China's wealth gap continues to grow

Despite the economic slowdown, the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen in China. The numbers of rich people in the country grows but the number of poor increases as well. A wide gap between rich and poor makes it difficult for those in poverty to move up the scale.

From the Asia times online, writer Wu Zhong gives us the statistics of the survey.

At the other end of the wealth scale, more than 40 million farmers survived on 1,196 yuan or less last year, government figures show. Officials now admit that if the internationally used poverty threshold of US$1, or 6.83 yuan, per person per day is adopted, the size of China's poor population could exceed 100 million - that is, at least one out of 13 Chinese still live in poverty.

The wealth survey, which polled 700 respondents through face-to-face interviews or questionnaires from late December, found that the country's estimated 300,000 multi-millionaires at the end of last year possessed a total wealth of 8.8 trillion yuan, equal to 29% of China's gross domestic product of about 30 trillion yuan in 2008. The sum was also equivalent to 39.7% of the country's total household bank savings of 22.15 trillion yuan.

By contrast, the 40 million officially acknowledged poor people had only some 48 billion yuan to live on for the year.

Considering that just three decades ago all Chinese were practically equal in regard to personal wealth (or equally poor), the change is remarkable evidence of the tremendous success of late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's policy of "allowing some people to become rich first".

However, many Chinese who lived through Mao Zedong's egalitarian rule are increasingly unhappy with the fast expanding wealth gap and particularly with the social injustice behind the wealth disparity. Since the Chinese Communist Party still stubbornly upholds the banner of "socialism" albeit with "Chinese characteristics", it has to make efforts to narrow the gap to calm public discontent.

China plans major investment in medical care

China is about to make a major investment in government supplied medical care. Over the past 30 years medical services in the outlying countryside have deteriorated. China will invest 850 billion yuan to supply 700,000 villages with medical clinics.

From the Guardian, writer Jonathan Watts fills us in on the Communist countries plans.

In a major overhaul, the government will also extend basic medical coverage and insurance to 90% of China's 1.3 billion people, almost a third of whom currently have to meet treatment costs entirely out of their own pockets.

Sickness is the major cause of poverty in China and frustration at expensive medical treatment has sparked protests and violence against hospital staff.

To address this dissatisfaction, the health ministry will train 1.4 million doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners to staff village clinics, in addition to the half a million healthcare workers in towns and cities.

"By 2011, we will remarkably improve the accessibility of basic medical care and healthcare services and alleviate the burden on the general public for medical costs," the vice-health minister, Zhang Mao, said.

Under plans unveiled this week, the government will also build 2,000 county hospitals and build or renovate 3,700 community clinics and 11,000 health service centres in urban areas within three years.

The central government will pay 40% of the costs, leaving the remainder to be covered by local authorities. Prices of essential medicines will be capped and the medical insurance scheme will be extended to nine in 10 people by 2011.

The stress of being poor

A new study shows a link between brain development and being poor. The new research finds that the stress of growing up poor can effect brain development. The stress of not having enough money for the next meal, the heat bill, or moving all the time because you can't afford rent can all effect brain development.

The study says that the more stress a child has the more it effects the short term memory, which is needed for classroom studies. The research was led by Professor Gary Evens of Cornell University.

From the Washington Post, reporter Rob Stien explains how the research was carried out.

"We know low-socioeconomic-status families are under a lot of stress -- all kinds of stress. When you are poor, when it rains it pours. You may have housing problems. You may have more conflict in the family. There's a lot more pressure in paying the bills. You'll probably end up moving more often. There's a lot more demands on low-income families. We know that produces stress in families, including on the children," Evans said.

For the new study, Evans and a colleague rated the level of stress each child experienced using a scale known as "allostatic load." The score was based on the results of tests the children were given when they were ages 9 and 13 to measure their levels of the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine, as well as their blood pressure and body mass index.

"These are all physiological indicators of stress," said Evans, whose findings were published online last week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The basic idea is this allows you to look at dysregulation resulting from stress across multiple physiological systems."

