Re-arranging Prejudices

An article by The Ranting Dream    No Comments

• At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day… (Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion – The developing world is poorer than we thought… – World Bank, August 2008)
• Less than one per cent of what the world spends every year on weapons is needed to put every child into school – but it doesn’t happen… (State of the World – Issue 287 – New Internationalist)
• The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income… (2007 Human Development Report (HDR) – United Nations Development Program – November 27, 2007 – p.25)
• The wealthiest 20% of the world account for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%… (World Bank Development Indicators 2008)
• 1.6 billion people — about a quarter of humanity — live without electricity… (World Bank Development Data & Statistics – March 3, 2008)
• The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined… (Luisa Kroll and Allison Fass – The World’s Richest People – Forbes – March 3, 2007)
• For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment… (World Bank – March 3, 2008)
• 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… (Debt: The Facts – Issue 312 – New Internationalist)
• 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… (Maude Barlow – Water as Commodity: The Wrong Prescription – The Institute for Food and Development Policy – Backgrounder – Vol. 7, No. 3)

Some stats to ponder (courtesy of volunteernow.ca – the data relfects numbers from 1998, I believe):

Basic Education for ALL (developing countries) – Cost: $ 6 Billion
Water and Sanitation for ALL (developing countries) – Cost: $ 9 Billion
Reproductive Health for ALL women (developing countries) – Cost: $ 12 Billion
Basic Health and Nutrition for ALL (developing countries) – Cost: $ 13 Billion

Cosmetics sales in the US alone: $ 8 Billion
Ice Cream sales in Europe alone: $ 11 Billion
Fragrance sales in Europe and the US alone: $ 12 Billion
Pet food sales in Europe and the US alone: $ 17 Billion
Business entertainment in Japan alone: $ 35 Billion
Cigarette sales in Europe alone: $ 50 Billion
Alcoholic drinks sales in Europe alone: $ 105 Billion
Estimated sales of Narcotic drugs globally: $ 400 Billion
Military spending by governments globally: $ 780 Billion

…two-thirds of weapons/arms sales are made to developing countries…the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China), together with Germany and Italy account for over 80% of the arms sold between 2001 and 2008…most of these arms are shipped to corrupt regimes propped up by these influential countries…

…and then we sit here wondering what is wrong with this planet…

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.” – William James

…think about this for a bit…no pun intended…

- RD