What are your views on the forces of poverty and inequality which are beyond the control of poor countries?

I think Stacey you need to be careful in saying "beyond the control of poor countries."

There is a tendency amongst the western media to always portray for instance Africa as a blighted continent without hope. You always see the picture of a starving child but never a picture of a young female entrepreneur in Kigali.

I recently visited Africa and travelled through Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and was humbled by the determination of Africans to take control of their future.

The biggest driving force of poverty in Africa is not the west but a lack of good governance. Every African I spoke to did not blame the west for their plight but blamed the corruption of politicians and general mismanagement.

I would recommend that people take a look at the work that an excellent organisation called Transparency International does in this area and look at how many poor countries rate the worst on a corruption front.

http://www.transparency.org/

matt: I think corrupt governments are a very big part of the problem, although there seems to be a certain level of cognitive dissidence between people who complain about corrupt governments without acknowledging their part(s) in them, at least in maintaining the status quo. Western governments and corporations also often have a vested interest in maintaining corrupt local leaders who have no desire to help the local populaces.

I also think another really major problem in Africa is religion and cultural practices in general. It wasn't until Europe (and the west in general) went through certain historical periods as the Reformation, Enlightenment and so on that they moved away from being generally quite arse-backwards too. I think the undeveloped world is often really hamstrung by its religion, especially with respect to things like the rights of women, contraception, and so on. The single best way of alleviating poverty anywhere is education, especially that of women (and this is coming from a guy), because it has really major flow on effects, the most obvious being smaller families. Yet many of the religious and cultural practices of Africa are antagonistic, if not downright oppressive, to women.

Having said all that though, the west does at times really bully Africa, especially with regard to so-called free trade. I'd be a very big advocate of free trade if it really were, but it's often extremely one-sided.

What was the number 1 cause of poverty and misery around the world?

Perhaps it was the advent of western medicines and the philanthropic attitude of western peoples towards those with high infant and child mortality rates, and a presumed poor quality of life.

This is the greatest paradox in human history. All the well-meaning effort that has gone into reducing the death rate thus saving the lives of millions has effectively led to rapid population growth resulting in the reduction in the quality of life for hundreds of millions.

The issue of aid provision without adequately addressing fertility issues and thus without addressing to overall picture continues to keep many peoples far away from sustainability, and from a decent quality of life.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=4849#53661

Yes, I understand that poor governance is one of the reasons. What about natural disasters, MNCs, discrimination, structural adjustments by World Bank and IMF and tied aid? Aren't these forces beyond their control?
THanks for your views.

Ludwig: I see what you're saying, but I think it's two-sided. On the one hand, yes it's led to population pressures which, to some extent, has reduced quality of life. On the other hand reducing infant mortality (or even just crippling diseases) has to be an improvement in the quality of life in another sense. I still think that overall, science is in front in this respect.

stacey: I don't know enough about the specifics to comment on those things, although presumably, to some extent, natural disasters have always been as much of a problem (perhaps some are exacerbated by environmental destruction).

Shorbe and Ludwig, I think you both make good points on education and sustainability. Interestingly every male aid worker, doctor or health worker I met with stressed how critical it was that women got access to resources and education as a top priority.

I also think that while the west puts an enormous amount and time and effort into such things as HIV/AIDS, there is a tendency to overlook the devastating impact of malaria for instance.

The final point I would make is that do not underestimate how much good Bill Gates is doing in Africa. I was in the middle of nowhere near Lake Victoria and this NGO guy was raving about what a difference Gates was making in parts of Africa.