Some countries are les economically developed while others are more economically developed because of wars, natural disasters, no family planning, crime and debts.
These have major effects on a country as war could lead to destruction of countries.
E.g. 70% of the people in Iraq have no jobs, 61 Journalists have been killed, there have been 4162 military and police casualties, an estimated 40,300 to 81,700 Iraqi civilians have been killed, 47% of Iraqis never have electricity, reconstruction has been estimated to $53.5 billion and there has been 280 Non-Iraqis Kidnapped, including 45 killed, 141 released, 3 escaped, 3 rescued and 88 yet uncovered.
Natural disasters could lead to the country spending billions and also being on debt.
An example of a LEDC is Thailand. Due to the effects of the tsunami 230,000 people were killed in Thailand.
The total damage cost $10.73 billion and to rebuild it would cost $10.375 billion. There was 2,089,883 people displaced from this natural disaster and 1.5 million people had lost their livelihoods.
This natural disaster did not only just affect Thailand, but it also affected another 12 countries which were all also LEDC’s.
These countries were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Madagascar, Maldives, Malaysia, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya and Bangladesh.
Due to this natural disaster the speed of the speed of development for theses countries was rapidly reduced and these countries are yet to become MEDC’s.
Rich countries which are MEDC’s such as England, U.S.A, Canada etc, exploit the poor countries by charging them interest/riba on the loans they lend out to them. Because the poor countries are LEDC’s it generally takes a long time to pay the interest/riba back, and this stalls the growth and development of the country.
These countries also have cheap labor which leads to poverty in the community.
Children also get no education as they decide to quit school and start work.
Countries like these need stability and aid every time a problem occurs.
The Causes Of Poverty.
Poverty is a serious issue when it comes to LEDC’s and MEDC’s.
20% of the world’s population live in MEDC’s and own 80% of the world’s wealth where as a massive 80% of the world’s population live in LEDC’s and have only 20% of the world’s wealth.
There are many causes of poverty and one of these is education.
Because families are poor, they need more income so they stop their children from attending school so they can get a job and help the family get more income.
Because of this the children fail to get an education and often spend the rest of their lives doing the same job and staying in the same position.
Another reason is wealth. Rich countries often exploit the poor countries.
For example:
If a poor country was in need for tractors, but they didn’t have the money. Rich countries would give the poor countries the money but in return the poor country must buy the tractors from the rich country.
This is known as “tied aid”. The donor country puts conditions on the aid, usually to benefit itself. An MEDC can seem to be giving aid, but really be getting its money back and helping its own industry.
Also rich countries often exploit poor countries by charging interest on their loans they lend out to the poor countries.
This often results in the poor countries with a massive interest/riba which puts the country in another problem.
Discrimination is also a cause for poverty.
People who are richer than others feel that they can treat them unequally, but this is genuinely wrong, as it is stated in the Qur’an:
“Each mankind shall be treated equally.”
Rich people feel they don’t need to help the poor and because of this, the world today is in this state.
The other cause for poverty is health and old age.
If your health is very weak and you’re still forced to pay your bills then your health can deteriorate largely.
People who are elderly in poor countries are forced to carry heavy sacks of food to where they are told and this is just so they can earn money for themselves to eat.
Effects of poverty
There are many effects of poverty in this world.
One of these effects is crime as poverty results in crime.
When people are poor they have no money and often see crime as their easy way to earn money. This leads to problems in the society and can also lead to family disruption and cause further troubles.
Another effect of poverty is illness.
When a person is poor he often suffers more than rich people, mentally and physically.
The person tends to believe there is no point in living, and could try to commit suicide. This is how a person suffers mentally.
When person suffers physically, they have no money to treat their illness and often feel worse than before.
This leads to bad health and if this carries on it could also lead to death.
Alcoholism is also an effect of poverty. When people are poor they often feel low and start drinking to relive their stress.
The problem with this is that they often gain a drinking problem which they can’t control and they often end up getting bad health.
Poverty can also lead to no education.
