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| Sunday, July 5, 2009 |
| Right to food |
Why cant the government provide food to everyone?
Like right to free speech, right to information why cant the government ensure right to food?
Do we really need to goto the moon or build cruise missiles while the majority of our population suffers from malnutrition and hunger?
As per tamil literature, there are three basic necessities for man,
1.Food, 2.Clothes,3,Shelter.
Clothes and shelter comes next to food.
First of all, consider this, why is a government existing?, because people cant manage all their needs,people appoint a government.That government gets its pay in the form of tax and takes care of the necessities of the people.
Food is the #1 necessity for majority of Indian population.
Our society is not an equal one in terms of wealth.But, everyone contributes to it.
Slum dwellers and daily wagers also contribute to the society.
There are several problems in implementation of the "right to food".
But, we have to find ways to implement it.
It seems our current government is moving towards implementing this.
From a Hindu article,
In a nation where mammoth wealth and intense destitution have co-existed for millennia, a law that would bind governments to guarantee that no man, woman or child sleeps hungry could be momentous.
They are forced to cut back on their food intakes, sometimes reduced to eating one meal a day; or to beg for food; or to eat tubers, grasses and mango kernels that fill their stomachs but provide no nutrition; or sometimes just to drink the starch water left over after cooking rice, which their neighbours give them in tight-fisted charity. They suffer to see their children painfully sleep on empty stomachs, and often succumb to ordinary illnesses which better nourished people would easily survive.
Half the children born in this land continue to be malnourished, and two out of three women are anaemic, because even within families, women eat the least and only after all others have been fed.
the Chairperson of the UPA, Sonia Gandhi, seized the initiative by writing her first letter to the Prime Minister since the installation of this government, proposing a bill that much more comprehensively guarantees adequate food to people who live with hunger. Many people who are chronically denied food have been specifically detailed in the draft she recommended: such as single women, disabled and aged people, street children, bonded workers, people in casual, low paid employment including agricultural labour and rag-picking, the urban homeless, and others.
The President of the Republic of Brazil, when his country launched a similar food guarantee, called "Hunger Zero". He had pledged,
"We will make it possible for people in our country to eat three square meals a day, every day, with no need for handouts from anyone. Brazil cannot go on living with so much inequity. We must overcome hunger, extreme poverty and social exclusion. Our war is not to kill anyone. It is to save lives".
A bonded worker, a child searching in rubbish heaps, and a disabled or aged man who stretches out his limbs for alms, possibly may have a full stomach, but without the dignity that every single human being is entitled to.
Some possible ways to implement "right to food" are mentioned here.Labels: awareness, india, indians, people |
posted by bharath @ 9:30 AM   |
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| Thursday, June 4, 2009 |
| Map of World peace |
The results of the Global Peace Index for 2009 suggest that the world has become slightly less peaceful in the past year, which appears to reflect the intensification of violent conflict in some countries and the effects of both the rapidly rising food and fuel prices early in 2008 and the dramatic global economic downturn in the final quarter of the year. Rapidly rising unemployment, pay freezes and falls in the value of house prices, savings and pensions is causing popular resentment in many countries, with political repercussions that have been registered by the GPI through various indicators measuring safety and security in society.
Complete list of countries
How global peace is defined and calculatedLabels: map, peace, people |
| posted by bharath @ 2:59 PM |
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| Friday, April 17, 2009 |
| Kiva.org - Loans that change lives |
| Kiva.org - Loans that change lives What Is Kiva? We Let You Loan to the Working Poor Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.  Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently. Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money. How Kiva Works Choose an Entrepreneur, Lend, Get Repaid The below diagram shows briefly how money gets from you to a developing-world entrepreneur, and back. 1) Lenders like you browse profiles of entrepreneurs in need, and choose someone to lend to. When they lend, using PayPal or their credit cards, Kiva collects the funds and then passes them along to one of our microfinance partners worldwide. 2) Kiva's microfinance partners distribute the loan funds to the selected entrepreneur. Often, our partners also provide training and other assistance to maximize the entrepreneur's chances of success. 3) Over time, the entrepreneur repays their loan. Repayment and other updates are posted on Kiva and emailed to lenders who wish to receive them. 4) When lenders get their money back, they can re-lend to someone else in need, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds.  Kiva Stats | Total value of all loans made through Kiva: | $67,959,635 | | Number of Kiva Lenders: | 477,379 | | Number of loans that have been funded through Kiva: | 97,358 | | Percentage of Kiva loans which have been made to women entrepreneurs: | 77.82% | | Number of Kiva Field Partners (microfinance institutions Kiva partners with): | 94 | | Number of countries Kiva Field Partners are located in: | 44 | | Current repayment rate (all partners): | 98.16% | | Current default rate (all partners): | 1.84% | | Average loan size (This is the average amount loaned to an individual Kiva Entrepreneur. Some loans - group loans - are divided between a group of borrowers.): | $422.26 | | Average total amount loaned per Kiva Lender (includes reloaned funds): | $143.13 | | Average number of loans per Kiva Lender: | 3.97 | Cumulative Volume of Loans Made Through Kiva as of 3/31/09. Fact Sheet - Kiva is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, incorporated in November 2005.
- "Kiva" is a Swahili word which means "unity" or "agreement".
- Kiva is the world's first online micro-lending platform.
- Kiva was co-founded by Matt and Jessica Flannery, when they were 28 and 27 respectively.
- Previously, Kiva CEO and Co-Founder Matt Flannery was an engineer at Tivo. Premal Shah, Kiva President, was a product manager at PayPal.
- PayPal provides Kiva with free payment processing. Kiva's is the first account at PayPal with a free payment processing agreement.
- The minimum amount that can be loaned to an entrepreneur on Kiva is $25.
- Kiva partners with microfinance institutions around the world, referred to on the Kiva website as Field Partners.
- Recipients of a Kiva Loan are referred to as "entrepreneurs", contributors to a Kiva Loan are referred to as "Kiva Lenders".
- Anyone with an email address can create a Kiva Account. Anyone who can make payments using a credit card or PayPal account can be a Kiva Lender.
- Currently, Kiva Lenders can only receive 0% interest on their loan. Kiva hopes to allow Field Partners to offer non-zero interest rates to Kiva Lenders.
- Kiva is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
- Kiva currently employs 34 full-time staff members.
Corporate partners of Kiva
Note: Kiva cannot donate to India since they have no field patners that match their criteria, if anyone knows any such institution, recommend them to contact kiva. Labels: charity, people |
| posted by bharath @ 12:09 AM |
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