Why isn't the world equal? Our world is divided in to two - those who have and those who do not. Globally this division exists between the rich countries in the north and poor countries in the south. Within this broad division between the rich
Poverty "It is expensive to be poor” Julius Nyerere, First President of Tanzania “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich” John Fitzgerald Kennedy 1917 – 63, 35th President of the USA. Why isn't the world equal? Our world is divided in to two – those who have and those who do not. Globally this division exists between the rich countries in the north and poor countries in the south. Within this broad division between the rich and the poor we find that in each country we have similar division. Even in the richest country in the World, the United States of America, there are people, although small in number, who live in abject poverty. Similarly in even the poorest country in the world like Bangladesh, there are few who would be considered rich even by the standards of rich counties. Why do some people live in abject poverty and why do others live in the lap of luxury? Why are the children of these wealthy people given the opportunities that the children of those living in less fortunate circumstances are denied or have never even heard of? Every human being on this planet must have asked these questions to himself or herself at some point in their lives. While the first question could be answered simply in a few words with, "That's life, C'est la vie," the answer to the last two questions could have some very long and complex answers. I am sure these questions would require a lot of thinking and re-thinking before one answers them. Poverty is a serious problem. It needs to be recognized, addressed, and resolved Poverty is found everywhere. Every country has its percentage of low-income earners, but some countries have many more people living in unfortunate circumstances than others do. Poverty is an area of concern as it brings with it a host of problems within the country, as well as on a global scale. . In order for us to address the issue of poverty, there is need for us to define what poverty is. The worst kind of poverty is when people cannot get food and therefore they are thin and weak and many starve to death. Unfortunately this is still happening in many parts of the world. In my opinion this is the highest level of poverty and there is no reason at all why this should be happening. Partly this has to do with the policies of the rich countries. In Europe every year
thousands of tones of wheat, butter and other food items are destroyed in order to maintain high commodity prices for their farmers. A slightly lower levels of poverty is where people have food to eat but do not have access to safe drinking water, health services, education and decent houses to live in. This is a much more pervasive poverty in the world today. The countries which have the most poverty are the so-called “Third World countries.” (I’ve never been very completely comfortable with that term. I often prefer the term, “lesser developed countries.”) These countries include the economically under-developed ...
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thousands of tones of wheat, butter and other food items are destroyed in order to maintain high commodity prices for their farmers. A slightly lower levels of poverty is where people have food to eat but do not have access to safe drinking water, health services, education and decent houses to live in. This is a much more pervasive poverty in the world today. The countries which have the most poverty are the so-called “Third World countries.” (I’ve never been very completely comfortable with that term. I often prefer the term, “lesser developed countries.”) These countries include the economically under-developed countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The general working population of these countries live on less than $2 a day, while in the United States, the minimum wage is approximately $6 per hour! How can we expect circumstances to be more balanced on a global scale if this is just one of the major differences between the First and the Third World? Some other facts about lesser developed countries include: 1,300 million people in this world do not have access to drinking water – as a result, 80% of illnesses are caused by contaminated drinking water. In sub-Saharan Africa, 40 percent of primary-age children have no opportunity for schooling. Around the world, there are currently 125 million children who have never, at any time, seen the inside of a classroom. 35,000 children die everyday for reasons directly related to poverty such as malnutrition and starvation. The distribution of wealth in the world is terribly unjust: 15% of the population own 79% of the world's wealth and 85% of the population own the remaining 21%. All these factors contribute to the uncomfortable and sub-standard living conditions of a huge portion of the world’s population. What is even more disturbing, however, is that poverty seems to be increasing instead of decreasing. In the past 30 years, if we consider the world from a global perspective, important economic growth has occurred, but the number of people who live in poverty has increased and the difference between those who live in abundance and those who do not has markedly increased. In 1960 the income of 20% of the richest countries was 30 times more than that of 20% of the poorest countries. In 1990 it was 60 times greater. Today 80% the world population that lives in the five poorest countries of the world receives only 20% of the worlds' earnings. In this way the differences between rich and poor have doubled in the last 30 years. The distribution of wealth is unjust not only among countries, but also within the countries,in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. One million of the richest people in the world are 150 times richer than the 1000 millions of the poorest, and thi difference too has doubled in the past 30 years. Twenty percent of the poorest population has access to only 0.2% of loans made by commercial banks, to 1.3% of international investment, to 1% of international trade and to 1.7% of international income. Children in the First World have access to things that children in the Third World do not even know exist. Let me take the example of the Internet. In the United States, we have children who have their own e-mail addresses at the age of six, while in