G8 World Summit and the end to Poverty?

[unregistered user]

I foudn this article to be very interesting...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4640203.stm

[unregistered user]

Inc ase anyone didn't catch it when they read the article; Eight world cities will be holding concerts featuring some of the best musical talent ever.

At the same time the world leaders from.. well, around the world (they are 'world leaders' xP) will be meeting to talk about.. um.. issues and shtuff xP

[Endra]

Interesting bud, very interesting.

I want to go to the one in London!

[nafklt]

I hope so but I don't think it will....:(
Here's the official site by the way,
http://www.live8live.com/

[King Simba]

I wish I had tickets to actually see that but anyway, I guess I could always watch it on BBC.

:hmm:

And yeah, this is a good start for all the poverty that's happening in Africa. Hopefully, it'll serve it's purpose.

;)

[unregistered user]

Well, they're in the eight most powerful countries int he world. Maybe someone will do something *shrugs* We can only hope :cheese:

[unregistered user]

Sorry, I just gotta double post this time because it has something to do witht his topic.

Check out this website which is also fighting against poverty: http://one.viewpoint.com/

[Juniper]

Doesn't the US and Europe have themselves to worry about first? I mean, yes it's good to help others in need, but the US just can't afford to send hundreds of billions of dollars more to send to other countries; neither can Europe. That's if they go the route of donations and financial aid, I don't know what they'll decide to do. Either way, it seems like we're gonna be paying that much more when we really need to be paying that much less.

Isn't the G8 summit held every year, or at least something similar?

[IchLiebeNALA]

well if we eliminate the debt that the countries owe to us, that would help

[unregistered user]

Indeed it would. If everyone just altogether forgot the debt, then the nations wouldn't be so bad off. Because pretty much everyone owes someone else so that it goes around in odd circles among nations. A big weird circle of debt =P

[IchLiebeNALA]

a vicious circle.

the peole have no money, so they cannot buy crops. without crops, they cannot eat. without food, they cannot work. if they cannot work, they cannot earn money. no money, so they cannot buy crops...

and so it goes on

[Juniper]

The US as a whole owes trillions of dollars to other countries (and itself), and we're owed five times that from all the world combined. The only problem is that everyone expects the US to pay back their debts, but not smaller countries. The other problem is that the higher the deficit, the lower the dollar (as a rule of thumb, not set in stone), and if the dollar crashes, we go the way Japan's economy did. I still think we should worry about our own economy before we even think about making big changes in international economy to help the poor. You wouldn't send a wounded soldier into battle because they'll just be a burden, same thing goes for a country with economic concerns.

[IchLiebeNALA]

well look what happened at the time of the Great Depression. it was a tough time back then, but peopl got through that didnt they?

but this isnt about the US owing money to other countries, it is about the other countries owing money to the countries of the rich west.

[unregistered user]

Poverty isn't about that at all okay?

Poverty is about people starving in other countries because of stupid idiotic governments and/or problems int heir country or other countries that can not be changed.

I can not believe that we are arguing over poverty. You'd think that would be something that everyone would agree on O.o I mean seriously people -___-

And no Pnt, I wouldn't send in a wounded soldier, but the U.S. citizens, at least a good share of them could afford to cut back a bit and surely help out the other nations of the world that are less fortunate. That's what poverty is about -___-

[Juniper]

The Great Depression is a direct cause of WWI, which was a direct cause of WWII; we made it through because there was such a violent and widespread war, people got jobs to make things for the war. To put ourselves anywhere near the position we were in during the Great Depression would be national suicide; and then how would we help these people in need? We'd be the ones needing help, as would the rest of the World if the US economy crashed.

And this is about the US owing other countries, because the more money we owe, and the less we get paid ourselves, the lower our dollar goes and the lower our economy goes. As it is right now, the dollar is on the very brink of collapsing (though it is getting better), why would we want to make it worse? Other countries won't look at what we did and say "Gee, that's nice that they forgave all that debt, I bet we should do the same for the US", they'll say "Gee, if you can afford to forgive their debts, where the hell is our money?".

