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| == '''[[2012 doomsday prophecy]]''' ==
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| '''2012''' doomsday predictions were irrational fears fueled by certain booksellers, fearmongers, moviemakers and other hucksters to encourage public panic for the purpose of making money. The hoax used dubious claims about [[astronomy]] and ancient Mayan calendars to promote nonsensical predictions regarding apocalyptic events supposed to occur on December 21st or 23rd of 2012. Doomsayers suggested there will be destruction caused by global floods, solar flares, exploding sun, reversals of the magnetic field, or planetary collisions.<ref name=twsMar14g>{{cite news
| | ==Footnotes== |
| |author= Maria Puente
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| |title= Oh, Maya! Is 2012 the end? Film boosts doomsday frenzy
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| |publisher= USA Today
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| |date= 2009-11-12
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| |url= http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-11-12-2012_CV_N.htm
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| |accessdate= 2010-03-14
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| }}</ref><ref name=twsMar14k>{{cite news
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| |title= Scared Of Planet Nibiru? NASA Would Like To Help
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| |publisher= NPR
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| |date= November 15, 2009
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| |url= http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120436493
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| |accessdate= 2010-03-14
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| }}</ref> Many people are scared.<ref name=twsMar14f>{{cite news
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| |author= Brian Handwerk
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| |title= 2012 Prophecies Sparking Real Fears, Suicide Warnings
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| |publisher= Huffington Post, National Geographic News
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| |date= 2009-11-10
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| |url= http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/2012-prophecies-sparking_n_352296.html
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| |accessdate= 2010-03-14
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| }}</ref><ref name=twsMar14m>{{cite news
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| |author= CHRISTINE BROUWER
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| |title= Will the World End in 2012?
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| |publisher= ABC News
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| |date= July 3, 2008
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| |url= http://a.abcnews.com/international/story?id=5301284&page=1
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| |accessdate= 2010-03-14
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| }}</ref>
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| Scientists agree 2012 doomsday forecasts are "bunk".<ref name=twsMar14b>{{cite news
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| |author= Mark Stevenson, Associated Press
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| |title= Scientists debunk 2012 as doomsday date
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| |publisher= San Francisco Chronicle
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| |date= October 11, 2009
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| |url= http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-10-11/news/17183490_1_meteor-tablet-stone
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| |accessdate= 2010-03-14
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| }}</ref><ref name=twsMar14e>{{cite news | |
| |author= DENNIS OVERBYE
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| |title= Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012
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| |publisher= The New York Times
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| |date= November 16, 2009
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| |url= http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/science/17essay.html
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| |accessdate= 2010-03-14
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| }}</ref> | |
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| The 2012 doomsday pop culture phenomenon was similar in many respects to the "Y2K" phenomenon which marked New Year's Eve in 1999, when the new millennium happened. The hysteria has also been compared to the panic created by Orson Welles radio program ''War of the Worlds''. But the "2012 apocalypse business is booming", according to the ''Huffington Post''. The 2012 doomsday prediction was one more example of a patten repeated over the centuries; for example, Baptist preacher William Miller convinced perhaps a hundred thousand Americans that the second coming of [[Jesus Christ]] would happen in 1843; it didn't. Doomsday predictions tend to be within the span of about ten years from the present, according to University of Wisconsin historian Paul Boyer, since the sense of "imminence" and that it will "happen soon" is necessary for these hysterias to catch the public imagination.<ref name=twsMar14f/>
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| [[Image:Planet.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Planet.|Planet "Nibiru" doesn't exist except in the minds of believers of disaster scenarios such as 2012.]]
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| ''[[2012 doomsday prophecy|.... (read more)]]''
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| ! style="text-align: center;" | [[2012 doomsday prophecy#References|notes]]
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| {{reflist|2}} | | {{reflist|2}} |
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| | </small> |
The Mathare Valley slum near Nairobi, Kenya, in 2009.
Poverty is deprivation based on lack of material resources. The concept is value-based and political. Hence its definition, causes and remedies (and the possibility of remedies) are highly contentious.[1] The word poverty may also be used figuratively to indicate a lack, instead of material goods or money, of any kind of quality, as in a poverty of imagination.
Definitions
Primary and secondary poverty
The use of the terms primary and secondary poverty dates back to Seebohm Rowntree, who conducted the second British survey to calculate the extent of poverty. This was carried out in York and was published in 1899. He defined primary poverty as having insufficient income to “obtain the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency”. In secondary poverty, the income “would be sufficient for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency were it not that some portion of it is absorbed by some other expenditure.” Even with these rigorous criteria he found that 9.9% of the population was in primary poverty and a further 17.9% in secondary.[2]
Absolute and comparative poverty
More recent definitions tend to use the terms absolute and comparative poverty. Absolute is in line with Rowntree's primary poverty, but comparative poverty is usually expressed in terms of ability to play a part in the society in which a person lives. Comparative poverty will thus vary from one country to another.[3] The difficulty of definition is illustrated by the fact that a recession can actually reduce "poverty".
Causes of poverty
The causes of poverty most often considered are:
- Character defects
- An established “culture of poverty”, with low expectations handed down from one generation to another
- Unemployment
- Irregular employment, and/or low pay
- Position in the life cycle (see below) and household size
- Disability
- Structural inequality, both within countries and between countries. (R H Tawney: “What thoughtful rich people call the problem of poverty, thoughtful poor people call with equal justice a problem of riches”)[4]
As noted above, most of these, or the extent to which they can be, or should be changed, are matters of heated controversy.
- ↑ Alcock, P. Understanding poverty. Macmillan. 1997. ch 1.
- ↑ Harris, B. The origins of the British welfare state. Palgrave Macmillan. 2004. Also, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- ↑ Alcock, Pt II
- ↑ Alcock, Preface to 1st edition and pt III.
