Poverty // Current TV

Wave of suicides among Indian farmers due to BT cotton/agrarian policies largest in recorded history

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16112805 The record suicide rate among... more

JanforGore
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Without

During a time of economic upheaval and an uncertain financial future for many citizens... more

vividshade
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Hoovervilles, the Bonus March and Occupy America

Proof that not much has changed since this time for all of our supposed progress. The same problems with income disparity, class war, unemployment, and those who think problems can fix themselves or "trickle down" to others. And this is because we are still doing things the same way hoping for a different outcome. The same two party system, the same greed, the same campaign rhetoric, the same empty promises, the same catering to the 10 who can buy the country rather than keeping their oaths to the millions who make it work.

I posted this because I thought of the Bonus March after seeing Mayor Bloomberg's actions in NYC regarding the Americans occupying Zuccotti Park and the actions of others. Their Hoover mentality also reflects a time when we saw high unemployment, homelessness due to failing mortgages and the corrupt greed of those who then took advantage of the less fortunate. **That is why Americans are out in the parks now for those who seem to have forgotten their own history.**

This is not a just society. This is not a society that strives for equality. This is a society that thrives on the needs of the many being sacrificed for the wants of a few. And it is failing all of us, especially our children and all of us have had a hand in it because we continue to place trust in those who do not care about anything but continuing to cater to those 10. So we now see Americans taking a stand to make it right and hold those who will not take responsibility for their corrupt actions accountable. Just like veterans did when they held their Bonus March on Washington DC and built their shantytowns in the Capitol. And it was the right thing to do then and it is the right thing to do now.

So to all of the mayors in all of these cities, to the jackbooted Homeland Security Dept., to this administration that is silent on this, to those from the last USSC appointed administration who precipitated this and to all those who think that you are on the right side of history... history has already proven you wrong. Shame on you all for forgetting that.
We won't.Proof that not much has changed since this time for all of our supposed progress. The... more

JanforGore
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Unforgettable scene in a football match!

Many words are poverty and the wisdom of people say a picture is worth a thousand... more

sarajaff192
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Dharavi: Reaching for the sky

Welcome to Dharavi where residents are reaching for the sky. They want Dharavi to... more

worldwrite
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7 months ago
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Tales from the Missionary Hut: Feed the world with one pot

A pot that will grow food for your family and the entire world from the comfort of... more

worldwrite
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Bill Clinton Chats with Jon Stewart [Extended Interview] (VIDEO)

Clinton talks about his “beef with the Tea Party and with the... more

StewSteve
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La povertà si combatte con la psicologia

Studio pubblicato su The Lancet

Psicolinea
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Gates Foundation "swimming against a tide of informed opinion" regarding GMOs

*Gates plan spends 40% of R&D funding on risky "silver bullet" GM projects with DFID help

As the world population reaches 7 billion GM Freeze says in a new report published today [1] that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s policy on agricultural development to tackle hunger is "swimming against a tide of informed opinion".

The report reveals the Gates Foundation has allocated over 40% of its committed research expenditure from 2005 to 2011 on projects involving risky “silver bullet” GM technology.

The collaboration between the Gates Foundation and DFID, announced in February 2011, includes a commitment to carry out GM research into altering the photosynthesis of rice to make it more tolerant of drought. [2] This theoretical switching of rice metabolism has been described as "high risk" by many, including the Royal Society, because of the complex changes required to make it work and the high chance of failure. [3]

In contrast GM Freeze reveals that the Gates Foundation has only allocated some US$20 million (4% of the total budget of US$521 million) to all soil research despite acknowledging the poor state of some African soils. However the Gates Foundation has pledged nearly US$214 million to research involving GM techniques from 2005 to the present – ten times the budget for soil research.

The group's report says the Gates Foundation and DFID are ignoring the recommendations of key research, including the unprecedented IAASTD report in 2008, endorsed by the UK Government, which recommended agroecological approaches to farming to restore natural resources, such as the soils, biodiversity and water and a switch away from fossil-fuel based artificial fertilisers and pesticides. [4]

GM Freeze also reveals the Gates Foundation funding of the Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA) to distribute artificial fertilisers to small farmers. AGRA plan to deliver 187,000 tons of fertilizer "to small farmers through wholesale and retail networks by December 2012" at a overall cost of US$164 million to the Gates Foundation – eight times their allocated expenditure on soil research.

