the victim’s rights by not fulfilling one’s duty. Then, he or she causes an ethical and moral violation towards the other; it may be an individual against another individual, one group against another group or one nation against another nation and so on. Thus world poverty is very much an ethical issue as much as it is a social issue.
CAUSES OF POVERTY AND POSSIBLE WAYS TO ERADICATE THEM
The U. N declared 1950 as the “decade for development” as a result of this many organisations were created to fight poverty: The International Development Bank (IDB), International Aid for Development (AID), International Monetary Fund (IMF) the United Nations Commission for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and so on. The magnitude of poverty is so great that the efforts of these organisations are seemingly like digging a hole to drain the ocean. Let us try to list some of the causes of this untameable poverty.
1) INEQUALITY AND UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES
The unfair distribution of wealth to eighty percent of the world mass owning twenty percent of the wealth and twenty percent holding the eighty percent of the wealth is a serious cause of the poverty. This unfair distribution leaves large mass of people in the underdeveloped countries, with unfriendly working conditions due to poor health, under nutrition lack of opportunities and educational facilities. These have a direct impact on the willingness and ability to work intensively thus reducing the productivity. This creates a vicious circle of poverty. It is the moral responsibility of the First World countries to help the under privileged Third World countries. But so far the Third World countries experience only indifference from the First World. As we have mentioned in the introduction the year 1996 was declared the International Year of Eradication of Poverty. Though Britain signed this declaration it took no positive step towards the eradication of poverty. When confronted by one of the anti-poverty coalitions, “the government replied, that it saw any anti-poverty drive as a matter for third World countries not of the UK.” Unless this attitude change and until eradication of poverty becomes a global endeavour there is no way out. But as Bertrand Russell comments, “there is something which people desire even more strongly[than the desire to grow rich], and that is to keep others poor.” The international and the intra-national policies should aim towards an egalitarian society. It demands an economic and social revolution.
2. OVER POPULATION
One of the main causes of poverty is attributed to over population. Over population smother the mother earth. The imbalance in the demography leads to shortage of supply of goods. As Bertrand Russell observes, unless the problem of over population in the third world countries “is solved, it will be impossible to bring the poorer parts of the world to anything like the same level of prosperity as is now enjoyed by the richer parts, and until there is a certain economic equalisation throughout the world, there will be causes of envy and hatred such as will make any world government dependent upon continual exercise of force by the stronger nations.” Hence governments in the third world countries promote abortion and artificial birth control. But Brian Clowes argues that, “It is a typical short-sighted anti-life ‘solution’ to a serious problem that will only bring even worse problems just a few years down the road.” He quotes the 1997 report of world bank on the causes of death in the developing countries. According to the statistics, total annual deaths in the developing countries equal to thirty-nine million and among the thirty-nine million 0.6 million die out of malnutrition which ranks twelfth in the list of other causes. Therefore it is after all not the over population which is unmanageable cause of poverty but an unfair distribution of the wealth that maintains the state of poverty.
He subscribes that an authentic economic development would provide basic health care, prenatal care to women and children to reduce infant mortality rates; promote regional economic self-sufficiency by building road systems and bridges to remote areas; help break down artificial economic barriers, such as monopolies and overly complicated procedures for securing permits to start small business, thereby stimulating healthy competition; improve agricultural production with rural electrification, mechanisation and adequate grain storage; provide clean running water to villages, reducing endemic diseases and provide basic education to those who are not receiving it.
3. GLOBAL OBSESSION WITH GROWTH
It is a general belief that over population causes unemployment which aggravates poverty. But Fritjof Capra accuses the ‘global obsession’ for growth instead. “The idea that growth can be obstructive, unhealthy or pathological is not entertained”. The acclaimed growth leads to automation and mechanisation of industries. This not only creates unemployment but also an unbalanced depletion of the natural resources and over production. The excessive production in the first world countries leads to ‘dumping’; whereby the goods are sold abroad at a price which is lower than the home market in the third world countries which cannot afford sophisticated machinery. As a result the production cost and sales price are higher than the imported goods. Thus cheap foreign goods occupy the home market shattering the economy of the Third World further more. The first world attracts more funds that are badly needed in the third world. The suggested solutions here are: increased imports, loans or grants to the needy nations, re-evaluation of the currencies; but all these do not pay any attractive incentives except that it will be a gesture of good will towards the poorer nations.
