Name: Pavansakthi A/L Ramesh
School: GYM RESOURCES SDN BHD
Email: pavan230206@gmail.com
To:
Klang, Selangor, Malaysia
The Secretary General of the UN
(United Nations)
Mr Antonio Guterres,
New York, NY 10017, United States
Dear Sir,
Subject: Issues of International Development in relation with Poverty and the Solutions.
A very good day to the Secretary General of the UN, Mr Antonio Guterres. I am writing this
letter to discuss and propose my optimistic plans about equalizing international development
and as well as methods to deplete poverty rates around the world. The development and
poverty rates in a country should be tackled meticulously as they are indirect factors that
determine the state of a nation’s development as well as the financial strength of a particular
nation. Furthermore, international development and poverty are both major topics that should
be discussed and researched insightfully and comprehensively by economists and financial
ministers of governments around the world in order to come up a perpetual solution that
makes an indelible change in the poverty rate of the country, and may conceivably change the
poverty rate around the world . This can tremendously change the lives of the poor and needy
all around the world.
As an individual at superior position in an intergovernmental organization, I hope you can
take my insights and suggestions into account and collaborate with the most powerful
governments of the world to discuss the solutions that will light a spark in the ill – fated lives
of the poor and the needy. This can help the nations of the world face a stupendous
revolution in the near future, and I’m sanguine about these sheer real dreams that will come
true. As all of us know, the UN was established to change the lives of people for good, and I
believe that to tackle and solve poverty is also one of the organization’s raison d'être. The
purpose of my letter is to explain and state the statistical dichotomy between highly
developed countries and poorly developed countries, and countries with low poverty rates
and high poverty rates, and as well as finding some solutions that are efficacious and
advantageous. My points, insights, suggestions and my aspirations are as below.
I strongly believe that international development is strongly interrelated with poverty. The
more developed a country is, the less percentage of poverty the country may have. However
this statement can be misleading at certain times. The most urbanized places may give ways
for something called ‘slums’ to develop progressively. In fact, most of the developed
countries have around
1
9
of its population living in slums. This was proven by a research
which was done by the American Economic and Social Rights Association in 2016. Why is
there poverty everywhere around the world today? What influences the existence of poverty?
Why are there rich people and poor people all around the world today? There is something
called inequality. The world is very unequal. An experimental analysis entitled “Standard of
Living” can prove that inequality does indeed exist at a larger scale. I shall discuss a case of
three friends Kelly, Abdul and Nita from three natives of different countries.
Kelly lives in the USA. She gets $25 pocket money a week. She goes to a school in the city.
She wants to be an IT engineer or a scientist in the future. She gets steak and vegetables and
sundry other delicacies and cuisines to eat. She has clean water and electricity Abdul lives in
Pakistan. He goes a school in the outskirts of the city. His parents work really hard. He goes
to a public learning centre for 10 cents a day. He gets food everyday but not in copious
amounts. Nita lives in Somalia. She has never received prior education (has never been to
school before). Her both parents have passed away. She has to take care of her 2 younger
brothers. She works on her uncle’s farm and earns about 20 cents a day. She only has 1 meal
every 2 days and lives in a hut made of straw and lives in the light of an oil lamp.
In these examples of 3 different lifestyles, the person with the highest standard of living is
Kelly. It is because she has all the basic and fundamental resources and needs that help her
sustain a normal life. Food and water are the basic needs for a person to live a usual life.
Moreover, she has her own freedom, like getting pocket money for her own experiences. She
also gets different types of food to savour. Abdul also lives a healthy lifestyle and gets water
and food as usual as Kelly. But he doesn’t get anything extra than water and food, and he
lives a plain vanilla life. Regrettably, the person with the least standard of living is Nita. Nita
lives a tedious life and gets meagre amounts of everything. She does back-breaking work to
make ends meet. Nita’s life is inferior compared to the lives of Kelly and Abdul. Not
everyone in their countries live like them. A person who has a low standard of living is
believed to be extremely poor.
For example, in Somalia, many families are much better off than Nita’s, and many even much
poorer. Even in the poorest countries, there are rich people. But predominantly, people have a
much higher standard of living in some countries than others. In a developed country, almost
everyone has enough food, and enough money to survive in. There are over 190 countries in
the world. Each state is at a different pace of development. These are all examples of
inequality, in terms of world development and poverty.
