just saying

csr

You Won't Be Seeing Coca Cola Ads For A While. The Reason Why Is Amazing

November 20, 2013

Coca Cola announced that it will not be spending any money on advertising starting on Novermber 18. Instead, the global company will be spending that money on relief efforts in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan.
"Any committed advertising space will be redirected to the relief and rebuilding efforts for the people in Visayas," Coca-Cola's statement on Tuesday read.

Coca Cola has already donated $2.5 million in cash, nearly $600,000 in bottled water, and $1 million through the American National Red Cross.

Coca-Cola employees in the Philippines pack relief goods for victims of Typhoon Haiyan
"We have a long-standing commitment to extend aid to our affected associates and their families, as well as for our communities locally," said Juan Ramon Felix, Asia Division Director, Coca-Cola FEMSA, "and with our unique capacity to lend a helping hand to these communities, we will ensure that we will continue to provide support through this difficult time."

worth a thought

should women be fighting for equality?

suggestion for poverty reduction

When Uganda cut school fees by $16 per year (60 percent), enrollment nearly doubled, with most of the increase in enrollment being girls. Smith pointed out that research shows that educating girls increases average productivity more than does educating boys. The cost for this proposed solution is $5.4 billion per year.

when governments fail

others must keep trying

What is Fairtrade?

Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives. 

What is the Fairtrade Foundation?

The Fairtrade Foundation is a development organisation committed to tackling poverty and injustice through trade, and the UK member of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO). The Foundation works with businesses, civil society organisations and individuals to improve the position of producer organisations in the South and to help them achieve sustainable improvements for their members and their communities.

How big is the UK Fairtrade market?

The UK market is doubling in value every 2 years, and in 2007 reached an estimated retail value of £493 million. The UK is one of the world’s leading Fairtrade markets, with more products and more awareness of Fairtrade than anywhere else. Around 20% of roast and ground coffee, and 20% of bananas sold in the UK are now Fairtrade. 

counterargument

people worry about food miles and the impact on the environment

rebuttal

Agriculture can play a critical role in the economic and social development of developing countries – up to one and a half million livelihoods in Africa alone are estimated to be dependent upon UK consumption of agricultural and horticultural produce. Increased agricultural growth is thought to be the most likely source of economic growth in Africa given that 70% of the rural poor work on the land. 

so ..the poor or the environment...you decide...(pl remember that you should be more concerned by your carbon footprint rather than food miles)

why developing countries remain poor

1 there was a global economic crisis
2 how did G20 countries respond
3 increased the number of protectionist measures

developing country...says...but you promised ..u are supposed to be committed to cutting down these protectionist measures

1 The WTO has failed to live up to its promises over the past decade
2 there is a wider systemic problem in the global community.
2 True and lasting solutions to global economic problems : global competitiveness between countries must consist of genuine cooperation.

farmers livelihood continue to be threatened

Agricultural subsidies: beyond cotton, World Trade Organisation members have failed even to agree how to reduce the huge subsidies paid to rich world farmers, whose overproduction continues to threaten the livelihoods of developing world farmers.

doha , another failed attempt at international cooperation?

• Ten years ago, a new World Trade Organisation that put developing country needs at the centre of the international trade negotiation agenda was proposed. 
• The Ministerial Declaration adopted at the start of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations, on 14 November 2001, was a promising response to the anti-globalisation riots of the 1990s.
• But the WTO membership has failed to deliver the promised pro-development changes.
•  Finding "development" in the Doha Development Round today is like looking for a needle in a haystack. 
• Developing countries have been completely sidelined by the economic and political interests of global powers.

HOW DO WE TRUST CHARITABLE ORGANSATIONS

The author of Three Cups of Tea has agreed to repay $1m (£631,000) to his charity after an inquiry found he mis-spent its money.

Greg Mortenson will no longer be the executive director of the Central Asia Institute (CAI), but will still draw a salary from the organisation.

His best-selling 2006 book describes how he was rescued and nursed to health in a remote Pakistani village after a failed climb in 1993 of the K2 mountain.

The 2009 Nobel nominee wrote that the villagers inspired him to build schools in the region, spawning his charity's mission.

The book was hugely successful and donations poured in to the CAI, including $100,000 from President Barack Obama's $1.4m Nobel Peace Prize.

But a report by CBS News' 60 Minutes programme last year alleged that Mortenson had fabricated parts of his work and was benefitting financially from his charity.

The Montana-based organisation became the focus of a year-long investigation by the state attorney general.

