2013-10-17   International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17)

If you Google "Leo Goodstadt" you'll see that Leo was the Hong Kong government’s chief policy adviser from 1989 to 1997. You'll also see that Leo has his own website with lots of information about his time in Hong Kong since 1962.

A few weeks ago Leo published a new book: "Poverty in the Midst of Affluence - How Hong Kong Mismanaged Its Prosperity".  The book is very timely now that the HK government has officially declared that 1.3million people in HK are living in poverty.

One of the main themes of Leo's book is that today's poverty is due to misuse of the city's prosperity, and policies which favour businesses and the rich but are bad for the poor.

This is true worldwide. In so many places which have an abundance of natural resources (e.g. in Africa), bad government, often corrupt government, is the major cause of poverty.

Which is why the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is an important reminder that poverty is usually man-made, and can be man-eradicated.