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We expect these poor countries to “develop”, but how can they hope to escape such a situation when their population is in abominable physical condition? Approximately 790 million people in developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and Pacific. We hear that education is key, yet nearly a billion people entered 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
In 1960, 20% of population in world’s richest countries had 30 times income of poorest 20% - in 1997, 74 times as much. An analysis of long-term trends shows distance between richest and poorest countries was approximately (Source: www.globalissues.org):
- 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
20% of population in developed nations consume 86% of world’s goods. The top fifth of world’s people in richest countries enjoy 82% of expanding export trade and 68% of foreign direct investment - bottom fifth has access to barely more than 1%.
Poverty is not only a problem for Third World countries. The United States, wealthiest nation on Earth, has widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.
More on Debt Catastrophe could be found here: http://betotal.com/artman/publish/article_36.shtml
More on Sponsor a Child programs, a way for you to save one needed child in less than $1/day could be found here: http://betotal.com/artman/publish/index.shtml
Ofer Shoshani has been working for the last 5 years as a professional journalist, writing from Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, USA, Israel, India & Thailand. More of his work could be found at http://www.betotal.com (international child sponsorship programs), http://www.nzpassport.com (Immigration and Relocation to New Zealand) and http://www.bespanish.com (Immigration and Relocation to Spain).