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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
 Posted - 03/05/2006 : 05:42:14
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Got this from http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp
Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day. source 1
The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined. source 2
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. source 3
Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen. 4
51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations. source 5
The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. source 6
The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money. source 7
20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods. source 8
The top fifth of the world’s people in the richest countries enjoy 82% of the expanding export trade and 68% of foreign direct investment — the bottom fifth, barely more than 1%. source 9
In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much. source 10
An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:
3 to 1 in 1820
11 to 1 in 1913
35 to 1 in 1950
44 to 1 in 1973
72 to 1 in 1992 source 11
“The lives of 1.7 million children will be needlessly lost this year [2000] because world governments have failed to reduce poverty levels” source 12
The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants. source 13
A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5 billion people. source 14
“The 48 poorest countries account for less than 0.4 per cent of global exports.” source 15
“The combined wealth of the world’s 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion.” source 16
“Of all human rights failures today, those in economic and social areas affect by far the larger number and are the most widespread across the world’s nations and large numbers of people.” source 17
“Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.” source 18
According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children under five years of age, each year. source 19
For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:
Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.
Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).
Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.
Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.
source 20
“Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.” source 21
The richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion poor people. “The slice of the cake taken by 1% is the same size as that handed to the poorest 57%.” source 22
The world’s 497 billionaires in 2001 registered a combined wealth of $1.54 trillion, well over the combined gross national products of all the nations of sub-Saharan Africa ($929.3 billion) or those of the oil-rich regions of the Middle East and North Africa ($1.34 trillion). It is also greater than the combined incomes of the poorest half of humanity. source 23
A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World. source 24
Consider the global priorities in spending in 1998 Global Priority $U.S. Billions
Cosmetics in the United States 8
Ice cream in Europe 11
Perfumes in Europe and the United States 12
Pet foods in Europe and the United States 17
Business entertainment in Japan 35
Cigarettes in Europe 50
Alcoholic drinks in Europe 105
Narcotics drugs in the world 400
Military spending in the world 780
And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:
Global Priority $U.S. Billions
Basic education for all 6
Water and sanitation for all 9
Reproductive health for all women 12
Basic health and nutrition 13
source 25
Number of children in the world
2.2 billion
Number in poverty
1 billion (every second child)
Shelter, safe water and health
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:
640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)
Children out of education worldwide
121 million
Survival for children
Worldwide,
10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
Health of children
Worldwide,
2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)
source 26
The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets.”
In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s assets in 2004. source 27
Notes and Sources
1) This figure is based on purchasing power parity (PPP), which basically suggests that prices of goods in countries tend to equate under floating exchange rates and therefore people would be able to purchase the same quantity of goods in any country for a given sum of money. That is, the notion that a dollar should buy the same amount in all countries. Hence if a poor person in a poor country living on a dollar a day moved to the U.S. with no changes to their income, they would still be living on a dollar a day. In addition, see the following:
Ignacio Ramonet, The politics of hunger, Le Monde diplomatique, November 1998
The 9th International Anti-Corruption Conference Plenary Address by James Wolfensohn, August 2000
March recognizes the billions living on less than two dollars a day, EarthTimes.org, October 24, 2000
The poverty lines: population living with less than 2 dollars and less than 1 dollar a day from PovertyMap.net provides two maps showing the concentration of people living on less than 1 and 2 dollars per day, around the world.
Also note that these numbers, from the World Bank, have been questioned and criticized.
The World Bank has been criticized for almost arbitrarily coming up with a definition of a poverty line to mean one dollar per day (of which they say there are about 1.3 billion people). That figure and how it has been chosen has been much criticized by many, as shown by University of Ottawa Professor, Michel Chossudovsky in the previous link.
In addition, in the United States for example, the poverty threshold for a family of four has been estimated to be around eleven dollars per day. The one dollar a day definition then misses out much of humanity to understand the impacts. Even the two dollars per day that I have pointed out here, while affecting half of humanity, also misses out the numbers under three or four, or eleven dollars per day. These statistics are harder to find, and as I come across them, I will post them here!