The Gates Foundation collaborate closely with agri-biotechnology companies including Monsanto, BASF, Du Pont, Dow and the Syngenta Foundation in projects to develop GM seeds and promote fertilisers, pesticides and hybrid seeds to small African farmers through bodies such as African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) and projects like Harvest Plus – both also funded by DFID.

Pete Riley of GM Freeze said:

"The Gates Foundation approach to agricultural development is swimming against of tide of informed opinion if it is serious about tackling hunger.

"Instead of promoting proven, low-cost solutions, the Foundation is mimicking discredited high input farming that has cost millions in Northern countries due to pollution, soil erosion and disastrous impacts on biodiversity above and below the soil. DFID is meekly following this lead despite expert analysis showing that in a world with eroded natural resources, climate change and rising demand and costs of energy and fertilisers, a switch to agroecological approaches is urgently needed.

"Offering small and family farmers GM technology will only lock them into expensive and failing intensive farming approaches that benefit big business.

More at the link*Gates plan spends 40% of R&D funding on risky "silver bullet" GM... more

JanforGore
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Get off my Planet: Happy Birthday 7 Billion

To mark the world’s population reaching 7 billion on Halloween 2011, WORLDbytes... more

worldwrite
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RELENTLESS

She was once the victim of injustice. Now she's using what she learned to spare... more

JohnMcKenzieMedia
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7 months ago
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Rwanda Diary: what “America” are YOU talking about?

For starters, many Rwandans seem to believe there’s no poverty in America.... more

hoosierdaddy
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8 months ago
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The Antiwar Comic: Protesting the Protests

Whatever happened to the antiwar protests?

TonyDiGerolamo
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8 months ago
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Why the food movement should Occupy Wall Street

I went to the Occupy Wall Street march last week, as part of the NYC food justice delegation. We carried baskets of farmers’ market vegetables and signs reading “Stop Gambling on Hunger” and “Food Not Bonds.” Food justice advocates came out from around the city—urban farmers, gardeners, youth, professors, union members, and community organizers. The vegetables attracted a lot of attention. Food so often attracts a lot of attention—the New York Times is just one of the outlets to focus in recent days on the makeshift kitchen at Zuccotti Park. What was more surprising were all of the puzzled looks we got from the bloggers, photographers, and other marchers who wanted to talk to us. “What’s the connection here with food?” we were asked many times.

The connection of the protests with food, of course, runs from the local to the global, the specific to the ephemeral. Food justice advocates are connecting with Occupy sites all around the country to donate fresh, healthy, local food or to help find kitchen space. On a broader philosophical level, as Mark Bittman writes in the Times, “Whether we’re talking about food, politics, healthcare, housing, the environment, or banking, the big question remains the same: How do we bring about fundamental change?” But there are also clear and specific reasons that all of us working for a just and fair food system, as the food movement should make the connection between our work and Occupy Wall Street explicit and strong.

In the U.S. today, the richest one percent hold 40 percent of the wealth, while almost one in five Americans is on food stamps. Rampant Wall Street speculation on commodities is driving up food costs, small farmers are being driven off their land, and agribusiness holds monopoly control of our seeds and stores. In this climate, the struggle against massive wealth disparities, unregulated financial institutions, and excessive corporate power is our struggle as well. Two points in the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City address the food system. While barely scratching the surface of the potential connections, the protesters have provided an important opening for the food movement. Will we seize it?

Speculation Drives up Food Costs

At the most obvious level, as the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy recently wrote, “Wall Street deregulation has not only made the stock market extremely volatile, it has increased prices and price volatility in agricultural markets.” That is, the relationship between government and Wall Street firms has turned food into commodity like any other, subject to the whims of the market. For decades, only people directly involved in agriculture (e.g., farmers) could freely participate in trade of futures of agricultural commodities (e.g., corn, soy, wheat). Outside speculators were allowed into these markets but with strictly enforced limits to how much they could buy. Futures trading served a practical purpose, giving farmers a guaranteed price for future harvests, and prices stayed relatively stable and reasonable for both buyers and sellers.