4. ARMS RACE
In 1978 world military was spending about 425 billion dollars a year; (this was even before the hike of costs) which means more than a billion dollar a day spent on arms whilst 15 million people died out of starvation, 500 million more seriously under nourished, 40 % of world’s population has no access to professional health services, 35 % of humanity lacks safe drinking water. After twenty-two years the expenditure on the arms would have multiplied at least ten times than that of 1978 expenditure. The atrocity here is that even the so called developing countries spend their wealth in buying arms that would feed millions of its starving mass. The possible solution here could be a serious awareness program about the false security offered by war weapons. Nuclear weapons are not a security but only an added threat to humanity. Countries should broaden their horizons of outlook about progress and development and evolve multilateral policies geared towards universal peace and unity and development.
5. THE WANT MAKERS
An often forgotten cause of poverty is the expenditure on the advertising companies which promotes consumerism and wastage. The advertising companies manipulate the mass to acquire goods that are unnecessary, wasteful and often outright harmful. The world wide expenditure on advertising in 1987 was USD 200 billion. It is calculated to be more than the gross national products of Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Israel and Kenya added together. Robert J. Coen, an acknowledged expert on advertising expenditure estimates that the advertising expenditure to reach USD 1 trillion by 2000. It is frightful to imagine the amount spent on the manufacturing of the futile products that are advertised. The possible course of counter action here would be conscientisation of people against the devastating consumerism. People tend to fill the emptiness in their hearts with material things. Religion can and should play a greater role to meet the needs of the searching human hearts to find its fulfilment in the right place.
5. REJECTION OF REALITY
Finally another reason why poverty exists is that the poor themselves do not want the label poverty attached to them because of the stigma attached to it. People do not want to think about themselves as poor. Here, what we need is a “strategy which gives due place to their perceptions of the situation and what they themselves are doing to change it.” Moreover steps should be taken to remove the stigma attached to it.
CONCLUSION
Thus the above discussion makes it clear that world poverty is a reality that cannot be brushed away as if it does not exist but a serious threat to be faced. The eradication of such a bitter reality, evidently demands a holistic approach rather than an approach that would offer temporary solution like prescribing pain killers without treating the source of pain. It implies that poverty cannot be eradicated by mere doling out of money or food on weekly or monthly basis. It calls for the ‘personal responsibility’ of every individual who inhabits this planet. If one is not moved by “love” to care for their neighbours at least “duty” towards the other individual, nation and the world should force them to move into action. “The solidarity which binds all men together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, the misery and the poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights” Pope John XIII
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BECKER, S., Responding To Poverty, Longman, LONDON, 1997.
CAPRA, F., The Turning Point, Flamingo, USA, 1990.
CLARK, E., The Want Makers, Hodder And Stoughton, LONDON, 1988.
CLOWES, B., The Facts Of Life, Human Life International, VIRGINIA, 1997.
LIVINGSTONE, J.M., Britain And The World Economy, Penguin Books, GREAT BRITAIN, 1966.
McCORMACK, A.,(edr), Christian Responsibility And World Poverty, Burns And Oates, LONDON, 1963.
MIGUEZ, J., Doing Theology In A Revolutionary Situation, Fortress PHILADELPHIA, 1975.
ROACH, J., “POVERTY” in the Encyclopaedia Britannnica, vol. 14.
RUSSELL, B., The Basic Writings Of Bertrand Russell, Routledge, LONDON, 1992.
End-Notes
1 CLOWES, B., THE FACTS OF LIFE, VIRGINIA, 1997, p.309.
2 ROACH, J., “POVERTY” in the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, VOL.14, p.935.
3 Ibid., p.935.
4 MIGUEZ, J., DOING THEOLOGY IN A REVOLUTIONARY SITUATION, PHILADELPHIA, 1975, p.25.
5 BECKER, S., RESPONDING TO POVERTY, p.6.
6 RUSSELL, BERTRAND., “WORLD GOVERNMENT” IN THE BASIC WRITINGS OF BERTRAND RUSSELL, LONDON, p.699.
7 Ibid., p.703.
8 CLOWES, B., p.309
9 Ibid., p.311.
10 CAPRA, FRITJOF p.225
11 Ibid., p.2.
12 CLARK, E., THE WANT MAKERS, LONDON, 1988, p.12.
13 BECKER, S., RESPONDING TO POVERTY, p.158.
14 McCORMACK, A., (EDR) CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY AND WORLD POVERTY, LONDON, 1963,
p.2.
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