More fundamental than that though, for example, is a critique from Columbia University, called How not to count the poor. The report describes an ill-defined poverty line, a misleading and inaccurate measure of purchasing power equivalence, and false precision as the three main errors that may lead to “a large understatement of the extent of global income poverty and to an incorrect inference that it has declined.” (Emphasis added). This allows the World Bank to insist that the world is indeed “on the right track” in terms of poverty reduction strategy, attributing this “success” to the design and implementation of “good” or “better policies”.
But the statistic is not lost on some of the most prominent people in the world
The New York Times in one of their email updates, in their Quote of the Day section, for July 18, 2001 provided the following quote: “A world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day, is neither just, nor stable.” — President Bush
See also James Wolfenson, The Other Crisis, World Bank, October 1998 who said: “Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.” (See also note 21 below.)
Koffi Anan, UN Secretary General, in a speech on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, 17 October 2000, said “Almost half the world’s population lives on less than two dollars a day, yet even this statistic fails to capture the humiliation, powerlessness and brutal hardship that is the daily lot of the world’s poor.”
2) Ignacio Ramonet, The politics of hunger, Le Monde Diplomatique, November 1998
3) The State of the World’s Children, 1999, UNICEF
4) State of the World, Issue 287 - Feb 1997, New Internationalist
5) See the following:
Holding Transnationals Accountable, IPS, August 11, 1998
Top 200: The Rise of Corporate Global Power, by Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies, November 2000
6) The Corporate Planet, Corporate Watch, 1997
7) Debt - The facts, Issue 312 - May 1999, New Internationalist
8) 1998 Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme
9) 1999 Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme
10) Ibid
11) Ibid
12) Missing the Target; The price of empty promises, Oxfam, June 2000
13) Global Development Finance, World Bank, 1999
14) Economics forever; Building sustainability into economic policy PANOS Briefing 38, March 2000
15) Human Development Report 2000, p. 82, United Nations Development Programme
16) Ibid, p. 82
17) Ibid, p. 73
18) World Resources Institute Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems, February 2001, (in the Food Feed and Fiber section). Note, that dispite the food production rate being better than population growth rate, there is still so much hunger around the world.
19) See the following:
Progress of Nations 2000, UNICEF, 2000;
Robert E. Black, Saul S Morris, Jennifer Bryce, Where and why are 10 million children dying every year?, The Lancet, Volume 361, Number 9376, 28 June 2003. (Note, while the article title says 10 million, their paper says 10.8 million.)
State of the World’s Children, 2005, UNICEF (this cites the number as 10.6 million in 2003)
Note that the statistic cited uses children as those under the age of five. If it was say 6, or 7, the numbers would be even higher.
20) The Scorecard on Globalization 1980-2000: Twenty Years of Diminished Progress, by Mark Weisbrot, Dean Baker, Egor Kraev and Judy Chen, Center for Economic Policy and Research, August 2001.
21) James Wolfenson, The Other Crisis, World Bank, October 1998, quoted from The Reality of Aid 2000, (Earthscan Publications, 2000), p.10
22) Larry Elliott, A cure worse than the disease, The Guardian, January 21, 2002
23) John Cavanagh and Sarah Anderson , World’s Billionaires Take a Hit, But Still Soar, The Institute for Policy Studies, March 6, 2002
24) Maude Barlow, Water as Commodity - The Wrong Prescription, The Institute for Food and Development Policy, Backgrounder, Summer 2001, Vol. 7, No. 3
25) Consumerism, Volunteer Now! (undated)
26) State of the World’s Children, 2005, UNICEF
27) Eileen Alt Powell, Some 600,000 join millionaire ranks in 2004, Associate Press, June 9, 2005
--
Buy your best friend flowers. Buy your lover a beer. Covet thy father. Covet thy neighbour's father. Honour thy lover's beer. Covet thy neighbour's father's wife's sister. Take her to bingo night. |
Edited by - Newo on 03/05/2006 05:44:52 |
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pixiestu
> Teenager of the Year <
United Kingdom
2564 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2006 : 07:33:00
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It's quite shocking to read some of that stuff. I never actually realised how much of the world lived in poverty.