The subjects also underwent tests at age 17 to measure their working memory, which is the ability to remember information in the short term. Working memory is crucial for everyday activities as well as for forming long-term memories.

"It's critical for learning," Evans said. "If you don't have good working memory, you can't do things like hold a phone number in your head or develop a vocabulary."

When the researchers analyzed the relationships among how long the children lived in poverty, their allostatic load and their later working memory, they found a clear relationship: The longer they lived in poverty, the higher their allostatic load and the lower they tended to score on working-memory tests. Those who spent their entire childhood in poverty scored about 20 percent lower on working memory than those who were never poor, Evans said.

"The greater proportion of your childhood that your family spent in poverty, the poorer your working memory, and that link is largely explained by this chronic physiologic stress," Evans said. "We put these things together and can say the reason we get this link between poverty and deficits in working memory is this chronic elevated stress."

McEwen said the findings are consistent with earlier research in animals and brain imaging studies in people indicating that the body's response to stress, such as chronically elevated levels of cortisol, can adversely affect the brain, including the regions involved in working memory.

Examining microcredit in Iraq

The US is actively promoting microcredit concerns in Iraq. The US government will at times give some money to the microcredit banks to help them make more loans to the Iraqi people.

The Al-Baydaa Centre profiled in the following article makes the loans at 12 percent interest. The Centre enjoys a high repay percentage, and has only had to take one loan recipient to court. Meanwhile, another bank supported by the US closed down due to poor record keeping of the money going out.

From the Financial Times, reporter Anna Fifield tells us how microcredit operates in Iraq.

Although Iraq has huge oil reserves and large public corporations, small businesses – particularly “mom and pop” stores – comprise 90 per cent of all businesses in the country, US officials say.

Encouraging them is crucial for economic development, says David Shearer, the United Nations’ resident co-ordinator for Iraq.

“Iraq needs to develop the private sector to generate jobs,” Mr Shearer told the Financial Times.

“Our calculation is that 450,000 young people join the workforce every year but the chances of them finding employment are not high, so if this is not dealt with it will create instability.”

The business sector has been held back by an absence of strategic planning, low productivity and efficiency, and rampant ­corruption.

Credit has also been difficult to come by, especially for owners of small businesses.

As security across most parts of Iraq improves, the US is increasingly using econ­omic aid as a counter-terrorism tool.

It is funding micro-finance schemes, typically loans of a few thousand dollars given to people with between one and three employees. By the end of January, the US had made 41,728 loans totalling $59.7m.

“There is a lot of money to be made in Iraq but there is not a lot of entrepreneurial spirit,” says Jesse Levinson, of the US’s provincial reconstruction team in Salahaddin, which includes Balad.

Indonesian budget watchdog says country far from meeting MDG's

An Indonesian non-governmental group is being critical of it's government's spending to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The NGO called the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency says there has been no decrease of the poverty rate despite a tripling of the budget.

From the Jakarta Globe, reporter Anita Rachman attended the NGO's press conference.

Nine years after Indonesia took up the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, the country still had a long way to go in proving its commitment to achieving the targets, especially in the areas of health, poverty eradication and the environment, a representative of a nongovernmental group said on Tuesday.

Yuna Farhan, secretary general of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency, or Fitra, said that the country’s annual budget increases had not seen more funds allocated for those three areas.

“The government has shown little attention to the MDGs, especially on health, poverty and environmental issues,” he said at a press briefing with representatives of several NGOs, including the Association for Community Empowerment and the Indonesian Women’s Coalition for Justice and Democracy.

The MDGs were included in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which was signed by 189 heads of state and affirmed at a summit in 2005.

Indonesia has only six years left to achieve the eight targets of the program: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; ensuring environmental sustainability; and establishing a global partnership for development.

The group of NGOs evaluated the government’s work over the past five years and only found improvements in the education sector and in child mortality.

More Somali migrants drown off Yemen coast

More Somalis are feared drowned in the waters of the Gulf of Arden. The war in Somalia are driving many people out of the country, many try to make it to Europe or Asia, but rough seas sometimes stop them. 17,000 Somalis have arrived in Yemen since the start of this year.

