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MissyM

Joined: 28 Feb 2007
Posts: 451
Location: Here--> there & everywhere!
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Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:20 |
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Hey deesha .. I had a really interesting lecture just yesterday, unbelievable coincidence.. it was about poverty and undernutrition in U.S. Aus, Eu, Russ, Afric, etc.. so it was a long one.. but I will reference some facts for u that may be relevant to where you are ie USA.. I was blown away by this I can tell you..
* About 33 million ppl in the US live at or below the poverty level. These poor include about 16% of all children, in fact, comprise 37% of the poor. Hunger frequently accompanies poverty.
* The infant mortality rate in US is higher than that of 26 other industrialised countries. This accounts for more than half of all infant deaths and 75% of deaths of babies under 1 month of age.. due to undernutrition and poverty...
* In the US an estimated 12 million people, or 6.5% of ALL adults, have experienced homelessness sometimes during their lives.
* Second Harvest, the largest U.S. food bank, estimates that more than 23 million ppl or more than 1 person in 10 rely on food depositories and soup kitchens to feed themselves and their families.
MOST TELLING.. And Australia is bad for this also along with a lot of other 1st world countries...
* Food thrown out in U.S cafeterias, supermarkets and restarurants could feed 49million ppl per year..  _________________
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AP

Joined: 04 Mar 2007
Posts: 49
Location: N Georgia/Western NC, USA
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 14:43 |
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How to eliminate poverty- I don't know Deesha. Maybe it would be done by first looking at the type of poverty it is and breaking it down from there, like for example relative poverty (which is saying poverty in one country that has more resources is a different circumstance than poverty in another country with less resources. We could look at it from an ethnocentric point of view that would say it is wrong to believe that another culture/people put the same value in the westernized life style that other people live in. Maybe we could define the elimination of poverty as the absence of hunger, thirst, social disconnect/upheaval and poor mental health. In some contexts, social disconnect/upheaval and poor mental health both influence and result from war (war also being influenced and often times resorting from environmental conditions like famine). So maybe an idea would be to generate ways of bolstering social connections/conditions and mental health- for ex the "choice" of being able to surf the internet- right there you have the potential to bolster social connections, the format of the internet helps people to focus/improve memory which some research is implicating as a non-pill way of helping symptoms of some maladaptive states (for ex. depression - depressed people have problems focusing) and it also helps people with their need for cognition, to find interesting things, challenging things to think about. But honestly its hard to say what causes poverty, sometimes I wonder if its the systems or something in our nature? I cant say. sorry for ramble! good topic though |
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jamirokaki
Expert

Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 3472
Location: basque country
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 19:49 |
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very good words AP! _________________
***STONED AGAIN*** |
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mr.az

Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 2421
Location: rallying
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Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 06:09 |
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| jamirokaki wrote: |
| the only way to eliminate poverty is eliminating capitalism from the world! |
amen
u really got it  _________________ Only a fool can walk away from me this time
TWM=RDLS
AFO=AUTOMATON |
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deesh

Joined: 23 Feb 2002
Posts: 2717
Location: +001
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Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 21:36 |
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Hi everyone - I was gone for a bit and just getting caught up online.
AP - I agree with everything you said and I think the exposure to outlets and networking would definitely help, for example having the poor find out about programs and such that may benefit them to get out of their situation. That is kind of the idea behind an community organization I just started in Philadelphia called 'Get Well Philly."
I really dig the vibe of what you say and how the mental health element comes into play. That is something I've thought about, but never factored in.
Thanks. I'm off to answer your PM now  _________________ www.dee34.wordpress.com |
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almatri
Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 239
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Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 02:22 |
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Eliminating poverty is certainly impossible right now. We (human being as a whole) would have to share everything, and with our current state of mind, I certainly how it would be possible :/ |
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