The conditions in Poverty (No.6)

Mayumi

          Today I am looking on the conditions that people faced because of poverty.

         We see on dramas that being rich is unhappy and being in the condition of poor is happier. I thought that is it really true? Many questions come to my mind. Well, it is hard to think about it unless we experience to be so. As I said about the children doing their best, doing works at young age. Do you think poverty life starts because people are born poor? Is that the reason why children need to work? Maybe the answer is yes and some no. Yes in a way from what I see there are some parents rely on their children to save them from the situation poverty. No, in the way that even though parents are in the poor state they tried to borrow money and tries anything just to lead their children to schools.

          Letting children to education is one way to have development (Jo,2012)[1]. There will be improvement in a way that they could have the opportunity to choose their dream and to have those dreams come true. Being poor make us stronger to do our best to carry on for a better life. In contrast they also make us feel miserable in a way that they can’t carry on the situation of being poor which leads to no progress. The importance of education is to learn how to write and read (Hariss, 1999)[2]. Learning these elements will make the children do the daily needs to the social world.  We may not think about it yet but we can think about it as we grow older. For those children who are not lucky to have a parent to send those to school are people who experience poverty in later life. This kind of condition is hard to solve that even if they want to avoid the state of poverty because they do not have the chance to.

         People facing poverty for some reasons is losing a job that leads to lack of money of what they need for themselves and for their family. Having no jobs makes us think what are we going to have for our living? The suffering of lack of daily necessities for their livings is lying on whether they can afford it or not (Hariss, 1999)[3]. Many people want to find job for better life but it is hard because there is less compensation on the jobs available for they don’t have the education needed for the job with good salary. Still the problem of poverty just goes by cycle as we face this problem if we are not eager to do our best. We should have some solutions about this and make improvements to the people who are experiencing poverty.

         As I said education is needed but how can we afford the expenses for education when we are at the state of poverty. The government of the country should make action and we need their help to solve it as soon as possible. We still have to know what really poverty means to us and why they really occur I will tell more as I could to find those answers.

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[1]Jo, B. & Bourdillon, M. (2012). Childhood Poverty: Multidisciplinary Approaches. Oxford University.

[2]Hariss, M. and Hatano, G., (1999). Learning how to read and write.CambridgeUniversity.

[3]Ibid.

Children in Poverty Part 2 (No.5)

Note: This part 2 is the continuation of the children in Poverty (no.4) so you should read the first story to understand this part 2. Now I am talking about children living in a place called “the Smokey Mountain.”

Have you ever heard about the Smokey Mountain? It is located a place called Payatas; the Quezon City, Manila is where the Smokey Mountain can be seen[1]. Payatas is being a dumped of garbage in the Philippines for a long time according to my teacher in senior high “they are mostly from the other countries.”[2] Now it is so called the successor to Smokey Mountain[3] in the way accumulated garbage are formed.  Taking a view in the Figure 1 it is a heap of garbage which takes almost an area, looking like a mountain[4]. These is made out of 3000 tons of garbage daily by truck[5]  which means the amount of coming garbage just heaps up and up. This kind of daily living is not good for the people and the country itself in a way to have a happy life.

 

[6]

 Figure 1

Can you imagine that people lives here?

Well, the answer is yes. People lives here because of no money to have a place to pay on.

[7]

Figure 2

Poverty is making things difficult to live. The living of children is being hard and still we have nothing to do for them as we move on to their livings. Children in the Philippines do collecting of garbage to feed their family.[8] The collecting of garbage may be easy to see. But when we try to do it, it is not. Having money is hard. Bringing these heavy things will not give them the money they needed it is just a way to live for a day.

         

   [9]

 Now look at these two children.   These two children are working in the Smokey Mountain. They are collect trashes like cans, plastics, rubbers and more which can be recycled. This trash can be sold at the recycled shops. They do these jobs because they want to afford food for their family. Without money they can’t afford their daily needs for example food, clean water, clothes and etc. Working in the contaminated area is not good for children. Children should not be flush on polluted areas like dump area. Breathing in the bad substances in the place may cause them some diseases that may affect their health.[10] Let just say, “They are suffering from poverty!” Can’t you here that?  Poverty still intervene the happiness of children. The sufferings of having no money because of having no chance to pay the bills in case they got seek in case of troubles.

              Children are poverty’s innocent victims because their voice is rarely counted and, too often, discounted because they cannot vote for their own. They cannot form assemblies or petition authorities for programs that could alleviate some of the conditions they are suffering. The way we think today is still sweet that we could still have 3 times meals.

 Hope you enjoy reading this. See you at the next blog.

