...outrage in the Tea Party and Occupy movements. Yet in the midst of this political cacophony, there has been a deafening silence concerning something that should be identified as a key national concern: the growing epidemic of poverty in America. Poverty has always been a complicated, challenging issue, but changing social and political attitudes towards poverty in the wake of the 1996 welfare reform compromise, coupled with the disruptions posed...
www.nigerianembassy.nlThe success of the African Union will depend largely on the commitment of the leaders of a few powerful nations, like Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria (above). “Extreme poverty can be ended, not in the time of our grandchildren, but our time,” wrote Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia’s Earth Institute and Special Adviser to Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, in his new book, The End of Poverty. To turn his ideali...
...the newly employed reveals that welfare reform’s success is not so black and white. For many critics, TANF was a sign of the apocalypse come. The Urban Institute argued that the bill would send one million children into poverty. In fact, the Department of Health and Human Services reports that child poverty rates are at their lowest level since 1979 and overall child poverty rates declined from 20.5 percent in 1996 to 16.1 percent in 2000....
Need money? Want power? Desire a job with sex appeal? Uncle Sam wants you! More like Uncle Scam, am I right? The sales pitch for military service reads like a poorly written wanted ad in the local paper. Why does the military prey on people’s insecurities? In order to understand the need for such absurd recruitment tactics and techniques, we must first understand the backdrop for military recruitment—the Poverty Draft. To understand the Poverty...
Whether you care most about health or education, the poor climbing out of poverty or the creation of economic opportunity, the plight of women or the needs of children, climate change adaptation or natural resource preservation—whatever it is that floats your boat and represents your values—know this: without improved energy, very few of these goals can be pursued. Examine each of the Millennium Development Goals, or the components of the Human...
...entering kindergarten, wealthy students perform 60 percent better than poor students on standardized tests. Schools actually do pretty well to close this gap. But it is resilient in part because of out-of-school factors like poverty and inequality and in part because students spend several months every year out of school (where the continued investment of wealthier parents mimics “schooling,” helping the achievement gap return). Scho...
One of my first assignments at Columbia, for University Writing, was to sit in Bryant Park for an afternoon and write about my experience there. I hopped on the subway and headed downtown excited, eager to discover some wonderful secret of New York City. However, when I arrived at the park, I was immediately taken aback by the scene of poverty before my eyes. Instead of glamorous fashion or an urban oasis, I found a sick, elderly woman digging f...
...ollective despair of a people who have been reduced from heights of wealth and knowledge to live in inequitable present-day societies in which rulers squander the countries’ resources while the majority wallows in squalor and poverty. After the Golden Age, which lasted until the mid-13th century C.E., the Middle East was subjected to invader after invader, from the Mongols and Ottomans to the colonial British and French empires. After the partiti...
...tions of the West and current developing nations? Perhaps, but in a country of 67 million people, with a GDP per capita of $349, this does not seem likely. The DRC, along with most countries in the Congo basin, is caught in a poverty trap. Conflict, corruption, and poverty have created a perfect storm, lowering the chance of economic development, and increasing the likelihood of environmental destruction. The question now is, do we, a country wit...
...e will double by 2050, and greenhouse gas emissions will rise alongside growing energy demand. To be clear: Increased energy use can be a good thing. Access to affordable and reliable energy is a necessary condition to reduce poverty, improve public health, and increase economic growth. Modern energy services can pull people out of poverty and improve living conditions in myriad ways, boosting productivity and efficiency in everything from agricu...
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