Clipmarks | abailart's 'poverty' clips

Poor Americans

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:41:16 GMT

clipped by: abailart

A man who described himself as a conscientious worker who has always pinched his pennies wrote the following to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont:

“This winter, after keeping the heat just high enough to keep my pipes from bursting (the bedrooms are not heated and never got above 30 degrees) I began selling off my woodworking tools, snowblower, (pennies on the dollar) and furniture that had been handed down in my family from the early 1800s, just to keep the heat on.

“Today I am sad, broken, and very discouraged. I am thankful that the winter cold is behind us for a while, but now gas prices are rising yet again. I just can’t keep up.”

A 55-year-old man who said his economic condition was “very scary,” wrote: “I don’t live from paycheck to paycheck. I live day to day.”

working Americans have been taking a real beating, said Senator Sanders.

millions of Americans have lost health insurance coverage, lost pensions, and become deeply mired in debt.

Tags: poverty

The Stings of Poverty

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:15:22 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks: Article about an argument by Charles Karelis that traditional economics do not apply to poor people.

He outlines his argument in The Persistence of Poverty: Why the Economics of the Well-Off Can't Help the Poor.

Clip Source: www.boston.com

In the community of people dedicated to analyzing poverty, one of the sharpest debates is over why some poor people act in ways that ensure their continued indigence.

Karelis, a professor at George Washington University, has a simpler but far more radical argument to make: traditional economics just doesn't apply to the poor. When we're poor, Karelis argues, our economic worldview is shaped by deprivation, and we see the world around us not in terms of goods to be consumed but as problems to be alleviated. This is where the bee stings come in: A person with one bee sting is highly motivated to get it treated. But a person with multiple bee stings does not have much incentive to get one sting treated, because the others will still throb. The more of a painful or undesirable thing one has (i.e. the poorer one is) the less likely one is to do anything about any one problem. Poverty is less a matter of having few goods than having lots of problems.

Tags: poverty, charles karelis, sociology, economics

Haiti’s poor resort to eating mud as prices rise

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:21:45 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums and Charlene Dumas was eating mud.

With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies.

Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

Still, at about 5 cents apiece, the cookies are a bargain compared to food staples. About 80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day and a tiny elite controls the economy.

Tags: haiti, food, poor, diet, poverty

Blaming the Poor for Poverty

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:38:52 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Social attitudes are ever-changing. So who is up and who is down now we are a supposedly more tolerant nation?

As little as two decades ago, many Britons frowned on sex before marriage, single mothers and gay people.

But there is no corresponding shift in attitudes towards immigrants and the poor.

This begs the question: can we be simultaneously tolerant and intolerant? Chris Creegan, one of the report's authors, believes that we pick and choose who to approve or disapprove of. We tend to like those with whom we have regular contact, and be less understanding of those whom we don't.

While one-third of the 3,000 people surveyed still believe that poverty is "an inevitable part of modern life", a rising number lay the blame squarely on the poor themselves - 27% think that poverty is due to "laziness or lack of willpower", up from 19% in 1984.

Separate lives

Tags: poor, poverty

Tribalism, Violence and Poverty

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:17:09 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: The suggestion is that people being ruthlessly exploited by an appeal to their traditional loyalties will, in times of confusion and suffering, shelter first in their family, then in their 'tribe'.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

"Tribal violence spirals in Kenya," screams the front page banner in the International Herald Tribune. "Kenya plunges into interethnic violence," says Le Monde.

But headlines can be misleading.

A more complete headline might be: "Tribal differences in Kenya, normally accepted peacefully, are exploited by politicians hungry for power who can manipulate poverty-stricken population."

The reality of life on the world's poorest continent is that most people live a marginal economic existence and rely enormously, for survival, on those nearest to them.

Rural villagers rely on each other, for example, to bring in the crop, or to share food in difficult times.

Urban dwellers often organise themselves to provide common services like schools because their governments are either too poor or too incompetent to deliver.

In these circumstances the people nearest to you - whom you can trust - are first, family, and second, tribe.

Tags: tribalism, violence, poverty

Poverty is not a crime!

