Poverty

Lucy Daniel is the Advocacy and Policy Officer at CBM Australia, a development organisation working with people with disabilities in the world’s poorest places.

It could be the plot of a great Hollywood movie. A political drama. With George Clooney or Matt Damon as male lead. And a young, feisty, female journalist who gets caught up in it all.

The opening scene pans to a meeting room, high up in skyscraper land, with a marble round table, iced water jugs and leaders of a big global development Bank.

“Gentlemen, you should be proud,” says the silver fox, “This policy forges the path to education for the poorest of the poor.” Clapping and shaking hands all around.

Continue reading "In poverty, disability means stigma & exclusion" »

You can’t blame Hope Rinehart for trying to get her Mum to pay for a cook, a housekeeper and a bodyguard. Optimism isn’t even her middle name - it’s right up there.

And who among us wouldn’t have a fairly ambitious birthday wish list if Mum was the richest person in Australia?

So Hope asked Mum for a cook (AND showed her willingness to negotiate by including a salary ranging from $40,000 to $225,000+ which means she’d presumably gun for Jamie Oliver but be happy with a Subway “sandwich artist”). 

Continue reading "The Rinehart whine came straight from the heart" »

When the Snowtown murder trial concluded in 2003 a prominent criminologist scandalised the good people of Adelaide by saying there was nothing surprising or remarkable about the case.

New Yorker Allan Perry, a lecturer in criminal law at the University of Adelaide, blamed what he called a subculture of degeneracy in the city’s most depressed and dysfunctional suburbs, defined by inter-generational welfare dependency, the daily abuse of alcohol and drugs, shocking levels of child abuse, child neglect and family violence.

Dr Perry said the only thing which shocked him about Snowtown was that people were shocked by it. And he really cut loose in his description of my hometown, sending talkback and the letters pages into meltdown, and prompting the then Attorney General Mick Atkinson to tell him to move back to Brooklyn.

Continue reading "A horror movie about poverty and welfare" »

One potato per family: First come, first served. That was the instruction to volunteers distributing food in dirt-poor Arizona last week.

“The free potato distributions are for Arizona residents only. You must show photo ID with a local mailing address,” read the newspaper advertisement. Food assistance is the “new normal”, according to the charity Feeding America.

More than half the clients of the Food Pantry system use it for more than six months of every year.

Continue reading "Warring tribes mean moderates are left right out" »

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for some months, you will realise that people are starving in the Horn of Africa.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation considers 12 million people at risk in a region that includes Ethiopia (82m), Kenya (39m), Somalia (9m), Uganda (32m) and little Djibouti (1m). The figures in brackets are national populations and imply that 12 million is only only about 7 per cent of people in the region.

But you know the risk to each and every one of them is serious when Bob Geldof is wheeled out in a suit. Geldof, in a recent press conference, felt compelled to remind people that those at risk are intelligent, creative and resilient people who are suffering enormously.

Continue reading "Make boverty history" »

Teenage mums in Adelaide’s northern suburbs will soon lose their welfare payments if they don’t go back to school.

Local federal MP Nick Champion asked for his electorate to be included in the Federal Government’s tough-love trial. As he says: “We are not doing anyone any favours if we do not help teen mothers finish school.”

I’m sure many of you are nodding in agreement. It’s hard to argue with a program designed to empower kids with knowledge and skills, instead of cursing them to a life of welfare dependency in the blind belief that they’ll rise up from entrenched disadvantage when they’re good and ready. But if conditional welfare is acceptable for white girls in the northern suburbs, why is the State Government so squeamish about the issue in SA’s Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands?

Continue reading "They’re not faring well and the answer’s not welfare" »

Neuroscientists have found that over 80 per cent of calories that newborns ingest fuel their brains. The colossal statistic accounts for how rapidly the young brain grows and develops.

It paints us a new picture of malnutrition. It tells us that babies caught up in the developing famine in East Africa will almost certainly suffer starvation-induced damage that will have long-term developmental effects on their minds.

Babies are arriving in field hospitals in Dadaab, Kenya, too weak to cry. Many weigh a third of what they should.