But in 2000, a wave of industry-backed deregulation raised and then removed these limits on speculation, which opened commodity markets to a flood of new players—these later included funds controlled by some of the biggest Wall Street firms looking for new investment opportunities after the housing bubble burst. Flooded with new investments unconnected to any direct stake in crop prices, in 2008, the commodity markets exploded, driving up grain prices worldwide. The grain price spikes were catastrophic for millions of people worldwide. Farmers, who sometimes benefit from high grain prices, mostly were no better off, because similarly skyrocketing energy prices also drove up prices of agricultural inputs.

In 2008 and 2009, the UN estimated that an additional 130 million people were driven into hunger by the food price bubble. Spontaneous food riots broke out in dozens of countries where chronic hunger is a reality. Today’s Wall Street protests are not unconnected to those; the effects of food and energy speculation continue in 2011. A study in June by University of Massachusetts Amherst professor Robert Pollin estimates that U.S. gasoline prices are $0.83 higher per gallon due to Wall Street speculation. The CEO of ExxonMobil said he estimates prices are $1.20 to $1.40 higher per gallon. And food commodity prices are as high, or higher, than they were in 2008—while 46 million Americans are now living below the poverty line, struggling with basic expenses like food.

A New Colonialism

Wall Street firms aren’t just gambling on food prices, they have begun speculating on land as well. Alerted to the potential market in agriculture, investors are buying up huge parcels of farmland all over the world, displacing the occupants, and converting subsistence production to cash crops—or, worse, simply leaving the land fallow and waiting for its value to increase. According to international NGO GRAIN, which first reported on this trend in 2008, more than 50 million hectares of land has been transferred from farmers to corporations since 2009. “Land grabs” have affected tens of thousands of people around the world who have been driven off their land–often violently–with little or no compensation, given no say in the process, and left with no recourse. For most of them, land is their livelihood; without it, the future is bleak.

More at the linkI went to the Occupy Wall Street march last week, as part of the NYC food justice... more

JanforGore
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8 months ago
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Friends of the Earth denounces unjust trade agreements

President Obama broke his campaign promises in backing Bush-era trade pacts that repeat mistakes of NAFTA

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With President Obama’s backing, Congress yesterday passed trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama that are based on the flawed model of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, had the following statement in response:

“President Obama broke his campaign promise by championing these unjust trade deals. The pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama will empower big multinational corporations and Wall Street investors to pursue quick profits at the expense of environmental protections, human rights and shared economic prosperity.

“The investment chapters of the three trade deals, which open the door to corporate attacks on environmental protections, are especially alarming. If, for instance, a South Korean uranium mining company thought a U.S. environmental law impinged on its ‘right’ to make profits, it could sue our government through a biased international tribunal, bypassing U.S. courts and threatening to override decisions made through our democratic institutions.

“The passage of the Colombia deal is downright shameful. This deal promises to fuel ongoing armed conflict in Colombia, including intimidation and murder of local activists and union leaders. The deal will also encourage foreign investments in destructive palm oil plantations, mines, oil drilling and other projects designed to exploit Colombia’s natural resources and export the profits overseas. Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples are at particular risk of displacement.

“As polls demonstrate, Americans understand that current U.S. trade policies are not working in the public interest. As protesters on Wall Street and in other cities across the country challenge the deepening poverty, unemployment and inequality in our country, President Obama has led us toward more of the same.

“President Obama must change course as he negotiates the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, and its investment chapter in particular, must not be based on the same failed and unjust model.”

More at the linkPresident Obama broke his campaign promises in backing Bush-era trade pacts that... more

JanforGore
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8 months ago
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UK faces huge rise in poverty: IFS

The British government's tough spending cuts will push 600,000 more children into “absolute poverty,” peaking at 3.1 million by 2013, Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned.

IFS, Britain's chief public finance think-tank, revealed that in 2010, 2.5 million children and 2.1 million working-age parents were living in absolute poverty, warning more people would find themselves in poverty in the next two years.

By 2013, 3.1 million children together with 2.5 million working-age parents and four million adults with no children would live in absolute poverty, IFS predicted.

The report, which was funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation, also forecasted that by 2020 child poverty would be record high.

