World Hunger & Poverty Discussion

[Scott Hughes]

If you have not already, check out this blog post: Free Poverty-Fighting T-Shirt Contest

Please post your answers to the contest question asked in the blog post. On Monday, I will choose my three favorite answers, and those three people will be sent a free t-shirt from the Moju Project.

Remember, the question you need to answer is: If you were given $10,000,000 and all the money must be spent to reduce poverty and hunger, how would you spend the money?

Thanks,
Scott
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My Hunger & Poverty Blog

[abc4all]

If you were given $10,000,000 and all the money must be spent to reduce poverty and hunger, how would you spend the money?

10M begins the process of sharing Global Humanitarian Relief throughout the world.

We start with ABC4All WorldSolutions

We bring relief via the advanced technologies described including Plasma Activated Water (PAW)

From there we begin the ABC4All Global Peace Concerts (for FUNdraising for local NGOs across the world)

starting with YES WE KEN for Kenya

which becomes a model concert for any country wanting to follow suit as we honor the family of President Barack Obama with Mama Sarah Obama having given approval to participate as Guest of Honor.

Respectfully,
Burton Danet, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, A Better Community for All (ABC4All)
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Burt Danet

[LJEsposito]

First, given $10, $10 million or $10 billion makes no difference since money is not the solution. If it were, we wouldn't have 25,000 innocent children dying every day from disease and starvation. We have the money! What we need is a slight shift in our current social paradigm. And with the advent of the Internet and evolving technologies, the time is near.

I hope to soon start a social collaboration website based on drupal with the goal to create such a shift. I've offered some suggestions in the past within the MoM forums. We need...
1. A unified focus on Economics, Society, Politics, Ontology and Spirit
2. A continuing dialectic at the global, national and local levels
3. A synergistic coalescing of all existing programs contributing to the goal
4. A diverse, non-exclusionary, multi-level distribution of commitment
5. A statistical foundation of information analysis

Keep your $10M, give me 5 people like you and we can save the children!

Thanks,
Larry Esposito

[gerrid]

[LJEsposito]

Gerrid,

Thanks for your feedback!

I guess what I was trying to say in a nutshell was that I'd much rather win a handful of committed individuals than a truckload of money although I certainly wouldn't turn the latter away!

Thanks again,
Larry

[ScotHTH]

If you were given $10,000,000 and all the money must be spent to reduce poverty and hunger, how would you spend the money?

In one way I agree that giving someone money is not the answer to fighting Poverty and Hunger. For example: I could give 10,000,000 orphans in third World countries a dollar and they could buy what they need for a day. They would be happy and excited to have so much to spend all by themselves. Then tomorrow they would be right back where they started.

What we need is a plan that will teach them, and give them the tools to be self sufficient. African orphans value an education more then food itself. Even they realize that if they can find enough food each day to stay alive, but can not learn a way to support themselves their lives will not improve.

Hearth to Hearth Ministries is wanting to start a vocational training program where they will teach the orphans how to build furniture to sell and support themselves. http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/51666

If I were given $10,000,000 and all the money must be spent to reduce poverty and hunger, I would spend the money starting orphanages to care for orphans and start different vocational programs at these orphanages to teach the orphans to be self sufficient.
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Spotlight on Orphans volunteers are trying to help as many orphans as possible. Sponsor an orphan from Africa. Many of these orphans were orphaned because of HIV/AIDS.
www.hearthtohearth.org www.povertyandhunger.org
www.orphanages.ws

[Angelpunk]

I asked the question aloud and my husband asked "Which country would you start in?" I replied America or Britain.
As others have said, we need to educate the 'rich' at the same time as we empower the 'poor'.
Spend money on helping people provide for themselves, enable people to set up their own farming co-ops, link with fairtrade organisations, educate, enable & take the power away from cash-crop Western corporations. (MacDonalds! Nestle! et al)
Educate Americans & Europeans & everyone in the world to boycott exploitative companies and choose fairtrade brands.
We NEED change and we CAN do it!
Every journey starts with one step. HELP people to take that step, whether it is by supporting community businesses in Europe, USA, Asia, Australasia or Africa, reminding everyone that every penny/pound/dollar/Euro/Yen is a political act and that if we stand together, WE CAN END POVERTY.
xxxx

[Macrocompassion]

Whatever sum was available for this purpose, it must all be used in the most effective way. By feeding the poor we are only putting off the effects of poverty and not eliminating them. When the world starts to recognise the cause of poverty we will begin to move in the right direction and this should be our present aim, an understanding of the cause of poverty and a policy of what to do to eliminate it.

We already know these answers but unfortunately only a comparatively small and ineffective number of prople are aware of what to do and how to do it. To eliminate poverty requires the introduction of leglislation aimed at creating and maintaining full social justice, particularly in association with the earning power of those without sufficient livelyhood. This means equal opportunity to benefit from the natural productivity of land and from its artifical (and considerably greater) productivity due to the concentrations of social groups of people in vilages, towns and cities.

It is not necessary to sell the land to the government, nor to directly give access of land in use to everyone. Instead it is necessary to apply a tax on its value which is used to replace other kinds of taxation which we pay on our incomes and purchases and in other ownerships too.

There is no need for subscribing to a protracted discussion about what poverty is doing in a particular place nor about what can be done to relieve its local effects. But there is a need for the educated and governing bodies of this world to take an altruistic attitude to the need for poverty elimination. This firstly requires education by making available the knowledge about the ways to reduce long-term poverty and about how to introduce socially just government.

TAX TAKINGS NOT MAKINGS.

[ct-95]

the old proverb, "Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day, teach them to fish and you feed them for a lifetime" would be applicable in this situation. I would hire or obtain volunteers to teach poor individuals to read, do basic math and at least one skill. I would have them sign a contract that they would give back once thier own support is stable.
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"What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man".

[Gribaldes]

[Scott Hughes]

I chose the winners.

Also, I made a post saying how I would spend $10 million to reduce poverty. Check it out and post your comments here.

And even though the contest is over, please make a reply telling us how you would spend $10 million to reduce poverty and world hunger.
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My Hunger & Poverty Blog