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Be Nutrition Savvy: Seven Simple Ways to Eat Healthy (with Strawberry Orange Sorbet recipe)
The key to better health is learning the difference between healthy and unhealthy nutrients. The choices we make greatly affect our health. Making a few simple healthy and nutritious changes in our dietary choices can have a profound and...
Coffee Antioxidant - Friend or Foe
Before we get all excited over the recent news about coffee being our new antioxidant, we need to take a look at the “entire” picture. Is there truly a coffee antioxidant? If there is, how exactly is coffee an antioxidant? Does it become the...
Harmful/Deadly Side Effects of Zyprexa
The drug Zyprexa was created in the hope that the debilitating side effects of traditional antipsychotics would be abolished. Some of these severe side effects included extra pyramidal symptoms which influence, muscles and coordination, tardive...
How to Lower Your Blood Pressure Quickly
In most cases, the secondary diseases that follow the high blood pressure manifest long time after the hypertension and it's symptoms appear. To provide a treatment for hypertension and to lower blood pressure quickly it is significant to...
Weighing the Options
The other day it hit me. I am getting older and I won't look this good for the rest of my life if I don't start exercising and eating right. In my family, as it might be in many families, we have a history of diabetes, high cholesterol and high...
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The Roots Of Poverty
Remedying only the superficial manifestations of the deeper underlying problems of extreme poverty will never end poverty itself. At best, this approach will temporarily relieve urgent problems; at worst, it will exacerbate them or create long-term trade-off problems. If we want to eliminate poverty, we must look at its roots and apply sustainable, pragmatic development solutions.
There are many popular misconceptions about underdeveloped countries that prevent both politicians and private citizens from seriously considering solutions. Some people think less developed countries (LDCs) are poor as the result of laziness, mismanagement, and corruption. While corruption and mismanagement do play a role in the inefficient and criminal diversion of aid funds, they definitely do not make it impossible to conduct successful development operations--unless, of course, we use corrupt regimes as a justification to not give aid at all.
So what are some of the common root causes of poverty? Each of the following roots of poverty can be eliminated through development projects when they bypass government involvement or develop mutual-accountability agreements with governments to ensure the best results for the program constituents:
Geographic Isolation:
Geographic isolation actually occurs on two levels: 1) within regions and continents; and 2) within countries. The first type of geographic isolation generally includes countries that are landlocked hundreds of miles away from the closest port. These countries end up paying excessive fees and costs for freight to export and import goods. The other type of isolation--that occurs within countries-- generally includes villages that are separated from the rest of the country because of a lack of infrastructure. These villages typically lack electricity, adequate food markets, and adequate sources of clean water.
Inadequate Access to Medical Clinics:
Most citizens of the Third World lack access to medical clinics and basic medical counseling. This is
generally because governments in LDCs do not have enough resources to sponsor sufficient medical programs. Many LDCs also lack medical professionals as a result of underfunded educational systems. When people cannot visit clinics regularly, they do not get the counseling they need to prevent illness and often end up incapacitated by easily- curable illnesses and parasites, such as worms.
Underfunded Education:
Many citizens of the Third World also lack access to education. Since governments in LDCs do not have funds to provide an educational system for all students, they often create unreasonably hard standardized testing systems to prevent students from graduating; and even when they do pass the tests, they are often held back because there simply are not enough resources to support them. Without access to basic and vocational education, new generations in LDCs are being severely limited in both future choices and ability to contribute to the country’s development.
Inadequate Access to Nutritious Food:
Much of the Third World lacks the money and resources to eat or grow a nutritious diet--and instead must subsist on one meal each day of starchy local food staples and vegetables. This leads to severe undernutrition in both adults and children, the often-fatal malnutrition-infection cycle in infants and young children, and high-incidence of diabetes in adults. Many people--specifically in certain geographic areas--also lack the means to cook meals. This causes those affected to choose between hunger and food- borne illness.
Inadequate Access to Improved Water
About the Author
Isaiah Hull is the CEO of Social Justice Incorporated, a hybrid business that offers information and news on poverty, hunger, and the Third World; and also operates a cause related shopping mall, bookstore, and jewelry store which donates 75% of profit to social justice charities. Go to http://www.socialjusticeinc.com to learn more about similar topics or to make a donation to charity by simply shopping online.
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