Session 5

Update to who: 
I have learned in this weeks session that the U.S. suffers from more poverty and inequality than most other developed countries. Also, I have always knew that Africa had the highest rate of extreme poverty. I now know that in 2001, South Asia with 31% and East Asia with 15% have rates of extreme poor as well.  In the U.S. and globally, the number of women and children who are poor is very large.  


Why:
*there is a misconception that countries are poor because of corruption and misrule*...with that being said, I still believe people and countries are poor because of lack of education, low income, environment, etc. Some poor people and families frequently move into and out of poverty.   


Update to what's being done and how well addressed:

• Author Jeffery Sachs came up with 9 Steps to end extreme poverty and the Big Five Interventios for extremely impoverished countries. I'm not too sure if his ideas are being implemented and if they are working.

• The UN Millennium Project set forth a plan to resolve poverty, hunger and disease using the Millennium Development Goals. From reading the article: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/index.htm, the plan helped to increase overall income by 21% between 1990 and 2002. Also, the number of people in extreme poverty declined. I think that if the plan has somewhat worked before, but clearly the issue is still not being addressed well. 

• The Time Magazine article discusses how the United States has been saying they are going to help other countries by giving them a larger share of their output. However, they have failed to do so which brings me back to my initial point of view. The U.S. is not doing much to help the situation.

Update to what I personally think should be done:

I personally do not think the UN Millennium Goals will have the poverty issue resolved by 2015. This may be why they changed the deadline to 2025.  A lot more steps need to be taken if they are to meet this new deadline. Perhaps, they can come up with new ideas as to what more they can do. From reading more about globalization, there are some individuals who believe that globalization is growth-promoting. It can reduce poverty worldwide and global inequality. Yes there are those who oppose this idea; however, there is no reason for countries not to try and see what happens.