The Chronic Problem of Poverty: Health

In my last blog, I explained political aspect of the poverty, and now I am going to talk about health aspect of the poverty. How poverty affects health? What is impact of poverty on health?

Heath and poverty have a deep relationship between them. Health is one of the standards to measure poverty. Investigated relationship between health and poverty gives us vital understanding of an inequality of medical capital on poverty. The poverty can influence directly and rapidly on a person’s health without concerning with health care coverage.

Here is some index of health on the poverty. According to UNDP, “infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide” (2007 Human Development Report (HDR), 2007). Most of the poor children are victims of poor hygiene. Almost 2.2 million are dead from lack of immune system. Also, 15 million children were orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. 1.1 billion people, who live in developing countries, have contaminated water resources in inadequate ways, and 2.6 billion people live in a condition lacking basic sanitation (UNICEF, 2004).

What can we do for solving this chronic problem? Basically, supporting medicine and medical system is common method. Yet, it is too common and It seems not to work. Therefore, instead of that common method, education is one of the efficient methods to make the poor get out from gesture of the death. If women are educated with sufficient knowledge of hygiene and health care system, 2.6 million children, who are under age of 5, can survive” (UNESCO, 2011). It is also the good method that making the poor easy to access proper sanitation for pure water. Since changing from the water that is impurity to the safe and pure water can save 5,000 poor children a day (Seager, 2006).

“Poverty is a threat to Peace”, Muhammad Yunus said (Yunus, 2007). As Yunus’s quotation, the poverty ruins one’s life. The poverty brings the serious health problems that affect one’s life significantly. Nobody can endure his or her life from serious disease. Nobody can　bear his or her life from unsanitary place. All people have a right to live humanly. Therefore we should do action for them as offering education or making proper sanitation.

Today, we have seen the health part on poverty. However DO NOT end your followed consciousness until now. As I always insist, the poverty is not only problem of hunger. It consists of multi sections such as education, politic, health, economy and so on. I want you guys to see the further aspects of poverty that you cannot recognize before.

References

Seager, A. (2006, November 10). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/nov/10/water.environment

UNESCO. (2011). Women and girls’ education "it is a right, make it right!. 1-19. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/pdf/GAW2011_UNESCO PPT.pdf

UNICEF. UNICEF, UNICEF House. (2004). State of the world’s children, 2005. Retrieved from UNICEF website: http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/sowc05.pdf

Yunus, M. (2007). Creating a world without poverty: Social business and the futures of capitalism. (pp. 1-261). Philadelphia: Perseus Books Group.

2007 Human Development Report (HDR), United Nations Development Program, November 27, 2007, p.25.

2007 Human Development Report (HDR), United Nations Development Program, November 27, 2007, p.25.

The Friday Class by Yangee

The great motivation was given in the humid class. There was no sound except for great challenge and the sound of dropping rain. What made me only write on one way? Knowledge and motivation for the challenge was given. Only choice is left. Everything is up to me. ‘Remain or Overcome?’ The last Friday’s class casted this question to me. Now, I come to the fork of a road. It is time for me, who  is standing a point, to restructure my thought.

Relationship between Developed countries and Poor nations under name of support for poverty by Yang Gee

The poor countries had been gathered and formed block. Those blocks take intensively up a position in Asia, Africa or South America. Those poor nations have been forced to receive aid from developed countries by name of ‘development’. Developed countries are insisting that only ‘development’ is the way to solve the main global problem, the poverty. In their perspective, ‘development’ is only an insurance to support society by currency, and an antidote to solve health hygiene, illiteracy and so on by investing. However, until now, development leaded by the first world’s countries could not be successful. Even it seems that developed countries want to control the poor nations under name of development. Do they really want to help developing countries to be developed? Why the poor nations cannot solve their problem even thought developed nations support them? Is the poverty really remediless? However, I think that it come from developed countries’ national interests. National interests affect politics, economic, and social aspects. Moreover, those affect policies for the poor nations to have power and control in those countries.

    

Developed countries tend to make poor nations under their feet. To do it, to support or to stop supporting are the best way to grab those countries in their hands and control. Therefore, when the poor nation stand for itself, developed countries try to suppress it not to stand for. For example, this is story of Salvador Allende. In 1970, he won the presidency in a close three-way race, formally elected by Congress as no candidate had gained a majority. Allende adopted the policy of nationalization of industries and collectivization (n.d, 2012). The USA disliked socialistic renovation of the Republic of Chile. The USA thought that if Allende’s policies success, America’s global companies’ prestige would be intervened. Thus, America stopped supporting to Chile. By doing it, the USA could control the Chile’s economic roots such as transportation, mine, and factory. It also suppressed multinational corporations or bank to refuse Allende’s policies. As a result, his policies were failed and military carried out a coup d'état (Ziegler, 2011). As we can see, developed countries want to control or dominate the poor nations. Supporting is not really from humanitarianism. It comes from their interests.

