Things Are Good

SM Raju has found a way to plant nearly one billion saplings in only one day: by hiring people who are below the poverty line in India to plant and then to protect trees. The plan is to pay people who would otherwise be unemployed to plant and grow trees as a family. Each year [...]

Today is Blog Action Day 2008 and this year the topic is poverty. Over 10,000 sites are participating to discuss poverty, and yes this site is one of them.
here’s some good news on poverty from Asia:
Asean countries have made strong progress in reducing extreme poverty and hunger in the region, said Minister of State [...]

city, green
Cities that go green not only help the environment, but they also help alleviate poverty. By investing in green programs they put money into an industry that is growing and needs labour. As a result, many environmentalists (myself included) are arguing for programs that go beyond hybrid cars and switching light bulbs to programs [...]

Over at the BBC’s Green Room, there is a recent article by Menghestab Haile in which he argues that the best thing people can do for one another is essentially change the way we live. Climate change is destroying the way many poor people survive and the best gift we can give them is to [...]

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has launched programs that subsidize things that poor people need using oil sales from the oil generated in Venezuela. Chavez wants to use the oil wealth for positive social change that will help the country develop. People living in poor parts of Venezuela seem to agree with Chavez. The above [...]

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is calling for a better approach to fight poverty in Britain. Current government programs are not reaching “deeply excluded” families and that needs to change in order for the government to make a much bigger impact.
“He said a small percentage of every generation were “stuck in a lifetime of disadvantage”. [...]