"The arc of triumph" |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2006 : 10:49:46
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An economist friend of mine told me recently that poverty is the sociologists´ problem. This planet is fast becoming a thirdworld consumer plantation.
What people in Ithaca are doing seems plenny interesting http://www.ithacahours.com/ and http://www.ithacahours.org/
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Buy your best friend flowers. Buy your lover a beer. Covet thy father. Covet thy neighbour's father. Honour thy lover's beer. Covet thy neighbour's father's wife's sister. Take her to bingo night. |
Edited by - Newo on 03/05/2006 10:51:09 |
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Daisy Girl
~ Abstract Brain ~
Belize
5305 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2006 : 12:45:36
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| It's so strange but if you think about it 95% of westerners don't really think about global issues especially poverty. The sad thing is if we planned things differently, there would be enough food for everyone.Very interesting article, Newo |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2006 : 13:02:39
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This G8 bunch talk of hunger or poverty like they´re acts of god and are processes that take a long time to reverse when we have enough resources to feed and clothe the entire world many times over - what we´ve got are delivery systems amounting to genocide. Too, the way Africa is depicted as a continent can´t feed itself is ludicrous - it is overwhelmingly fertile and bulk of the food grown there is harvested as cashcrop for transnationals.
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Buy your best friend flowers. Buy your lover a beer. Covet thy father. Covet thy neighbour's father. Honour thy lover's beer. Covet thy neighbour's father's wife's sister. Take her to bingo night. |
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Carolynanna
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Canada
6556 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2006 : 14:45:31
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So much greed...
Our world's priorities are so out of whack.
Our system of wealth distribution is so out of whack.
Our lovely north american consumeristic, materialistic, capitalist culture leaves so many of us clueless so we can continue to shop without guilt. I find it a daily chore not to buy into it. To be honest, I know almost all of my friends have and think I'm crazy because I'm happy with only having 4 pairs of shoes...
I think it should be mandatory for everyone to do a little stint in a third world country so we can get what is really important.
I don't think there are many excuses we can give anymore. And I'm mostly talking about those who have all the money.
That's another reason I hate so many celebrities and their bling.
I feel like saying you could've fed a whole village for the rest of their entire lives but you chose to buy a necklace with your diamond encrusted initials on it.
I was just talking to someone the other day on why I'd rather donate money to feeding people than getting new uniforms for the kids soccer team and they seemed quite taken aback.
I could rant forever on this subject.
But we do have power in our spending dollars and the ideology we impart on others especially our children.
__________
Don't believe the hype. |
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Cheeseman1000
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Iceland
8201 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2006 : 15:23:40
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quote:
Originally posted by Newo
Too, the way Africa is depicted as a continent can´t feed itself is ludicrous - it is overwhelmingly fertile
You're dead right, and while I don't want to parrot excuses for not sending aid, it's often the country's government's fault.
Zimbabwe used to be called the "breadbasket of Africa" and was, if my recollection is right, the most fertile part of the continent outside of the Nile delta. Under the management of the white occupiers (and since liberation, the big landowners, still mostly white), it was an incredibly fertile and, in African terms, prosperous nation.
Yet since Robert Mugabe (imo one of the most evil men since Hitler) implemented his scheme to give back land to Africans, the country has gone to pot. The landowners with their vast expertise and skill at farming and farm management were forcibly (and often violently) removed, taking with them all these skills, and their land handed to inexperienced veterans who've simply been insufficiently skilled to manage the land. As a result, almost 6 million Zimbabweans are starving to death because of food shortage.
As an aside, it's believed (though I don't think verified) that Robert Mugabe is one of the world's five richest men, owning for example diamond mines in Congo. The man makes me sick.
 I have joined the Cult Of Frank/And I have dearly paid |
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Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2006 : 22:20:29
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hmmm..i commented on something like this in my LJ last week:
http://dave-noisy.livejournal.com/56888.html
 "Live life like you're gonna die...because you are." - William Shatner, You'll Have Time / Has Been |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2006 : 04:11:58
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Carolynanna, if you´re going to donate do your homework on the organisation, there are many professional missionary organisations out there that don´t provide much by way of aid. I read an interview with a pilot for an aid scheme of Pat Robertson said he´d hauled medical suppies only once and it wasn´t more than 500 kilos. Even environmental agencies are covers for other activities - my first hint the World Wildlife Foundation wasn´t above board was when I saw a photo of one of the founders, Prince Philip (other is Bernhardt of Netherlands), posing with his foot on a dead tiger. What they actually do is aquire vast tracts of land (ostensibly for environmental conservation) to house private armies for getting the odd civil war going.