the Third World, for example in a rural village in Tanzania, we have a fifteen year old student whohas not seen a computer in his life nor he know what a computer is! This gap increases with each passing day. Likewise, a thirteen-year-old girl in rural India shoulders responsibilities of doing household chores such as taking care of the home, her parents, and her younger brothers and sisters, as well as cooking and cleaning for them all. A twelve year old girl in a rural village in Saudi Arabia is married off to a man approximately forty years older than her without her being asked; she has to grow up quickly and act like a wife at the age of twelve! Both these girls have never enjoyed themselves or had the opportunity to act like children – having fun with friends, laughing, going to school and learning about themselves and growing up positively. While in London, a thirteen year old girl goes out shopping to the mall with her friends after school and spends ten to fifteen pounds without thinking about it! People in Third World countries do not even know half the things that are a way of life in the First World. For example, the average American homemaker (I hate the word housewife) uses a dishwasher, a washer, a dryer, a microwave, etc. An average woman in the Third World has never seen any of these, let alone owns them and knows how to use them! Most women in third world countries spend hours collecting firewood to cook the family meal in the evening. While the women in rich countries turn on a tape to get water, women in poor countries spend hours for fetching water from a source which may be contaminated. These are just a few of examples of how the youth in the Third World have to grow up differently, due to their living conditions and environment. But it is supposed to be this way; this is not how people are supposed to live! There shouldn’t be two extremes...there shouldn't be any differences. We are human beings, we are supposed to live well and everyone should be treated as equals – this isn't the ideal world, to anyone. All members of the human race have the right to live comfortably and happily, and not to suffer just because of some global economy problems. Each and every baby has the right to eat and drink and grow up to have the required education levels that many of us take for granted. It is up to the leaders of the world to decide on how to improve the substandard living conditions of Third World residents. However, all is not lost. There are a few people who truly want to help and make a difference to the lives of those less fortunate. Apart from the late Mother Teresa, another famous person is doing all he can. I am talking about Bono, also known as Paul Hewson, the lead singer of the band U2. He is one man who is doing what he can to help convince the First World leaders to write off the debts of the Third World, as, he says, they are too busy paying off their loans,with whatever little money they can make from their economy to improve their lifestyles. Earlier this year he traveled through Africa with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. Time magazine profiled him under the headline "Can Bono save the world?" Bono first got involved in Africa in 1985 when he and his wife worked for a month in the mountains of Ethiopia. They took these dramatic pictures in the camp where he says every day they would wake up and count bodies of dead and orphaned children. As the father of four, Bono says looking at his own children makes his mission to help those suffering around the world the most important thing he can do. Bono is more than just a mega rock star selling out stadiums worldwide. He's a rocker with a conscience. His goal: to cancel multimillion dollar debts owed by poor countries so they can focus on their own health care and education. Bono has become the most well respected rock ‘n’ roll ambassador of the world. From presidents to prime ministers and even the Pope, he has impressed top leaders with his genuine concern for world problems. Even the most reluctant politicians met with the Irish rocker and many of them had never even heard of him. Bono moves easily between sold-out rock concerts and political power meetings. Earlier this year he attended the World Economic Forum with Bill Gates, and just days later he hit the stage at the Super Bowl for a TV audience of 130 million. This spring he toured Africa with the US Secretary of State Paul O’Neill. Despite some differences of opinion on their trip, the two shared a passion for their mission to help struggling African countries. Bono continues his crusade to bring an end to the crisis of poverty, AIDS, and foreign debt in Africa. He hopes the United States and other wealthy nations will stop and listen. So, like I said, all is not lost. But we need more people to come out into the open and actually DO something! There are various ways in which people in rich countries can get involved in reducing the burden of poverty in third world countries. Perhaps the most important area where they can get involved is to petition governments in rich countries such as U.S.A. to remove subsidies on farm products. This subsidy is the biggest obstacles for poor farmers in the third world countries to get a fair price for what they produce. If the farmers in third world countries were to compete on level playing field, then they would earn a decent living. The subsidies on farm products are heavy burden on the taxpayers of rich countries. Secondly, people should act to make IMF, the World Bank to cancel debts of the poorest countries in the world. Many poor countries spend huge amounts of money to pay off the debt, the money which could have been used to pay to provide food, safe water and build schools. To quote a song form U2: You’re packing a suitcase for a place None of us has been A place that has to be seen to be believed You can’t deny it But yet, you see it And I know how you feel when you see it I know how your heart breaks How your heart it aches You can only take so much It is sad that at the beginning of the 21st century so many of the world’s population is living under abject poverty. The problem has less to do with the poor people themselves but more to do with the way the world’s economy and trade relations are organized. As many of the leaders from poor countries have often said, “we do not want aid, we want fair trade”. It is only through fair trade that the poor of the world can be assisted to grow out of their poverty. We all have a role to play!