As families have low income, they are forced to make their children quit school and start work so they can earn money to provide the family.
This leads to the children growing up with no education.
The main effect of poverty is poverty.
When families are poor, their children often become poor as well and this is a major problem for LEDC’s.
How can we deal with this?
The ways in which we can deal with this is provide basic needs for the poor.
We can do this by providing them with clean water. Clean water is an essential for life, but over a billion people on the world do not have it.
This results in over 2 million dying from water related diseases each year.
Many men, women and children in developing countries spend hours each day walking miles to collect water.
This water is usually dirty and unsafe but they have no alternative. Carrying heavy water containers is an exhausting task, which takes up valuable time and energy. It stops men and women from doing vital work which earns them income and it stops children from going to school.
If we could provide the poor with clean water, it would make huge improvements in the LEDC’s and it could let children go to school and adults earn income.
Providing the poor with education could also deal with the poverty. Education is vital for children all over the world and it provides a future for the poor.
If we provide LEDC’s with education we could be making a brighter future for the less fortunate.
Providing work fro the poor can also deal with poverty. If the poor have no jobs, then they have no means of income and they can’t provide their family or even themselves.
If we provide the poor with work and jobs, we can help build a future for the poor.
Providing health for the poor could also deal with poverty. Health care is important for the poor.
If we provide the LEDC’s with good health care and set up medical centers around the towns, countries can help discover diseases and help their patients, which could lead to a greater life expectancy in LEDC’s.
Providing home/shelter could give the poor countries a place so live and it will greatly improve their way of life in LEDC’s.
We can also deal with poverty by providing food for the poor.
Food is an essential for life, but many people do not have it. If we provide the poor with food, this could also lead to a greater life expectancy for people living in LEDC’s.
What Can Be Done To Help These Poor Countries?
If we sought out family planning it would be a start to help these poor countries.
Family planning is a health service which helps couples to decide whether to have children or not, and if so, when and how many.
This is one of the most effective and inexpensive way of improving the present and future quality of life on earth.
This can is good because Family planning could prevent most or all of the 50,000 illegal abortions estimated to occur each day, and the resulting 150,000 deaths each year. Family planning could decrease the physical and mental exhaustion resulting from large families and poorly timed pregnancies.
Another way in which we can help these poor countries is debt reduction.
Many LEDC’s fail to develop quickly, as they are in heavy debt. To help poverty we can ask countries to drop debts.
Another way which we can help these poor countries is if the MEDC’s pay international tax.
This is when the countries pay tax to the international bank. This money is taken and used in emergencies such as natural disasters.
Another way in which we can help these poor countries is by trade.
Trade is a transaction of a security or commodity. The exchange of products. This is good for poor countries as this enables people to own and exchange goods without fear. This could help show the ways out of poverty and even make you rich.
There are three main types of aid. Bilateral aid, multilateral aid and NGO’s.
Bilateral aid flows directly between donor and recipient countries. This type of aid is one country to another.
An example would be Britain giving money and sending experts to help build a dam in turkey.
Multilateral means “many sides”.
Here organizations that involve many countries give help. This aid is run by groups such as the world health organization (WHO) and United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO).
NGO’s are Non Government Organizations. This is any non profit voluntary citizens group whish is organised on a local, national or international level.
All these aids could one day change the lives of people around the world.
Conclusion
Poverty is a major aspect of religion and wealth.
The world is classed in many different ways and one of these is the MEDC’s and LEDC’s.
The LEDC’s are affected in many ways such as natural disasters, wars, no family planning, debts and poverty.
This is mainly because these countries have little education, little wealth, discrimination and other situations.
The effect of this is crime, illness, alcoholism, death/bad health and no education.
We can deal with this by providing basic needs to the poor such as, water, education, health, home shelter, work and food.
We can also help these countries by sorting out family planning, debt reduction, paying international tax, providing trade and giving id.
All these things can help the third world/LEDC’s develop much faster and help give brighter future for the poor.