Continue reading "Won’t someone, please, think of the African children" »

Once again Africa is gripped by a catastrophic famine.  As developed countries and NGOs scramble to mobilise aid, we are told incomprehensible numbers of people face a ghastly death by starvation, including hundreds of thousands of children.

It can make you despair.  Sometimes we feel like turning away, we seem so powerless and the problems so entrenched and repetitive. Giving money can feel pointless; commercial TV news hardly mentions the crisis, guessing it will have viewers reaching for the remote control.

But there’s another story about Africa many Australians might find very surprising.

Continue reading "Africa: now the good news" »

Here’s a question – why are people rioting in Britain but not in Africa?

Why are we seeing violence and vandalism on the streets of London, where an entire government bureaucracy has been built up around giving money to the poor, but not on the streets of Mogadishu, where there is no government assistance at all, barely a government, and whatever aid is provided by other countries is often pilfered by unscrupulous local officials?

Here’s another question. Why are we seeing more panic and hysteria on the floors of the western world’s stock exchanges and among investors than we are in the Somalian camps, where according to the latest figures one in every 10 children under the age of five will be dead by November?

Continue reading "First world problems and the crisis in Africa" »

Walking into a room full of young Australian volunteers preparing for deployment is a great lesson in tempering preconceptions and avoiding stereotypes.  It’s easy to imagine all volunteers being of the same ilk; ultra-progressive, left wing, vegetarian…

I am joking of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if readers were nodding in agreement as I said that.  I admit that I had that image firmly planted in my head as I walked in to my first major briefing session, wondering frantically if I would fit in with the group that was already there. 

This, after all, was my first real encounter with the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) Program, which places passionate young Australians (18-30) on short-term assignments in developing countries in Asia, the Pacific and Africa.

Continue reading "Lending a hand helps everybody" »

In trying to identify the causes of the London riots, we could start by reflecting on the comments from former Greater London Council police advisor Lee Jasper in analysing the mindset of the youths on the streets.

In a finger-pointing monologue on The 7.30 Report on Tuesday, Mr Jasper argued that the one group of people who should definitely not be blamed for the riots were the rioters themselves.

“We’ve seen huge levels of austerity cuts in many inner city areas that are leading to a great deal of anxiety and concern,” stated the one-time advisor to former London Mayor “Red” Ken Livingstone. “Unemployment continues to rise and there is a sense of anxiety but also a sense of moral crisis in the country. I think because of the MPs scandal, the corporate tax dodging issue of huge multinational companies, the News International corruption cases with the metropolitan police and phone hacking, there is a kind of failure really of people in power to uphold the kind of moral standards that we all aspire to. And as such, this has had an effect around the country.”

Continue reading "London: Doling out excuses for the inexcusable" »

As a relative newcomer to Sydney, I’ve discovered a phrase I almost never heard mentioned before I moved here: “Western Sydney”. As someone who lives in the Eastern Suburbs, the Western Suburbs aren’t really on my radar.  I have little need to go out there. 

I did, however, discover some new information about Western Sydney last weekend.  Its new AFL team, the Giants, took the field against the Sydney Swans’ second XI.  The hapless Giants kicked three goals and got smashed by over 100 points.

Wow. Furthermore, according to ABC’s Offsiders program, the NSW Government spent $45 million redeveloping a stadium which will play host to the team. 

Continue reading "Homelessness needs a football facelift" »

What time is it in the world? When U2 launched the Australian leg of their 360 tour last week in Melbourne, this seemingly nonsensical question was repeated and alluded to throughout the show. 

As the apparent motif of their tour, the question begs consideration. 

Over the years U2 have consistently encouraged their fans to develop a political and social consciousness, in stark contrast to the spiritual vacuity promoted by most mainstream musicians. 

Continue reading "In defence of Bono and U2" »

U2’s 360 degrees tour has touched down in Australia and is in full swing. Much like the main feature of the tour, stories have been coming from every direction on how extravagant the concert is. How the big scale, big vision, and big cost have lead to the biggest concert event ever.

You have to admit, the numbers are pretty impressive.