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[1]Payatas Garbage Dump. Retrieved November 11, 2012, from http://www.pbs.org/kcet/globaltribe/countries/phi_payatas.html

[2] This fact is been taught to me by my geography teacher when I was in High school.

[3] (2007, August 7). Payatas- Trash City. Retrieved September 11, 2012, from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/hans2463/architecture/2007/08/payatas_trash_city_in_the_phil.html

[4] Payatas Garbage Dump. Retrieved November 11, 2012, from http://www.pbs.org/kcet/globaltribe/countries/phi_payatas.html

[5] Ibid.

[6] Pictures are got from this web: http://www.philippine.me/paruparo/21

[7]   Payatas Garbage Dump. Retrieved November 11, 2012, from http://www.pbs.org/kcet/globaltribe/countries/phi_payatas.html

[8] Coren, A. CNN. Scratching out a life on Manila's Smokey Mountain. April 05, 2010.Retrieved on November 11, 2012: http://articles.cnn.com/2010-04-05/world/philippines.smokey.mountain_1_coal-mine-rubbish-plastic_s=PM:WORLD

[9]Ibid.

[10]         Illnesses caused by Garbage Pollution. Retrieved from: http://garbagepollution.weebly.com/illness.html.  November 11, 2012

Children in Poverty (No.4)

“Poverty is the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions”.[1]

 What is the matter even your poor? Poverty for me is hard to think. We may think of that it is all about money. What is the reason that we see poverty the thing I am going to introduce?

 For me poverty makes people suffer from hunger, thirst, illness because there are no hospitals to go or no money to pay for the medical fees. Children experiencing poverty are people who also longs and would want to have education like children who goes to school. Now I am going to tackle mainly on children who are suffering from poverty and show some pictures of them.

  [2]

Look at these two children. Do you think they want to live this way? These two children living and sleeping on the street are called "street children". According to the news the number of street children increases globally.[3] Street children works hard to get some money for their family, they do rags, pickers, beg from people on the street, children who works underage etc., While the latter include children who loiter in the street, many of whom later become anti socials, juvenile delinquents, drug peddlers and pick pockets.[4] Do you think it is good for children to do these things? Children working without education are one of the many reasons that cause poverty. The reasons are when they get less or no education it will be very difficult for them to find job that offers good salary, with that how will they be able to support themselves as well their families? Poverty is one factor that may trigger these people to do bad things like stealing because they don't have money to buy food or to get the things they needed. Street children are increasing globally which simply means that there are more children suffering from hunger, these results to children who are dying from it.[5]The number of children who suffer from hunger and poverty these days is increasing every hour, every minute and even every second.    

Can't you see it is horrible to know that many people are now having a great time without any worries while there are millions of children who are dying to eat a piece of bread for their hungry stomach. Maybe we should realize how lucky we are and be thankful for everything we have and share if we can to those children suffering from hunger in the countries part in the Southeast Asia, Africa and other part of the world suffering from poverty.

　As we live today in the world without balance. We may think on a way to solve this problem. “In particular we can see many aspects of poverty”[6] we have to see those things and make actions. It is because poverty is anywhere in the part of the world. I want to learn more about it and try my best to introduce it to you all well. Thank you.

By Mayumi

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[1]   (Unknown). Poverty. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/473136/poverty. [Last Accessed 20 October 28].

[2]     Street Children. May 28, 2010. Retrieved from: http://childrenaregift.blogspot.jp/2010/05/street-children.html. October 20, 2012. 

[3]                 Ibid.

[4]                 Ibid.

[5]             See more at this site   http://www.poverty.com/ . Retrieved on October 22, 2012

[6] Ruth Lister, (2004). Poverty. UK: Polity press.

All about Poverty 3 by Mayumi

All about Poverty No.3

Did you all see the cause of poverty to the children in the world?

I am concentrating on the issue of poverty in Asia because I myself came from an Asian country.  As we all know not all Asian countries suffer from poverty, but there are a lot of countries that also suffers from it. According to the web Japan, Korea is not experiencing poverty unlike Cambodia, Bangladesh, India and many more.[1] Now, let us see how the poverty is really a big problem for our future. Japan cannot be seen as one of the countries suffering from poverty or hunger as we see in the map. I feel that the people living in that country are lucky but sometimes selfish to act as if we do not to care with other countries that suffer from poverty.

