Western University Core English

Department of Languages, Arts, and Humanities Year 2, Semester 2

What Are Probable Causes of Poverty and Its Solutions?

I. Introduction:
Poverty means the state of one who lacks of foods, goods, supplies, clothing, and money. Nowadays, poverty is considered as the most important issue in the world not only under-developing country or developing country, but also developed country. In fact, in 2010 statistic about poverty, hungry people, has shown that there are about 925 million people out of 6 billion people who need foods. And there are also 19 million people in a rich worlddeveloped country who are considered as hungry people. Therefore, poverty is a world main issue. As Anne Olson, Georgia Department of Education, has said that "Think of water, food, people, and land as interwoven threads in the fabric of the world."
Statistic of World Hungry People

Lecturer: Mr. Tep Sokhoeun

Group 7

Western University Core English

Department of Languages, Arts, and Humanities Year 2, Semester 2

II.

Causes of Poverty:

As everyone has known already that poverty is the world crisis which caused every government in the world a serious problem and need to be solved. And it caused by many reasons. Many people believe that causes of poverty are separate into many groups such as:

1. Corruption:
Besides overpopulation and environment, corruption is also the main cause of poverty. Cambodia is considered as one of the most corruptible country in the world. There are many governors, ministers, and officers that are corrupt. Loads of money, which are given by an organization, other country, or citizen, is corrupted. For example, one organization gives our country 20 million dollar for developing health care system, but because of corruption; therefore, the money to develop our country has only 1 million dollar remaining. I, therefore, think that corruption is also the cause of poverty.

Lecturer: Mr. Tep Sokhoeun

Group 7

Western University Core English

Department of Languages, Arts, and Humanities Year 2, Semester 2

2. Economic issue:
Economic is the most concern in the world now. If there is an economic crisis, many people or companies will lose a lot of money because a stock market falls down. Some people will kill themselves because they are in debt. Many countries are also afraid of it. Why they have to afraid of economic? If there is a world crisis on economic, their country will lost a lot of money for some reasons, and many goods will increase its price. Therefore, economic issue is also the cause of poverty.

3. Lack of Production:
Lack of production might lead one country to lose a lot of money. As our country nowadays there arent enough products that are made in our country, and export to the other country. So, we have to import many products from the rest of the world to fulfill the need of our people. By the reason above, we know exactly that we spend a lot of money to buy the products; therefore, the money to develop our country will lose into the other country. There arent enough money to develop our country, so many people still lives poorly. Lack of production will be one of the causes of poverty.

4. Lack of Education:
Education can increase a lot of human resources to one country. Human resource is vital for any country. It is the thing that every country needs to have because it can develop every countrys economic. If there is a lack of education, the countries will hardly developing their own economic. For some reasons, lack of education can cause one country to be the poor because there is less human resource. There will be less people to develop the country. Lack of education, therefore, can be one of the causes of poverty.

5. Lack of Good Governance:

Governance means the action or the manner of governing. Lack of good governance can result one country or one person to be poor. For instance, between the year of 1975 to 1979, Cambodia was under the control of Khmer rouge which was the wildest governor ever in Cambodias history. Moreover, Khmer rouge, which controls by Pol Pot, has never ever cared about how the country is going to be. The governor had a little control and a little care with their citizen. And many people lived in sadness like lived in hell. Some lost their parents, relative, and so on, which made them live in a loneliness society. After Khmer rouge was destroyed in the year of 1979, most of the people lived in a poor condition. As a result, wrong way of governing can cause poverty.

Lecturer: Mr. Tep Sokhoeun

Group 7

Western University Core English

Department of Languages, Arts, and Humanities Year 2, Semester 2

6. Arm Conflict:
Arm conflict is what major of people dont like about. War causes many problems to one country or sometime to the world. Iraq and Afghanistan are the countries that face loads of problems after the war with the United State. Many people are lack of foods, clothing, drinks, etc. Now both countries become the poor country because the government lost a lot of money after the fight, and there is less money to develop the country so that why many people live in poor condition. Moreover, Libya is also the country that faces with this kind of problem. They have a conflict with NATO that caused them to lose a lot of money. Because of the conflict with the country that is well-known in producing oil, the price of oil in the world nowadays has increased so much. Arm conflict, therefore, causes poverty for some reason.

7. Overpopulation:
Overpopulation means too much population in one land, or one place. It is also the main cause of poverty. If there is a lot of population in one country, the country will face a lot of troubles. For instance, China is the country that has many problems with population because there are too much people. Therefore, it is hard for the government to control over people that why even China is one of a powerful country, but China stills has problem with poverty. And China is top 20 ranking in statistic about poverty in Asia and the Pacific in the year of 1990 to 2006. So, overpopulation can lead any country face with poverty.