His inquiry found Mortenson had spent $4m of the charity's money to buy copies of his books, gaining royalties without paying any of them to the CAI, as promised.

The organisation also spent more than $2m on Mortenson's charter flights to speaking engagements, even when the event host paid his travel fees.

Mortenson and his family also charged personal items to the charity amounting to $75,276 that included brand-name clothing, luxury accommodation and holidays, found the report.

A POWERFUL REMINDER

when we spend on defence, we offend



ANOTHER GREAT LINE FOR A CONCLUSION

THIS IS HOW I WOULD START OR END MY ESSAY ON POVERTY

NICE ONE!!!

oh god, what have we parents done?

My daughter stormed into the room this morning and said...in a distressed voice!

mum! aunty only gave me bread with butter!!! only butter!

I looked at her in disbelief...and said...Oh dear! How tragic!!!! How could she have
deprived you of ham and turkey and chicken and tuna....
just as she was looking satisfied that i could commiserate with her, i continued...
When there are millions who don't even have bread crumbs....
Of course, i got the usual response...A helpless scream - and she stalked off...

Sometimes we are so busy advising, warning and whipping into shape other people's children, while our own slowly develop the very habits and issues we decry...well, before she becomes her teacher's problem, i will have to nip this problem in the bud...

She has just been told that she gets only bread and butter for 2 weeks and her allowance is going to be cut so that she can feel for those who come to school hungry....the way I used to when I was her age....

good job bill!!!

MICROSOFT co-founder Bill Gates travelled by boat on Wednesday to a remote village in eastern India to check on the progress of a government campaign to eradicate polio that the billionaire is helping to fund.

Mr Gates, whose Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed nearly US$1 billion (S$1.38 billion) to health and development projects in India, met with health workers and discussed the strategy to fight polio with immunisation drives and an effective surveillance programme that identifies cases early.

celebrity and charity

Madonna

Madonna's Raising Malawi, a charity founded in 2006 when she first visited the country, helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi's orphans.
Malawi, a nation of 12 million, is one of the poorest countries in the world. About 500,000 children have lost a parent to Aids. The school she is building for poor girls is on the outskirts of the capital and is similar to the one built by talk show host Oprah Winfrey in South Africa.

farmers now more receptive to frankenfoods - should they be?

For years, farmers in Africa and other developing countries have struggled against a wide array of problems, from pests to changing weather patterns, without being able to avail themselves of all the high-tech tools that wealthier nations have.

"We need to utilize all instruments of high science, whether it's biotech, nanotech or just plain good agronomy."

The result is a second wave of GM food crops adapted to the needs of poor nations. Emerging nations are turning to gene splicing to boost food supply (not just agribusiness profits) and to protect harvests from the ravages of climate change, pests and pathogens. The new crops are hardier and healthier versions of staple crops. In the works are South African potatoes that repel tuber moths, Brazilian lettuce with a superdose of folic acid, a natural source of the vitamin B that aids neural development in babies, and Chinese rice that can withstand heat and drought. India is using biotech to improve bananas, cabbage, cauliflower, sweet corn, groundnuts and okra. Brazil's national agronomy institute, Embrapa, is ginning up black beans to outsmart the mosaic virus that claims up to 90 percent of harvests. Malaysians are fortifying papaya against the devastating ringspot disease. China's goal is "food security," says Stanford economist Scott Rozelle, an expert on rural China. "Their objective is to produce enough food for the country without having to resort to imports, and also reduce poverty."

READ ARTICLE 3 ON IVLE

charity... and gratitude

"higher order thinkers"...when you discuss a question on poverty
just be aware that there is such a thing as spiritual poverty...



About Mother Teresa By Mother Teresa


When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him
a plate of rice, a piece of bread. But a person who is shut out,
who feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person who has been
thrown out of society -- that spiritual poverty is much harder to
overcome. Those who are materially poor can be very wonderful people.
One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street.
And one of them was in a most terrible condition. I told the Sisters:
“You take care of the other three; I will take care of the one who
looks worse.” So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed,
and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand,
as she said one word only: “Thank you” -- and she died. I could not help
but examine my conscience before her. And I asked: “What would I say if I
were in her place?“ And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to
draw a little attention to myself. I would have said: “I am hungry,
I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain, or something. But she gave me
much more -- she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile
on her face. Then there was the man we picked up from the drain, half-eaten
by worms and, after we had brought him to the home, he only said, “I have
lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die as an angel,
loved and cared for.” Then, after we had removed all the worms from his body,
all he said, with a big smile, was: “Sister, I am going home to God” -- and
he died. It was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could
speak like that without blaming anybody, without comparing anything.
Like an angel -- this is the greatness of people who are spiritually
rich even when they are materially poor....

is moon mission a priority?

