The Poverty Blues

INDIA

2006-07-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

Poverty is an economic condition of lacking money, food, water and education.
A lot of people are in poverty and dying. And a lot of countries have diseases. For example: India, a population of India about 1.1 billion and most of them live in poverty, they live less 1$ a day.

Let us introduce our esteemed guest commentator

2006-07-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

We are very pleased to announce that G. Thomas Goodnight, Professor of Communication and Director of Doctoral Studies at the University of California, will be commenting on the podcast that we will be recording this Friday. Goodnight is an expert on argumentation in the public sphere, and has research interests in the study of celebrity activism. It is an underwhelming understatement to say that we look forward to his participation.

rj

Reasons to support Sachs' Plan

2006-07-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

Hi, I am going to explain a little bit more why I believe that the best way to eradicate poverty is the use of huge programs, supported by outside aid (money), instead of the smaller programs that Easterlty propose.

I think that if you use little programs you can’t cover all the needs of poor countries because you have to give more importance to some issues over the others and choose which ones are you going to support with the aid and which ones are you going to leave for some years later. However, if you use Sach’s program you can try to eliminate all these problems (diseases, education, healthcare, nourishment, etc) in just one go. Once the situation of the country is enough stablish you can try to improve the things step by step.

In short, poor countries can not wait more. Each 3 seconds a person dies in Africa, if we use little programs a huge number of people will die until we can completely stop poverty. We have to end this massacre right now and the only way to do that is using big programs like Live 8 concerts.

One weekend with american family.

2006-07-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

On weekend from 14-17 of july all of Ben Franklin fellows had an opportunity to live in american family and exchange their cultures.
My weekend was one of the best weekend in the USA. The reason why it was one of my best weekend because i spend it with wonderfull people as Sonya and Graig Murray and their 3 daughters: KAtie, Becca, Addie. Katie is a dancer and she've just came back from Austria. The middle daughter Becca rides horses. She has many awards. And the younger Addie is just 8 years old but she can swim better than I am.
The Murrays are hospitable, friendly and they really like their children. On Saturday I and host family went on car race. It was amazing. I've never been on car race before and it was interesting to see how it is look like. Also we went to the Mall and Wal-mart to buy some souvenirs. On Sunday my family went to the church. After which I, Becca and Addie went to the swimming pool. And on the evening we had dinner with family's friends.
I really enjoyed to spend whole this weekend with Sonya, Graig, Katie, Becca and little Addie.

The War On Poverty

2006-07-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

Should we support the ideas of Jeffrey D. Sacks and Live8 or William Easterly?

Do we have enough power to heal divided planet?
More than 8 million people all around the world die, 20,000 die every day, and 7,500 children die of malaria and AIDs........
Are we aware of the fact that every minute we take will kill a lot of people?

Despite the decline in poverty and the reduction in inequality people has to make another steps.
Statistics have showen that the world distribution of income become more equal since 1980.
Situation in Africa is improving but still not enough.
To find out more click here.

Celebrities are helping in reducing poverty! How good is that? And what is the drawback in doing that?

If an average person wanted to help out it would take them years to get established and get press coverage. Celebrities already have the fame and popularity so they refocus it towards a worthy cause. I mean they certainly do not help only because they
feel an obligation to do that but because it helps them to improve their reputation. Ofcourse some of them really feel an obligation to do good things.
On the other hand, what is more important, is the fact that they can access the media, get out the massage in a short period of time and inform a lot of people upon the problem.
Moreover, their fans will keep coping them but this time in the way that is of extremly importance for the whole nation.
Another good point is that they often put a great amount of money into pocket of those profesionally working upon these problems , like Sacks , Easterly .....................
Most of people agree that celebrities are vacuuos and only want to get some free air time, but we should not actually care about that for the reason of benefit for those still trapped in the poverty.
"Let them have dofferent reasons, and different aims as loong as they do good things for the wnole nation on their way tithe goal.

Could you think of the drawbacks?

Among these are Bono, well knowen singer of U2 and Sir Bob Geldof, rock star. They are both members of the campaign group Debt, AID, Trade and africa.

Do Easterly and Sacks agree upon the issue?
Does Easterly has better plans in reducung poverty but can not get enough money?
Does Sacks has the many but too weak plans?
Would it be better if they worke upon the matter together?
How many drawbacks has the current situation? The Fight against the poverty?Would it be better if it was different?

