As Figure 2 demonstrates, despite 20 years of structural adjustment programs (SAPS), poverty reduction strategies (PRS) and increased international trade, Africa, Latin America and many parts of Asia continue to remain rooted in poverty and slow economic growth (Easterly, 2006). Due to cuts in public services, privatizations and increased borrowing, many states have suffered from growing indebtedness which has led to development disasters. History professor George Schuyler (2004) notes that during the 1990s, privatization in Venezuela increased the cost of water and gasoline, leading to a decline in meat and milk consumption by low-income families. As low wages and high inflation contributed to malnutrition, many unemployed citizens turned to criminal activity as a means to survive. As a result, “by the mid-1990s, 85,000 Venezuelan children were involved in drug trafficking, prostitution, and robberies” (Schuyler, 2004, p..