Tracking Hunger

Tracking Hunger: "Emerging India either does not know or ignores the statistics: Half its children are malnourished, a record worse than the world’s symbol for deprivation, sub-Saharan Africa. India is ranked 66th out of 88 countries in the Global Hunger Index drawn up by the International Food Policy Research Institute. India is home to a quarter of the world’s hungry – about 230 million people – according to a World Food Programme report released on March 2009. More than 455 million Indians survive on US$ 1.25 ((Rs 56) approximately) a day or less, compared with 420 million in 1981.

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

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

As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God - Matthew Parris

From The Times
December 27, 2008

Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good. more

China raises poverty standards, 28 mln rural residents to benefit

www.chinaview.cn  2008-12-27 22:48:43

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BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government said Saturday it would expand coverage of its anti-poverty program in rural areas next year to include an additional 28.41 million residents.     Fan Xiaojian, director of the Office for Poverty Alleviation and Development under the State Council, said rural residents with an annual per capita income of less than 1067 yuan (156 U.S. dollars) would begin to be covered in the country's poverty-relief program next year.     Currently, the program only benefited rural residents with an annual per capita income of less than 786 yuan.     China defined an annual income of less than 786 yuan as absolute poverty and an annual income of between 786 and 1067 yuan as low income.     By the end of last year, the country had a rural population of 14.79 million living in absolute poverty. While the low-income rural population was 28.41 million.  more

Microfinancing immediate solution to poverty: conference

ISLAMABAD: Microfinancing was the only immediate solution to miseries of 40 percent of the population living below poverty line, said participants of a conference titled ‘First Micro-insurance Conference’ on Wednesday.

The Asian Development Bank, Department of International Development-UK, (DFID-UK), Rural Support Programme Network (RSPN), Pakistan Micro Finance Network (PMN) and Adamjee Insurance jointly organised the conference jointly.

Indian Institute of Financial Management and Research Executive Director Rupalee Ruchismita presented models on micro health insurance. She said micro insurance regulations, incentives for insurers, insurance literacy and trained professionals were essential to promote micro insurance.

National Institute of Banking and Finance Insurance Managing Director (MD) Kazi Abdul Muktadir made a presentation on the history of micro insurance in the country. He said agriculture insurance was required to benefit more then 65 percent of the population living in the rural areas.  more

Financial Gazette (Harare)

Zimbabwe: Poverty, Hunger Force Girls Into Prostitution

Nelson Chenga

6 December 2008

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Nyamapanda — As the night grew darker at Nyamapanda business centre a jukebox could be heard at one of the night spots loudly playing one of Yvonne Chaka Chaka's 1980s hit songs Take my love it's free.

A crowd began swelling outside the nightclub, venue of a live performance by one of Zimbabwe's music icons, Nicholas Zacharia.

A message on the ravages of the HIV/Aids pandemic from the popular singer affectionately known as the "Senior Lecturer" that warm night could have done the trick in changing the immoral behavioral patterns in the border town if only the revellers were interested in such a lecture.

But unfortunately the main reason for attending the show was purely entertainment in an area starved of other forms of amusements outside the consumption of alcohol and prostitution, a trade that has taken root in the remote settlement and increasingly attracting younger members as poverty and hunger take their toll.

A complete collapse of the country's education system that has seen teachers emigrating or simply staying at home due to the way below poverty margin salaries has resulted in girls being forced into prostitution to survive.  more

Stephen Pimpare: A People's History of Poverty in America

Capitalism's unequal distribution of wealth and resources necessarily engenders economic "winners" and "losers." But the poor in the United States are often described solely in terms of moral failures: they're lazy, irresponsible and just don't want to work hard for success. Indeed, openly blaming the poor for poverty has been en vogue since Reagan's acidic "welfare queen" remarks. However, in A People's History of Poverty in America, Stephen Pimpare takes a decidedly less accusatory look at the history of poverty in our country. Told from the perspective of the poor themselves, the moving stories of hard work, bad luck, and almost insurmountable institutional inequalities brim with a quiet dignity.

