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Live Below the Line for Happy Hearts Fund!
 

My name is Sydney Pedersen and I am Utah’s Live Below the Line Ambassador for 2013.

I chose to be an Ambassador to support Happy Hearts Fund because I met supermodel Petra Nemcova and she inspired me to support her work. Happy Hearts is an organization that helps children who have survived natural disasters by building schools to provide them with a sustainable education and help them get their lives back to normal. I have traveled with my family to developing countries and have spent time working in schools. My experiences abroad changed my whole perspective and helped me to see how much these children loved & need an education. I chose to Live Below the Line so that I can give back. I am committed to live on just $1.50 a day in food for five days to raise money for Happy Hearts Fund. I want to get the word out and challenge as many of my fellow students in Utah as possible to join me and raise money for children who have lost everything.   

I know it wont be easy but I am excited to make a change in the world, and I think if we work together we can make a big one! If just 50 students from 50 schools raise $50 each we could raise enough money to make a difference in thousands of lives and change entire communities around the world.

I would especially like to thank those who are supporting us. Pezauh Printing has been amazing and is printing up nearly a thousand posters for us at no charge! We also have had shirts donated by VOX Marketing Group. Other companies that have been especially helpful are Costa Vida, Halestorm Entertainment, Method Communications and of course Vivint, donated 3 trips to the top fundraising students in Utah to come with me to visit Happy Hearts Schools in Indonesia.

To find out how you can be involved go to https://www.livebelowtheline.com/us-hhf and join me by signing up to support Happy Hearts Fund this April 29th – May 3rd. Lets see how much change we can make with $1.50!

 
Posted by Sydney Pederson in What Can I Do? for column Live Below the Line on Apr 16th, 06:54
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The 'nameless' poor
 

This guest post comes from Dr. Haseeb Md. Irfanullah, who leads the Reducing Vulnerability and Natural Resource Management Programme of Practical Action in Bangladesh.

In good old days, there was something romantic about poverty! Just think about the emotion, passion, enthusiasm, desperation that could be seen in the world literature on poverty. And I am not only talking about poems like "O poverty, thou hast made me great./ Thou hast made me honoured like Christ / With his crown of thorns." (‘Daridro’ or ‘Poverty’ by Kazi Nazrul Islam, the national poet of Bangladesh).

But, we not-so-poor people have harshly taken away that romantic bit out of the poverty. We have smartly designed development programmes to brush away poverty like an unwanted pest. We have identified standards and devices to filter out the ‘poorest’ from the ‘poor’ and the ‘poorer’ ones. We ask them all sorts of personal questions just after entering into their settlement or in their homes for the first time. And we ask a lot more after giving them a piece of information or a bag of seeds or a cow. So, in the business of community development, poverty reduction is a very serious venture; there is nothing emotional about it. (Although some of us may see the campaigns and slogans like ‘make poverty history’ or ‘put poverty in the museums’ expressing strong emotions!)

Over the last decade or so – thanks to the Millennium Development Goals or MDGs – it is the ‘extreme poverty’ we have been talking about a lot. And when talking about extreme poverty in a global context, you actually cannot overlook Bangladesh. As captured by a study on extreme poverty in Bangladesh, an extreme poor woman defined chronic poverty in an unassuming way “We who are always poor are invisible. For those who are always poor, what difference does a shock make − why will it make the leaders feel bad? For us, life is like mending a cloth − sticking patches and stitching − our sorrows and tears are invisible.” Despite being invisible, the extreme poor still make up 17.6% of the total population of Bangladesh and find a position below the ‘lower poverty line’ − as we often call it. (It is the ‘moderate poor’ who stay between the lower and upper poverty lines). The absolute number of extreme poor in this South Asian country is staggering 26 million. If this were the population of a country, that would have fall between Uzbekistan and Ghana as the 47th most populated country of the world!

Be in no doubt that being an extreme poor person of a country like Bangladesh is a very tough job. Of course it is because you have to rely upon much less than $ 1 a day, own no land, hardly have anything you can call an ‘asset’, barely have access to public services or very much susceptible to ill health and all kinds of shock and disaster. But, it is also because you have to prove your distress convincingly enough to be included in a development project for extreme poor or in one of numerous social safety net programmes of the government.

But, if you are a person who sometimes manages to climb just above the lower poverty line, I can assure you, your life is much tougher! It actually means that you are capable enough to push yourself just out of extreme poverty for a while, but may fall back losing what you have gained whenever a shock or disaster comes in your life. You simply swing between extreme poverty and moderate poverty. You do not have the certainty − or a clear identity for that matter − of being extreme poor. And it is bad!

It is bad because aid effectiveness is measured by what changes aid makes in people’s lives. If you cannot be defined, you cannot be targeted and if you cannot be targeted your changes cannot be measured. That is why, does not matter how tough it is, targeting the real extreme poor has been very important in the development projects. Criteria for selecting the extreme poor have, however, evolved with changing context and better understanding of the situation on the ground. But the ground reality often seems quite a ‘small influencer’ to guide the continuous evolution of poverty alleviation attempts; aid money and its governance play much bigger role for that matter. As we all have seen, international development discourses have not been the same since the Christmas of 2010 after Andrew Mitchell, the then British Secretary of State for International Development, uttered ‘value for money’. (I am, however, not sure if a 58-year old British comedy film with the same name has anything to do with this improvement in our development vocabulary!)

