Do you think it is possible to end
extreme poverty in the next 30 years? If so how?
Winning Essay
A Rationally Irrational Hope
By Jay Jackson (Texas)
I was once a rational optimist, at least that’s what
I call it. The condition climaxed around 3:00 pm on June 25th, 2008. I was
boarding a plane bound for Swaziland armed with my copy of Jeffrey Sachs’, “The
End of Poverty”, a leather journal full of western development jargon, and a
vision of how my grand knowledge would aid in the final rescue of the poor. Some
things change, not completely, but they do change. Now I would call myself an
irrational optimist. Returning from Swaziland on July 22nd, 2010, dragging my
crushed pride and the tattered remnants of development theories, I still had
hope, but it was not hope in what we could do for the poor, it was hope in the
strength of the poor. Can we, the “developed world”, end extreme poverty in the
next 30 years? Not a chance. Could extreme poverty end in the next 30 years?
With a hope in the incalculable strength of the destitute, yes I believe it
could.
With the recent phenomenon of globalization the
question of ending poverty morphed into how we can achieve success. If we cancel
debts, build economies, cure diseases, educate the children, stop the wars and
end corruption, it can be done. Scholars establish ingenious plans that are
beautiful on paper, inflaming our imaginations at the possible depth and breadth
of their...
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winning essay ]
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