Statistic about Poverty in Asia and Pacific in the year of 1990 to 2006

Lecturer: Mr. Tep Sokhoeun

Group 7

Western University Core English

Department of Languages, Arts, and Humanities Year 2, Semester 2

8. Natural Disaster:
Natural disaster is a main cause of poverty. For example, there was a natural disaster, earthquake, in Haiti in the year of 2010, which made a lot of problems to Haitis government. There were about 1 million people who were homeless, lack of foods, and lack of health care after the disaster that can lead most of which become the poor. Moreover, not only that problem, but there were also a financial crisis which caused Haiti loads of troubles. Besides, in this year, 2011, there was another natural disaster, earthquake and tsunami, hit Japan. It was a really serious problem to Japan which made Japan lost around $14.5 to $34.6 billion and also made Japans stock fall down. Many people died, injured, and lost their home. It, therefore, might makes some of them become the poor. In conclusion, environment is one of all main causes of poverty to the world. It makes some country lose stack of money.

Earthquake in Japan

Earthquake in Haiti

Lecturer: Mr. Tep Sokhoeun

Group 7

Western University Core English

Department of Languages, Arts, and Humanities Year 2, Semester 2

III.

Solutions to Poverty:

There are many solutions to solve the causes above, but for some causes, there is no solution to solve them like environment, economic, war, and governance. The solutions to solve the problems are:

1. Fighting Corruption:
Corruption in Cambodia nowadays is the most concern problem. Many governors, minister, or some worker have committed this kind of crime. Why they do like this? Because they have a little salary which isnt enough to fulfill the need of their family, they have to do this such kind of thingscorruption. They have many people that they have to be responsible of. In order to solve this kind of problem, the governor should raise the salary, and try to strengthen the law of corruption. Corruption is a serious problem to any country. If we dont care about it, it will give a bad result, a bad consequence, and a bad outcome. No money to develop country and no money to help the poor people.

2. Boost Production:
There are many products which has imported from the other country into our country, Cambodia. Fewer products which made in our country cant fulfill our people needed. Therefore, a lot of money in our country flows into other country. It means that our country lost a lot of money to develop the country or to help the poor. To solve this problem, our governor should try to encourage farmers and also local product. So, there will be enough products to fulfill the need of the people.

3. Enhance Education System:

Education in our country is not really good at all to student. There are many students who are cheating while they have an exam. And some give their teacher some money in order to pass their exam. So, the student will graduate with a real certificate, but they dont have a real knowledge. For example, the student then becomes a doctor. When they do a surgery on their patient, for somehow the patient will be dead or in a bad condition. Therefore, it is a kind of corruption which is happened in Cambodias education nowadays. Student needs to have a great educator and a good study program from primary school to university. Therefore, student can have a good knowledge that can lead them to be a human resource of our country.

4. Birth Control or Population Control:

Each governor of every country in the world has to pay much attention on the birth control by encouraging any married couple to have only one child, and plan their familys plan clearly. If they have more than one child, they have to pay tax. So, there will be no more married couple who want to have more than one child. And if the governor works well with it, there will cut down the rate of overpopulation for some reasons.

Lecturer: Mr. Tep Sokhoeun

Group 7

Western University Core English

Department of Languages, Arts, and Humanities Year 2, Semester 2

IV.

Conclusion:

Poverty is the most concern for the world nowadays which caused by many things. For each country has its own culture, and way of living. Like most of people in our country have a habit that when we are a governor or a minister, we will earn a lot of money by corrupting. This habit is different from the habit from the people in USA, Singapore, or so on. They work really hard, and never commit such kind of crime. By researching, we know exactly that poverty is the main concern even the developed country. Even we have a lot of solutions, but it is not easy for every governor to decrease the rate of poverty. For example, there are many NGO, and also our government who pay a lot of attention on it. As a result, it still gives a bad outcome to our country because we still have many poor people. It is really hard for every country to cut down the rate of poverty because there arent many methods or solutions to decrease the rate of poverty. Like some causes such as environment, war and so on, there are no solution so that why it is hard for every country to do so. Therefore, the governor and the citizen need to have a good unity with each other in order to cut down the rate of poverty. We, the citizen, need to study about poverty, pay much attention on it, and share the knowledge to everyone. I think that people need to have a lot of responsibilities than the governor because they are the core of each country. They have to obey the law, to work as much as possible to help improving the country economic. Moreover, we are people in the world, and we should try whatever we have to help our government to cut down the poverty, and to make the world live in peace, harmony, and prosperity without poverty. Finally, we are the world. We should help the poor or anyone that do need help. We help them, and at sometime they will help us back.

Lecturer: Mr. Tep Sokhoeun

Group 7

Western University Core English

Department of Languages, Arts, and Humanities Year 2, Semester 2

References:
1. 2011 Thoku earthquake and tsunami. (n.d.). Retrieved 26 04, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami 2. Causes of Poverty. (2008, 10 15). Retrieved 04 26, 2011, from My Digital Life: http://www.mydigitallife.co.za/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=causes-ofpovertyhtml&Itemid=29 3. Poverty. (n.d.). Retrieved 29 04, 2011, from Merriam-Webster: http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/poverty 4. Poverty. (n.d.). Retrieved http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty 04 28, 2011, from Wikipedia:

5. Quotes - World Food Day USA. (n.d.). Retrieved 04 30, 2011, from World Food Day USA: http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/?id=12257

Lecturer: Mr. Tep Sokhoeun

Group 7