Author: Mr. Lakhaney

TOK Teacher

Faulty Band-Aid (Why foreign aid doesn’t work)

August 12, 2021

Hosannas are being sung to the rocker Bono and G-8 leaders in praise of the recently announced agreement to relieve developing countries — mostly African — of more than $40 billion in debt.

The Christian Science Monitor calls it “a victory for the world’s poorest continent.” World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz declares it to be “a very important, successful outcome.” U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow boasts that it’s “an achievement of historic proportions.” And according to Larry Elliott of The Guardian, it’s “a once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

But it won’t work.

https://archive.triblive.com/news/faulty-band-aid/#ixzz37qOs5WIQ

‘Choose growth or accept poverty for billions’

August 12, 2021

“The Growth Report kills off once and for all the misguided notion that you can lift people out of poverty in the absence of growth,” Spence said. “It is impossible for poor countries to lift large populations out of poverty without growth. Equality of opportunity and a focus on individuals and families, gender inequalities and economic security, however, is critical to maintaining the support for growth-oriented policies.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/may/22/globaleconomy.economics

Morning Edition Podcast: Cash Aid Could Solve Poverty — But There’s A Catch

August 12, 2021

There were two ways that the recipients used the cash to get ahead. In families led by people who were unable to work, they mainly used the money to hire others to help them farm their land more productively. But the young families — because they were able-bodied — did something that Handa argues is remarkable, and even more promising when it comes to growing Zambia’s economy long term: They became entrepreneurial.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/08/09/542357298/cash-handouts-could-solve-poverty-but-theres-a-catch

Unit Plan: Fair Trade

August 12, 2021

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of fair trade. By investigating the compelling question “Is Fair Trade Fair?” students evaluate the rise of fair trade as it relates to several specialty industries; such as the coffee industry. The formative performance tasks build on knowledge and skills through the course of the inquiry and helps students obtain a foundational understanding of fair trade. Students also examine differences between fair and free trade, and finally analyze the costs of benefits of free trade. Students create an evidence-based argument about the overall fairness of fair trade.

http://c3teachers.org/inquiries/fair-trade/

Shell settlement with Ogoni people stops short of full justice

August 12, 2021

Shell’s decision to settle out of court with a group of Ogoni people rather than take them on in New York means a measure of justice has come to the Niger Delta. The sum of $15.5m (£9.6m) may be peanuts for the company and nothing can compensate the 500,000 Ogoni people for generations of devastating pollution, human rights abuses and persecution. But while Shell insists that the result is no admission of guilt, it nevertheless represents a triumph for an impoverished community over one of the richest companies in the world.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/cif-green/2009/jun/09/saro-wiwa-shell

A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts From Myanmar’s Military

August 12, 2021

Members of the Myanmar military were the prime operatives behind a systematic campaign on Facebook that stretched back half a decade and that targeted the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority group, the people said. The military exploited Facebook’s wide reach in Myanmar, where it is so broadly used that many of the country’s 18 million internet users confuse the Silicon Valley social media platform with the internet. Human rights groups blame the anti-Rohingya propaganda for inciting murders, rapes and the largest forced human migration in recent history.