[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Teach a man to fish

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/630038.html

            Wed., September 28, 2005 Elul 24, 5765|  |Israel Time:  01:44 
(EST+7)  
     
     
     
     

      Teach a man to fish 
     
      By Idit Weiss

     
     
      The approach of the High Holidays witnesses a huge surge in food 
collection campaigns, boosted by the media. Huge notices in the newspapers 
announce that one Israeli child in three lives in poverty, as an introduction 
to food collection campaigns organized by non-profit associations, commercial 
companies and the media itself. That figure is correct. The Poverty Report 
indeed determined that in 2004, one-third of Israeli children come from poor 
families, and that the problem of poverty has spread and worsened in the past 
year.

      What is most outrageous about the notices, however, is the erroneous 
assumption that a donations campaign can solve or reduce the poverty problem. 
Not only do these campaigns not solve poverty, they are liable to hamper an 
effective plan to reduce it. Reliance on the tradition of relief aid and 
charity, instead of a concerted effort by the government, may only exacerbate 
the poverty problem.

      These campaigns do not provide a family with a secure and regular source 
of income, nor do they reduce the costs of health care and education. They can 
also create a feeling among the public that relief aid and charity are the 
effective ways for coping with poverty, and only if we are merciful enough and 
give money through these campaigns (and not via taxes) will poverty be solved. 
These campaigns are also liable to detract from the understanding that the main 
responsibility for solving this problem lies with the government.


     
     
      The truth must be spoken. Poverty cannot be solved by charity, and many 
children will continue to live in poverty long after these campaigns are over. 
The deepening of this poverty and its worsening among children in Israel is 
due, first and foremost, to the continuing policy of the erosion of the welfare 
state: the slashing of child allowances, the erosion of stipends to families 
who work for low wages or families in which the breadwinner cannot find a job; 
the lack of enforcement of the minimum wage law; and the continuing 
privatization of the health care and education systems.

      The public must be informed that poverty can be solved, it is not a 
"decree from heaven" that requires acts of kindness. Many governments around 
the world are succeeding, via long-term policies, to reduce the dimensions of 
poverty. There is a broad range of effective strategies for reducing poverty, 
both in the long and short term, that the government could adopt. These 
strategies include:

      Transfer payments: The government should cancel the massive slashing of 
child allowances; increase guaranteed income stipends in order to ensure that 
people can live in dignity; prevent further restrictions in the unemployment 
insurance law; and ease some of the conditions for eligibility for unemployment 
benefits.

      Fiscal welfare: tax credits for workers, and for parents in particular. 
The government should require dignified employment terms for workers: social 
benefits and a feeling of security and continuity.

      Arrangements that would lead to a reduction in discrimination against 
Arab workers in the job market.

      Investments in education. Studies show that education open to all - 
including the relevant professional training for integration into the work 
force, education whose quality is not dependent on the parents' income, that 
offers a real opportunity for learning to all sectors of the public - leads to 
a significant reduction in poverty.

      With the approach of the High Holidays, it would be better for the public 
to channel its energies and emotions not only toward charity and kindness, but 
all the more so toward stern demands on the government to take proven measures 
to dispel poverty. Succor and charity are welcome traditions as long as they 
occupy a marginal (and usually unassuming) place in society; as long as there 
is no reliance on them as a main means for coping with poverty.


      The writer is a senior lecturer at the Bob Shapell School of Social Work, 
Tel Aviv University.
     


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