I am afraid, people swinging between ‘extreme poverty’ and ‘moderate poverty’ may continue being left out of extreme poverty initiatives. When you are in that group, you are not eligible for any in kind or in cash support provided to the extreme poor, or may not get the technology or knowledge offered to the moderate poor. You do not belong to a recognized economic class that defines you. You do not have a name!

But do we really need to define that group as a separate entity? Will it add any value to our efforts in eradicating extreme poverty now and in the post-2015 era? Or will it just be a mere academic interest?

As a botanist by education, I am very much used to the concept of giving each and every plant species of the world a specific botanical name. To me, rice is Oryza sativa, wheat is Triticum aestivum, potato is Solanum tuberosum. Then I listened to a severely distressed, lone young girl named Robin (played by Juliette Lewis) in the film 'The Way of the Guns' (2000). When asked, which name she called the baby she was pregnant with, Robin replied – "When you think about deaf people, people who are born deaf... who've never heard a spoken word. What do you think they call the sun or their mother... or their own reflection in the mirror? That's what I call it."

I never realized naming someone could be that tough.
Posted by Haseeb Md. Irfanullah in Poverty for column Perspectives on Poverty on Apr 12th, 10:42
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I spent an hour arguing over a Dollar
 

Not so long ago, I spent a year living and working in Ghana. It was dusty, the people were frequently confusing, and the local cuisine was a rich source of starch and oil. But it was a lot of fun, and I look back on the time (and the people I met) fondly.

While misunderstandings between the locals and I were a common occurrence, we collectively understood one thing very well: that taxi drivers are scum. There are no meters or fixed prices in Ghanaian taxis, and every discussion commences with an absurdly high initial price offer from the driver, and a similarly unreasonable lowball payment offer from the prospective passenger. Much arm-waving and feigned expressions of shock emanate from both sides, often for minutes at a time. The driver remains adamant that a 10 minute trip takes 30, while the passenger is convinced that peak hour is a myth created by taxi drivers to harm the nation. If you’re merely a bystander, it’s some of the best street theatre around.

After initial reluctance (read: middle class guilt), I took to the sport of bickering with taxi drivers most enthusiastically. There would be pretend walk-offs, raised voices, and allegations that the driver is a “foolish man” (which ranks highly among Ghanaian insults). As the title of this entry suggests, I did indeed spent 15 minutes arguing over a sum of money that was around a dollar. More than once. Unlike your average Ghanaian, the dollar wasn’t of particular significance to me. Food (bristling with starch and oil) would be on my table that night either way.

So why did I have so many bees in my bonnet? Why would a man even wear a bonnet, especially one that attracted bees?

Many times in the past, I had criticised western tourists in developing countries who indulge in haggling with local sellers over sums of money that matter a lot to the seller, and not at all to the buyer. It appeared to be little more than a disposable income power play, bolstering the ego of a tubby idiot with freshly braided hair and fake designer sunglasses. It effectively mocked poverty... sought to entrench it. Whether or not this scenario is a metaphor for quite a number of recent free trade agreements negotiated between a rich country and a poor country is a matter I’ll leave to you.

Back to the taxis and my bees. But I don’t want any more talk about my bonnet.

The economist-in-me-that-I-can’t-always-switch-off was wondering whether giving $5 for the $4 trip would mean that the new baseline price for everyone would be $5. Would my capacity to buy my way out of an argument affect affordable transport for everyone else?

Or maybe it wouldn’t affect cash-strapped local taxi passengers... perhaps the driver was only trying to game me because I happened to be white. If the colours or tables were turned, such a thing would be held up as scandalous racism. Do I want to reward someone’s notion that some people should pay more than others for an identical service, solely based on their appearance? Is it a taxi driver’s place to decide that I must? In my home country, this concept of fairness is legally enforced via the requirement for metered fares.

And so I spent 15 minutes haggling on the side of the road. Haggling to receive access to the same fair price that the locals paid. Haggling to be equal. It’s entirely consistent with the complaints that many developing countries have about the uneven playing field of global trade and protectionism.

But instead of opening up another area of dispute with the driver, I settled for my $1 taxi saving, and was driven to do you thinkthe pub.

What do you think - is it right to haggle over a dollar?
Posted by Michael Jayfox (Guest Blogger) in Poverty, Enterprise & Trade for column Perspectives on Poverty on Apr 9th, 09:22
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How I Learned to Live Below the Line
 
I'll be living below the line this year for the Somaly Mam Foundation - an organization that rescues girls from commercial sex work and provides a safe haven for victims of abuse or those at high-risk for trafficking. The foundation's namesake Somaly Mam survived a past of sex slavery and now dedicates her life to activism in her native Cambodia and the world.
 