– Suzanne Niemoth

source

Wealth and poverty in early church and society edited by Susan R. Holman

Wealth and poverty in early church and society / edited by Susan R. Holman Publisher Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Academic ; [Brookline, Mass.] : HC Orthodox Press, c2008

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Description 320 p. : ill. ; 23 cm Series Holy Cross studies in patristic theology and history Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-299) and indexes Contents The New Testament period. Injustice or God's will? : early Christian explanations of poverty / Steven J. Friesen -- "Be not one who stretches out hands to receive but shuts them when it comes to giving" : envisioning Christian charity when both donors and recipients are poor / Denise Kimber Buell -- James 2:2-7 in early Christian thought / Gorge K. Hasselhoff -- Wealth, poverty, and the value of the person : some notes on the Hymn of the pearl and its early Christian context / Edward Moore -- Egypt in late antiquity. Widening the eye of the needle : wealth and poverty in the works of Clement of Alexandria / Annewies van den Hoek -- Care for the poor, fear of poverty, and love of money : Evagrius Ponticus on the monk's economic vulnerability / David Brakke -- Wine for widows : papyrological evidence for Christian charity in late antique Egypt / Adam Serfass -- Rich and poor in Sophronius of Jerusalem's Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John / Susan R. Holman -- John Chrysostom, the Cappadocians, and friends. This sweetest passage : Matthew 25:31-46 and assistance to the poor in the homilies of John Chrysostom / Rudolf Brandle -- Poverty and generosity toward the poor in the time of John Chrysostom / Wendy Mayer -- Poverty and wealth as theater : John Chrysostom's homilies on Lazarus and the rich man / Francine Cardman -- Wealthy and impoverished widows in the writings of St. John Chrysostom / Efthalia Makris Walsh -- The hellenic background and nature of patristic philanthropy in the early Byzantine era / Demetrios J. Constantelos -- Wealth, trade, and profit in early Byzantium. Gilding the lily : a patristic defense of liturgical splendor / A. Edward Siecienski -- Wealth, stewardship, and charitable "blessings" in early Byzantine monasticism / Daniel Caner -- Trade, profit, and salvation in the late patristic and the Byzantine period / Angeliki E. Laiou -- Patristic studies for today. St. Basil's philanthropic program and modern microlending strategies for economic self-actualization / Timothy Patitsas -- The use of patristic socioethical texts in Catholic social thought / Brian Matz

Rising poverty and high growth. economy

New concerns over rising poverty 8 Nov 2008, 0000 hrs IST,  By: Usha Tuteja

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Editorial/New_concerns_over_rising_poverty/articleshow/3687144.cms
The revised benchmark by the World Bank is the average of the national poverty lines of the worlds’ 15 poorest countries. The ADB’s benchmark is Asia-specific based on surveys from 16 Asian countries. When these benchmarks are used for estimating poverty levels in India, the situation becomes grave and uncomfortable. By using the first poverty line, the estimated number of poor in India during 2004-05 was 456 million or 41.6% of the total population. 

According to the second poverty line, the number of poor in India was 622 million, which is 54.8% of the population. Evidently, these estimates are significantly above the official estimates of 27.5% indicated by the Planning Commission. Among the states, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, MP, Orissa indicate that around 40% of the population is below the poverty line. 

A deeper probe into the poverty statistics measured by the World Bank, the ADB and the Planning Commission reflects poor achievements on inclusive growth despite attaining a growth momentum of as high as 8-10% by the country over the last few years. In the past quarter century, the poverty rate has slowly declined by somewhat less than one percentage point a year. But the number of poor have remained stubbornly large. Moreover, the decline in poverty was faster during the ’80s than during the ’90s and in recent years. Clearly, India has not experienced the spectacular declines in poverty, expected in an emerging economy with high growth.

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‘Fighting poverty ensures peace’

Business Mirror

Campaign to End Child Poverty March in London

• News
• Society
• Children

Hundreds demand an end to child poverty

• Caroline Davies
• The Observer, 
• Sunday October 5 2008
• Article history

Hundreds marched through central London yesterday calling on the government to end child poverty.

The 'Keep the Promise' march, was organised by the Campaign to End Child Poverty, a coalition of 120 organisations, and included many children who gathered at Millbank before marching to Trafalgar Square for a rally.

Before the march, representatives from the group met Gordon Brown at Downing Street. After the meeting he repeated a pledge to impose a legal duty on government to eradicate child poverty by 2020.

The coalition's report last week said more than one third of UK children live in low-income families or in poverty. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who attended the rally, said that was 'shameful'. The campaign defines poverty as when a family has £10 per person per day or less to live on.  read 

Campaign to End Child Poverty March in London

• News
• Society
• Children

Hundreds demand an end to child poverty

• Caroline Davies
• The Observer, 
• Sunday October 5 2008
• Article history

Hundreds marched through central London yesterday calling on the government to end child poverty.

The 'Keep the Promise' march, was organised by the Campaign to End Child Poverty, a coalition of 120 organisations, and included many children who gathered at Millbank before marching to Trafalgar Square for a rally.

Before the march, representatives from the group met Gordon Brown at Downing Street. After the meeting he repeated a pledge to impose a legal duty on government to eradicate child poverty by 2020.

The coalition's report last week said more than one third of UK children live in low-income families or in poverty. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who attended the rally, said that was 'shameful'. The campaign defines poverty as when a family has £10 per person per day or less to live on.  read