One in four children at risk of poverty in Europe

More than one in four children in Europe are at risk of poverty and social exclusion, which will have repercussions for them throughout life.

Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children should be guaranteed the right to education, health care services, housing, leisure and a balanced diet. Yet in Europe things look rather different. According to Eurostat, about 26 million children (anyone under 18) were at risk of poverty and social exclusion in 2014. This represents 27.7% of all children in the EU. Children living in poverty can be found in every EU country, even if percentages vary. Children are at greatest risk of poverty in Romania (51%), Bulgaria (45.2%) and Hungary (41.4%), whereas the percentage is much lower in countries such as Denmark (14.5%), Finland (15.6%), Sweden (16.7%). UK and Ireland are doing worse than the EU average of 27.7% with 31.3% and 33.9% (figure for 2013) respectively.

The problem of malnutrition among children is also growing in Europe. According to Unicef, the percentage of children who cannot afford to eat meat or fish every second day has doubled in Estonia, Greece and Italy since 2008.

More at the European Parliament

Who are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

After the greatest financial heist in history, the modern day 'Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse' continue to ride roughshod over the people whom can least afford it. One - a rapacious financial system, Two - escalating organized violence, Three - abject poverty for billions and Four - exhaustion of the earth's resources, gallop unchallenged because we are not encouraged to question the accepted norms.

UN: Food Challenge At Worst Level Since World War II

The World Food Program is confronting its worst challenge since World War II in trying to tackle five top-level humanitarian crises at the same time, the head of the U.N. agency said Friday. Ertharin Cousin said in an interview with The Associated Press that the five crises — in Syria, Iraq, Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the Ebola epidemic in West Africa — currently require large-scale operations by WFP and other humanitarian agencies.

In addition, she said, WFP is doing preparatory work for a potential scale-up in food assistance to four other countries where there is growing political instability — Yemen, Nigeria, Ukraine and Libya. Cousin said the demands are overwhelming the donor community and as a result WFP had to cut food assistance to six million Syrians inside and outside the country by 30 percent in January. "We have more crises that require surge operations of the humanitarian community, and WFP specifically, since World War II," she said.

AP

3.5 billion people living in poverty is 'fantastic news'

No Child Born To Die

In the poorest countries, children are dying, at a rate too awful to think about. Basic illnesses claim 8 million young lives a year. It's in our power to stop this. No child is born to die.

savethechildrenuk

The 7th Richest Man in America Has Screwed the Poor

Earlier this month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg perfectly described a day in the life of your average homeless New Yorker. “You can arrive in your private jet at Kennedy Airport, take a private limousine and go straight to the shelter system and walk in the door and we've got to give you shelter,"  he said on his radio show, addressing the record rate of homelessness in the city. 

50,000 people, including 21,000 children, are currently crowded into the city's emergency shelters, a 61 percent rise from when the Mayor took office,  according to the Coalition for the Homeless. 

Last month, the Mayor had  assured reporters that "Nobody's sleeping on the streets," a claim easily refuted by a look at the city's homelessness statistics and/or going outside in New York. As it turns out, the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) had recently suspended a program making it easier for homeless families to get into shelters when the temperature dips below freezing. The DHS did not share this information widely; it came to light after a  New York Daily News report highlighted the case of 23 year-old Junior Clarke, who told the News that he, his wife, and 4 year-old daughter were turned away from the city's intake center on a freezing day. When they refused to leave, staff threatened to call the police. 

“They tried to make us leave and we refused,” Clarke  told the Daily News. “You know some people leave, walk away and go sleep on the train with their families.” 

As the 7th richest man in America finishes his final term in office, he leaves behind one of the biggest wealth gaps in the country:  income inequality in Manhattan is the second worst in the US, according to  the New York Times. New York's poverty rate has risen to the highest level in a decade, the Times also noted. 1 in 3 New York kids live below the  poverty line. In parts of the Bronx, two thirds of residents live  in areas of extreme poverty. 

See Alternet for full article

Stealing Africa

Rüschlikon is a village in Switzerland with a very low tax rate and very wealthy residents. But it receives more tax revenue than it can use. This is largely thanks to one resident - Ivan Glasenberg, CEO of Glencore, whose copper mines in Zambia are not generating a large bounty tax revenue for the Zambians. Zambia has the 3rd largest copper reserves in the world, but 60% of the population live on less than $1 a day and 80% are unemployed. Based on original research into public documents, the film describes the tax system employed by multinational companies in Africa.

Why Poverty

Mother Teresa: Hell's Angel

In 1994, three years before her death, journalist Christopher Hitchens made this documentary asking if Mother Teresa 's reputation was deserved.

Man trampled as hundreds of desperate Greeks scuffle for food

A fruit and vegetable handout in Greece led to one man being trampled on Wednesday, calling attention to the desperate conditions in the crisis-hit country. Some 55 tons of produce was given away by farmers who were protesting high production costs.

The person was injured when he was pushed by a crowd trying to grab the goods and fell and hit his head. The chaos was sparked when food stalls ran out of fruits and vegetables, prompting dozens of people to rush to a nearby truck. It was an “every man for himself” situation as the Greeks shoved their way to the front of the truck, competing for the food that was left. The 55 tons of food was completely gone in under two hours.

More on RT

Climate migrants cause baby boom in Bangladesh's urban slums

Climate and economic migrants to Bangladesh’s urban slums are contributing to a population boom that is creating social strains in this tiny and impoverished country of 160 million people.

