Farhana Jane S.

Linso Reaction Paper: HANS ROSLINGS NEW INSIGHTS ON POVERTY The speaker, Hans Rosling, tries to eliminate the perceptions about the developing countries being labeled as the poor countries, and offers new insights about poverty. He presented statistical data in mortality rate, GDP per capita, etc. showing the trend of health and economic status of the world. Through his data, Rosling explains how countries are progressed and developed. Rosling mentioned that Africa has always been equated to poverty. Poor people, as he defined, are the ones who work only for food, strive only to survive. The country is far from development because it fails to accomplish the primary means for development, such as economic growth, proper governance, and education. But if these tools are performed well, like the woman in the example, provided with education, health, infrastructure, technology, and a market for her produce the people would be able to sustain their basic needs and the country will not be so far from development. When asked if countries like Africa would be able to efficiently produce and sufficiently provide their needs, would they still be called poor? I would probably say, yes. Because the dimension of poverty changes as technology does. Poverty comes in many forms. Theres always a new definition of poor. New insights on poverty are proposed every now and then. In the past, a family in the Philippines with a television set and a simple car is already considered rich, but not anymore with the emergence of computers and new brands of cars. Presently, middle class families enjoy the service of such technology, so a wifi hotspot house and luxury cars are now required for a family to be considered as rich. And Im very certain that not many years from now, another indicator of wealth would surely exist. And as long as there are still countries considered as rich, then poor countries will not cease. Developed countries, as what they are called, dont mean they stopped developing. These countries continuously strive for more development and bring with them the standards of being rich farther from the developing countries along with the development of technology. Technology makes life easier and more complicated at the same time. An effortless lifestyle is more expensive than a labor-driven life. The developing countries are now being chased by poverty, but they are trying hard to alleviate from it. Whether they succeed or fail, it will now depend on their strategies. I took cognizant of the fact that everybody wants development, every country strives for industrialization. But for every piece of industrialization being constructed, a forest is destroyed. Progress in economy destroys the environment and worsens the climate which affects human survival. Development is a matter of trade-off between health and economy. Good economy comes with a price. Who benefits for the economic growth? The society. Who pays the price? Still, the society. The only difference is that only a few benefits from the growth, most of them suffer from the price.