NEW DELHI - INDIA rejoiced on Saturday at joining an elite club by planting its flag on the moon as the country's space agency released the first pictures of the cratered surface taken by its maiden lunar mission.

A probe sent late on Friday from the orbiting mother spacecraft took pictures and gathered other data India needs for a future moon landing as it plummeted to a crash-landing at the moon's south pole, said Indian Space Research Organisation spokesman B.R. Guruprasad.

The box-shaped probe was painted with India's saffron, white and green flag, sparking celebrations in the country that is striving to become a world power.

'The tricolor has landed,' the Hindustan Times said in a banner headline, while The Asian Age proclaimed 'India is big cheese'.

As India's economy has boomed in recent years, it has sought to convert its newfound wealth - built on the nation's high-tech sector - into political and military clout.

The moon mission comes just months after it finalised a deal with the United States that recognises India as a nuclear power, and leaders hope the mission will further enhance its prestige.

India is about to create what may be the biggest mass eviction of indigenous people ever. All in the name of conservation

In the spring of 2003 about 8,000 tribal people and low-caste farmers living in the Kuno area of Madhya Pradesh, India, were summarily uprooted from the rich farmlands they had cultivated for generations and moved to 24 villages on scrub land outside the borders of a sanctuary created for a pride of six imported Asiatic lions

Is it fair to do this to 1,600 families for a few lions?

Wildlife conservation in India has generally emulated the early American (Yosemite/Yellowstone) model which regarded forests as pristine wilderness, excluded human beings from national parks and other protected areas, and saw its aboriginal people as “marauders,” “poachers” and “encroachers,”

....while sanctioning the lifeways and hunting practices of elite sportsmen and urban tourists.

do you think there is any hope of resolving this problem?

Haldiram's restaurant, in New Delhi, India, is noisy and crowded. At the larger tables, stylish young parents, well-dressed grandparents and happy, excited children are enjoying dinner. At smaller tables nearby sit the ayahs, the children's nannies. These girls are barely older than the kids they care for, and look heartbreakingly out of place. Each girl makes less money in a month than her employers will spend on dinner that night. None of the girls will go to school. They will spend their lives eating leftovers and wearing hand-me-downs.

In India, employment of children as maids and servants is a way of life. It is also illegal. Girls and boys perform a variety of household chores, from cooking and washing to child care. They also work at roadside eateries and in hotels and restaurants.

In October 2006, the Indian government extended a law that prohibits children under 14 from working in hazardous professions to include a ban on jobs in hotels, restaurants and private homes. Despite the legal change, UNICEF, in a report issued last week, said that 12% of India's children between ages 5 and 14 are in the labor force. But the real figure may be even higherosomewhere between 75 and 90 million kids.

"Everyone knows factories use children," says Puja Sahu, the owner of a boutique in New Delhi. "It's an open secret." Last October, the Gap clothing chain was forced to withdraw a line of embroidered blouses because of reports that the garments were stitched by kids.The Root of the Problem

When the government first suggested a ban on child labor in homes, hotels and restaurants, employers and even some children's rights activists pointed out that many children work in order to survive. If they didn't work, who would feed them? Where were the schools that would offer the kids a brighter future?

The ban was a "positive step forward," says Farida Lambay, the founder of Pratham, a children's rights group.
Others are less optimistic. "The entire thing has been a disaster," says Umesh Kumar Gupta of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a group that has been at the head of the anti-child-labor movement. He points out that children who have been rescued since the ban went into effect often have had to find employment elsewhere, because the poverty at the root of the problem has not been addressed. Ingrid Srinath, another activist, agrees. "Sometimes, the children's families don't want them back," she says. "They want the children to continue working, because they need the money."A Huge Reserve of Talent

For many, India is a land of opportunity. Salaries are rising, and the middle class is thriving. The country has 36 billionaires. Two years ago, the Internet-technology industry alone brought in $36 billion. The world's biggest democracy is poised to become an economic superpower.
One of India's greatest resources is its young populationo35% of its 1.1 billion people are under the age of 15. But, with millions of children not going to school and not learning any skills, this huge reserve of potential talent could spell trouble, not prosperity. Harjot Kaur, director at the Ministry of Labor and Employment, insists that the government is working to improve the situation. She points to plans to conduct a survey to determine the number of working children and to expand projects aimed at eventually eliminating child labor.