Star Power?

2006-07-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

Another question that we will be discussing is the role of "celebrety advocates." The two that come to mind when one thinks of poverty relief are Bono and Sir Bob Geldoff. Should we rely on celebrety spokepeople?

On one hand, there is always the possibility that a celebrety is using this status as a gimmick to enhance his or her status. But will the public believe such a phony?

On the other hand, an individual who is motivated to do the right thing will use whatever status, qua capital, to cut through red tape and bueracracy to bring the issue to the forfront of international consciousness. Whether the organizations will follow through? That is a totally different can of worms.. .

discuss

rj

Jeffrey Sach's Plan

2006-07-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, I am eugenio and I defend a different opinion from David's one(young republican). I think Jeffrey Sach's plan is the better way to end poverty. You can read a little bit about it in these links:

-Sach's answer to Easterly's review
-Wikipedia

And that is what on the whole I defend:

-Poor countries need outside help to get out from the poverty's trap that we started years ago.
-These aid must be based on huge amounts of money from rich countries to improve their education, healthcare, economie, compannies,etc.
-I agree in the participation of celebrities like Bono or Bob Geldof to achieve that money,to collect people to fight for good causes and to set an example.

Thanks and I will add more links so you can be well informed

Fullfil

2006-07-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

The initiative would ensure promises made at the G8 summit at Gleneagles last year were kept, Mr Blair said.
The British prime minister Mr. Tony Blair warned against Africa slipping down the global priority list.
"I am under no illusions that we set very ambitious goals for Gleneagles".
Tony Blair.
He also said his main disappointment at the last G8 was that there wasn't more progress on trade reform.
After this discussion, countries are going to help more and they will fullfil their promises

Neg Case

2006-07-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Our case can be described in 2 easy points:
1. Aid doesnt help, it merely creates dependancy. Because of that dependancy, celeberties do more damage than good.
2. The only aid programs to work are piecemeal programs rather then grandiose, massive plans. Focus from celeberties must focus here instead on one big plan, mainly because big plans never work. A single solution to all sorts of problems should raise many alarms, as it fails to make sense.

Links for Critique

2006-07-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

These are the links I found to critique the Sachs/Bono plan.

1. Cato Institute Foreign Aid Links: All sorts of useful studies and scholarly material, and some more quippy articles.
2. The Easterly review of Jeffery Sachs book from 2004: Very, very useful for framing the debate and refuting Sachs.
3. The Cato Institute Refutation of Jeffery Sachs: Also very useful for refuting Sachs and his arguments.
4. Cato Institute Foreign Policy Briefing on Foreign Aid: Shows history of aid, and a view on its future.

That should be a very good start for the critique.

David

UPDATE 11:45: Guys, try using Brookings, Heritage, Cato and some of the other think tanks to look for research. They are virtual gold mines of stuff.

They need help

2006-07-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

The G8 don't have to promis to poor countries. “The G8 are doing less than half what is needed to stay on track to meet their Gleneagles commitment to increase aid to Africa by US$25 billion by 2010. They increased aid to Africa by US$1.6 billion in 2005. In 2006 - and every year to 2010 - they need to increase development assistance to Africa by $4 billion to keep their promise”, Buston said. They have to do it step by step.

Good places to start

2006-07-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our discussion on ways to end poverty. The fellows will provide more extensive links and analysis to the problem. Given the recent developments concerning the G8's decision to not fulfill the pledge made at Live 8, what role do celebrities play poverty relief, and are the strategies enacted by them as effective as assumed?

I am adding a number of links to get the ball rolling. We will be having mini debates on the subject later this afternoon.

rj

The West Cant Save Africa: Easterly's Critique of Celebrity Involvement in Poverty relief

The end of Poverty?" William Easterly's review of Jeffery Sachs The End of Poverty

William Easterly's Webpage

Debt Aids Trade Africa: Bono's organization to fight poverty

makepovertyhistory.org: A British Organization to fight poverty

Jeffery Sachs Homepage: Anti-Poverty Guru, Bono wrote the introduction to The End of Poverty. The link also goes to the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

UN Millennium Project: The Guiding force behind the efforts of Geldolf, Sachs, and Bono

live8live.com: Learn about the project, breaking news, and more