Website owner: James Miller
There have been several articles in the newspaper recently on
the subject of child slavery. It is usually associated with
deep, desperate poverty in the poorer countries of the world.
There are many countries of this world in which there is a lot
of deep poverty. This is especially true of many of the
countries of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin
America. There are millions and millions of people in this
world who live in deep, abject poverty. What do I mean by
deep, abject poverty? I mean a person living in a hovel (mud
hut, tumble-down shack, etc.), perhaps without electricity,
running water or toilet, living on less than a dollar a day,
eating a very spartan diet consisting mostly of the least
expensive staples such as rice, beans and corn --- and barely
making it or hungry much of the time. The most of the people of
most of the countries of Africa probably fit this description.
So do millions upon millions in many other countries of the
world. Different countries have different definitions of what
constitutes poverty. In the United States the definition of
poverty is such that, according to the US Census Bureau, 46% of
those officially regarded to be in poverty own their own home
with the average poor person's home having three bedrooms, one
and a half baths, and a garage. (Rector, Robert E. and Johnson,
Kirk A., Understanding Poverty in America). Compared to the
most of the world, these people aren't poor, they are wealthy.
With poverty there is often associated a lot of crime and violence.
Why? The poor often grow up like animals without moral instruction
and when people get hungry many will often do desperate and bad
things. And with poverty there is often associated the problem
of child slavery. Consider this couple with a dozen children
living in squalor and filth in a gigantic slum district of a
large city in the Third World. They live in a hovel
constructed from mud bricks, with a sheet metal roof, and with
a squat type toilet and a faucet outside with running water.
[And they are among the fortunate of the poor because there are
vast numbers of people in this world, living out in rural
areas, that have neither toilet facilities nor running water,
who may indeed have to hike a considerable distance every day
just to fetch water --- and firewood for their cookstove (if
they are fortunate enough to have a cookstove)]. Everyone in
this family we are speaking of is illiterate and the economy of
this country is dysfunctional, providing very few jobs. The
husband makes less than a dollar a day laying bricks. Money is
hard to come by. Life is hard. There is no welfare in this
country and if you don't have money for food you have a
problem. There is no one to help. The family is barely making
it and the family is in debt. The father developed a serious
illness and they had to borrow money for doctors and hospital
expense. To borrow this money they had to make a deal with the
lender. They hired out a six year old son to him on contract
as an indentured servant for $250 a year for 10 years to get
money to pay off the debt. The young boy makes carpets. He
works 16 hours a day. And he is treated roughly, badly, is
abused. He sleeps with ten other boys on the mud floor of a
tumble-down shack and gets hardly enough to eat. After hiring
out the boy, the father continued to be ill, couldn't work,
they were still in need of money, and then a fellow came along
and told the family he could place their 11 year old daughter
with a wealthy family doing housekeeping for $40 a month. It
sounded great and the daughter was eager to go. They agreed
and this unscrupulous fellow takes her to a foreign country
where she doesn't know the language and sells her to a brothel
owner and she is forced into prostitution. She dreams of
getting away but even if she were to successfully run away she,
not knowing the language and being illiterate, would have a
difficult time finding a job. If she tried she would likely
very quickly get cold and hungry and end up going back into
prostitution. It is a bad situation she is in. She feels
caught, trapped, doesn't know how to get out. Life for
countless people in this big world is hard. People in the
richer countries of this world, countries such as America, just
don't realize how bad things are in much of the world. A great
many people in this world live on less than a dollar a day. A
great many people live in squalor with wretched lives. There
are huge numbers of children living in slave-like or near
slave-like conditions. They were hired out or sold to help
their poverty-stricken parents.
What is the answer to all this? I don't know. But the main
point I am trying to make is this. Money is important in
this world. Very important. In most cases ready money means
something to eat and no money means nothing to eat. And one
gets very hungry very quickly with nothing to eat. If you have
money you have a warm bed and food to eat and the necessities
of life. And if you get caught without it you have a problem.
A big problem. You are in a corner with few options. You are
highly vulnerable. It is something to be taken seriously. And
education is very important. Without it decent jobs and money
can be hard to get. Life can be hard. You can find yourself
in the same kind of bad situation as the poor, destitute people
of the world. America is a wealthy country with a vibrant
economy (compared with the most of the countries of the world)
and offering so many opportunities and so many Americans don't
realize how lucky they are to live here. Children here are
given the opportunity to get a good, free education. How many,
especially in certain minority groups, squander this
opportunity? They attend school and put in minimal or no
effort. The country gives them the opportunity but they don't
take advantage of it. On the other hand, there are other
minority groups that study hard and do well. I believe it is
mostly culture. Some cultures appreciate the importance of
education and understand the facts of life. Others don't. I
find it amazing that so many Americans squander all their
money, spend it like water, aren't prudent enough to save it
(to save it for that bad day when they might find themselves
with no job, might find themselves in a corner without money
and without options). I guess they are accustomed to the
welfare society and feel the government will always be there
for them when they need help.
The following are some facts and statistics on world poverty
found on the internet.
Total world population: approximately 6.5 billion
Almost half the world --- over three billion people --- live on
less than $2.50 a day.
At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
The poorest 40 percent of the world's population accounts for 5
percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for
three-quarters of world income.
Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries
are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions
that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read
a book or sign their names.
Water problems affect half of humanity:
- Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have
inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic
sanitation.
- Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water
survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less
than $1 a day.
- Close to half of all people in developing countries are
suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by
water and sanitation deficits.
- Millions of women spend several hours a day collecting water.
Number of children in the world: 2.2 billion
Number in poverty: 1 billion (every second child)
Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:
640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
Rural areas account for three in every four people living on
less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world
population suffering from malnutrition.
Approximately half the world's population now live in cities
and towns.
In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1
billion people) was living in slum conditions.
In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to
rely on biomass ---- fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung ---
to meet their energy needs for cooking.
In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population
depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of
the populations of India and China.
Indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels [by
poorer segments of society] is a major killer. It claims the
lives of 1.5 million people each year, more than half of them
below the age of five: that is 4000 deaths a day. To put this
number in context, it exceeds total deaths from malaria and
rivals the number of deaths from tuberculosis.
In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of
total private consumption. The poorest 20% just 1.5%. The
poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10%
accounted for 59% of all the consumption.
1.6 billion people --- a quarter of humanity --- live without
electricity:
Breaking that down further:
Number of people living without electricity
South Asia -- 706 million
Sub-Saharan Africa -- 547 million
East Asia -- 224 million
Other -- 101 million
World gross domestic product (world population approximately
6.5 billion) in 2006 was $48.2 trillion in 2006.
The world's wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion
people) accounted for $36.6 trillion dollars (76%).
The world's billionaires --- just 497 people (approximately
0.000008% of the world's population) --- were worth $3.5
trillion (over 7% of world GDP).
Low income countries (2.4 billion people) accounted for just
$1.6 trillion of GDP (3.3%)
Middle income countries (3 billion people) made up the rest of
GDP at just over $10 trillion (20.7%).
Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are
still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom
reside in Asia and the Pacific.
Source:
Anup Shah, Poverty Facts and Stats,
GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Dec 2008
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