Remembering MLK

As we remember MLK today, I invite you to check out this article which has quotes from his speech in 1967 where he addressed income inequality.

MLK's forgotten speech, accomplishing the dream by addressing poverty

Today as Americans remember Martin Luther King Jr. many will focus on the vision King so eloquently illustrated in his “I Have a Dream” speech.  However, what is often forgotten is that MLK attempted to accomplish the dream many years after he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.  The “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered on August 28, 1963.  Four years later, in 1967, MLK attempted to move the dream forward with his “Where Do We Go from Here?” speech. 

Price Increases and Strikes in Nigeria

Price increases in Nigeria - particularly in fuel - have caused a massive backlash with strikes, protests and "national paralysis."  This coming to a nation of people already stricken by limited means...

Prices and Anger Rise in Nigeria, Presaging More Strikes

After five days of strikes, protests and national paralysis over a sharp rise in the government-controlled price of fuel, Nigerians emerged from their homes this weekend to find the fragile calculus underpinning most people’s lives in the country further threatened.

Politics and Poverty in India

This article provides perhaps a look into Indian politics - specifically as they surround the subjects of poverty and the general welfare of the public.

Barun Roy: The poverty game

"Yet, in this hallowed land of democracy, the poor remain poor; farmers commit suicide because they can’t pay off their debts; villages go without electricity, safe water or passable roads; the sick are treated like dirt in public hospitals and; slums are the only shelters for millions. How’s that possible?..."

Children forced by Poverty to Work

Of the greatest tragedies of poverty is that inflicted upon children.  Children who grow up in poverty are often not only lack development such as education, but can be forced into the workforce at a much earlier age than they should be.  This tends to perpetrate the cycle of poverty - family is poor, so children must work instead of grow, which leads them to be unable to pull themselves and their family out of poverty, so their children must work...etc

This is the problem facing children in Brazil...

More than 1 million children ages 10 to 14 still forced by poverty to work in Brazil

"The Folha de S.Paulo newspaper says Wednesday that its analysis of preliminary 2010 census figures compiled by Brazil’s government statistics agency shows that more than 1 million children between the ages of 10 and 14 were working last year..."

Next Mexican President Faces Challenge

The next president of Mexico is going to face a tremendous challenge when it comes to fighting poverty...

Growing poverty looms for next Mexican president

"A battle over how to tackle poverty, which is blamed for stunting Mexico's economic development and fueling the rise of violent drug gangs, is already raging between candidates competing to succeed Calderon in a July presidential election..."

Achieving Poverty Reduction Through Fast Growth Enterprises

Last month, a group of experts came together at the International Finance Corporation to discuss the potential for small and media fast growth companies to achieve reduction in poverty and to reach the development goals.  The idea is that these are the type of companies who present the most potential for rapid job growth.

Chasing Gazelles to Achieve Poverty Reduction, Development Goals

"Thirty years of research shows that a small percentage of SMEs create the vast majority of net new jobs and GDP growth in the U.S. and Europe, but how does this translate into opportunities in emerging markets?"

The Voices of Poverty

This article is an introduction to the project called Voices of Poverty.  One of the ways we can help fight poverty is to gain an understanding how it feels to be suffering from it..

The Voices of Poverty in America

"Voices of Poverty was conceived, in conversation with the Open Society Foundations, as a way to tell the stories, in their own voices, of impoverished men, women, and children around America. My aim was to put together an audio archive containing the voices, and stories of America’s invisible poor..."

Tracking our Progress toward the MDGs

The Millennium Development Goals were established by the UN in 2000 to set specific goals to deal with health, hunger, education, equality, and sustainability by the 2015 deadline.  As we are approaching that deadline, it is good to look and see how we are doing...

Charting our progress on global poverty

"In 2000, the United Nations member states declared, "We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected."  To that end, they agreed to the Millennium Development Goals - a set of eight goals and 21 targets dealing with health, education, hunger, gender equality and environmental sustainability..."

New US Poverty Figures Misinterpreted

It appears that the new poverty figures released by the US Census Bureau were not interpreted correctly by many journalists.  The declaration of 50% of US in poverty may be a bit exaggerated.

‘Poverty Figures May Be Wrong, Journalists May Have Misunderstood Census Data’

"Recently, the U.S Census Bureau released a report that creates a new designation of “low income” in order to “better reflect the distribution of poverty in the US.”  The Associated Press ran with a headline, “Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income ,” and scores of other media outlets followed suit...But analysts at the U.S. Census Bureau district office in Los Angeles are reporting today that perhaps journalists misunderstood. and over 300 online news reports simply got the story wrong..."

In Andrha Pradesh - Almost all In Poverty

In Andrha Pradesh - a state on the coast in SE India - 95% of the population lives below the poverty line...

95 percent of people below poverty line in Andrha Pradesh

"The figures, which came up for discussion during the two-day collectors' conference held by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in Hyderabad on December 14 and 15, clearly indicate that almost 95 per cent of the state population lives below the poverty line..."

UN Looking to Social Media to Fight Poverty

The UN has brought in social media gurus to help find ways that social media channels can be used to help fight poverty.  The incredible growth of mobile communications along with the vast amount of people utilizing services like Facebook (the article points out that 157.d million Americans use Facebook), provides a vast potential for creating action with a large amount of people...

UN Seeks Help In Poverty Fight From Social Media Gurus

"Around 300 UN Development Program communications officers from about 80 countries, as well as students and NYC tech professionals, filled an expansive UN conference room for the conference “Social Media: An Outside the UN Perspective.” Here are the major points from their presentation..."

