Poverty
is the disease that plaguing our society in Malaysia and around the globe. Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material
possessions or money. Absolute
poverty or destitution is inability to afford
basic, which commonly includes clean
and fresh water, nutrition, health
care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are
estimated to live in absolute poverty today. Relative
poverty refers to lacking a usual or socially acceptable level of
resources or income as compared with others within a society or country. For most of history poverty had been
mostly accepted as inevitable as traditional modes of production were
insufficient to give an entire population a comfortable
standard. After
the industrial revolution, mass
production in factories made wealth increasingly more inexpensive and
accessible. Of more importance is the modernization of agriculture, such as fertilizers, in order to provide enough yields to feed the population.
The supply of basic needs can be restricted by
constraints on government services such as corruption, debt and loan
conditionality and by the brain
drain of health care and educational professionals. Strategies of
increasing income to make basic needs more affordable typically include welfare, accommodating business regulations and providing financial services. Today, poverty
reduction is a major goal and issue for many international
organizations such as the United
Nations and the World Bank.
Poverty is the state for the majority of the
world’s people and nations. Why is this? Is it enough to blame poor people for
their own predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been
solely responsible for their plight? What about their governments? Have they
pursued policies that actually harm successful development? Such causes of
poverty and inequality are no doubt real. But deeper and more global causes of
poverty are often less discussed. About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or
hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person
every three and a half seconds, as you can see on this display. Unfortunately,
it is children who die most often. But unfortunately in Malaysia, poverty has a
different side. Poverty
in Malaysia is a controversial
economic issue. The definition of poverty and the poverty
line for Malaysians has been disputed, and government policies to address poverty
such as the Malaysian New Economic Policy have been met with political protest.