There are two types of poverty. These two types are determined by something called the
‘poverty line’. Poverty line is found out of an average from the salary of some groups of
people. Poverty line is $1.90. Those who live below the poverty line are believed to be
extremely poor. It means that they have no enough money to spend for one meal a day.
We have to figure out the reason to why there are development gaps between countries.
International development is strongly interrelated with poverty. As such, we have to know the
causes of poverty, so that we can relate to see how these causes contribute to development.
Poverty can develop due to historical reasons. Many centuries ago, poorer countries were
colonies of richer countries. A research done by The Imperial Business School in UK shows
that about 65% of the poor countries today were once colonies of empires. Some prominent
and well – known economists, such as James A. Robinson and Daron Acemoglu, believe that
colonialism is one topic that is the cause of poverty and development gap.
Another reason is the lack of education. Education acts as an equalizer because it can open
the door to jobs that can provide the necessary skills and earnings to not only survive, but
thrive. However, most of the children in poor countries do not have education. There are a lot
of obstacles and negative opinions about sending children to school. They can’t afford to
send their children to school and would want their children to help the breadwinners of their
family. This eventually has become the arbitrary tradition among the families in poorer
countries. But there are still successful students in poor countries. But the problem is that
there aren’t enough trained teachers, for one thing.
Conflict and corruption is also another reason. A country has a better chance of developing if
it is at peace, with a stable, wise government and strong and fair legal system. But, sadly,
many poor countries do not have stable and fair governments. Most of them are involved in
conflicts and wars. Leaders are involved in corruption and steal money that should be spent
on the poor. Wars also contribute to a major destruction the lives of the people as well as the
economy of the country.
Development is about improvement in people’s lives – the changing process to get better in
future. It is not just getting more wealthy or richer by owning more money. More aspects are
there. We can classify or decide how developed a country is based on some characteristics.
In a highly developed country, almost everybody has access to clean and safe water and
electricity. It is compulsory for young people to have education until the age of 17 or 18. All
teenagers leave secondary school and often pursue their tertiary education. Furthermore, there
are good and innovative transport links (for example: speed trains, electronic buses etc.).
Transportation these days are being juxtaposed with the primitive transportation in the poorer
countries. Moreover, shops sell a wide and a variety of goods from all around the world. In
addition, there’s a wide range of other services and entertainments such as pubs, gyms,
cinemas, There is little or no racial or gender discrimination. Everybody is treated fairly and
equally, and everybody has a fluke to earn a living. In developed countries, people will get
aid from the government in form of insurance during accidents that have caused damage to
someone physically. One distinctive difference is that the percentage who are working in the
primary sector, or I dare say farming, is very minimal. So in highly developed country, it is
less likely for poverty to be found.
However, in a poorly developed country, little or nothing of these characteristics can be
found. Many people have no access to clean safe water, or electricity. People have to travel
miles away to find water in a source such as river or a lake. Some or most children go to
school for only 1 to 2 years, or sometimes never go to school at all. You get little or no help
from the government. So in poorly developed country, it is most likely for poverty to be
found
The biggest challenge today is to put an end to poverty. Even people who are indulged in
economic science struggle and fail to put an end to poverty. So what can be done to end
poverty permanently? Firstly, poorer countries can help themselves. The poorest countries of
the world are classified as HIPC’s (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) and are receiving
financial assistance from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. However,
this has never been a permanent solution for the poorer countries to pay off their debts. So if
a poor country has breath-taking tourist attractions, they could develop tourism. They can
take up whatever is lucrative for the economy of the country. They could root out corruption
by creating protests. They could ask justice and use the money to build schools and
educational institutions to support education.
Richer countries could help them in form of trade and aid. They could give aid in forms of
loans and grants. Trade means we should buy the goods produced by the poorer countries and
pay them fair prices. In my opinion, I feel that aid can even help more than trade because I
feel that trade can sometimes be not ‘fair trade’ and aid can help the government to be
financially strong and independent in order to develop its economic sectors.
We help development a little, when we give money to reliable charitable organizations and
trusts (NGOs). They may use it for small local projects in poorer countries. Rich
multinational corporations may also help NGOs financially. Governments can give small
loans to help poor people set up their businesses. It is called micro financing.
In conclusion, I feel that poverty and international development should be kept stable
economically all around the world. I feel that poverty is a very saddening topic and I feel that
these people do not deserve to live a tedious and their hopes just becoming lost dreams.
Poverty has to be washed away from the world, as every human has the rights to live equally,
just like other people. Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Pavansakthi