World Hunger and Poverty

Andrew Gumbel writes about the widening poverty gap:

The number of Americans living in severe poverty has expanded dramatically under the Bush administration, with nearly 16 million people now living on an individual income of less than $5,000 (£2,500) a year or a family income of less than $10,000, according to an analysis of 2005 official census data.

The analysis, by the McClatchy group of newspapers, showed that the number of people living in extreme poverty had grown by 26 per cent since 2000. Poverty as a whole has worsened, too, but the number of severe poor is growing 56 per cent faster than the overall segment of the population characterised as poor – about 37 million people in all according to the census data. That represents more than 10 per cent of the US population, which recently surpassed the 300 million mark.

The widening of the income gap between haves and have-nots is nothing new in America – it has been going on steadily since the late 1970s. What is new, though, is the rapid increase in numbers at the bottom of the socio-economic pile. The numbers of severely poor have increased faster than any other segment of the population.

Read entire article by Andrew Gumbel.

This is the same trend that came after Reagan came in power. I wonder why the Christian right empowers such Republicans with their large voting base, when it results in more hungry children. Perhaps, these Christians could look up to someone like Jesus, a man who taught people to put down the stones, end the violence, and help the poor, sick, and hungry.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Democrat or a so-called “liberal”. I want nothing to do with their tax & spend agenda, which only seems to inflate and empower the corrupt government and worsen our problems.

We need to take matters into our own hands, and find non-governmental ways to end the problems facing us, our community, and the world, such as hunger and poverty.

In a recent GNA feature, Hannah Asomaning says:

Imagine a world where there is no poverty, there is basic education for everybody, respect for human rights, equal rights and opportunities for men and women and all the goodies one can wish for.

There would be no crime, pain, hunger and anguish as seen in some parts of the world today. It would really be a pleasant place to live in.

The United Nations perhaps imagined these when it came up with the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015.

Almost half-way through the timeframe, we are unfortunately nowhere near the envisioned results[...]

Africans need to be effectively involved and concerned about their own development by working hard to ensure that poverty eradication is achieved. There must also be promotion and respect for human rights and change of attitudes towards achieving the MDGs by 2015.

Read entire GNA feature by Hannah Asomaning.

How can Western countries, such as the United States, help so-called third-world countries eliminate poverty and hunger? These Western countries have yet to eliminate it on their own soil! For example, 14 million children in the United States live in food insecure households. 1 in 8 United States citizens are officially poor, and many middle-class Americans struggle daily and live in debt.

To end poverty and hunger, all of us, the whole world, have to organize and do it for ourselves.