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SlowwHand
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of The Cooler
Sep 1999
time: 23:37
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This is not a frivilous thread.
It's not one that anyone will be able to draw me into a debate over.
I saw another thread, asking about how it is in a particular country.
This is how it is, if you're not a visiting or transported Westerner. To ask someone who's there and is such, that's a little frivilous.
If you live in the USA or UK, or many other places, and think it's tough, it's not by comparison.
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While 600 million children under the age of 18 lack access to one of these basic human needs, more than 350 million are deprived of two or more of these needs, said Growing up in Asia, a report from the child humanitarian organization Plan.
Plan said half of Asia's families are not benefiting from economic growth and globalization. It blamed the pressure of rapid population growth on scarce resources; lack of access to education, healthcare, clean water and sanitation; caste discrimination; and weak governance and corruption.
"Asia has more than twice as many severely deprived children as sub-Saharan Africa. This scale of child poverty will have a serious impact on Asia's future prospects, unless it is addressed now," Michael Diamond, Plan's Asia regional director, said in a news release.
The report said that to combat poverty, the international community needs to reduce subsidies given to U.S., European and Japanese farmers and forgive billions of dollars in debt. It also said richer countries could help by paying more for the goods they buy from developing countries.
Plan has pledged to invest $1 billion on poverty reduction across 12 Asian countries over the next decade.
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On the Net:
http://www.plan-international.org
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Lancer
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Oregon Coast, USA! or Bohol, Philippines!
Apr 1999
time: 05:37
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quote:
Originally posted by SlowwHand
There's not one reason why anyone in the world should go to bed hungry at night.
As one of the "big dog's" in the world, we need to realize we might have certain obligations, in a limited scope, for a limited time frame.
Can't draw the line at hunger, but for the purpose of this discussion we will.
Teach them to fish, don't give them dinner for eternity. |
In the Philippines the ocean is becoming severely depleted of fish.
When I'm in the Philippines I provide alot of people with food. Even when I'm not my wife and I send money home that provides for family. It's just a temporary fix for a few people. The problem is too many people. What's the fix for that?
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Rufus T. Firefly
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is one way of saying it, though I prefer "mensch"
Sep 2000
time: 07:37
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quote:
Originally posted by Lancer
In the Philippines the ocean is becoming severely depleted of fish.
When I'm in the Philippines I provide alot of people with food. Even when I'm not my wife and I send money home that provides for family. It's just a temporary fix for a few people. The problem is too many people. What's the fix for that? |
Overpopulation is definitely one of the big problems. Absence of environmental controls is another (in the Phils, dynamite fishing is still common, which not only depletes the fish stock but also damages the coral reef -- thus putting the tourist industry as well at a relative disadvantage). And let's not forget corruption; it may not be as egregious as it is in Africa, but Asian governments can be shockingly corrupt, and that often takes the form of siphoning aid money into someone's pocket, or selling for gain aid items that are supposed to be given away free.
One of the other big problems in Asia, though, is a very weak notion of the Common Good. Interpersonal relations are much stronger in Asian societies than in the West, but that carries with it a corollary: people who are not a part of one's web of interpersonal relations are treated as if they don't exist (anyone who has ever driven or stood in line in Asia knows how this works...). The Asians in the best position to help these kids generally won't, because the kids are nothing to them. Alas, there's no quick fix for ingrained cultural attitudes.
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Drogue
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Omnipresent conscience
Oct 2002
time: 05:37
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quote:
Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I suspect the backing of this group. Anyway who says that removing Western farm subsidies will help the 3rd world is either in Agrobiz counting the dollars to be made exporting to the West or one of their stooges.
Right now, those countries produce food for their local markets |
No they don't. Go to a market in Somalia, or Guatamala, or any developing nation. They sell Italian tomatoes, EU fruit and vegetables, banana's from US corporations. Why? Because we dump them, in order to get some money back for them, making them cheaper than the local produce.
Remove that and not only will they export, they'll start consuming their own goods. Remove that and we'll start to see schools appear. Hospitals even. We'll start to see people have the capital to become skilled. Why is it that coffee producers are paid so little? Because the profit goes to those that roast the beans, that combine the raw product with industry. Removes the subsidies, and they have the capital to build coffee roasting industry and take the profit for themselves, rather than letting western corporations walk off with it all.
And yeh, I'm in agrobusiness 
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Bosh
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Taehan Mingook
Jan 1970
time: 00:37
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Chegitz: it really confuses me why so many in the left think that ending first world farm subsidies will hurt the third-world poor. Right now the poor countries are getting shafted since they're can defend their small scale industries with tariffs while 1st world countries do the same with farm tariffs/subsidies/quotas. It's blatantly unfair for the third world. Whatever you think about free trade, its pretty obvious that having free trade in everything is better than having unfair/partial/slanted free trade that benefits western farmers while giving the third world the shaft is worse. NAFTA etc. aren't real free trade, they're corporatist trade, REAL free trade would be a damn good thing.
quote:
Right now, those countries produce food for their local markets, cuz they can't get in to ours. |
Thereby stunting their GDP.
quote:
Remove that barrier, and you'll hav a hundred Somolia's, where you have famine on a massive scale while crops are exported to the West. Food crops will be replaced with cash crops. |
Thereby raising rural GDP in rural areas and helping overall, I'm willing to bet anything that there's less poverty in areas producing cash crops compared to areas with subsistence farming. Subsistence farming is no way to run a modern economy.
And that's not even taking into account the MASSIVE damage done by 1st world dumping on 3rd world rural economies, since it's a simple economic fact that subsidies depress prices, thereby screwing over all producers who don't get subsidies.
What you're saying is every bit as silly as say, opposing industrialization in the 3rd world since 3rd world industries usually pay low wages.
In addition, most cash crops aren't the sort of things that have that high tariffs on them in Western Countries. It's often staple crops that have the highest tariffs/subsidies/quotas. For example an end to Japanese rice tariffs and Korean rice import quotas would do a world of good for SE Asian and Chinese rice farmers.
quote:
Agrobiz counting the dollars to be made exporting to the West |
Do you have the slightest idea how much Agrobiz makes due to first world tariffs/subsidies/quotas?
Also, while we're on the subject 1st World food aid is often done more as a subsidy to agribusiness than to help 3rd world countries, where it often does more harm than good by disrupting rural economies.
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Apolyton Time is 00:37. |
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22-08-2005 21:22
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