The leaders of businesses and industry, meanwhile, have begun to realize that India's future lies with its youth, and in educating the poor. Infosys, a giant technology company, has set up 10,000 libraries in rural areas across the country. Wipro, another tech firm, is adopting 7,500 schools.

The ayahs in Haldiram's restaurant can hope only for table scraps. But a combination of political action and business investment could bring them, and all of India's children, a rich feast of possibilities.

World Report: February 1, 2008 Vol. #13 Iss. #17

do you think we will be able to alleviate poverty significantly in our life time

The unpaved dirt road made our car jump as we traveled to the Millennium Village in Sauri (sah-ooh-ree), Kenya. We passed the market where women sat on the dusty ground selling bananas. Little kids were wrapped in cloth on their mothers' backs, or running around in bare feet and tattered clothing. When we reached the village, we walked to the Bar Sauri Primary School to meet the people. Welcoming music and singing had almost everyone dancing. We joined the dancing and clapped along to the joyful, lively music. The year was 2004, the first time I had ever been to Sauri. With the help of the Millennium Villages project, the place would change dramatically in the coming years.

The Millennium Villages project was created to help reach the Millennium Development Goals. These eight goals (see below) were set by the United Nations in 2000. My father, Jeffrey Sachs, and his partners at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, in New York City, are working to meet these goals. The plan is to get people out of poverty, assure them access to health care and help them stabilize the economy and quality of life in their communities. Villages get technical advice and practical items, such as fertilizer, medicine and school supplies. Local leaders take it from there. The goals are supposed to be met by 2015; some other targets are set for 2025. We are halfway to 2015, and the world is capable of meeting these goals. But our first glimpse of Sauri showed us that there was plenty of work to do.The Fight for Better Health
On that day in 2004, we followed the village leaders into Yala Sub-District Hospital. It was not in good shape. There were three kids to a bed and two adults to a bed. The rooms were packed with patients who probably would not receive treatment, either because the hospital did not have it or the patients could not afford it. There was no doctor, only a clinical officer running the hospital. There was no running water or electricity. It is hard for me to see people sick with preventable diseasesopeople who are near death when they shouldn't have to be. I just get scared and sad.

Malaria is one disease, common in Africa, that is preventable and treatable. Mosquitoes carry malaria, and infect people by biting them. Kids can die from it easily, and adults get very sick. Mosquitoes that carry malaria come at night. A bed net, treated with chemicals that last for five years, keeps malarial mosquitoes away from sleeping people. Each net costs $5. There are some cheap medicines to get rid of malaria too. The solutions are simple, yet 20,000 kids die from the disease each day. So sad, and so illogical. Bed nets could save millions of lives.Water, Fertilizer, Knowledge

We walked over to see the farmers. Their crops were withering because they could not afford the necessary fertilizer and irrigation. Time and again, a family will plant seeds only to have an outcome of poor crops because of lack of fertilizer and water. Each year, the farmers worry: Will they harvest enough food to feed the whole family? Will their kids go hungry and become sick?
Many kids in Sauri did not attend school because their parents could not afford school fees. Some kids are needed to help with chores, such as fetching water and wood. In 2004, the schools had minimal supplies like books, paper and pencils, but the students wanted to learn. All of them worked diligently with the few supplies they had. It was hard for them to concentrate, though, as there was no midday meal. By the end of the day, kids didn't have any energy.A Better Life
The people of Sauri have made amazing progress in just four years. Today, Yala Sub-District Hospital has medicine, free of charge, for all of the prevalent diseases. Water is connected to the hospital, which also has a generator for electricity. Bed nets are used in every sleeping site in Sauri. The hunger crisis has been addressed with fertilizer and seeds, as well as the tools needed to maintain the harvest. There are no school fees, and the school now serves midday meals for the students. The attendance rate is way up.

Dramatic changes have occurred in 80 villages across sub-Saharan Africa. The progress is heartening to supporters of the Millennium Villages project.

There are many solutions to the problems that keep people impoverished. What it will really take is for the world to work together to change poverty-stricken areas for good. When my kids are my age, I want this kind of poverty to be a thing of history. It will not be an easy task. But Sauri's progress shows us all that winning the fight against poverty is achievable in our lifetime.