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Chapter l
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Poverty, Conflict, and
Natural Disasters: Persistent Plagues of the Developing World
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"When our resources
become scarce, we fight over them.
In managing our resources and in sustainable development,
we plant the seeds of peace."
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-Dr. Wangari Maathi,
2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
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| isasters and conflicts,
by their shocking nature, tend to impress us as unique, one-off
events. After they end, our mind prefers to block them out like
unwelcome memories. But a scanning of the record reveals that
they are all too frequent and share many distressing and recurrent
features. |
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| Conflicts
have especially harmed the poorest countries in recent decades.
Understanding the causes of conflict and disasters is the first
step towards defeating them. |
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| The causes of
violent conflict |
| During the Cold
War many of the conflicts were `proxy wars' associated with
struggles between the superpowers. Conflicts since then have
mostly stemmed from economic, ethnic/tribal, and religious strife.
They take such forms as terrorism, warlordism, and gangsterism. |
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