A Dream for a Better World

The New Year was coming. Two boys with ragged clothes were opening car door for rich people in cold winter. It seemed that they were incompatible with the bustling city. The scene didn’t occur in novels but in the real world of Chengdu. Since the end of the 20th century, the number of street boys has increased too much. Street boys can not only be found in India and China, which are two big countries with large population but also can be found in other countries, especially those undergoing great changes in economy and politics. From 1980s to the beginning of the 21st century, we can find more and more street boys who beg, work or do other hard work.
Why so many kids have become street children? Actually, they should stay at home and enjoy the love from their parents. But the destiny gives them another life. There are several causes which change lovely kids into poor street children. Firstly, they are from poor families. We can find that most street children are from poor families and they have to drop out and earn money to support family though they are very young. Secondly, family is an important and indispensable part for kids’ growth. Divorce and family violence impose bad effect on children’s growth. So some kids have to leave home because they can not bear unharmonious family. Thirdly, street children can not get care from the society. They are neglected, discriminated and even maltreated by other people. However, some people also give a little money to street children because of compassion. But such kind of benefaction will result more and more street children. Fourthly, social security is not perfect. Most street children are from rural or poor regions where social security is far enough. If the government can provide enough social security for poor families, there will be no street children. After all, street children do have human dignity in others’ mind. Fifthly, government should publish favorable policies to supply assistance to street children. As for Help Station, the government can not offer reasonable education which is quite necessary for children.
Street children can also cause some social problems. For example, they may set up organizations to steal or rob other people. Different organizations consisted of street children from different regions also fight for domains. In addition, street children are made use of selling drugs by drug traffickers. In order to live in the world, they have to do that to get a little money though they do not know what they do is illegal.
In order to reduce the number of street children, government ought to take the following pressures. First, government should develop economy rapidly. If a country becomes rich, perfect assistance can be offered to street children. Second, functional departments have to perform their duties. Some departments often ignore their duties and Help Station seems to exist in name only. Third, perfect social security system should be set up as soon as possible. Many kids become street children because they are poor. In addition, disabled kids need social security more.

Economic inequality is growing in the world’s richest countries, particularly in the United States. The gap between rich and poor has widened over the last 20 years in nearly all the countries studied.  The United States has the highest inequality and poverty rates in the organization after Mexico and Turkey, and the gap has increased rapidly since 2000.  France, meanwhile, has seen inequalities fall in the past 20 years as poorer workers are better paid.  Wealthy households are not only widening the gap with the poor, but in countries such as the United States, Canada and Germany, they are also leaving middle-income earners further behind.

Although the standard of living has risen all over the world, there are still many parts where people are living in abject poverty. The world hunger statistics point out to the fact that not everything is rosy with the world and still a lot needs to be done. Developed countries can take the initiative and contribute their might towards solving this problem. They can reach out to the poor countries and help them out of the food crisis that they are faced with. Every individual on their part should make it a point to not waste food. This would be in a way our humble contribution towards fighting world hunger.

Many people focus on South America, and Brazil in particular, as the major culprits of deforestation. But Africa is losing forest land just as quickly and mainly due to the desperation of the poverty stricken population. Coal is lighter, cheaper and easier to produce than other forms of fuel. 80% of fuel is still coal based in Africa, which leads to a huge amount of legal and illegal logging to supply the demand for fuel. And people will continue to log the forests until the find an alternative cheap fuel and income.

I remember seeing an expose on how a young girl would sell herself on the street for a small amount of money and for a few dollars more would do it without condom.  Risking her life for just a few dollars more.  Is poverty really affecting the judgement of people or are they not informed enough of the risks?

We need to stop this.