From the Fort Worth Star Telegram we receive the United Nations report in this Associated Press story.

Dozens of Somali migrants sailing across the Gulf of Aden are missing and feared dead after one boat capsized and another ran into trouble in rough seas, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.

A smuggling boat carrying 40 Somalis capsized late Saturday as passengers were disembarking off the coast of Yemen about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Mayfa'a, where the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees operates a reception center, a spokesman said.

Twenty people made it to shore, the rest are missing, William Spindler told reporters in Geneva.

Eight Somalis are known to have died on Sunday afternoon when another smuggling boat carrying 23 passengers hit rough seas some 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Mayfa'a, he said. Thirteen made it to shore and two are missing.

"Witnesses said some of the deaths were due to suffocation after the smugglers covered the passenger area with a tarpaulin to prevent water from getting in," Spindler said.

Cambodia to see the worst increase in poverty: World Bank

A new study from the World Bank says that Cambodia will see the biggest increase in poverty in the Asia Pacific region.The study examines the effects of the global recession on that part of the world.

The World Bank blames a narrow economic base and over dependency on imports as the reasons for why Cambodia will be the hardest hit.

From the Phnom Penh Post, reporter Steve Finch breaks down the World Bank study.

Cambodia is set to be the country hardest hit this year by the global economic crisis in the Asia-Pacific region, the World Bank said today, placing the Kingdom among only four countries projected "to experience absolute increases in poverty".

In a report released today, the bank said that Cambodia - along with Malaysia, Thailand and East Timor - would see contractions in per capita income and therefore increased poverty, noting that the Kingdom's weaker GDP growth, which the bank again revised downwards to -1 percent for 2009, would slow poverty reduction across the region.

"Cambodia is the country with the largest projected increase in the number of poor people," the World Bank said.

It projected 200,000 additional people in the Kingdom this year would be pushed below the poverty line - defined by the bank as US$1.25 a day - compared to East Timor, where a further 25,000 were forecast to sink into poverty.

The World Bank in February said that Cambodia had reduced poverty from 45 percent to 50 percent in 1993-1994 - a figure that improved to around 30 percent by 2007.

The report also said that Cambodia would see the greatest GDP growth reversal in the region.

"An expansion of 10.2 percent in 2007 stands in stark contrast to a contraction of 1 percent projected for 2009," it said.

"The difference (11.7 percent) over two years is the largest in the region, and arises from a sudden drop in garment exports and tourist arrivals."

London's mayor begins a poverty fighting charity

London's mayor is asking for donations from rich individuals and corporations to provide money to start a new charity. Boris Johnson made starting a poverty fighting charity one of his campaign promises.

Statistics say that there are 600,000 children living in poverty in London.

From the BBC, we learn more of what the charity hopes to do for London's children.

The fund will spend £1.5m next year and aims to have an annual turnover of up to £20m by 2013.

"Over 600,000 children live below the poverty line and London is home to some of the most deprived boroughs in the country," said Mr Johnson.

"Like Robin Hood we want to draw riches from wealth creators to give life-changing support to the poorest Londoners."

The charity aims to invest in projects with "proven results" in tackling child poverty.

The charity's chief executive Chris Robinson said: "We have worked hard to identify what is really needed and the evidence suggests it is to back proven delivery, and to coordinate and connect services rather than suggest there is some miracle cure."

Among them are three schemes in Shoreditch, east London, which will benefit from an £8m cash injection in 2010 before being expanded in 2013.

Big Farms the next step in development for Africa?

As you might tell, we are running way behind today. Our house was without electricity this morning, and I've been invited out tonight, so we apologize for the lack of posts today.

A great article in the Guardian examines if big farms are a possibly for African development. As a part of the Guardian's 'Katine Project" series, writer Anne Perkins weighs the options.

An economist like Paul Collier is convinced that radical steps have to be taken. "African peasant agriculture has fallen further and further behind the advancing commercial productivity frontier," he wrote at the end of last year in the journal Foreign Affairs. "Based on present trends, the region's food imports are projected to double over the next quarter century." Only large scale farms, he argues, are capable of providing the investment and market access that is essential to produce the surge in food production necessary to keep up with demand.