"Absolute and relative child poverty are forecast to be 23% and 24% in 2020-21 respectively. These compare with the targets of 5% and 10%, set out in the Child Poverty Act (2010).

"This would be the highest rate of absolute child poverty since 2001/02 and the highest rate of relative child poverty since 1999/2000," IFS report read.

Furthermore, the think-tank also reported that by 2013, the "squeezed middle" with middle incomes would fall by 7%, which would be “the largest three-year fall in median income since 1974-77.”

Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, accused the coalition ministers of being in denial, as their legacy threatens to be the worst poverty record of any government for a generation.

"They risk damaging childhoods and children's life chances, as well as our national economic wellbeing from wasted potential and social costs spiral. It would be a catastrophic failure in public policy and political leadership," Garnham said.

Liam Bryne, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said, "David Cameron promised us he would not increase child poverty. Now we have the truth. The Tory-led Government's decision to cut too far and too fast this year will condemn hundreds of thousands more children to grow up poor."

Universities Minister David Willetts blamed the former government for the country's economic crisis, insisting Britain is not as well as we thought.

"We have tried to do the things that help, but you can't ignore the basic rules of economics that when you inherit a situation where the economy has shrunk by 7% there isn't the money there."The British government's tough spending cuts will push 600,000 more children into... more

goldenways
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Wall Street protestors disgusted with both parties

Although their main concern is Wall Street practices and economic inequality, some demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. say politicians from both major parties are to blame for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the country's middle class.

"At this point I don't see any difference between George Bush and (Barack) Obama. The middle class is a lot worse than when Obama was elected," said John Penley, an unemployed legal worker from Brooklyn.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which began last month with a small number of young people pitching a tent in front of the New York Stock Exchange, has expanded nationally and drawn a wide variety of activists, including retirees, union members and laid-off workers. As new groups continue to organize, demonstrators Thursday marched in Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Anchorage, Alaska, carrying signs with slogans such as "Get money out of politics" and "I can't afford a lobbyist."

The protests are in some ways the liberal flip side of the tea party movement, which was launched in 2009 in a populist reaction against the bank and auto bailouts and the $787 billion economic stimulus plan.

But while tea party activists eventually became a crucial part of the Republican coalition, the Occupy Wall Street protesters are cutting President Barack Obama little slack. They say Obama failed to crack down on the banks after the 2008 mortgage meltdown and financial crisis.

"He could have taken a much more populist, aggressive stance at the beginning against Wall Street bonuses, and exacting certain change from bailing out the banks," said Michael Kazin, a Georgetown University history professor and author of "American Dreamers," a history of the left. "But ultimately, the economy has not gotten much better, and that's underscored the frustration on both the right and the left."

Obama on Thursday acknowledged the economic insecurities fueling the nearly 3-week-old Wall Street protests. But he pinned responsibility on the financial industry and on congressional Republicans he says have blocked his efforts to kick-start job growth.

"I think people are frustrated and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works," he said at a nationally televised news conference. "The American people understand that not everybody has been following the rules, that Wall Street is an example of that ... and that's going to express itself politically in 2012 and beyond."

He said the U.S. must have a strong and effective financial sector for the economy to grow, and that the financial regulation bill he championed ensures tougher oversight of the financial industry.

The president also has been pushing for a $443 billion jobs plan to be paid for in part through a tax on the wealthy. Republicans have resisted such tax increases.

GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Herman Cain have criticized the anti-Wall Street protests. All the Republican contenders have also pushed back against the demonization of Wall Street. They accuse the Obama administration of setting regulatory policies that have stifled job creation and say his health care overhaul will prevent many businesses from hiring new workers.

In Zuccotti Park, the center of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, activists expressed deep frustration with the political gridlock in Washington. While some blamed Republicans for blocking reform, others singled out Obama.

More at the linkAlthough their main concern is Wall Street practices and economic inequality, some... more

JanforGore
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8 months ago
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How colonization and globalization perpetuate global poverty and slavery

Global poverty did not just happen. It began with military conquest, slavery and... more

JanforGore
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8 months ago
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"The Great Extermination:The Middle Class in America"

Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the large global... more

mab001
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Why should I be happy?

Governments and policy makers are concerned over our individual happiness. This year,... more

worldwrite
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