U2’s two year world tour has run up an $850,000 dollars daily running cost, and last year took $123 million as the highest grossing tour of 2009. ‘The claw’ stage that dominates the band as they play towers at an impressive height of 164 feet. It is so large that it took six 747 jets to get it to Australia.

Continue reading "U2 isn’t exactly practicing what it preaches" »

Does travel broaden the mind or is it a merely a generally pleasant meandering about in search of the least untrustworthy taxi driver?

While preparing to return home from a 7-month round-the-world trip spanning 21 countries and five continents I have been pondering this question.

I would be loathe to press the case that touristic travel bestows anything more than a passport full of visa ink and a credit card more overworked than Ian Thorpe’s personal stylist.

Continue reading "Travel lessons: a broader view on fat dumb Americans" »

Three weeks ago, in a small town on the NSW coast, a man and his mate were both stabbed during a brawl.

The man died.

That brutal act sparked a family feud. The small, tight-knit community, sodden with anger and grief, was then faced with the violent fallout. Chaos reigned. Up to 50 people took to the streets, wielding weapons and venting their fury on cars, houses, people. For two days they raged.

Continue reading "The 100 desperate people Australia forgot" »

ActionAid, Plan Australia and Save the Children have joined forces in a national newspaper advertisment campaign today to raise the profile of the Pakistan flood disaster. But it’s not your money that they’re after. 

All three charities have come together in response to what they’ve described as a dire “lack” of media coverage of the emergency situation and are rallying their efforts to bring our attention to the situation at hand. 

So what exactly is going on in Pakistan?

Continue reading "Why have we abandoned the people of Pakistan?" »

Among the many hazards that you might encounter during a long overseas trip, perhaps the worst one is starting to sound like the Lonely Planet.

I don’t mean just quoting the guidebooks’ neat little factoids and pat judgments in place of any other real conversation or insight, something my wife and I have been reduced to doing for the past few months of our world trip.

A more serious sign of the malady is when you start to refer to yourself as an “independent traveller”, the standard description the books employ for their readership.

Continue reading "There’s no more nobility in travelling on the cheap" »

Although I am closely involved in the aid and development sector, I was pleased to read Monday’s News Limited critical pieces by Steve Lewis in the Daily Telegraph and the Adelaide Advertiser.

Negative publicity is never good for any sector. However, the recent pieces in Australia’s newspapers are a positive sign of the fact that Australians are engaging with the global movement to take action on extreme poverty.
 
In my role as a development educator, I have been witnessing this change in our societal perspective on a daily basis. Australians are no longer simply asking how many aid dollars are being allocated to help the billions of people living in extreme poverty: we are now questioning the effectiveness of this spending. We are finally applying the age-old adage of ‘quality over quantity’ where it matters most, in the lives of the world’s poorest.

Continue reading "Getting more bang for our foreign aid buck" »

These days no self-respecting or self-preserving celeb is seen without a malnourished child, developing country or war zone.  Make up removed, with a shawl or ethnic beads for decoration, the ‘saving the world’ photo shoot is a must-have for their portfolio. 

This week Lindsay Lohan joins the fray as she fronts Lindsay Lohan’s Indian Journey, a BBC3 documentary about child trafficking in India. 

It’s heavy stuff.  The country’s economic boom has seen traffickers head to India’s poorest regions in search of children who end up working long hours in inhumane conditions, with some forced into prostitution. 

Continue reading "Lindsay Lohan’s stupid celebrity quest to save India" »

With today being International Women’s Day, there will be millions of men around the world thinking – “This is so sexist! Where is my International Man’s Day?”

Heck, I used to be one of those people. I used to think that all the affirmative discrimination was sexist, backward and downright wrong. For my male friends nodding your head in agreement, I challenge you to read on, and to watch the above clip.

It has only been in recent years that my stubborn mindset has changed. I happily admit that I am no expert on this issue, but you don’t need to be an expert to realise that things need to change.

Continue reading "Why there is no International Man’s Day" »

According to the Australian Treasury the global financial crisis is now officially ‘over’, with business booming and the unemployment rate once again beginning to shrink.

From an economic perspective, we might breathe a tentative sigh of relief, bearing in mind the fact that these boom and bust cycles are a cyclical feature of the global economy.

However, a broader social crisis still remains in the form of the persistent and intergenerational disadvantage that is preventing a significant proportion of Australians from contributing to the three national challenges of ‘Productivity’, ‘Participation’ and ‘Population’ identified in this year’s Intergenerational Report.

Continue reading "The GFC might be over but the poverty crisis remains" »

Editor’s note: This week on Twitter Rhiannon pledged to donate $10 each day to a different charity. And she’d welcome your suggestions on charities worth donating to. You’ll find her blog and Twitter name at the bottom of her piece.

Here’s my confession: I’ve done a few bad things in my life. 

When I was seven I stole some stickers from my teacher. As Julia Roberts would say, big mistake. Huge.

Even now I still turn nauseous now at the thought of banana-scented scratch-and-sniff.

Continue reading "How to be good on $10 a day" »

Just once I’d like to see a celebrity, the kind that make a lot of fuss about pledging money to a cause like Haiti, to follow through.

It doesn’t matter which one. I just want to see them turn up again a few months-even a year- later to check how things are going. After the camera’s been turned off and around the time we’ve all started to forget how badly we cared about it.

Continue reading "We will forget Haiti" »

As the rescue operation in Haiti begins to shift to one of recovery, the global community is now beginning to see the true scale of the disaster which has struck the tiny Carribean nation. Natural disasters such as the Haitian earthquake, the Samoan and Tongan tsunami of last year and the Asian tsunami of 2004 always bring out a truly astounding expression of a shared humanity.

Natural disasters bring poverty to the fore but the fact is extreme poverty is a daily reality for far too many people around the world.

25,000 children will die today from preventable diseases, 900 million people around the world will go to sleep hungry tonight, and tomorrow 1.4billion people will be forced to survive on less than US$1.25 for the day – more than two-thirds of them women and children.

Continue reading "We should be proud of our response to the Haiti quake" »

The Prime Minister of Haiti has estimated the death toll of this week’s earthquake to be over 100,000. Reports yesterday suggest the death-toll could soon rival that of the Boxing Day Tsunami.

It is my firm belief that we could have done more to minimise the magnitude of loss as a result of the earthquake. Neither you nor I have the ability to play God and predict a quake or even lessen its power but what we do have is the ability to alter the death toll from such a horrific disaster.

Over 78% of Haitian residents live in poverty, which is defined by the World Bank as living on US$2 per day, and it is these conditions that are responsible for the saddening predictions from the Haitian Prime Minister.

Continue reading "The high death toll in Haiti is due to poverty, not nature" »

You can’t go anywhere without hearing about climate change. There’s no denying that it’s a critical issue for many of us when thinking about the future. Today as I walked to work I noticed a young man wearing a T-shirt with an image of Earth and text that said ‘Defend Tomorrow’ and it was clear what his views were.

It’s great to see this sort of passion, but it made me think about the thousands of volunteers who contribute to The Smith Family’s work, because their social conscience is undoubtedly just as strong as this man’s, just perhaps less overt.

Although many Australians are continuing to feel the effects of the global financial crisis, The Smith Family has been inundated with requests from members of the public to offer their services as volunteers over the Christmas period.

Continue reading "Why giving your time is the best Chrissy gift of all" »

As a politician one of my roles is to attend official openings. Like all of my colleagues I’ve opened schools, sporting facilities, roads, bridges and buildings complete with photos in a hardhat and safety vest. It is a part of the job and one that I quite enjoy.

It is fair to say that in my twenty-two years in Parliament I have attended hundreds of these ceremonies. Out of all of them, there is one which sticks in my mind as both the strangest and also among the most important.

In 2008, in the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati, I formally opened a girl’s toilet at a school.

Continue reading "And a very happy World Toilet Day to you all" »

The propensity for us ascribe days to inanimate objects seems endless. Some of the more obscure that we’ve encountered recently include ‘Picnic Day’, ‘World TV Day’ (which coincidentally shares a day with ‘World Hello Day’, one promoting socialising and one well…not), ‘Lefthanders Day’ and everybody’s favourite, ‘International Talk Like a Pirate Day’.

So it would not be out of the question to, upon hearing the words ‘World Toilet Day’, shake your head, perhaps laugh, and turn the page, or click the link for Laser Hair Solutions in the right side panel (because this site appreciates the plight of the left hander when designing web content).

All jokes aside, World Toilet Day is an internationally recognised and significant promoting a critical issue for 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. It is the lack of safe toilets. We know the solution and we have the technology to simply, effectively and practically make a difference, all we need is the will.

Continue reading "Do you give a crap about World Toilet Day?" »

Once upon a time, in a 20th century age of ‘things’, people used to make sense of who they were by what they owned – land, house, car etc.

Today, in the age of communication, people are defined by who they know and what they share.

The phenomenal success of Web 2.0 vehicles such as Facebook and now Twitter (which I was told by a reliable source this week has seen 6,500 per cent growth in users in the last financial year), has demonstrated an astonishing need for people to connect and interact as the basis of their identity and wellbeing.

Continue reading "When names hurt as much as sticks and stones" »

David Cappo is a priest.

But he is one of the most powerful South Australians. Sure, he’s Vicar-General of the Catholic Church, a Monsignor and Dean of the Cathedral. He’s also our State’s Social Inclusion Commissioner, with a free range over social policy.

Monsignor Cappo is a member of our powerful Economic Development Board, and - most importantly - sits on “Ex-Com”, the Executive Committee of Cabinet, which includes me, the Deputy-Premier, and senior Ministers. Cappo has clout, and in order to get things done he sometimes has to act more like the Inquisition than a confessor.

Continue reading "A priest with punch: social inclusion explained" »

First it was the Police Bible; now it’s the Poverty and Justice Bible. The market segmentation of the Bible reading audience knows no bounds. It’s easy to be cynical about ‘trendy’ versions of the Good Book – are they not merely publishing manoeuvres designed to flog a dead religious horse?

Well, yes and no. Of course, repackaging and relabelling an old product is a time-honoured way of making more sales and expanding markets.

Some Bibles, like the various Teen Study Versions, just seem to add to the Scriptures dubious cultural commentary about wearing make-up, handling break-ups and pursuing middle-class-ness. But there is a more useful, corrective side to the specialist Bible industry.

Continue reading "A bible for every occasion" »

THERE are some stories that are so sad that they are almost impossible to read, some photographs that you cannot look at without choking up. The death of Dean Shillingsworth is such a story – the gorgeous two-year-old boy from one of the most impoverished suburbs in Sydney’s west, whose mother yesterday pleaded guilty to killing him and stuffing him into a suitcase which she threw into a duck pond.

The manner of Dean’s death goes beyond comprehension. You look at this kid in his Thomas the Tank Engine pyjamas and just shake your head in disbelief, and shed a tear that, maybe, he could have been one of the children who through the support of his extended family, or the attention of a dedicated public school teacher, could have found his way out of the dysfunctional mess he’d been born into.

That is obviously something that nobody will ever know.

Continue reading "Dean Shillingsworth and the people Australia forgot" »

In a world of escalating costs of living, ever-rising unemployment and fluctuating economies, one group stands to be hit harder than any other.

Unlike other groups, this one will not be publicised by media, found protesting or walking off the job, or be seen throwing in the towel any time soon. Instead, far from it, university students around Australia and indeed the world will continue to front classrooms every day, opening their minds to the knowledge and pathways available to secure a sustainable future free from debt and money woes.

But, just how hard is it to attend university and what financial impact can students expect to be facing both through their studies and at the completion of the educational yellow brick road as they begin their dream career?

Continue reading "It’s a myth that everyone has access to tertiary study" »

World Vision is a signed-up member of the ever-growing ‘I Love Frankston’ fan club, applauding the generosity and compassion of local residents whose good deeds often go unnoticed by the media.

Results from a recent World Vision survey into child sponsorship found that the so-called ‘bogans’ of Australia often beat out the bourgeoisie and blue-bloods when it comes to making a difference in the fight against global poverty.
 