Rubbish, says development expert Steve Wiggins. "Yes, he is correct to emphasise the need for commercial farming. But no, he is wrong to imagine that this requires doing so on a large scale. His solution is unnecessary, flies in the face of history and carries important dangers."

The Guardian's partner in the Katine project, FarmAfrica, would agree. They lined up with the International Food Production Research Institute (IFPRI) at an international conference organised by the ODI three years ago. Its findings were reviewed recently in a discussion paper where the IFPRI called for African governments to prioritise support for small farms while developing exit routes for those whose land is swallowed up by more successful neighbours.

Unlike the Collier cry for rapid commercial development, their emphasis is on organic growth. They point to the unhappy experience of attempts to impose commercial farming, with its history of poor labour standards and clumsy machinery maintenance, and a disregard for the good of the land itself.

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An experiment in Malawi is attracting world attention. A 10-year programme backed by Cru Investment's Africa Invest has acquired the leasehold of land to form two large (more than 100 ha) farms and two smaller ones. They employ local people, offering training and experience in working with new techniques and machinery, and teach skills like lorry driving and management.

At the same time, the operation supports local smallholders by buying in and marketing their surpluses at fair trade rates (it boasts of "the discipline of investment" over "aid hand-outs"). Jon Maguire, the chairman of the project, promises the villages will meet all the Millennium Development Goals within two years of start up. He claims that already he employs 2,000 people and pays well above poverty rates.

The idea behind it is that commercial investment can overcome some of the sustainability problems that dog aid projects. If the investment is economically viable, over the 10-year period of commitment – the theory goes – people involved in it will build up the expertise and knowledge to be able to take it on themselves. Alternatively, Africa Invest might renew its interest.

On paper, it has overcome all the obvious hurdles: it has security of tenure, but pays its landlords a share of the profits. It is spreading resources and knowhow throughout the community as well as contributing directly to poverty eradication. It can bring capital investment and marketing clout and it is seeking relationships with supermarkets to improve the share of the eventual sale price received by the grower. Too good to be true? Or a future for African agriculture?

Bare shelves at US food pantries

In addition, another food pantry in Nebraska is having the same problem. These stories really show how many people are having trouble feeding themselves in this recession. Those who work for food banks and related aid groups say they have never seen it this bad.

From KPTM, we learn of the situation in Omaha from this Associated Press story.

Officials with the Grand Island Salvation Army say the shelves of their food pantry are nearly bare.

Salvation Army Social Worker Mark Merritt says her organization helped a record 450 families last month. Many of those people have been laid off or seen their income drop.

A local organization called Project Hunger recently helped buy cereal and other basics to restock the pantry's shelves. But Project Hunger is having problems of its own.

The group sponsors an annual Easter Basket Extravaganza, in which it auctions off baskets of donated food. The group had hoped to auction 400 this weekend, but have only received enough donations for 100 baskets.

Jeffrey Sachs praises the results of the G-20 meeting

In his latest commentary, Jeffery Sachs praises the accomplishments of the G-20. He says that the results exceeded his expectations. Sachs attended the G-20 as a part of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's delegation.

We found Dr. Sachs commentary in the Huffington Post

The results were beyond what most, including myself, expected. IMF resources were raised significantly, to provide a liquidity cushion for global trade and production. The World Bank and regional development banks (such as the African Development Bank) were encouraged to boost lending, backed by commitments of the G-20 to raise the capital base of these multilateral banks. Taken together, the combination of new credit lines of all sorts - in effect, new liquidity - is on the order of $1.1 trillion. While this is much less than direct spending in its effect on aggregate demand, the contribution to increased global liquidity will certainly be helpful for many economies, especially emerging-market economies suffering from an intense credit squeeze since the Lehman bankruptcy last fall.

