Essay Topic:

The problem of hunger within the ”low-income” nations.

Essay Questions:

How has the crisis influenced the life of the “low-income” nations?

Do representatives of the First World countries know what hunger is?

What does have the dependency theory deal with the world hunger?

Thesis Statement:

No matter how wealthy is the First World the problem of hunger and death in “underdeveloped” countries is not to be forgotten.

World Hunger Essay

 

Introduction.”Another year of poor agricultural production has left… in urgent need of food aid” - this is one of those titles that are ordinarily seen in the last updates on the situation in “developing” countries. The crisis, which these countries find themselves in, seems to be never-ending and only aggregating from year to year with rare improvements. No wonder that so many people nowadays live beyond the borderline to poverty and do not have basic needs in order to survive. Global stratification has put these counties in the lowest division and has called them “Third World countries” or if to speak in financial terms “low-income nations”. Second World nations are nations with moderate development patterns. The major condition in order to belong to the First World is wealth. This hierarchy is inevitable as it reflects the nature of relations between the nations of the world. According the UN data - 1 billion people suffer from starvation. That is a great number of people as it is 1\6 of the population of the planet. So, no matter how wealthy is the First World the problem of hunger and death in “underdeveloped” countries is not to be forgotten. Different theories-interpretations of the global stratification in their context offer suggestions of these “poor” nations.

Modernization Theory vs. Dependency Theory

The modernization theory is one of the points of view on the way the global stratification works. According to this theory the process of development of “weak” counties occurs throughout the help they get from the First World. It emphasizes the beneficial influence of economically developed countries over underdeveloped nations. Within this theory advanced nations provide different help but primarily technological aid to those countries that need it and therefore provide a stimuli for their further development. Dependency theory is an opposition to the above-mentioned theory. It claims that the First World simply exploits the countries of the Second and the Third worlds. That it takes advantage of its uneducated population, cheap labor-force and inexpensive raw materials. According to this theory that kind of dependency prevents the countries from their potential development as the counties are almost completely controlled by the “powerful” nations technologically, economically and even politically. Elimination of starvation is not a synonymy of global stratification elimination. The utopia of “equality” remains a utopia, until the Third World countries start understanding the advantages they can get from the external aid. And the first step to the elimination of starvation is starting educating the populations of these “nations”. As the economic giants build their enterprises, Second World countries need to start offering corresponding specialists. 70% of the starving population consists of women and children. The Second and Third World countries need to copy the patterns from their “powerful” friends. The welfare programs would allow women to prevent their children from early labor and children would start schooling and therefore becoming valuable professionals. The contemporary economic world requires changes and people and nations that are not eager to take the advantages that other countries offer in order to become “attractive” for financial inputs are doomed. Another important factor is the necessity to maintain the fertility on the same level, which means – sexual education for the populations of these counties.

Conclusion. Of course the word ”dependency” produces the discontent of various nations. Nevertheless, the modernization approach also offers dependency, as its core is an external stimulus, too. Any help may b interpreted as dependency because without it no changes would have been done. But is it really so? The modernizations of the dependency theories are “two sides of the same coin”[]. The nations that are not so advanced as the First World countries need to realize that simple technological help is not sufficient in order to maintain the development of the country on a proper level. Such fields as education and politics need to prosper, too. And if they can be developed in exchange for using these counties as a supplier of raw materials then why not? The prevention of World Hunger can be set through “mutual dependency” that can be accumulated from both of the theories. Rich nations need poor nations to prosper as much as poor nations need rich nations in order to develop. The main conclusion for the countries that can be made on the basis of both of the theories is the necessity of the ability to state what the country wants in exchange for what they take. This is a clearly tactical step that the government should follow.

Bibliography:

o Overcoming World Hunger: The Challenge Ahead /Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office/ 1980.

o Peter Singer, "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" /New York Times/ 1999.