The end of poverty is the most urgent challenge of our generation Jeffrey Sachs declares in this lecture given in 2007. (167) He asserts that peace will never be a viable option if economic development in third world countries aren’t attended to: “An army can never pacify a hungry, disease-ridden and impoverished population.” (167) He says we need to access science and technology to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how to meet this challenge.
The “ladder of development” is a way for impoverished countries to join into the world market and benefit from global development; when they integrate into this system they begin to make progress. Sachs says that the problems then are the countries that aren’t part of this system, and have been in effect overlooked by globalization. Africa is the most notable example of this. He dispels the idea that the only obstacle to Africa’s development is the corruption factor, the general myth, and goes on to further explain that the other obstacle not usually taken into consideration is its “ecology, history, weak infrastructure and …population growth.”(168) Identification and awareness of these problems then allow for the scientific solutions to be engaged.
Sachs names these obstacles to breaking free of poverty as low food production, disease, and infrastructure and population growth. His insight into a solution is built on technologies, insecticide treated bed nets that will help reduce mosquitoes and the spread of malaria, antiviral medicines to treat AIDS and HIV. Agronomy, the science and technology of cultivating and using plants as a sustainable and renewable resource is a way to build farming communities that would in turn use high yield seeds and create food sources. Population growth occurs at such high rates because, Sachs assets, of the high rate of infant mortality, thus families have more children to compensate for their losses or projected losses. Non access to contraception and education for the women and girls are also an integral part of population growth. The girls don’t have the opportunity to go to school and work so are encouraged to have children and mother.
The resources to help the countries in poverty, Sachs says, need to come from the global community of wealthier nations. We need to not only help them to create their own local economies and infrastructures, but we need to offer and commit to a significant financial support. The Nordic countries have done this as social welfare countries. They have extended their systems to others and have actively practiced their values and “eliminated poverty in their midst and achieved the best heath outcomes in the world, they have also fostered the confidence to extend such solidarity to the rest of the world.”(171)
Sachs concludes with some rules of solidarity: use scientific evidence, states should take an active role, and honor our commitments to fight poverty. He again reminds us as he did in the beginning of the lecture, that “we are all in this together, that
our fates, economic and otherwise, are shared, and that the defeat of poverty will be a victory of security for all on the planet.”(171)
I noted that this lecture was given in 2007, before global economic disaster manifested so clearly. I wondered if any of his perspectives might be different had the global climate been as contrasted as it is now. I thought this was kind of idealistic and then was reminded that a lot of the authors that we’ve been reading are idealistic and visionary. I did think about his population theory regarding not having birth control and compensating for child mortality. This has truth in it however both times that I read it I thought that sex just might be a free pleasure to them, and maybe they love children and maybe mothering is more highly valued in their culture than it is in the west. I’m thinking there is a lot of complexity in this issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment