Saturday, August 22, 2009

Poverty

I'm almost done reading The End of Poverty. I have to admit, I skipped a big section in the middle in order to get the Africa chapter, and I have been skimming some of the parts that are boring to me (repeat "GDP" and "$" too often and I'm lost), but overall it's been eye-opening. It also makes me realize how much I love the idea of nations coming together despite differences to solve global problems. I want desperately to be some kind of mediator, to use my writing to voice needs to those who can help. It's incredibly frustrating to think of how comfortable a lot of the wealthy are in their wealth...how apathetic and unaware and selfish. Yet what right do I have to be angry? What do I do with what I've been given?

This was one of the craziest statistics in the book:

In 2000, the combined income of four African countries (Botswana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda--chosen because Bush visited them in 2003)--161,365,000 people--was $57 billion. In the same year, the income of the 400 wealthiest Americans was $69 billion. Even taking into account the fact that a US dollar goes further in Africa than it does in the US, there is no way to justify this extreme gap. It makes me ill to think about it, and strangely it also seems hopeful--to think that the resources exist to improve and save millions of lives, if only the wealthy are willing to sacrifice a TINY bit. I had no idea there were such straightforward, practical, and relatively inexpensive plans to eliminate extreme poverty in only a couple decades--I guess the issue lies in moving people to act on them.

Hm, I could go on for quite a while, but I'll leave it at that. It's a really good book.

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