Blog Action Day

As an inconsistent writer to this blog, I was surprised to discover that today is Blog Action Day (thanks boywithnoname , great piece by the way).  I tend to keep my political and social views to myself but the topic of poverty crosses beyond political alliances or at least it should.  The current financial situation has once again made me wonder about the economy and its effect on poverty.

Viewing various news channels on the television, the current global financial situation appears to be in turmoil.  As financial markets continue to fall and predictions of a global recession dominate the news, I find it curious that an entire regions in the world has been able to escape the financial difficulty.

While Asia, Europe and North America  struggle to maintain the financial structures, Africa has managed to avoid mention.  Is it due to shrewd financial maneuvering? My instincts tell me no.  While many are wondering what will happen with their investments, retirement and jobs, an entire continent does not have these issues to address, because these problems are minimal.  In a region that possess vast  resources including oil and diamonds, the panic that is currently occuring around the world markets is not prevelant. There are many individuals within Africa for whom the problems in the market have impacted upon, however for the overwhelming majority the current situation does not resonate.  This is not to suggest that the problem of poverty is relevant only to places of Africa, but when an entire continent is minimally affected from what is being termed a global problem,  something is wrong.  While governments across the globe move to stabilize the financial markets, Africa is attempting to stabilize its infrastructure, unemployment, corruption and AIDS crisis to name a few.  Poverty in this context is not the source of the problem but rather represents the outcome of an inability to address these other factors.

Poverty can be found in all corners of the world and to think that poverty is limited only to those ‘other’ countries that we only read about is unrealistic as one only has to walk the streets of any urban North American street to realize this.  It seems however, as the world becomes increasingly interconnected, financially, technologically and socially, there are those who are being further excluded from this connectivity. Whether these people reside in North America, Europe, Asia or Africa there are many for whom this financial crisis has had little if any impact on their ability to obtain the necessities of life.

~ by oreogeek on October 15, 2008.