Author: Kevin Meyers

NAIROBI, Kenya — Earlier this month, Kenya’s auditor, General Edward Ouko, released an audit of the government’s accounts from the 2013-2014 budget. Only 1.2 percent of the country’s $10 billion budget had been correctly accounted for. More than $600 million couldn’t be accounted for — most likely pocketed by corrupt government officials. Ouko’s report caused massive outcry and showed how rampant corruption is in the Kenyan government. This is a troubling issue for a number of reasons. More than 42 percent of the country lives below the poverty line. According to UNICEF, basic infrastructures, such as water sanitation, emergency services…

SEATTLE — The likelihood of being killed by a lightning strike may have less to do with chance and more to do with socioeconomic status. The connection between the two is seemingly coincidental, but the numbers reveal there is in fact a link between the two. Earth’s poorest countries in Africa and Asia have the highest lightning mortality rates. For example, Malawi, a landlocked country directly north of South Africa, loses more than 1,300 of its citizens to lighting strikes annually. In 2014 alone, India lost 2,500 to lightning. In stark contrast, the United States averages 49 lightning deaths per…

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wisconsin — Search engine giant Google is ramping up investments in renewable energy developments. This is not surprising, as Google was one of the giant thirteen companies that recently signed on to President Obama’s Act on Climate Initiative earlier this summer. Google pledged to get all of its power from renewables and decrease water use at its office locations. However, Google’s bigger impact will be financing the renewable energy sector. According to Google’s website, the company has invested $2 billion in renewable energy companies or projects since 2008. Much of this investment has been domestic. According to Google’s…

MADISON, Wisconsin — Last year, the World Bank published a comprehensive report examining why poor countries remain poor. Poverty traps, a theory coined by economists in the late 1950s, asserts that poverty begets poverty and becomes a self-perpetuating cycle. In theory, the poverty trap idea makes sense. Today, roughly 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty. When one out of seven people live below $1.25 a day, it portrays a situation that will not improve without external help. However, when the statistics in the World Bank’s report are further analyzed, the theory makes less sense. Most countries grew, economically speaking, from…

NEW DELHI — A woman in India is raped or assaulted every 20 minutes. A third of these cases involve women under 18 years old. One in 10 involve a girl 10 years old or younger. These statistics are derived from reported cases. The majority of cases, especially among the poorest women in rural areas, go unreported. As reported by Huffington Post, the police agencies in India are incapable of handling these types of crimes. Most police forces are understaffed, underpaid or corrupt. Many women don’t report rape or assault because they believe nothing will be done about it. Due…

NEW DELHI – For the past few years, India has been implementing a cash transfer program in an attempt to combat poverty. Under the acronym JAM, this multifaceted program is putting money directly into the hands of families who need it the most. JAM comprises of India’s flagship financial program Jan Dhan, the registry service Aadhaar and the implementation of widespread cell phone use to the general population. In its short existence, the three-pronged campaign has opened more than 100 million bank accounts for the poorest, 1 billion have registered for biometrically authenticated identification cards and more than half the…

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania — In February, the World Bank released a report tying climate change to poverty. Although climate change will impact everyone, these impacts will be unequally distributed. The poorest, who have contributed the least to it, will take the brunt of the adverse impacts because they do not have the resources to adapt and mitigate their livelihoods. The report concluded that ending global poverty would be “infeasible” if there are not substantial energy policy reforms by every major polluting country. These reforms are needed for the continued viability of earth being a suitable home for the human species. However,…

BEIJING — In March, Beijing city officials announced they are closing the remaining four coal-fired power plants and are replacing them with cleaner burning natural gas and renewable sources. This is an attempt to clear skies that are choked with smog. Beyond the less than ideal aesthetic conditions, the smog is causing substantial health risks to the citizens of Beijing. Deaths from respiratory illnesses have jumped an astounding 465 percent over the past 30 years. This trend coincides with China’s breakneck economic growth during that time period, which has been fueled primarily by the burning of coal. Air pollution isn’t…

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan is usually an afterthought in the global poverty discussion. Life expectancy is sixty-seven years. Ninety-two percent of the youth are enrolled in school and after years of military rule, the country has a democratic system. However, over twenty-two percent of Pakistan’s 185 million civilians live in some sort of poverty. To combat this, the Pakistani government instituted the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) in 2008. BISP is a cash transfer program for low-income families and approximately 27 million households in Pakistan are enrolled in the program. BISP has had great success by cushioning low-income Pakistani civilians from…

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – For the past two weeks Karachi, Pakistan has endured a tormenting heat wave. Temperatures have soared as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit, as schools and other businesses had to closed. Official reports now have the death toll over 2,000 with no relief until the monsoon rains, which may not come until the end of the month. In May, the southern Indian provinces of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana endured a similar heat wave. Over 2,500 people died. Officially, it is the fifth deadliest heat wave in history. Temperatures climbed to 116 degrees Fahrenheit — so hot that the pavement…