Swami Vivekananda

MIRONJILLA, DHAKA – The children of this poverty-stricken sweeper colony are educated by Dhaka University college students in a yellow three-story concrete building.
 
Although the school, which is named after Swami Vivekananda, usually operates at night, after the children have finished their jobs of cleaning the streets, today is special: there is an art and a [...]

FIRST PERSON: George Childs in Fresnillo, Mexico

The issue of poverty in Fresnillo is so complex that an unstudied observer struggles to begin an analysis. Individual problems can obscure systemic injustices. It’s hard to see the forest for the trees.
I’ve just arrived home from the championship of the local soccer children and adult leagues. The trophy ceremony was disbanded after numerous fights [...]

Does global sustainability require population control?

In order to create a sustainable world, some experts say that population control must take center stage. “Most natural scientists agree our growing numbers and our unchecked impact on the natural environment move us inexorably toward global calamities of unthinkable severity,” said John Feeney in an article for BBC News. Although the impact of overpopulation [...]

Obama lifts restriction on foreign aid

On January 23 President Obama signed a measure that will lift the Bush administration’s block on funding to foreign assistance programs that provide education on abortion to woman, a move that could have a big impact on international poverty programs. According to a post on the White House website, this Reagan era policy referred to [...]

World trade talks collapse

The seven-year world trade talks being held in Geneva collapsed this afternoon when the United States, China and India failed to reach an agreement on agriculture imports.
See reports from the Associated Press, The Daily Telegraph, The Hindu, and China View.

Report finds wide disparity in human development in U.S.

A new report released this week by the American Human Development Project, ranked the U.S. 12th in the world in human development, and revealed a wide disparity in development potential between ethic groups and regions.
According to Oxfam America, a sponsor of the report, “The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008-2009,” published by Columbia [...]

USAID: Global food crisis unlike any in 50 years

Testifying before Congress Wednesday, the Acting Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development James R. Kunder said the global food crisis is unlike any other food crisis we have faced in 50 years:
We are in the midst of a global food crisis unlike other food crises we have faced in the past half [...]

Visualizing Poverty

There is a great tool for visualizing poverty in the United States. At Social Explorer you can view an interactive map that plots the percentage of people living in poverty based on the 2000 Census. (Choose “poverty” from the second drop-down menu on the right. The tool also allows you to zoom in on specific [...]