Monday, October 3, 2011

Poverty is the deadliest and most resilient disease in the history of mankind. Throughout the centuries of civilisation, poverty has been a resilient species that plagued through the society, infecting millions of unfortunate individuals as it swept through the nations, and bringing much suffering to mankind. Even in the modern society where the ideals of democracy, equality and the prized system of Capitalism prevails, it is difficult for individuals to overcome the vicious cycle of poverty due to the various circumstances that the individual and society faces.

Some people may argue that in the modern society, most individuals are entitled and have opportunities to climb the education ladder and improve their lives by getting higher paying jobs in the future. This can be seen in the past four decades for the Four Asian Tigers, namely, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, where the rapid development of the education system has provided opportunities for a generation of people and beyond to pursue secondary or tertiary education and as a result clinch higher value-added and paying jobs in the maturing economies. The GDP per capita of South Korea for instance, has increased from US$100 in 1962 to US$20000 in 2011. Slowly but surely, we can identify many other countries that are emulating these success stories and climbing their way out of poverty, especially in India and China where 400 million people have successfully climbed out of the poverty line of earning US$1.25 per day in the last 20 years.

However, it remains to be seen that many other countries, especially the developing African countries, are able to improve their education system and provide opportunities for more citizens to hold better paying jobs. Education in many countries are relatively inaccessible in many countries. One reason is that the government has insufficient funds to build enough schools for the population, which is the case for India where it has a staggering population of 1.1 billion people. Another reason is due to gender inequality, that young girls are not allowed to study in schools because of the strict cultures of the society and family. In Afghanistan, girls were not allowed to study under the Taliban regime, and even as the education system is being rebuilt by generous aids from international organizations, the process is difficult and painful as women are still perceived as the mother who takes care of the family and not work outside. Studies have shown that countries with improving female enrolment in education shown greater improvements in their GDP levels over the decades. Hence, the difficulty in establishing a sound education system for the millions of poor people worldwide has hampered the efforts in reducing poverty by providing better jobs for the people, let alone eradicate it.

A possible glimmer of hope for the world in eradicating poverty is through the system of Capitalism. With the advent of globalization and the increasing mobility of large multinational corporations worldwide, these powerful firms can make direct investments in the country and provide thousands, or even millions of jobs for the people in the country. For the developing countries, encouraging large corporations to set up factories or sweatshops here may provide paltry but significant income for a lot of citizens at home to have a higher standard of living than living as subsistence farmers. In Vietnam, huge shrimp farms has been developed along the Mekong river, which provides thousands of low-skilled jobs for its poor citizens instead of unreliable farm produce back at home. Due to these investments, Vietnam is now the 5th largest exporter of shrimp in the world today. This example highlights the powerful impact globalization and foreign direct investment has had in eradicating poverty. As the economy matures, the country would prosper as it increasingly shifts towards higher-skilled industries, like how Singapore has developed it's niche industries in biotechnology and life science research.

However, there are many factors that could hamper the influx of foreign direct investments to a country, and hence prevent the creation of jobs to eradicate poverty. Social and political unrest could result in the instability of the country, which discourages investment and the creation of jobs. In Sri Lanka, the decades of fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lanka army have led to a slower growth in foreign investments, which hampers the economic progress of the country. People are unable to find jobs and it was difficult for people to work in the cities where there was armed conflict. Recently, the Arab spring in early 2011 has caused much instability in the region as rebels in many countries like Libya and Egypt attempt to overthrow their long-lived dictators by mass protests and heavy fighting with the armed forces. These events have not only brought out lots of foreign companies and increased unemployment, but has also caused a refugee crisis as thousands of foreign workers lose their jobs and flee the country. This hinders the progress to eradicating poverty as many people lost their jobs while job creation in these Arab countries have slowed down.

On the other hand, it could be possible that in the aftermath of the protests and the ousting of the rulers and the incumbent government, the economic development of the countries would be accelerated. If the social stability of a country is coupled with good governance from the new government, a new wave of economic and social reforms could be made that will open doors for new investments to enter the country and for citizens to be better educated, which creates a self-sustaining positive cycle of greater economic growth and social stability. With higher paying jobs and lower unemployment, poverty can then be eradicated. In the aftermath of the Tiananmen square protests of 1989, the Chinese government made huge economic and education reforms that benefited millions of Chinese residents, providing them with new opportunities to pursue better jobs, higher income, and climb out of the poverty cycle. Therefore, given the right conditions of a country and good public policies, it would only be a matter of time before poverty is eradicated from each country.

However, I think it is unrealistic, if not naive, to reckon that governments around the world will get their act together and implement effective and fair policies to benefit the masses. Many authoritative regimes still exist in the world today, and often in these countries the economy is in shambles as the governors do little to improve the education levels of the population or reform the economy to create higher paying jobs for its people. While North Korea is one familiar example that conjures a vivid image of poor and starving people due to the ailing economy, there are also many African countries that are ruled by dictators that monopolize the economy and have billions of dollars in assets while the people suffer from severe poverty. In fact, the recently ousted leader of Libya, Muammar Gadafi was found to have 30 billion of assets that are to be returned to the country. While the Arab Spring that culminated into the uprisings in Africa brings a glimmer of hope that lives will be improved, the truth is that it will be difficult to obliterate all the authoritarian regimes, let alone find a truly efficient and fair government to improve the lives of citizens. Even in allegedly democratic countries, corruption is still rampant in many countries, especially in large countries like India, where its sheer population makes it hard to clamp down on corrupt officials and governors that usurp taxpayer’s money and accept bribery for various reasons.

In conclusion, it will be very difficult for the world to truly eradicate poverty, even if it is possible. Before it can be realized, it will require many favorable conditions – good governance that is free of corruption to bring about economic reforms, educational opportunities for all, equality in society, social stability and also the immediate needs of citizens like having access to food and shelter. We could think of it as solving a scrambled Rubik’s cube, where each colour represents a condition to be fulfilled, and a long and tedious series of organized steps have to be taken in order to reach that goal.