Women in the poorest countries are 300 times more likely to die in pregnancy

UNICEF: Maternal deaths, poverty linked

Women in the poorest countries are 300 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than those in affluent nations, a U.N. report said Thursday.

At the same time, a child born in a developing country is almost 14 times more likely to die in the first month than a child born in a developed country, UNICEF's "State of the World's Children" report said.

"The younger a girl is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the health risks," said the report released in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s, the report said.

The child of a mother under age 18 has a 60 percent greater risk of dying in its first year than an infant born to a mother older than 19, the report said.

Ninety-five percent of the world's maternal deaths are in Africa and Asia, with 50 percent of the global total in sub-Saharan Africa and 35 percent in South Asia.

Those regions areas are also where child marriage is most prevalent, the report said.

The number of maternal deaths worldwide exceeds 500,000, including about 70,000 girls and young women age 15 to 19, the report said.

At least 9.2 million children died in 2007 before reaching the age of 5, down from 9.7 million in 2006.  source

Slumdog Millionaire is poverty porn

From The Times

January 14, 2009

Shocked by Slumdog's poverty porn

Danny Boyle's film is sweeping up awards, but it's wrong to revel in the misery of India's children

Alice Miles

There are many reasons why you might want to see Slumdog Millionaire - it is directed by the brilliant Danny Boyle, it is set in the sensual feast that is Mumbai and it has won awards for music, directing and acting. And then there is the fact that critics and its own publicity have branded it a feel-good movie. Call me shallow, but that ultimately swung it for me.

A few hours later I was wincing in my seat. The film opens with a scene of horrible violence: a man hanging from the ceiling of a police station, being tortured to unconsciousness, a trickle of blood running from his mouth. It moves swiftly into scenes of utter misery and depravity, in which small starving children are beaten, mutilated and perverted.

Mothers die horribly in front of their sons, small girls are turned into prostitutes, small boys into beggars. I hope it won't spoil the feel-good surprise if I tell you that one particularly sadistic scene shows a young boy having his eyes burnt out with acid to maximise the profits of street begging. Charities working with street children in India seem unaware of any instances of this, although Save the Children emphasises that similar violence against children by beggar mafia is well documented.

The film is brilliant, horrifying, compelling and awful, the relentless violence leavened only by an occasional clip of someone working his way through the questions on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. You might want to look away, but you can't and, despite the banal storyline, I can see why it is pulling in the awards.  more

13 million American children live in poverty

13 million American children live in poverty’s grip. The U.S. has the worst child poverty rate among 24 rich countries. Over the last 45 years, U.S. policies produced spectacular drops in elderly poverty rates; now the elderly are the least poor. During the same period, child poverty remained constant. One reason: Federal spending in 2007 was nearly seven times greater for persons over age 65 than under age 18 — $27,289 per person versus $4,000 per person, respectively. 

Eight million American children are without health insurance. Over a two-year period, nearly 27 million children will have no coverage for at least some period of time. 

More than three million children are reported abused and neglected. About 1,500 U.S. children die each year as a result of abuse or neglect at home, with nearly 80 percent of the fatalities involving infants and toddlers under the age of four.  more 

Only half of eligible three- and four-year-olds are served by Head Start, the government’s early childhood development program. Early Head Start, for infants and toddlers under three, serves only one in 20 of those eligible. 

Nearly two million children have parents in prison. 

As many as 14 million children are on their own after school. Among them are an estimated 40,000 kindergarteners. 

Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel annonces Hunger strike by 400 Argentinians to end Poverty

400 Argentinians go on hunger strike to end poverty

More than 400 residents of Argentina's poorest province are gearing up for an all-out hunger strike to raise awareness about their dire situation, Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel said on Sunday.

 

Last Updated: 12:15AM GMT 12 Jan 2009

"La Quiaca once again stands up for the rights of the poor and marginalised through an extreme measure," the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner told reporters in Mar del Plata, Argentina's top beach resort on the Atlantic Ocean.

Esquivel said the hunger strikers would begin their fast on Monday in La Quiaca city, in eastern Jujuy, to protest the lack of federal and local government attention to the province's social problems.