Serious progress was also made on a framework of tighter global financial regulations, including controls on executive compensation, crackdowns on tax havens, controls over hedge funds, and much-needed regulation of the "shadow banking" system (broadly meaning investment funds that depend on very short-term borrowing in forms that compete with bank deposits). There were also commitments to new forms of global cooperation in financial regulation, including procedures for removing toxic assets from bank balance sheets. The G-20 also agreed to do better in the fight against creeping protectionism.

The poorest countries, by and large, were not in the room. As usual, their plight came far behind the immediate concerns of the high-income and middle-income countries. Still, through the assiduous efforts of Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and several other leaders, there was a clear re-commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, a strong reiteration of commitments on development assistance (implying an increase in development assistance from around $120 billion in 2008 to at least $160 billion by 2010), and an intention to launch new global efforts on stronger social safety nets for the poor (led by the World Bank). There was also and innovative support for smallholder farmers to raise the food production and food security of the poor, championed strongly by the Secretary General, President Obama, and Prime Minister Zapatero.

Two crucial issues remained almost wholly off the table, and will need to be brought in sooner rather than later into future G-20 deliberations. Exchange rates were hardly mentioned, despite the fact that exchange rate adjustments are surely needed to smooth the elimination of large and unsustainable global trade imbalances. Also, the increasingly fragile position of the dollar as the world's reserve currency was discreetly ignored. Monetary policy and exchange rates played a large role in the onset of the crisis, and we will need deep reforms of international monetary arrangements in order to secure a sustainable recovery.

Here is what the G-20 agreed upon

Well, they are done. The G-20 meeting is over. Perhaps the run-up and the protest were more exciting that the meeting itself. But the leaders did make a pledge, it may help struggling economies if they act upon it.

From this Associated Press article that we found at the Daily Herald, reporter Jane Wardell tells us what came from the meetings.

World leaders pledged $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to struggling countries and agreed Thursday to crack down on tax havens and hedge funds -- but failed to reach sweeping accord on more stimulus spending to attack the global economic decline.

The biggest headline figure was the new money for the International Monetary Fund, which helps out governments that run into financial trouble from the crisis, and other development organizations to send credit to countries that have seen it dry up.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who earlier had threatened earlier to walk out if unsatisfied with the outcome, also praised Obama for helping to create consensus and persuade China to agree to publish lists of tax havens.

"There were moments of tension," Sarkozy said. "Never would we have thought to get as big an agreement."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the measures "a very, very good, almost historic compromise" that will give the world "a clear financial markets architecture."
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The G-20 leaders also said that developing nations -- hard-hit and long complaining of marginalization -- would get a greater say in world economic affairs. They said they would renounce protectionism and pledged $250 billion in trade finance over the next two years -- a key measure to help struggling developing countries.

Baseball player Dave Valle and his microcredit operation

Former Major League Baseball player and current Seattle Mariners broadcaster Dave Valle spent some time in the Dominican Republic playing winter developmental ball. While there, he noticed little children rushing to him, but they didn't arrive to get his autograph, they wanted Valle's attention because they were hungry.

After his career was over Valle returned to the Dominican Republic to begin a microcredit operation. It gives small loans to people who the banks declare unworthy of credit, to help them with their own small businesses. Valle's organization also does a lot more for the people of the Dominican, providing schools and career centers.

From the Readers Digest, writer Todd Pitock visits Valle in the Dominican Republic.

Last November, I met with Valle in the Dominican Republic to see the results of that promise, a nonprofit he and Vicky established in 1995 with $30,000 of their own savings. Esperanza, which means "hope" in Spanish, is a microcredit agency, offering short-term, low-interest loans starting at about $150 to help extremely poor people get started in business.

Although microcredit banking has been around since the 1970s, Esperanza added other elements, creating a school, a dozen computer training centers, a member-funded health care plan, a water treatment system, and a home improvement initiative. It has also spearheaded the construction of five baseball fields that would be the envy of many affluent communities in America, fitting the sport into its broader goal of community development.

We started our tour in Santo Domingo--Valle, son Philip, now 23, and Esperanza's executive director, Carlos Pimentel-and drove north over a mountain range soaring 9,000 feet, dense with thick, lush jungle.

