Why Poverty?

When we all read the article last January that The world’s 100 richest people earned enough money together last year to end world extreme poverty four times over (OXFAM)….we all felt a certain chill for a while. The Oxfam report that came out that day interestingly mentioned that South Africa is financially the most unequal place on Earth. How is that possible? We all know that these billionaires with their net of $240bn are not going to end poverty. But there is a certain hope I think. And we can find it in ourselves. My favourite activist Jeremy Rifkin (ARTICLE) put it down so nicely in his 2010 non-fiction book The Empathic Civilization: “We know if a spider goes up someone’s arm, and I’m observing it going up your arm, I’m going to get a creepy feeling. We take this for granted, but we’re actually softwired to actually experience another’s plight as if we’re experiencing it ourselves. But mirror neurons are just the beginning of a whole range of research going on in neuro-psychology and brain-research and in child development, that suggests that we are actually softwired not for agression and violence and self interest and utilitarianism, that we are actually softwired for sociability, attachment as John Bowlby might have said, affection, companionship, and that the first drive is the drive to actually belong”. It’s an empathic drive…….We all know poverty and it’s solving is a complex issue but the ever brilliant British Broadcasting Corporation also known as the BBC dedicated three hours of prime time television on this subject in December 2012. This with the screening of the one-off documentary “The Trouble With Aid” (IPLAYER). An analysis of humanitarian aid in war and disasters made by acclaimed filmmaker Ricardo Pollack. The film was even followed by a studio debate. The Trouble with Aid tells the story of what really happened during the major humanitarian disasters of the last 50 years: from the Biafran War, through to the Ethiopian famine and Live Aid, to the military intervention in Somalia and to present-day Afghanistan. Despite the best intentions, aid can have some unintended and terrible consequences. Using the testimony of key players from the world’s largest aid agencies, the film looks at what happens when good people try to help in a bad world. Today, any humanitarian crisis leads to cries that we must ‘do something’. The Trouble with Aid challenges this fundamental assumption by asking the question few us are prepared to face: can aid sometimes do more harm than good? A-ONE-TO-WATCH! Also RECOMMEND Swedish Director Bosse Lindquist Give Us The Money (VIDEO) documentary. And The books The Trouble with Africa and The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs. (Photo copyright by Reza/Webistan)