"If a person cannot consume 2,173 calories a day, he is said to be in extreme poverty," or so Sergio Daga, a researcher at ICS, at the Alumni Program for University Development (PADU) held at the Mendaur dorm.

The researcher explained to Mendaur residents that poverty encompasses everything "from the material to the spiritual." He also stressed that "poverty is an effect" and not a cause as some poor logos claim. He added that poverty has to do with the ability to enjoy the good that exists because if a person "cannot enjoy the fruits of what he has, he will be just as poor."

The speaker explained that global poverty is not solved by "concentrating on the physical," but rather one must also "know the country one wants to help." Thus, "the solution to poverty involves local entrepreneurs" who are familiar with citizens' demands. He also explained that international aid is a remedy that can sometimes be worse than the disease because it can cause local companies to go bankrupt and force them to lay off local employees, thus ceasing to have an income.

Daga gave figures on global poverty: "In the world there are 1,000 million people that are extremely poor." Most of them, he explained, are in India and Indonesia and, because they live in rural areas, "they are the most vulnerable to natural hazards."

He discussed the case of Latin America, where there has been a reduction in extreme poverty. Daga attributed this decline to the rise in prices of the goods that Latin American countries sell to China and India in particular. "Latin America has come out of extreme poverty because many states received money and then spent it on social policies," he said. However, the researcher questioned the purpose of these policies, because politicians "carry them around" and use them to "solicit votes."