Poverty

The word “Poverty” is defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary in two senses: (1) the state of being poor and (2) a lack of something; poor quality. According to this definition, poverty is a lack of food, accommodation, education, powerlessness and insufficient for health care and the like. These consequences are caused by various types of reasons just as government policy, unemployment, lower wages, inflation, gambling, war and some natural disasters.This essay will fundamentally discuss on the causes and effects of poverty by taking some relevant examples.

Myanmar, for example, ranks (135) out of (179) countries in the world for quality of life. A half population of 55 million people is still in poverty line. Owing to the corrupted military government system ruling the country for almost four decades, the vast majority of people nationwide are ever facing with huge problems such as low income, unemployment alike. Many children from poor families living in suburb as well as urban areas cannot go to school.

Gambling is another big problem leading to several households deficient in living costs. Both men and women risk huge amount of money on the diversity of lottery dominating across the nation. As a result, many households become poorer and poorer. Some people lose even their residences encountering the lack of shelter.

Hunger is, although there is rarely seen and heard of such events like the death from starvation and famine owing to the abundance of the natural resources in the country, still a problem demanding for a better solution. In some part of the country, in Kayin state, for example, many households are hunger-stricken due to the civil war. They have to shift from place to another to avoid the war between the ethnic minority insurgents and the government army. In consequence, a number of families become homeless and stricken by the hunger.

Another inevitable cause of poverty is the natural disaster. Even though Myanmar is not a country often hit by disastrous storms, the lower part of it, the Irrawaddy delta was deadly devastated by the Cyclone Nargis, in March 2008, which resulted in over 100,000 deaths and left over two million people homeless, hopeless and hungry.

Moreover, the disaster caused thousands of children parentless and loss of their future. Besides, though some people did not die at the spot during the disaster there, due to the shortage of drinking water and deficiency of nutritious food, some health conditions like dehydration and diarrhoea broke out in the region and there was no an appropriate treatment for them. The consequence was most of them helplessly died leaving the rest family members in destitution.

The poverty in Myanmar, to sum up, though it is the result brought about by diverse causes in other different parts of the planet, has principally been the effects of the mentioned causes. However, except the unavoidable natural disasters, the other causes of this miserable condition might be more or less changed if the current ruling government system could be demolished.