end of poverty

It's been a while I havent updated this site. I'm really demoralized on how the progress of my project is going. TOUGH road ahead but I'd have to hang on until this is up and running.

I happen to attend a very interesting talk given by Mr. Jeffrey Sachs. I was so excited because I have a copy of his book, "The End of Poverty," and I was able to have it signed. I felt so star struck having the chance to come up to a very renowed economist of the millenium. I just had my 30 second brief introduction to get my book signed.

He was visiting Shanghai to attend the talks of the Chinese and African government with an observer status how deals will materialize for loan grants to alleviate poverty in the African region.

There were a lot of things discussed. I learned a lot of new technical terms especially as regards the environmental issues daunting our generation. I learned words like carbon capture technology, carbon credit system, energy efficient automobiles using ethanol, etc. Some are too technical for me to remember. After being so immersed with the pet industry, this is really a breather.

He said a lot of these big banks are caught up with internal politics and prejudices regarding how to address complex issues in Africa. Africa receives little funding from the developed nations having all the excuses that Africa is corrupt and it's impossible to get them out of extreme poverty. I admire his optimism on the plight of the African nations. Indeed, he was very impressed how a country like China, not having entirely gotten the 'developed' status is already trying to extend help to Africa while the so-called rich nations are being very greedy and snobbish of the issues. As I've read his book, his propaganda may sound rubbish to us because as we see how terrible the situation is in Africa, we become discouraged to help them. But he mentions a lot of reasons why this will work. The politicians may be corrupt but the people have the pain and hunger to get themselves out of their situation. We've seen how seemingly impossible things happen in this world and I think Mr. Sachs will achieve what he put on as his agenda in this world. I wouldnt be surprised if he will be read in the history next time.

Here's my attempt to take a pix of him during the talk: