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| Yes | 11% | 7 votes | Total: 64 votes | |
| No | 89% | 57 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesSince most governments are formed under the democracy system, I strongly agree that governments have the political will needed to eradicate poverty.
A fact that we could not deny is no matter how advanced and rich a country is, poverty will still present in some of the places. The poor might not even have the ability to buy themselves a proper meal and forced to live with starvation. In this kind of situation, governments will be the one to come out with plans and subsidies to help the poor.
The Ministry of Finance as well as the welfare unit will play their crucial role in assisting them to have a less torturing life. For example, when a family is forced to live in poverty because the parents are sacked by their companies and they could not find themselves a job in this challenging world economic situation, they might have to go for the governments. In Singapore, a job exhibition will often be held in collaboration of the governments and private sectors to give the employers and job-finders a channel to achieve their aims. A company can find suitable workers to fill certain vacancies through interview session on the spot, meanwhile job-finders might find themselves a satisfying career. Hence, the rate of jobless people in that country can be minimised and indirectly refrains poverty to continue.
Next, most governments definitely have the political will to end poverty. This is because when the rate of poverty in a country is extremely high, it does not only affect the country's economy stand but also the image of the country. Besides, many problems will arise when the difference between the rich and the poor is large. For example, the rich may just buy a set of McDonald's, but they can just throw it away after they remember that they are on diet. Whereas the poor might not even have the ability to buy a slice of white bread. Therefore, most governments have the determination to end poverty because this shows that how the leaders use wisdom and intelligence to upgrade weak aspects of the country. People from all over the world are watching how politicians use critical thinking skills to eradicate poverty in order to allow people to lead a more enjoyable life. This is especially true during an election because people will show their to you by voting for you due to your ability to end poverty.
Since corruption is one of the reasons that brought to the presence of poverty, many governments have carried out various measures to face corruption. Anti-Corruption Authority(ACA) has been set up by Malaysia to investigate any report regarding corruption so that government officers will always follow the laws. This is a crucial step because when rate of corruption is decreased, any plan to end poverty can be carried out effectively.
In conclusion, we should not think that governments do not have political will to eradicate poverty when they have such a strong determination to end poverty. However, if cooperation does not exists between the governments and the people, it is impossible that poverty can be ended one day. Therefore, we as parts of the world should play our individual role as well as work as a team to end poverty.
Learn more about this author, Wong Weiling.
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No
Sadly, most do not. Since 1970, the United Nations has called for donor countries to allocate 0.7 percent of their gross national product (GNP) to official development assistance. This target has been affirmed over the years in numerous international agreements, yet in 2005, only five (Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Sweden) of the 22 richest countries in the world had reached this goal.
The blame for the failure to eradicate global poverty, however, should not fall entirely on rich countries' shoulders. Governments in poor countries are often corrupt, seeking to enrich themselves and maintain power by forming alliances with the military elite and powerful business leaders while the rest of the country goes to hell in a handbasket. Take Zimbabwe, for example. Once known as the "breadbasket of Africa," Harvard professor Samantha Power compared the country's most historically productive region "a refugee camp that has been hit by a hurricane" (The Atlantic, December 2003). Since then, the situation there has worsened, as President Robert Mugabe has refused to relinquish power despite being almost universally condemned for rigging elections in June 2008. The Cato Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank, reported on September 26, 2008 that annual inflation in Zimbabwe was 531 billion percent, making the currency completely worthless.
Zimbabwe is an extreme case, but the poor continue to get the raw end of the deal in countries throughout the world. Why? Because the poor are often unorganized, unlikely to participate in the political process, and unaware of their political, economic, and civil rights. Even when they do exercise the right to vote or raise awareness about their plight, their concerns are ignored by the political class. In developed and developing countries throughout the world, populist leaders effectively "buy" poor votes by making unattainable promises or through direct patronage in the forms of jobs, gifts, and money to community leaders who can mobilize voters in impoverished neighborhoods.
In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly established the Millennium Development Goals, the first of which is to halve the number of people living on less than $1 a day between 1990 and 2015. Granted, spiraling food prices and a global economic crisis have exacerbated the problem, but the United Nations has also signaled that governments have failed in their commitment to end poverty.
Almost a year ago, on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged governments: "Let us demonstrate the political will required to end the scourge of poverty once and for all." Unfortunately for the world's poor, he will be forced to make a similar plea this year.
Learn more about this author, George Lorimer.
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