 Now is the time to end poverty |
Issue 96 |
An end to global poverty
The Tsunami that arrived without warning on 26th December 2004, killed over 226,000 people. The latest estimates from Indonesia's province of Aceh alone are of 166,000 dead, over 600,000 homeless and up to 100,000 orphaned children. In Sri Lanka, India, Thailand many thousands have also died and many more have had their lives changed forever. Each of the survivors of the tragedy has a traumatic story of loss to tell. Many had their whole lives literally washed away in a few minutes. The sense of loss is made all the more difficult with the thought of trying to carry on, to rebuild something from the devastation. The despair felt by so many was met with a great outpouring of sympathy but also of practical assistance in a spirit of solidarity with those who had lost so much. Ordinary people across the globe reacted in a truly human way and pledged food, shelter and medical assistance. Their governments had no option but to follow their lead and promises were made to support the reconstruction of those areas affected. Out of destruction springs hope.
Many of the people affected were already living in extreme poverty, so relief is not enough. We can't just return the people to the way their lives were before the Tsunami hit. We need, as a global community, to ensure that we use this tragedy as an opportunity to make a real change for the better and decide to act to end poverty in our world.
We have never been more able to end poverty in the world as we are now. The world has never been richer, medical knowledge has advanced so far that most infectious diseases can be prevented or treated very effectively. We have the money and the knowledge. We just need the commitment of governments to put an effective plan into action. Last year, the world managed to spend some $US70 billion helping needy communities. The numbers of people living in absolute poverty have halved over the last 20 years but 1.2 billion people still survive on less than $US1 a day and 2.7 billion people survive on less than $US2 a day. The only conclusion that we can draw is that more needs to be spent on aid and development. We know that we can if the will is there. We need to have the same spirit of generosity that we all displayed after the Tsunami hit. The Tsunami was a tragedy no matter how you look at it but we need to realise that the scale of the Tsunami disaster is repeated around the world all the time:
- One woman dies in childbirth every minute.
- 10 million children die each year from preventable diseases.
- billion people do not have access to safe drinking water
- 1200 people die every hour from preventable malnutrition.
- 30,000 people die every day just because they are poor.
We cannot predict when an earthquake is going to occur or when a Tsunami will arrive but we can predict and prevent other disasters from occurring if we act now.
Just imagine a history lesson in the year 2050: Students would shake their heads as the teacher reported: "At the beginning of the 21st century, 800 million people were allowed to go hungry. The equivalent of 20 jumbo jets worth of people would die every day because they had no access to clean water. 120 million children were not even enrolled in primary school." The students would be horrified and might ask: "What did the rich countries do about it? What did our country do about it?"
REUTERS/Yves Herman courtesy of AlertNet.org
Hopefully the teacher would be able to say that there was an open-hearted response and a real effort to change the world so that human dignity was respected and poverty was eliminated. The teacher would report on the successful achievement of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals which committed the rich countries to halving world poverty by 2015. This meant that the rich countries would double the amount of money that they allocated in 2004 for overseas aid and development.
REUTERS/Yves Herman courtesy of AlertNet.org
Wouldn't it be great if that teacher from the future reported that like our response to the Tsunami, Australia led the way in committing the world to the reduction of global poverty.
In 1970 most of the world's richest countries committed themselves to spending 0.7% of their national income on reducing poverty around the world. Between 1961 and 2002 the industrialised countries increased their wealth by 152% but their spending on assistance to the world's poorest countries increased by only 10%. The US spends only 0.14% of its income on aid. Australia spends 0.25%. This will not be enough to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are achieved. The world needs to at least double its aid and development spending in order to substantially reduce global poverty.
The Australian public has donated more than $A207 million so far for Tsunami relief. This should be a real sign of hope for the continuing campaign to end poverty in our world.
Science
The Tsunami hit without warning on the 26th December 2004. What is a Tsunami?
Go to news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/4136289.stm and
look at the animated presentation of how the Asian Tsunami disaster happened. There is also a printable version of this presentation
available at
news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/07_01_05_
tsunami_disaster.pdf
Answer the following:
- What causes earthquakes?
- What caused the earthquake on the 26th December 2004?
- Where was the epicentre of this earthquake?
- How far did the waves caused by the earthquake travel?
- How long after the earthquake did the Tsunami hit the island of Sumatra?
- How long did the Tsunami take to hit Somalia?
- By how much was the seabed jolted by the earthquake?
- How much water was displaced as a result?
- How fast did the Tsunami move in deep water?
- What happened to the Tsunami when it reached shallower water?
- What was the only sign that people got that something was wrong?
- How far inland did the waves travel in Sri Lanka?
Social Sciences
1) Go to news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/4126019.stm for a map of the Tsunami affected areas.
Make a list of the affected countries and note the extent of the damage in terms of its effect on the people of the region. How many died? How many are still missing? How many are homeless? What has the response been in terms of aid and assistance?
2) Go to news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/
04/asia_quake/quake_maps/html/1.stm and choose one country/region to look at in more depth. Report your findings to the rest of your class/group.
3) Go to news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/
4156329.stm to view a slide show and listen to audio of personal stories of some people affected by the Tsunami.
Make a list of the effects of this disaster on the people in this presentation.
4) In groups of 3 or 4, imagine you were in charge of disaster relief for the Tsunami crisis and discuss what you think should be
done to help the victims. You will need to decide a list of priorities for your hypothetical organisation including which country you would
help first, and what you would do for the local people in the short term. Don't forget that the first step should be to ask the people
involved what they need. Report your list of priorities to the rest of the class. Do want to change your list after hearing other people's
ideas? Go to www.caritas.org.au/
emergencies/earthquake_update_28122004.htm to compare your response to that of Caritas Australia.