At a glance, a visitor could be lulled into thinking that all is well in the Dominican Republic. In addition to having enchanting scenery, the country has recently experienced between 7 and 10 percent in annual growth. Modern highways sport an astonishing number of SUVs. New real estate and tourism districts, such as Cap Cana on the east coast, are positively opulent, and indeed, even the pastel colors on many shanties balanced on hillsides suggest more cheer than perhaps they should.

But they can't paint over the reality for many Dominicans. Of 9.3 million people, 2 million live on less than $2 a day. Twenty percent of girls become pregnant before they're 19, and illiteracy and crime are pervasive. Despite promising economic progress early in the decade, the nation's gross domestic product plunged 15 percent several years ago. Haiti, which shares the island that Christopher Columbus called Hispaniola when he landed there in 1492, is even worse off.

The desperately poor are, of course, Esperanza's focus--people for whom it is not a credit crunch but a crush, whose only access to capital would be through loan sharks charging usurious interest rates.

Here is how microcredit works: People with ideas for businesses get together and apply as a group for a loan, or what Esperanza calls a bank of hope. Typical ventures include sundries shops, hair salons, and roadside eateries. Members are almost always neighbors, and they pledge responsibility for one another. At twice-monthly repayment meetings, they cover for anyone who may be short, all of which fosters mutual support and obligation. Repayment rates are 98 percent in the Dominican Republic as well as in Haiti, where Esperanza launched in early 2006. Once debts are settled, borrowers negotiate new loans.

As word of Esperanza spread, the pace of lending accelerated. With 20 borrowers when it began lending in 1995, Esperanza has since dispersed almost $15 million through 75,000 loans, including nearly 21,500 active accounts in 2008. It has 2,800 borrowers in Haiti. The organization estimates that at least five people benefit from each loan in the Dominican Republic, and six in Haiti.

Canadian study on drug and alcohol abuse with aboriginals

A new study claims poverty is the cause of drug abuse amongst most Canadian aboriginals. In fact, the study says that once poverty is removed aboriginals are less likely to abuse drugs or alchohol.

From the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, writer Janet French gives us the results.

The study, to be published Thursday in the journal Paedeatric Child Health, found that after statistically eliminating risk factors, such as poverty, aboriginal kids were 20 per cent less likely to abuse alcohol than Caucasian kids.

The study's lead author, Mark Lemstra, is the director of research and evaluation for the Saskatoon Tribal Council, which represents seven First Nations in the Saskatoon area. Public health researchers at the Saskatoon Health Region were also involved in the study.

Before statistical adjustments, 16.7 per cent of aboriginal children reported abusing alcohol compared to 5.4 per cent of Caucasian kids.

About seven times more aboriginal kids than white kids said they'd used marijuana in the past year.

But when researchers compared poor kids to poor kids, and rich kids to rich kids, racial differences began to fade away. Slightly more than 30 per cent of poor aboriginal youth had abused alcohol, compared to slightly less than 30 per cent of poor white kids.

Two-and-a-half times as many poor aboriginal kids had tried pot compared to white kids.

The data comes from surveys distributed to all Saskatoon public and Catholic school students in grades 5 through 8 in 2007.

Anti-poverty group banned from attending G-20

The World Development Movement has been banned from attending the G-20 meetings. The anti-poverty group blames the British government for revoking it's ability to attend.

The World Development Movement reacts to the decision in this article from the Telegraph.

The group, which was part of last weekend's huge Put People First Alliance which held a rally in London, said the Foreign Office received a note from 10 Downing Street telling it to revoke the accreditation.

Benedict Southworth, the group's director, said: "I am outraged that we have apparently been banned at the last minute from attending the summit.

"We hope it is not what it appears to be – an attempt to stage-manage events and prevent voices of dissent and disagreement being heard.

"The only other government in the world that has banned the World Development Movement from attending a global summit is the Singapore government which has a track record of stifling voices of opposition."

Libya calls off search for migrants lost at sea

Libya says that they have stopped searching for the over 300 migrants who tried to head for Europe but didn't make it. The Africans left for Europe to try to search of jobs, after giving money to smugglers who promised to ferry them to Europe. The migrants were crammed onto tiny boats that were likely without safety equipment.

