Make Poverty History

I'm a firm believer that nobody should starve, or that nobody should be poor. There is more than enough of food and money to go around, yet not enough is been done to help, Why? because too many people are just trying to look out for themselves, what is in there own interest. This also applies to countries. The large, richer countries, and trading bocks, of the world can make a massive difference in world poverty, but they will be very resistant to do so because of the fact that they have nothing to gain, and as a result they only do the bare minimum. The worst part of it is that there only looking at the short to medium term, if they look at the long term then they'll know that if they help underdeveloped, poor countries, then markets will spring up, and a lot of money could be made. This is why l tend to disagree with a lot of the promotional adverts that charities use to try to help poorer countries, not saying that there not doing a great job, the fact is they are, but it could be better, in my opinion, they just tend to dwell on the heartstrings, while not going after the companies and governments with these advertisements. At least there not seen to be doing this, which, if the are then they should be seen to be doing so. They should team up together, design a good advert for big business and governmental bodies and air them on television every so often along with the any other adverts they want to have.

I agree somewhat, actually a lot, with Bob Geldof for what he has done with Live 8 et al, and for his tireless work on making poverty history, although sometimes he doesn't make much sense to me. He's the type of person who would lobby governments to wipe out debt, with the aim that this will help a great deal with starving people. He has a good point, and it will go along way, but will it go all the way? l don't think it will, for the simple reason that he always said that in order to do this effectively, then corruption has to end, which is true, however that will take a very long time, and it will also take the education of the electorate as to the effect of this corruption. Fair enough, you could argue that this needs to be done anyway, and you would be right. But why should money be spent by charities on an education system that the government should have in the first place. I know what your going to say, your going to say that they would do this if the had the money to do so, aren't you? All I'm going to say to that is are you sure. Again, I'll go back to an opening argument, they'll only look out for themselves, there own interest, and if the electorate gets educated enough to see that they are corrupt, then it is highly unlightly that there going to vote them back into power, is it! It might even get worse for them, they might even end up in jail where they deserve to be. Think about it! And that's why a lot of these governments will have laws prohibiting the discussion of politics, or most things political.

The way that l think is that we need to put a whole lot of pressure on these governments to change, and the population of these countries need to do the exact same thing as well. But we also need to give the population as much aid as possible, aid in the way of food, medicine and blankets, that way the governments will feel all the pressure, while the people are been fed and taken care of. Fair enough that's the ideal situation, and you know yourself that ideal situations rarely happen. But if we could pull this off on a mass scale, in as many corrupt countries at the one time as possible, then we will have the best chance of making poverty truly history. The one thing that l ask from anybody that has there own website, if you believe that poverty should be made history then go to www.makepovertyhistory.org and find out about putting the white band on each page of you website, and find out about buying the white wristband. What l will do is to devote an entire section of my website to this cause and I'll try and keep you updated on the latest news on this subject. I truly believe that this, and the environment, are the cause of our generation, just like the '60s had the war and free love, we'll have these, and l know we can make a real and massive difference.

The other difference that we can make is to donate some time and some money to these charities that help the poor in our own countries. We need to be able to help those who are less well off than ourselves. We must make all poverty history, not only for the poor countries but also in our own nations, our own cities and our own communities. We need to do this as people because, lets face it, that poor person begging on the streets could have been me or you if our life situations were different. If they were, then you would love somebody to help you to help yourself, wouldn't you! You might be asking were to start. Well the first place to start is to educate yourself, your family and friends about the issues, then make a plan to see what all of you can do together or individually, and take it from there. Maybe you can even do a family exercise out of it, like volunteering at a soup kitchen, or something like that. The options are limitless, think about it.

What I' am going to do is to give a section of my website to this cause, and to maintain it on a regular basis, l think that this is the least that l can do for such a cause. I may even dedicate my IOL web space to it I'll see what l can do. I should get a few pictures as well.

Just in case you are wondering what the white band in the top corner is for, then it is a link to a website that is trying to make poverty history as soon as possible, if anyone wants to know what they are about then click on this link, or this link, or this link, to see some film. Then you can decide for yourself if you want a white band on your website. You might also get a blocked content notice from your browser. This is due to the white band, and is nothing to worry about. You can look at the code of this page, if you really want, to check it out for yourself.

Just remember that this site is still under construction, and not all elements are here yet, especially pictures. So please bear with me for the moment.