The hunger strike, said the human rights and anti-poverty advocate, will last "until the final consequences".

He said Mar del Plata was chosen for the strike announcement to contrast the glitzy tourist centre with Jujuy, where 30 per cent of its 620,000 inhabitants "face extreme poverty ... hunger, and child malnutrition plagues many homes."

The city is 400 kilometres (250 miles) south of Buenos Aires capital. source

Poverty and festivity in excess worst forms of violence

Restraining the wedding guest

KAMALA BALACHANDRAN
“Poverty” said Mahatma Gandhi “is the worst from of violence”. I am convinced that if Gandhi, who personified simplicity, were to be around today, he would have declared that festivity in excess was also a form of violence. For it depletes resources, damages the environment, squanders time and devalues people.

My recent experience in Bangalore during an auspicious day when a wedding was celebrated made me deliberate on these issues. There was a Kumbhmela of vehicles on the road. While the bigger vehicles had no choice but to stand patiently, the two wheelers were creating their own path by zigzagging their way through the gaps. Interspersed with them were pedestrians, hurriedly coursing the maze, eager to get to the other side of the road before the vehicles started to move. Every face mirrored desperation, frustration and an anxiety to get somewhere. When I finally made it to the wedding hall, the joy of having reached the destination evaporated. The hall was packed with people and there were no chairs to seat all the guests.

The ambient noise was high as the hall full of people were trying to be heard over the sounds of musical instruments. People were tired and edgy and wanted the ‘job’ over and done with. Most were stealthily eyeing the entrance to the dining hall. Some openly aired the idea that Bangaloreans must follow the Chennai model and have the lunch served even before the ‘muhurtham’ was over.

Pope says world's future depends on ethical solutions to poverty, war

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Saying the future of the world was at stake, Pope Benedict XVI called for major new efforts to reduce global poverty, end regional conflicts and restore ethics to global financial systems.

In an annual address to the diplomatic corps at the Vatican Jan. 8, the pope also appealed on behalf of Christian minorities in places like Iraq and India, urging governments to respond firmly to a recent increase in anti-Christian violence and discrimination.

After delivering his speech in the ornate Sala Regia, the 81-year-old pontiff greeted the diplomats one by one and posed for group photos. Among the representatives was the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Mary Ann Glendon, who was leaving her post Jan. 19.

The pope's speech, sometimes called his "state of the world" address, reviewed developments on several continents, from the refugee crisis in central Africa to the recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The pope decried terrorist attacks that have "sown death and destruction" in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Algeria, but also found hopeful signs in places like the Philippines, where the government and rebels have opened new negotiations.

Taking up the theme of his recent World Peace Day message, he told the diplomats that "to build peace we must give new hope to the poor." In the current "sensitive phase of the history of humanity," he said, moral and ethical principles are crucial to improving the condition of millions of people living in precarious situations.  read it all 

1 billion hungry in world

1 billion hungry in world, says UN agency


AN UN agency has put the number of hungry people at 1 billion.

Food and Agriculture Organization officially put the number of hungry people at 963 million.

The Rome-based agency attributed rising food prices as the reason for the phenomenon that put an additional 40 million people into hunger this year alone.

“This sad reality should not be acceptable at the dawn of the 21st century,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said at the presentation of the State of Food Insecurity report. “Not enough has been done to reduce hunger and not enough is being done to prevent more people (from) becoming hungry.”

According to the agency, even though prices of major cereals fell by over 50 percent from their peaks earlier this year, they remain high compared with previous years, especially in local markets.

Small farmers could not increase production and take advantage of the higher prices because they lack access to water, seeds, fertilizers and markets, the agency added.

“For millions of people in developing countries, eating the minimum amount of food every day to live an active and healthy life is a distant dream,” said Hafez Ghanem, the organization's assistant director-general.

Nearly two-thirds of the world's hungry live in Asia, while in sub-Saharan Africa one person in three is chronically hungry, the report said.

Those who suffer most from the rises in prices - and are forced to eat less and lower quality food - are households that have no land to rely on and are headed by females, the agency said. source