In a white tiled room, silently lay three tiny bundles of colorful quits, tied at one end to keep lifeless little toes from escaping. Inside the red and yellows of the quilts are the once lively bodies of three Ethiopian children, now crumpled like paper, defeated by hunger.
They were only babies, with stringy muscles meant to flex and float through the African air, their bodies on fire with the light of mankind's cradle.
But now, they are only statistics.
In the August 11th and 18th issues of Time magazine are two articles worlds apart at first glance, but center on the same problem in application. The first is a piece in the August 18th issue titled "Pain amid Plenty" by Alex Perry/Kuyera.
It talks about the misleading Green pastures and fields that litter Ethiopia, while hunger sweeps the country with 4.6 million people at risk and 75,000 children with malnutrition. The problem lies with the temporary character of the green. Perry/Kuyera says it is a product of rains in June, too late for the first of two annual crops.
According to the article, Ethiopia is a nation of 66 million farmers and, as the writer puts it, "...exemplifies the consequences of giving a starving man a fish instead of teaching him to catch his own. This year, the U.S. will give more than $800 million to Ethiopia for food, $350 million for HIV/AIDS treatment—and just $7 million for agricultural development...Why bother with development when shortfalls are met by aid? Ethiopian farmers can't compete with free food, so they stop trying."
In the August 11th issue is a piece written by Bill Gates titled "How to Fix Capitalism" which talks about the bad rap Capitalism gets, but strives to remind readers of all the good the free market has done and can do to help those in poverty.
Gates's argument is that big companies have the power, both financially and creatively, to help the people in our country who need it the most. The core of this belief is what Gates says are markets that have either been skipped over or simply missed by companies. Many of these markets are in very poor areas of the world and therefore companies don't waste time in studying them because they don't believe the people there could afford their services. However, Gates cites a study finding that the poorest two-thirds of the world's population has some $5 trillion in purchasing power.
However, Gates stays realistic.
"Naturally, if companies are going to get more involved, they need to learn to earn some kind of return," Gates explains. "This is the heart of creative capitalism. It's not just about doing more corporate philanthropy or asking companies to be more virtuous. It's about giving them a real incentive to apply their expertise in new ways, making it possible to earn a return while serving the people who have been left out. This can happen in two ways: companies can find these opportunities on their own, or governments and nonprofits can help create such opportunities where they presently don't exist."
As an example, Gates supplies a new U.S. law enacted last year that gives any drug company that develops a new treatment for neglected disease a priority review from the Food and Drug Administration. This means more medicenes in areas of the world fighting diseases like Malaria on a daily basis and the drug company getting their new domestic medicines on store shelves as much as a year earlier. It's a win-win situation.
He also talks about the cell phone company Vodaphone who bought a large stake in a Kenyan cell phone company, Safaricom. Today, Safaricom has more than 10 million users and is making a huge profit and helping the region by introducing new and useful technology.
It is this point in Gates's article that connects with the article on Ethiopia.
The situation in Ethiopia and other impoverished nations around the world highlights the need for more ideas like those expressed in Gates's article. These people need farming equipment, seed and training so that they may feed their children and families and do so with pride, instead of at the feet of volunteers with rice bags. Our government, already fighting two wars and under the control of a President leaving his office with the country $10 trillion is debt, cannot support its own poor, much less that of the world.
More companies need to realize the need of technology internationally and our government, instead of writing a blank check each year while the value of the dollar slips to oblivion, needs to offer incentives for these companies to offer their services to everyone and not just demographics.
If we don't, we soon won't be able to help at all.
The other thing the situation highlights is the ludicrousness of socialism and programs like government-run health care. We are in fact in trouble in the U.S. in regards to health care. According to the U.S. Census, 47 million Americans are without health insurance. But how is giving it to them for free the answer? It's not. Because to do that means higher taxes and sending these people to doctors paid for by the government. State doctors means lower paid doctors. Lower paid doctors means a decrease in medical school students. That means the quality of American health care falls apart.
So we're back again to compaines making themselves more available. Insurance companies, with government incentives to do so, could make health insurance more affordable, with acceptable coverage and lower premiums for those who need it. (I believe this is what Obama's health care stance is, but do double check me.)
Therefore, the free market system is not flawed, it is run by flawed and greedy minds unwilling to expand and serve the people who need it the most.
Unfortunately so is the country it represents.
Cheers.
It talks about the misleading Green pastures and fields that litter Ethiopia, while hunger sweeps the country with 4.6 million people at risk and 75,000 children with malnutrition. The problem lies with the temporary character of the green. Perry/Kuyera says it is a product of rains in June, too late for the first of two annual crops.
According to the article, Ethiopia is a nation of 66 million farmers and, as the writer puts it, "...exemplifies the consequences of giving a starving man a fish instead of teaching him to catch his own. This year, the U.S. will give more than $800 million to Ethiopia for food, $350 million for HIV/AIDS treatment—and just $7 million for agricultural development...Why bother with development when shortfalls are met by aid? Ethiopian farmers can't compete with free food, so they stop trying."
In the August 11th issue is a piece written by Bill Gates titled "How to Fix Capitalism" which talks about the bad rap Capitalism gets, but strives to remind readers of all the good the free market has done and can do to help those in poverty.
Gates's argument is that big companies have the power, both financially and creatively, to help the people in our country who need it the most. The core of this belief is what Gates says are markets that have either been skipped over or simply missed by companies. Many of these markets are in very poor areas of the world and therefore companies don't waste time in studying them because they don't believe the people there could afford their services. However, Gates cites a study finding that the poorest two-thirds of the world's population has some $5 trillion in purchasing power.However, Gates stays realistic.
"Naturally, if companies are going to get more involved, they need to learn to earn some kind of return," Gates explains. "This is the heart of creative capitalism. It's not just about doing more corporate philanthropy or asking companies to be more virtuous. It's about giving them a real incentive to apply their expertise in new ways, making it possible to earn a return while serving the people who have been left out. This can happen in two ways: companies can find these opportunities on their own, or governments and nonprofits can help create such opportunities where they presently don't exist."
As an example, Gates supplies a new U.S. law enacted last year that gives any drug company that develops a new treatment for neglected disease a priority review from the Food and Drug Administration. This means more medicenes in areas of the world fighting diseases like Malaria on a daily basis and the drug company getting their new domestic medicines on store shelves as much as a year earlier. It's a win-win situation.
He also talks about the cell phone company Vodaphone who bought a large stake in a Kenyan cell phone company, Safaricom. Today, Safaricom has more than 10 million users and is making a huge profit and helping the region by introducing new and useful technology.
It is this point in Gates's article that connects with the article on Ethiopia.
The situation in Ethiopia and other impoverished nations around the world highlights the need for more ideas like those expressed in Gates's article. These people need farming equipment, seed and training so that they may feed their children and families and do so with pride, instead of at the feet of volunteers with rice bags. Our government, already fighting two wars and under the control of a President leaving his office with the country $10 trillion is debt, cannot support its own poor, much less that of the world.
More companies need to realize the need of technology internationally and our government, instead of writing a blank check each year while the value of the dollar slips to oblivion, needs to offer incentives for these companies to offer their services to everyone and not just demographics.
If we don't, we soon won't be able to help at all.
The other thing the situation highlights is the ludicrousness of socialism and programs like government-run health care. We are in fact in trouble in the U.S. in regards to health care. According to the U.S. Census, 47 million Americans are without health insurance. But how is giving it to them for free the answer? It's not. Because to do that means higher taxes and sending these people to doctors paid for by the government. State doctors means lower paid doctors. Lower paid doctors means a decrease in medical school students. That means the quality of American health care falls apart.
So we're back again to compaines making themselves more available. Insurance companies, with government incentives to do so, could make health insurance more affordable, with acceptable coverage and lower premiums for those who need it. (I believe this is what Obama's health care stance is, but do double check me.)
Therefore, the free market system is not flawed, it is run by flawed and greedy minds unwilling to expand and serve the people who need it the most.
Unfortunately so is the country it represents.
Cheers.
1 comment:
Very nice sir...
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