Economic essayThe way for poor to develop.docx

1、Economic essayThe way for poor to developThe way for poor to developbyHao ChenID:043070440EC207November 16, 2005 Chen 1The way for poor to developOut of Poverty: and into Something More Comfortable. by John Stackhouse,Vintage Canada, 382 pp., $24.95 CDN/$17.50 US Poverty is always a popular topic fo

2、r those concerned with the economic development. The present condition of poverty in the world is really bad. In terms of the data from the World Bank and the United Nations, about one-fifth population live on less than one US dollars per day, and nearly half people live on less than two US dollars

3、per day. Almost all the one-fifth poorest people do not have the most basic sanitation facility, and about 826 million of them lack enough nutrition, more than 850 million are illiterate. 1 John Stackhouse, who had studied Macroeconomics in university, have traveled to some developing countries in A

4、sia and Africa as an overseas development writer for The Globe and Mail. In his book Out of Poverty: and into Something More Comfortable, Stackhouse did a good job of describing his investigation on the poor regions and his findings. He found that poverty could be entrenched in lots of places, but i

5、n the bright side, poverty could be remedied by poor themselves and the outside institutions aid could be unnecessary. Stackhouse believed that it is the human nature to struggle for the Chen 2better lives. So if poor could control the basic decision of their lives, they would contribute their perso

6、nal effort and as a result they would have better lives, in other words, be in development process. However, there were some basic obstacles from social institutions in the way. Some of them even came from the poverty reduction institutions. Outside institutions often designed radical new economic s

7、ystem to help poor. But the development was not about the poor participating in the outside institution designed programs, it should be the poor taking in charge of the development process. When people living in villages had the power to make their own decisions of development, they could have an eq

8、ual opportunity in life. The other basic obstacle in the development process was some traditions. It was the biggest challenge for development. In the 1980s, the development organizations believed a universal rule of development that fair and open economy plus civil liberties and appropriate public

9、investment equal to development. In the 1990s, the formula has been changed to development equals to democracy plus free market and small government. In terms of the development formula, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) believed there was a clear development path ahead for th

10、e whole developing world. Thailand was the star student of the development formula. With abundant foreign aid, heavy investment in primary education, Chen 3infrastructure and successful land reform, Thailand economy had been boomed. However, Thailand was still a military regime in the 1990s. Therewe

11、re riots and oppression in the dictatorship country, following by the wealth was concentrated by a few people in Thailand. So, human development is not only about economic development. It is a complex process including economic, political and social improvement. Entering the 21st century, Stackhouse

12、 saw the new hope of the developing world. He found that people began to share land and water, establish democratic school boards, promote trade and credit market, and the governments became more accountable. Stackhouses story begins with his visit to Biharipur, a seven hundred people village which

13、was more than three hundred kilometers south from New Delhi in India. The village seemed to be isolated from the outside world. Although it was only about five kilometers away from a town named Tilhar, the people Stackhouse met all have never heard of the village before. The road to enter the villag

14、e was like to have been bombed in a war. Stackhouse and his companies had to get out of the car and walk in the village. Stackhouse wrote in detail about what he has seen in the village. There seemed like a permanent poverty in the village. Time seemed to go back to a century ago, because there was

15、no modern things could remind Chen 4you that it was in the 1990s. The village had no electrical wires, paved road. Almost all the houses were made by manure, straw and sticks. Water pump was of 19th century design. Children had no shoes, had scabies and shit outside. People lived in the village knew

16、 very little about the outside world. They have never heard of Canada, the home country of Stackhouse. They still thought British were the ruler of India. How can a village like Bilharipur develop and catch up with the outside world? The institutions, including the government and international aid o

17、rganizations tried to help. Three hand water pumps had been installed for drinking water. Healthy workers came to the village every few months. There was a school in a nearby village which was only two kilometers away. A dung-fuelled gas generator had been installed for cooking. The lambardar, the c

18、hief of the village, had been educated in university, tried to appeal for a school and health clinic for the village, and paving the road in the village. But the corrupted government did not accept his suggestion. The lambardar believed there was no way to change the status quo, because the politici

19、an did not want to change, farmers did not know how to change and even worse, the population was kept growing. In India, women were much worse off than men. In daily lives, women were supposed to get up earlier than men. Wives prepared hot tea Chen 5for their husband and made breakfast. The biggest

20、daughter was supposed to sweep the house, feed the animal, help the mother to make breakfast and get the younger brothers and sisters up. By 1991, the United Nations estimated that there was only 12.3 percent literacy rate for women in India, one of the lowest countries in the world. Stackhouse ment

21、ioned an important detail about a little girl, who was forced to get married at the age of thirteen years old. In fact, lots of fathers did not want their daughters to go to school, because they feared that the girls would start to have their own thoughts and thus start to say “no” to them. Another

22、reason was that the fathers did not want to “waste” money on the daughters education because they would get married and left their families anyway. Some traditions in India were encumbrances to the development process. The most important one was caste segregation. People distrusted and did not co-op

23、erate well between different castes. Thus, India actually was divided by lots of independent and isolated small communities. It could not obtain economic efficiency if people could not work together. For example, there was a school just two kilometers away from the Biharipur village. But children in

24、 the Biharipur village did not go the school because the school located in different caste village. Another example of these not good traditions was about a father of a bride. A father had to pay lots Chen 6of money for the wedding of his daughter, although he was very poor. The result was that he h

25、ad to borrow money with the very high interest rate, more than thirty three percent annually. He had to be in heavy debt just because of the wedding. High birth rate was another problem in poor area because the very limited resources had to distribute to more people. It increased the scarcity of res

26、ources for every one. In India, there were sterilization camps to try to decrease the population growth. But the effect was very limited. To solve the problem, the better ways were to delay the girls marriage age, better health care for women and children, and cheaper contraceptives. These methods h

27、ad taken effects in some area. In Bangladesh, the government did a good job to invest in irrigation, subsidize fertilizer and distribute of hybrid seeds. However, there should take more local council level elections and make democracy more accountable, responsive and effective. In Africa, Stackhouse

28、 visited Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Cote Divoire and Ghana. Somalia had lots of resources to feed itself, like livestock, fish and fertile land. But the civil war crashed any possible dream of development. The warlords used the poor and famine to get foreign aid to feed their army. They claimed thei

29、r sovereignty and refuse the United Nations troops to stop the civil war. There were dozens of Chen 7countries like Somalia in Africa. If the governance system in these countries could not be changed, there would be no way to develop. Other than these trouble countries, most of countries in Africa h

30、as gained rising in a degree, although they all had some weakness need to be remedy. In Tanzania, other than essentially heavy debt relief, human development should be more considered in the resurgence. In Uganda and Cote Divoire, people needed “second independence”. They needed not only the foreign

31、 aid, but also the power to control their own lives and destinies. In Ghana, more fair trade would be great help to the development. Indonesia experienced both incredible economic rise and tragic fall in the recent decades. Stackhouse believed that development without fostering liberty could increas

32、e the inequality and finally might lead to riots and economic falls. The Globe and Mail claimed that this book was the best book of 2000. The Hamilton Spectator and Quill& Quire believed that in this book Stackhouse has found the solution to the poverty problem. It is correct that in human nature the poor would set their own agenda to develop if they could have some basic control over their lives. However, the aid and help from outside institutions can not be neglected as well. On the contrary, the poor always need the right aid and help to speed up the development process. In some c