Wayside Communities

A user by the name of Firefly suggested a great idea on the Hunger and Poverty Forums. He suggests the organizing local groups of poor people into what he calls wayside communities. These local groups would help empower poor people and fight poverty in the way that Alcoholics Anonymous helps empower alcoholics and fight alcohol addiction.

I think this idea has a lot of potential.

For one, locality of the groups would let the poor people address local issues and find specific solutions for their specific problems in their area. Poverty in one locality may have different dynamics than poverty in another.

The groups also would help empower poor people, which would enable them to help themselves get out of poverty. The groups would provide motivation and emotional support for the members. Additionally, by organizing and meeting with each other, the poor people would gain social and political power, as well as personal connections and friendships to use to overcome personal options.

You can discuss the idea of wayside communities in the original thread made by Firefly at the following URL:

http://millionsofmouths.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=234

If you have not already, you can join the forums for free. Please do, and discuss these ideas. We want your input! Thanks!

The Hidden Costs of War

Joe De Capua recently wrote a news article about the hidden costs of war. I include an excerpt:

The new UN General Assembly session opens next week, and there’s a call for the United Nations to address what one group calls the hidden costs of war. The NGO ActionAid says that of the food crises facing nearly 40 countries in mid-2006, 25 were caused by conflict.

Thomas Johnny is a policy research manager for ActionAid in Sierra Leone. He’s currently in New York, awaiting the UN meeting. He spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about the hidden costs of war.

“The hidden cost of war I can say one is hunger; two is the increased level of trauma and continuous deprivation of people; and people trying to recover from the loss of relatives, friends and even property. But I think hunger is one of the most hidden costs of war,” he says.

I agree completely. The movement called Food Not Bombs bases its philosophy on the relationship between war and hunger.

Not only does war directly cause hunger and poverty, but it also indirectly contributed to the problem. Namely, the huge expensiveness of war uses funding that could go to anti-poverty measures.

For example, the needless war in Iraq will cost the United States over a trillion dollars (and it has made the United States less safe, in my opinion). With 1 in 8 people in the United States suffering from poverty, imagine if the United States had put that trillion dollars towards funding food, clothes, shelter, healthcare or education, rather than war. Best case scenario, the United States government could have given that money back to the tax-payers instead of wasting it on needless wars. As it goes with all wars.

We Need To Start Organizing More

We need to move beyond researching and discussing poverty. That builds the foundation for action but does not constitute action itself. We cannot end poverty without researching it and discussing it, but we cannot end poverty only by doing that. We also need to organize and take action. We need to form local grassroots groups that work to reduce and hopefully eliminate poverty at a local level by using general principles to address specific community needs in that specific local environment.

We need motivated leaders who can help form and organize local grassroots groups. We need local people who have the resources and willingness to engage in anti-poverty activism. With such leaders, we can create a global network of grassroots groups that can cooperate and share ideas on a general level, and can each attack poverty on a local level.

Are you a leader? Are you willing to help fight poverty? Discuss forming a network of grassroots groups in our Hunger and Poverty Forums. We need local leaders! This can only be done from the ground up.

Looking for Interviewees

Do you or do you know someone who works to reduce world hunger, poverty, or homeless? If so, I want contact me to schedule an interview. I want to interview anyone who works to make a difference in their community. We will publish the interviews on this blog. You can contact me through my Hunger and Poverty Forums. You can PM me on the forums (username: Scott Hughes) or you can post about yourself publicly and specify that you are willing to do interviews.

I especially want to interview people who work in prominent positions at non-profit organizations that address poverty. Also, I like to interview writers and researchers.

Poverty Dynamics

A recent article at thespectrum.com explored the dynamics of poverty. I include an excerpt:

Typically identified by income level, now poverty can stake claim to people’s quality of life, which is spiraling downward. More hours at the daily grind means there is less time for family, decreased opportunities to vacation and attend or participate in cultural arts, sports or other leisure activities. Reaping the benefits of a bigger paycheck has come at the expense of people’s rest and relaxation.

Less opportunity for a mental, physical and emotional break from occupational duties has impoverished the American worker from a state of health and well-being. Obesity rates are the highest ever in U.S. history. Studies show an increase in stroke and cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, depression is on the rise and drains more than $83 billion annually from the American economy, affects 19 million Americans, and results in thousands of preventable suicides, according to a 2006 report by the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.

I agree with the article’s sentiment that poverty requires a more dynamic approach than simply measuring income levels. The concept of poverty refers to qualitative state, and thus quantitative measurements fail to show the true levels of poverty.

The government’s gross underestimations of poverty demonstrate the problem with quantitative measurements. The United States government sets the poverty line for a family of four at only $5,000 per person. How can person in the United States live unpoorly with only $5,000 a year? That translates to less than $450 per month, less than $14 per day. Who could make a monthly budget for $450 that could pay for food, clothes, shelter (including utilities), healthcare, education, transportation, and everything else required to live self-sufficiently and get to work? Most people can’t even afford rent and utilities with that. It would be hard enough to buy food alone on $13 dollars per day!

Are you investing in assets or looks?

In a recent article on BlackEnterprise.com, Alfred Edmond, Jr. wrote about how people hurt themselves financially just to give the appearance of wealth. Though the magazine addresses Black financial issues specifically, I think the advice in that article applies to all people who may struggle financially. He shows how people ring up their credit cards to look rich and live in luxury, while thus accumulating debt. Even if that doesn’t result in poverty for every person, it usually will result in a lot of financial struggling.

I think we need to find a way to get this message to the younger generations. High-schools need to include more financial classes, especially those high-schools in poorer areas. Students need to learn how to invest in their future, rather than just waste their money to temporarily look rich.