On the 12th of January 2010, Haiti was devastated by an earthquake which struck some 10 miles Southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince. Recording 7.0 on the Richter scale, it left 220,000 people dead, over 300,000 more injured. Haiti’s already inadequate  infrastructure was also severely affected as the earthquake damaged or destroyed as many as 250,000 [...]

The death of Rachel Peavoy in Shangan Flats, Dublin, on the night of January 10th 2011, a bitterly cold night in the coldest winter in living memory, stands in so many ways as a metaphor for Ireland itself. She died, according to the pathologist, of hypothermia. There is no avoiding that judgement. According to her [...]

Pardon the delay on this. It should have been posted before the offending Annual World Bank - International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting this weekend. Still, not much has changed since, so….
As finance leaders from around the world gather in Washington this weekend for the Annual World Bank - International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings, anti-poverty campaigners [...]

The question of populism and radical change has re-emerged in American politics, first with Obama and now with the tea party movement. However, it was another story that recently caught my eye. The New York Times carried a story about Republican ‘agents’ (or ‘operatives’) encouraging homeless people to stand unopposed in the Green Party primaries. [...]

The vulnerability of weaker sections of society becomes obvious in times of recession. Already it is clear that those who can least afford further income reductions will be asked once again to ‘share the pain’ in December. It is clear however, that sharing - in the eyes of the Government - is a fundamentally unequal [...]

Despite the expenditure of over US$2.5 trillion in official development assistance (ODA), billions of people continue to live in conditions of the direst poverty. Hunger and inequality stalk their lives as they struggle to survive. As Samir Amin wrote at the turn of the millennium:
“The polarization that is characteristic of modern globalization is phenomenal, without [...]

“You need to find a way to sell your ideas to people. Make them want to buy into them.”
That was the advice given to me in a little Belfast coffee-shop months ago by a lady whose area of expertise is working with troubled youth. Promoting social justice issues for her is akin to selling brand [...]

Despite the wondrous technological developments and global wealth generated since the start of the 19th century, billions of people continue to live in the direst conditions of poverty. While this is clear from even the most casual observation of anyone who has travelled, lived or worked in the South (the Southern Hemisphere), the definition of [...]

Poverty is set to increase in 2010 according to Social Justice Ireland (SJI). The anti-poverty group has this week published a detailed briefing paper saying that the numbers of children and ‘working-poor’ living in poverty will rise as a direct consequence of Budget 2010.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that in 2008, 615,000 [...]

There are a few subjects that are guaranteed to start rows. Public sector pay is always a dead cert. Stimulus is another one. And, of course, relative poverty; as in ‘Ireland suffers from a high level of relative poverty’. There are any number of views on this matter, usually quite heated. The ESRI report, ‘Poverty [...]