Percy Miller, known also as Master P will join OneMillionGifts.org to help needy children and families with presents and food during the holiday season.

In a statement, Master P said he remembers how the holidays can be a stressful time for poorer communities and he wants to do something about it.

HipHopWired.com

“Growing up in poverty made me realize that most crimes are committed during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not only will we feed and clothe one million but also we can help prevent a lot of those in need from committing crimes like robbing and stealing the food or gifts they can’t afford during the holidays.”

Kudos to Master P for stepping up and reaching out. Nice to start off the morning with some good news.

Millions in the Caribbean Survive on Less Than $2 a Day
An eye-opening report revealed that millions of people in five Caribbean nations are surviving on less than $2 a day, Caribbean Net News reports. The affected citizens are from the Dominican Republic (with 15 percent attempting to live on that small wage), Haiti (72 percent), St. Lucia (41 percent), Guyana (17 percent), Trinidad and Tobago (14 percent) and Suriname (27 percent), according to the recent Population Reference Bureau’s 2009 World Population Data Sheet. News from the bureau, based in Washington D.C., doesn’t get much better. It estimates that the population will rise in the Caribbean, as well as poverty-stricken areas in Africa, Latin America and Asia, by a little less than 50 percent between now and 2050, the news service reports. “This scenario assumes that fertility in less-developed countries will decline smoothly to the low levels observed in today’s more developed countries: about 1.8 children per woman,” the report states. “For fertility to fall to those low levels, many factors are key, including significant increases in the use of family planning in many less-developed countries.”
 

Thousands Protest Mali’s Marriage Law
Thousands of people in the west African nation of Mali have been protesting a new law that provides more rights for wives, reports the BBC. The law, which was adopted weeks ago but has not been signed by the nation’s president yet, decreed that married women are no longer required to obey their husbands. In addition, the legislation allows for stronger inheritance rights for mothers and children who are born out of wedlock, the news service reports. “We have to stick to the Koran. A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband,” Hadja Sapiato Dembele, a spokeswoman from the National Union of Muslim Women’s Association, told BBC recently. Only a certain segment of the population supports the law, she says. “It’s a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law – the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country – the real Muslims – are against it,” she said.

One in 100 Black men and women develop heart disease before age 50, a rate 20 times higher than in Whites, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. That study, which followed more than 5,000 18- to 30-year-olds over a two-decade period, found that all but one of the 27 study participants who developed heart failure was black. “In the past, heart failure was thought to be a disease of older people,” said Dr. Kelly McCants, a heart failure and transplant specialist at Jewish Hospital. “But often, we see it in young Black males … and a lot of it is preventable.” While doctors aren’t sure why such startling disparities exist, they point to such likely culprits as elevated rates of high blood pressure – often triggered by poverty, which can lead to unhealthy diets and less access to quality health care. The study is one of the latest examining racial differences in heart failure, which affects 5 million Americans.

By committing dollars to the tiny island nation of Haiti, the world could reverse the hunger and abject poverty that threatens to condemn the 9 million people who live there, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the representatives of more than 40 nations and international organizations Tuesday. Read more.

For every dollar of wealth held by an average White family, a Black family has only a dime, two cents less than a half-decade earlier, according to a report in The Washington Post. In other words, the wealth gap between Whites and Blacks is widening faster than ever. These findings in the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, which reports on family assets and liabilities, show that the United States is far from being a “post-racial society” as some suggest now that the nation has elected an African-American president. Read more.

When it comes to health, education and economics, Blacks in Louisiana are doing poorly, says a new study. Blacks face higher cancer mortality rates than their White counterparts, and are four times more likely to contract AIDS. And despite the poor  health outlook, Black people are twice as likely to be uninsured, according to the report.  “The prognosis for overall health of African Americans is grim,” the report says. Rep. Regina Barrow (D-Baton Rouge) said that the fact that a third of her state is African American, the glum statistics are even more alarming.  “If African Americans aren’t doing well, the state of Louisiana is not doing well. …The root cause (of the disparities) is poverty,” Barrow said. “It’s probably something dating back before slavery.” Sadly, she said, poverty is the root of most of the problems facing Blacks in Louisiana. “Lack of education leads to low-paying jobs, often without access to health care, thus the cycle of poverty begins and continues,” Advocacy.com reports. “Black people are three times more likely to experience poverty than their [W]hite counterparts. …Black people bring home only half the median income and per capita income of [W]hites. “Disparities in income … play huge roles in accounting for large gaps in wealth building (between the two races).”

 Zimbabwe Gives Up Its Currency
To help citizens overcome the nation’s staggering inflation rate, Zimbabwe’s government has decided to do away with its currency and allow people to use money from other countries. The move, announced Thursday by Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, comes as city workers, doctors and teachers have gone on strike demanding payment in either South African rand or U.S. dollars, reports The Associated Press. But, under this plan, civil servants will still be paid in Zimbabwean money, although their pay will be increased to be on par with inflation. In addition, they’ll receive an allowance each month in foreign money, reports the AP.  The nation is also reeling from a cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 3,000 lives since last August. “This cholera is a crisis which needed not to have happened if the government is taking care of its people,” said U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee after visiting clinics in the nation. “It is a shame that this disease is killing people while government folds its hands.” McGee, along with many in the international community, has been highly critical of longtime leader Robert Mugabe. Many blame him for the nation’s economic meltdown, which has led to an estimated 80 percent of the population needing food aid. Since they started talks in September, Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have been unable to come to terms with a power-sharing agreement.

Caribbean Officials Meet in Haiti
Foreign affairs ministers from across the Caribbean are meeting in Haiti this week for a summit on tourism and the environment, reports Caribbean Net.  Representatives from all of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) nations arrived at the nation Wednesday and will wrap up the summit today. In addition to finding a way to increase tourism all over the region, natural disasters and climate change was also on the agenda for the meeting. Alrich Nicholas, Haiti’s Foreign Affairs minister, hopes that the meeting will help upgrade the way Haiti is looked at worldwide. The country is one of the poorest in the world, with more than 60 percent of the population living below the poverty line. The nation also has lost more than 95 percent of its trees due to systematic deforestation.

Can poverty be reduced by singing about it? A host of celebrities sure hope so.  Two members of the Black Eyed Peas and Angelique Kidjo have joined forces to create a new song aimed at ending poverty, The Associated Press reports. They performed the song “In My Name” outside the United Nations in New York. World leaders have been at the world body this week for a series of meetings. will.i.am told AP the song is calling for people to see that they have the power as individuals to solve the global poverty problem and to end world hunger. He says the way that can be done is to hold politicians accountable for their promises and making wise choices for world leadership.

He’s walking in the steps of LBJ and MLK, both champions of the poor

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, taking a cue from such anti-poverty crusaders as President Lyndon B. Johnson and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., says it’s time to launch a full-frontal assault on poverty. “We need to re-invest in America,” the 66-year-old civil rights leader told a crowd of nearly 300 people in Chicago during a fund-raiser for Covenant United Methodist Church. The speech attracted Democrats and Republicans, and it did not address either political party. That’s because it’s not all about politics or presidential campaigns, said Jackson, who is pushing voter registration and education. “Change has to come from the bottom up, not just the top down,” Jackson said at a news conference prior to his speech.