Nearly half of the 6 billion people in the world live in poverty. Each day, 20,000 people die each day from extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is defined as getting by on less than one dollar a day, not meeting basic household needs for survival, and only exists in developing countries. When doing a Google Image search of the word "extreme poverty" the images that come up are entirely disturbing.
Looking at these pictures makes it even harder to comprehend the facts because you put a face to the figures. I literally cannot believe that in this day and age, this type of poverty still occurs. In the world I live in, food is only a problem because it takes time to make and distracts me from doing the myriad of other things I have on my plate. In America, we are so fortunate to live in a world where we don't usually have to think about food.
We cannot live in a world that is completely globalized if this type of poverty is still occurring. We cannot live in a society that is even close to globalization if 20,000 people are dying each day due to hunger.
There are efforts to combat this problem such as The Hunger Site, which easily allows people to give cups of food to the hungry. All you have to do is click the link on the page and 1.1 cups of food will be donated to the hungry. This can occur because of the advertisements that come up after you click. Such a simple and easy way to help others, yet it is so rare that we (myself included) take the 0.3 seconds to do it.
This Sociology class has taught me that there are so many problems in this world that need to be addressed before we can ever get to a fully globalized place. It is upsetting and honestly disgusting that the American culture is so self-centered that we never think about these issues. Every day I throw away food that I haven't completely eaten. I may not be able to change this habit, but I can, at the very least, click the link on The Hunger Site every day and post it to my Facebook so that hopefully others will do the same. At least we will be using technology and social media for the better, Friedman would be happy.
Dani: I really appreciate the fact that you brought up The Hunger Site as a website that leverages technology and a simple business model to achieve social outcomes, such as donating food to people in need. Another cool website that follows this model (you may have already seen it) is freerice.com, a World Food Programme site that operates like a multiple choice vocabulary quiz, but for every right answer 10 grains of rice are donated to a WFP initiative. The levels get harder the more grains you earn, which makes the game slightly addictive—be warned!
ReplyDeleteI agree that globalization may never reach many of those whose could truly benefit from it. While MNCs will offshore and outsource to major cities in China and India where they will provide employment opportunities to local workers, there are some very volatile and extremely impoverished places where MNCs will never go, and the prospects of earning a living wage are very slim. While these might appear to be hopeless places, I am interested to see how human ingenuity (and perhaps technology) can work in tandem to empower people and improve the quality of life in these places.
At the same time, globalization is playing a role in working to bring many of the world’s poor out of poverty. For instance, by providing a job to a mother and/or a father, a family will earn a little extra income that it can hopefully use towards feeding its children and keeping them in school, thus improving their prospects for future. In this sense, I think globalizations is taking great strides towards creating level playing field by providing people from humble beginnings with the same opportunities as people from middle-class or privileged society.