dianas dynamic reviews

The UN’s General Assembly 64th session met on July 20th, 2009 to address the progress on the eradication of poverty throughout the world. The report that was generated from this meeting speaks about macroeconomic and social policy and how the constructs within these elements directly or indirectly effect the multidimensional aspects of what poverty really is.  The statistics tell us perhaps one thing, and the reality tells us another.

According to the World Bank, the bottom line dollar amount of what constitutes the poverty line in 15 of the poorest countries around the world stands at 1.25 a day per person, per day. This World Bank criteria is not based on The United States rate of inflation, for if it were, the estimates for what constitutes poverty in the world and within the US would probably be much greater than the statistics that have been compiled to date would have us believe. (I won’t include charts and graphs from the UN’s report)
What relevance does this have to the US poverty or not, according to the people who met in Geneva on that July day, and who met 8 years previously to discuss such topics. Their goal in all of this reporting is to halve the global poverty rate by 2015, not in the reporting, but in discussing the specifics of what has been accomplished, and what still can be accomplished to reach this elusive poverty free world. We are 5&1/2 yrs away from this ‘goal’ as a global world, do they think we will reach this goal?

That is their question, mine is: Do we rely on the statistics to tell us the reality, or do we compile the truth in a much different way. I’m all for statistics in as far as giving us a gauge, one tool, in our understanding, and efforts to work towards change–I loved my “Psychological Statistics” class in my Junior year of college, which was ironic since I was horrible at many other forms of math. I did in fact enjoy this class, understood it, therefore did well and succeeded, earning an A. Again, somewhat ironic since I was never considered particularly adept at ‘math’. (Sarcasm intended)
However, as the author of the UN report points out, the multidimensional aspects of poverty can be gauged in many ways that go beyond statistics. People are obviously at the root of what we are talking about here, so it stands to reason to obviously look at how people are living, and why they are living the way the are. The political systems of the 15 poorest countries have only empowered their citizens to a certain extent. The intrinsic worth of a person no matter where they reside, either by choice or default cannot possibly hold a monetary value currency. Can it? This is only one aspect of the multidimensional layers of what constitutes poverty around the world, within the US as well. Can we place a value, the intrinsic value of a person, and that one person who makes up ‘whatever percentage’ of their individual community around what the World Bank deems that person to be worth or not to gauge the poverty line of those 15 poorest countries?

Based on this article, according to the author, the growing inequality between the richest countries in the world and the poorest has widened significantly since 1980. We’re talking 29 yrs here folks. So, macroeconomics that take into consideration aspects such as training unskilled laborers, educating women in country’s where they may not have made it a priority to be educated, individual land ownership, and of course, sustainable employment to boost the local economy helps to reduce the overall poverty of these countries as well the overall statistics of what poverty really is?

Is the Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015 realistic, and how does the USA factor into this goal according to the Geneva UN committee who compiled this report? We are presumably one of the richest countries in the World. Other countries look to us as an example of what is possible, and what should be possible for all people?

Based on all accounts we are in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and what we do here in the USA affects people elsewhere? Where do we find the balance between helping ourselves here, and abroad?
Not knowing enough about the laws of import and export through these 15 poorest countries and how that relates to the USA, I question what other political regimes are doing in their country to affect their citizens, and how the non-free societies will evolve, progress or regress prior to 2005 levels, and 1980 levels of what constitutes poverty, and how the politics of, quite often, what are dictatorships within these poor countries, affect US policy makers and the people who directly decide what macroeconomic factors prevail.

More on this later.

Dynamic Diana 12:11am EST 10/18/2009 (10/17/2009)