Causes of poverty and what to do about them.

1. Poverty

"Money is not the key that opens the gates of the market but the bolt that
bars them. Gesell, Silvio, The Natural Economic Order, revised English edition, Peter Owen, London 1958, page 228

Poverty is created scarcity. Wahu Kaara, point 8 of the Global Call to

Action Against Poverty, 58th annual NGO Conference, United Nations, New York 7th September 2005.

The subjective definition of poverty used by the authors of this Model is: Poverty is a state in which one's perceived quality of life is lower than is felt to be needed for survival and reproduction, or than is desired.

2. Some factors related to poverty

Monetisation and the economy. Where is the value-added in a can of peas? Efficiency and length of the production chain. Inefficiency of marketing, packaging and transport. Role of money: catalyst. No catalyst, no transaction. Financial leakage.

The most important single cause of poverty is on-going financial leakage from poor areas to richer ones.

3. Financial leakage : interest and subisdy

We live in a society based on debt where most new money is created by private bankers against interest. In 2001, farmers in industrialised countries received agricultural subsidies for US$ 350 billion. This is more than three times the total amount of aid for development (including debt relief) paid by all the OECD donor countries together in 2006 (US$ 103,9 billion).

The interest factor built into prices Final user borrowing. What happens to the interest? Migration of payment for the bona-fide content of a transaction. Migration of the interest content of a transaction. Migration of local savings. Lack of means to transfer goods. Interest built into the cost of necessary imported goods and services. The principle of divide and rule Monopolistic control; monoculture. Subsidy to offset the parasitic interest costs created. Interest is paid by the individual buyer, subsidies by taxpayers in general. The subsidy game. The power of multinational companies. Remittances by emigrants.

4. Financial leakage : the food and water industries

Producers lose control over their products

Food dependence. Imposed production standards Conservation of food. Freezing and packaging. Monoculture and imported food supplies. Water dependence.

5. Financial leakage : energy

Local energy production for local use

Solar energy : the world runs on it. (Amish) Transformation of energy into a commercial

product. Energy, an important cause of financial leakage. Fertilisers Fuel for cooking. Energy as a means for sustainable production. Sustainable energy sources. New products (Kyoto) excluding the poor.

6. Financial leakage : communications

An important source of financial leakage

The new untouchables

Centrally owned, large investments. Consumer and professional use. Telephone costs. Internet and its costs. Sale of knowledge (patents) Smoke signals, drums, and radiotelephones. Radio

7. Financial leakage : health and education

The holy cows of development

Health Better health. Health and local development. Role of pharmaceuticals multinationals

Education The costs of education. Education and local development. The brain drain. (Professionals get jobs abroad)

8. Financial leakage : theft of natural resources

The pattern of international theft of natural resources taking place in front of our eyes is constant the whole world over. Never has the world witnessed economic crimes of such proportions. Never before have colonialist principles been so parasitically and greedily exploited as they are today. Never before have so many people closed their eyes to it.

Finite natural capital, mostly represented by mineral deposits, is of national interest. Local populations have right to a fair part of the income from the sale of the mineral deposits. Local populations have all rights to income from renewable natural capital.

Articles 119-126 of the Constitution of Venezuela, 1999, on the rights of indigenous peoples.

9. Financial leakage : corruption, export of funds, tax havens

If proceeds from corruption were invested locally, they would probably lead to unequal distribution of wealth in a given area, but not necessarily to financial leakage from the area. Theyre not.

Foreign accounts in industrialised countries. Expenditure on luxury items situated in foreign countries. Importation of luxury items into the project area. Banks and their investments.

10. Financial leakage : foreign aid

Lords of poverty (Graham Hancock)

Even money spent on good things reduces the amount of funds available for integrated development for the poor.

A new industry, often with profits. Foreign aid, a wide definition. Where the money goes. Experts, experts everywhere. Vaccination campaigns. Help, food

11. Basics for a good quality of life

Poverty is a state in which one's perceived quality of life is lower than is felt to be needed for survival and reproduction, or than is desired.

The following list is not intended to be complete. It describes what must be provided within the framework of an integrated development project
Task of state, military, and police. Physical safety Tasks of an integrated development project. Adequate shelter (drained, absence of smoke) Clean drinking water (25 litres/day always) Food, enough and varied. Health and sanitation. Education for all. Work for all. Social security system for the weakest.

12. Physical safety

State protection Concepts of value Cooperative, notional,

social, cultural assets Whats worth stealing? Insurance aspects

13. Shelter
Package for improving housing conditions is built into the various services provided.

Hygiene education Water supply (three sources) Sanitation Drainage Waste collection and recycling Cooking stoves and biomass for them Aeration, elimination of smoke Cooperative purchasing groups

14. Water
Water shortage and quality How much water do we really need? Control water quantity by avoiding wastage
and recycling grey water. Keep drinking water clean. Back-up where solar pumps do not work. (Fair) distribution of drinking water. Fetching water. Rainwater harvesting. Maintenance of structures. Irrigation (usually excluded). Hot water (cooperative purchasing groups)

15. Typical well-borehole

16. Typical water point

17. Food security

Enough food, with varied diet. Local consumption first for local needs. Household cultivation for variety. Vertical gardens. Eliminate mono-cultures. Product storage facilities for local use. Fertilisers for gardens (eco-sanitation). Water for gardens (recycling). Use of local seeds. Seed banks and nurseries.

18. Health and sanitation.

Health causes and cures. Hygiene education for women and in schools Varied and sufficient food supply. Clean and sufficient water supply. Sustainable dry composting toilet systems. Complete recycling system. Drainage. Insect control. Proper aeration of homes. Elimination of smoke. Sport. AIDS. Hygiene education, comfort, but not cure.

19. Complete waste recycling system

20. Dry composting toilet

21. Education for all

What the project can do and what it cannot. Use of local money systems. Who builds the schools? Where do the teachers come from? Who pays for what? Tank level primary schools (up to 200-250) Well level secondary schools (up to 35-45) Trades and crafts school. Propedeuse and higher education. Girls and boys. Meeting the millennium development goals. Women and evening classes. Study rooms.

22. Work for all

Direct work for about 4000 adults, being:. 200 health club leaders; 1000 tank commission members; 200 well commission members; 10 members of the central management group; 100 people involved with the registration of local money transactions; 200 local money transaction assistants; 200 people responsible for local recycling activities at tank commission level; 100 people responsible for recycling at well commission level; 200 guards for structures at well-commission level; 400 farmers growing bio-mass for mini-briquettes; 100 mini-briquettes manufacturers; 100 manufacturers of items made from gypsum composites, such as tanks, stoves, sanitary ware; 50 installation technicians; 20 maintenance technicians; 10 people responsible for water quality control.

Indirect work for everyone else for initiatives under: The local money system The interest-free, cost-free micro-credit system

The project does not attempt to foresee possible activities under the structures created. They are as varied as the minds and the iniatative of the people in the project area.

23. Social security system

Three level social security system : Local money system Formal money system

Three levels:
Tank commission level Well commission level Project level

Who decides? Who pays?