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:08:13 GMT

clipped by: deadcowkid
clipper's remarks: Click on Source to watch short video.

Clip Source: humanityforhomeless.blogspot.com

Poverty is not a crime!

Robert Norse speaks about human rights, poverty and the society which we live in. Sound track is a clip from Sunday December the 9th 2007 on Bathrobespierre's Broadsides radio show which can be streamed at www.freakradio.org. or on 101.1 FM. Show times are Thursdays 6 - 8 pm & Sundays 9:30am - 1:30pm.
Civil rights for the poor with Robert Norse Bathrobes Pierre's Broadsides also archived at http://www.freakradio.org/archives.html

Robert is Founder of HUFF Homeless united for friendship and freedom.

Tags: poverty, internet radio, sleeping rights, homelessness, direct action

Soup Kitchens: good or bad?

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 08:07:15 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Gary is one of an estimated 500 people who sleep rough every night in England.

"It's really horrendous. Believe me, it's freezing," he says.

"You go to bed freezing and you wake up shaking in the morning. And that's even with a sleeping bag. And you see people without sleeping bags, and they're just shaking all night. They don't sleep."

"It's vital because most people would die if they didn't have soup runs."

But according to Westminster City Council, soup kitchens are drawing former rough sleepers out of hostels and back onto the streets.

Conservative Angela Harvey, the council's cabinet member for housing

"When you see 50 to 80 people waiting for a soup run, they are not homeless people by and large.

"The majority will not be rough sleepers... you see them going off with large carrier bags stuffed full of food which is for them and their house mates. We know they are in work and housed."

We feed our homeless people on the streets. It is barbaric

Big Issue founder John Bird

Tags: homelessness, poverty

Forgotten Crises: The Top Ten Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2007

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 06:03:10 GMT

clipped by: deadcowkid

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

Forgotten Crises: The Top Ten Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2007

The group Doctors Without Borders has released its list of the top ten most underreported humanitarian stories of 2007. The list highlights the plight of people in places races ranging from the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Chechnya and elsewhere. As we approach the end of 2007, we take a look back at these forgotten crises with Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of Doctors Without Borders-USA. [includes rush transcript]

Tags: optional. separate by commas., dignity, fair reporting, freedom, human rights, justice, poverty

We've got to know poor people personally

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:32:43 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Or we aren't credible saying what causes poverty

Clip Source: speakingoffaith.publicradio.org

Rev. Wallis: Well, we have these three obstacles. One is, the poor have not been a priority. Two is, we have a debate about strategy. And three is the real one: We don't know poor people. Liberals or conservatives don't really know. Poor people are utterly segregated. They don't live all over the country; they live only in certain places. And, you know, until poor people are our friends, not just the objects of our concern on the liberal side or the people who are to blame for their own misfortunes on the conservative side, how can anybody say that out of wedlock birth and family breakdown and addictions are not a causal fact of poverty? How can anyone say that not affording health care and having no affordable housing to — and having education that doesn't educate aren't causes of poverty?

Tags: religion, poverty, poor, progressive, christianity, politics, evangelical, conservative

The Cure For Homelessness?

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 19:21:05 GMT

clipped by: sahara

Clip Source: www.coolest-gadgets.com

I’d never of thought you could build a multi-story house out of cardboard but that’s exactly what Col James of Stutchbury and Pape architects has done. It just goes to show what can be achieved when you think outside the box :).

The cardboard house will come in a kit (imagine what you can make with the packaging) and is made up of 100% recycled goods, the majority of which being cardboard. The leads to a very cheap and environmentally friendly house. I can see houses like this being really useful in times of dire need as a mean of emergency accommodation.

The house is obviously water proof (who wants to live in a soggy mulch), and cleverly stores water in bladders underneath the floor which gives the structure a bit of weight.

Clip Source: www.housesofthefuture.com.au

The Carboard House is made of recycled carboard supplied by Visy Industries.

Environmental features

Uses 85% recycled materials

Recycling the house saves 12 cubic metres of landfill, 39 trees and 30 000 litres of water

Extremely low cost, transportable, and flexible,

Tags: housing, future, homeless, poverty, environment

Thanks, Kids!

