Timothy Milne Blog 5 Post

Poverty. Photograph. TERRRAY. Web. 14 Apr. 2010. http://blog.ssis.edu.vn/terryp/.

1) Gordon Parks’ essay about Flavio Da Silva was very empowering and made me think. Parks explains about how he was sent to Catacumba, Brazil to write a piece for Life. However, in his adventures, he stumbled upon Flavio. Flavio took parks back to where he lived, where parks realized that Flavio was living a very unhealthy life, was malnourished, and lived with 7 siblings. Flavio cooks for his family with very little food and resources, while Parks is there. Parks also writes about how the children were left to eat the little amount of food they each received with their fingers, since the parents were given a utensil and a plate. Flavio had an awful cough among other sicknesses, so Parks and Gallo took him the village’s doctor. After the doctor looked at Flavio, all the doctor said was that nothing could be done for him, because other kids were in the same predicament and that there wasn’t enough money to help him. The doctor also practically told Parks that Flavio was going to die soon. Flavio said how he was unafraid of death but that he worried for his other siblings if he were to die.

This story was very inspiring and showed me just how much people care for others more than themselves. Flavio was in a horrible position being a child of eight and having practically no money whatsoever. This is a very emotional thing, because Flavio does more for his sisters and brothers than he does for himself. It takes a lot of power for someone to do such a thing, because the majority of people act in self interest in order to get the most for themselves. I don’t know if I would be able to be as strong as him in a situation like that, because I have never had to experience it. In my life, I try to help people, especially people like Flavio who are so unfortunate that they don’t have much of anything. After reading this essay , I feel even more impelled to do so.

2) The government is in control of many factions of our lives. Many of the ways the government controls our lives is for the better good of every citizen. I believe that by the government paying poor people to use birth control, they are in turn helping the poor people get themselves out of poverty to a point that they can sustain their own lives. First of all, giving incentive to poor people to use birth control would help them get themselves out of poverty, because they wouldn’t have to spend money on a child. On average, the cost of raising a child is more than $131,000; Money that people in poverty don’t have (Cost). Also, about 24,000 children die each year as a result of poverty (Poverty Facts). As a result of the government offering incentive to poor people to use birth control, and thus not have children, the lives of those people and thei potential children will be much better.

"Cost of Raising a Child." BabyCenter. Web. 14 Apr. 2010. http://www.babycenter.com/cost-of-raising-child-calculator.

"Poverty Facts and Stats." Global Issues. Web. 14 Apr. 2010. Http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats.