Women, Girls And HIV/AIDS: A Time For Action

Jordan Wilson

11/26/10

7:20pm

The United Nations has made HIV/AIDS and gender inequality a priority and has put into action some programmes and agendas that will help educate the women and girls around the world to prevent the AIDS pandemic to spread any further. The foundation of these agendas is recognition of basic human rights that belong to women. Women and girls have been victims of “power imbalances, unequal opportunities, discrimination and violation of human rights, and violence inside and outside of the home.” Therefore, the UN must first address the issues that have been caused by these violations by talking to women and girls, educating them about sexual and reproductive health care, and making sure that they know what could happen when they have sex.

Finally! There is some kind of proposed solution, or at least an idea of how to go about making life more equal for someone. Jamaica has pinpointed a specific population that is three times more likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS and that demographic is young women between 10 and 19. Further, they discovered that these girls are becoming infected because they are having sex with older men. Knowing these key facts have helped organizations come to conclusions about how to go about saving lives and slowing the spread of the infection. The UN recognizes that educating these women, giving them power over their own lives, and letting them know what they can do will help decrease the gender inequality as well as boost the fight against HIV/AIDS.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20101121/focus/focus6.html

'Latin America is the most unequal region in the world,' UN's director

Jordan Wilson

11/18/10

4:15pm

The United Nations Development Programme director for Latin America, Heraldo Muñoz, said that despite a few countries making progress, in general, Latin American countries are “champions” of inequality at a global level. He goes on to say that this inequality has negative impacts on the people, economy and society, and that this is why inequality should be a priority on the political agenda. Latin American countries have been trying to alleviate poverty and make them more equal, but food and economic crises have set them back. Muñoz believes that “it is necessary to recover good levels of equality, education, and health, and to create instruments that efficiently reach the poorest populations and strengthen the effectiveness of policies.” Of the world’s 15 most unequal countries, 12 of them are in Latin America. Muñoz says that there is a problem with structurally weak institutions of democracy that may also feed into the lack of progress in the fight against poverty.

It is good that the UN director recognizes where they are weak in the goal for worldwide equality because it means that these weaknesses and problems can be addressed. The director, Muñoz, makes several good points and observations, such as the admittance that food and economic crises play large roles in this journey to equality and that this should be a priority for every country. It amazed me to read that based on the Human Development Index for inequality, the first Latin American country is Uruguay and it came in the 41^st place, after the most unequal country in Europe. This simple fact helps paint the picture of the more stable global North and the unequal global south. Two things confused me, however. First, the last paragraph mentions something called the G192, in the context that the region of Latin America should start using it since now it is chaired by Argentina. I have no idea what a G192 is and I think it would help to have a description of what it is and what it’s used for in order for me, and for most people, to understand the paragraph. Secondly, this, like many of the articles I’ve done thus far, has a lot of facts about what country is doing what, which is incredibly helpful. But what it’s lacking is what to do about these issues that arise. Mr. Muñoz says that it is necessary to have good levels of equality, education, and health, and that instruments should be made to reach poor populations. But he does not mention how he thinks these things should happen. It is very frustrating.

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/51246

Clinton mentions world’s 3 most significant problems

Jordan Wilson

11/12/10

4:41pm

Former US president Bill Clinton spoke at a forum in the Philippines on Wednesday. In this meeting, Clinton addressed what he considers to be the three “most significant problems we see in the modern world.” The first is that the world is too unequal to sustain the economic growth that would help people in the Philippines get a good education, have equitable chances to procure jobs or start good businesses. Clinton adds that this is not a situation unique to the Philippines, but to countries all over the world. Second, Clinton says that “the world is too unstable to be completely sustainable,” with the example of the financial crisis that began in the US and spread around the world. Lastly, he states that the climate change caused by greenhouse gases will remain an issue because “ways of producing (alternative) energy are not sustainable.” Countries do not believe that cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions would lead to better environment and better economics. Further, Clinton praised President Aquino for creating 43% of the electricity from domestic resources – geothermal, hydro and natural gases – and urged him to continue working in that direction because “it’s good for national security… economic security… more jobs and makes you much more competitive for long-term investments.”

This is a decent article about a former president’s ideas on how to better the world’s economic and environmental situations. Bill Clinton points out what he believes to be the world’s three biggest problems, but he doesn’t really give possible solutions or ideas that would help solve the problems. He neglects to provide ideas that would help the world become more equal and be able to sustain economic growth. If there are no solid examples of countries who are doing better than others in sustaining growth, it would be helpful to know what they are doing. If there are none, we should know why there are none and what could be done to stabilize economics across the world, one country at a time. Clinton does give a positive example of how to ameliorate the last biggest problem, climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. He commends one president for creating and using electricity that comes from domestic resources. He hopes that they continue to work on it until 100% of their electricity is domestically created. However, Clinton does not describe this example as one that is helping the environmental issue, but only that it is beneficial for the country’s national and economic security, and creates jobs. It’s nice to identify the problems, but coming up with solutions would be a productive thing to do.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20101112-302762/Clinton-mentions-worlds-3-most-significant-problems

Hunger still haunts Ugandans despite impressive growth

Jordan Wilson

11/5/10

5:05pm

Even though Uganda’s economy has seen incredible growth, 31% of the population still lives on less than a dollar a day, and many families are forced to go to bed hungry. It seems that most of the economic benefits are being enjoyed by the minority of rich people. This growth in Uganda is spreading the gap between the rich and poor further apart, so there are still many people who don’t have the resources to sustain sufficient food for themselves and their families. In 2008, the incidence of poverty increased 2.6% in direct relation to the increase in food prices. This, no doubt, contributes to the hunger problems in Uganda. Other factors include conflict, poor governance, failed government policies and programmes, as well as others. Emerging food markets in Kenya and southern Sudan offer higher prices for agricultural produce, but low production, which together create a negative effect on food security in places where food was abundant. The solution, according to Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba of Makerere, is to produce enough food for home consumption as well as the market.

There certainly needs to be a solution to address the food issue in Kenya, and I think it should start with closing the gap between the rich and the poor. If the economy is showing significant growth, it should be distributed more equally around the country so that there won’t be people going to bed hungry while others are enjoying five course meals and luxurious homes. The article was not specific in which areas the economy was growing (other than the increasing food prices), which seems important to know because I think that once those areas are identified, more specific solutions may be created to spread the wealth around to unify Uganda and grow closer to closing the inequality gap and eradicating absolute poverty.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1043014/-/cltoibz/-/

Inequality principal driver of carbon emissions

Jordan Wilson

Soc 202-01

October 29, 2010

Closing the global equality gap between the rich “North” and the poor “South” would reduce the amount of carbon emission released into the atmosphere according to UK researchers for Global Warming. Currently, there is a gap between the industrialized North and the populous South, and researchers have found that both population size and economic growth contribute to emissions, though wealth seems to be more important to carbon emissions while population contributes more significantly to global warming.

This article interested me because it was a different kind of inequality. However, it was not explicit in its explanations and connections of economic wealth and population with carbon emissions. I did notice that the article specified that the North is particularly industrialized and the South is highly populated, and that economics is important to carbon emissions while population is connected to global warming. So there is a difference there, but there still remains the question of where the inequality comes into play. Is it inequality within an industrialized country that produces more emission, or is it an inequality between the northern countries and southern countries? Is the article suggesting that there should be more people in the North and more industrialization in the South? I agree that “to achieve global sustainability, a serious commitment to greenhouse gas emissions reduction is required…” but I would like to know more about its connection to economic and populace inequalities around the world. The only thing that makes sense to me in this article is the fact that a “swelling” populace contributes significantly to global warming.

http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=14570

UN releases report on women statistics

Jordan Wilson

October 22, 2010

5:17pm

This article states that the number of men living “on the planet” is substantially greater than that of the female population. It goes on to say that this inequality is also present in the political world with 14 female heads of state and 13 females as heads of the world’s 500 largest corporations. The World’s Women 2010 Report finds that the rate of enrollment for girls in primary school has increased seven percent and that 49 versus 36 percent of women and men (respectively) in Central Africa and the Middle East still remain illiterate. The article also touched on issues of lower wages for women, despite higher education, and the prevalence of physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse endured by women.

As I read this article, I felt myself getting more and more aggravated by it. It is not very well written and while it does provide some supporting facts, it does not bother to elaborate on them. Some of the language used struck me as odd. For example, the use of the phrase “on the planet” took me aback. It does not seem like a scholarly way to make the point. Also, the word “ladies” instead of “women” or “females” made the article feel more juvenile and relaxed, instead of informational and insightful. The last big paragraph in which the author mentioned “social-biological nature of a human being” as a cause for the inequality further irritated me because the example is not an example of a socio-biological explanation. There is nothing biological about inequality. I do believe that the author meant to say “cultural,” in which case, he/she would be more accurate.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/10/21/27549928.html

Nordics lead in eliminating gender inequality

Jordan Wilson

October 17, 2010

5:08pm

A recent survey indexing gender inequality in all the countries of the world found that four Nordic countries were at the top: Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. At the bottom are many Arab and predominantly Muslim countries. The survey measured each country’s division of resources and opportunities between men and women in four areas – economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political attainment, health and survival. Klaus Schwab, the founder of the forum, said, “Low gender gaps are directly correlated with high economic competitiveness. Women and girls must be treated equally if a country is to grow and prosper.” The article goes on to describe where and why other countries ended up on the index. The United States landed in 19^th because of high levels of literacy and education for both women and men. Japan saw a jump of seven places because of higher estimated incomes for women. Lesotho is number eight in African countries because of high female participation in the labor force and more girls than boys attending school. France fell 28 places because it has fewer women in ministerial posts.

This was a good article to see where some of the world’s countries are falling on the scale of gender equality, and even though it did give a brief explanation of why the countries fell where they did, I wish that it had gone deeper into the explanation. It would be helpful, I think, to see how the countries at the top got to where they are so that other countries could figure out how to close their gender equality gap as well. Like we said in class, it’s easy to say that we could just have more seats in the Senate reserved for women, but if we had that, then we’d have to designate a portion of seats for other minority groups. So, for this article to simply say that Trinidad and Tobago have high proportions of women legislators, senior officials, managers, members of parliament and ministers is not very helpful to other nations.

http://www.beatricedailysun.com/news/national/article_7fc5cca6-38ac-55fc-ab03-9c4b6303150c.html

Kenya gets US$10m World Bank grant for agric

Jordan Wilson

10/1/10

4:05 pm

The World Bank has approved another grant to support Kenya’s agricultural productivity and environmental management. This is a US$10 million grant to help increase food production and encourage new and more effective land use that does not harm the environment. This grant comes after three grants approved in 2009. In April, a US$5 million Kenya Agricultural Input Supply grant was approved. One month later, the Bank approved both the US$82 million Kenya Agricultural Productivity and Agribusiness Project grant and the US$90 million East Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme grant. The latter grant was approved for Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. These grants are supposed to enable communities which have high erosion and land degradation hazards sustain their land and make use of their resources in ways that protect the environment. Because agriculture is a key economic pillar for Kenya, it is essential for their land to have optimal availability for their usage. Better land management and food production will help bring the country out of poverty and give its inhabitants more equity.

This all makes sense. Money to help educate people on how to effectively use their land yields more food production. Information on how to prevent erosion and degradation of the land will protect their environment, making it useful for longer. More food production and the assurance that it will be able to produce for a long time brings in more revenue for farmers. More money in the economy means more money in the pockets of the citizens and the reduction of those families living in poverty. The article states that the grants will be used to invest in micro-projects, strengthen enabling policies and institutions and support coordination, monitoring and evaluation activities. It does not give explicit information of what these projects and activities will entail. I am left wondering what kinds of projects and activities can help the production of food and better maintenance of the land, as well as address the inequality among Kenya’s people. I understand that better economy can help bring families out of poverty, but it can also stratify them even more, giving more to the haves and take more away from the have nots. There should be, in some of these policies, projects and activities that will specifically address the people who are desperately struggling more than those who are not.

http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/kenya-gets-us$10m-world-bank-grant-for-agric-2010100157334.html

Energy Access Seen as Vital to Abolishing Worst Poverty

Jordan Wilson

9/24/10

4:30pm

The International Energy Agency declared that allocating more money for the purposes of creating accessible electricity to 395 million people would give the world a good push toward eradicating extreme poverty. Sanitation, clean water and hunger issues may be ameliorated by the introduction of electricity in some of the poorest countries. Many people are still relying on biomass, using wood and other natural materials, to cook, which has been causing health and sanitation issues, as well as harming the environment. Moving these parts of the world into the modern energy era will not have major ill effects on the environment.

One of the concerns that I would have about expanding modern electricity into all corners of the world would be the natural resources from which we get the electricity. It should be taken into account how much energy is available and how much it would take to serve all countries. The article does not address where the energy and electricity is coming from. On the other hand, I think it is a great thing to get electricity to other parts of the world. I’ve been to Haiti and it is hard to see people living without clean water and safe means of cooking food. Taking big steps toward getting all people the basic amenity of electricity would be a great help in the fight against poverty. Health will be better and the environment will not be a harmed from the biomass materials people use for cooking. It seems that the simple idea of energy and electricity will raise the basic standard of living across the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/business/global/22energy.html?src=busln

Failure to respect human rights means MDGs are excluding the poorest people, warns Amnesty

Jordan Wilson

9/17/10

11:17 am

Governments are ignoring the poorest people and abusing their basic human rights. This will make it difficult, if not impossible, for countries to meet their Millennium Development Goals that will help alleviate poverty and increase equality across the world. A large majority of the people living in poverty are women. Many governments and other people of authority are abusing women, ignoring them or discriminating against them, preventing them from acquiring adequate food, clean water, sanitation and housing. Moreover, crime and violence against women mainly go unpunished. A lack of proper health care has helped increase the numbers of women and children dying during childbirth. Slums are also in danger in parts of Africa. The city officials plan on demolishing settlements where 200,000 people will be displaced, driving them deeper into poverty.

The main goal of the MDGs is to eliminate poverty and to bring more equality to people all over the world. This is a great and admirable goal. But to ignore the most impoverished and desperate people is counterproductive. The article does not state why the Nigerian officials who want to demolish a slum area and displace 200,000 people. It could be to rebuild a better structure that will house even more people with a higher standard of sanitation and safety. If that were the case, Nigeria will be doing something more aligned with the MDGs and it will be to the benefit of all those people. But because the article is not explicit on why they are demolishing the housing, it is assumed that the city just wants to rid itself of such settlements. Elsewhere, there is little improvement for the poorest people, women in particular. As the majority of people living in and affected by poverty, women need to be a higher priority for governments to begin to make their countries more equal.

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18995

Tackle gender disparities to meet development goals, deputy UN chief says

Jordan Wilson

9/9/10

11:24pm

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro spoke today about the inequality gaps between men and women. She said that the gender inequality should be a top priority because women make up a large proportion of people living in poverty. In many of the categories of poverty, women are affected the most. In health care, “maternal mortality is still the leading cause of death of women of child-bearing age across the developing world.” This fatality is easily prevented by check-ups, birthing professionals and emergency care. In education, two thirds of the almost 800 million illiterate adults in the world are women, who are not given the educational opportunities that many men are. Instead, women are expected to work in places that are often overlooked by anti-poverty policies. Ms. Migiro stresses that economic development and change will not occur if they continue to ignore the gender differences.

I think that these are valid points to bring up in the discussion of gender gaps in inequality. Pointing out these statistics is important and will help direct poverty relief efforts more efficiently. What Ms. Migiro does not talk about are ways to address these issues. While it is useful to point out the deficiencies in governmental policies, it would be more helpful to also describe specific ways in which these deficiencies may be ameliorated. The forum does last three days, so I hope that at some point, Ms. Migiro will address how to go about fixing the issues.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35873&Cr=&Cr1=

Inequality: Poverty

Jordan Wilson

9/2/10

9:08pm

World charity and aid leaders have come together to persuade governments to help fight against poverty. These leaders created a declaration with suggestions to pool the world’s money into a fund that will help the impoverished. One such suggestion is to cut down on military spending and use that money for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to decrease global poverty and increase health. Professor Phil Batterham of the University of Melbourne in Australia received a Twitter notification from U.S. President, Barack Obama who stated that “… the American combat mission in Iraq has ended.” This will prove beneficial when the government can spend less on their military and pour more of the funds into the MDG accounts. Also, some UN governments will reconvene in October to deliberate about the $20 billion (USD) fund that is designed to contend with devastating diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Most of the delegates at the meeting agreed with the declaration with only a few who opposed it.

If I had been part of this convention, I would have honestly, gladly and quickly agreed with the suggestions to improve the world’s poverty status. Taking money and allocating it specifically to the purposes of better education, health care, and the general well-being of all the world’s people is an incredible task, but it seems to me that it is a completely viable one. The article stated that to fund all of the MDGs, we would have to cut the annual military budget by a tenth. Clearly, the resources to reduce the inequality exist. The next question I have is whether or not they will actually follow through with it. It would be a great start to closing the gap and putting a dent into poverty.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/world-leaders-urged-to-act-on-poverty-20100901-14mto.html