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:42:04 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.sacredearth.com

Globalization means we in the West can enjoy cheap goods derived from the developing world - often thanks to the labour of children, who earn next to nothing for the sacrifice of their childhood and who thus forgo any chance of even the most basic education. Whether it is cheap clothes from Walmart or cheap coffee beans or chocolate bars - our luxuries are made affordable by their poverty.

are theses poor children the lucky ones? For each child that lives in such deprived conditions there are hundreds more that die before they are old enough to work, either because of lacking sanitation or sheer hunger, or who have lost their mother while she gave birth to a sibling, or who are born with AIDS.

http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/
http://www.freethechildren.org/getinvolved/geteducated/childpoverty.htm
http://www.antislavery.org
http://www.stopchildtrafficking.org http://www.childtrafficking.com

Tags: poverty, childhood

12 year-old Kills Herself Over Pair of Shoes

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 08:38:01 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: More sad human truth behind the world's 'booming economy'.

Clip Source: news.independent.co.uk

All she wanted was a bicycle, a pair of new shoes and to be able to finish her schooling. But her family was dirt poor, and eventually the 12-year-old Filipina girl grew so demoralised that she hanged herself.

Mariannet Amper left a letter under her pillow describing her failed hopes and aspirations. Her family also found a diary in which she described the privations of a life with no money in Davao City, on southern Mindanao island.

The night before she killed herself with a nylon rope in their modest hut, which has no electricity or running water, Mariannet had asked her father, Isabelo, for 100 pesos (about £1) for a school project. But he had no money.

In the Philippines, nearly 14 per cent of the 87 million population lives on less than a dollar a day, despite government claims that the economy is booming.

Tags: phillipines, poverty, economic lies

Parable of the Fishes

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:51:40 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Economic 'regulation' aside, rich western world consumers throw away a thgird of their food every day.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The UK fishing industry is warning it faces ruin because of EU quotas which result in thousands of tonnes of dead fish being dumped back into the sea.

It says fishing crews often continue catching large amounts of fish, such as cod, by accident after exceeding quotas and have no option but to dump them.

The practice leaves crews struggling to make a living, while damaging hopes for sustainability, say environmentalists.

"It doesn't make sense when we have people in this world dying of starvation."

"It's your livelihood and you spend your life trying to catch it and then you have to throw it back over the side. It's an impossible situation and, unless it is sorted out soon, we will all be finished."

Tags: starvation, poverty, economics, sustainability

How Come Poor Are Treated Like Dog Poo?

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:27:54 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Christmas is coming, again. Catalogues the size of telephone books weigh down posties with promises of useless gifts for those who have everything. For those with minus nothing, the season of unbearable debt begins here. Hardest is the fate of Farepak savers, who lost their money when the £38m Christmas hamper and voucher company went bust in 2006. About 150,000 low-income savers lost an average of £400

Administrators have already charged £2.7m, and Farepak's victims have been told to expect only 5p in the pound of their savings back. That's an average of £20 for a £400 loss

Northern Rock savers. How come £18bn or more was punted up pronto when politicians and bankers saw middle England savers queuing outside bank branches - yet there was no mere £38m for Farepak?

Tags: poverty, debt

Slave Child Labour and Our Clothes

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:41:13 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Article concerns head-on address to the story from Gap. Not sure this one instance is a 'one-off', but may stand as a reminder of how horribly expensive the cheap goodies that fill our high streets may be,

Clip Source: observer.guardian.co.uk

Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for Gap Kids, one of the most successful arms of the high street giant.

Speaking to The Observer, the children described long hours of unwaged work, as well as threats and beatings.

The discovery of the children working in filthy conditions in the Shahpur Jat area of Delhi has renewed concerns about the outsourcing by large retail chains of their garment production to India, recognised by the United Nations as the world's capital for child labour.

According to one estimate, more than 20 per cent of India's economy is dependent on children, the equivalent of 55 million youngsters under 14.

With endorsements from celebrities including Madonna, Lenny Kravitz and Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, Gap has become one of the most successful and iconic brands in fashion.

Tags: clothing, child labour, poverty, economics