According to the survey findings, Frankston residents are among Australia’s biggest givers to children living in poverty, regardless of a weekly median income of $880, which is significantly lower than the national median household income of $1,139. Despite child sponsors accounting for less than two per cent of the total population of Victoria, more than 1,000 Frankston residents currently sponsor a child through World Vision.

Continue reading "Bogans are the most generous givers" »

The people of Frankston, Victoria, deserve full marks for enterprise. But they’ve damaged their bogan credentials by becoming the latest mulletted suburb to jump on the I-Heart-New York-style merchandising bandwagon, with the suburb’s GDP ballooning to several thousand dollars with the sale of I Love Frankston t-shirts, stubbie holders and prophylactics.

The Herald-Sun chronicled the marketing push last week, with residents of “Franga”, “Franghanistan” and “Funky Town” as Frankston is also known hailing the move as a sign their city was on the improve.

It’s the kind of upwardy-mobile stuff which appalls committed westies such as bricklayer Todd Farrawell, from St Marys in Sydney’s West, who went public last month to bemoan the aspirationists who were getting all giggly about the “new buzz” out west.

Continue reading "Frankston not in the hunt for Australia’s top bogan suburb" »

Recently, a private boys’ school in Queensland took the progressive step of incorporating emotional intelligence into its syllabus. Bravo. 

In Western society, we have for too long adopted a blinkered approach towards education, focusing heavily on the development of cognitive skills, such as writing, reading and counting, and not those associated with a child’s emotional development.

Research and early childhood literature has shown that children who possess well-developed emotional and mental skills, have a greater likelihood of being successful later on in life. 

Continue reading "Putting self-esteem on the school syllabus" »

Looking for a great excuse to go for a beer tonight, how about tackling global poverty?

Head to iDrink and join 40K Home Foundation, an organisation run by a bunch of young people who are committed to eradicating poverty without making anyone feel guilty.

The team of fifteen, all between the ages of 21 and 27, form part of a growing trend among Gen Y’ers looking for innovative ways to help people and developing countries in need. 

“iDrink is basically a tribute to the notion that we can often solve the worst of the world’s problems when we’re surrounded by like-minded friends and a few drinks,” said Clary Castrission who co-founded 40KHome Foundation in 2004 while at university.

Continue reading "Fight poverty. Have a drink." »

A SIMPLE message scrawled on scrounged cardboard used to be enough. Basic signs like “Hungry, please help” or “homeless – need $$$’’ would help eke out a living.

But in these tough financial times, scroungers are ditching generic pleas and getting creative to maintain their cash-flow.

Faced with stiff competition – including an army of charity muggers, talentless buskers and ambush windscreen washers—society’s have-nots are polishing sales pitches.

Continue reading "Beggars choosing creativity to beat the GFC" »

Last week we held a public event we call Sydney Conversations – a series of talks we host where, with the aid of a panel of speakers, we get to look closely at a topic that’s making the news, and get the news behind the news, so to speak. 

Our Conversation was around the topic ‘How much is enough?’. The idea was to look at the link between money and happiness, or money and unhappiness as the case may be. 

The Happiness Institute’s Tim Sharp talked about the sources of happiness: he said that having meaningful and purposeful pursuits is the path to happiness, coupled with the quality relationships we have in our lives. That happiness had nothing whatsoever to do with money.

Continue reading "Finding happiness in the middle of a crisis" »

YOU could hear hearts breaking across NSW yesterday at the terrible news our impoverished politicians will be forced to subsist on a meagre $77.55 a day meal allowance.

Not since federal Labor MP John Murphy went public about the paltry beef stroganoff servings at the parliamentary canteen has the public seen the true impact of hunger on our elected representatives.

Turn it up. At a time when so many households are going without, the application by our pollies to the remuneration tribunal for a bit more pampering has understandably enraged put-upon families.

If these MPs are battling to make ends meet, there’s a raft of innovative money-saving ideas out there in cyberspace which I’ll discuss for their benefit, after recapping this latest perk grab.

Continue reading "Battling bloggers’ handy hints for our poor starving MPs" »