From this story in the New Zealand Herald, we hear from some of the survivors.

Laurence Hart, an official with the International Organisation for Migration in Libya, said that authorities stopped the rescue operation since chances were slim of finding more survivors from the weekend incident.

Only 20 survived when the wooden vessel with 257 people on board, mostly African migrants and including 70 women and two children - both of whom died - sunk only three hours off Libya.

Hart said aid workers heard survivors' accounts at the Twesha refugee centre outside of Tripoli on Wednesday. "Many had kidney problems from swallowing sea water because they spent eight hours in the sea," he said.

About 21 bodies were found by Tuesday morning, and several more bodies washed ashore Tuesday night, near the ancient port city of Sebrata, some 80 kilometres west of Tripoli, Hart said.

Survivors of the capsized boat said that the smuggler, an Egyptian national, died, the IOM reported. The survivors said their boat left the Libyan coast early Sunday morning, said Michele Bombassei of the IOM's Tripoli office. Three hours later the boat capsized. There have been conflicting reports on when the boat went down reflecting the difficulty of obtaining information on the furtive crossings from often-traumatised survivors.

The Egyptian consulate in Tripoli said at least 10 Egyptians travelling on the capsized boat died, according to a report in the Egyptian state news agency, MENA.

TB could "spiral out of control"

Officials from the World Health Organization are warning that tuberculosis cases could become drug resistant and "spiral out of control" They say that drugs will be of little help for the most recent version of medicines used to fight TB is 50 years old.

From this McClatchy Newspapers article that we found in the News and Observer, reporter Tim Johnson reports on the warnings issued at a health forum taking place in Beijing.

"The situation is already alarming, and poised to grow much worse very quickly," said Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization.

With Bill Gates at her side, Chan urged health officials from 27 countries at a three-day forum on drug-resistant TB to recognize the warning signs of what looms ahead, saying that traditional drugs are useless against some strains of tuberculosis and health care costs for treating those strains can be 100 to 200 times more than for regular tuberculosis.

"This is a situation set to spiral out of control. Call it what you may: a time bomb or a powder keg. Any way you look at it, this is a potentially explosive situation," Chan warned.

Gates, the software magnate turned philanthropist, said scientific overconfidence has led to a lack of innovation and urgency in fighting tuberculosis, which affects nine million people each year, killing nearly two million of them.

"The most commonly used diagnostic test is today more than 125 years old," Gates said. "The vaccine was developed more than 80 years ago, and drugs have not changed in 50 years.'

Later in the day, Gates offered a grant of $33 million to China's ministry of health to finance what he called an innovative pilot program for TB prevention that could be used in other nations. The program uses new systems to reduce pill intake, offers incentives for doctors to monitor TB, and funds development of new diagnostic tests.

China has about 1.5 million cases of TB each year. Under the pilot program, TB patients will get medicine kits with built-in reminder alarms as well as receive cell phone text messages reminding them to take their medicines.

An analysis of G-20

The IPS has a good analysis of the G-20 meetings beginning in London. The analysis largely deals with how the rich countries try to force what had worked for them on the poor countries. But this seems to go against the fact that poor countries simply have different economies, so they may require different solutions to develop their nations.

How this commentary gets around to addressing poverty if the latest statement from OXFAM. The world anti-poverty fighting group is calling on the G-20 to establish a bailout package for the poorest countries to prevent many more from slipping into poverty during this recession.

Writer Sanjay Suri says that meetings such as this are only measured by how many dollars they put into helping the rest of the world.

The G20 as a grouping of rich and emerging economies seems to represent wealth and new influence. It is expected now that countries like China and India must pay towards a reformed International Monetary Fund, in which they would then have greater say. The countries are spoken of as the new emerging entities, with little substantive thought for the hundreds of millions of the poor within them. The countries seem not to occupy the nowhere space of rich or at least now richer countries with poor people.