Bangladesh is suffering increasingly frequent flooding from cyclones and from heavy rainfall that experts believe is associated with climate change. Its coastal plains are particularly at risk, but many who live in the country’s interior are also vulnerable to river bank erosion – or conversely to drought.

When flooding and erosion displace families, and in many cases leave them landless and penniless, they often take refuge in urban areas, and have little option but to live in slums. There, lack of education about family planning, poor access to birth control and worries about financial security combine to result in large families.

“These unlucky people feel that in old age they will have to depend on children to secure a living. So, they prefer to take more number of children to be sure that at least one of them will take care of the parents,” said Ainun Nishat, an environmentalist and vice chancellor of Brac University.

AlertNet

Extreme Poverty In The U.S.A. Is Now At Record Levels

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty than they have ever measured before. 

In 2010, we were told that the economy was recovering, but the truth is that the number of the "very poor" soared to heights never seen previously.  Back in 1993 and back in 2009, the rate of extreme poverty was just over 6 percent, and that represented the worst numbers on record.  But in 2010, the rate of extreme poverty hit a whopping 6.7 percent.  That means that one out of every 15 Americans is now considered to be "very poor".

19 Statistics About The Poor That Will Absolutely Astound You on The Economic Collapse Blog

Poverty areas on U.S. Census Bureau

Fuel Poverty Causes 2,700 Deaths Each Year In England

"Fuel Poverty" caused by rising energy prices could lead to thousands of deaths in England this winter, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Energy prices are already under close scrutiny, after figures released by Ofgem, the regulator, showed that the profits per customer made by the six largest energy companies in the country had increased by more than 700 per cent since June. The prime minister held a summit with providers and consumer groups on Monday.

Under current definitions, a household suffers from fuel poverty if it spends more than 10 per cent of its income on heating.

huffingtonpost.co.uk – More on The Poverty Site

Ordinary Greeks turning to NGOs as health system hit by austerity

It is unheard of for aid groups such as Medecins Sans Frontieres or Medicins du Monde to have to take over the role of providing basic medical services from normal state or private providers in a Western country.

But in the era of ever-tightening EU-IMF austerity, that is what is happening in Greece now, as the unemployed and HIV patients begin to turn up at temporary clinics that had been intended to come to the aid of migrants and refugees.

According to Apostolos Veizis, the head of programmes for MSF Greece, this is the new reality that the country is waking up to.

EUobserver.com

US Poverty Level Reaches Record High

Nearly one in six Americans are living in poverty. That is the result of the US Census Bureau's annual report.

The number of Americans living below the poverty line has now risen for four years in a row. The figures showed that children under the age of 18 suffered the highest poverty rate at 22 per cent.... euronews

London neighbourhoods terrorized by police raids

One month after major disturbances were provoked by the August 4 police killing of Mark Duggan in north London, the Metropolitan Police in the capital are intensifying raids on working class communities.

Entire neighbourhoods have been sealed off, with riot police smashing down doors and dragging people away. So far this has resulted in over 2,000 arrests in London alone, averaging approximately 100 a day since the riots began. The media, tipped off in advance, has filmed the build-up, the actual raids and the spectacle of youth being thrown into police vans.

A police source told the Sunday Times that the police are hunting 30,000 people they say were involved in the disturbances. Nationally, 40,000 hours of CCTV footage will be examined and senior police officers are expecting the investigation to last for years.

On August 22, the Metropolitan Police issued a report claiming 3,296 crimes recorded in London. A police source said the “Met is keen to find out who all these people are.”

The Metropolitan Police, backed by the entire political establishment, have been on the rampage since the riots began. On August 11, fifty officers raided the Churchill Gardens Estate in Pimlico, Westminster. The Daily Telegraph published film footage of the raid, baying that “England's smash-and-grabbers got a dose of their own medicine today.”

More on WSWS – Also see CTV

Orlando Mayor Orders Police to Arrest Activist for Sharing Food with the Homeless

On June 8th, 2011, five volunteers with the american organization "Food Not Bombs" were arrested for the horrendous crime of sharing food with too many people within 2 miles of City Hall. As individuals, the police were professional and it was clear from their body language that they did not want to be there doing this. However, they do have proverbial mortgage to pay and on this day they did make the choice to be agents of tyranny. This brings the total number of arrest for the violent crime up to 12 within the first week of the law's enforcement.

OrlandoCopWatch

The End of Poverty

Global poverty did not just happen. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land, minerals and forced labor. Today, the problem persists because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies — in other words, wealthy countries taking advantage of poor, developing countries. Renowned actor and activist, Martin Sheen, narrates THE END OF POVERTY?, a feature-length documentary directed by award-winning director, Philippe Diaz, which explains how today's financial crisis is a direct consequence of these unchallenged policies that have lasted centuries.

Google to amend Rio maps over Brazil favela complaints

Google has agreed to amend its map of Rio de Janeiro, after city officials said it gave too much prominence to favelas, Brazilian media report. Favelas, sprawling shanty towns which are home to tens of thousands of people, are a defining feature of Rio.

But the Globo newspaper said their labelling on the map and the absence of wealthier districts and tourist sites gave a bad impression of the city. Google told Globo it would change the way the information was displayed.

When viewed in a large-scale format, the maps of Rio pinpoint several of Rio's more than 600 favelas, including some of the less well-known ones. The middle class neighbourhood of Cosme Velho - where tourists take the cable car up to the famous statue of Christ - is not labelled, but the smaller Favela da Villa Imaculate Conceicao is.

Sugar Loaf mountain is also not marked and in Humaita, the favela area is labelled in the same size text as the entire district.

BBC News – Google Maps