@Ravoc: Yeah, I'd be happy to pay twenty bucks more a year to send aid to all these countries; if anything else, it'd help the US in the long run. Unfortunately, not everyone is on that boat and it would probably never work. OR our leaders would spend that money buying five hundred dollar toilet seats or something. :p

All I'm saying is that we've tried throwing money at it and it just didn't work. We need a new way to fix the problem without just sending economic aid. The amount needed to fix all that would probably be the total worth of all the property in the US combined. Why don't we send economic advisors to help countries down on their luck make better choices? Or increase the Peace Corps and send people over to help rebuild housing or a new pipeline to deliver fresh water to a village. We could teach them how to use computers, or just give them a good education so they can make something of themselves. We could distribute condoms and birth control so there's not as many children, and less mouths to feed. Or distribute water cleaning tools so that the people don't get sick as much. Maybe teach the people good things about their country, so they can have pride in it and work together better to get it up and running again. Maybe we could talk their government into legalizing certain drugs and raise taxes on them, it's been known to work in the past. THAT is what will fix the problem better than a trillion dollars worth of US Dollars. Eight countries can't fix this problem though, everyone in the World has to work together. That means China to Australia to Hungary to the US to Jordan to Ethiopia and everyone in between; it'll just exhaust the economy of the major countries and leave the poor ones without any help at all. And if you're planning on making long-term changes, you need to be fit, in our case, economically fit. If we'd just take five or ten years to get more economically stable, we could help so much more without damaging ourselves or others. The problem won't be fixed in five or ten years, it'll probably take hundreds of years to get rid of this problem, so we might as well get off to a good start.

[nafklt]

Those TOTO seats are expensive...:p

[unregistered user]

That I agree with you on, we should indeed send someone over there to educate them. Education improves the world, too much can become a problem though (ex: weapons, etc..)

Studies have proven that women who make it through a high school education are more likely not to have STDs or sex before marriage. In other words, if they are indeed educated more, it will improve things greatly.

But I still think that money will help until they reach that point, even if it is just a little. Ya know if everyone gave just a little, it can do quite a lot.

[Juniper]

The EPA came out with a statistic that said that if every able bodied person on Earth were to work eight hours a day for nine days picking up trash (at a reasonable pace), 98% of the world's litter would be cleaned up. If we all would make sure that our own land was clean, or the land we work on, we wouldn't have pollution problems. Too bad that not everyone will go along with it. Pitching in money only helps if everyone does it; some people forget, some people spend that money, some people don't have that money, and some people just get angry for having to help someone in need when they can buy themselves a pizza instead. Or some leader will mess it all up and say that average people don't have to pay anything but rich people have to pay $20,000 each (Why should rich people have to pay more to solve something that's everyone's problem?) If every person in the world (Remember, this isn't the United State's problem, it's everyone's) were to donate 20 bucks, that's more than 100 billion dollars; that's a lot of money.

Don't forget though, there's starving people in America. Poverty can be just as bad in some places in the US and EU as it is in third world countries. A lot of people always seem to overlook the poor around them for the poor abroad. The grass is just as brown on our side of the fence.

[lion_roog]

Originally posted by pntbll248

Don't forget though, there's starving people in America. Poverty can be just as bad in some places in the US and EU as it is in third world countries. A lot of people always seem to overlook the poor around them for the poor abroad. The grass is just as brown on our side of the fence.

I agree with that....I think before America can start to go and help the poverty of other countries full force, that we should help our own first. It would also help if we didn't give billions of dollars every year to rich nations such as Egypt and Israel. I mean, there are other countries in the world that can use the money more than those Nations.

I think it would be great if everyone would donate $20 to people in other nations living in Poverty. My family helps support two kids in Guatemala with about that much money, and it feels good to know that you're helping someone that really needs it. Now those kids got some decent shoes and clothing...and it may not seem like much to the world as a whole, but it makes a world of difference to that kid. If every one person in America could do that for one person living in poverty somewhere, then it adds up something quick. You don't even have to be rich to do it since what seems like a little amount to us is a huge amount to someone in another country. Hell, my family can't even afford cable television, but we can find a way to give up about $20 per month to help someone in a more dire situation.:cheese:

[Lweek]

I'm going to watch this global mega concert as well. :) I think it's cool project .. shows people that the rest of world is not so far away. :)

BTW: internet is medium which does same thing all the time. But there is still a lot of plp who doesn't see that. For me, it's something very deep. I'm curious and happy when I can talk somebody from completly another part of world. Let's say, that amaizing!

[lion_roog]

Originally posted by Lweek


BTW: internet is medium which does same thing all the time. But there is still a lot of plp who doesn't see that. For me, it's something very deep. I'm curious and happy when I can talk somebody from completly another part of world. Let's say, that amaizing!

For Sure, Dude! :cheese:

I have about 80 people on my MSN, about 3 of them live in Arizona...40 live in the United States...and the rest live in some other country....It's pretty cool because you meet all sorts of different and awesome people, yet you realize that you are alike in so many ways...:D :cheese:

[unregistered user]

and one from malaysia:lol:*lick Roog*
that kinda... cool ravoc

[Lweek]

Originally posted by Ravoc
Studies have proven that women who make it through a high school education are more likely not to have STDs or sex before marriage. In other words, if they are indeed educated more, it will improve things greatly.