5) A more structured activity based on disaster relief decision making can be found at
www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/tsunami/
wrksht_ds1.htm How many decisions did you get right?
6) Now in your groups decide what the long-term needs of Tsunami affected communities might be. Again prioritise your list and share with other groups.
Religion
1) Many children in your classes will be curious worried and even traumatised by the events surrounding the Tsunami disaster. Go to
www.raisingkids.co.uk/fea/fea_97.asp for suggestions for dealing with these issues.
2) For liturgy, prayer and assembly ideas relating to the Tsunami go to
www.cafod.org.uk/resources/worship/
prayers/tsunami and
www.cafod.org.uk/resources/schoolsteachers/
school_assemblies/asia_tsunami
There are ideas for both secondary and primary schools
Poverty related activities
Go to ozspirit.info/2004/90b.html for activities related to poverty across the curriculum.
Social Sciences/Religion
Project Compassion is the annual fundraising effort by Caritas Australia. It's theme this year is "The Challenge is Poverty the Time is Now". We need to refocus on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 this year otherwise the goal of halving world poverty will not be achieved. The rich countries need to do a lot more to make sure that this goal is achieved. It is estimated that most rich countries will need to double their aid and development spending. At the rate of spending that exists now, it will not be until 2150 that the number of people living on $US1 a day will be halved. It will not be until 2130 that all children will receive a primary education. The reducing of the number of children who die before they reach the age of five by two thirds will not happen until 2165. Can we really afford another 150 years of unnecessary suffering?
1) What are the Millennium Development Goals? Go to
www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/advocacy_mdg.htm to click on either the primary or secondary activities relating to the MDGs. List the goals. How many countries agreed to them?
2) The idea of having goals is valuable if they are achievable and if they are achievable that a strategy is put in place to ensure that the goals are actually achieved. Goals without a real commitment to achieving them are pointless.
3) From your list of MDGs, work in groups of 3 or 4 to decide what is needed to achieve them.
4) Go to www.acfid.asn.au/pubs/submissions/
ACFOASubmissionFedBudget04-05.pdf and click through to page 24 of the document and look at the graph of Projected Overseas Development Aid as a percentage of OECD Gross National Income. Answer the following:
- What percentage of GNI needs to be allocated so that MDGs can be achieved?
- What percentage is Australia contributing?
- Which countries are contributing their fair share?
- By how much does Australia need to increase its contribution?
- How generous is Australia compared to other rich countries?
5) Click back to page 22 of the document.
- How much will it cost to provide basic education for all children?
- What is Australia's share of this?
- How much extra will Australia need to contribute to achieve this goal?
- How much extra will Australia need to contribute for each of the goals to be achieved?
6) Scroll forward to the section We Can Afford It. Look at the graph on page23.
- How does our aid and development spending compare to our national income (GNP)?
- Look at the graph on page 24.
- How did Australia compare to other rich countries in1976 to 1978?
- How did Australia compare to other rich countries in 2003?
7) Discuss the following statement: "The richer we get the less generous we get". Using the information from the above section of the report.
8) Go to www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/materials/
materials/Caritas%20Australia_Project%20
Compassion%202005_Schools_WorkSheets_Web.pdf and scroll down to the MDG activities and complete them.
9) Go to www.cafod.org.uk/resources/
schoolsteachers/resource_packs/
make_poverty_history_ks2 for more teaching and learning ideas to do with the issue of poverty.
Go to www.cafod.org.uk/policy_and_analysis/
policy_papers/make_poverty_history/mph_briefing
This outlines a strategy for the ending of poverty in our world. It involves not just the increasing of aid, but making sure that the aid will actually reach those it is meant to help directly. Often what is called aid ends up back in the pockets of the donors e.g. by providing security forces to serve in overseas countries. Sometimes aid is tied more to local politics rather than need e.g. The top three recipients of US aid are Egypt, Israel and Russia. Other changes that are needed are changes to the international trade rules so that these rules are fair to majority world countries. The cancelling of debt is also part of the overall strategy to end the tragedy of poverty in our world. Discuss these issues in your groups and make a commitment to putting pressure on our government to get serious about the issue of global poverty. Lobby your local politician to let them know that you take this issue seriously. It's amazing what a letter, an email or a personal visit can do. E-mail the Prime Minister at www.pm.gov.au/email.cfm Go to
www.aph.gov.au/house/members/index.htm for contact details for all Members of Parliament.
Go to www.cafod.org.uk/news_and_events/features/
asia_disaster/mphtsunami_20050113 for an analysis of the relationship between poverty and the Tsunami disaster.
Support the Caritas Project Compassion campaign. Materials for schools (both primary and secondary), parishes and interested groups can be ordered from Caritas or downloaded from their website www.caritas.org.au/ourwork/pc05/materials.htm This year they have produced a DVD to illustrate the work that Caritas does. Caritas supports communities right around the world. They have raised $8 million for their Tsunami appeal but they support people after the emergency is over too. The global emergency that is poverty needs a long-term commitment and Project Compassion is a way of supporting that commitment in a practical way.
Contact the ACSJC to order a copy of the Social Justice Diary for your group so that you can plan your activities and be inspired. Go to
www.socialjustice.catholic.org.au/
CONTENT/publications/social_justice_calendar.html to order a copy.