Blog Action Day 2008: Can We Blog Poverty Out of Africa?
This post was written for the celebration of Blog Action Day 2008, a worldwide campaign with the goal to raise awareness and conversation around the global topic of poverty and in the process raise money for the cause.
Today is October 15, 2008.
Bloggers all over the world are celebrating Blog Action Day 2008 with a focus on POVERTY. As a volunteer for campaigns related to social issues, this blog, StartupsNigeria – dedicated to reviewing and analysing web start-ups, web technologies and applications in Nigeria - is participating in this year’s celebration.
That’s why I have chosen the topic: Can We Blog Poverty out of Africa?
But wait, can poverty really be eradicated from Africa and the rest of the world? I doubt it. Not with the inequality that permeates the world around us. As a matter of fact, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) suggests that key factors to reducing poverty will include:
- The reduction in inequality
- The reduction in income differences
This raises the most important question: Will this world ever be EQUAL?
What is the No. 1 Cause of Poverty in the World?
According to this article, many developing nations are in debt and poverty partly due to the policies of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Following an ideology known as neoliberalism, and spearheaded by these and other institutions known as the “Washington Consensus” (for being based in Washington D.C.), Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) have been imposed to ensure debt repayment and economic restructuring.
But the way it has happened has required poor countries to reduce spending on things like health, education, technology and development, while debt repayment and other economic policies have been made the priority. In effect, the IMF and World Bank have demanded that poor nations lower the standard of living of their people.
Africa Action, an organization working for political, economic and social justice in Africa is highly critical of SAPS, stating that:
African countries require essential investments in health, education and infrastructure before they can compete internationally. The World Bank and IMF instead required countries to reduce state support and protection for social and economic sectors. They insisted on pushing weak African economies into markets where they were unable to compete with the might of the international private sector. These policies further undermined the economic development of African countries.
How Can We Blog Poverty Out of Africa?
Using recent web technologies, we can at least together reduce poverty in Africa and around the world. The new web space offers a great opportunity in the fight against poverty. Let me now share some of the newest web technologies that could be used to take action against poverty.
1. Social Media
Social Media here includes photo/video sharing sites. Thus, when photos and videos of poverty-related cases are uploaded via these social media sites, they capture the world’s attention. Youtube, the video-sharing site and Flickr, photo-sharing site attracts millions of users from around the world who network with people the world over.
2. Social Blogging
Social Blogging involves capturing news and reviews around the social media market. It is interesting that top social media bloggers such as TechCrunch, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, ProBlogger, Gigaom, LifeHacker, amongst others are participating in the Blog Action Day 2008.
Therefore, we hope to see an active participation from these and other social media bloggers on the issues around Poverty even after Blog Action Day 2008 is over.
3. Social Networking
Social Networking means making friends and building a network through an online community. Most social networking sites around the world are developed for a purpose, but they hardly support campaigns against world poverty.
Even Facebook, the largest social networking site with over 3 million members, cares less about Fights against Poverty. In my opinion, Facebook and other social networking sites should develop applications that would support the world-wide campaign against Poverty.
4. Social Bookmarking
Social Bookmarking is described as a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata, according to Wikipedia. Sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Muti, Sturvs amongst others are examples of social bookmarking sites.
Facts about Poverty
- Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
- The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.
- Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
- Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
- 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, and 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million Died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).
Read More Facts (and Sources) about Poverty »
First off, thanks for a good blog.
One of the reason to blog, is as you say to raise awareness about Africa and poverty to industrialized countries. But then what?
I’ve been reading around 10 of what I find the most interesting blogs about Africa and internet, most of the them blog about poverty every now and then, all of them blog about raising awareness and all of them blog about startups, investors and social media (things I find interesting and would like to contribute to).
But I still have no idea what you want industrialized countries to invest in, or donate to. I think this could be a major contribution to the blogging, if some of you focused more on what the money should be used for, not just awareness of the poverty alone. We (at least here) get good education and we learn about IMF and the world bank in highschool, but average Joe can’t really pay back the loans alone.
Here in Norway I have two choices to use my money:
A) Donate money to Unicef / Red cross foundation and similar organizations
B) Donate to local organizations helping bums
In the media, A) is getting a lot of negative attention, and a lot of people never donate to them because so little of the money eventually gets there (or so the media says). When there is cases in the media once in a while that the money has gone wrong and been involved in corruption, a lot of people find it hard to use a significant amount of money to them.
B) is easier, because the organizations isn’t as big, and you can see what where the money goes. But is it really needed?
I want a C). I want to see what Africans want themselves. Should we invest instead of donate, and how much, and on what projects? How can we be assured that it isn’t scam? To get communications from African bloggers to western bloggers would be a great way to raise awareness and to “help” westerns to donate and invest in the right things. If bloggers from the west and from Africa unite, I think blogging and internet communication could be a great contribution to raising Africa from poverty.
Just my 2 cents, sorry if I went offtopic a bit, I’ve been looking for place to post this in.
Very interesting piece. I personally believe that African bloggers, and particularly, Nigerian bloggers are still not aware of how their blogging skills can transform their personal nations. I think that in time, we will discover the potential at our finger tips and be able to work, collectively, to achieve good and prove education to others.
Just read Socraton’s comments.
“I want to see what Africans want themselves. Should we invest instead of donate, and how much, and on what projects? How can we be assured that it isn’t scam? To get communications from African bloggers to western bloggers would be a great way to raise awareness and to “help” westerns to donate and invest in the right things. If bloggers from the west and from Africa unite, I think blogging and internet communication could be a great contribution to raising Africa from poverty.”
Alas, that is the challenge, isn’t it?
All of us bloggers do so much talking but hardly enough with each other and thus miss out on an opportunity t truly work together and not against each other.
I just have to say that i appreciated your comment as it has forced me to think a little harder about a couple ideas that had been floating around in my head.
[...] blogger, Loy Okezie suggests ways to use technology and social media to raise awareness of poverty: Using recent web [...]
[...] Loy Okezie [En], blogando da Nigéria, sugere formas de usar a tecnologia e as mídias sociais para aumentar a conscientização sobre a pobreza: Using recent web technologies, we can at least together reduce poverty in Africa and around the world. The new web space offers a great opportunity in the fight against poverty. Let me now share some of the newest web technologies that could be used to take action against poverty. “Usando as recentes tecnologias de rede, nós podemos ao menos diminuir juntos a pobreza na África e ao redor do mundo. O novo espaço da rede permite uma grande oportunidade de lutar contra a pobreza. Deixe-me agora partilhar com vocês algumas das mais novas tecnologias da rede que podem ser usadas para agir contra a pobreza.” [...]
@Socraton - Thanks for your contributions…your 2 cents are appreciated;-)
I think that Africa doesn’t need aids, rather investments. If only more investments in technology could be done in Africa, the continent will solve the rest of the problems it faces.
@solomon - Nigerian bloggers can start a campaign on reducing poverty through blogging. I’m sure that this would get the world’s attention and support. Thanks for your comments:-)
Hi, Give something to help the hungry people from Africa or India,
I made this blog about that subject:
at http://tinyurl.com/5t2jg6