Global Issues

First up, an extremely compelling narrative about the consequences of foreign aid and foreign development in Kabul. One of the most interesting questions: Can architecture actually affect the level of violence in an area?
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2008.12-international-affairs-the-archipelago-of-fear/

Next, a companion to the above, an opinion piece essentially making explicit the policy changes hinted at in the above article..
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/opinion/23stewart.html

Third, women in the Congo testify about an onslaught of rape:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/05/congo-women

Fourth, Pakistan prepares for a water shortage:
http://www.aycworldnews.com/water-availability-hard-times-ahead/

Income vs. Brain Development

Here's the headline, and you'll see immediately why this is relevant, and why it ruffled a few feathers:

Cal Study: Poor Kids Lack Brain Development

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Cal-Study-Kids-Might-Not-Get-Full-Brain-Development-if-Poor.html

FTA:

"This is a wake-up call," Knight said. "It's not just that these kids are poor and more likely to have health problems, but they might actually not be getting full brain development from the stressful and relatively impoverished environment associated with low socioeconomic status: fewer books, less reading, fewer games, fewer visits to museums."

Related: Kirstof argues that the world's IQ could be raised simply by introducing iodine into the diet..
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/opinion/04kristof.html?_r=1&em

What is the connection between Poverty and Health?

"Poverty and Health: Asking the Right Questions" by Victor Fuchs

Hint: It's not completely intuitive. This is a definitive article, a must-read.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5461/is_/ai_n28620464

Article highlights:
1) Low income is probably not the cause of poor health, at least in developed nations.
2) Low income is still correlated with higher mortality, even in countries with universal health care.
3) Education may be the "third variable" that explains the relationship between income and health.


Related:

Here, you'll find the highlights of the WHO's "Global Burden of Disease" report, which essentially predicts how we will die in the next few decades. Some of the numbers may surprise you..
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4560

I suppose this is health-related too; a map of the world disaster hotspots!
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/8885

Re: Why is there poverty? - Two Interviews

From: PW
Date: Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 12:54 PM
Subject: Re: Why is there poverty? - Two Interviews
To: The Amazing Long


Long,

You seem to have captured most of what I said. Either you had a recorder or you're an incredible note taker!
A few corrections, though, for the record:

1) A number of transient homeless individuals feel safer in smaller towns, rather than large cities. Williamsburg has a bus/train station where individuals get off, and it is a "microcosm" of what is happening nationally.

2) On the example of the homeless man in Connecticut, I let him stay on the couch at the halfway house/aftercare program that I ran (since we were full), not in my home. I was also the VP for the local homelessness coalition that started a shelter, etc.

3) Tioga Motel was here in Williamsburg, not Connecticut. It's been torn down as of this past year. Until recently, $39.99 + tax was about the cheapest price for one night's stay in a motel in this area.

4) I'm not sure how much of the "poverty' discourse was mine, but the root causes are complex and varied:
individual circumstances health issues: mental & physical; addiction; (old) age or disability; (lack of) education, training, or other skills; high cost of living; lack of jobs, health care, affordable housing; no family or community support, supply-demand economy, etc, etc.

Viable solutions are costly, labor intensive, and require a tremendous amount of collaboration & cooperation across the board. They require public and prviate partnerships on local, state, and federal levels, as well as goernmental, business, education, organizational, and faith-based cooperation within geographic areas. In history the "poor" have always been there. Their numbers and degrees of poverty vary by all these factors in a given region, and, to a great degree, are driven by societal factors. It's when people, despite their hard work and efforts, cannot advance and improve their lives, that creates a permanent underclass in any society.

Hope some of these clarifications were helpful.

Peter

Poverty Resources from the UNC Poverty Center

Val also sent along a link to the UNC Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity, where Gene Nichol is now the Director.

Two parts of the site immediately present themselves as a great wealth of information:

*Poverty Resources - with Quick Facts, statistics, and links to other reliable sources. Example:

Rising Costs

The rising cost of food and fuel are frequently the two major reasons cited for the growing reliance on food stamps and/or food pantries.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks the Consumer Price Index, reports that nationally the cost of "food at home" went up an average of 5.8% between May 2007 and May 2008. However, the price of some essential grocery items has skyrocketed well beyond that rate.

• Cereal and bakery items are up 10.5%
• Bread is up 15.9%
• Eggs are up 18.2%
• Milk is up 10.2%
• Rice is up 19.9%

Moreover the cost of household energy has risen 11.9% (with states that depend on oil and kerosene for heating especially hard-hit). And no one needs to be told that the cost of regular unleaded gas has jumped--20.5% on average.

*Publications and Video - with links to many "policy briefs" written by the faculty.

Community Organizing

Valerie shared this article with me, written by Obama back in 1990:

http://www.edwoj.com/Alinsky/AlinskyObamaChapter1990.htm

FTA:

In my view, however, neither approach offers lasting hope of real change for the inner city unless undergirded by a systematic approach to community organization. This is because the issues of the inner city are more complex and deeply rooted than ever before. Blatant discrimination has been replaced by institutional racism; problems like teen pregnancy, gang involvement and drug abuse cannot be solved by money alone. At the same time, as Professor William Julius Wilson of the University of Chicago has pointed out, the inner city's economy and its government support have declined, and middle-class blacks are leaving the neighbor­hoods they once helped to sustain.

Neither electoral politics nor a strategy of economic self-help and internal development can by themselves respond to these new challenges. The election of Harold Washington in Chicago or of Richard Hatcher in Gary were not enough to bring jobs to inner-city neighborhoods or cut a 50 percent drop-out rate in the schools, although they did achieve an important symbolic effect. In fact, much-needed black achievement in prominent city positions has put us in the awkward position of administer­ing underfunded systems neither equipped nor eager to address the needs of the urban poor and being forced to compromise their interests to more powerful demands from other sectors.

Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria

So I was looking through news articles awhile back and found this and meant to post it but never did...it's an interesting article.

http://www.unfoundation.org/press-center/press-releases/2008/ted-turner-global-sustainable-tourism-criteria.html