Simon, the root of the starvation of a country often extends well beyond the countries´ windowdressing govt. Here for you:
http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/bushgold.htm
--
Buy your best friend flowers. Buy your lover a beer. Covet thy father. Covet thy neighbour's father. Honour thy lover's beer. Covet thy neighbour's father's wife's sister. Take her to bingo night. |
Edited by - Newo on 03/06/2006 04:12:45 |
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Cheeseman1000
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Iceland
8201 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2006 : 04:57:54
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In Zimbabwe's case, I'm happy to blame Mugabe.
I have joined the Cult Of Frank/And I have dearly paid |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2006 : 09:13:55
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My point was he´s got lots of friends like the Anglo-American Corp mentioned in article (basically the family Oppenheimer) have huge investments in Zimbabwe.
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Buy your best friend flowers. Buy your lover a beer. Covet thy father. Covet thy neighbour's father. Honour thy lover's beer. Covet thy neighbour's father's wife's sister. Take her to bingo night. |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2006 : 03:07:33
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I saw another part of interview with Zulu sanusi Credo Mutwa yesterday and he said a consistent pattern in African history is when a leader emerges to unite people he is of a peasant family and he starts off strong, effecting lots of generous changes and just when he has rallied enough people behind him he is killed and replaced by one of royal African blood. He mentioned in particular in Rhodesia (he called it) a man from a peasant blacksmith family called Tongo Gara (means ´powerful hammer´) who did the same before being killed by a carbomb, then replaced by Robert Mugabe who is serious blueblood descended from ancient Mashona kings.
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Gravy boat! Stay in the now! |
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Cheeseman1000
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Iceland
8201 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2006 : 03:50:44
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Mugabe's an interesting case - he started out in very much the same way as Nelson Mandela, freedom fighter, liberator of the masses from the oppressor. Since gone in very different ways though...
I'll have to quiz my brother on this, he's writing his undergrad dissertation on that exact subject.
I have joined the Cult Of Frank/And I have dearly paid |
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offerw
* Dog in the Sand *
South Africa
1264 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2006 : 09:54:50
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Mugabe have lost his mind. The current destruction of Zimbabwe cannot be of financial benefit to anyone least of all Anglo. It as a complete detruction of the economy, the natural resources and civil life. What is apalling is that Mugabe is revered by many African leaders, our own government has a "no comment" policy.
The rest of the world (except for a few grumbles from the UK) sit by and watch.
Had Zimbabwe been an oil rich nation it would have been "saved" by a certain armed force long ago.
wilhelm |
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Newo
~ Abstract Brain ~
Spain
2674 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2006 : 11:46:09
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I would imagine there is some sort of warped profit to be had in smashing a continent into a series of privately-owned microstates.
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Gravy boat! Stay in the now! |
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Cheeseman1000
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Iceland
8201 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2006 : 15:22:51
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quote:
Originally posted by offerw
Mugabe have lost his mind. The current destruction of Zimbabwe cannot be of financial benefit to anyone least of all Anglo. It as a complete detruction of the economy, the natural resources and civil life. What is apalling is that Mugabe is revered by many African leaders, our own government has a "no comment" policy.
The rest of the world (except for a few grumbles from the UK) sit by and watch.
Had Zimbabwe been an oil rich nation it would have been "saved" by a certain armed force long ago.
wilhelm
Is it seriously only the UK that makes any noise about this? That's pretty appalling.
I remember a comedian (I forget who) once saying that despite Peter Tatchell haveing lots of commendable and laudable ideals and policies, he's almost impossible to like. I find this true. However, I've rarely agreed with anyone more than when he tried to make a citizen's arrest on Robert Mugabe.
I have joined the Cult Of Frank/And I have dearly paid |
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Poverty