    

Besides, developed countries use starvation as weapon. Starvation is one of what should be solved problems in the poor nations. In those countries, over thousand children have been dead because of hunger. However, even this situation, developed countries abuse starvation as weapon for their national interests. One of typical example is Iraq and USA. When Saddam Hussein broke out The Persian Gulf War, even though the USA could kill the Saddam Hussein, it did not. Since the USA did not want Shiah to replace the Hussein government. Shiah was familiar with Iran which is enemy of the USA. However, time past, the USA wanted to get rid of the Hussein. Thus, UN member nations had started an economic blockade to Iraq for 10 years. This policy was based on UNSC’s illegal declaration (UN Security Council). Iraq only exported limited petroleum until compensating damage of Kuwait from the Gulf War. It made Iraq hard to buy enough provisions or medical supplies. Therefore, the Hussein admitted international inspectors to look around that whether Iraq made nuclear or chemical and biological weapons, or not for relaxed economic sanctions. However, what the USA wanted was that the Iraqi could not endure the pain of sanctions and hunger, and finally overthrew the government. According to Holiday, who served as coordinator for UN’s humanitarian supports for Iraq, until 1994, 60 thousands Iraqi children have been dead every year by lacking of medical supplies and malnutrition. It goes worse. 5~6000 children who were under 5 year old were dead per month by the economic blockade the USA leads(Ziegler, 2011). For national interests, other countries’ children can be victim. For developed countries, the poor nations’ difficulty is not a problem. Only their influence or politic and economic interests are important.

   

Many people conceive that the poor nations’ situations will be better. However, they won’t. They think supporting is the most important factor to solve the poverty. However, standing on nation’s own leg is more important. Developed countries just follow their nations’ interests. For them, trying to stand alone is a threat to nations’ interests. Therefore, they will keep threatening the poor nations not to be independent through stopping supports or an economic blockade. Those threats disguised as supports makes poor nations’ poverty problem go worse. Haven’t the poor nations’ been enough threatened? We should pay attention to the poor nations not to be threatened by developed countries. Poverty is global problem what we have to solve, furthermore, a human duty to make the world better place. Politic and economic interests’ intervention must be disappeared. Therefore, what we should do for them? What can it be helpful for the poor nations to reduce poverty rate? For me, continuous attention towards the poor nations and monitoring the policies of developed countries are the best ways to solve poverty issues. And we should help the poor nations to develop themselves through their own resources. Those methods will help developing countries feel free from the developed nations. What do you think guys?

Reference

Salvador Allende. (2012). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende
Ziegler, J. (2011).La faim dans le monde expliquée à mon fils. (2 ed., p.1- 74). Seuil.

Map Drawing Exercise by Yangee

Let’s go back to our second class. Prof. Stan ordered us one task, to draw the world map in a few minutes. We began to draw it as much as we could. After finishing it, we compared our own pictures with each other to find out what difference was in them. Of course, notifications we had were different each other. For me, however, different perspective toward method of drawing the map was really interesting. At that time, everyone was given a same question but all of their drawings were totally different. Some students tried to draw specifically, and usually they were able to draw only one country in time; they couldn’t draw the whole world. Others drew the whole map although their drawings were somewhat ambiguous. In this situation, I questioned what affects one’s perspective toward every issue, and what made us approach the same issue in different ways. I believe that there are two big reasons: people have desire to be different or to be unique compared to other people, and environment around them affect a lot too.

First of all, everyone has desire to be seemed differently compared to others to be unique in the society. All people try to resemble each other in the society for a stable life. However, they want to keep their own characters and perspectives individually as well. In the deepest of our mind, we desire to be distinguished from others to feel like living as individuals in the society. For example, in society, we try to behave same like others to collaborate with the society’s people where you are involved in. However, on the other hand, we hope to be distinguished by wearing different clothes, having special hobbies or insisting other opinions. According to my experience, whenever I discuss something, I always want to mention special argument in a different way what others wouldn’t say. I also feel that I am not only one in the world whenever I look at someone who wears same clothes like me. It makes me think that I am common and nothing special. This is weird but even this tiny thing affects my feelings as unique or common. Therefore, this desire influences our behavior and thought.

Besides, the environment what we have grown up affects one’s point of view. Despite it is common fact when we think about this kind of questions. It takes major reason of this discussion since it is obvious reason to influence one’s standpoint. For example, even though here are many Koreans in GS, they think the same thing differently in spite of the commonness of their national, educational, and historical backgrounds. It means that even a small part of someone’s environment affects one’s perspective a lot, making us able to see a point of difference clearly between them. Here is another example. From my experience, my sister and I share almost the same conditions, which are the method of bringing up their children by our parent, education, and so on until now. But her and my viewpoints are totally different. She usually views something widely and I see something narrowly. Therefore, I think environment is one major point affecting one’s view.

Even if there are still many factors that determine our perspectives, in my perspective, eagerness to be different, and the conditions around us are the two major facts that influence it. I believe these are the best answers for my question.

Yang Ji Cheol