UN Development Program Reveals Funding to Fight Poverty

The United Nations rural poverty agency announced their aims to raise $1.5 billion to support their efforts to bolster living conditions of the rural poor across the developing world.

UN rural poverty agency unveils billion-dollar funding target

"With almost two billion rural people worldwide depending for their livelihoods on an estimated 500 million smallholder farms in developing countries, the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) aims to fill a crucial niche, focusing its efforts in the areas of food and income security..."

Russia - 'Caucasian Emirate' War Most Deadly to the Poor

In the Republic of Dagestan in southern Russia, the war for 'Caucasian Emirate' has many casualties, but the most vulnerable are those in poverty and ignorant of their rights.  This article talks about a human rights group that works to aid women who are caught in the crossfire.

War for ‘Caucasian Emirate’ feeds on innocence and poverty

"The Caucasian republic of Dagestan in southern Russia is one of the most volatile areas in the country. Groups of militants operating in this part of the Caucasus have strong links with Al-Qaeda, and look to draw people in while they are young.  Anti-terror raids are constantly carried out in an attempt to eradicate the problem. Although militants usually target police and government officials, terrorism has so often ruined the lives of many innocent families across the region..."

US Bishops Campaign for Poverty

US Bishops have begun a campaign in the hopes of drawing attention to domestic poverty, with a new media effort including new website, social media presence, and daily events.

US bishops' campaign draws attention to domestic poverty

"Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, who leads the bishops’ efforts to fight poverty through the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, explained that the culture of life must start with a love “that binds us to the hopes and joys, the struggles and the sorrows” of the poor and afflicted in society."

The New Supplemental Poverty Measure

Howdy Poverty News Blog readers!  Joseph here - sorry for the lag in updates.  Kale is out of the game for awhile with the family, and in juggling workloads, I've let the updates here slide a little bit.  So I'm working on fixing that, and also am being thankful for Ed Dolan, who kindly commented on the post regarding the new Census information.

Ed Dolan has a blog over at the EconoMonitor, and with a two part post he talked about the Census Bureau's new Supplementary Poverty Measure:

Understanding the New View of Poverty (1): The Erosion of Stereotypes

"Overall, the SPM does not give us all that many more poor people—16 percent of the population in 2010, compared with 15.2 for the old measure. The surprises come in how that poverty is distributed among the population..."

Understanding the New View of Poverty (2): What Helps and What Hurts

"The most important contribution of the SPM is to show that key federal antipoverty programs that official data omit play a big role in the lives of people living at or near the poverty level..."

Big thanks to Ed Dolan for the heads up and the well written articles.

Bill Gates on Aid During Economic Crisis

Last week, Bill Gates addressed the G20 Summit in France to discuss the subject of Aid - specifically about sustaining aid during severe economic crisis.  He pressed the importance of equality while acknowledging the current economic difficulties in Europe.

Bill Gates Addresses G20 Summit On Maintaining Aid During Economic Crisis

"Gates acknowledged the current economic crisis in Europe, but raised awareness of the importance of equality – that every human life in the world is worth the same, everyone deserves access to healthcare and every life is worth saving – and that a price can’t be put on humanity..."

Guatemala - President-Elect Otto Perez Molina Inherits Poverty and Crime

This week saw the election of a new president to Guatemala - General Otto Perez Molina.  The election campaign was fraught with violence and electoral law violations.  Despite all that, and the road ahead, General Otto Perez Molina may by the most well equipped man to handle Guatemala's poverty and crime issues.

President-elect Otto Pérez Molina inherits poverty, crime issues in Guatemala

"The president-elect does in fact confront a difficult situation (El Nuevo Herald, Telesur, NYT). Over 50 percent of the population lives in poverty...On the other hand, President-elect Pérez Molina probably has more going for him than President Alvaro Colom did upon taking office..."

Concentrated Poverty - US

Another book is making it's anniversary next year, this one to be the 25th for the book The Truly Disadvantaged, by William Julius Wilson in which he "described how racially isolated inner-city neighborhoods with extremely high levels of poverty perpetuated mutually reinforcing cycles of joblessness, crime, broken families, and dysfunctional schools."  This article - with respect to Wilson's works - talks about a report that was released last week on concentrated poverty.

The Resurgence of Concentrated Poverty

"The most important finding is that the remarkable progress made against concentrated poverty in the prosperous 1990s was squandered in the past decade..."

Book set to Rethink Fight Against Poverty Wins Book of the Year

Almost fifty years ago The Other America, written by Michael Harrington, set to change how American Society viewed it's poor.  That book was one of the most influential sources in sparking the war on poverty.  Today, we see books and people coming out trying to rethink what poverty means and how we can finally solve it.  These types of awards makes me think that we are on the verge of a new War on Poverty - perhaps this time we will win.

MIT's Banerjee, Duflo Win $48,000 FT/Goldman Sachs Book Prize

"Addressing topics from health to education, the authors build a shrewd yet sympathetic portrait of a problem as complex as those individuals who make up the all-too-often stereotyped poor..."

US to Define New Poverty Formula

The formula being used to calculate the poverty line in the US is about to be updated.  Aside from the issues of reducing people to a series of equations, I'm skeptical - especially after watching India's issues with this - that the redefinition of 'the poverty line' will do good.  In fact I could see it going either way.

To define poverty, US has a new (and improved?) formula.

"Until this month, the poverty line has been calculated the same way for half a century. It was developed in 1964 as part of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Ever since, a debate has ensued about how to determine who’s truly poor..."