[2]

You can see in the map which country is in the condition of poverty or in the state of poverty. Japan has no data much about poverty. I think it is because the way they took care of their people. They have the rule that makes their people well balanced. How? Well, by having the”義務教育” read as “gimu kyou-iku” or in  English “Compulsory Education” it is a rule that all children must finish their schooling until junior high school. [3] Many countries adapt this kind of organization and it could be the way to escape from poverty. France, Finland, Germany and many more as we can see most of the countries are developed country. Most country who is developing countries mostly suffers in poverty lack of food, clean water, daily necessities and medicines. There are many children, innocent man woman suffer from hunger. As you can read repeatedly do you recognize how lucky you are? See this picture

[4]

The child is eating the food from the ground his mother died from hunger and that he do not have anything to eat. Can you believe a child is also doing the things he could do just to live? We should look at ourselves that we have more as we have. We have our parents who support us. We could eat, drink clean water and of course have a shelter and warm family to rely on. See the child holding up the food without worrying whether the food is clean or not. While we are here in Japan, there is many food e.g. leftovers being thrown each day or even whole year.

Reflecting back here in Japan I did not think imagine eating a food from the trash or from the street grounds. We usually eat our food in our tables at home from a plate. We must think an idea to reduce the suffering of these young children who are wishing for a warm and kind hand to rely on. The way to solve this is still hard to do as the economy of each country changes and the people who are responsible for the help is difficult because handling their own family is difficult to. Life differs in each part in the world. We see each part of the world in different aspects. We may be enjoying at this time while we are eating and other is suffering in hunger dying for thirst and suffers from the heavy illness that can’t be cured

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[1] World Poverty, a look at causes and solutions: Poverty in Asia, caste and progress. Retrieve July 18, 2012 from http://world-poverty.org/povertyinasia.htm

[2] Retrieve July 19, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Percent_poverty_world_map.pngb

[3] See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_education

[4] Picture Retrieved July 23, 2012 from http://meditation.dmc.tv/peace/Core-Value-4-That-good-bad-actions-have-karmic-results.html  

About Poverty part 1 by Mayumi

We read about Area studies to know the way people how they do their studies on language, culture, customs and more. During the War and conflicts just to colonize the country. After that war Area Studies research of Russia, European countries and America about Southeast Asia led to many studies in language, culture, and strategy of adapting new knowledge. But still it is difficult to explain how or when it had started.

Now I am talking about poverty is one of the biggest problems in world today and we have to make actions. Poverty is a state of being poor who can't afford their shelter, food and even clean water. As the economy goes up and down the gap between rich and poor also goes bigger and bigger. It is common to us to have poverty because many people work hard just to move on from that situation. Many people die hour, minute and second because of hunger, thirst and sickness because of no doctors to go to or they do not have enough money to pay. For more than a decade now issues of poverty, deprivation and social exclusion have commanded much attention from researchers and policymakers in the EU countries.

The reason of poverty situation and factors are because of lack in education, people who could not go to school because they could not afford for the tuition fees. People who are unluckily born in the situation that they cannot afford the necessities to have their needs. The overpopulation in the country that could cause poverty it is because they can't afford the things they want to supply for their family. This problems could be find in anywhere in the world for example people suffering from the disasters, in their own country like some countries in the Southeast Asia there are lots of natural disasters like flood, typhoon that destroy their crops and earthquakes that causes a lot of refugees.

The solution to solve poverty is first, to introduce scholarships for people who want to learn that they would do their best to have the improvement to change the trend of knowledge to improve the suffering from poverty. They could follow the way Japan for example they have the rule that children should go to school until Junior High School with this children do not need to work with their young age.

Second is giving job opportunities for those people with proper benefits and fair treatments. People who do not have job usually suffer because they do not have the money to supply food or necessities for his family and erasing the inequality of income. This factors are may also lead to poverty. The gender inequality is still a big problem people who are man or woman differs in income that may also lead to the gap of rich and poor. Single mother also suffer in this situation they cannot afford the tuition fees of their children.

Finally, banks can help reduce poverty by having a project in which they lend to poor people money and let them return it with a low interest. Many people suffer from debts that lead them to poverty because of the big interests that banks add when poor people making loans. The economy in each country goes high and low that is why we also need banks to support poor people. We could also follow the way in Area studies by the way of America do to help the people in Southeast Asia by getting the scholar in each country it helps the people in the Southeast Asia to find job.

I am interested about poverty because I hope that one day the gap between rich and poor will be stable. We need to solve the primary factors that may lead to poverty include overpopulation, the unequal distribution of resources in the world economy, inability to meet high standards of living and costs of living, inadequate education and employment opportunities, environmental degradation, certain economic and demographic trends, and welfare incentives. These will also affect us in the near future without knowing that we are already down to debts and we may also suffer from hunger or we may meet some disasters.

I believe that someday we can decrease the number of people who are suffering from hunger by making some scholarships, finding jobs for people who do not have and to persuade the people for more equality in gender, race and religion. We must solve the problem to show that we care not just for ourselves but also for others. We can solve the problem by discussing and knowing more about our own environment just like studying first at the Southeast Asian countries who are one of suffering from poverty.