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| World Poverty |
World poverty is one of the
problems faced globally. It is not only happening in third world countries but also
in developed countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. With
current economic instability it is expected more people will be affected with
hardship as less jobs are available and more competition for employment. There
are many causes that lead to poverty such as wars, famine, natural disaster,
corruption, education.
The rise of food prices which made
global headline in 2008 have affected the poor the most.it has resulted riots,
protest, overthrow of leaders and many death around the world. Poor countries
in Africa with shortage of food also experience scarce of clean water supply.
Without these, basic sanitation could not be maintained which in turn lead to
disease. Water is also essential agriculturally, it is needed to grow crops and
to raise livestock which in turn provide food for the people as well as income
for farmers. With drought comes famine and affect crop yield. Soil becomes
barren and farming would not happen. So no water means no food.
The effects of poverty are serious.
Children who grow up in poverty suffer more persistent, frequent, and severe
health problems. Infants would have low life expectancy as they are underweight
due lack of nutrition in the body along with unbalance diet. This would allow
physical and mental disabilities in them. Common disease and disorder
associated with poverty are impaired vision and hearing, iron deficiency
anaemia, and higher than normal levels of lead in the blood, which can impair
brain function.
Poor families’ experience much more
stress and studies show that this would lead to domestic violence including
children and elders abuse. Furthermore, this also lead to an increase of crime
rate as people are becoming desperate. Crime organisation in turn would use
this opportunity to recruit more members into their ranks for jobs with good
pay as clearly seen in southern Americas. Apart from this, it would as well
lead to people being exploited. Human trafficking is one of a major problems in
Malaysia due to excessive entry of illegal immigrant into the country. Many
comes by boats or smuggled in through our border with hopes for work or simply
a better life. This would in turn cause social issues between locals and them.
To reduce poverty it is important
that education are taken seriously. As more people are educated more will
become aware of the issues that cause poverty. Awareness programs taught in
school helps making sure that students appreciate with what is given to them
and not taken for granted.
Humanitarian aid such as medical
aid would help to ensure that people health are being check along with Charity
and donation which allow the money collected be used for building houses for
the homeless, buying food supplies and ration as well as clothing and other
essentials.
Facts:
1) Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on
less than $2.50 a day.
2) The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the
world’s 7 richest people combined.
3) Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable
to read a book or sign their names.
4)Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year
on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet
it didn’t happen.
5)1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the
world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access
to safe water, and 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million
died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per
day).