There is of course an acknowledgement of poverty around the world and that the G20 must do something about it – such a gathering could hardly be complete without statements of that kind. But the G20 meeting can expect to be measured by the number of dollars that are attached to those words, amid fears that the G20 meeting will be rich only in statements of the right sort.

Putting numbers to words, the international charity Oxfam has asked G20 leaders to produce a 580 billion dollars a year rescue package for poor countries made up of an immediate fiscal stimulus for the poorest countries of at least 24 billion dollars, debt relief, and fulfilment of existing pledges to increase development aid.

That sounds like a lot of money, but is a fraction of 8.42 trillion dollars promised by rich country governments to bail out banks, Oxfam says. This kind of bailout package, it says, would be enough to end global extreme poverty for 50 years and a massive step towards ending it forever.

"When you look at the amount of money that has been found for banks it seems inconceivable that G20 leaders will stand aside and allow the economic crisis to destroy poor peoples lives," Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking said in a statement. "Developing countries are reeling from dramatic declines in trade, remittances and foreign investment. Rich governments whose policies contributed to the crisis have a responsibility to help those who cannot afford their own bailouts."

Without urgent action, she said, "hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people will fall further into poverty. Losing your job is devastating wherever it happens but for millions people in poor countries, without benefits and health services to fall back on, unemployment will push them into destitution."

And yet, nobody is expecting anything like that kind of money coming from the G20, or even a small fraction of it. Or even much acknowledgement that different policies are needed for different countries.

Fighting poverty fights kidnapping as well

An al-Qaeda linked group in the Philippines terrorizes the country by conducting kidnappings for money. When the question is asked how best to stop the kidnappings, one professor says by giving the people a way out of poverty.

From GMA News of the Philippines, we learn of the views of Clarita Carlos who has researched the connection between rebellion and poverty.

“Kidnapping won’t stop unless the government provides a lasting solution, which is to address poverty in the area," Clarita Carlos, political science professor at the University of the Philippines, told GMANews.TV on Wednesday.

According to Carlos, if people’s economic needs are adequately met, they would have a higher self-esteem and would not resort to desperate acts to validate themselves, like what the Abu Sayyaf is doing now with its hostages.

“We cannot totally fault the Abu Sayyaf bandits if they are acting irrationally. Why are they getting their validation from cutting heads of people, while others validate themselves by earning graduate degrees? We should have a shared meaning of self-worth and the government must direct society toward that goal," Carlos, president of the Center for Asia Pacific Studies, said.

In her research studies, Carlos said she was able to prove that poverty breeds rebellion and banditry.

“For instance, I did a research in Quezon (province), a rebel-infested area. Sobrang hirap dun, ang putik-putik, walang kuryente, ang mga bata ang lalaki ng tiyan kasi puro bulate. [Life there was so hard, it was muddy, there was no electricity, and the stomachs of children became bloated with worms]. So how can you stop them from rebelling if they face these hardships everyday?" she said.

The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf abducted three aid workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sulu province last January 15 after the victims visited a water project for a jail in Jolo town.

Oxfam calls for bailout of the poor from G-20

Oxfam goes on record this morning criticizing all of the economic stimulus packages that the developed world have been issuing lately. The trillions of dollars could have ended extreme poverty for 50 years.

From the UK's Sky News, we learn of poverty fighting groups statement.

The £5.88 trillion promised by governments to bail-out banks would be enough to end global extreme poverty for 50 years, charity Oxfam has claimed.

G20 leaders meeting in London could make a "massive difference" to the world's poorest people by diverting a "tiny fraction" of this money to help the poor.

It would provide an economic stimulus, social safety nets and health services for those affected by the financial crisis in deprived areas, the charity said.

Oxfam was calling for a $580bn-a-year rescue package - around £405bn - for poor countries.

That would be made up of an immediate fiscal stimulus for the poorest countries of at least $24bn, around £17bn.

It would also mean debt relief and fulfilment of existing pledges to increase development aid.

Oxfam's Barbara Stocking said: "When you look at the amount of money that has been found for banks, it seems inconceivable that G20 leaders will stand aside and allow the economic crisis to destroy poor people's lives.