‘The End of Poverty'
After reading this great book written by Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned Harvard professor in economics, I have realized how little the rich countries spent on eradicating world poverty in the past and how much they should do to avert the third world plight in the future. Leaders of the rich nations should feel disgraced of their meanness on resources allocated for poverty relief. Midget spending on helping the poor is further dwarfed by enormous military expenses. The United States, an affluent superpower, has her military spending thirty times the sum of all major nations in the globe. After the 911 attack, the Bush administrations have opened the green light for the huge military spending in the name of anti-terrorism. They mislead the general public to believe that only the invincible military power and the preemptive strike of the potential hostile nations are the keys to maintaining world peace.
In fact, it is poverty that seeds social unrest and terrorism. Channeling a minute proportion of military expenses on poverty relief can narrow the rich gap and to a certain extent, resolve the conflict between the rich and poor, one of the underlying causes of terrorism. Over-spending on military obviously eats up resources that could be apportioned for poverty relief. Misconceptions on causes on poverty as promulgated by politicians have damped down the passion of rich nations for shouldering more responsibility of alleviating world poverty. Their general belief is that poor governance in authoritarian regimes, lack of democracy and impoverished human capital are to blame for poverty of a nation. Their claims, not supported by sound evidence, are good excuses for well-off nations to scrap resources on poverty relief.
The author mentions in his book that causes of poverty are quite unique in different nations and cannot be simply generalized into poor governance and over-intervention of the free market as claimed by politicians from affluent nations. There is solid evidence supporting that both biological and geographical factors are the main culprits of poverty. For instance, trading activities of a nation located in the mountain area with poor infrastructure are doomed to fail and this will inevitably hamper the economic development. Similarly, you can’t expect a nation with a majority of her population inflicted by malaria and AIDS to have robust productivity. Poor soil quality and lack of access to modern technology by farmers severely limit food production. Being deprived of the ability of self-reliance in food production, they have to resort to expensive imported food. Without surplus produce for trading, they will soon be pushed to the vicious cycle of the poverty trap.
It is disappointed to learn that IMF and World Bank only stick to the policy of axing public spending and urging prompt debt payment by Third world nations as the elixir of poverty relief. These organizations dominated by the West do more harm than good to the livelihood of people in the Third world by sticking to these doctrines. In order to foot the debt, poor nations have to cut expenses essential for eradicating infectious diseases. If the affluent nations wrote off their debts and gave them support pinning down the key causes of poverty, poor nations would have the chance of escaping from the poverty trap so that the people could have their own asset, a booster of local investment essential for the sustainable economic development of a nation.
The recent rocketing rise in food price has pushed hundreds of millions of poor to the blink of riots. To help them boost food production, they should be given the opportunity to gain access to modified seeds, chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers and small scale irrigation systems, which are the crux to solving food production problem. Transforming the above ideas into reality requires the generous support from the intergovernmental organizations and government of affluent nations.
To solve world poverty, creative mindsets and concerted efforts from IMF, World Bank and Western nations are needed to deliver magic bullets aiming at the critical problems encountered in those countries in plight and saving them from the poverty trap forever.
In fact, it is poverty that seeds social unrest and terrorism. Channeling a minute proportion of military expenses on poverty relief can narrow the rich gap and to a certain extent, resolve the conflict between the rich and poor, one of the underlying causes of terrorism. Over-spending on military obviously eats up resources that could be apportioned for poverty relief. Misconceptions on causes on poverty as promulgated by politicians have damped down the passion of rich nations for shouldering more responsibility of alleviating world poverty. Their general belief is that poor governance in authoritarian regimes, lack of democracy and impoverished human capital are to blame for poverty of a nation. Their claims, not supported by sound evidence, are good excuses for well-off nations to scrap resources on poverty relief.
The author mentions in his book that causes of poverty are quite unique in different nations and cannot be simply generalized into poor governance and over-intervention of the free market as claimed by politicians from affluent nations. There is solid evidence supporting that both biological and geographical factors are the main culprits of poverty. For instance, trading activities of a nation located in the mountain area with poor infrastructure are doomed to fail and this will inevitably hamper the economic development. Similarly, you can’t expect a nation with a majority of her population inflicted by malaria and AIDS to have robust productivity. Poor soil quality and lack of access to modern technology by farmers severely limit food production. Being deprived of the ability of self-reliance in food production, they have to resort to expensive imported food. Without surplus produce for trading, they will soon be pushed to the vicious cycle of the poverty trap.
It is disappointed to learn that IMF and World Bank only stick to the policy of axing public spending and urging prompt debt payment by Third world nations as the elixir of poverty relief. These organizations dominated by the West do more harm than good to the livelihood of people in the Third world by sticking to these doctrines. In order to foot the debt, poor nations have to cut expenses essential for eradicating infectious diseases. If the affluent nations wrote off their debts and gave them support pinning down the key causes of poverty, poor nations would have the chance of escaping from the poverty trap so that the people could have their own asset, a booster of local investment essential for the sustainable economic development of a nation.
The recent rocketing rise in food price has pushed hundreds of millions of poor to the blink of riots. To help them boost food production, they should be given the opportunity to gain access to modified seeds, chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers and small scale irrigation systems, which are the crux to solving food production problem. Transforming the above ideas into reality requires the generous support from the intergovernmental organizations and government of affluent nations.
To solve world poverty, creative mindsets and concerted efforts from IMF, World Bank and Western nations are needed to deliver magic bullets aiming at the critical problems encountered in those countries in plight and saving them from the poverty trap forever.
posted by K W Ho @ 10:04 PM
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