I am particularly drawn to the work of this organization after my sister and I had the chance to visit Cambodia last December. We rented bicycles and spent three, hot, sweaty, glorious days exploring the vast rocky temples of Angkor Wat. According to UNICEF, over a quarter of all Cambodians live under the extreme poverty line and because of that, hordes flock to Angkor to hawk souvenirs - ranging from postcards to toenail clippers to wide-brimmed hats - fresh fruit and cold drinks. Tourists arriving at any temple could be guaranteed to be greeted by about 50 vendors, mostly children, who wouldn't take no for an answer. The theme song for the temples could easily be "Everyday I'm Hustling."
 
 
By day three, my sister and I were exhausted and we had become somewhat apathetic to such situations. So we asked a waitress how we could convince the peddlers to leave us be. She taught us the local phrase (phonetically) "Auk Men Loi" - basically "I have no money."
 
Auk Men Loi became our shield. Whenever we went, we needed only to utter it and vendors would part like oil on water, occasionally wide-eyed or giggling at our apparen 
fluency. We were gods.
 
Then we biked to a somewhat secluded temple and a handful of very young children dashed forward with offers of cocoanuts and key chains. "Auk Men Loi," I said, casting it out like a force-field. One girl - no more than seven years old - placed tiny fists on her hips. She cocked her head. "You have money and you don't spend on me. It's okay."
 
Her words broke through my Auk Men Loi barrier. With her clumsy constructed English sentences, she had managed to sum up our existences perfectly. I had money. I had things. I had a bicycle and a backpack full of snacks and a key for a hotel room with A/C and a shower. She had some key chains to sell and tattered clothes.
 
However, that was okay. She recognized that although unfair, this was how things were. It's okay that we have the privileges and luxuries that we have. Living with my own entitlement has been a struggle I've dealt with for years, and here this small girl who had so little was trying to absolve me of my guilt. We in America are so lucky to have the things we have, and yet it's okay that we enjoy them.
 
But, it's also okay if - for just a little while - we put such things aside and try in a small way to understand the lives of others. It's okay that search out alternatives to the unjust systems that keep such poverty in our world. It's okay that we share this message with whoever will hear it, so someday all Cambodians will see Angkor as a place to celebrate their history and not a marketplace from which to eke out an existence.
 
Because 1.4 billion people live on under a 1.50 a day. Because 22,000 children die from hunger or other preventable diseases every day. Because 1 out of 3 women will be abused, beat or coerced into sex in her lifetime.
 
And that is not okay.
 
That little girl from Angkor may never be a victim of trafficking or sexual abuse, but I am grateful that organizations like Somaly Mam will be there to protect her and others throughout Cambodia. I'll be living below the line for Somaly Mam because it's not okay for girls to be denied those basic safeties of childhood.
 
I hope you'll be joining me. Chose a charity that captures your heart, share this journey with those you live and work with, and tell the world you have no appetite for apathy.
Posted by Brittany Aubin in Women & Gender, Poverty, Fairtrade & Ethical Purchasing, Hunger for column 1.4 Billion Reasons on Apr 2nd, 07:43
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We need your opinion!
 

100 Metres. 9.58 seconds. How on earth would we know that Usain Bolt was the quickest man in the world if he didn't have a certain goal - a destination? We wouldn't. And he probably wouldn't have been able to run that fast. Achievement is often driven by ambition, by aspirations that can be measured - where at the end you can say: I've done that.

Well - the race is nearly run on the Millennium Development Goals. Set in 2000, their stated end is looming in 2015. Not all the goals and objectives have been achieved, but great progress has been made. Work to end extreme poverty will go on regardless of what we do. But the MDGs gave the international community - governments, NGOs, individuals, corporates - focus and an agenda, which helped us achieve massive gains in the search to extreme poverty.
 
So the question is - what next? The answer came from the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held last year in - wait for it - Rio. It announced that the world would work towards creating the snappily titled Sustainable Development Goals (you've got to love the UN marketing gurus!), which would set the post-2015 agenda until 2030. Massive efforts are underway, even this week with a meeting of governments and NGOs this week, to start defining these Goals to ensure that they are in place by January 2016.
 
They are being crafted in a world that is very different from the one in which the MDGs were born: the rise and reach of technology, systemic challenges that have become more entrenched, the ongoing impact of climate change, the multitude of actors that now play a more prominent role (the rise of China in Africa being one example).
 
These Goals will have a huge impact on what our world looks like in 15 years time. We have to get them right.
 
One voice is missing from the process: yours. 
 
We want to know what you think to create a list of the top ten Sustainable Development Goals:
- what should the SDGs be?
- what factors do we have to consider as we start defining the SDGs?
 
We're using a revolutionary new crowd-sourced and crowd-curated collaboration tool for our entire network to develop the answer.
 
Logging in with your facebook or twitter, go to http://sdg.codigital.com and tell us what Goals we should set to change the world.
 
We need to win the next race to end extreme poverty, forever.
 
Posted by Philip Corden - GPP in What Can I Do? for column Issue Analysis on Mar 28th, 01:11
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