OMG, this is quite too much naive. :) Imho, it's about life filosophy, not education.

However I agree that education help make world better .. primary because plp start thinking about world, about responsibility. But I never seen somebody who changed opinion about premerriage sex and life style thanks to education.

[unregistered user]

I'm only quoting facts that are listed in several American journals, I believe there was a British one that supported this as well. It's been a while, I learnt it in my Life Science class at University and my memory is not the best when it comes to quoting exactly, that's why I tried to write everything down. I'm sure it's somewhere in my huge stack of notes xD

Anyway, I am very happy that so many at least care about the poverty issue, that is a big obstacle to overcome, people that don't care. I think that these two organizations could hopefully get more people to care and learn mor einformation about what is really happening out there.

Also, I believe that America does need help with it's own poverty situation as well. Nashville is on the top five list of American cities with large amounts of homeless people. I interacted with several homeless people while down there. It is a really sad state to be in (poverty, not tennessee heh).

[starionwolf]

It's nice to see other countries trying to help the developing countries in any way they can. I thank the celebrities for devoting their talent to help the impovershed nations.

[Juniper]

The only problem I have with foreign aid is that a lot of countries we help have people walking on or burning the American flag WHILE we're passing out aid packages. I mean, they hate us if we help them, and they hate us if we don't. It would be nice if one country, like North Korea, were to stand up and thank us for what we've done for their people (We may not like the countries themselves, but we do try to feed their people). I don't mean a fancy letter from a country's leader, that happens all the time, but people themselves showing that they are happy for our help. Granted, that probably happens more than we hear about because the news likes conflict, not good things; but it just seems a bit pointless to go help people and have them screw us over in return.

Maybe they need to realize that aid isn't a duty of developed countries, it's a gift that took a lot of work to give. I'm just peeved when people demand more from our countries, there is no international law that says developed countries have to help others out. The United States as a whole gives a lot of money each year, but more importantly, military and food/water aid. Other countries, like the ones in the EU, give vast amounts of money as well. It is from the goodness of our hearts that our countries give that money; sure, we may ask for the use of airspace or something in return, but we could just as easily keep that money for ourselves and be just fine. But we don't. It's also from the goodness of our hearts that we'll probably give MORE money than we are now somewhere down the line (regardless of what happens at G8).

I was so angry when I heard that people were "Outraged" that the US didn't donate as much as other countries off the bat when the tsunami hit a few months ago. For a few weeks there, we were so horrible because we didn't match or beat Japan's offer (Even though we did by sending an entire battle fleet, including a super carrier, that costs 3/4 a billion dollars a day to run, which no one cared to acknowledge). It just seems wrong that there's so much spite when it comes to donations. If my house burned down and someone gave me fifty cents, I'd thank them.

[nafklt]

LoL! Kim Jong Il...xD

I had to be him for this drama thing. Wearing high heels and having hair like Donald Trump was truly embarassing...:p

[unregistered user]

Nafklt o.O Uh... O.o What the heck are you talking about X_X heh

Anyway, I agree with Pnt there. It does make me mad to see countries that we help hate us anyway.

[nafklt]

N. Korea's tyrannous leader dude :P

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/dictators/kim-jong-il/

[unregistered user]

I know about Kim, I meant the other stuff o.O

[Tigris Of Gaul]

Isn't it interesting how many of world's problems can be easily solved simply by reducing the amount of people? Like someone pointed out that can be done through education. There should be way more education and schools in those "developing" countries. A school everywhere you turn your gaze to. Experience has taught that the more educated you are, the less children you have. Which is good.

Currently the people in the developing countries lack common sense as they multiply like rabbits, even though they can barely feed themselves. It's just.. irrational. Stubid, even.

I'm very much against removing debts from these countries. Every country has a way of getting the debts paid - currently the administration in most of them just plainly bites as military budjet is often over 30% and the countries are listed among the most -CORRUPTED- in the whole world. And you want them to get away from their debts so they can add more funds to their military budjets? Please.

So.. yeah. Interesting summit, nevertheless. http://www.puuma.com/stuff/biggrin.gif

[unregistered user]

Well, i think all countries should forgive debts << Problem is as Pnt pointed out earlier that there's always a jerk who won't and will expect to be paid still -_-

[Aurelian]

Just in case anyne missed it, here is the official live8list petition against poverty. This is not one of those PetitionOnline.com petitions, and all signatures will go a long way.

Live8Live petition (http://www.live8list.com/en/live8list.html)

[nafklt]

w00t! Signed it!:D