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Blogging against poverty
Bloggers throughout the world – including people who write some of the most subscribed-to blogs in the world – discussed the subject of poverty on the second annual Blog Action Day -- Wednesday, Oct. 15.
More than 12,000 bloggers with an estimated 13 million readers participated in the project. TechCrunch, LifeHacker, ReadWriteWeb, and ProBlogger are among the well-known blogs that have signed on, as well as a number of Baha'i blogs.
One of the main organizers, Collis Ta’eed, says the concept of Blog Action Day fits well with his Baha’i beliefs and his understanding of Baha’i teachings about social action.
“Our idea is to give bloggers a platform and enable them to take a day out of their schedule to do something socially positive,” says Mr. Ta’eed, an Australian who works internationally as a professional Web designer.
“It puts Baha’i principles into action in the sense that people should get outside themselves and do something for the greater community,” he says. “The Baha’i Faith puts a big responsibility on the individual to take action.”
The Internet in general, and blogging specifically, he says, offer a unique way of communicating, and Blog Action Day plugs into that. One quarter of the world’s top 100 blogs (as listed by Technorati) have signed up to participate.
The idea of Blog Action Day is for blog publishers to view a critical social issue from their own perspective, and do it all at once, in effect generating a multi-faceted global discussion on a specific topic.
“If your blog normally deals with finance, then you would discuss poverty from that angle,” Mr. Ta’eed says. “If your blog normally deals with technology, you would discuss it from that angle.”
The topic discussed during the first annual Blog Action Day was the environment. We look forward to next year!
Comments
God, interventionist
You have to solve world
You have to solve world hunger to be able to solve poverty. The thing often missed is the relationship between poverty and hunger. Hunger is an effect of poverty and poverty is largely a political issue. (While manifesting itself as an economic issue, conditions causing poverty are political and end up being economic. As we all know, more and more people are suffering from poverty all around the globe. "Slumdog Millionaire", an international smash hit and winner of Best Picture at the Academy Awards, is inspirational, to say the least. It has called attention to the terrible poverty that people in other countries experience. Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali, two child actors featured in Slumdog Millionaire, are both to be moved to new homes with their families. The Indian government has agreed to pick up the check, citing that the film, and the two diminutive thespians, has made their country proud. The kids featured in Slumdog Millionaire are both residents of India's slums.
Blog against poverty..gee, I hope it works...
Blogging against poverty is certainly a noble idea, and so are demonstrations and also philanthropy, but there is an essential error in the fight against poverty. Nearly everyone has heard a variation on the old adage that "If you give someone a fish, they're fed for a day. Teach them to fish, they're fed for life" which is more or less where charity/philanthropies are always going to fall short. Poverty is caused by a lack of access to the means of getting out of poverty. If there aren't enough natural resources to produce enough food, then poverty will result, and the same goes if there aren't opportunities for industry of some sort. A better aim is instead of give only money for food or medicine, finding some way to bring jobs, or show them the way to create them. I'm not saying that nothing could or should be done - there should be - but instead of creating a tier of welfare providing nations and welfare dependent ones, a way in which welfare of some sort isn't needed is more desirable, as that creates a solution that is long term that is more feasible for everyone, and more people end up benefiting, and enjoying the satisfaction from the fruits of their own labor. (Something Marx was big on - I've done my homework, hippies!) Charity, donations, and IMF loans are only viable solutions in the short term, industry is a solution for the long term. Let us endeavor to give education and the means to produce instead.
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