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Poverty
"Poverty is the worst form of violence."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Poverty mean there's not enough. Not enough material resources, like food, water, clothes, and shelter; not enough social resources, like access to information, education, health care,  social status, political power, or the opportunity to develop meaningful connections with other people in the small and large communities in which we live.
Poverty exists when a person or or a group of people is deprived of, and or lacks the essentials for a minimum standard of living. Theoretically, poverty is decreasing for the world as a whole. However, some of this decrease has to do with changing definitions of poverty. What constituted poverty 10 years ago, does not constitute povery today, according to some definitions. Some of those definitions, however, may be discredited by the agendas of those people or agencies in making them. For some people, it may be more important to shift numbers, percentages, definitions, cutoffs, and measuring systems to make it appear that poverty is being eradicated, than it is to actually eradicate it. And in some areas in particular, poverty is worse than ever. No matter how it is defined, poverty continues to be an enermous problem for many peope around the world.
One third of all deaths in the world (18 million people a year, or 50,000 per day - mostly women and children) are due to poverty-related causes. Every year, nearly 11 million children die before their fifth birthday. In 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day, and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day. 800 million people go to bed hungry every day.
The World Bank's, Voices of the Poor, based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people consider to be elements of poverty. Most important are those necessary for material well-being, especially food. Others are: precarious livelihoods, excluded locations, gender relationships, problems in social relationships, lack of security, abuse by those in power, disempowering institutions, limited capabilities, and weak community organizations.
Some effects of poverty may also be causes, thus creating a "poverty cycle". Among these cause and effect factors are depression, lack of sanitation, increased vulnerability to natural disaasters, hunger and starvation, human trafficking, high crime rate, increased suicides, increased risk of political violence, terrorism, war and genocide, homelessness, lack of employment opportunities, poor literacy, social isolation, loss of population due to emigration, low life expectancy, and drug abuse.
The poverty cycle can be seen from a distance, and close-up. Whether you are looking at the situation in the Sudan, a homeless man pushing a cart down the street, or the Mexican workers illegally coming into the United States for work - the picture is clear. When you have little or nothing - especially when it has been entrenched in you that you aren't deserving - it is almost impossible to parlay that into more. Poverty means there's not enough.
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