TOPIC: Is elimination the global poverty a realistic aim?

Poverty simply means lack of money to adapt for our basic needs. However, by adding one more word eliminate, things are much more different and serious. Eliminating the world poverty is a challenge for governments all over the world. In recent years, the rapid growth of developing countries has boosted the process of reducing the poverty. Can we delete the global poverty in the future? It is a hard question, but from where I stand, I believe we can. The reason why I am so optimistic about the unknown future is that I think the poor people obviously have the ability to free themselves and get into the world, as equal as anyone else. After the World War II, Germany was immersed terribly in debts and war fees. The economy of Germany at that time could possibly collapse. However, the Europe Nations decided to help Germany and recover the economy. It was because, the economy of Germany linked directly to Europes economy. Once it collapsed, the others would fall as well. Therefore, they had to save Germanys economy to continue bringing up the Europes economy. Nowadays, Germany as well as the Europe is one of the most powerful economic in the world. According to the World Bank report on 15/3/2007, the rate of international poverty quickly dropped in the first four years in the twenty first century, thanks to the fast development of economy in developing countries. There were 958 million poor people in 2004, compare with 1.25 billion in 1990. Nearly 70 millions of poor people were diminished because China took such strong actions and policies to reduce poverty in the rural areas. The rate of deep-poverty in South Asia went down to only 9% in the same year. These are welcomed number to show that the authorities realized the importance of diminishing the poverty in their own countries. Economic growth plays the most significant role in eliminating global poverty. Based on facts, FAO has given the name of 31 countries which reduce the most significant number of poor people and the top four nations are: Armenia, Brazil, Nigeria and Vietnam. In North Africa and the Middle East, poverty was reduced (8% in 2005 and was 12% in 1981). By 2015, Asian countries intend to cut half of the poor people to complete Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). By the realistic statistics listed above, we totally can believe that the MDGs can be done. Economic development is extremely important to eliminate the poverty but it is not the only factor.(Francois Bourguignon - member of World Banks Board of Directors). As long as we want to imperfect the world without poverty, we have to educate people how to earn money themselves. Back to 1954 in Vietnam, 97% of the citizens were illiterate. Their lives were harsh, miserable because they were unable to resist repressors. They did not know how to overcome that hard circumstance because they were not taught knowledge. Thus, Ho Chi Minh- the leader of Vietnamese decided to impulse educational policies in order to eradicate illiteracy. As a result of that strong, accurate revolution, up until 2008, 95% of Vietnamese

knew reading and writing, even higher than China or India. Another example of improving educational system is Singapore, an ideal country that has the most modern educational programs in Asia. International students to Singapore have the chance to study in well-known universities, such as NUS. This university provides loans 80% of school fees for students who do not have enough financial ability. In returning back, students have to work three years for a Singapores company after graduating. Therefore, number of international students from Vietnam in Singapore is increasing rapidly. They do not want to spend their lives in poverty and hunger like their parents did so the only way to escape is knowledge. Once youngsters realize the importance of studying themselves, they will endeavour to learn. Hence, poverty is no longer a fear for the human beings. It is a practical and affordable possibility - and it starts with investing in children. The world has been paying much attention at educating so the qualification of education has become better. In 1992, Deng Xiao Ping decided to start open-door policy. He opened the economic system of Zhuhai, Shanghai, Shantou, etc. Then, the external trade stepped up incredibly; the position of China commerce was constructed. Many companies, factories were established. They provided jobs, income and motivation for education and individual development that raise standards of living. 10 years later, in 2002, the total turnover of China was 600 billion dollars, number 5 in the world. Nowadays, globalisation has brought many opportunities for developing countries: attracting foreign capitals, joining in global export market, absorbing modern technology. Faster development, in turn, does deduct poverty, higher labour and improve living condition. Even though the human beings have the ability to eliminate the global poverty, there are numerous problems we are facing with. Firstly, the substantial difference between developed and developing countries as well as the rich and the poor still remain. GINI is the coefficient reflects the differentiation between wealthy and low class in the society. In Vietnam GINI is 36,2; lower than China 40.3; Russia 45.6. However, in developed nations such as Japan, GINI is only 24.9 and in Norway is 25.8. Besides, brain drain phenomenon is becoming an alarming topic for all developing countries. Students who are talented, they tend to immigrate in developed countries like the USA, UK, Singapore, etc. to earn high salary and receive worthy social welfare. 23% of people who left for the United States believed they will receive better financial compensation. That causes the lack of skilful labours in developing countries because people want to choose the best working environment in foreign countries. The third factor must be mentioned is the conflict between nations about religion, natural resources. For instance, Arab Nations frequently present the Arab-Israeli war as a religious conflict of the Moslems against the "infidel Jews". The citizens of these two countries are poor but they are even poorer or might be killed because of these meaningless conflicts. In 2008, the Indian film Slum dogs millionaire won 8 Oscar prizes, including The Best Movie . One slide in the memory of the main character ( Jalam Malik ) was: his mother was suddenly killed in a religious conflict. Since then, from an innocent boy, he had to learn tricks to steal money from others; from a boy who had a family but then lived on the streets. The film was so motional because it reflected the real society of India and the world as well. Poverty is scary

because the society created wrong mindsets which did not allow poor people know how much potential they might have. We are the human beings, who always consider ourselves as the most intelligent, powerful and sensitive creature of Gods. We discovered the space secret, landed on the moon on 20/7/1969 and even communicated with aliens. Then, can we eliminate the world poverty? My certain answer is always yes, because this question is not about unidentified things, this is about human. We spent hundreds of years to explore things that before, everybody thought they were impossible; so why dont we spend other thousand years to erase global poverty? Our journey has just begun. We are the human. We are resourceful and intelligent to suffer from the misery of poverty. Poverty and human species are never together. We are now ready to put the poverty in the museum, where it belongs.

Created by: Vu Ngoc Hanh and Tan Zheng En