An issue is a matter of concern or of interest. Habitually individuals have different outlooks about an issue and will converse or argue about it in order to find a solution. Occasionally an issue can have an exacting focus. For example, issues may have a social, economic, political, or environmental focus. A political issue may focus on the governance of a state or country. A local issue is something that concerns a smaller area. On the flip side, global issues are those that comprise, or grasp the possible extensive impacts on large numbers of people. Global issues are international, in that they are beyond the ability of any one nation to resolve. Global issues are unrelenting, since they take years, or decades to be fully solved. Finally, global issues are interrelated, which means that a change in one will put forth pressure for change in others. For example, energy consumption constrains climate change, which in turn pressures aquatic fisheries through changes in ocean temperature and chemistry, and change of food capital through changes in rainfall patterns. Global issues are at hand in all areas of our lives as citizens of the world. They influence our, environment, our abilities as individuals, and the ability to make decisions concerning cooperation at the global level.
Poverty and inequality
Hardly any problems facing humankind are as undeniable as those caused by poverty and inequality. Often, poverty is measured in terms of income, where the level of income is inadequate to meet basic needs. Poverty is a lack or dispossession of resources and competence as well as preferences, rights, power, and security. A person can be poor through a deprivation of one or more of the above features. Directly, connected to magnitude of poverty, is inequality. Inequality is a gauge of the relative allocation of the diverse features of poverty in transverse populations, nations and societies.
Globally, wealth and poverty is prevalent with large inequality in income levels. Inadequate income is also extremely associated with access to education, health, employment, safe environments, the position of women, and opportunities for political power and social contribution. The reasons and causes of these situations are issues of controversy and disagreement. As such, so are the anticipated ways by which these situations can be cured. Undeniably, the social, moral, and physical issues surrounding poverty and inequality involve important intricacy that has not succumbed agreement about what to do. This offers a weighty set of challenges that need to be addressed through the application of multidisciplinary views. Also, maybe more important than intellectual ideas of poverty is the understanding of those in poverty. If we understand that poverty is mental and physical pain, we can admit and center on easing this source of pain
Causes of Poverty and Inequality
The causes of poverty are reasonably overpowering: beginning with colonialism, industrialization, political institutions, and corruption. We need to look at them for us to understand why so many countries are like that. Historical causes: slavery, war and conquest and colonialism, are unquestionably the causes of poverty. It is known that many European nations, faced by destructive wars, such as World Wars I and II, were abridged to bare poverty, people were made to live on donations and charity, hardly existing. Within decades they have recovered from the impacts of the war, and emerged to become successful and flourishing. On the contrary, many nations have remained among the developing nations of the world (McCright, &2000). Dependency is the belief that one is so poor and has to depend o other people for survival, results from being on the receiving end of charity. In the short run, as after a disaster, that charity may be essential for survival. The dependency syndrome is prevalent in the third world countries. The empowerment strategies are alternatives to giving charity. They provide assistance, capital and training, but do not give a solution to increased rates of poverty.
Ignorance means lack of information, or lack of knowledge. “Knowledge is power,” goes the old saying. Regrettably, some people, knowing this, keep knowledge to themselves and deter others from acquiring knowledge. Good minded individuals who intend on helping communities become stable, should not only focus on the formal education. On the flip side, they should train them to tackle the problem at hand. For example, it will not help a farmer to know that Romeo and Juliet both died in Shakespeare’s play, but it would be handier to know which kind of seed would survive in the local soil, and which would not. Apathy or lethargy are also causes of poverty, it is being lazy, or not caring (Wapner, 1995). Most nations and communities do not have the guts to fix their problems, or adopt to changes that will lift them economically .Lazy people will always resist change, and demoralize the agents of change. Occasionally lethargy is warranted by religious principles; accept what is present because God has determined your destiny. This belief may be used as a defense, to promote laziness. On the contrary, we should be motivated to improve our lives, our countries, and the world at large. We were created with many capabilities: to choose, to organize, and cooperate, and to improve the standards of our lives.
Poor health facilities and diseases cause poverty in nations, and also in the world. High rate of diseases will lower the productivity of a country, and, the standards of an economy (McCright, & Dunlap2000). Most diseases result to deaths, which is a loss of skill and talent. Being healthy does not only helps the persons that are healthy, but contributes to the purge of poverty in a nation. Prevention is better than cure. This is one of the vital doctrines of primary health care. The economy is much stronger, if the population is always healthy, than people getting treatment. Absence of diseases reduces the rates of poverty in terms of, knowledge of good hygiene, clean drinking water, and sanitation. Many people view access to health care as a subject of human rights, the diminution of pain and misery and the worth of life of the people. These are all compelling reasons to supply to a healthy population. What is paramount is that a healthy population contributes to the annihilation of poverty (Blake 1999). Poverty is not only measured by high rates of morbidity and mortality, but also the prevalence of disease contributes to other features of poverty.
When resources that are proposed to be used for community services or amenities, are sidetracked into the personal interest of the leader, is a major cause to poverty. Deceit from people in authority breaks trusts and citizens lose confidence with their leaders. The amount embezzled contributes to the decrease of wealth, and the public does not gain from the money. Economists tell of the multiplier effect, where new wealth is endowed, the positive effect on the economy is more than the amount created (Wapner, 1995). When venture money is taken out of distribution, the amount of wealth by which the nation is dispossessed is greater than the amount gained by the extorter. For example, when a Government official takes a 100 dollar enticement, social investments is decreased by as much as a 400 dollar reduce in the wealth of the society.
It is sardonic that we get very distressed when extorters extort a lot of money in the market, yet a government official may steal a lot of money from the public kitty, this affects the progress of a nation, and we let the leaders go scot free. In contrast, the government should enact laws to safe guard the public money, and also the extorters should be punished. The government leaders that embezzle public funds are a major cause of poverty. In conclusion, the causes of poverty emerge to be widespread and deeply entrenched in cultural values and practices. We may erroneously believe that any of us, at our small level of life, can do nothing about them, this is a misconception (Blake 1999). misconception. For example, if each of us make a personal pledge to fight the causes of poverty at our interpersonal levels. Then the sum total of all of us doing it, and the multiplier consequence of our actions on others, will contribute to the crumble of the causes of poverty, and great success and achievements will be experienced globally.
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